Ian Bogost on Libery City Satire
May 2, 2008

Perhaps, although the environment isn't the social model either. I think there are aspects of it in the series -- the nutrition and respect model in San Andreas, for example -- but I still remark on how relatively hidden those experiences are, compared to the remediated text and images. ...

tanner on Libery City Satire
May 1, 2008

I wouldn't say the GTA series is devoid of critique beyond the "skin" of the game. While I haven't explored IV much, I think in many ways the antagonistic environment of the series is offering a rather cogent point about the American culture of violence and police state. I particularly liked how the middle of the map in San Andreas was occupied by a giant mountain aptly named the panopticon. That seemed to provide a textual confirmation of the gameplay elements I had already felt were communicating a tension between desire and self-regulation. ...

Tele3dworld on NASA MMO Update: Brains Pulled, not Funding
April 24, 2008

I still think you have to look at this as a non-linear 3D to 3D educational environment. A Virtual Playground that inspires learning through play; just like the real world. Remember when you were child you thought like a child and learned like a child. \why cannot be the same when you are a man? We now have the tools to to do it. We should not take up the challenge because it is easy, but because it is hard. To recreate a virtual Moon and mars before the end of the decade and to enable people to explore and experience them surely is a noble deed. With NASA support we can achieve this objective, lets's just do it! Those of us who stayed for the afternoon session (app. 20) got the real deal. ...

Tele3dworld on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0
April 23, 2008

You have to look at as a non-linear 3D to 3D educational environment. A Virtual Playground that inspires learning through play; just like the real world. Remember when you were child you thought like a child and learned like a child. \why cannot be the same when you are a man? We now have the tools to to do it. We suould not take up the challenge because it is easy, but because it is hard. To recreate a virtual Moon and mars before the end of the decade and to enable people to explore and experience them surely is a noble deed. With NASA support we can achieve this objective, lets's just do it! ...

Ian Bogost on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0
April 22, 2008

Daniel -- thanks for that note. I appreciate the need for a long-term business model in serious games of all kinds. But should it really the job of the developer to propose such a thing? Do you honestly believe that qualified MMO developers are also wise, wry businesspeople with plans for a never-before attempted commercial educational MMO? Can developers propose a development budget (e.g., the originally suggested $3m) as a part of their business plan? ...

dlaugh on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0
April 22, 2008

NASA is expecting the development partner to be able to generate a revenue stream from the project. Proposers are expected to submit business plans as part of their proposals. ...

Reinhard on We pwn free games
April 20, 2008

Dear Ian, On a rather unrelated note I will have to comment off topic - mainly because I was not sure where exactly to place this, still I thought advergames would probably be the most suitable section: As it appears, Wilkinson (http://www.ffk-wilkinson.com/de/) is advertising their latest product with a beat-em-up between father and baby (!), who are in the midst of a competition for the attention of their wife/mother (!!). Very oedipal! Looking forward to hearing your keynote speech in Berlin! Regards, Reinhard Prosch ...

tatianahunt download on DC Smackdown
April 17, 2008

I ve found the best game of the year Assassin's Creed by a few clicks. First click was from google to http://fileshunt.com (rapidshare search engine) a few min. later a was downloading the game. I hope that would help you too. ...

playbe on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 16, 2008

dear ian and hi matthew, thank you for your post over at your blog, matthew, and - i assume - quasi reply to my comment in the above. i think you missed some of the slight irony i tried to package into my reply here at WCG. thus, let me be a tad more explicit - consider this: why do you think galloway & the RSG collective translate and distribute their digital implementation of debord's game, which went by the french title of "le jeu de guerre", into the german name of "kriegspiel" (a term which is, excuse my repetetiveness, grammtatically incorrect and a typo)? let's see - because translating the term into german is, say: fun / appropriate / critical, or, as suggested over at WCG, situationism in itself? in europe, we do carefully differentiate between languages, and french is not german, and german ain't french. at least to me, language matters, and esp. titles do. why? because - excuse my lecturing tone - language is suggestive, emblematic, symbolic and a vehicle of power. i do not find any traces at http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/about.php as to why RSG chooses a german name for their (straightforward) port. it is not the ominous "some" who have interpreted that debord�s game is a derivative work of reisswitz's game, as you suggest; it is the RSG group whose german language game title suggests that this is the case. using a german name for an explicit port of debord's game is, unfortunately, imprecise, and misleading, and not a straightforward port. however, there is one acceptable exception: galloway & his group are making a statement. but then, this statement is, frankly, lost on me. the only western nation that has been waging war in the past couple of years, and the only nation that has been pioneering the public usage of "war" training video games is: yeah, right, english speaking. a decorum title of a digital port of debord's game thence is "game of war", a name which, by the way, mckenzie wark uses throughout his clever essay posted to the situationism blog (ian mentioned it, too). i can only hope that someone from RSG follows this discussion, too. i would love to see them involved in the conversation. take care, spw ...

