See also my resources on interactive fiction (text adventure games), programming in Inform 7, making games in Scratch, and coding hypertext stories in Twine.
Am I mad? Possibly. But, at one level these are just a bunch of “high-flown” questions that really only matter to artists and cynical bastards like me :D. At another level, these issues are critical to advancing the art (that’s right, art) of game design and making a game that Strongbad said were for “intellectual…
Besides the most obvious danger — adult stalkers enticing teenagers into face-to-face meetings — Cole warned that personal information posted online can also be read by college admissions officers and future employers. “We are trying to figure out how do our school rules relate to this type of behavior,” Cole said. Some colleges have expelled…
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has dismissed entertainment reporter Tim Ryan following an investigation into stories he wrote during the past several years. The stories contained phrases or sentences that appeared elsewhere before being included, un-attributed, in stories that ran in the Star-Bulletin. The stories did not include inaccurate information or any fabrications. —Frank Bridgewater —Inquiry prompts…
On the handheld front, Sony and Nintendo continue their fight for the minds and backpacks of the nation’s gamers by releasing ever-larger portable consoles. The Nintendo XL features six screens, a folding seat and a selection of overpriced candy bars, while the PlayStation Still Ostensibly Portable can now play all known forms of media, including…
Consumerist Pac-Man and Socialist Tetris (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) “Pac-Man” is a game about gathering resources while fleeing from predators. It gives pleasure to those areas of our brain that remember what it was like being a tiny but clever mammal, surrounded by threats that are deadly but not too bright. Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde pass…
Challenged to retrieve the powerful Amulet of Yendor from a fathomless, monster-plagued dungeon, you’ll discover that the dungeon is actually a randomly-generated configuration of brackets, asterisks and periods; the villainous pit beasts are an assortment of letters (“O” for Orcs, “D” for dragons and so on); and your heroic avatar is nothing more than a…
You stroll outside and are delighted to see the sun just clearing the eastern horizon. It is a beautiful autumn morning and the air feels brisk as you take a deep breath. Across the way, you spot a jogger just before they disappear into a grove of tall ash trees. —Mike Tolar —Clink: A Clickable…
Retrogaming: 10 Links about Centipede (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Wikipedia’s Centipede (video game) I had no idea the PC in Centipede is a garden gnome. I always assumed I was playing an insect of some sort, squirting out venom to fight off attackers. (Elsewhere I’ve seen references to the PC having a magic wand.) The page is…
I have a very hard time getting my son to go shopping, look for a new car, see a movie, travel.I told him what kind of life style could these people have. I told him the only thing he will end up in life having is a six pack of beer, a trailer, and a…
When shown images of real-life violence, people who played violent video games were found to have a diminished response. However, when the same group were shown other disturbing images such as dead animals or ill children they had a much more natural response. When the game players were given the opportunity to punish a pretend…
Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. In other words, it’s OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors,…
The 1979‘sMilton-Bradley Microvision was the first globally hand-held cartridge-based system. The first hand-held was soon forgotten during the fall video game crash in early 1980s until the concept was reanimated ten years later, Nintendo GameBoy, became the one of still standing and successfully brand-name video game in history of portable video game. Since Gameboy erupted,…
We rail against sequels, we talk about how we want original titles, but–according to the indisputable sales data–continue to lap up unimaginative, derivative sequel after unimaginative, derivative sequel. Is it any wonder, then, that companies continue to crank out sequel after roster update after sequel? They’re financially rewarded for doing so! —Vladimir Cole —The folly…
I’ve just finished making a video about the similarities between the ancient Hindu art of spiritual discipline and the rather more modern art of online gaming. Watch the higher self rack up high scores getting to the next level of consciousness in the transcendentally physical world of Half-Life 2: Deathmatch! —Jim Munroe —Yoga Deathmatch (No Media…
More than men, women are enthusiastic online communicators, and they use email in a more robust way. Women are more likely than men to use email to write to friends and family about a variety of topics: sharing news and worries, planning events, forwarding jokes and funny stories. Women are more likely to feel satisfied…
Your objectives for this course are to explore definitions of important concepts such as game and fun
The Hard Way to Learn and Program Aggression is the only way to accomplish anything. If you want a port, grab it, if you want a channel, fight for it, if you want a channel off, flood it, if you want a MOO, make yourself uncomfortably toaded over and over again. If you want a…
Subjective journalism does NOT mean glorifying the writer. Notice how, by the end of “Bow, Nigger” we know everything about the player’s experiences, the thoughts, feelings and theories that emerge during the short light saber battle, but we know nothing about the author him/herself. It’s subjective, but it isn’t self-publicising. It isn’t autobiography. Hunter S…
The race to transmit a simple message, staged by an Australian museum, was won — at a dash — by a 93-year-old telegraph operator who tapped it out using the simple system which was devised by Samuel Morse in 1832 and was the mainstay of maritime communication up until 1997. Gordon Hill, who learnt to…
Jessica Prokop thought the textbook for her class at Seton Hill University was biased and that its author “seems like a bitter man.” In the annals of student rants, nothing extraordinary there. Except she didn’t just blurt out those words in her journalism class. She blogged them. Soon, the author himself was responding all the…