GDC 07
Who's going, and what days will you be there for?
This should make planning a department dinner (and rides up North) much easier.
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Who's going, and what days will you be there for?
This should make planning a department dinner (and rides up North) much easier.
It's something that's been rattling around in my head for a while, and seeing Jesse's comment on a recent blog post, about it being a failed experiment, motivated me to finally post about it.
ZML is a room built for ADD. When we have a speaker in on Wednesday, we've got a million things going on that all encourage us to do anything but pay attention to who's speaking. Back channel, which is ostensibly a way for the speaker to easily see what the audience is saying, is usually just a channel for people to try and make jokes.
I thought the back channel was incredibly interesting 2 weeks ago, during the games seminar. But why leave it in the back channel? The questions and issues that people were raising should have been in the front channel. Why encourage an avenue for people to direct their conversation AWAY from the main conversation in the room? Back channel became an echo chamber that day, with comments that should have been directed to the room, but instead stayed quietly hidden.
I really enjoyed the thesis presentations last Tuesday, in no small part because there were no distractions. No back channel, no constantly changing images on the screens, and far fewer people playing around on their computers. There were a lot of people who did come in to the room, though, and ask for a power outlet so they could plug in their laptop. Why? Why do you need a computer in order to listen to a presentation about somebody's thesis?
I've been without a laptop this entire semester, and it has without a doubt led me to pay more attention to people speaking. While the ability to multi-task online is nice, for every single task that's being multiplied, we're paying attention less and less to whoever is speaking. The fact of the matter is, not every class needs computing power, and pen and paper are excellent for taking notes. There are certainly times when you want to have a computer in front of you, but for the most part, I've seen laptops being used to surf the net instead of being used for class. And that's what back channel has contributed to - distraction, instead of usefulness.
The optical illusion that I used for the prometheus image came from here.
I saw it posted on Digg a couple months ago. The person who made the spanish castle image, also put together a photoshop macro that will do it for any image you have. The more color in an image, the better.
So, after wearing SenseCam for a little more than a week, I have some thoughts about it.
First, suggestions to Microsoft:
1. Hold for the outside switches - I accidentally hit some of the buttons on SenseCam a couple times. Granted, I was wearing it on more roller coasters than the average person might, but it was still an issue. On a device that I'm wearing everywhere, I need a way to disable accidentally pressing buttons.
2. Indication of what I've done - I had no idea how to change the settings on SenseCam. I know it's experimental hardware, but I really couldn't figure out how to activate all those nifty sensors. I'd want this to be on the camera itself, not software based, so I can look down right away and see what mode I'm in.
3. Privacy Trigger - After wearing it for a day, I completely forgot that I had a camera around my neck. Including when I went to the washroom. If this is a device that you expect to see everybody in America wearing, than the other device I want to buy is something that would disable SenseCam in a given room. That, or people everywhere are going to need to install signs reminding people to hide their cameras.
4. Arm band - I want to securely fasten this to my upper arm, like an MP3 player at the gym. On my neck, I'm still getting too low a view, and it flops around when I'm walking.
More thoughts after the jump, including the part where I warn everybody that I'm going to start audio recording everything.
Personal Reflection On SenseCam
The first thing that really surprised me was how few people would ask about the random black box around my neck. I had about 10 who asked, over the course of a week. Of those, maybe half were alarmed that I was photographing them. Once I pointed out that they were standing in a casino in Vegas, and were being filmed non-stop already, they settled down. Only 1 asked me to turn it around, but that was while he was getting belligerently drunk at a party. And no, it wasn't Paul.
I'd also started referring to the camera as SenseCam, as in "I've got to go charge SenseCam". I'd given it a name. When these come to market, I better be able to personalize them. It's something I'm going to be carrying around with me everyday, everywhere. It's an extension of my memory.
If we all start wearing these, we're going to completely revamp our idea of what's suitable for pictures, and what stays in private. By the end of the week, I'd completely forget about wearing a camera. I've looked through the pictures, and didn't see anything that I wouldn't want anybody else to see, but I couldn't look through all of them - there's a couple thousand!
As a memory recording device, SenseCam was great at Magic Mountain, but only okay at the confernce. When I'm doing something that involves a lot of motion, and traveling, SenseCam is the way to go. But, at a conference, when what I'm trying to remember isn't actions but words, I'd rather have an audio recording. I kept thinking about Mark refering to "perfect memory" this week. SenseCam doesn't give me perfect memroy, for what I do. Most of what I want to remember is auditory. I'd want SenseCam while walking down the street, but I'd want to swtich to audio mode once I'm in class.
With that in mind, I've bought a digital voice recorder. I'm going to be using it all day. The recordings are just for me, not for a project or anything else. They will live in a password protected folder on my home computer. They're so I can remember my day perfectly. If you've got a problem with me doing this, let me know and we can talk about it, but you should also ask yourself what it is you're saying that you don't want anybody remembering.
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.
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.