Dakota Reese on My new column: Videogame Pranks
April 15, 2008

So I should apologize for posting a 1/2 formulated thought and then not clarifying right away when it was rightfully called out... Also CMS stripped out some psuedo-code that was intended to make the first part of the comment a little more whimsical. I think the irony of Josh Galloway's situation with the Debord estate highlights the point I was attempting to articulate. Here and there I've encountered a few individuals whom were openly offend when Wasik aired his laundry in My Crowd. You might say that they reacted similarly to the way McGonigal did in Re: My Crowd, but to the Nth degree. For lack of a better way to classify this hardcore pretension, I filed these people away as "Debord-ists." Now as you pointed out they seem to strive to maintain the aura of the situationism- which makes the act, more or less, ritual sacrament. Now everyone I'm currently thinking of undeniable had/has a stick up their ass, but I'm starting to wonder if there might be some legitimacy to their stance. Is nothing sacred? Why can't a prank be sacred- esp. if a prank is in the form of game and viewed through a Huizinga-esque lens? ...and the feedback loop of irony begins anew. ...

mkirschenbaum on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 13, 2008

Just left a long post on the subject here: http://www.zoi.wordherders.net/?p=103 ...

Patrick Dugan on Chris Crawford's Nine Breakthroughs
April 12, 2008

Man, I've been so close to the Storytron thing it's hard for me to get excited about it. It's been a few months away from being ready for like, three years. Seems like it anyway. I'm fairly confident that they are almost ready though, for real this time, having noted the milestones. Storytron may or may not be revolutionary in it's platform, but it is a great lesson for content creation platforms in general. I think it will find it's niche among them as well. I know of one dedicated to short form games (Mockingbird), one dedicated to virtual worlds (MetaPlace), one dedicated to serious games (TBA) and then there's Storytron, deddicated to storyworlds. Why not? I've got a post-mortem of serious game research done with Storytron coming out on SGS pretty soon, check it out. ...

Christian McCrea on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 12, 2008

Its also worth remembering that rules cannot be copyrighted under long-standing legal principles in Europe and America, but the artistic presentation of those rules can be. (This is my understanding of my early foraging into situations involving game art.) I certainly hope it gets resolved, or there is some way for RSG and the Debord estate to form a collaborative result instead of legal affront. It would be a shame to see one of my favorite thinkers and a contemporary attempt by a games scholar to do something interesting come to blows. ...

mkirschenbaum on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 9, 2008

Wow, that's an amazing (and woeful) development. To answer the question above, there's only a vague, thematic resemblance between Debord's game and the original 1820 Kriegspiel. The latter was played by laying metal bars across maps, to represent troop dispositions. Frequently it was also umpired, with the umpire determining the outcomes of combat, etc. A new edition of the 1820 rules set is available here: http://www.toofatlardies.co.uk/ ...

Acne Free In three Days on Food Force
April 9, 2008

I wanna play that game ...

Ian Bogost on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 8, 2008

Thanks for these great pointers, Steffen. I should probably note that "Kriegspiel" is Galloway's name -- Debord's was "Le Jeu de Guerre." Also recommended, Christian McCrea's detailed discussion of the matter: http://wolvesevolve.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/allegorithmic-litigation/ ...

playbe on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 7, 2008

hi ian, just a quick addendum re: the origins of the game debord had built, courtesy of claus pias' highly readable and excellent archaeology of strategy games laid out in his book from 2002, "computer spiel welten" pp. 204ff., so far;-) only available only in german: between 1780 and 1820, a number of games were invented in prussia which transformed and redefined the game of chess first towards a "tactical game based on chess" aka "war chess" (johann christian ludwig hellwig, 1780) towards what eventually became the "kriegsspiel" (sic! - double 's'). the original game of this name, first demoed by georg leopold baron of reißwitz in 1811 to prince wilhelm of prussia, used a sandbox into which a terrain had been modeled, applying the "irrational" scale of 1:2373 - i love this part - crazy baron. reißwitz and later his son, georg heinrich, kept on iterating rules and make up of the game, for example by adjusting the scale to a more reasonable 1:8000, and by tabletopping it, using topographical, modular terrain pieces to puzzle war landscapes instead of baking sand, or by employing lightweight metal figurines for representing troops. the rules - "supplement" - of the kriegsspiel were pretty complex, detailing movement and battling, and even allowing the creation of rules in itself, e.g. for "exceptional" game states (which even the kriegsspiel's referee could not decide) in the form of random generator dice. on a side note: pias points out how game elements such as the random generator as well as the numerically intricate supplement can be considered a form of mechanical computation; as mentioned, his book is an archaeology of computer games... peter p. perla in "the art of wargaming" (1990:4f.) describes how the kriegsspiel, eventually, became quite popular within the prussian officer corps, and how, in due course, it was introduced to the military in other countries such as the US, the UK, or france. dunno if debord's book mentions all this. would be quite interesting to see how his game and the kriegsspiel ca. 1820 overlap. rolf nohr from the braunschweig school of fine arts has done some research about hellwig's game. for example, a reconstruction of the 1780 game board can be downloaded from http://www.strategiespielen.de/spielplan_hellwig.pdf. hellwig's rules - written in olde german - can be downloaded from the braunschweig digital library - http://tinyurl.com/44hu36. one last thing: i don't know if you noticed - i think i remember you read german - the debordian term "kriegspiel" is grammatically incorrect. but maybe that's situationist? or am i being pedantic? yeah, i should have told debord himself. ach, never mind;-). thanks for pointing out galloway's version, i am looking forward to playing it, spw ...

playbe on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 7, 2008

hi ian, just a quick addendum re: the origins of the game debord had built, courtesy of claus pias' highly readable and excellent archaeology of strategy games laid out in his book from 2002, "computer spiel welten" pp. 204ff., so far;-) only available only in german: between 1780 and 1820, a number of games were invented in prussia which transformed and redefined the game of chess first towards a "tactical game based on chess" aka "war chess" (johann christian ludwig hellwig, 1780) towards what eventually became the "kriegsspiel" (sic! - double 's'). the original game of this name, first demoed by georg leopold baron of reißwitz in 1811 to prince wilhelm of prussia, used a sandbox into which a terrain had been modeled, applying the "irrational" scale of 1:2373 - i love this part - crazy baron. reißwitz and later his son, georg heinrich, kept on iterating rules and make up of the game, for example by adjusting the scale to a more reasonable 1:8000, and by tabletopping it, using topographical, modular terrain pieces to puzzle war landscapes instead of baking sand, or by employing lightweight metal figurines for representing troops. the rules - "supplement" - of the kriegsspiel were pretty complex, detailing movement and battling, and even allowing the creation of rules in itself, e.g. for "exceptional" game states (which even the kriegsspiel's referee could not decide) in the form of random generator dice. on a side note: pias points out how game elements such as the random generator as well as the numerically intricate supplement can be considered a form of mechanical computation; as mentioned, his book is an archaeology of computer games... peter p. perla in "the art of wargaming" (1990:4f.) describes how the kriegsspiel, eventually, became quite popular within the prussian officer corps, and how, in due course, it was introduced to the military in other countries such as the US, the UK, or france. dunno if debord's book mentions all this. would be quite interesting to see how his game and the kriegsspiel ca. 1820 overlap. rolf nohr from the braunschweig school of fine arts has done some research about hellwig's game. for example, a reconstruction of the 1780 game board can be downloaded from http://www.strategiespielen.de/spielplan_hellwig.pdf. hellwig's rules - written in olde german - can be downloaded from the braunschweig digital library - http://tinyurl.com/44hu36. one last thing: i don't know if you noticed - i think i remember you read german - the debordian term "kriegspiel" is grammatically incorrect. but maybe that's situationist? or am i being pedantic? yeah, i should have told debord himself. ach, never mind;-). thanks for pointing out galloway's version, i am looking forward to playing it, spw ...

jccalhoun on Knowledge is Nothing. Tenure is Everything.
April 4, 2008

Wow, that is awesome. I must track down a deck! ...

