Social play chapter

Hi,

I've just emailed the reading material: chapter "social play" for the presentation, as this was the only one i could not get online. Here it is again:

http://digital.lib.rmit.edu.au/ereserve/notes09/math2130/31259007731198.pdf

Cheers,
Floyd

Tech hacks for the time-rich and entertainment-poor.

I've been following MyToaster on Twitter for a while. It is gratifying to see a domestic appliance so happy in its work.

How happily surprising it was to discover that MyToaster is a neat little hack!

I don't think you could call this a game - it has no rules. But I think it makes life more playful, and encourages new ways of thinking about everyday objects.

Question: will the games of tomorrow be prettier pictures on a bigger screen? Or will more games involve extraordinary uses for ordinary things?

(Games involving the real world include: location based games, more location-based games, an example of a tabletop game, Mr Tetris, Moving Mario, real-world Mario.)

Heatlh Beyond conference: Thursday

If you are interested in health applications for games, there is healthbeyond.org.au at ex-Telstra Dome this Thursday, it's $20, and I am going to see if there is much game development going on in the health industry in AU.

Group 2 - Presentation Summary - "The Wii's Revolution is in the Past"

Group 2
Powerpoint Presentation

Mathsandphysics

View more presentations from guest875023.

Presentation transcript
The Wii’s innovation is not in its interface its in tis simplicity and accessibility be it the dreams of fans or the intentions of developers. The wii’s revolution was not in its attention to “serious” games.


The Wii’s revolution is in the past. In the same way that my father, when he was young played pong and in the way he now plays Wii golf.

Its in the way the wii is perceived and its now autonomic relation to modern gaming.

Another example is the Wii’s Virtual console which takes classic games that were always available but never accessible and makes them attractive to a new unexperienced audience. It’s clear that Wii’s revolution is “accessibility”.

Our assumptions and the way we define “innovation” and immersion although incorrect have not been completely pointless.

The wii motion plus is the next step.

The Wii’s revolution introduced and welcomed accessibility and consumerism , creating a new market for the Wii motionplus, an intuitive new device that absolves most of the problems seasoned gamers have with gesture based controls.

And what about the Wii 2?


Although the wii does not revolutions the way we play it has undeniably created something much more important, a new growing market. Its encapsulated entire demographics sustaining a market open to the next revolution.

The revolution that we incorrectly assumed and impatiently demanded.


The wii2 could increase graphical fidelity and bring its adoring market accessible intuitive controls.

Is the Wii the revolution we thought it was No? Could it be? Yes, it could prove the catalyst for the greatest transformation on any one medium.


To encapsulate my contention: the wii and gesture has strong potential to heighten physicality in games, but it can only be done to its, self deserved extent. To create immersion or meaning via an interface that interface needs to be at a constant level of complexity. Which disagrees directly with the Wii’s design and purpose. (accessibility)

Furthermore to assume and to name an interface an innovation in interactive media is a fairly ignorant claim. A game should not be defined by the system its on or the interface that’s used to enjoy it. A game should be an abstraction of on idea, one that works within the confines of a medium in such a way that the confines disappear. This is immersion. This is good game design in its simplest definition.


Michele & Rhys



P.s If anyone would like to upload there slides in a flash format. First upload here

http://www.slideshare.net/upload

then when it loads (takes about 1min) you can click on the file and copy paste the embedded link (html) into your blog post

Pseudo-intellectual vapidity of the day...

Apparently global warming isn't going too well. That's a pity. I liked Antarctica.

Shame about the global recession too. Having an economy was a good trick to keep all the economists busy, so they wouldn't bother the rest of us. And buying stuff was fun.

And I hear a few people have died of the flu. That's sad. Not quite as sad as the few million people who died of HIV/AIDS, but I hear it could get worse.

Then there's the millions of people who die from hunger, poverty, childbirth, wars, preventable diseases and the rest.

Oh, and I'm single. Tragedy!

So.

