http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/ en-us 2008-02-03T18:23:22-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2008/02/playing_pmog_ag.html I had a ton of fun brainstorming, making and testing a game called PMOG with folks in the USC IMD. PMOG was my MFA thesis project - an MMO game built around surfing the web: your web trail evolved a... Games jhall 2008-02-03T18:23:22-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/10/halo_3_screensh.html Halo 3 came out recently. Big media event! The team that worked on the game ensured that it will have additional longevity - since the game ships with tools for users to create and upload their own videos and screenshots... Games jhall 2007-10-25T13:17:41-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/08/stephen_dinehar.html Congrats to IMD graduate Erin Dinehart! It sounds like he's in a position as "Narrative Designer" at Relic Entertainment to draw on his community and background to make commercial video games more emotionally resonant. At least according to this three-part... Games jhall 2007-08-07T15:56:52-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/05/imd_2007_family.html After spending three years with folks in the IMD, I was eager to see what their parents looked like. The second-to-last day of school, we mostly got to see!... jhall 2007-05-13T12:28:43-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/04/community_analy.html Many of us have friends offline. We went to school with them, we met them through our parents, we bumped into them at the park. Lots of ways to make friends. Transitioning those friends to "online friends" is tough -... Games jhall 2007-04-16T10:54:39-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/04/contender_quest.html When I went to college I got a Mac, and I stopped playing most computer games. Except, one series of games available for my machine: the Warlords series. Puzzle Quest has much of the same feeling - top down kingdom... jhall 2007-04-02T10:40:11-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/02/social_compress.html Reading over my notes on Social Network Analysis, from Michael Steele's talk, it seems much of the science of creating and managing good communities revolves around social compression - constraints and structures that foster desirable behavior. Applying these ideas to... Games jhall 2007-02-26T09:00:40-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/02/use_of_universi.html I've been eagerly awaiting the advent of the classic board game Settlers of Catan on Xbox 360. How will they implement the design in online space? Joystiq.com has published an excellent interview with the designers exploring the transition from board... Games jhall 2007-02-25T08:26:09-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/02/vanguard_saga_o.html The New York Times Arts & Leisure section ran a big profile on the game designed by one of the key Everquest team members:" Hero Returns to Slay his Dragons". What has he done since then? After a brief stint... jhall 2007-02-12T00:06:39-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/02/does_winster_ha.html Winster, an online gaming start-up, is developing games targeted at middle aged women. The games are based around the concept of reciprocal altruism. That is, rather than try to kill each other--the main purpose of several shoot-em-up games targeted at... jhall 2007-02-11T23:56:05-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/02/itty_bitty_rpg.html I'm fascinated with games merging with productivity systems and general life online. Of course, I'm not the only one; I just found this ACM paper: "Out of the video arcade, into the office: where computer games can lead productivity software,... jhall 2007-02-09T14:55:23-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/02/community_featu.html I spent most of my gaming hours playing Xbox 360. Xbox 360 has a brilliant basic feature: connect the device to the internet, and your progress in games is published online. Recently I finished a work deadline, and I looked... Games jhall 2007-02-04T10:39:06-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2007/01/bang_howdy_revi.html There's a sign hanging outside of FrontierTown: population 27. But to look at the streets here, you won't see any cowboys or gunslinger girls wandering about. You won't see them sauntering in the barbershop, the general store, the bank, the... jhall 2007-01-26T23:00:54-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2006/12/hdrsr1_shooting.html My Mom helped set up and run a school for teaching math, science and technology to disadvantaged young women in Chicago. When Oprah set out to build a similar school in South Africa, she asked my Mom for advice. Now... jhall 2006-12-25T21:46:42-08:00 http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/archives/2006/12/ending_seminar.html Eight Thirty PM, 13 September 2006: a video view of the end of 511 seminar in the ZML. Click To Play... jhall 2006-12-08T20:55:51-08:00