Jorge Mora Fernandez

After listening the last speakers of Celia Pearce, “Playing Ethnography: Studying Social Emergence in MMOGs” , and Blair Mac Intyre the "Supporting Early Design Exploration of Augmented Reality Experiences” and thinking about the current group discussion forum, Ubiquitous Storytelling, I was rethinking some questions for a hopefully near future project.

What will happen if we integrate Augmented Reality Experiences with Digital Databases and MMOGs? Could we have an Interactive Narrative Game Experience with real and fantastic images? Could we talk about Videogame Vérité? I will say why not.

And what will happen if we integrate the Videogame Vérité with the mobile technology? Could we talk about Videogame Vérité on the way? I believe there is nothing wrong with playing during our daily breaks. We could share the daily experiences, discoveries and stories on way while we will increase and introduce new actions in the Videogame Vérité. Perhaps this could be a way of using our daily time and space experiences for sharing them in a creative and collective way.

I think the human relationships are a kind of complex games, serious or casual, where we create, respect and change those rules. If we are consciences about our own human habits and behaviors and the games we like to play we could define very well what is role we want to play into this games and using media convergent ion to play smart.

I strongly believe that the study of what kind of habits and rules we like to play in the relationships and the activities we like to develop to satisfy our human emotional necessities will help to the successful production of Videogame Vérité.

If we would learn how to integrate the game mechanics in an open structure of rules, that could be effective and flexible for charig the daily interactive narratives and experiences, then we would like to learn and play the Videogame Vérité. So it is necessary to combine, to create and to research in group some creative, social and technological areas if we want to find the right recipe.

Who would not like to share a good and original "paella” with some friends? I think just the avatars who are bored.

Posted by Jorge Mora Fernandez at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Name of the Game: Success!

Game Designers: Mike Brazil & Jorge Mora.

The Plot: The object of the game is to become a partner at Milton, Faust and Fink (or at least not get fired) through any means necessary.

Goals: Corporate Ladder is a game of collaborations and betrayals. Through negotiations and backstabbing, each player tries to carve their way up the corporate ladder to become a full partner before his or her coworkers. A player can also attempt to ruin another player’s career by putting them down a rung on the ladder.

Tool or Elements:
- 2 to 4 players
- 2 dice.
- 1 board.

Rules:
1) For an average-length game, each player begins at Middle Management. For an advanced game that could either be very long or extremely short, begin at the Worker level.
2) At the start of a player’s turn, he has two choices. He can either work on an important project, or sabotage another player.
2.A) Project: If the player (the Project Lead) decides work on a project, he rolls 2d6 and consults the Key to Success! chart. This is the indication on how well he did on his project. The number indicated on the chart is the number of rungs the Lead goes up (did well on his project) or down (did poorly on his project). Example: if the Lead rolls an 8, his project was a reasonable success and he has gone up one rung on the ladder. If the Lead rolls a 6, his project did poorly and he has stepped down a rung on the ladder. If the project was a failure, the Lead can attempt to negotiate with another player (the Collaborator) to take another chance at successfully completing the project. If the Collaborator agrees, the Lead takes another roll. Since the Collaborator has devoted his precious time (gives up his next turn) to help the Lead out, his status at Milton, Faust and Fink changes. Thus, the Collaborator goes up one square on the board. Example: Mike (the Lead) wants to land the Anderson account, which could change the course of his career at Milton, Faust & Fink, but his first attempt at completing the project was a disaster and he dropped 2 rungs on the corporate ladder. Desperate to regain some status with M, F & F, he talks Jorge (the Collaborator) into helping him complete the project. Mike tries again and this time regains 1 rung on the ladder, for a total loss of 1 rung. Since Jorge came in at the nick of time to save Mike’s project, his status with M, F & F goes up 1 rung as well.
2.B) Sabotage: If the player decides that another coworker is too high up in M, F & F, he can spread office rumors and actively attempt to desecrate the coworker’s good name. All of that slander takes time (the saboteur gives up their turn) but results in the target coworker to lose one rung on the ladder. Example: after Jorge helped Mike out he ended up being 2 rungs ahead. Feeling jealous and worrying that Jorge might become a full partner ahead of him, Mike decides to spread office rumors about Jorge’s illegal practices and poor work ethic. While it isn’t enough bad press to make Jorge lose his job, Jorge still ends up being demoted.
A player cannot become partner nor be fired simply by collaborating or being sabotaged. Only a player’s own actions can determine their final fate.

Feedbacks:
-It was fun.
- There were always possibilities.
- It is necessary to increase more possibilities of collaboration in order to create more strategies in contrast with the emotional moments. For instance: you can negotiate with a player two steps below you & you promote it if he would give his turn.
- Increasing the possibilities of cooperation, increasing chances of winning with negotiation & punishing sabotage, then it will be more funny & attractive.
- Create a sabotage key which gives less possibilities of advancing.

Posted by Jorge Mora Fernandez at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are some images of the device, that looks like the eXistenZ real pod, Cronenberg’s movie from 1999, and like some parts of the device presented by Alex Singer in the 511 presentation “Close Encounters of the Digital Kind”. This was created some time ago in the MIT Lab Europe in Dublin by the Mind Games Group. This headcase was called Cerebus and it was used for other applications than reducing the stress, http://mindgames.medialabeurope.org/.

Images of the headcase brain interface Cerebus from the Mind Games Group, MIT Media Lab Europe, published by the PC Gamer (July 2004, page 18) and in the Mind Games Group website.

It was tested in the videogame Mind Balance for balancing a character.

Image of Mawg, the monster character, who has to keep his balance and to avoid failing with the help of the player’s brain electric frequencies. As the group said “The game itself is a game based on balance. By shifting your focus to either side of the screen it is possible to balance/unbalance a tight rope figure”. Project Mind Balance, mindgames.medialabeurope.org/.

It was a pity that MIT Europe was closed because the lack of finding a new funding model. Games as Relaxing to win and new projects focus in therapeutic, educational but entertainment applications are more than necessary nowadays.

Image of a moment in the videogame Relaxing to Win, where the player starts to fly because has achieve a good grade of relaxation.

The best choices are taken based in peaceful states of minds where the creativity gives the best answer to a conflict of information. But only there would be good choices if there are good motives and for the common welfare applications. All the rest is of technology is not useful for the human being evolution.

Here is, perhaps, a very necessary device and application for the real world, where people get diseases or death ( hearth attack, cancer …) as consequence of stress, controlled or uncontrolled.

There are some hardware & software solutions for creating entertainment videogames for relaxation. If you do not stress you can balance your virtual character, and your real self, or you can go faster and fly as a dragon does. Finally you win health, serenity & perspective instead losing your mind overwhelming yourself with too much nice but stupid info. Perhaps it would be very useful to increase each person capabilities to be focus in their personal & common goals, instead of working as a money slave too much hours thinking that more hours mean the development of better projects. Wrong answer! Sometimes working less hours but enjoying them and with a calm mode we are more productive. Time is more valuable than money because it goes and you do not recover it. Then perhaps could be useful to focus research projects for relaxing the people, instead of reducing the stress to invest more time at work.

If I would be a rich man I would invest and help to develop Brain Interfaces for helping to relax the human beings. A relaxed and a happy human being is going to take good choices for sure. Perhaps it is not about the capabilities of technology but it would be about what are the applications and the motivations for building those technologies.

Here is a 25 $ brain device, with good vibrations & AA batteries, that I put over my head to reduce my headache after blog in this article ; -) (A contemporary practice of the combination of brain devices with computer interfaces).

Posted by Jorge Mora Fernandez at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)