With all this misery going on, I'm curious to how can we justify studying a frivolous thing like computer games?
Thoughts?

HELP!!

Hi everyone,

Tay here,

I still haven't in any team yet

who can team with me?

I'll be very thankful if you do so

drop me a mail or text me if you can team with me

mail : gollyfruit@hotmail.com

phone no: o433240613

thank

have a nice weekends!

Class 3: Guest lecture

Today you had a guest lecture from Gerard who talked to you about different types of physical games and gave you ideas about how to implement your project ideas. Furthermore, you received feedback on your ideas in order to be able to refine them.

Slides are here.


Please post any comments on the class from 30 Apr 09 in the comments below.

Homework:

• Enter your blog comment
• Read the two papers under schedule for next week
  
• If you are presenting next week, practice timing!
• Watch: Time management

Thanks for the 'Magnificent 7' to post the pictures!

We still need a group to present paper 4!!!

The Magnificent 7

The Magnificent 7

(from left: Chad, Carla, Lauren, Courtney, Ned, Gregg, Mark)

Dorkbot

Hi,

Just talked to Gerard, who will give next weeks guest lecture, and he will present you with ideas on how you can realize your physical project ideas in a cheap, simple manner by giving lots of examples.

Another source for 'building' games is always dorkbot, the website does not say much, but the mailinglist is great if you are into physical computing:

http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotmelbourne

Cheers,
Floyd

Class 2: Exertion Games

Today you have learned about how physicality plays out when interacting with the Wii, and as you have seen, this is a heated debate! However, as all presenters have pointed out, there is room for improvement, so with your project is your chance to demonstrate how a perfect physical game could look like!

I feel like I did not answer the question on the project properly (sorry!), so I would like to clarify it here:

I would like to see you come up with a physical game. This means NOT a mouse/keyboard/gamepad game. (Simply because you have plenty of opportunities to do them in other classes).
You CAN do a physical (not exertion) games, but you might need to argue that it is physical (see for example a tabletop game). Considering the topic of the class, you should try to make it very physical and utilize exertion: this is your chance to try out something new and challenging, so you should take it!

I hope this is a bit more focused than my previous answer, and I apologize if I have not been clear enough earlier, but I hope it helps you to create something unique for this class.


Please post any comments on the class from 23 Apr 09 in the comments below. In particular comments and praise about the second presentation, as we ran out of time to give much feedback for Michele and Rhys, sorry!

Homework:

• Agree on an idea for your project, but be prepared to change it!
• Enter your blog comment
• Read the two papers under schedule for week after next
  
• If you are presenting week after next, practice timing!
• Watch for week after next: Time management

To the 2 teams who presented: could you please upload your slides and photographs to the blog please? And your comments could include advice for the upcoming teams on how to prepare for the presentation!

We still need a group to present paper 4!!!

And just in case you have missed the video that was shown during class or want to watch it again:

Tracking objects for games

Hi,

If you re thinking of tracking objects for your game, you should see this:
http://trackmate.media.mit.edu/

Cheers,
Floyd

Arduino books on iphone

Hi,

If you are interested in Arduinos, there are reduced books on the iphone available now:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/04/getting_started_with_arduino_and_a.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

Cheers,
Floyd

Groups needed

Hi all,

Please make sure you have your 2 groups posted before the next lecture, in particular, we still need a group to present the second paper next week asap:

We already have a group for the first Wii paper (thanks!), so if you are interested in the Wii, or especially if you do not think the Wii is the best thing since sliced bread (the paper is much more critical than the first one), you should take this topic on!

It's rather short, but exciting, and asks some fundamental questions about physicality and computer games and high-end graphics (and how/if they relate).

If you are excited by this, please start working on it asap so you can present in the next lecture.

Comments on 3 other topics:

• Arduino: I am trying to organize you a couple of boards and sensors etc.
• GlovePIE: Let me know if you need access to Wiimotes for development and demo.
  
