Codename Heroes at EIT ICT Labs
Posted 2013-01-31 - Archived under: Codename:Heroes, game design, Mobile Life - Reply
I am planned to give a lunch talk for students and partners in EIT ICT Labs in Kista, talking about the game Codename Heroes that we are developing. The plan need to change a bit though, as I suddenly got a meeting in Göteborg. But my dear college Syed Naseh, who also been involved in the process will tell you about it all!
It will be a bit of everything in game design as science. About design issues, maybe some dos and don’ts, definitely about the game in itself, probably about game design as science, for sure about the core audience of young women and how to design for empowerment. I also promised it will be a bit about how we in the play spaces project and in Mobile Life design for ‘the good life’, beyond efficiency and work. And, it will be a discussion, so make sure you get involved and bring the focus to the areas you find most interesting!
So, even though I wont be there,if you are part of EIT ICT Labs I think you should take the opportunity to come and listen to a(nother?) great young mind in game design research!
(Interested and outside of EIT ICT Labs? Contact me and I’ll send you forward to the people to speak to)
Terrorism, Games, and Racist Remarks
Posted 2012-11-30 - Archived under: racism, rant, Spelfunderingar, videogames - Reply
Some time ago the Swedish blog Spelfunderingar wrote a comment on the racism of blaiming violence on videogames. I read it then and wanted to comment on it, but never got around to it until now. The post is in Swedish, but I feel it might be interesting to a wider audience. You may of course try to translate it if you wish.
The article does not talk about whether games are bad or not, but instead about the fact that it is an argument, and only in certain situations. We (you might read ‘the media’) often blame video games for violent acts. But this argument is usually only there if the act is performed by white people originating in the western world (as we in the Scandinavian countries are mostly white and in the western world).
In the example Spelfunderingar mentions the terrorist act at Utöya in Norway. The first thing that happened was people started to blaim extremist Muslim organisations, but quite soon it became obvious that the terrorist was white, blue eyed, right-wing and with roots in Norway. This is when the debate turned towards video games. Gratefully people did not buy into that and it died off quite quickly, but it still went there!
Similar things have been seen in many situations (I can think of school shootings in both Finland and USA for example). The thing is, the debate is never there when the terrorist is immigrant or a foreigner! Of course it would be absurd to blaim Al-Quaida on Grand Theft Auto, or Halo for the Bush administration, but when you look at smaller attacks with a few or a single attacker this difference is there. White guys kill because of video games, Muslims kill because they are terrorists.
Somehow this relates to us wanting to understand what is close to us, why someone, kind of like us, do something so horrible; and that is a natural thing to do. But if the tone of your skin is enough for us to switch explanation, then there is something wrong; both with the explanation and with the society around it!
Both me and the original source write with a Swedish viewpoint. Is this the same elsewhere? The world is a big place, this seems to fit for Europe and northern America. But what about the rest? Is there someone who knows?
Happy Birthday Pong!
Posted 2012-11-29 - Archived under: Allan Alcorn, arcade machine, Atari, PONG - Reply
Avoid missing ball for high score.
That’s the full text version of the original instructions for PONG, and today is it’s 40th birthday!*
In 1972 Allan Alcorn developed pong for Atari. After many technical problems, problems in manufacturing, strange business decisions and lies, and so on, the game was finally announced to the public on the 29th of November. The game is, contrary to popular belief, not the first tennis simulator, there are a couple of other versions before and it’s a bit of a debate which one is actually first (my guess is tennis for two, but that is a guess). Many also think it is the firsts arcade machine, but this is also not really true. That honor goes to Computer Space.
However, even though it’s not really the first, few -if any- games has had so much impact on computer games as PONG. It is one of the games we all think of when we talk of the origins. It is an icon!
And so, I say: Happy Birthday Pong!
Now, go read the wikipedia article for all the details!
Now this is new…
Posted 2012-11-15 - Archived under: br, gender equality, toys, toys r us - Reply
The toy stores here in Sweden take a big step in their visual representation of gender in this years X-mas catalogs. I’m not saying this is perfect, but I am saying BR is taking a big step in the right direction. And I do like to acknowledge the positive examples!
Flip through it all by yourself: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/4c3e4a62
…or go directly to my favorites:
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/4c3e4a62#/4c3e4a62/42
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/4c3e4a62#/4c3e4a62/72
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/4c3e4a62#/4c3e4a62/140
I feel I should mention that Toys ‘R’ Us are also trying, but BR do a better job so I will give them most credit.
Here’s that catalog if you want to compare: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/cd73c6ee
Recently me…
Posted 2012-11-12 - Archived under: - Reply
About once a week I auto-publish a list of my recent web activity. It’s a list of blog posts and webpages, tweets and images. This is a list to inspire you, as well as a reminder for the future me.
Read more »Links:
