Nahil Sharkasi

Come see SEEDS at the USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase
Friday Oct. 23
11 - 2pm
VonKleinsmid Courtyard

Synopsis:
Seeds is a thought-provoking, interactive experience that positions players at the center of bio-ethical debate. Part serialized medical drama, part online social game, Seeds prompts and often challenges players to assess their own beliefs to determine an ethical, moral and compassionate solution. Through engaging role-play in which players treat and diagnose infertility using cutting-edge and controversial technologies, players learn of how each decision shapes their world and the fate of characters in it.
 
Social Impact:
Should individuals create Life from the DNA of a deceased partner? Should there be a limit placed on how many fetuses a woman carries in her womb? Should parents interfere with their child's genetics before he or she is born? Who has authority to make these decisions--science, individuals or the government? The social ramifications of the true stories showcased in SEEDS is what makes this experience so compelling. The challenging nature of the subject matter also presents an opportunity for innovative treatment of agency and decision-making in games. Seeds leverages role-play in order to explore collective ethical decision-making and the undeniable effects of groups, culture, and media on ethics. The underlying system developed for this project may further be used to model ethical decision making in many different arenas.

www.seedsgame.com

Steven Colbert does a bit on celebrity look-a-like sperm...

Formula 401: A Star is Born

...you need a fertility clinic, and the Seeds team needs you!

Seeds is a game about assisted reproductive technology and the shape of the 21st century.

My MFA thesis project is a serialized medical drama and online game that positions players at the center of a bio-ethical controversy, prompting them to engage with their own beliefs and biases. An innovative combination of role-playing game mechanics and structured character arcs based on true stories create a unique and compelling experience where each decision helps shape the world and the fate of characters in it.

Project Start Date: ASAP
Project Deadline: April 16th
Key Deliverable Dates: Alpha Prototype: Oct 21, Beta Prototype: Dec 4

Positions:

Web Developer
• Experience programming data intensive dynamic web applications
• Familiar with Flash, Flex and Actionscript
• Experience with PHP and MySQL

Graphic Designer
• Design interface elements for flex and flash applications
• Design a coherent look and feel for the game

Sound Designer
• User feedback sounds
• Game feedback sounds
• Ambient music and environmental sounds

Compensation:
Snacks and credit. Compensation is negotiable depending on position, experience and time commitment.

Contact me - sharkasi@usc.edu

Last week at GDC I attended the "Game Design Challenge" session hosted by Eric Zimmerman. The title of the challenge was "My First Time...", and the designers were charged with creating a game about sex and auto biography. Sulka Harro, Steve Meretzky, and the team of Heather Kelley and Erin Robinson competed, each sharing a snapshot of their first sexual experience.

The common thread across all three projects was the horrible, embarrassing, awkwardness of it all. Meretzky's game put the player through a geeky boy's several failed attempts, until one day, older and wiser he finally scores. Harro told a similar story, but then seemed to buckle under pressure and changed his game to "Your First Time..." shifting focus off his own experience on to the players' (I actually thought his idea would be a great communication tool, and could be really fun).

The women, Kelley and Robinson presented a uniquely female perspective - in their game the player had to shave her legs, pick the right outfit, and pick all the garlic out of her dinner knowing her date wouldn't do the same. When talking about design process, Robinson said that they had thought about just doing a game about counting ceiling tiles -- the remark was met with a roar of laughter and applause. With one smart remark, she reminded us all of how ingrained the male perspective is in games and in the industry, & the only way to change that is for more women to be present and contribute.

Robinson and Kelly won the challenge, for more details check this article on game spot .

After the session was done, I approached Erin Robinson to congratulate her and Kelley on their win and commend them on their bravery for sharing their intimate stories in front of such a large (& predominantly male) audience. Robinson was still nervous and in shock that she had actually done it - talked about sex, in public, with a room full of game designers.

I recognized her jittery-ness, having myself recently presented a project with some racy and sexual content in front of my peers. I was very pleased that this audience was more open minded, and prepared to explore this topic than the audience that reviewed my project.

So what exactly makes talking about sex in games (in an honest, artistic, expressive way, not a GTA sort-of-way) such a challenge? Judging by, the results of this Game Design Challenge, it's only as difficult and awkward as it is for the designer. If Jenna Jameson or Hugh Heffner were on the panel, the results would be totally different. So, is it purely about what the designers, as authors, can bring to the game? Or might it have something to do with perceived audience? If Harro, Meretzky, Kelley and Robinson were presenting on a panel about sex games for the adult entertainment industry, might their designs have been totally different? Going back to my own experience in this arena -- there is no shortage of racy, sexually suggestive material geared towards both men and women on the iPhone App store (An alternate title for this post - Fratboys, Feminists, and iPhone). Could that be because that market is demographically a bit wider than the typical "gamer" market?

