My name is Jesper Juul, and I am a Ludologist [researcher of the design, meaning, culture, and politics of games]. This is my blog on game research and other important things.
Echochrome was probably the game of Tokyo Game Show that I found the most compelling. If you haven’t read about it, it’s all about rotating the world in order to create Escher-like optical illusions which then actually work.
Hard to say why, but the 2d games of the show looked great on high-definition screens. Seriously. Echochrome and LocoRoco – not sure if they justify a PS3 and a 40 inch TV, but we are getting there.
An unexpected cosplay moment at the Tokyo Game Show: Phoenix Wright.
Here’s William Huber playing Halo 3 at TGS:
And here’s the game up close:
I am not entirely convinced here – I feel fighting games and multiplayer shooters are the games that benefit the least from next-gen graphics. There’s a brief “wow” minute, and then everything feels like it always did. But there you are.
So here’s a brief report from the floor at the Tokyo Game Show 2007:
I met Bomberman.
That was quick. According to vgchartz , the Wii has now outsold the 360 despite its one-year lead.
This is a historic moment in video game history: The clearly graphically inferior console, launched later is outselling the graphically superior console.
This is good, of course.
(Bring on the historical arguments about other graphically inferior consoles coming out on top.)
Coming out this month, Space Time Play is a new anthology on video games edited by Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz and Matthias B?ttger.
My contributions are:
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The richly illustrated texts in “Space Time Play” cover a wide range of gamespaces: from milestone video and computer games to virtual metropolises to digitally-overlaid physical spaces. As a comprehensive and interdisciplinary compendium, “Space Time Play” explores the architectural history of computer games and the future of ludic space. More than 140 experts from game studies and the game industry, from architecture and urban planning, have contributed essays, game reviews and interviews. The games examined range from commercial products to artistic projects and from scientific experiments to spatial design and planning tools.
“Space Time Play” is not just meant for architects, designers and gamers, but for all those who take an interest in the culture of digital games and the spaces within and modeled after them. Let’s play!
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With contributions by Espen Aarseth, Ernest Adams, Richard A. Bartle, Ian Bogost, Iain Borden, Gerhard M. Buurman, Edward Castranova, Kees Christiaanse, James Der Derian, Stephen Graham, Ludger Hovestadt, Henry Jenkins, Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, Bart Lootsma, Winy Maas, Lev Manovich, Jane McGonigal, Kas Oosterhuis, William J. Mitchell, Howard Rheingold, Katie Salen, Hans-Peter Schwarz, McKenzie Wark, Mark Wigley and many more.
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“Space Time Play” will be available in bookstores as of October 2007
(USA November 2007). The following can be downloaded:
> Cover (JPEG, 150 dpi, 1.2 Mb)
> Table of Contents (PDF, 444 Kb)
> Introduction (PDF, 436 Kb)
Review copies can be requested from Birkh?user Publishing from Gisela Graf. Please direct questions about presentations and interviews as well as any other queries to the editors.
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Space Time Play
Edited by Friedrich von Borries, Steffen P. Walz and Matthias B?ttger
In cooperation with Drew Davidson, Heather Kelley, Julian K?cklich
496 pages, 352 color illustrations.
The new Eludamos Journal for Computer Game Culture has launched its inaugural issue.
From the introduction:
We all play, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, or social status. Some of us play chess while others play golf. Children play catch or hide and seek. Americans play football, Europeans soccer. Actors play theatre, musicians play instruments. Comedians play their audiences, politicians the media. Lawyers play the legal system, economists the economic game. Whether we like it or not, play is one of the most fundamental activities in human life, it is immersed in our language and has a substantial influence in how we define our culture. It is sometimes unintentional and informal like the unorganised play of children on a playground, other times it is intentional and formal such as the play of baseball players in the World Series. Play is always subject to rules, even if these rules change over time. Play has a beginning and an end; it is creative and always voluntary. If we are forced to play we can withdraw by spoiling it. Play is fun and motivating; it challenges us and makes us learn about ourselves and life in general. Through play we exit reality and experience a make-believe world. When we are done playing, play disappears and we return to reality. Everything that was important during play has then somehow lost its meaning seemingly leaving no serious consequences of play in real life.
| Introduction | HTML PDF |
| Emma Westecott, Andreas Jahn-Sudmann, Gareth Schott, Michael Wagner |
| Ordinary Gamers – The Vanishing Violence In War Games And Its Influence On Male Gamers | Abstract PDF HTML |
| Hartmut Gieselmann |
| On the Liberation of Space in Computer Games | Abstract PDF HTML |
| Edvin Babic |
| (Dis-)integrative Effects of MUD-Usage as Seen by the Players | Abstract PDF HTML |
| Susanne Keuneke |
| Real Player Manifesto | Abstract PDF HTML |
| Marguerite Charmante |
| ?Translating Narrative into Code? ? Thoughts on a Technology-Centric Model of Digital Games as Programmable Media | Abstract PDF HTML |
| Stefan Werning |
| Think smooth! The challenges, pleasures and pitfalls of WarioWare: Smooth Moves | HTML PDF |
| Doris Carmen Rusch |
| Emotion and Story in “Shadow of the Colossus”: A Meta-Review | Abstract HTML PDF |
| Peter Purgathofer |
| Electroplankton revisited: A Meta-Review | Abstract HTML PDF |
| Martin Pichlmair |
| Black and White: Attending the Games Convention 2007 | HTML PDF |
Congratulations to Gonzalo Frasca who successfully defended his Ph.D. this Monday.
(Image from Gonzalo’s web site.)
