Course

Current Thesis Proposal Draft
ken_leung_thesis_proposal.pdf

Wiki
doc
PPT
Johnny Whatever

Presentation Group 1: Thursday 4/19 from 12 - 2:30

12:00 - 12:20:	Mike Brazil
12:25 - 12:45:	Matt Korba
12:50 - 1:10:	Jesse Vigil
1:15 - 1:35:	Garrett Rodrigue
1:40 - 2:00:	Paul Belleza
2:05 - 2:25:	Victoria Moran

12:00 - 12:20:	Jorge Fernandez
12:25 - 12:45:	Mike Stein
12:50 - 1:10:	Scott Gillies
1:15 - 1:35:	Ken Leung
1:40 - 2:00:	Anthony Ko
2:05 - 2:25:	Marc Tuters

Here is my thesis draft proposal in inverted order ( My word does this kind of crazy behavior when transfering from Word to PDF) :-)Download Cross-Cultural Rainbows

Here is my thesis draft proposal in inverted order ( My word does this kind of crazy behavior when transferring from Word to PDF) :-)Download Cross-Cultural Rainbows

Short Form

I. Title
II. Abstract
III. Description
1. Definition of Project specifying scope, genre and delivery designs
2. Documentation of experiments/prototypes attempted this term (including false starts).
3. Plans (concrete) based on above prototyping
IV. Timeline
V. Budget
VI. Advisors
VII. Possible Venues
VIII. Resources & Prior Art / Bibliography

I'm running a game of Cruel 2B Kind on Saturday, April 21st.
If you don't know about it, it's a game where you run around in public and shout compliments at strangers.

Actually, there's a little more to it than that, but it's a blast to play. I played it in San Francisco, and there's nothing quite like a group of 50 people charging at you, to loudly compliment your shoes.

If you're interested (and I hope you are - it's a great excuse to be outside on a Saturday), head over to http://cruelgame.com/signup. It's the Santa Monica game, not the Seattle one.

If you anticipate that you will need production equipment or access to stages for your thesis the key is to formalize and submit your plans as soon as possible:

Stage Use
Production Number: Get an internal number from Jen.
Contact: Go to Allen Starbuck.
Time: You may have to book six months in advance.

Camera, Lights, etc
Production Number: You will need to submit a detailed production plan, see below.
Contact: Joe Wallenstein
Time: AT LEAST TWO MONTHS IN ADVANCE

Production Plan to include:
Dates: Precise – usually no more than three consecutive days
Location: Precise, must have all permits and clearances
Personnel: Must designate a producer and cinematographer.
(You will need a current or former USC Cinema student as producer. )
Budget: Detailed
Insurance: There is a standard $400 premium which doubles if you are shooting 35mm or HD. It is also subject to increase in hazardous conditions.

Interactive Media Division MFA Thesis Policy and Guidelines: The Four Gates

THESIS COMMITTEE

GATE ONE

Proposal

Research

Presentations

Over the course of the fall semester, several CTIN511 seminars may be devoted to presentations by thesis students of their project's progress. Thesis committee members are expected to attend at least one of these presentations. Wednesday, September 13 has been set-aside for the first presentation by the 555 class.

GATE TWO

Presentation: Exhibition

Research

GATE THREE

Presentation: Defense & Paper

GATE FOUR

Presentation: Exhibition & Documentation

NOTES:

There are a few questions that I need to answer about my project to myself before any type of production is done at all. I would like the element of the traditional Japanese play narrator to be a part of the game, but I am having trouble figuring out how this would work in relation to the player, especially if the player is wearing headphones (a possibility at this point).

RagnaRøkk:
The Twilight of the Gods has come a thousand years too soon. Odin has granted you, Knüt Metalsson, his greatest power in a desperate bid to ward off the doom of the Aesir: the power to play electric. Now, as the most trusted skald of the gods, you must rock and roll your way through midgard in order to stop RagnaRøkk!
Read Me First!!!
Click here to download.

There are two things I'm doing to prototype my thesis before the year ends.

The first is running a game of Cruel 2B Kind.
The second is to run my own game, which I've called Codename.

Rules and description of Codename can be found here.

About half of my schedule for the term is devoted to getting a run of Codename in. I'm already off, because I wasn't thinking about the 2/4/8 project, so I'm going to have to redouble my efforts to get it off the ground. Looks like I'll be coming in to campus this weekend.

1. It's not an ARG (yet)
ARGs involve a narrative. I'm studying player interaction. I'm not sure if I want to get involved with wrapping the interaction in to a narrative, and building appropriate puzzles, etc.

Both ARGs and games like Cruel 2B Kind are part of a type of game, that doesn't have it's name exactly defined. I'm looking at that top layer, not specifically ARGs.

2. A game.
What I'm interested most in my thesis is the research, NOT the game that comes from it. I'm using the game (or possibly, games), to back up the research.

3. MySpace or Facebook.
I'm not building a method to keep track of friends.

4. Time / Space / Mike dependant
The game that comes from this, will not be one that is scheduled, or dependant on me. I'm looking at ways to get a large group of people, gamers and non-gamers alike, to play. A part of that is making it incredibly easy to find a game, and one that is always on is certainly easy to find.

5. Complex
Again, I'm trying to build something that as many people as possible can enjoy. As such, the means for interaction, and the rules, can't be complex.

Magical places don’t stay magical forever. Don’t look under the bed. You have been warned.

In Elysium in a Box you can take a peek underneath a bed and see a magical world made of pure dreams. However, don’t stay too long there or your dreams will become nightmares.

You peek under a bed…

Photo by Julian Bleeker

This is what you see through a hole



Press a button and your dreams become nightmares



Here is how it works:






A sheet of plexiglass reflects a laptop screen ala Pepper’s Ghost. Behind the plexiglass are real elements that the scene is projected onto, creating a creepy ghost like effect. All this is enclosed in a casing with a peephole cut out for the viewer to look through. A flash app on the PC runs the video that switches at the press of a button. The videos are synched to switch at the exact animation time in the loop. Here is the flash program that runs in the box. Press and hold left mouse button to change.




Process:
I have been obsessed with illusions and magic from an early age. In the 8th grade I read the biography of Robert Houdin, a famous French magician of the 19th century. He was trained by a watchmaker and used a lot of machines and mechanical elements in his illusions. Alice in Wonderland always serves as an inspiration, and I wanted to play with the “through the rabbit hole” feeling the book portrays. Also, Disneyland uses many illusions like this in the line cues of rides. I wanted to see if I could make one myself.

For the theme I decided to use Goodnight Elysium (a game the GD3 team and I have been working on for over a year). I felt the game assets would work well with the dual reality theme I wanted to play around with. So, I started with the in-game assets but, had to clean them up a bit, make them higher poly, animate the cycles I needed, and render them out. I feel I should thank the Goodnight Elysium art team for their hard work on the original assets, without this project would not be possible in a week. So a very special thanks to Brad Newman, Kenneth Leung, and Mike Rossmassler.

I settled on a plan on Sunday while driving home from Northern California. I knew I was not going to have much time to put this project together due to my mom in the ICU, so I was thinking of doing something very simple. Something like a thousand bouncing superballs falling out once you opened the cabinet followed by a hand broom and a dust pan. On the ride home from the hospital I thought about projections and smoke and other things I really wanted to play with. I was going to be an intense two days but, I decided to take the plunge on the more complicated project. Creation commenced on Monday.

Prototyping:

The box went through many iterations. I was always trying to make the box smaller and smaller. Before any content was created or any nail was hammered, I had to make sure the illusion would work. I did this by ripping up a glass panel off my living room coffee table. My roommates were less then thrilled by this. I was trying to reflect a still image off my computer onto the glass in front of a black piece of cardboard with a picture of a tree. The pane of glass was fragile an heavy but, by tilting it up and down it was apparent the idea was sound and it would work. I swapped the pane of glass with a cheaper lighter piece of plexiglass, and placed the glass back on the coffee table, that made my roommates happy.

At first I was laying my laptop upside down projecting onto the angled glass. I was designing the piece to be seen from straight on. I hated laying down my laptop this way and knew it was an accident waiting to happen. I also scratched my screen a little by doing this. Eventually I figured out I could put my screen right side up with the viewer looking to the right of the setup and get the same effect. Another challenge was how to keep the plexiglass stable at an angle. I tried many things; bricks, wood ledges, and divits, before I came to the design I used which essentially was a weighted stand with a sponge nailed to the top to absorb the weight of the glass.


Reflections:
Overall I think the project worked out as expected. I had wasted a little time with constantly redesigning the structure, but I think I had to get to the conclusion I came to. I also wasted time spray painting the enclosure, when I ended up covering it with a blanket to make the bed anyway. If I would have thought through the bed idea through more I would not have needed to paint it. If I had more time I would have loved to make the enclosure box smaller. Also, I would like to have a nifty stylized button to press instead of a mouse. Or maybe no button at all, but a sensor that would switch the assets to nightmare after you had been peeking through the hole for awhile…. Creepy

07 CTIN 548 Project Evaluation
from Thesis Prep perspective

1. Document your project
Post a photo and 50-60 word description of your project.

http://www.kirinthedestroyers.com/mousemaze.jpg
http://www.kirinthedestroyers.com/mousemaze2.jpg
http://www.kirinthedestroyers.com/mousemaze3.jpg

My project was intended to be a 2 player game in which two players race mice to opposite ends of the maze. The first player to reach their opponent's start, or to catch the other player in their territory, scores a point. The first player to two points wins. The game was intended to be quick and have the potential for strategy. I built a maze, using the cabinet as the base and placing wood planks on dowels as the maze walls, and had mouse shaped RC cars to run the maze.

2. Process
How did you decide what to do?

I spent the first one and a half days brainstorming all kinds of ideas for how the cabinet could be used. I brainstormed general ideas (nature, art, movies, etc), as well as the layout of the cabinet (the cabinet as a base, the cabinet as a box, the cabinet as a piece of furniture, etc). I talked with friends outside of the program and explained to them the constraints and my ideas for the cabinet, and after going over the possible problems/technicalities of all the ideas, I settled on the idea of a maze.

On which day did you settle on a plan? Thursday
When did you actually get started? Friday

Did you prototype? Yes

How? The designs for the maze were drawn and redrawn several times, to plan for the size of the cabinets, the length of an average game, and how many players. The walls were cut so that there were extra pieces, and no pieces were set permanently until it was tried out. I drew out several iterations of the maze before I built, then taped the combinations of walls onto the maze floor before making them permanently. The walls were finally spaced to be about twice the size of the mouse for easier maneuverability.

How (or did) prototyping inform or alter your final project? It did, but due to the limitations of the quality and availability of the cars, all the planning during the prototyping phase kind of fell through.