Nicole on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 31, 2008

@Ian, Simon, Asi: Thanks so much for your suggestions! We're still waiting to get our funding approved, so my research has been extremely preliminary up to this point, but most of the companies I've contacted (found through Google searches and recommendations from co-workers) specialize in banner ad-type games. Once our funding is approved, I will send out RFPs, and you guys have given me some good places to start! I will most likely be in touch with you this summer/early fall to discuss the matter further. Thanks again! ...

wetcoast on Paul McCartney Divorce Newsgame
March 30, 2008

The game rhetoric is completely divorced from its topic. A better, more interesting game would be one in which you played Heather but had to make decisions - such as how much money to go for, whether to hire a lawyer or a publicist, how to react to tabloid gossip, etc., and then seeing what the effect of these decisions would be on your own approval rating and on the size of the ultimate settlement. ...

molleindustria on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 30, 2008

Apparently ICED is not the only activist/serious game that uses an unnecessarily detailed and hard to navigate 3D environment with scattered predictable quizzes, tedious textboxes and no gameplay at all. There' also Logicity the nth game about climate change http://www.logicity.co.uk You only have get rid of your firefox, download a bunch of plugin, register and wait several minutes for every action you perform. Great if you have nostalgia for the commodore years. But, you know, the kids want 3D. ...

Asi Burak on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 30, 2008

First, I would like to apologize to the guys @ Break-Through, as my comment was unrelated to their product (I haven't played the game) but a response to the dialog between Suzanne and Ian. The challenges of NPO's and the rarity of game designers was a general comment about the state of our community. @Nicole- beyond Ian's good advice, there is always the option to work together with a good grad school. The Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon, for example, creates many successful sponsored projects with strong game design disciplines. Why not have a group of talented students work on your idea for a semester and come up with cool prototypes? If you are interested, feel free to contact me if necessary through ImpactGames and I'd be glad to introduce you to the folks at the ETC. ...

egenfeldt on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 29, 2008

Hi All, @Nicole: I think it is true that a lost of companies are more into smaller games but there are companies out there. You are most welcome to contact us to get some pointers. We have so far mostly developed for Danish companies but have a few international projects in the pipeline. We usually built larger games, but have quite some variation. Our company is called Serious Games Interactive, just search serious games in google and we are among the first listed. @Heidi: Congrats on your game - haven't had a chance to try it yet as the mac-file seem to be corrupt. I download it fine but when mounting file it give me a codec error. Best, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen CEO, PhD Serious Games Interactive ...

Ian Bogost on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 28, 2008

@Nicole Where are you looking? Game designers are often employed full-time by developers, but there are a lot of consultants, many of whom subscribe to the Serious Games or Games for Change listserv. You can also advertise on Gamasutra or even use a recruiting service like Mary Margaret. You can also ask colleagues or contacts employed already for recommendations, or use services like LinkedIn. Getting personal recommendations is always best. Email me if you want to talk more (my first name at persuasivegames.com) @Heidi I'm not ignoring you; I've just been traveling and want to have proper time to respond to your comments. Thanks for dropping by. ...

Nicole on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 28, 2008

This is getting off topic, but the comments have touched on a problem I'm having with a current project: where to find good game designers. My company (an npo) is willing to spend the money to make a great game, and acknowledges that we do not have adequate staff to do so ourselves. But most of the companies I've contacted in my preliminary research seem to be geared more towards simplistic, banner ad-type games...and we could make one of those ourselves. So where do you find good game designers? ...

