The Ludologist

Olli Leino is visiting the Center for Games Research, and is editing a volume on player experiences. Deadline is June 26th, 2006.
University of Lapland, Faculty of Art & Design, Department of Media
CALL FOR PAPERS, BOOK “EXTENDING EXPERIENCES”

While players of video games have always been waiting for the next generation of technology, less fuss is made about next-generation experiences. If such experiences are already there, what are they like? What would be the 21st-century-equivalent to the experiences of Andy Capp’s Tavern’s customers who rushed into the bar to play Pong until the machine got jammed with coins? Ask a script writer, a political mod artist, a middleware developer, a computer game researcher, and someone who has traded off his social contacts in real life for a high-level character in a MMOG – and you will be overwhelmed by the diversity of what makes an experience worth striving for.
Department of Media at the Faculty of Art & Design of the University of Lapland and Mediapolis Innomedia project will publish a multidisciplinary book on player experiences in early 2007.? The book will be a compilation of peer-reviewed articles. Respecting the department of Media’s tradition of combining research with design, the book aims to piece together contemplations from researchers, designers, and those in-between, within or outside the academia. The working title or a catchphrase of the book is “Extending Experiences”. On one hand, the extending might mean creating games that allow new kinds of experiences or are more emotional, maybe by implementing innovations regarding for example gameplay, graphics, sound or the interface. Also the players are creative. Their use of games in a way designers did not intend alters their experiences. On the other hand, the extending takes place concept-wise. In the wake of new forms of games and playing new types of players get introduced to digital games. Thus, the concept of player experience has to assimilate very different takes on how, where, when and why games are played and experienced. No matter from which viewpoint one looks at the player’s experience, it seems that it poses challenges for those trying to observe or analyse it, not to mention those who are trying to understand it in order to be able to design something new. Continue reading “Call for Papers: “Extending Experiences””

Via Matteo Bittanti:

Karen Collins has written a seriously detailed article about music on the C64.? Everything about the limits of the sound chip (SID), the different musical styles used, and so on. Here’s Ghost ‘n Goblins:

The latest news.com story about how video games are good for surgeons (and their patients by extension).

Doctors were measured on their performance of the “cobra rope” drill, a standard laparoscopic training exercise used to teach how to sew up an internal wound.

Researchers found that surgeons who played video games immediately before the drill completed it an average of 11 seconds faster than those who did not. Any errors committed during the training lengthened the time it took to complete the task–indicating that faster finishers made fewer mistakes.

The article mentions Super Monkey Ball, but is not clear whether that was the game used in the test.

Super Monkey Ball is becoming something of a favorite for clinical studies though.

Congratulations to local developers Runestone who have just launched their new MMO, Seed.
To quote from the page:

What Seed is all about
– Sci-fi MMORPG
– Personalized stories
– Social/political gameplay
– Believable NPC’s
– 3D comic book graphics

What Seed is not about
– Combat
– Character classes
– Standard quests

Oh, cosplay already. Could be worth a go:

News.com piece on collectors of vintage pinball machines.

And things just were sliiiighty better in the old days:

“(Pinball machines) are mass produced now–cheap,” complained Hal Erickson, a regular at the secret pinball “arcade.” According to Erickson, today’s pinball makers “buy licenses and time releases to the crest of a fad, like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ or ‘Nascar.’ They’ve gotten slicker, but the designs are not as creative and individual.”There’s a huge difference in the way the game is played, too. “It’s really grueling, higher speed and intense movement…You can burn yourself out on new games,” said Erickson, who said he was ranked among the top pinball players in the world in the early 1990s. “Older games are more sane.”

The article also has links to pinball emulation sites.

Nintendo’s announced the new name for the console what used to be called Revolution: Wii.

More at the Wii website, still called revolution.

Lots of advertising-speak, “Wii has a distinctive “ii” spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.

Glad that’s out of the way. Silly name, but then I have graphics card called GeForce, probably symbolizing something with speed.

Aki J?rvinen was one of the first video game researchers I ever met, and now he is finishing his Ph.d. thesis with a new big theory of video games on his Games Without Frontiers site.
He invites us to read his chapters as they progress and to send comments.
Chapters so far:

• Chapter 3, Introduction to Game Systems, Game Elements, and Simulation.
• Chapter 4, Theory of Game Elements: From Game Systems to Their Contexts.
• Chapter 5, Key concepts in Psychology in Terms of Ludology.

An excellent way of making sure the thesis hits the market with no usability issues, while improving playability!