What, in terms of process DIDN'T work this week? How will you avoid this issue while doing your thesis? I think committing to a project that used a certain type of RC car that was highly unavailable and low quality without doing research first on these was my biggest pitfall. Had I known that the cars would be like this, I might not have done the maze project at all because to use reasonable RC cars, I would have had to build a maze at least 3 times as large.

3. Rate your project in terms of your expectations. I would have to give it a 6/10 as far as meeting my expectations. In my opinion it is a well made maze, and for my first time using power tools to build something I think it came out really nice. I was kind of unsure of myself when I drilled my first hole in the wood, but now that this project is over it's nice to know that I built something that looks pretty nice. The loss of points is mostly because I didn't achieve what I wanted to, and that was to make a fun two player game out of the cabinet. Due to the low quality of the cars, it was more of a frustrating and confusing game experience. It's amazing to see how such a little thing can change the course of an entire project.

“Shadows around the world” integrates the traditional Chinese puppetry with visual performance arts within an interactive experience. This artwork embrace new media with classic media creating an funny interactive tactile context to learn how to perform puppets while experimenting a classic love story. In terms of technologies it uses Web Cam, Max/Msp, A Monitor, a G5, Classic Chinese Puppets & Paper Decorations, one set of Headphones and a Projector .


The Experience: The user face a close white cabinet, which is illuminated from the back with a couple of lamps, and a big screen where a black and white video with images of landscapes around the world is showed, LA, Tijuana, Cusco & Machu Pichu. Suddenly, once the user opens the cabinet he discovers colorful inside of different traditional and mythical animals from the Chinese Culture, on the back over a transparent screen a Male Chinese Shadow appears, on the front a mysterious envelop says “Open Me!”. On the big screen the Chinese Shadow appears in front of the Big Screen integrated with the landscapes video. The shadows is grabbed through the decorated Web Cam inside the cabinet that catch the image once it opens. Within the envelope a Female Chinese Shadow thanks for free her soul mate and invite the user to go to the back of the cabinet and to manage the male shadows until he meets her in one of the fare way landscapes.


Screen & Jurors Overview Perspective




Physical Interactions while Performing the Puppet and the Monitored Mixed Media Feedback.




Front's View with the author where the male puppet should be sad thinking about meeting her female puppet.

For the one week curiosity cabinet...
Scrolling text is projected onto the back of the cabinet. The scrolling text was achieved by running a small camera over printed text using a motor and old printer chassis. The direction of the motor was controlled by an Arduino, some switches, and relays.

This project is a prototype for a larger piece where the concept relies on motion controlled cameras and video switchers to create continuous scrolling text. The basic idea is illustrated below.

In the future, we'll keep moments in time in cabinets just like we keep other stuff. This box is based on a design drawn on a cocktail napkin for me by a drunken Tom Swift himself!

Concept: A self-contained memory box that when armed records audio and video whenever the cabinet is opened. A switch moves it to playback mode, which plays back the entire history of recordings placed in the cabinet whenever the door is opened. It's a time capsule for moments, pure and simple. And it comes in a retro future box!

A little history:

Here's my desk on Monday night:


I had a lot of issues with defective hardware. Stuff I bought turned out to be junk, which was actually a huge problem because for a long time I assumed I was just not hooking it up right.
We also had a lot of issues with not really having a workspace that was ours and undisturbed. Still, I think it got pulled off okay. I'm just so glad it worked and went well... my heart's not really in any kind of bitching.

Here's how it looked ten minutes before doors opened:

Chester, my be-goggled daemon and moral support, sits proudly on the top.


When you open her, she looks like this:


And here's a few samples of the video it took:

Me Showing Our Esteemed Department Head
Download file

I got it running again for Max:
Download file


I may keep working on this... it needs to not run off my laptop and I need a new LCD display since the one used is Perry's... still... it was fun.

The Blind Samurai: The Interactive Play

My Thesis is not...

A game that relies on visual stimuli to engage the player.
A linear experience.
A Blind Zelda game.
A game that requires hand-eye coordination to be good at it.
A game that needs prior training or practice to be able to play.
A single player experience.
Just a game, it is more like an “interactive play.”
A game that utilizes complex button combinations.
A passive experience; the player will be involved fully in gameplay.
A music game, puzzle game, fighting game, or online game.
A player telling his or her character to perform certain actions.

http://interactive.usc.edu/wiki/index.php/BrazilProjects#548

Pachinko Magic
My project is an abstract visual piece that was meant to elicit an sublime audio/visual experience inspired by Japanese pachinko machines. When the user opens the door to the cabinet, pachinko balls are dispensed from the top of the cabinet. They fall down a ramp with an array of nails embedded in it. Like a pachinko machine, the pachinko balls bounce around the nail array. A camera is install on the top, capturing video of the pachinko balls bouncing around on the ramp. Two LEDs, installed on the right and left side of the cabinet, illuminate the pachinko balls as they go down the ramp. The video of the pachinko balls are passed through a MAX/MSP filter that shows the lines and paths created by the pachinko balls. The audio is also passed through a MAX/MSP filter that creates a ghostly flanging effect from the clinking of the Pachinko balls.

There was once a kitchen cabinet that you used to crawl into as a child... Inside there was lush green garden with a small stream that ran into a pond. You could change the time from day to night and sit back to gaze at the stars and moon. A quiet breeze came over the hill, across the grass, and kept you cool and soothed your tumultuous thoughts. It reminds you of all the parts of nature that you no longer see in the city of Los Angeles.

Beat Box is a unique mixing tool that allows the user to mix drum, bass, and a collection of other random samples to produce a variety of musical experiences. The more a door is open, the louder the individual track is, and when a door is closed, a new track is randomly selected. As decoration for Beat Box, each section contains various objects that led to an alternate interpretation of the title of the project.

I was planning on writing this blog entry tonight, but then Peggy asked for it as an assignment today. Ahhh, serendipity.



My Ikea cabinet mod was a photobooth. Specifically, it was an IMD photobooth - users open the cabinet door, smile for the camera, and the picture is uploaded to Flickr with the tag "IMD". Pressing a button on the inside of the cabinet would be the trigger to light the LED sticks, and take the picture.

We were assigned the project Tuesday evening. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday thinking about what I could do with the cabinet. I started off by thinking about what I liked and didn't like about last year's projects.

Lots, lots more after the jump

Download file

Cross-Cultural Rainbows
It is not Youtube, a chaotic universe of on-line digital videos.
It is not an Abstract website with no theme.
It is not a very specific and limited thematic website.
It is not a predetermined videoblog website with rigid rules.
It is not a disorganized library of clips.
It is not close to user suggestions for the structure, group rules and organization.
It is not a simple keywords collector neither a rigid categories formulary.
It is not a disorganized & no searchable clips library.
It is not a primary professional individual editing tool.
It is not a traditional documentary.
It is not only video art.
It is not only cinematic, neither selective nor transformative interactions.
It is not something completely new neither overdone.
It is not something that has been exactly done neither completely different in terms of social on-line interactions.

1) My thesis is not an interactive narractive with nonlinear or branching plotline.

2) My thesis will not be an epic story.

3) My thesis will not try to focus on more than 3 characters.

4) My thesis is not a movie, but not just a game.

5) My thesis is not centered on plot.

It's not a simulation.

That would bore me from my mind.

It's not a conversation game.

It's not something I've tried.

It's not an MMO, you know,

cuz I ain't crazy in the head.

It's not really Facade per se;

I want something fun instead.

It's not procedural at all.

It's not about A.I..

It's not something Chris Crawford likes,

cuz that's for Ken, not I.

It's not a branching narrative --

we've had those for too long.

But most of all it's not enormous,

It's small

contained

and strong.

on the wiki

Schedule: Your schedule is your responsibility, I’m not going to micromanage you, but you must hand in or post a schedule.

Focus Assignment: DUE 3/29
Prepare a short (5 min max) presentation of what your thesis is NOT.

Experiment/Prototype/Storyboard: DUE 4/5
Post and be prepared to demonstrate any activity you’ve generated to test or explore your thesis topic. If you need ideas, talk to me or a potential advisor.

Written Draft: DUE 4/12
It’s due in a week (or two!) so you need to confront the blank piece of paper. Get it into a fledgling form and get it to me AND at least one advisor BEFORE your presentation for comments!

Advisors: Your Presentation Date
There’s a bit of leeway on this. You need to identify your key department advisor by your presentation date, preferably all three. If possible, you should have your outside advisor attend as well. You need three signatures on your final proposal to pass GATE I. You need ONE primary departmental advisor, one secondary departmental advisor and one outside advisor. You are responsible for getting signatures from your three official advisors at each of the four Thesis "Gates."

HIKE! More info on the hike later.

Final Presentations:
20 Minutes: 10 minute presentation, 10 minutes Q&A
Post your proposal – your advisors may request hard copy. You may also provide a one-page handout for those present.

Final Proposal:
Posted + Hard Copy accompanied by Gate I Signature Sheet (to be provided)

3/29 Wk 11: 5 Min Focus Assignment Presentations
4/5 Wk 12 Experiments/Storyboards/Prototype Demonstrations
4/12 Wk 13 HIKE!
4/19 Wk 14: Presentation Group 1
Jorge Mora Fernandez
Mike Brazil
Jesse Vigil
Paul Belleza
Victoria Moran
Garrett Rodrigue

4/26 Wk 15 Presentation Group 2
Ken Leung
Mike Stein
Matt Korba
Anthony Ko
Scott Gillies
Marc Tuters

5/3 Exam Week: Final Proposals (with 3 signatures) DUE

****************************************************
Week 9: Thesis Schedule
****************************************************

Click on the link below to see the schedule. There are two tabs in the spreadsheet, one is the weekly schedule, the other lists the prototypes.

Schedule: Open file

I make weird schedules. This is how it works best for me. It's not broken out into little specifics like I would if I was doing the schedule for the same project next year, but mostly because big to-do lists scare the living hell out of me and actually keep me from doing a ton of work.

View image

Cross-Cultural Rainbows Schedule.

Week 10 March 22
Develop & Rewrite Abstract & Description
Update comments from Tracy Fullerton & Mimi Ito.
Collect & Read Bibliography.
Week 11 March 29
Develop Timeline ( Production Plan) & Start Budget.
Updated comments from Andreas Kratky & Isidro Moreno.
Collect & Read Bibliography.
Week 12 April 12
Advisors & Possible Venues
Update comments from Sociologists.
Collect & Read Andrew Sacher & Bibliography.
Week 13 April 14
Resources & Prior Art / Bibliography
Organize and publish Bibliography.
Prepare Final Presentation.
Week 14 April 19.
Final Presentation 2d Group
May 3rd
Submit Final Plans.

Image here

Here's my schedule for the rest of my semester.
I've broken it down in to three blocks:

Prototyping
Advisors
Paperwork

****************************************************
Week 8: Midterm Presentation
****************************************************

Scaling The World

I am creating an experience that explores how scale may be applied inside of a game to better utilize the world that the player immerses himself or herself in.

Through acquisition and accomplishment during game play, player will continue game at a larger scale.

Player begins game as a small bit of energy inside of a world devoid of energy. Player moves around and through some mechanic, collects energy. Player distributes this energy to objects in the world, essentially giving them life. When player has given enough energy to the current surroundings, scale increases.

Ideally (because the player is energy) the player will feel as if they are the life that they gave to the system. When the player continues to give energy at the larger scales, they essentially are becoming the currently scaled object. Thus, developmental achievement can be considered successful if player feels as if they become these scaled objects.

The game is a 2D, side scrolling, action platformer. As of now, I envision 5-8 scales, each scale lasting approximately 2-3 minutes.

Relevant Works

Powers of Ten – Regarding change of scale. http://powersof10.com
Civ games – Scale increases when player becomes more powerful, but they manage the larger scale.
Ratchet and Clank, Jak & Daxter – Action platforming.
Spore – It’s more about evolution and the game plays differently at different scopes.
Katamari – Player absorbs other objects, but does not give life back to the environment.
Fl0w – Starts as small creature, eats others to become bigger and stronger.
Masters of Orion – Galactic scale management.

PowerPoint Presentation

Here:Open file

On da Wiki Wiki Wiki. Weeeeeeeeeeee

Link to my paper on the wiki...

On tha wiki, y'all

Here is my midterm thesis presentation of Cross-Cultural Rainbows
Download file

Original: I am designing a game based off of time mechanics because I want to find out how to
demonstrate principals of paradox in order to help the player experience theories not grounded in this reality.

New: : I am designing a game based off of time mechanics because I want to find out how to
demonstrate principals of paradox in order to help the player experience theories not grounded in this reality along with FUN.

2) Name THREE potential outside advisors.
I am not going to name anybody here because I haven’t officially asked them yet, however most likely they will sign on.
However, a loftier goal would be to have some industry professional on the project that can make sure the abstract ideas are still coherent to the average casual player. Someone maybe that knows nothing of games.

3) Define your audience(s).
Casual Gamers, that don’t have time for 70+ hour epic games. Players that are interested in a quick play experience with “new” ideas.

Potential advisors
Noah Falstein
Janet Murray
Earnest Adam

Audience
My audience are a gamers interested in narratives that weave well into their games.

I wasn't going to blog this just yet because I honestly felt like I wanted to have something a little more solid in my head before I started throwing names around. It's not useful to anyone reading a blog if they don' know where I'm coming from, right?

But I did have these thoughts while waiting for the woman at Spudnuts to get off the phone and not use any kind of telepathy to get me the same thing I order twice a week from her like clockwork.

* I'm interested in creating an experience that puts players in a broad context, but leaves them very much in charge of their story. In many ways, this is the lie I buy into (foolishly by this point) every time I join an MMO. And I cite Star Wars Galaxies as a case in point for this.

I am very much in love with the idea that the Star Wars Universe exists somewhere, is persistent, and can be inhabited by me and my friends. Like the holodeck, I always stupidly anticipate that the world will be there and the only rules the world will have are the ones that hold the universe together. Instead, MMORPGs tend to create a truly hilarious number of rules that govern how I can play in that universe.

I feel like this is the equivalent of telling kids on the playground they can play tag, but they can't run and they can't shout while they do it and oh yes, if you haven't been playing tag for a really long time, you're not allowed to be "it."

So I don't get to live out the personal story I want for myself in the Star Wars Universe. Over the period of a year, I'm living out the same basic story as everyone else in more or less the same order. I don't totally fault the makers of the games for this - they're putting this out in the only format they can- one that is, as its name implies, designed to accommodate a massive number of people in an orderly fashion.

So I want to do something similar but on a smaller and more personal level. I think games like this should be about personal storytelling. You get to have your own personal adventure in a world that fascinates you and appeals to some level of your private fantasies.

I will need a lot fo help with this.

It doesn't directly speak to what I just said above, but when I think about the games that really made me think of this as a storytelling medium and not just a dexterity challenge, I immediately think of Tim Schafer. I think he gets it in a really linear way, and I feel like games have felt the absence of those glorious point-and-click Lucasarts games -- I would love to have his input on how to create that kind of experience inside a persistent universe.

On a more practical level, Rich LeMarchand has been a tremendous help and had really great design feedback on Original Fin. I think he'd also be a big help, and I also have access to him already.

Korba also mentioned that I might really want to seek someone on the Hollywood side since in a lot of ways I'm trying to bridge the experience of games and the story richness of movies. That's all worth thinking about.

Sigh. I wish it didn't seem like such a chore to sign in and comment on blogs. I'm really interested in the thougts of others. Even if you just want to give me a call or email me and say "I have five minutes to chew on your ear, that is swell, my friends. Swell.

Since I should zoom in on one topic, let's assume it's...

Original: I am making a serious game in which the user plays a wildlife photographer who has decided to cross the globe to take photos of endangered species before they die off because I want to show the animals in their habitat with information about why they are in danger of extinction in order to help the player understand what is happening and, hopefully, get them to want to get involved.

New: I am making a serious game in which the user plays a wildlife photographer because I want to show the player what is happening with endangered species and, hopefully, get them to want to get involved.

1) Refine MadLibs
Study of Constructive Interactions Behaviours through independent artist activities and motivations and through videoblogging.

2) Name THREE potential outside advisors.

Mimi Ito
http://www.itofisher.com/mito/
http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/
http://www.itofisher.com/mito/publications/personal_portab_2.html

Isidro Moreno
http://www.ucm.es/info/cavp2/C_I_Moreno.html
http://reddigital.cnice.mec.es/1/red_digital_english/firmas/firmas_moreno_eng.htm
http://www.ucm.es/info/eculture/documentos/proyectosING.htm
http://www.ucm.es/info/eculture/documentos/lineasING.htm

Andrew Sacher
http://interactive.usc.edu/members/asacher/
http://sachercreative.com/


3) Define your audience(s). 

Independent Professionals Artists & Art Videobloggers: to show their work as well as learn new techniques.

On-line Art Enthusiasts: as on-line art researches or virtual videoblog gallery visitors.

Young People interested in Art: new talents looking for experiences and inspirations

Art Students & Professors: as a teaching tool of new art distribution.

Anthropologists & Communication Researchers: interested in art tech similarities and differences between cultures and/or videoblogging motivations.

Here's a pdf file of my slides about the IMD thesis process that we discussed last week in CTIN 548: Download file
The full version of Professor Kahn's thesis document is here: Download file

Madlib Remix
I am researching community and social interaction because I want to find out to use technology and game design to drive meaningfull interactions in order to help my player experience interacting with somebody that they normally wouldn't, in the real world.

Outside Advisors
1. Michael Smith - CEO of MindCandy, the company that runs the Perplex City ARG. He's based in the UK. During his lecture at DICE, he was talking about how he really liked the idea of games that encourage people to talk to strangers on the bus. That's exactly what I'm interested in doing. Also, he's a blast to do shots of tequila with, which I think is an important quality in thesis advisors.

2. Jane McGonigal - Game Designer at 42, also a games researcher. Straight from her website, "As a games researcher, I focus on the ways in which meaningful play can have a long-term and persistent impact on the cognitive frameworks, social relations, public participation, and personal identities of players in their everyday lives." The social relations and public participation is what I'm interested in.

3. Larua Pappano - A journalist and visiting scholar at Northeastern University. She's the author of "The Connection Gap", a book about technological isolation. She may not be somebody who actually winds up advising me, but I'm just starting her book now, and it'll probably lead me to somebody who will.

Tracy has also given me a few names to look up, so this space will probably grow.

Audience
People in their 20's and early 30's. Ideally, my research will result in mechanics that can be applied to all people. But, since I plan on building a game to test out my research, I'm going to target a specific age group since it makes designing a game to implement any theories a lot easier.

moved stuff to the wiki

I am designing a mobile guide to Los Angeles because I want to demonstrate how to access information about a particular part of Los Angeles in order to provide an audience with the experience of ubiquitious information gathering.
OR
I am making this mobile guide to Los Angeles because I want to show whether a phone service could provide a temporary solution to the sluggishness of mobile internet connectionsor in order to help the viewer understand that they can access information at any time.
OR
I am researching Los Angeles because I want to find out whether I can provide users with a historical, informational, and cultural portrait of Los Angeles through the eyes of a native in order to help my listeners find out that Los Angeles is one of the greatest cities on Earth.

I am designing an interactive story because I want to find an innovative, interactive method to tell stories in order to allow viewers to experience worlds that are otherwise inaccessible to them via conventional storytelling methods.

http://interactive.usc.edu/wiki/index.php/Scott_-_548_-_Week5

I want to design a game based on the idea of a pop-up book as an environment, in order to explore the parallels between the progression of plot in narrative structure to the progression of gameplay in a spatial structure, so that my audience can experience a game that is fluid both in it's plot and gameplay.

I am designing a game based off of time mechanics because I want to find out how to
demonstrate principals of paradox in order to help the player experience theories not grounded in this reality.

I am researching alternate control schemes and possible alternate uses for existing control schemes because I want to find out whether there are new and compelling ways to make video games accessible to nongamers as well as to people with disabilities that keep them from being able to enjoy playing games in order to help my players enjoy video games.
OR
I am designing an immersive driving simulator because I want to demonstrate how simulators can be used to train drivers in accident and normal driving situations in order to provide the user better training.
OR
I am making a serious game in which the user plays a wildlife photographer who has decided to cross the globe to take photos of endangered species before they die off because I want to show the animals in their habitat with information about why they are in danger of extinction in order to help the player understand what is happening and, hopefully, get them to want to get involved.
OR
I am designing an immersive elevator thrill ride because I want to demonstrate how movement can be faked using panoramic moving pictures and other tricks in order to provide the user a more thrilling thrill ride.

This is the first MadLib I've done in a while that hasn't involved excessive swearing.

Topic -> Question -> Significance
1. I am researching/making/designing community and social interaction

2. because I want to find out (who/what/when/where/whether/why/how /
or show or demonstrate how to use technology to drive meaningfull interactions

3. in order to help my user/viewer/audience/player experience/find out, understand that a screen isn't a replacement for meeting somebody face to face.

One sentence version:
I am researching a multicultural collaborative interactive editing online documentary, because I want to find out how the constructive interactions, networking and distributions work within videoblogg systems, in order to encourage the participations of videobloggers interested in independent arts.

1. I am researching/making/designing:

Researching: How different artist use their own creative techniques so I can research what are the different motivations to build an artwork or an artistic activity.

Making: Documentary based on Video Interviews of Artists sharing their creative Techniques using some interactive narrative rules to encourage videoblogging as well as creating some aesthetic quality.

Designing: How the different clips are edited together on line and the cell phone possibilities. Experimenting with Videoblogg Software tools (Eyespot.com, etc) how to create a collaborative documentary applying some flexible narrative forms.


2. because I want to find out (who/what/when/where/whether/why/how /
or show or demonstrate:


Who are the independent artists that follow some original creative methods and techniques, if any?

What are the common creative techniques used independently of where they are from?

When the videobloggers users feel enough motivation to interact constructively uploading their videos?

When they applied similar creative techniques and how when filming, editing or selecting the subject to film?

Where each independent artist would like to be in terms of art categories or Why a new one is created?

What motivates artist to videoblog their clips?

How some narrative and/or technique constrictions helps or not the development of the collaborative documentary?

How the people react to these interactive narrative constrictions?
Why people like or not some narrative form constrictions?

What are the narrative and aesthetic forms more respected and what are the ones more transgressed by the videobloggers?

What are the necessities of expressing oneself and how the enough motivation and skills development can drive people to create artworks.

How all this related with the videoblog visits and their interactions just selecting what to watch and videoblogg?


3. in order to help my user/viewer/audience/player experience/find out, understand.

To create a collaborative game based on digital video. This will encourage videobloggers to contribute to the collaborative on line documentary filming themselves or independent artist in their communities, respecting some interactive narrative rules.

Ken Leung Week 2 Assignment

1. An area of interest you've identified.
- Immersion
- paintings
- the notion of realtime art ( http://www.tale-of-tales.com/tales/RAM.html)
- character development
- the connection between real space and virtual space
- dynamics of protest and other forms of powerful free speech
- virtue in games
- more physical human-computer interfaces
- mindfulness in games
- spectating in games

2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest - what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?
Can character development occur in a space rather than a timeline? In what ways can virtual space and real space be integrated in one immersive whole? Can theme of virtue be taught in games? Can there be other more physical interfaces than the gamepad? Rather than draw a player into his zen-like state of flow, can a game make a player experience mindfulness and become more aware of the moment? Can game exercise a person's mindfulness? Can game model and express the tense dynamics of a political protest?
How can games be better design to allow for others to passively watch or event participate in a game?

3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.
Meditation allows people to exercise mindfulness. Mr. Rogers is a virtuous and charming role model. In Ancient Roman Coliseums, spectators could vote whether a losing gladiator would die. American idol is also an example of a spectator game. However I'm interested in a spectator game that could take place in one room, and the feedback of the spectators would be in real-time.

4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions. (Not ‘a game’ or ‘experience’ or ‘interactive film,’ find a subject/setting/character/narrative.
As a camera man what you film with determine the outcome of a power struggle between corporations and the people.
By squeezing two haptic sensors, a audio/visual system will provide a sublime experience of mindfulness.


5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just "a game" but the type of game and the type of player you envision.

The moral adventure for the self-reflective player.
The action game for crowds.
A meditation game for the tense player.
A political game for the media minded.


6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.
- immersion
- virtue
- mindfulness

ThesisArticleAssigment

1. An area of interest you've identified.
Multicultural Collaborative Interactive Editing Online Documentary.

2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest - what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?
How the Videoblogs Technologies can serve to improve the Constructive Interactions and to transform the videobloggers into creators?
How that new ways of Exhibition can serve to Distribute Independent Artworks and Creative Process?

3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.
Prove or Unprove through the development and contrast of results of my thesis the following hypothesis:
The video editing Uploading tools encourage participants to become constructive integrators & creators.
The motivations for participation could be:
- Being a Main Creator in front ( as a main character) or Behind the Camera (as a Director and Operator)
- To share a Common Interest in a Theme, Need or Solution.
- Being an active and important part of the collaborative participation in something bigger than oneself with a common interest.
- The exploration of something an exhibition of a familiar cultural theme or activity in a new way. The renew of sharing your daily art to someone.
What are the elements to avoid blocks?
- Testing the different narrative forms that can be attractive to the people to videoblogg.
- The lack of knowledge of the technology involve.
- The lack of pay off in terms of no getting feedback of their pieces, continuity or time invested.

4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions. (Not ‘a game’ or ‘experience’ or ‘interactive film,’ find a subject/setting/character/narrative.
Although I always have loved Ulysses, Julio Verne, Quixote and the Grant Gatsby my actual topics:
Multicultural Exchanges
Documentary Images Videoblogging
Cultural Evolution through the development of Constructive Interactions & Interpersonal Collaborations.
Traditional versus New Creative and Distribution Process for Independent Art Distribution.

5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just "a game" but the type of game and the type of player you envision.
TOPIC GENRE AUDIENCE
Multicultural Exchanges:
Male/Female/Bisexual

- Actual independent artists.
- Tourists
- People interested in Antropological Culture.

Interactive Documentary Videoblogging:
More Male/Female/Bisexual
- Independent Artists
- Art Students
- Antropologists

Cultural Evolution through the development of Constructive Interactions & Interpersonal Collaborations.
More Male/Female/Bisexual - International Business.
- Independent Professionals, Artists.
- Young People.
- General Public.
- Communicators
- Interface Designers.
- Antropologists.
- Sociologists.

Traditional versus New Creative and Distribution Process for Independent Art Distribution.
More Male/Female/Bisexual
- Independent Artists.
- Exhibitors, Museums and Galleries.

6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.

Multicultural Independent Artists: Art, Music, Film, Dance, etc.

1. An area of interest you've identified.
Alternate uses for existing game controls and, possibly, alternate game control schemes.

2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest - what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?
How can video games be played in new and interesting ways? Are there any new control schemes that haven’t been used yet that are worthwhile? What about a new way to control video games that not only would allow non-gamers to get a compelling experience, but perhaps can even allow people with physical impairments to enjoy games?

3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.
Explore “non-traditional” interfaces. Read up on prior work with incorporating bio-feedback and the like in game-like environments.

4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions. (Not ‘a game’ or ‘experience’ or ‘interactive film,’ find a subject/setting/character/narrative.
Creating a game that uses a bio-feedback or similar interface to control gameplay.
Finding a compelling new use for the Wiimote.
Experimenting with an actual electric guitar and a guitar-to-usb connector to find possible uses for such a setup.

5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just "a game" but the type of game and the type of player you envision.
Gamers that find the idea of trying out new, game-related experiences intriguing and fun. People willing to take the experiments to the next level, developing new games and play experiences to fit with the control schemes.

6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.
Player, at present, although part of the final product might blur the line between player and user.

Query your potential topic(s) for
a) Can you identify a central problem/issue?
While some new games and experiences are coming out and becoming more popular among more traditional gamers, I feel that it is just the tip of the iceberg. In addition, some people who have limited mobility aren’t able to participate in what we, as the general audience, take for granted.

b) If so, is it a problem you think you can solve (an issue you'd like to address)?
I think I can provide at least a couple new ways to look at control in games.

c) Can you identify resources/a community/advisors around your topic(s)? Are they approachable?
Developers that have created games for the Wii as well as developers of games like Guitar Hero would be great places to begin. In addition, people who have developed programs that work with Wiimotes and IMD graduate Kellee Santiago for her work on I am More than my Thumb might also be valuable resources.

1. An area of interest you've identified.

I think my area of interest would be about different worlds, both real and imaginary, and how these worlds intersect. What I am really interested is continuing my world from last semester and making it into a meaningful project, and part of that world involves many worlds coexisting. What worlds exist and how to travel between them is interesting to me. I would like to explore the relationship between these worlds and what effect they have on each other as well.

2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest - what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?

How do people access these worlds in the first place?
What kinds of things can we learn about relationships, especially when there are differences between people?
Who can create a world? Anyone? A specific writer or artist?
Are there people who can travel between worlds? What makes them special?
Do worlds have an ending or a beginning or do they just always exist?

3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.

I think a lot of brainstorming and writing can be used to answer these questions. Certainly a complete, encyclopedia type reference book that can answer all of these questions, especially since some of these worlds aren’t real or traditional, can help pinpoint all of the answers for these questions. I would have to think about balance between the worlds and how worlds and people have relationships. I also think that brainstorming about creation/destruction is important, because worlds will inevitably end and begin, and how that comes about is important.

4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions. (Not ‘a game’ or ‘experience’ or ‘interactive film,’ find a subject/setting/character/narrative.

A game or experience where the player is a girl who has crossed from one world to another and is trying to understand identity and meaning.

An experience where a user can visit several different worlds and depending on the user input will experience the world in a different way.

5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just "a game" but the type of game and the type of player you envision.

I would like my world to be a very immersive, story based world where the player will be interested in learning how different worlds exist in parallel to our own. For me story is very important, because narrative is how the world will unfold and be experienced.

6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.

Player

1. An area of interest you've identified.

I think Peggy hit the nail on the head last week in her analysis of my analysis. I’m interested in the process of telling stories. To refine that: I am especially interested in formal structures that allow users to have the freedom to construct their own narratives within larger stories I tell. I’ve said before that I believe there is no substitute for good writing and experience bears out that most people when given no guidelines construct somewhat uninteresting stories. Too much control over it kills the fun, though.

2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest - what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?

What’s the best vehicle for this?
Is there something like this that already exists? How effective is it?
Is this a game? Or is a part of something else?


3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.

I need to take a critical look at a lot of things, not just electronic games, but storytelling games and structures of all types and start recording research about what I think makes them work or not work.

4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions. (Not ‘a game’ or ‘experience’ or ‘interactive film,’ find a subject/setting/character/narrative.

High school – our first chance as children/adults to really re-invent ourselves- we define our character class within a formal structure and then create our own mini narratives within the metanarrative of those four years. Also works for college, but I like high school better because I think in college we add another layer of story with a certain amount of revisionist fiction about those years.
There’s a TV series spec I developed last year- it’s a little too much for me to produce with my own meager resources, but obviously I’ve done a lot of world-building and tried to build it so there was a lot of room for stories within stories.

5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just "a game" but the type of game and the type of player you envision.

I would have to say right now that it seems like a game reaches the audience I most care about- not really typical gamers, but the kind of people I believe would deeply enjoy the process of interacting with a game if only there was more there for them to find appealing. I don’t think it’s a question of subject matter so much as the method and rewards of the interaction that don’t currently engage them.

6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.

