Lecture 1: 4Mar2010 Physical Games

Today we have discussed what makes a game physical. We have learned that you automatically think of childhood games (because you are so accustomed to it?) and that we can learn a lot from sports to make computer games more exciting: after all, they are often more engaging, more social, more emotional, healthier, etc.
I have shown you my definition of "Exertion Games": a computer game that requires intense physical effort from its players. This is my definition, and you do not need to agree with it, but I believe it is important that you know it.

Please put in the comments below your thoughts about this class (you heard advice on how to do it from the 2nd years). You also need to post the URL of your game team's website to the left (you would need to become an editor to do that).

Thanks for all your contributions in the class, I had a great time, and I am looking forward to seeing all of you next week.


Cheers,
Floyd

PS: For the 2 groups that present next week: Can you please make a better job in bringing a big sheet of paper (or A4 stitched together) with you, with your "the one thing we want everyone to remember from this presentation" printed on it so we can add it to the wall? I'll be there half an hour earlier if you want to setup etc.
I want you to achieve the following: If I wake up any of your fellow students in the middle of the night, and ask them "why do people play games?" or "what is play?" they mumble "there are 4 reasons, hard fun, easy fun, .... and they play out differently in different games, for example when I play WoW, there is a lot of easy fun through exploring the virtual world" or "play starts when entering the magic circle of play. That circle is evident when I play Halo because... " and then they can fall asleep again. That's when you know you did an ace presentation.


Homework

Start preparing your presentation with your group
Enter the URL of your team's blog either on the right or in the comments below and enter progress weekly
Read 2 papers on "why we play games" and "pervasive games" before next week
Bring $20
If you are presenting next week, practice!
Comment on today's lecture