I wanted to remain professional in my posting, but in the comments I will tell you that Bernie DeKoven rocks!

Pick up a copy of The Well-Played Game, and most definitely The New Games Book (really quick read). Or at the very least, go through those links I put in. Bernie's the real deal when it comes to knowing how to make fun, and isn't that what games are suppossed to be about?

Anyone who actually takes designing games seriously must be in attendance.

wow, the color scheme for his web site matches the color scheme for the game lab.

creativity really must come in primary colors.

like to make this, but the hours after thesis presentations may have to be reserved for drinking.

I think games are good way to form a community and experience social activities in a more natural and pleasant way. But I felt there are some differences between playing game in real world and in a cyberworld. First of all, when we mingle together to play a group game, our identity is immediately exposed and we actually show ourselves in many ways during playing game and sometimes it really helps to get to know people while playing game and to find something different about a person which is good or not. But in cyberworld we usually hide ourselves in a avatar or just an ID name. In many cases, we don't know what's the other players' name, how old they are, and what's their gender. Actually that kind of concealment can be effective to make a game more fun. Being other person which is different from what he/she is in real life is actually exciting thing. But when we think about children, who haven't form their identiy yet, it could make them feel free not to be responsible for what they're doing in a game world and also treat other players like just AI or NPC because they feel safe with the concealment. I truely believe outdoor game experience has much more compared to computer game. It has been quiet a long time before I played games actually sitting closer to each other and feeling actual people around me at the following game class of his next day. I hope to have more chance to play games in real world.

It's a wonderful lecture! Mr. Bernie knows exactly what he's creating by what medium I'm sure, which is the important making of a great gamer. I like the way game is understood in a larger scope, macro or micro, visual fun(Loop) to mathematical nuts(maze, puzzle), or social relations(Sims X) to individual emotions .... while the familarity of any medium expression and constitute are in stand-to. What's more, the better the nature of game as hybrid media is appreciated by designers, the better the marketed enchantments can be sold. Fortunately, we are study in a in-shaping program called interactive media, not only a video game program. Thanks god.

I'd like to thank Bernie for a wonderful and inspiring talk and the USC Game Community for bringing in such interesting and eloquest speakers.

For those present who participated, you may remember a controversy arising about whether or not games could end (or at least fight) world hunger. I was somewhat of a lone wolf on this one, but apparently the UN seems to agree:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4443435.stm

I realized in the course of Bernie's talk that I am really prejudiced towards physical (as opposed to digital) games. I think that the experience is just much more meaningful to me when I can physically hold the pieces and talk to the other players in person. And while I understand the appeal of sports video games, I'd much rather go outside and play the game itself. It's just part of who I am as a person - for example I much prefer dealing with CD's than MP3's because there's a physical artifact.

That said, I know that digital games can be extremely powerful and offer a unique social experience - in her presentation for Interactive Writing, Victoria said that her clan in Final Fantasy is a family to her, a force so strong and powerful that she can't quit even when faced with incredible frustration - and these are people she has never physically met. So when a game is digital, what are some things it can that offer us that a physical game can't? (Obviously games can be played faster and less ambiguously on a computer, but what about the experience as a whole?) Can physical games learn anything from digital games?

We have plenty of chance to play games in the real world. Just think of one and make it. If it doesn't feel good...well...make another one. Maybe it's not supposed to work where you are right now; transplant yourself somewhere else and try again.

Isn't that kind of what we're doing as we are poking and prodding the space of games on the horizon...in the mobile sector and undiscovered VR spaces?

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