We’ll say “player.” I think it’s pompous to invent a new term.



EDIT: Here's the madlib focusing statement...

I am designing a game because I want to demonstrate how to advance storytelling in order to help the player experience personal narrative in shared interactive experiences.

1. An area of interest you’ve identified:

Journey of the Self, Heroes, Los Angeles Traffic, Forgotten Los Angeles

2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest – what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?

A) What is a hero? How is a hero defined in interactive media, today? Is it different from that of literature and film? Can game heroes be inspiring the same way literary, cinematic and television heroes can be? Can they be as heroic as today’s heroes: mothers, fathers, politicians, artists, musicians etc?

B) Is Los Angeles traffic a solveable problem? What will happen when Los Angeles Traffic will become unsustainable? Will we ever get a metro? How will the city handle this? Who is working on the solution right now?

C) With the expansion of Los Angeles eastward and northward, what will happen to the city center as we know it? Where is the Los Angeles city center today? Will areas of Los Angeles continue to be buried and forgotten like Bunker Hill, Angeleno Heights, Temple-Beaudry?

3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.

A) Examination of all relevant heroes from interactive media. Research the Hero’s Journey- relate it to game heroes and game design. After coming to a conclusion, design a game with a hero worth looking up to.

B) Examination of all policy being done about Los Angeles Traffic. Research on the history of the Freeway system. Examination of Population growth and car selling done in LA county.

C) Examination of all gentrification going on in Los Angeles- examination of major migration of Los Angelenos towards Valencia, Victorville and Apple Valley.

4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions.

A) Literature- The Hero’s Journey
Biographies- Real Heroes: Churchill, Lincoln, FDR, Pope John Paul II, Moses
Games: Identify Relevant Heroes, create some gauge

B) Newspapers, Public Policy Meetings, LADOT (Los Angeles Department of Traffic), SigAlert

C) Newspapers, Real Estate Guides, Library Research on old Los Angeles

5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just “a game” but the type of game and the type of player you envision.

A) This project could easily be a research paper, an exhibit, or a game that strives to have a "hero" worth looking up to.

B) I imagine this project being a software appliaction that uses real time traffic information. Possible methods of interaction would be altering the flow of traffic, and re-tooling routes of emergencies on the freeways.

C) This project could be an exhibit coupling video, pictures, and constructed kit of Los Angeles. I'd like the user to be able to physically interact with the project as well- utilizing digging tools, magnyfying glasses, gnobs and a variety of doo-hickeys to explore the subject. The more hands-on the better.

6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.

User

1. An area of interest you've identified.
Time paradox and how it applies to a digital environment and game mechanics


2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest - what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?
How can time be played with in new and interesting ways? How can you tweak temporal rules of real life in coherent and meaningful ways? What video game time conventions can be shattered, changed, taken away, modified? How do you create a paradox that the user does not get lost in and has a clear path(s) through it?

3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.
Prior Art Research, Flash Prototyping, Reading weird abstract books on the theory of time travel and infinite paradoxes.

4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions. (Not ‘a game’ or ‘experience’ or ‘interactive film,’ find a subject/setting/character/narrative.
Using a digital environment to displace the user into the implausible rather then injecting them into an alternate reality based of real world physics.
Creating a game mechanic that relies of the distortion of time (not one that uses a rewinding mechanic).

5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just "a game" but the type of game and the type of player you envision.
Casual Gamers, that don’t have time for 70+ hour epic games. Players that are interested in a quick play experience with “new” ideas.

6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.
Player

Query your potential topic(s) for
a) Can you identify a central problem/issue?
Games focus too much on what’s known in the real world, physics, time conventions, spaces. How to make a surreal temporal experience grounded enough in reality to make sense.

b) If so, is it a problem you think you can solve (an issue you'd like to address)?
I think I can provide examples of dealing with this issue

c) Can you identify resources/a community/advisors around your topic(s)? Are they approachable?
Well I am in Class with Zemeckis… and he did directed one of the greatest films dealing with time paradoxes.
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/college_magazine/fall_2005/philosophy_dept.html
Found an article that mentions a class at USC that may teach about metaphysics and time travel

http://interactive.usc.edu/wiki/index.php/Scott_-_548_-_Week3

1. An area of interest you've identified.
Community and relationship building.

2. A couple of questions (stated in the form of a question) and opportunities suggested by your area of interest - what do you (or a potential viewer) want or need to know about this area?
Have we lost anything in moving our primary interactions to technology? What makes a community gel together, and grow? What do I consider to be a meaningful interaction? How do you create a community that can sustain itself after you stop working on it?

3. Identify a method or process that can be used to explore your question.
* Research on prior and concurrent study in to technology isolation, and community building.
* Prototype exploration and analysis

4. One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions. (Not ‘a game’ or ‘experience’ or ‘interactive film,’ find a subject/setting/character/narrative.
* Using technology to foster personal, real life interaction, instead of replacing it.
*Using global technologies to encourage local relationships.

5. Pair your topics with a genre and an audience: Not just "a game" but the type of game and the type of player you envision.
* Cell phone enabled game, with a heavy emphasis on interacting with other people. Cell phones are a ubiquitous technology, so the barrier to entry is already met. This is a game for everybody with a cell phone, but aimed at people in their 20’s and 30’s.
* Distributed narrative game, with a focus on teamwork and real world puzzles. Narrative has always been a great focal point for community and shared experiences, Distributed narrative games allow for a game focused around a narrative, but with real world interactions. This is a game for anybody who wants to foster their inner Goonie.

6. Commit to a term (participant, viewer, player, reader, user, audience) that you will use throughout the project.
* User (for genre / audience 1) – I think people are less hesitant to join something when they don’t think they’re playing a game.
* Player (for genre / audience 2)

Rest of the assignment after the jump

Speaker Series- Anne Balsamo "Designing Culture: A Work of the Technological Imagination"


Please come to Annenberg Center (734 West Adams) by 11AM. I've booked the conference room upstairs to continue our class after her talk. (And....they serve lunch!)

My computer has become my favorite tool and preferred media. I use it for painting, modeling, programming, writing, filming, video editing. Practically any is possible with the computer. It offers the flexibility and cohesiveness that is hard to find with any other tool. It gives wider access of knowledge than any library. I see the computer as my blank canvas and it represents the possibilities of what I can create with my imagination.

Computers are the gateway to the web. It is the medium that will help define how we interact in the future. I see the ubiquity of this medium bringing us closer and democratize the power of mainstream media.

I have used my computer for painting and modeling. I have yet to use it for music, because I am not musically inclined. Neither have I used it much to make games. I think it would serve me well to learn something about both.

I am always looking for something fresh. Some outlet that presents something I have yet to see. TV and YouTube have become boring and predictable. They are also dense with less than mediocre material. The Getty is dense with classic pieces of art. The Getty Museum itself is not an inspiration. Rather it holds a collection of work that inspires me. There is always some painting sculpture, photograph, or artifact that will stretch my imagination. Though I may be standing still in front of an art piece. My mind will wander and my heart will race as I immerse myself in the piece. I think classic works of art keep us in touch with great artists that lived through the ages. And I believe that there are some lessons and morals that apply to the challenges we face today.

I have yet to spend a day to find a work than really inspires me. I'd like to set aside time for that.

My grad is a portfolio of my work before grad school started. I think it best represents what I was capable of at that time. Unlike most websites then, my flash portfolio had a serene style that tried not to bombard the viewer with sensation tricks. However it still made use of the latest in Flash technology including XML. I think back then I relied on volume and variety to prove my talents. But the Flash portfolio was just a giant bag to hold everything I made. My portfolio as a work of art did not feel coherent nor bold. Now I would rather try to be an artist that uses less rather more to make a bolder point.

Both the museum and my grad portfolio are collections of work. But what I realize is that I don't want to create a collection but focus in on one thing. I want to find only a few pieces of artwork that inspire me at the Getty. I want to make one piece of work that is bold but brings together most my skills and talents. Another thing I find in common with all three pieces is immersion. I find I can get lost working in the computer, the same way I get lost exploring a portfolio or gallery.

I think the theme I might want to present is that "You sometimes need to get lost to know where you're going."

Here's my stuff on the Wiki: http://interactive.usc.edu/wiki/index.php/Scott_-_548_-_3_Things

****************************************************
Week 9: Thesis Schedule
****************************************************

Click on the link below to see the schedule. There are two tabs in the spreadsheet, one is the weekly schedule, the other lists the prototypes.

Schedule: Open file

****************************************************
Week 8: Midterm Presentation
****************************************************

Scaling The World

I am creating an experience that explores how scale may be applied inside of a game to better utilize the world that the player immerses himself or herself in.

Through acquisition and accomplishment during game play, player will continue game at a larger scale.

Player begins game as a small bit of energy inside of a world devoid of energy. Player moves around and through some mechanic, collects energy. Player distributes this energy to objects in the world, essentially giving them life. When player has given enough energy to the current surroundings, scale increases.

Ideally (because the player is energy) the player will feel as if they are the life that they gave to the system. When the player continues to give energy at the larger scales, they essentially are becoming the currently scaled object. Thus, developmental achievement can be considered successful if player feels as if they become these scaled objects.

The game is a 2D, side scrolling, action platformer. As of now, I envision 5-8 scales, each scale lasting approximately 2-3 minutes.

Relevant Works

Powers of Ten – Regarding change of scale. http://powersof10.com
Civ games – Scale increases when player becomes more powerful, but they manage the larger scale.
Ratchet and Clank, Jak & Daxter – Action platforming.
Spore – It’s more about evolution and the game plays differently at different scopes.
Katamari – Player absorbs other objects, but does not give life back to the environment.
Fl0w – Starts as small creature, eats others to become bigger and stronger.
Masters of Orion – Galactic scale management.

PowerPoint Presentation

Here:Open file


****************************************************
Week 7: Midterm Ideation
****************************************************

The Bigger the Weapon

I am making an action platformer where the player embarks on a journey. The journey will feature a system of growth, celestial entities, and ridiculously awesome weapons that will take shape in the form of a game using a game engine.

Motivation stems from myself loving these types of systems and knowing the others out in the gaming world would love to interact in a successful new combination of systems. Prior games include the Ratchet and Clank series, the powers-of-ten video, and the mapping of entities in the Master’s of Orion series.

How can growth be shown? Does combining simple systems lead to a new experience, or is a genre only considered new if it is completely and individually a new system? This game will combine platforming with growth.

Platforming will be achieved through the player controlling the avatar, moving, jumping, and performing actions.

Growth will be achieved by scaling the world appropriately. As the player acquires power, player’s action item will continue game on a larger scale.

Rough Storyboard

On game launch, title screen appears.

