So IF has certain intrinsic design difficulties, a built-in awkwardness in the way it represents spatial navigation and the inconsistency with which it handles language. And yet it continues to draw devoted practitioners and interactors. It is, in Montfort‘sview, a still vibrant tradition. Why does IF work despite these design difficulties? Perhaps the answer lies…
While there might be a future for narrative and new forms of storytelling in this cornucopia of new digital and cultural formats, the largest potential seems to be in new types of games, forms that blend the social and the aesthetic in creative ways and on an unprecedented scale. As a new generation of gamers…
Excuses remind me of The Trouble with Tribbles from the early Star Trek series: a space trader, Cyrano Jones, gives Uhura a purring ball of fluff known as a tribble. Charmed by the creature, Uhura takes it back to the Enterprise. However, as McCoy soon learns, tribbles are born pregnant and the more they eat…
You will need the following items, depending on what you plan on doing with the orange: 1. Oranges, lots of them in case you are hungry or if you mess it up. 2. Two bowls, one to peel them over and one to put them in. It’s important to peel them over a bowl because…
Theory vs. Craft in Computer Game StudiesJerz’s Literacy Weblog) In a comment attached to my blog entry on The Muse of the Videogame, Eyejinx makes an excellent point, an excerpt from which is below: Unless and until those involved in game studies seriously work with the development process (and perhaps the developers themselves), any proposals…
Soon Phyllis has figured out how to use Ellery’s credit cards, order a cookbook and prepare a purée of parsnips for the neighbors. “Phyllis was grandstanding as a newlywed,” Ellery tells himself. “Was that good or bad?” Either way, it’s all too appropriate to the six-person dinner party under way. It later turns out that…
The Catholic Education Office abandoned plans last year to challenge sex discrimination laws after it agreed to add an additional 12 female-only scholarships to balance plans to offer 12 male-only scholarships. —Samantha Maiden and Paige Taylor —Grant to lure male teachers (News.Com.Au) Becasue a scholarship program designed to increase the number of male teachers was ruled…
The game press does a piss-poor job of covering the culture of games — from Games That Teach to local LAN parties. Instead, the delve into the intricate details of each game — which is clearly important from a game play standpoint. However, the culture at large is at least as important as the game…
Sadly, commercial publishing threatens the very system it exists to support. When expensive commercially published materials cannot be bought, when university presses cannot afford to publish monographs for junior faculty, everyone suffers. Students and scientists cannot gain access to badly needed materials; scholars cannot get tenure for lack of that first published monograph. The modern…
An online survey of 2,755 musicians and songwriters shows they are quite divided in their opinions about the impact of music file sharing by Internet users. There is no clear consensus regarding the effects of online file-sharing on artists. Some 35% of this sample agree with the statement that file-sharing services are not bad for…
How would you feel if a group of people (who aren’t associated with the IRS) just offhandedly decided that it was all right for them to steal one-tenth of your yearly income because they felt that what you did for a living wasn’t really work, and you made all kinds of money from the advance…
Ending months of speculation, search engine company Google plans to float by selling $2.7 billion worth of shares in an online share auction. —Google files for IPO (Internet Magazine) The online community has been waiting for this for a long time. How long will Google’s geek-friendly “don’t be evil” philosophy last under the pressure to make…
Because she does all of her teaching online, Ms. Achterhof can handle many more courses, at many more colleges, than she could face to face. She is an adjunct professor of business and management at four institutions, in three states, moving among her teaching duties with the click of a mouse while her black Labrador…
Discuss William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. In-class activity: find a partner. Inspect what he or she is wearing or carrying, and write down every brand name you can spot. We will collate the results and vote on what is, or isn’t “cool.” Brand Name Cool rating? VICTORIA SECRET 14+ Advil 14 Hanes 13 Adidas 12 Smackers…
though Limbaugh is wrong to decide that video games are entirely like other games, his comparison opens up interesting possibilities for anyone wanting to develop a theory of video games as a medium because it suggests that any such theory ought to deal with both sides of video gaming’s cultural history. Though many readers in…
About 45 percent of all faculty members are now part-timers. Each year thousands of people with new doctorates in fields like history and English fail to find the tenure-track jobs they are chasing. In English, for instance, fewer than half of the new Ph.D.’s win tenure-track jobs initially, according to the Modern Language Association. When…
In Dragon’s Looking Glass world, inanimate objects speak in tongues; cups, saucers, hammers, and styrofoam are endowed with the gift of speech; and the babble of a brook is literal, not metaphorical. It’s personification (and heteroglossia) taken to an extreme. It strikes me that this peculiar propensity for hearing the cacophony of voices in anything…
A Tree-Mail ‘Thank You’Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Sometimes, even for a cyber-guy like me, an old-fashioned, hand-crafted “Thank You” note just makes it all worthwhile. From my former student Kirsten Schubert, who really knows how to make a fellow feel appreciated. You’re very welcome, Kirsten! Similar:Avoiding Spoilers Gives You a Superficial Appreciation of ArtI very much…
Similar:Stephen Coles’ The Anatomy of Type, reviewed.Talk nerdy to me. You’re my type. What …AestheticsNASA reconnects with Voyager 1 (after months of confusion) NASA says it is once again abl…AwesomeClickbait writers hate this English professor's time-saving trick!Defeat clickbaiters with this one weird …CybercultureThe Great Gatsby Character Map SomethingSoSam.AestheticsThe storage shelves of my fantasy steampunk CGI…
Under the guidelines, which go into effect in the fall for Princeton’s 4,600 undergraduates, faculty are expected to restrict the number of A’s to 35 percent in undergraduate courses; for junior and senior independent work, the percentage receiving A’s will be capped at 55 percent. —Princeton faculty approves grade-rationing plan (CBS/AP) Similar:Churnalism SearchAt the University of…