July 12, 2005
Inside Xbox 360: An interview with Jeff Henshaw
Here's a great interview with Jeff Henshaw, the Executive Producer for Xbox Digital Entertainment at Microsoft. Jeff was part of the team that launched the original Xbox, and these days he's behind the push to make Xbox 360 a mainstream entertainment device.
Posted by richard ting at July 12, 2005, 08:45 PM
February 17, 2004
Academics Turn to Video Games
Interesting article on Yahoo:
Some of the new questions in a very young field: How do you judge a game? As you would a novel? Should we think up a whole new vocabulary for evaluating games? What do the social dynamics of online worlds -- those massively multiplayer games -- tell us about human behavior?In Copenhagen, Denmark, the IT University has established the Center of Computer Games Research, which just graduated its first Ph.D., Jesper Juul.
Juul appears to be the first person anywhere to ever get his doctorate exclusively in video game studies. His dissertation 'Half-Real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds' seeks to define what video games are, and how academics ought to go about studying them.
...and here are some simultaneously interesting and heartbreaking quotes from old coworker Eric Zimmerman and Chris Crawford:
"What we try to do is provide not a single way of looking at games but a whole series of ways," Zimmerman said. "We would like to have an audience that thinks about games as more than boy power fantasies."Some in the industry, however, are not so sure that games will ever mature. They fear games could be a dead end like comic books -- valuable as a social phenomenon, but outside a select few titles like Art Spiegelman's "Maus," not worth a great deal of individual study.
"I seldom play computer games, because it's such a depressing experience," said Chris Crawford, a game designer who is building a program to create interactive stories. "I end up shaking my head in dismay at how stuck the designers are in a rut."
Posted by richard ting at February 17, 2004, 06:15 PM
February 05, 2004
It Must Be The Shoes - NIKE AND EA SPORTS
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If it's on their feet, it's on their feet.
Electronic Arts, the company whose mantra stressing realism is "If it's in the game, it's in the game," has taken it to the next level in NBA Live 2004. Better keep those stats up if you want some old school Jordans. Not only do the players and arenas look like they do in real life, now the footwear is accurate. Nike, Reebok and adidas all have presence in the game.
Vince Carter is wearing his soon-to-be released VC Shox III's, Allen Iverson is wearing his Answer line, while Tracy McGrady sports his T-Macs. Nike, which formed a strategic partnership with EA for the game, benefits the most from the additional advertising. Looking to capitalize on the "sneakerhead" culture that has become a huge part of NBA fandom, 40 different Nike shoes appear in the game, 130 in all, if all the different colorways are counted.
Posted by richard ting at February 05, 2004, 11:36 AM
January 07, 2004
Taipei Ludographic Game Design Workshop
Taipei Ludographic Game Design Workshop
In the following pages you will find links to resource pages for Ludographers - Game Designers - and others of their ilk. Much of this material has been assembled for the benefit of students at National Chengchi University for their Game Design Project assignments. However, the material is also of general use to myself and other professional and non-professional game designers.
Posted by richard ting at January 07, 2004, 10:35 AM
November 13, 2003
Academics Can Be Fun and Games
Wired News: Academics Can Be Fun and Games
Creating compelling games involves more than just developing a shoot-'em-up,' said professor Anthony Borquez, director of the Information Technology Program at the USC School of Engineering. 'Consumers are demanding the type of games that require game developers to be more creative. They need to be broader thinkers.'
The USC School of Fine Arts, School of Cinema-Television and Computer Science department are collaborating with Borquez on the proposed interdisciplinary gaming minor. Instructors from the game industry are also lending their talents.
Posted by richard ting at November 13, 2003, 11:06 PM
October 16, 2003
Some recent gaming articles
Trivial Pursuit: We Can Be Heroes
http://www.popmatters.com/columns/harvey/030724.shtml
Games Close In on Citizen Kane
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59964,00.html
Off to college to major in... video games?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0829/p01s04-ussc.html
Games suffer from 'geek stereotype'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3197911.stm
The shifting culture of video games
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/fun.games/08/17/videogame.culture.ap/index.html
Computer games: Facts and fiction
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-5065675.html
Can Grand Theft Auto Inspire Professors?
http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i49/49a03101.htm
Games cited in recent deaths
http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6074253.html
FTC Workshop on Self-Regulation
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/violence/index.html
From 'Army of one' to Army of fun
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/106291458914820.xml
Not Just Rappers and Athletes: Minorities in Videogames
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20030827/adams_01.shtml
God in the console
http://www.msnbc.com/news/954674.asp
The Grey Market
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/business/article.jsp?content=20030818_63980_63980
Codes of dishonor?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20030825-9999_mz1b25codes.html