On game start, player now controls avatar. Player collects items/defeat enemies/whatever in order to acquire experience/power/economy. With enough acquisition, player’s power grows and scope/scale change. Beginning scale includes a normal person performing actions. As the view scale increases, so does the item in which acquisition is accomplished.

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Week 6: Advisors and Audience
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Outside Advisors

Richard Lemarchand – Game Director, Naughty Dog, Santa Monica – Platforms, weapons, and a journey encompass the Jak and Daxter series, which he has been instrumental in creating for years.

Ted Price – President, Insomniac Games, Burbank – Insomniac makes Ratchet and Clank. The systems described in the previous weeks, exist in this game.

Bing Gordon – CCO, EA, All over – Would be helpful in steering the economic implementation if I choose to go that direction. And my thesis advisor would be Bing!

Audience

Target audience includes current gamers who want enjoy popular fun games but want to try a new feature(s) in an existing genre that has not been try or has not been implemented well. Players are the type that enjoys one quality system over a quantity of systems. Players prefer to perfect one aspect of interactivity rather than be forced to do tons of different actions.

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Week 5: Weapons in Platformers
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The Bigger the Weapon, the Better…Is the Answer Really That Easy

Why in the world is it fun to upgrade a Rocket Launcher, to a Super Rocket Launcher, to a Ridiculous Rocket Launcher? Is it the primal male fantasy? Is it enjoyable to blow everything up in less shots? Is it power? The answer…I’m not really sure. But people love it. I would love to explore why so many enjoy this type of interaction. I wonder if players were given the Ridiculous Rocket Launcher first, would blowing everything away in just a few shots be as enjoyable. Which begs the question, is it power, or is it accomplishment?

When embarking on a journey, a player may start out with everything, or nothing. Even if a player started out with everything, there is no sense of exploration accomplishment, no feeling of acquisition, and certainly nothing discovered. If a preexisting game combat mechanic existed, how would implementing a journey help this experience?

The Platformer

My favorite genre of game is an action platformer, with awesome weapons. What is it about the platformer that brings life and enjoyment to simply an adventure game? Initial thoughts include more player movement control and the creation of platforms allows tangible understanding of a 3D space since the player must navigate platforms to move in either x, y, or z direction.

My favorite game, Ratchet and Clank, pick any in the series, is my perfect action platformer. With awesome weapons, fun player control, a compelling journey by traveling through space, and upgradeable items through economic acquisition, this experience is one I’d like to hone in on. Can I build this, no. Can I make one part of this better, maybe? Would I love to try, certainly? Is it worthy of thesis recognition, I believe so. Now to decide what to do. The narrowing process needs to begin.

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Week 5: Madlibs
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The Game, The System, The Possibility

I am creating a journey experience inside of a game to determine what systems players in the game world enjoy interacting with given a limited amount of choice systems.


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Week 4: The Permutation
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Dimensional Augmentation

The nice thing about permutations is that by using a small number of elements a large amount of things can be made. Take for example three basic shapes and four different colors. Tabling these elements would yield twelve different possibilities. Add a third dimension of just two possibilities. For example, each colored shape may have a logo stamped on it or not would now yield 24 possibilities.

I compare this idea with a stock market. People may own many types of stock or just one. Some claim that diversification creates an advantage in portfolio position because if one stock tanks, the others will still hold and the person’s position will still be in decent shape, just with a minor loss. The idea of the permutation comes into play since stocks may be classified with many attributes: growth, sector, cap, etc. A stockowner may position himself by purchasing conservative growth, technical sector, and mid-cap stocks.

Comparing the permutation with gaming weaponry yields the same idea. First dimension is the weapon. From here on, any amount of dimensional spans may be created i.e. durability, elemental attribute, quality, magical property, etc. Using the five dimensions stated, let’s say that each dimension has 6 elements. Thus, there exists 65=7,776 possibilities; yet the developer need manufacture only 6*5=30 items/attributes.

By giving the player control of their position in either of these scenarios, I wonder if this control in an interactive medium leads to better immersion or more enjoyable experience. However, I also see concern that the permutation by itself in any setting may be too narrow of a focus. Even though the permutation is mathematic, the output can be analyzed in much more artistic formats.


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Week 4 Class: Metawords
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Theme: Journey

Method: Travel
Exploration
Acquisition
Collection

Ritual: Discovery
Growth

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Week 3: An Economic Spin
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Auctions and Markets

One of the reasons I continued playing WoW way back in the day is because of it’s economic system. For those unfamiliar, I will try to briefly explain. There existed an auction house where people could put items up for bid. Somewhat like eBay, people could bid on the items. The highest bid will win the auction. Rare and valuable items would sell for a lot of more gold. Sometimes, I would monopolize a resource and sell bits of it for much higher prices, essentially flipping the resource for profit. There are no laws against any monopolizing, but in the world of WoW, resources regenerate, so I ran the risk of others going out and farming what I monopolized, undercutting my auction price, and thus capitalizing on my monopolizing purchase.

This system itself portrays the classic supply and demand mechanic. If a bunch of people were selling copper ore on the auction house, prices would be low. Likewise vise-versa. I assume that most people understand this concept. But where I think most people being to lose economic comprehension is when the idea of supply and demand is incorporated with a stock exchange. How great would it be if WoW allowed corporations that were public within the server? It would be an entirely new experience.

The reality is that most people in their twenties understand nothing about the stock market, and for the most part, most of the general population understands little. And there are reasons. One: money is needed. People can play all the paper stock games in the world, but using real money is completely different. Two: a broker or trader is needed. A broker can be assigned to someone’s account and they can try to make that person money. It’s funny because nobody has ever come to me and said, “G, I have the greatest broker in the world. He/she has made me multi millions of dollars. I bought a beach house on the cliff and I drive a Ferrari during the day and a Lamborghini at night. You should use my broker”. That’s because they don’t exist. They make money off commission by simply trading with said person’s account. It doesn’t matter if they make the client a dime. Three: The newbie can trade on his/her own. But let’s be practical, if they are going to do this, they have to be able to read financials and a lot more to have a chance at turning a profit. Otherwise it’s a shot in the dark. Since there are many more losers than winners in the market, probability says that in the end, account value = 0.

Can a game capture a market experience? Yes. But, much like real money, something earned has to be at stake. Players must go out and capture some sort of resource by spending time earning. Also, there must be a bunch of players to drive the prices of the markets, who similarly stake their earnings. But nobody is going to play if gaining resources is boring, thus, the capturing of resources has to be enjoyable, and ideally, a completely different system and experience. I equate this to an average working person. Through the person’s job, they earn money. Money can be invested in the market to earn more money.

What’s a 10Q? What’s the max I can put into my ROTH this year? A ROTH, what’s that? OTCBB, can you explain? I am invested in Blackwater City Mining Corporation and it just filed for chapter 7…is that a good thing? Orxon oil just reported record earnings for its fiscal year yet the stock price is declining…what’s going on?

Stock Market 101…and 507

Young dudes and dudettes need to learn about the consequences of economic ignorance. Would creating a gaming system that incorporated these mechanics be beneficial? Yes, it has the potential to teach many people about the governing powers of economics, but only if it’s fun to play.

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Week 2: A 2nd Look
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The Big Journey

Continuing with the notion of “big” things and introduce that with “the journey”, what better place to explore than the galaxy. Would it be fun/interesting/exciting to explore and learn about space? It’s been done in television, movies and gaming, but I’ve still yet to learn about what a black hole truly is and why they exist. What makes a neutron star different than the Sun? Exploring these ideas are limiting and for most people boring. Recently, I took the Myers Briggs test. I am an ISTJ. Who cares right? The importance of my score is not the lettering, but the idea that I relate to a larger chunk of the population. Much like I teach calculus, I try to relate to the person rather than bore them with the material. What I would like to do with the thesis is provide a learning experience that relates a wider audience. I don’t care about developing a niche and/or innovative mechanic; I want my audience to tell me that I provided them with either a valuable, an informative, or an enjoyable experience. I believe I can achieve this by building an interactive/gaming experience. Without question my target is a large group of players.

What if a player plays as a huge celestial object? Case A: Player is a planet. Let’s abandon literati for a moment. Player cruises through galaxy exploring aspects of space that are unknown to most people. Player picks up moons, rings, etc. on journey. Player becomes stronger through acquisition of celestial objects and may journey to more difficult areas. Case B: Player is a neutron star, or something to that effect, and explores galaxy with those properties. Case C: Player is a planet and acts like one in a solar system. Player performs actions that change gravity, orbit, etc.

Stepping Back

The more I think about a journey, there are times when a person explores and a time when a person visits the familiar. An area of interest may be the comparison and contrast of exploration vs. staying in the familiar. People learn differently. Repetition plays a role in learning. Some people need more iterations of something before they are comfortable with it. I’ve noticed that for my favorite games, I’ll play them over again, instead of playing something new. I increase the level of difficulty my own way, if it’s not an option, or I have beaten the game at its highest toughest level. I recently played Ratchet: Deadlocked. I had already beaten the game on the hardest difficultly, so what I did this time not allow myself to acquire any armor and play it on the hardest difficulty. I still beat it, but it was fun and challenging.

This concept of repetition with difficultly scaling is active in community groups, but game designers do not develop this at any level of greater depth. I don’t know why, since this allows for the game to have more appeal with little cost and product development. This concept is something I’m mulling over.


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Week 1: 3 Item Initial Analyses
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The Whale

I’m staring at my childhood item right now. I slept on him last night. A giant killer whale, an item I’ve cherished since age five, has journeyed with me ever since my mom bought him for me. His name is Bubber. In his twenty-two years, he’s lost an eye, his white underbelly is anything but white, and he’s required two small surgeries to repair stuffing leakage at cracked seams. The item is clearly nostalgic. I always enjoy telling the story of purchasing this whale in Florida’s Cyprus Gardens. My family went to the Gardens on day three of a seven-day vacation. My mom needed to get something at the gift shop before we toured the Gardens. So we went in there first. Mistake. That’s when I saw the killer whale. At the time its size dominated me. “Mom, can we get the whale, Mom, can we get the whale”. I can remember saying this to her at least 100 times. She says that it’s more like 500. She succumbed to the pressure. I only remember two things about the Gardens: The water-skiers falling in the water after failing to perform their tricks, and the whale. Epcot Center, Disney World…no recollection whatsoever.

At first, I look at this beast and I say that I like big things. True. But after stepping back, I realize that the story is the journey. I traveled across the country, found my inanimate life partner, brought him back home, and from there stories would be made. He would be used in many adolescent bash-your-friend games. He would be used as a shield in this tile game I used to play with my friend. I could go on forever with these stories, but the phenomenon of the whale lies in the journeys that we’ve shared.