• Social play: You should be able to get the book (chapter) through the library, but I am also trying to get you a PDF version. You need to select the highlights of the text to focus on, but it makes up for it by being very clever. So if you think most computer games are boring because they do not understand the social aspect, you should read this.
  

Everyone:
please make sure you do your homework! There are still comments missing, and groups to be formed!

Couple of thoughts for the 2 groups presenting next week:
Everyone should have read the papers by then, but because I don't know you enough yet, I am not sure if everyone will, so please include a little repeat into your presentation what the text says before you go into the discussion. Please make sure you aim for under 30 min so there is enough time for discussion. Please also decide for yourself what you think is the most valuable point of the text (or its references!) for your fellow students to learn about/discuss/think critically.

If you need the Wii to demo, let me know and I'll bring one in.

Any other questions for next week? Post into comments!

Cheers,
Floyd

Updates on 1st lecture

Yesterday's lecture was great, well done!

I've updated the blog a bit, and you can now subscribe via feedburner and also get an email delivery, so all the communication will go through the blog now. In order to stay up-to-date what is going on, you will need to read the blog then, please keep that in mind.

I've also commented on comments, and please keep your great contributions coming!

Thanks,
Floyd

PS: Thanks to Andrew and Mick for helping with the 'stars', and Ben 3 (how do I know which one?) with the Wii setup, will use it next time.

Physicality and Games

In today's class, you have learned about physicality and games, and two important aspects how recent games change the way we play and understand computer games: these games appear to facilitate a new sensitivity to movement or exertion and social play, contrasting the way traditional computer games with their gamepad and mouse and keyboard interactions.

Homework:

• Find group for presentation, enter into blog before next lecture (earlier especially if you present next week)!
• Find team for project, also enter into blog before next lecture!
• Read the two papers under schedule for next week
• If you are presenting next week, practice timing!
• Read also: Tips to working successfully in a group

Class contributions 2009

There are four ways in which you will contribute to class:

1. Group assignment: You will form your own groups, of 6 or 7 members each, and select a topic related to physicality and games from the class blog that interests you. You will announce your topic and group members by entering your group name and individual names (once you have all members together) on the blog in the comment section. You will then create a discussion around the topic on the corresponding date with all members of the team: the goal is to reiterate the topic to the rest of the class, and deliver the topic in a memorable way so that it helps your and the class’ future development. You can make a presentation, role-play the topic, demo it, whatever you think is most appropriate to deliver the topic and initiate reflective thinking about it with your fellow students.
   
   You will have 45 min on the day, this includes at least 15 min for discussion as part of this, so plan on not talking for longer than 30 min.
   
   This will count towards 15% of your final grade.
   
   
2. Project idea: You will present a physical game project idea in a team of 5. This team should comprise of different team members from the other group assignment for your own benefit. You will present your game idea (suggested format: motivation, problem, approach, result, conclusion) through a demo, play or sketches to the rest of the group. Your presentation will need to be supplemented by a webpage that you can use during the presentation. You have to post the webpage’s URL to the blog before your presentation.
   
   ADDED: I would like to see you come up with a physical game. This means NOT a mouse/keyboard/gamepad game. (Simply because you have plenty of opportunities to do them in other classes).
   You CAN do a physical (not exertion) game, but you might need to argue that it is physical (see for example a tabletop game). Considering the topic of the class, you should try to make it very physical and utilize exertion: this is your chance to try out something new and challenging, so you should take it!
   
   This will count towards 20% of your final grade.
   
   
3. Class discussion contribution: Your contribution to class discussions will count towards 30% of your grade.
   
   
4. Critical reflection: You will write a comment about each class on the blog before the next lecture in which you critically reflect on what you have learned. You can also comment on ideas it generated for you, what comments you have on the presentation style, or what it inspired you, or what you disagree with. Pretty much anything goes that shows you are an adult thinker. You need to leave your blog comment in a way that clearly identifies you (so please use “Derek A.” if there are multiple Derek’s).
   
   This will count towards 35% of your final grade.