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academia
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Academia
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academia
grand theft childhood
Grand Theft Argument
Doubtless you've by now heard of the book entitled Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Video Games, yes? It surely sounds like the kind of novel you all would want to get up in arms about, but relax, the authors, Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, found that violent games don't make kids psychopaths, but merely allow them to experiment with dangerous behavior in a context that can be healthful (a position I myself tend to take in my editorials).
Of course, any position either overtly against or in defense of gaming is likely to be controversial right now, and GamePolitics has been documenting the argument between University of Michigan professor Brad Bushman and the book's authors. Bushman published an article in the Detroit Free Press essentially disputing Kutner and Olson's findings:
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space giraffe
On 'Authorial Intent,' Game Designers, and Gamers
It's been a while since the Space Giraffe kerfluffle where Yak Minter threw a hissy fit in his blog regarding poor scores given to the XBLA psychedelic shooter (and the point where it was compared to Joyce's Ulysses, but I came across an interesting piece recently that talked about Space Giraffe in reference to (wait for it) a piece of literary theory known as 'authorial intent.' The post-structuralist conception is (at least in part) that the critic's will and opinion always supercedes that of the author. What does this have to do with Space Giraffe? Well, it's one way to look at why there was such heated discussion over Space Giraffe: More »
softwhere 2008
UCSD's SoftWhere 2008 -- Now With Videos
Missed UCSD's SoftWhere 2008 conference and curious what went on? Well, video of the public portion of the conference is now popping up on the SoftWhere 2008 page in QuickTime and YouTube. A lot of big names (like Ian Bogost, above) had some very interesting presentations on a variety of topics — even my Japanese historiography professor showed up and had a lot to say about history, time, and software. It was a pretty diverse group, and owing to the zippy format, you can get a good feel for a lot of the research and ideas without spending half an hour or more listening to one presentation. Confining academics to such a short period of time? Sheer brilliance.
SoftWhere 2008 videos [Grand Text Auto]
learning is fun
More on the Playstation-edu Initiative
We mentioned the new Sony Playstation-edu initiative when it was announced; now, Senior Manager of Developer Support at SCEA Mark Danks explains a bit more about the program and it's goals (and the cost). If colleges and universities enter into this sort of relationship with Sony, they will have lovely legal language to follow, but can get access to PS2 and PSP dev kits for $2,000 and $1,500 a pop, respectively: More »
academia
New Media, Stories, and Games: the Essays
I'm still on a semi-enforced vacation from academia, but I couldn't resist reading some of the essays found on electronic book review. The essays are a selection from two MIT Press books, First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game and Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. There are a bunch of interesting essays (and some not-so-interesting ones, I'm sure), on topics ranging from IF to WoW to more general ruminations on narrative, stories, gaming in general: More »
academia
UCSD's Softwhere 2008: A Few Roundups
I poked my head in to the public 'pecha kucha' session for UCSD's SoftWhere 2008, but couldn't stay for the whole thing since I had a paper to write and was feeling really under the weather; I did get a chance later to talk with one of my professors, who participated in the event, and have been checking out the roundups floating around the internet at this point. I've got my own opinions on the '___ Studies' ghetto, being part of it myself — though an attempt to create a field of 'software studies' is, at the very least, not burdened with Cold War politics. Anyways, there are some concise (and not so concise) appraisals of the event floating around. Anne Helmond, who presented on the relationship between search engines and the blogosphere, had this to say: More »
academia
Fan-Industry Interactions: the Case of Fallout
After a rather grueling year, I am taking a self-enforced vacation from academia for a few days to recharge. But if you're not, there's a pretty interesting PDF of an MA thesis floating around — the subject is fan-producer interaction in relation to games, specifically Fallout. I've browsed through a bit of it, and I've liked what I've seen so far: More »
game design
"Imagining a Next-Revolution Eliza"
Nick Montfort and Andrew Stern have published the text of their very interesting speech given at the Electronic Literature Organization "Visionary Landscapes" conference; the subject is ELIZA, the 1966 parody of a Rogerian therapist — more correctly, it's where the next ELIZA-like program (in terms of influence) is going to come from and what it may look like. It's an interesting piece, coming from the perspective of "bigger and flashier is not always better": More »
academia
MSU Offering New Chinese Language/Culture MMO
In an effort to make learning Chinese less painful (and ostensibly to capitalize on the 'MMO as language learning tool' trend that's been talked about a bit in the past few months), Michigan State University's Zhao Yong (professor of education technology and educational psychology) has designed Zon!, where players can graduate from tourist to resident to citizen of this little virtual slice of China: More »
serious games
Winners Named for Teen Dating Violence Prevention Game Design Contest
The Life Love Game Design Challenge named its winners today. The Flash game design challenge sponsored by Jennifer Ann's Group asked developers to come up with games about teen dating violence prevention without using violent content or a violent theme.