Mark Cuban

My idol. Well, not really, I don’t have any idols. But I respect what he accomplished so far in life and the means, which he used to obtain his holdings. A guy from a blue-collar family, he went through school like most of us do. He went to college, like some people do. He sold garbage bags, not many people do. But that is where he started. He would later attempt to run a small computer tech/repair store, but it went under (Cuban was in charge of the store and its sales). Did he quit? Of course not. He would later go on to found a small company that would become Broadcast.com which he would later sell to Yahoo for $5B in the dot com bubble. Now, he spends his time yelling at NBA referees as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

After stepping back, it’s becoming clearer. It’s has nothing to do with the person. Well, that’s not true. If he were a prick, I wouldn’t be writing this. The emphasis is on the journey. The paragraph above (I could write ten pages on this) embodies perseverance. Journeys are filled with peaks and valleys. In order to obtain one’s zenith, one has to overcome the myriad of obstacles that block the path to that destination.

Calculus World

I’ve always struggled with the question as to whether I have true artistic ability or not. This project proved it to me. In all seriousness, this project released that fear. The more I step back from Calculus World, the more I appreciate it. I don’t see it as math; I don’t see it as calculus. I see it as art. Pure art. I completed my life-best artistic project last December.

In calculus, I no longer care about solving problems. I don’t care about getting the right answer, relatively speaking. The essence of calculus is encompassed by the theory and what the various theories stand for. Calculus World expresses this essence through its artistic structure.

The creation of this artwork was difficult. My initial ideas were cliché and mathematical. They would all be scrapped. After much thought, consideration, struggle, and learning, the final version of Calculus World now stands. Its creation was a journey, filled with struggle, frustration and in the end, pure satisfaction. I could draw a map of the peaks and valleys while building this piece, somewhat like a rectilinear plot, though it’s not necessary…but it might be fun. This project taught me more about my philosophy and myself more than anything else.

The Far View

I don’t think I need to say it, but it’s clear. It’s about the journey. It’s about persevering through the struggles. In the end, it’s about accomplishment. A week ago, this was all transparent.

ITEMS

1. Past Project: A vhs tape of the first episode of my cable access TV show.
2. Favorite Thing: An Old Acoustic Guitar
3. Inspiration: The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD

Item #1 The Video Tape

     Right out of High School my friends and I decided that we wanted to do a television show. I had worked with the director of AT&T channel 6 in Walnut Creek for my High School senior project. Surprisingly, he gave the green light to a bunch of 17 year olds who wanted a television show mainly to piss off the upper class community of Walnut Creek. This point in my life marks a particularly important step to the path I am on now. For the prior 8 years up to this point, I had wanted to be an actor. I had performed in the community theater and took all the drama classes in school. This TV show marks the first time when I decided to go behind the camera, and I seemed to like it.
     I am proud of this project for many reasons: Cable access shows are generally not supposed to have commercials or make money. We changed that by working sponsor money into the show in creative alternative ways. It is a model still used by the station today. We caused a huge stir in the quiet city of Walnut Creek. By the second episode, we managed to have multiple law suits, numerous city council meetings, and anger many citizens of the community. All of this attention lead up to my first paying job in media as the assistant director on some of the cable channel’s more “refined shows.” This was basically a spawning point of my career one that has lead to many other opportunities.

Item #2 The Old Guitar

     This old acoustic Spanish style guitar belonged to my Aunt in the early sixties. I never met my aunt Andrea (she died before I was born). Somehow I inherited this guitar when I was a child and had it ever since. It always comforts me to pick it up and play it. Often times when upset about something I can sit on my bed and play this guitar for hours forgetting what troubles me. I also keep it close by whenever working at the computer, because it aides in the wait times for loading or rendering. The guitar has been basically everywhere with me, road trips, camping, parties, it's always fun to have a guitar around.

Item #3 The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD

     I have always found the simple story arc and style of this movie to be inspirational. I did a full presentation of what I like about the style so much last year, but some of the main points were:

1. Three distinctive worlds with their own styles and rules: Halloween Town, Christmas Town, and The Real World.

2. Story borrows heavily from the old Rankin Bass Christmas movies. This makes the movie familiar and off at the same time.

3. Wonderful music that conveys the meaning of each world.

4. The use of German Expressionistic light to set the mood.

     I first saw this movie on VHS in High school, and have since been drawn to it. On that note I always seem to like adult fairy tales. That is child like stories with an adult twist, like American Mcgee or the macabre work done by Edward Gorey.


Tying it all Together….

     For some reason I get the sense of childhood out of all these items. A movie that makes me feel like a child, a guitar I was given as a child, and I project done in the last moments I was a child, running around carelessly with no responsibilities. The movie and the guitar are also items of escape. I can watch or play either one when I am down and be in another place for awhile. Two of the items (the project and the movie) are very twisted, while the other item is very pure (the guitar).
     An area of interest that these items suggest might be, something that can be enjoyed by both children and adults. I have always felt there is a true lack of entertainment adults and kids can enjoy together (except Disneyland and Pixar movies). It seems like you pretty much have struck gold of you can figure out a way for parents and children to enjoy entertainment equally.

CHESTER, my ever-present kitty companion
a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
I think it's one of the greatest crimes we do against children that we say "when you grow up, you have to leave all parts of your childhood behind." Some of those things are the most sacred cores of our beings, and I think a lot of people turn out screwed up because as a human society, we take great pleasure in ripping these things away as a rite of passage to adulthood. That's traumatic. That's cruel. (see: Lucy's attempts to rid Linus of his security blanket. Bitch.)
Take stuffed animals. Growing up, these are our friends. These are our most trusted confidantes. These companions go everywhere with us and are deeply tied to our emotional well-being. They are our protectors; from bad dreams, bad days, and bad thoughts. And one day we just put them in a box or worse. Just we're bigger and older doesn't mean we don't need those things anymore. You'd better believe we fill that void. On the whole, we tend to fill all those suddenly vacant holes inour lives with things that are not always so healthy.
So yes, I have a stuffed cat (I don't like to think of him in such vulgar times, by the way). Or I have a daemon/familiar, if you prefer. And I think it makes me seem crazier but be saner.
b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
-I tend to document what amounts to milestones in my life using Chester- that’s the photographic aspect. I also tend to use him as emotional support/a companion on a lot of my personal journeys. This is interesting because I have a girlfriend whom I love very much and can’t actually handle being apart from for very long these days, but she fills a different role as companion
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
Well, as I said above, I think we’d all be a lot better off if we didn’t cut things like Chester out of our lives just because we’re adults. I don’t even mean things we play with. I just mean things that fill niches in our psyche. I didn’t have Chester until I was 16. My other major deamon is a largeish Popple named Goo. Goo, to Goo’s constant consternation is too big to ride in backpacks or go most places with me. But Goo and I have been buds since I was 5. Chester goes with me where Goo cannot. Niche still filled.
d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
Chester CAN be inscrutable. He doesn’t say much, compared to Goo, actually. Plays things close to the vest. I’d like to know what his equivalent is for other people.


My Music
a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
Music is a part of my life on a fundamental level. I score my life. This comes from being raised on movies and from having an imagination that is filled with movies. I imagine everything as a movie, even if it ends up as a game or a comic or even just a story. Sometimes it inspires new stories in me- that happens a lot actually. Other times it helps me experience emotions or tap into memories I associate with music in my life.
b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
I don’t think there’s inherently an issue or principle to music. It’s a universal experience, but how its experienced is deeply personal. I hear something and have one reaction and you hear something else and maybe you have a totally different reaction. That said, I play certain music for someone and they say “yeah, you’re right- that’s cowboy gunfighting music if ever I heard it.” – that’s a function of other cultural forces, though- like somewhere along the way, some cowboy gunfight was scored like that and now that’s how we think of music in that style. I think that dichotomy is interesting, especially as regards shared experiences on the whole.
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
I think I’m far from alone in being so heavily influenced by my generation’s unprecedented access to media from such a formative age. Media of all kinds are deeply and intrinsically part of our lives. That is not going to change. In fact our access to them has doubled in a short period of years. In 1999 I owned the first commercial MP3 player and was the only kid in my class with a dedicated cell phone of his own. Look what’s changed.
d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
I would like to know what it is about my connection to music that actually propels my imagination forward. I’d also like to find things other than music that do the same.

The Song I Wrote Recently
a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
Well, this is related to the above- I’ve always wanted to be a rock star. I don’t have time for it really, and actually, my limited experience with it was enough to prove to me that it’s a very hard life. Much too hard for me to ever want to consider doing it. But I think it had enough meaning for me to share because I am very interested in diversity. I like to develop all of my talents. I don’t like to be locked into doing any one thing for too long before I do something else entirely. This is a different creative avenue with a different means of expression.
b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
I think I’ve reached the point where I can write and play music at a professional level, if it’s only the bottom rung of the professional level. More importantly, I’m told that aside from any musical prowess, I have a good ear for tune, melody, and an ability to arrange things that catch in a listener’s head. But I’m not really a singer and I’m rotten at mixing by professional standards and it galls me/is my constant struggle. It represents something difficult for me as it’s something I’ve wanted to be great at since I was four and in typical fashion I’ve worn all the hats myself to get to that point but I haven’t been able to totally crack it. That’s a big thing for me.
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
Well, we’re able to make things on our own in our garage that we’ve never been able to before. That attracted me to video, to computer animation, and to games, though less that than the other things. I think the fact that I cut a semi-pro demo entirely in my bedroom used to be remarkable. Now, in just a few years, it’s like “you did it with that computer and those instruments and it only sounds like that?” Qulaity is the issue again – the love affair with the fact it was a do-it-yourself is ending and it’s going to be about quality once again.
This is, as a side note, my actual problem with SCMRPG – I’m not impressed the guy made it by himself – frankly, he should have worked with a few more people and bounced his ideas off a few people rather than turn in a pithy game that adds nothing to the conversation and is a derivative bore to play to boot.
d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
I know it really well. I’ve listened to it a hundred times, easy. I’d like to know… hmm… I’d like to know what I’m not hearing that makes me think it sounds okay until I play it for others.


Okay- if y'all are still with me, part 3

a) Look at your three items as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections?

On the surface level, I think all three are very directly related to my imaginative process. I think it also shows a little of my value system. I think it's too easy to point out the music similarity. The fact that I score my life almost guarantees that I'm also going to be a musician. That doesn't really count. I think they all show that I value a balanced creative diet... genre wise it's a little lopsided, but they're all at some level about interdiciplinary ideas- Chester is tied to photography and also storytelling, music is something I use when ideating all kinds of media, and my lasting involvement with music spread from wanting to be Mick Jagger to being a full session musician, songwriter, producer, and aspiring recording engineer.

b) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions?
Sort of. I don't think it was like a magic "thesis bullet" because my areas of interest are (see above) broad and diverse. If I had to commit to going on a jag about anyhting though, I'd say the idea that "diversity of experience keeps you fresh and interested" is worth thinking about.