Heidi Boisvert on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 26, 2008

Dear Ian: As the lead game-designer for ICED (and now Breakthrough’s Multi-Media Manager), I read your comments about the game with great interest. Thanks for taking the time to so thoughtfully reflect on the game design and content. While I appreciate your comments and feedback, I do feel that you read the game very narrowly and also stripped it of its process of creation, which was an integral part of how it evolved. You’re right - neither Natalia (my co-designer) nor I have ever made a game before ICED; nor are we avid gamers. My background is in documentary film, and hers is in software development. However, given the evolving and exciting nature of web 2.0 and multi-media technology, we did not see our background as limitations but rather as providing us with a fresher and more open mind to game design. And that’s why, despite our relative lack of experience, we were excited to create one of the very first 3D games for change despite the complexity of immigration laws and tight budget constraints. Let me just take you back to the very beginning of the project. The game emerged out of a graduate class in community and interactivity. We had to reach out to an organization to create a project that involved a certain set of tools. Through personal relationships we discovered the work that Breakthrough was undertaking around immigration, and were asked to pitch them some ideas. The game was one of three initial concepts. Breakthrough picked the game idea, because it could be a great advocacy tool for communicating to the target audience of voting age youth. To ensure this connection, Breakthrough staff, Natalia and myself worked with over 100 youth from around NYC to concept the game in an analogue way through aerial floor plans, and to better comprehend the game dynamics teens find most engaging in the games they already played. As we were creating the game, we went through a rigorous beta-testing process with the same youth to make sure that the functionality and game play were on target. And from the outset, we didn’t want to confine the game to a 2D cartoon-like world; the youth with whom we worked wanted it to be a realistic, immersive experience that would enhance the POV of immigrant youth whom we were representing. In addition, we conducted a tremendous amount of research with detainees, advocacy groups, and lawyers, so that the game play accurately reflects the experience encountered by immigrants lost in the system. So, many “subtle” ideas, like “procedural rhetoric,” and showing the an immigrant in search for livelihood, were considered, but consciously not selected, based on active choices to emphasize the triggers, which cause severe, unjust penalties since the shift of laws in 1996. These new immigration laws have greatly expanded the types of crimes for which legal and undocumented immigrants are being detained and deported. Under the term “aggravated felony,” such laws now include hundreds of new offenses, including minor crimes, such as turnstile jumping and shoplifting, for which the person did not serve any jail time. The laws for detention and deportation are mandatory and judges’ have no ability to review the circumstances of a case. In fact, immigrants who are here legally can be deported without a hearing for something as minor as misfiling paperwork or following below school credits. Immigration officials can deport anyone they suspect is here illegally and do not have to give them a hearing in court. Therefore, highlighting these offenses through trigger locations, and underscoring the random decision-making process of judges during a proceeding hearing were selective emphases integrated into the game, and which indeed reinforce Mallika Dutt’s press statements. Secondly, ICED is not “unwinnable,” as you suggest. The object of the game is citizenship, though we make it difficult to achieve this, a mini game (which you obviously didn’t reach) has been integrated to increase game play once the player answers all the questions correctly. Each 7 seconds, an immigration officer will spawn, and if the player stays afloat, then they have a chance to earn a green card. We make it clear that this does not happen in the real world, and then the player is given the opportunity to experience the detention center. ICED was not made for the gaming world; we are reaching out to a much broader constituency, and thus far, it’s working. The game has already been viewed by over 70,000 in the first month, and we’ve received a ton of press both positive and negative. But what’s more important is that educators, coalition members, and community organizers have reached out to us, because they think the game is a useful tool for their own purposes. I’ve presented this game to several groups of varying ages, geographic locations, and background, and there’s been an overwhelmingly positive response to the game mechanics and subject matter. And judging by the number of organizations that want to partner with us, and spread the word, I’d say ICED is striking a chord, and hitting it’s mark. Breakthrough has from its very inception been at the cutting edge of using innovative tools to raise awareness about human rights issues, and Mallika Dutt (who is a lawyer by training) began the group by producing an award-winning music video on violence against women. We’re pleased to continue this tradition with ICED which has emerged as a powerful tool for communicating the due process limitations in immigration policy to youth, community members and progressives. We hope other non-profits won’t feel too disheartened by your thoughts on ICED. Creating a video game can be a long and difficult process; but it’s important to keep pushing the margins and exploring new ways to engage folks in promoting human rights. We look forward to new innovations and more conversations in the burgeoning field of games for change. ...

Ian Bogost on My new column: Videogame Pranks
March 21, 2008

@Dakota I think Dada and the Situationists, discussed in the article, certainly saw their work as both prank and serious statement. Do you think the Debordists you mention may have had more invested in the affectation of situationism more than the act? ...

