The use of video game metaphors in contemporary fiction

Not a survey of the question, but I have been reading Junot DíazThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, whose title character is, of course, a geek in every way. What is special is how this matter-of-factly spills into the narrator’s use of video game (and role-playing game)  references for illustration:

When the young Beli meets the man later known as The Gangster, she:

Shrieked: No. Me. Toques. … Then let him have it with a stack of cocktail napkins and almost a hundred plastic olive rapiers, and when those were done dancing on the tile she unleashed on of the great Street Fighter chain attacks of all time.

Later, when Trujillo is assasinated we hear:

Shot at twenty-seven times – what a Dominican Number – and suffering from four hundred hit points of damage, a mortally wounded Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina is said to have taken two steps towards his birthplace, San Cristóbal, for, as we know, all children, whether good or bad, eventually find their way home, but thinking better of it he turned back toward La Capital, to his beloved city, and fell for the last time.

America,

America,
    Why is it is always too hot or too cold?

America,
    I’ve got one word for you: Thermostats

America,
    When we came to Brooklyn, the landlord said we should
    open the window if it got too warm

America,
    You know how this hurts my fragile northern soul

America,
    It is not exactly rocket science

America,
    The right temperature is patriotic too

America,
    I have a truckload of Danish radiator controls to sell you

America,
    Who cheers when you open that window?

 

 

 

(With apologies to Allen Ginsberg.)

When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found that he had been transformed in his bed into a little red robot

This product is one of the most uncanny things I have seen. The ConnectR is for visiting people while you are somewhere else, by way of a small red circular robot that you can remote control, and which transmits sound and video.

The parallels to Kafka’s The Metamorphosis are unbearable. You have been transformed into a small robot, and people will view you as such.

ConnectR

What would you use it for? According to the materials:

  • Participate in family moments even though you’re working late
  • On a business trip? Read your kids a story and see their faces light up

Fun and awkwardness ensues when everybody is seated at the table, but dad is stuck on the floor.
“Dad is busy, but he is visiting us as a vacuum-like red robot. Don’t step on him.”

It is such a downer to be the only avatar in the room.

Trying, but Failing, to Sell Out

You may or may not have noticed, but I have been experimenting with putting ads on the bottom of the blog posts. (Paying server costs and so on.)

So here is? the question: Do having ads on this blog amount to selling out? Do they devalue the content of the posts? Do they make you see the blog in a different light?

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Update: I removed the ads again.

A New Life in the Off-World Colonies

I just wanted announce that from this July I have finished my job at the IT University in Copenhagen and have decided to be a more freelancing sort of person / researcher / worker.

I have been at the IT University and the Centre for Computer Games Research for almost eight years in different capacities, and it’s been a defining period of my life. I have learned so much from from my great colleagues there.

But now it’s time to try something new: My basic aim for the future is to do and hopefully combine video game research and game development in new and exciting ways. There are so many questions to ask, so many unturned stones.

I will obviously be posting on this blog as things happen!

Two Professorships at the IT University of Copenhagen

The IT University (http://www.itu.dk/), home of the Center for Computer Games Research (http://game.itu.dk), is seeking applicants for two positions as Associate or Assistant Professor of game development. The faculty will teach in our international English language program that focuses on game design, analysis, and technology (http://www.itu.dk/mtg/). Relevant areas of research and teaching are:

  • Game AI,
  • Game Interface Design and Playtesting,
  • Game Development and Project Management,
  • Software Engineering for Game Development,
  • Game Systems Architecture,
  • Game Graphics and Animation

For full information about the positions and application procedures please visit http://www1.itu.dk/sw58262.asp. Application deadline is 16 April 2007 at 12:00 noon. Questions about the position can be directed to Associate Professor T.L. Taylor (tltaylor@itu.dk).