Mike Brazil 1/13/2007

Part 1: Pick 3 objects (You've done this already)

a) Significant: How to Be a Superhero, by Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine

b) Inspirational: Nintendo Wii

c) Personal Project: RagnaRokk

Part 2: Questions (Take some time to do this properly, post it.)

a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
The book, How to Be a Superhero, is one of my favorite books. I bought it many years ago and shared it with my friends. That was, until, I loaned it to someone and never saw it again. I tried to find another copy of it, but it was out of print. After years of searching online and through secondhand bookstores, I finally found a copy and picked it up immediately. Due to the fact that my first copy was loaned out and lost, I refuse to let anyone borrow it, only letting people look through it when I am around.
The Nintendo Wii is inspirational to me because Nintendo is going after innovation and fun gameplay instead of better graphics. I often think about how I would use the unique control scheme of the Wii to make fun games.
Last semester, Max Geiger and I worked on a video game called RagnaRokk. It’s a platforming/music-making game that uses the Guitar Hero controller for movement as well as for playing music. While I totally believe the project we completed by the end of the class is nowhere near complete, I’m fully convinced that we will continue the project and it will be a success.

b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
A video game, a video game console, and a book that essentially boils down a pseudo-scientific look at superheroes and comic books are all, essentially, tools meant for entertainment and, some could argue, juvenile enjoyment. I, however, see a greater potential here.
The video game is one I developed for a previous class. While a casual glance at it would show a Norse themed, rock and roll game that is only for fun, the music control system can, conceivably, teach someone the notes required to play a certain piece of music. Since the notes are mapped out in order to specific buttons and button combinations, once the player knows what notes go with what button combinations, transferring the knowledge of the learned musical passages to another medium is as simple as learning what keys produce what notes.
The video game console, the Nintendo Wii, is unique in the fact that it doesn’t necessarily take someone who has played a lot of video games to get into it. In fact, people that normally wouldn’t be interested in video games at all due to their confusing control schemes can now pick up the controller and play along with more hard core gamers. This innovation opened wide the video game market in ways the Xbox 360 and the PS3 never could.
The book, in comparison, is a much harder case. The humor is immature, the subject matter is childish, and I love it. The only thing I can say in its defense is the fact that they really researched their subject matter to the point that, if the reader was actually interested, they could actually take the information to create superhero characters (assuming they cut through the stuff that was obviously there for comedic value.

d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
I know pretty much what there is to know about my own project, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything to learn about the book. The only thing I’d like to really delve into is the Nintendo Wii. I’m really interested in learning how to develop for it, and what new things I can do with it.

Part 3) Step Back (Post this as well.)

a) Look at your three items as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections?
I don’t see too many intersections between my three objects. The book is funny and is about the many characteristics that go into the making of a superhero. The video game is a Norse themed, rock and roll video game that uses a guitar to control everything. The console is an attempt to get away from the traditional forms of video game play and head into a more form that allows nongamers to play too.
The only thing I can see that the three have in common is that they are all mostly centered on entertainment. I enjoy things that make me laugh and have fun.
Upon further reflection, I do see another similarity between the superhero book and the Nintendo Wii. The book on superheroes, while a satire, does point out the commonalities in the superhero genre of which an outsider might not be aware. This has the effect of being able to inform the uninitiated what people who are already well versed in superhero trivia know, thus bringing outsiders into the medium. The Nintendo Wii, with its new (ideally) intuitive control scheme, brings non-gamers a non-threatening way to take a first step into video games, thus bringing outsiders into the medium much like the superhero book. Unfortunately, RagnaRokk doesn’t fit as easily. What can be said about it is the fact that, since it uses a “simplified version” of a guitar, non-guitar players can pick it up and make guitar sounds with it without knowing how an actual guitar works. While the controllers plays more like a keyboard (the notes increase from C to high C going from the outermost button on the neck to the innermost whereas in an actual guitar, the notes increase across the neck), the player can hold a combination of buttons, strum, and produce a guitar sound, possibly better than they could with a real guitar. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it brings outsiders (non-guitar players) into the medium (guitar playing), I can hope that someone playing RagnaRokk might enjoy it enough to pick up a real guitar sometime and learn how to play.
Another possible connection, while, I admit, is a bit of a stretch, they all have the primary focus of the audience being a hero of some type. The book “teaches” the reader how to become a superhero. In RagnaRokk the player plays a character asked by the gods to save the nine worlds of the Norse Cosmology. The Nintendo Wii plays games which, quite often, have the player in the role of protagonist that is the hero of the story. I’d say that games without characters, like Tetris, have no protagonist, so those games don’t fit within this conclusion. Otherwise, though, I believe the comparison works.

b) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions?
The only thing my analysis suggests is that I probably should be looking into some sort of entertainment-based project, and probably steer clear of anything too serious.
I’m not certain if that is a piece of advice I should follow, however.

Zelda, Juuni Kokki, and creating websites

1) Something significant to you.
My Postcard“No name” of Teun Hocks artwork from the Exhibition “Juegos y Simulacros/Jeux Et Simulacres”

It reminds me to meditate.

2) An inspiration.
The Script: Smoke & Blue in the Face Script from Paul Auster.



3) Something you've done that is deeply interests you.
My multiplatform interactive cinema creation “Inside Track/Vía Íntima” with a Interactive DVD and Internet version www.medialabmadrid.org/viaintima and a cinematic linear version.



A) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
A.1) Because it shows the real small size of human being and that there is always bigger than one/ourself, something or Someone to learn from.
A.2) Because it shows the magic and emotional touching moments of human daily lives in a cross-cultural and multiethnic context.
A.3) The different ways to tell, read and experience a story or game context.

B) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
B.1) Humility, Discovery, Wisdom, Amazement, Learning, Spirituality.
B.2) Tolerance, Multiculturalism, Friendship, Spontaneity, Originality, Authenticity, Courage.
B.3) Personal History, Surrender, Hope, Miracles, Honesty, Willingness, Strength.

C) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
C.1) To relative human science as a final explanation for reality, as well as humble rationalist people through inviting them to think about new solutions, and other type of higher life, laws and/or powers.
C.2) To show how the time people spent in knowing each other becomes the real miracle of experiencing the real life.
C.3) To demonstrate how technology should and can serve to classic and interactive storytelling and storyexperiencing and what are the narrative potential and levels of interaction that each platform allows.

D) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
D.1) Other artworks of that collection, how they relate to each other as well as more paintings from the same author. I would like to investigate the relationships between the organization, access and synthesis of knowledge and wisdom within small versus big spaces, the tension between the expansion and contraction of human knowledge and creative process.

E) Look at your three items as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections?
All of them suggest me interesting questions that excite my imagination: for example Where does that big foot print come from? What make equally human to different people? How new technologies and interactivity can serve to build humanitarian and multicultural dialogs?
F) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions?
Yes. Crossculturalism, Multiethics, Interactive Collaborative Projects, Spiritual Principles learning process, Sharing & Cultural Exchanging Experiences in general.

Mike Brazil 1/13/2007

Part 1: Pick 3 objects (You've done this already)

a) Significant: How to Be a Superhero, by Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine

b) Inspirational: Nintendo Wii

c) Personal Project: RagnaRokk

Part 2: Questions (Take some time to do this properly, post it.)

a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?
The book, How to Be a Superhero, is one of my favorite books. I bought it many years ago and shared it with my friends. That was, until, I loaned it to someone and never saw it again. I tried to find another copy of it, but it was out of print. After years of searching online and through secondhand bookstores, I finally found a copy and picked it up immediately. Due to the fact that my first copy was loaned out and lost, I refuse to let anyone borrow it, only letting people look through it when I am around.
The Nintendo Wii is inspirational to me because Nintendo is going after innovation and fun gameplay instead of better graphics. I often think about how I would use the unique control scheme of the Wii to make fun games.
Last semester, Max Geiger and I worked on a video game called RagnaRokk. It’s a platforming/music-making game that uses the Guitar Hero controller for movement as well as for playing music. While I totally believe the project we completed by the end of the class is nowhere near complete, I’m fully convinced that we will continue the project and it will be a success.

b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?
c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
A video game, a video game console, and a book that essentially boils down a pseudo-scientific look at superheroes and comic books are all, essentially, tools meant for entertainment and, some could argue, juvenile enjoyment. I, however, see a greater potential here.
The video game is one I developed for a previous class. While a casual glance at it would show a Norse themed, rock and roll game that is only for fun, the music control system can, conceivably, teach someone the notes required to play a certain piece of music. Since the notes are mapped out in order to specific buttons and button combinations, once the player knows what notes go with what button combinations, transferring the knowledge of the learned musical passages to another medium is as simple as learning what keys produce what notes.
The video game console, the Nintendo Wii, is unique in the fact that it doesn’t necessarily take someone who has played a lot of video games to get into it. In fact, people that normally wouldn’t be interested in video games at all due to their confusing control schemes can now pick up the controller and play along with more hard core gamers. This innovation opened wide the video game market in ways the Xbox 360 and the PS3 never could.
The book, in comparison, is a much harder case. The humor is immature, the subject matter is childish, and I love it. The only thing I can say in its defense is the fact that they really researched their subject matter to the point that, if the reader was actually interested, they could actually take the information to create superhero characters (assuming they cut through the stuff that was obviously there for comedic value.

d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
I know pretty much what there is to know about my own project, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything to learn about the book. The only thing I’d like to really delve into is the Nintendo Wii. I’m really interested in learning how to develop for it, and what new things I can do with it.

Part 3) Step Back (Post this as well.)

a) Look at your three items as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections?
I don’t see too many intersections between my three objects. The book is funny and is about the many characteristics that go into the making of a superhero. The video game is a Norse themed, rock and roll video game that uses a guitar to control everything. The console is an attempt to get away from the traditional forms of video game play and head into a more form that allows nongamers to play too.
The only thing I can see that the three have in common is that they are all mostly centered on entertainment. I enjoy things that make me laugh and have fun.

b) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions?
The only thing my analysis suggests is that I probably should be looking into some sort of entertainment-based project, and probably steer clear of anything too serious.
I’m not certain if that is a piece of advice I should follow, however.

The document turned out to be a couple pages, so instead of posting it here, I'm just upload the file: Download file

I had to work to find a common thread between my talit, Winston Churchill's speeches, and developing games at summer camp, but I managed it.