The $1,000 winning design "Escape Your Boyfriend's Room" by Jorge Goyco is an interesting point and click game that manages to get both the warning signs of an abusive relationship across as well as how you can get yourself out of the relationship. I loved the look of the game and its approach to the subject matter really impressed me.
The first runner up $100 prize was handed out to "A Walk in the Park by Jared Sain." I loved the look of the game. My only suggestion is that maybe the game could do a better job of explaining how to get out of an abusive relationship. The final $100 runner-up was "Decisions, Decisions by Mark Kakareka"
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serious gaming
Dozen Research Teams Get Games For Health Grants
More than $2 million in grants is being handed out to teams researching how video games can improve players' health.
While the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation doesn't plan to announce the dozen research teams who will be awarded the grant money until Thursday, they did say that the funded studies will explore topics ranging from how motion-based games may help stroke patients progress faster in physical therapy to how people in substance abuse treatment can practice skills and behaviors in the virtual world to prevent real-world relapses.
I'd like to think that at least one is looking at the WiiFit and how it does at raising awareness of BMI, but maybe it's too soon for it to have soaked into academia.
It's heartening to see that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropy devoted to improving the health of Americans, has decided it's worth investing so much money to "explore how games can increase physical activity and enhance prevention, self-management of health conditions".
Hit the jump for the full release.
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academia is fun
The History of RPGs: The Game List
I've mentioned Michael Abbot's efforts at putting together a great syllabus for his 'history of RPGs' class, which has thus far produced a flurry of discussion and a reading list; he's now put together a list of games and the number of people who have recommended them (I'm dying to know which ones will make the final cut). He does mention a few key points: More »
academia
MSU's 'Meaningful Play' Call for Papers
Michigan State University is hosting an interdisciplinary conference from October 9-11 called Meaningful Play, exploring "the potential of games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways." They're seeking submissions from a pretty wide swath of people: "Submissions are sought from both researchers and practitioners in academia and industry. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students are also encouraged to submit either jointly with an academic/member of industry or alone." If you've got a paper you've been sitting on, or something that will be ready by 1 July (the submission deadline), full details are below the jump [via Water Cooler Games]: More »
obstacles
Breaking Into the Industry: One Tale of Difficulty
Sometimes, success is partially a matter of being in the right place at the right time — and sometimes, no matter how much you may want something, you're not going to get it. So Brian Nathanson discovered while trying to break into the gaming industry (and not succeeding). His points on standardizing education are well taken (especially in terms of bridging "the gap between trade schools, academic game programs, and the industry"), but he lost me when he started talking about what the industry should be doing in the hiring process: More »
academia is fun
The History of RPGs: A Reading List
We mentioned Michael Abbot (of the Brainy Gamer) and his efforts to put together a great syllabus for his history of RPGs class; as promised, he's now posted the reading list (required readings will be culled from this list, but it's a pretty nice little bibliography for background reading). At this point, it just includes traditional books and articles, but he's planning on expanding it to online and popular media sources, as well as other good ideas sent in by people who are keeping tabs on this project: More »
softwhere
UCSD's SoftWhere 2008
If you're going to be in San Diego and free next Wednesday afternoon, UCSD is hosting a public portion of their "SoftWhere 2008" at the UCSD campus Lots of people are involved (including names like Ian Bogost), and the public portion will be a rapid-fire format of quick presentations. A reception will be held afterwards. The full release is after the jump — I'll be taking the afternoon off to check it out: More »
book release
