The Console Wars

Virtual Worlds stuff

Just a little list of observations and things on my 'to read' list. I don't know why - but I've been so incredibly unfocused lately. I've actually been very social this weekend - which has been lovely but I feel I'm lagging behind on my feedburning!

1) Finland's Game Research Lab has had what looks to be a really great conference/seminar (I'm sure someday I'll actually care what the difference is) - Breaking the Magic Circle. What really struck me first was Vili Lehdonvirta's contribution, Virtual Worlds Don't Exist. I was instantly sucked in yesterday but three pages in I was rudely interrupted - and look at me now - blogging instead of reading! Vili's one of those people who manages to see clearly and keep both his feet on the ground when it comes to virtual worlds studies - and I honestly can't wait to finish his paper. Because the dude's definitely on to something.

The abstract:

I argue that much of MMO-related scholarship is implicitly based on a dichotomous "real world vs. virtual world" model, which is heavily influenced by the "magic circle" concept in game studies. I show a number of shortcoming in this perspective and propose an alternative perspective based on Anselm Strauss's social worlds (Strauss, 1978). The alternative perspective unbundles users from the technological platform and places MMO-centered social worlds in context with other worlds like religion and workplace.

I think Virtual World Studies are growing up - and that suits me fine!

2) There are now more than 100 youth oriented virtual worlds live or in development. Look - Virtual Worlds Management has a list!

3) The virtual world VizWoz is launching a virtual cinema on April 18th, according to Virtual World News. I had a 15 minute test-run of the place and I pretty much hated it. But I'm not a teen and 15 minutes is never enough for true judgment.

I'm really tickled by the virtual world cinema concept. It's something I've wanted virtual worlds to get into for a while now. I've always thought that this would be the way for stupid licensing issues to disappear. But I wasn't too happy about the fact that I needed to register if I lived in the States or not while getting an account - I, of course, lied - we'll see if I can get away with it. I'm also eager to see the quality of the films they're going to screen.

I applaud the initiative.

4) Speaking of April 18th - Funcom is together with GameSpot offering to play PvP Age of Conan from April 18th to April 20th for 15,000 gamers. I'll be unwired in Gøteborg that weekend so I haven't bothered to have a look at how I can be a part of it. Yet another sign that Age of Conan won't be delayed again, I think! I wish them luck!

5) Have to read Raph Koster's "Is there such a thing as a casual online world?"

Machinima at BitFilm Festival

The BitFilm Festival is coming up and I wanna go! It's an odd - although really cool festival. It opens on May 1st and lasts til May 8th in Stuttgart - and then there's a closing event in Hamburg from 10th til 12th of July.

I wanna go for the machinima screenings on May 5th and May 6th - although the whole week looks like pure joy. I'm trying to come up with alternatives of people willing to pay me to go - any ideas anyone?

I'm having a hard time figuring out the site however. I can't seem to get my hands on which Machinima films are nominated but maybe that's the intention. According to the buzz of the blogs I follow, I now know of three.

1) Among Fables and Men - Dopefish

Goarr! Isn't this amazing. Here's an interview with him (Eddo Stern?) at Networked Performance.

Many of these videos represent elements of gamer culture that are still “officially” kept out of the game world — sex, drugs, real violence, death, etc. — but fan-based machinima, and forums postings become the spaces where these aspects of the gaming culture find an outlet, their expression in-game is repressed by the game companies censorship - they offer a glimpse into the subculture of the subculture.

2) I'm So Sick - Baron Soosdon

3) The Ballad of the Sex Junkie - Olibith

All excellent nominations. Coincidence that they're all Warcraft Movies?

BitFilm has created a virtual city, Bitropolis in Twinity.

The Bitropolis city centre consists of a cinema, a gallery, a bar and a night club. Create your avatar, enjoy cinema screenings, meet other film makers and film fans.

I've applied for access - but haven't received a beta account yet. I wonder if I might get in touch with Singapore crab dinner friend Jeremy Snyder and see if he can pull some strings. Because I think it's excellent that the festival has created a virtual city - that's the direction virtuality should be going in my opinion - it's a shame that there's not more instant access though.

So I wanna go wanna go wanna go! I've started my own paper on machinima - but so far it's just three pages of me rambling trying to figure out what it is I really want to say - I'm pleased that I've at least started, though, it took me long enough. I'm missing my books, my old computer and all the papers I've printed out.

Norwegian folkdance in AoC

Well...I guess there's just no doubt that Age of Conan is going to be released on schedule - May 20th - because Funcom is sneaking in more and more little peaks to the press. I feel like a day doesn't pass by without there being something in the news about Age of Conan. Funcom is notorious for being super duper freakishly paranoid secretive, so they wouldn't start releasing stuff unless they knew they were ready.

The funny thing is that I really thought I was bored with it all now. I was very adamant in my opinion that teasing the fans for sooooooo long would slap them in the face because they would just get bored and annoyed by all the delays. I was wrong.

Just look at this - they're including Hallingdans. It's a Norwegian folk dance. I'm so impressed. My overly national romantic heart has officially melted. Video bellow is in Norwegian from Aftenposten.no, where you can distinctly hear that the movement director (?) for Age of Conan, who came up with this great idea, is from my neck of the wood - of course he's a Bergenser!


It looks like Halling is making a major come-back this year as the dance group Frikar won the judge's hearts on Norways Got Talent. Incidently it's one of Frikar who's doing the dancing for Conan as well.

I'm excited now. I just might get over the testosterone overload feeling I have against Age of Conan and go out and buy it! I adore details like this!

I wouldn't have noticed this if it wasn't for Nina's twittering, so thanks!

