January 27, 2004

Interactive Writing assignment

I was going to write this on the writing class blog, but I didn't think everyone would see it, and I'm really looking for feedback/comment/ideas. (Leonard is there a way to make it publish to both places for the future?)

My idea for the next assignment, is "An exploration of backstory in character development and audience reaction." This is how I propose to do this:


  • Take 2-5 "content-less" scenes, similar to the scenes they use in directing or acting, perhaps flush them out more into scenarios, with location and some context.
  • Create 2-4 characters for these scenes, and create several backstories and character traits for each of them.
  • Have the VUP start by reading one of each of these "backstories", at this point I am using this term, probably incorrectly, until I think of another, randomly chosen.
  • After reading about each character, have them read one of the scenarios, then try to gauge their perceptions, which would be skewed, and in order to measure this, have them fill out a quick form answering simple questions.
  • I think I'd accomplish this best in HTML, though I'll probably need to use javascript (and Leonard or Jason) to create the randomness. Is there something that's better??
  • The first questions I thought of: (definitely open to suggestion on THIS)

    • Who was the protagonist of the scene and what was their goal? Antag too
    • What was the tone of the scene?


Okay that's it for now. I'm not really sure what I'd want to do with this information, besides just to see if I could write it well enough and to see if it skewed perceptions, but I think its a nice idea for an exercise.

Oh and by the way, I'll need several VUP's to be my guinea pigs later!

Posted by jdillon at 06:39 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2004

Another one...

Google goes friendster

Orkut
CNET Article

anyone joined? Thoughts? anything new and different?

Posted by jdillon at 05:22 PM | Comments (2)

Food For Thought

After commenting on Erkki's presentation, and what Andrew brought up about technology, I felt compellled to post this passage I found intriguing a couple days ago. It's from, "The Lost World," (yah, fiction but well-researched-fiction :) ) which was written in 1995.

"In ten thousand years human beings have gone from hunting to farming to cities to cyberspace. Behavior is screaming forward, and it might be nonadaptive. Nobody knows. Although personally, I think cyberspace means the end of our species." "Because it means the end of inovation. This idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death. Every biologist knows that small groups in isolation evolve the fastest. ... "Now, for our own species, evolution occurs mostly through our behavior. We innovate new behavior to adapt. And everybody on earth knows that innovation only occurs in small groups. Put three people on a committee and they may get something done. Ten people, and it gets harder. Thirty people, nothing happens. Thirty million, it becomes impossible. That's the effect of mass media--it keeps anything from happening. Mass media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same. Bangkok or Tokyo or London: there's a McDonalds on one corner, a Benetton on another, a Gap across the street. Regional differences vanish. All differences vanish. In a mass-media world, there's less of everything except the top ten books, records, movies, ideas. People worry about losing species diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity--our most necessary resource? That's disappearing faster than trees. But we haven't figured that out, so now we're planning to put 5 billion people together in cyberspace. And it'll freeze the entire species. Everything will stop dead in its tracks. Everyone will think the same thing at the same time. Global uniformity."

And there you have it....

Posted by jdillon at 08:27 AM | Comments (3)

January 21, 2004

Take that PSP!

Dual-screen Nintendo---

- An unprecedented approach to video game play-- holding two separate game screens in the palm of your hand-- hits the scene later this year when Nintendo introduces a new portable game system, code-named Nintendo DS.

From information made available today, players can look forward to being able to manage their game progress from two different perspectives, enhancing both the speed and strategy of the challenge. For example in a soccer game, users can view the whole game on one screen while simultaneously focusing on an individual soccer player's tackle or goal on the other screen.

Will be shown in full at E3!

Link

Posted by jdillon at 06:04 PM | Comments (1)

January 20, 2004

TK3

Like, Kellee I was also intrigued by TK3 -- it too spawned many ideas in my head about applications. A couple of weeks before last semester ended I was mulling over a multi-authored fictional blog. Although I never really thought through it, it was something I was definitely interested in pursuing. When Bob mentioned that TK3 could be published as modifiable, I thought that this might be a good avenue for a multi-authored fiction. My thoughts are to create a 'book' written by IM students, each of us doing a page at a time, in TK3. I figured we could set a specific theme perhaps, but then after that there would be no rules!

I thought this could be useful as an introspective look at IM students, our creativity, our goals, our visions, our dreams etc. I would really like to do this but obviously I can't do it alone. So, please let me know if you guys think this is LAME, or if you'd be interested in doing it. It wouldn't take up too much time, and we could work out a rotation.

It would be something great to have at the end of the semester, I think!

And when I say IM students, I of course mean everyone! I'm sure second years can get TK3 licenses as well!

Posted by jdillon at 06:27 PM | Comments (1)

January 13, 2004

Funny Games

The Newest Homestar Runner Email is a funny parody of some video games types, especially the "text-based" adventure. After the email is over, if you click on it you can actually play the games. Try the text one: Thy Dungeonman

Strongbad Email Video Games

Posted by jdillon at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

Mobile Media...but not a phone!

Was just reading about the new Sony Playstation handheld. I didn't find any information on whether it would network with others, but I'd be excited to see this as a future platform for mobile media content, rather then a phone. For some reason I can't get into gaming, etc.. on a phone, but I love my gameboy! :) Has anyone heard anything else about this?

SONY PSP SPECS

Posted by jdillon at 06:05 PM | Comments (2)

Andrew was talking about this...

I found this link with more info after Andrew caught my interest earlier today :)

Dell, HP Back Sony's Blue-ray Higher-Capacity DVD Standard

Amsterdam -- PC makers Dell and HP have endorsed the new Blu-ray DVD standard, which will provide for up to four hours of high-definition video on a single disc, Reuters reported. The two companies' endorsement of the Blu-ray standard -- also backed by Hitachi, LG, Philips, Sony and Thomson -- is a blow to backers of a competing blue-laser DVD technology created by Japanese firms NEC and Toshiba. However, for its part the competing standard has won support from the DVD Forum, a group of 220 DVD player makers and media firms.

From Yahoo

Posted by jdillon at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)

January 08, 2004

It's Time For a Great Second Semester!

Hey everyone!

My New Year's IM Resolutions:

  • More Posting!
  • More in-depth Research on:
    • Interactive Television
    • Fictional Blog Content
    • Interaction Design and Methods
  • Find a MMORPG that's INTERESTING (to me!)

I'm sure there's more but I don't want to overburden myself! Now hopefully, I can stick to these resolutions!! What does everyone else want to see for the new year?

Posted by jdillon at 11:17 PM | Comments (1)