James Miao

Johnny Lee is a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University who took a standard Nintendo Wii remote and turned a monitor in to something real special.

i met kina my freshman year at usc, i believe through a mutual friend (jason yano). she's an amazing singer/songwriter and always impressed me with how enterprising she was during the ongoing distraction that is college. well, she's also the girl behind the "gotta digg" song that literally exploded to the tune of 10k+ collective diggs yesterday.

kina's in the running for an opportunity to get mega exposure during the superbowl and earn a recording contract with interscope. she needs our help, so please visit this site and vote if you like her music.

I once came across a thought-provoking quote by US magician & showman Penn Jillette in a 1993 interview with WIRED.

"Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, 'Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not?' But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision."

I could see the merits in what Jillette said, but, being a guy who's made interactive games, I also found myself partially conflicted. Of course, Jillette's view is very subjective and generalizes what people want out of storytelling, but I wanted to throw this out to the IMD community.

What are you thoughts?

The Vietnam War left his father 100 percent mentally disabled with post-traumatic stress disorder. After getting treatment at a V.A. hospital for several years, his father was discharged. Unable to work, he spent the days and evenings watching sci-fi thriller Aliens over and over again until he actually had to buy a new VHS tape. "Aliens is a thinly veiled kind of Vietnam veteran kind of story," Roush explains, "and watching it is a way of thinking about it without telling yourself you are thinking about it." The movie was visceral therapy for his father. That's when it hit Roush. Refusing to accept the death of loved ones. Seeking out an escape from that truth. Giants falling in slow motion. "You could see where someone who was dealing with 9/11 would be engrossed by a giant that keeps collapsing over and over again," he says. Charlie's therapy was Shadow of the Colossus.

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Though I've probably made mention of it to a few of my fellow IMD compatriots over the past few semesters, a friend of mine recently suggested that I share this thought: If Bill Gates was TRULY treacherous and diabolical as we've been made to believe, then why doesn't he just buy every single PS3 in circulation and burn them? The PS3 Cremation Ceremony would also serve as a fitting, shock 'n awe solution to introducing Microsoft Live's answer to YouTube, not to say a day of days for XBOX fans and the XBOX Live Marketplace.

It's...PURE EVIL!!!

A player-created sport has come to life from the MMORPG City of Villains.

"Repel Ball" is a new, soccer-like pastime that is built on top of the standard City of Villains game and uses a player-designed in-game field facility. The ball is a low-level minion (clever!), which is blasted around the playing field by characters wielding repel powers. The object of the game is to get the ball into the opposing team's goal. Interestingly enough, each match is refereed by a player-controlled avatar.

From what I understand, despite content updates and rewards for veteran players, many MMOs begin to lose their appeal as players reach levels of mastery with their characters. Repel Ball is an example of emergent play resulting from players mastering the original game system. Given their extensive knowledge of how the standard game works, players wove aspects of the existing rules together to form a new diversion, creating a unique experience not specifically provided by the original game designers.

This phenomenon must be a dream come true for any MMO developer -- recurring subscription revenue from customers continuing to entertain themselves through emergent behavior.