49% Casual Gamers play everyday

Chris Bateman's got some interesting results from a survey they've done for a new player model, with 1040 responses.

Of those who classify themselves as casual gamers 49% play every day! Sounds like a statistic Jesper Juul would be interested in.

Also only 1.25% enjoy games without stories. I think that's interesting.

We've received 1,040 responses to the survey, of which 55% (576) are from North America, 30% (317) are from Western Europe or the UK, 5% (52) are from Australasia, and a few responses from everywhere else in the world besides.

The majority of respondents play games every day (66%), with many of the others playing every week (26%). Interestingly, of those that self-identified as "Hardcore", 81% play every day, and of those that self-identified as "Casual", 49% play every day. It seems that even people who see themselves as a Casual player are still playing amazingly often.

The most popular approach is to play alone (40%), with just a few playing single player games with pad passing or some similar group play (7%). The remaining players all prefer some kind of multiplayer format, whether in the same room (17%) or over the internet (19%, of which 5% is team or clan play), with the remaining 16% preferring virtual worlds and MMORPGs.

On the subject of game stories, there is overwhelming consensus, with 93% saying either that stories are very important to their enjoyment of videogames (36%) or that stories help them enjoy videogames (57%). A mere 5% say stories are not important, and just 1.25% say they prefer videogames without stories. Clearly, story occupies a vital space in the modern world of videogames – gamers love stories!

Cory Ondrejka's fabulous slideshow

Cory Ondrejka explains the complexities of Virtual Worlds so wonderfully in this slideshow. It's selfexplanatory - simple - informative - and extremely tidy.

This is the third slideshare I've seen today - and they're all great. I sometimes wonder if I have it in me to focus entirely on someone speaking without a beautiful slideshow. Can I learn without visual stimulation anymore?

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So you've lost a ring ey?

ARG-guru Jane McGonigal has designed a new game for the 2008 Olympics, The Lost Ring.

At the moment it seems like a sort of collective-blogging/web 2.0-story-game.
We're introduced to six characters. Ariadne, Markus, Noriko, MeiHui, Diego and Lucie. They all woke up in some form of labrynth with amnesia, some funky white fitness suit, white goggle that you can't see through - blindfold and a funky tattoo on their arm which reads: Find the lost Ring in Esperanto.

I'm quite pleased that this is truly international. French, English, German, Spanish, Chinese and I think Japanese (I can't be bothered to look up right now). I also like the way they use many different types and brands of web 2.0 media. I'm astonished by how much work they've put into it and how thorough they've been. I think Jane McGonigol's genious is clearly evident.

So these six characters are unified by the same problem. They've also realised that their bodies are well in tune, like olympic champions, which made me wince. Reading about it in blog form made me sort of urghy - it just sounds so lame.

I guess the goal of the game is to figure out the big mystery. Enter the professor Eli Hunt who coincidently has some podcasts on the ancient mysteries of the Olympic Games. I really enjoyed listening to his podcasts and I found myself wishing them to be non-fictional. I honestly felt like I was learning something new about the Olympic past and listening to a very learned archeology geek. Here's one about the lost sport of Olympia.



This was really a great way to get someone like me hooked. After all, we have become an information society - we truly do want to learn more and we love going on information safari's on the net. There's a New York Times article about this somewhere - a new study of the brain that explained why we like it so much - but I can't seem to find it at the moment. Eitherway - these podcasts are what got me hooked.

That said - I'm not sure I get what I'm supposed to be doing in this game. I don't really feel compelled to do anything except keep reading and watching and listening as this bunch figures things out. But maybe that will change in the course of time?

I'm not a language buff so I'm keeping in tune to the game through Ariadne - and unfortunately she's no LonelyGirl15. Seriously, it needed a semi-bad actress before I truly understood what a great actress LonelyGirl was. It's really hard to believe her and her charm is very pressured. But I'm sure she'll grow on me and her acting will probably become better. But right now I just found it a tad annoying.

But I'm hooked. And at some point I need to figure out what the hell this is. It's described as a strange sectret portal site - but they've managed to get loads of information from it - but I can't seem to figure it out.

For now, though, I need to find a job from 1st of May - or at least some form of income - if anyone knows of anything let me know!

Protesting in a virtual world

Joseph DeLappe is an active artist protesting the war in Iraq.

On March 20th, the date of the US invasion of Iraq, DeLappe will enter America's Army, peacefully.

America's Army is an MMORPG designed by the US military which also functions as an active reqruiter. for the army.

He'll be using the login name "dead-in-Iraq" and well...I'm almost tempted to download America's Army to witness the action. But quite honestly, I'm not sure if that's a good idea. Would I be supporting America's Army or would I be supporting Joseph DeLappe?

"As of 1/17/08, I have input 3745 names. I intend to keep doing so until the end of this war. As of 1/17/08 there have been 3929 American service persons killed in Iraq" - Networked Performance

So he'll be manually(!) writing the name, age, service branch and date of death of each service person who has died to date in Iraq.

Does it all sound familiar? Well, it seems he started dead-in-iraq in 2006. It kinda gives you a perspective on matters when an artist repeats his protest 3 years in a row. That's interesting.

I have to admit I'm feeling a tad sorry for the poor MMORPG players - I mean what are they suppossed to do? Hmmm - maybe they should join him somehow? Maybe he should invite them to. It would be lovely if someone documented the discussions this sparked in-world. It seems he doesn't engage in any social conversation...well...who could blame him with 3745 US soldiers to memorialise.

It certainly made an impression on me. I think it would be cool if they could stream the protest but I worry about the privacy rights of the players.