Mark Nelson on My new column: Videogame Pranks
March 20, 2008

I'm not sure I'd say Wasik concluded that they weren't serious, just that the prank wasn't directed at who people initially thought it was. People thought flash mobs were intended as some way of leveraging digital communication and crowds of people to cause surreal public scenes or even serious protest, when Wasik seems to have actually intended them as a way of poking fun at the sorts of people who would show up to a flash mob (hipsterish "must get on the next trend" sorts who revel in a sort of faux nonconformity). So there was some real social commentary in there, and I'd say it was an interesting use of a prank to deliver a serious message. It's just that the people who thought they were carrying out the prank and delivering the message were actually the targets of the prank and the message. ...

Dakota Reese on My new column: Videogame Pranks
March 19, 2008

So do you believe in such a thing the serious prank? The persuasive prank? The edu-prank? Seriously I've always found it interesting that Wasik admitting that Flash Mobs were in fact pranks ended up slightly offending several DeBord-ists (as you might call them). Can one man's prank not double as another's serious statement? ...

raynaa on My new column: Videogame Pranks
March 19, 2008

Great article! I love the idea of pranks-as-gameplay... *wheels turning* ...

Asi Burak on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 19, 2008

One thing that comes often in our conversations with non-profits is lack of understanding what the creation of a game entails, what the process demands (cost, effort etc) and how a game development team should be structured. Specifically, the crucial missing ingredient seems to be an experienced game designer. Going to make a game without one is like trying to create a movie without hiring a director. While npo's would never consider doing the latter, their perception regarding the media of games is different. Artists and programmers are easier to find and these roles are present in other industries. Unfortunately, good or great game designers are hard to find... ...

Ian Bogost on Native Dancer - Virtual Powwows for Health
March 18, 2008

@flickertail Thanks for the update. Please let us know what transpires next. ...

Ian Bogost on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 18, 2008

Suzanne, thanks for dropping by. As with most things I write, there's something of a provocation here, meant to ruffle features. That said, I do believe that non-profits have a very tough row to hoe here. I agree with you that the assumption they can just make a game with no experience is a big problem. But it goes beyond that, including the process and the distribution, and many other challenges. ...

suzanneseggerman on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 18, 2008

Just an amendment - I think the biggest pitfall these non-profits fall into is thinking they can make a game without ever having made - or in some cases even played - a game before. Food Force created by the UN's World Food Program, turned out well because it was driven by a bunch of gamers inside the UN, and eventually created in partnership with a game design shop. It should go without saying that a game should be made by gamers, but non-profits don't always get that. That's why they need funding - because it's not a capacity they necessarily have on-staff. But I think they do bring benefits to this space - including those new sources of funding, as well the content expertise and extensive distribution networks, as I mentioned above. ...

suzanneseggerman on Review of I Can End Deportation
March 18, 2008

I think it's a bit premature and facile to say that non-profits are "mostly doomed" in their efforts to make social issue games. This is such a new field, and a few less-than-stellar examples does not mean that there won't be good games coming up as the field grows. And for the outcomes the non-profits seek, some of these games have been incredibly successful - raising awareness about issues such as Darfur and climate change - messages that would not have been half as effective at reaching their intended youth audiences embedded in "older" media. And some of the visibility, content expertise and networks these non-profits bring to the table shouldn't be ignored. The main challenge for the non-profits is as always - the budget. How do they raise enough funding to bring in some game design expertise and make a decent game. Global Kids worked with Gamelab to create one of the best social issue games out there: AYITI: Cost of Life. But they had a budget for it. I always encourage all the non-profits and other agencies to make sure they have enough funding before they even begin. It's a shame, Ian to knock these efforts before they're barely out of the gate. "Artists and academics only please." Yikes. Games are a great way for ANYONE who cares about social issues to get their point made, but they just need a lot of good information - and funding - to do it. ...

Dakota Reese on iPhone SDK - No Good for Games Yet
March 12, 2008

I'm going to have to side with Andrew (even though I'm feeling the same headache as Ian). On one hand yes the Apple rigamaroll is tedious, but on the other hand how can you not be excited about the potential distribution system. To me, that's the big win and is worth jumping through hoops. How many people know how to buy something off Handango and get the .jar onto their phone? vs. How many people know how to buy something off of the iTunes Store and let OSX handle the install? ...

Ian Bogost on iPhone SDK - No Good for Games Yet
March 12, 2008

Andrew, also note that you can't even spend the $99 and get the ability to do OpenGL dev right now, unless you are one of the select few chosen by Apple. That will change in time. It is possible to do 2D graphics with Core Graphics, however. ...

andrewstern on iPhone SDK - No Good for Games Yet
March 11, 2008

I agree that's a pain, but a $99 (kit) + $399 (phone) investment isn't too horrible -- assuming you already have a Mac; the SDK isn't available for Windows. I think this is very exciting news — the most performance-capable mass-market gaming platform to date! (Besides PC's themselves, I suppose.) ...

Patrick Dugan on iPhone SDK - No Good for Games Yet
March 11, 2008

Kinda reminds me of that insulting joke MS came up with. ...

andrewstern on A paean to Dogz, at whose heels Nintendogs nips
March 6, 2008

For the record -- I just came across a great analysis from almost 3 years ago of Nintendogs, from Dan Cook at Lost Garden, with a bit of discussion comparing it to Petz. I generally agree with the analysis. http://lostgarden.com/2005/06/nintendogs-case-of-non-game-that.html ...

Mark DeLoura on How Wrong I Was about Political Games in 2008
March 6, 2008

I have to admit that I'm surprised the campaigns didn't take it upon themselves to make some game. Remember the army that was Trippi, for the Dean campaign, and all the work those guys did? This year's campaigns didn't seem to innovate much. Although it suddenly occurs to me that maybe they didn't feel they needed to. Did you see the amount of money they're pulling in? Holy smokes. ...

anayram on Please play Jason Rohrer's Passage
February 28, 2008

Beautiful. ...

Ian Bogost on GDC 2008: Reinventing MMOs: A Metaplace Antemortem
February 26, 2008

Now featuring linebreaks! ...

Malcolm Ryan on GDC 2008: Reinventing MMOs: A Metaplace Antemortem
February 26, 2008

Paragraphs! Paragraphs! ...

Adema32 on Indies continue to wait for Wii support
February 23, 2008

That sucks, I think if they allowed indie Wii developers it would progress much faster, but it's all about $$. I'm a gamer so I just enjoy good quality regardless where it comes from. ...

flickertail on Native Dancer - Virtual Powwows for Health
February 21, 2008

I'm one of the people working on this game. The project is not dead... rather asleep. We submitted several grant proposals, but were denied... all said that the idea was good, but the organizations to which we applied wanted medical tests on participants... which they said that we were not qualified to carry out. We recently submitted a new proposal, and we have our hopes up that we may restart development again soon. ...

DeLeonGames on Molleindustria's Faith Fighter
February 14, 2008

Back in Fall 2004, three undergraduate Carnegie Mellon indie developers put together what was then a pretty blasphemous game along these same lines, Monk Kombat 3: http://gamecreation.org/index.php?id=18 In responding to project lead Doug Fritz's pitch inquiry, at the time I was actually a little concerned that its edgy nature might negatively affect how the professors looked upon our then young freeware development club. Compared to these two games, it's quite tame. It's also not as polished as either Bible Fight or Faith Fighter, but (A.) it seems to have been conceptually ahead of the pack (and B.) it was still popular enough at the time to nearly tank the Game Creation Society's web server with traffic, a feat that came back to actually help the organization's PR. There's clearly some deep conceptual appeal to mixing religious figures and fisticuffs... ...

Patrick Dugan on Molleindustria's Faith Fighter
January 24, 2008

Yeah Paolo sums it up well. The punk sensibility and the craft sensibility are distinct. I'd like to see more of a marrige myself, I guess thats what I've been trying to do in my work. ...

Dakota Reese on Molleindustria's Faith Fighter
January 24, 2008

After spending some more time with Faith Fighter, I can definitely see that it is operating on a different level than Bible Fight. I think I prefer Faith Fighters' slower, more methodical, gameplay to Bible Fighter's rampant button mashing. Was the slower gameplay a conscious decisions? I recall a comment by Yoshiki Okamoto (Street Fighter creator) that a problem with the SF franchise at the time was that at high speeds there was no effective difference between Ryu and Ken- and that negated some of the game's story. ...