In light of yesterday's seminar, this is especially creepy --

Recently I joined an anonymous social networking site to try to meet new people in LA. Within 3 days, I got an email from an old friend from D.C. who I had sort of lost touch with-- turns out the network *somehow* matched us together, despite the fact that 1)I now live in LA and he lives in New York, 2) I neither searched for him, nor did he search for me, and 3) there's nothing in my profile (or his) specific enough that would connect us together above the millions of other people who say they enjoy music and cycling. How did this happen? Is there meta data that the site is culling from me that somehow augments my profile to connect me to people I actually know? Or are their matching algorithms really so amazing that I should invest fully in their match-making capabilities? ... ok, i've said to much. But, as my friend put it, Big Brother is watching.

In The Bail Out Game, by Blue Earth Interactive, you assume the role of a driver bottomless dumptruck of money, driving down wall street handing out cash to banks, firms and anyone who will accept. At each stop in the Monopoly-inspired game board you're given the choice to "Bail Out" or "Let Them Fail". Half way through, Congress approves more bail outs and "The Recession" (an angry mob on a fire truck?) is awakened and starts chasing you down the game board. You goal is to make it to the end of the street without being hit by The Recession.

I played the first time though denying all the appeals for bail outs. I let all the banks and firms fail, and the skyscrapers were replaced by for-sale signs. I also got some ominous video clips of mushroom clouds and more angry mobs. I was thinking that since we've got to live with the bailout in the real world, at least this game space could show us what might happen if we did just let our failed institutions, well... fail. However, the game quickly revealed its bias, reminding me that "Whoops! That was a bad idea!" and that bail outs were the only way to help the economy. I had expected the system to degrade, to see the consequences of my withholding the bailout money, but the game spaces (representing banks) seemed to replenish with each collapse, so I felt no incentive to start spending. I got to the end of the game without spending a single dollar, and without getting caught by The Recession, but I was told that a death-spiral depression had hit and the earth was taken over by zombies. So I guess I lost?

The only viable choice the system gives you is to spend the bail out money. So that's what I did. I played again spending as much as I could, bailing out every bank that asked. I expected to run out of money, or to get trampled by the recession mob, but to my surprise, I made it to the end having spent only a little over half the money I had and with the Recession truck safely 5 spaces behind. So I guess I won?

I left the experience not knowing what the criteria was for my win or loss, and not really feeling like it mattered wether I bailed Wall Street out or not. This game relies heavily on video and text to communicate changes in the system to the player. This is not successful strategy because 1) the videos chosen were often vague, but 2) the system does not change as a consequence of your presence in it.

What I really love about doing games about the economy is that you're already dealing with an intricate system that has inherent mechanics and rewards. I was really disappointed to see this flimsy game system plunked on top of such a naturally dynamic (maybe too dynamic) economic system. In my own research on this subject the term "perception of a system" came up, and I think that's my motivation to try to distill this wild and unruly topic into a game, because a system can communicate information that video and text can't.

PS - This game also made me want to play Monopoly, anyone in?

This week's assignment in CTIN542 to start thinking about ourselves, our current state of progress, our thesis, and reasons we might fail in the process of developing and executing our thesis. As a prompt we were asked to visit the the World Press 08 exhibit at the Annenberg School, choose a photograph that resonates with our Thesis ideas.

This photograph by Christoph Bangert shows a German training exercise for troops in Afghanistan. The disparities between the natural landscape and the training poster, to me represents what happens many times in games that aim to represent content in the real world. The result often has more to do with the designer's own world view than the realities of the situation. The image represents what I would not want to do with my thesis

Thesis Idea 1) a game that explains the current economic crisis - a 5-15 minute experience that would give you the same information and level of understanding that reading a print article or watching a news package would. This idea is currently the front runner. My hope is that it would be faithful to the realities of the content, and would give a 'reality-check' on what it means to be 'middle-class' in 2009/2010.

This image by Olivier Culmann represents the communal and universal experience of getting immersed in narrative. The images taken from different places in the world speak to the power of television. I am deeply interested in how that power gets transferred with the rise of new media.

Thesis Idea 2) trans-media narratives that use multiple platforms, exploring what is the optimal narrative potential of mobile, webisodes, forums, games, blogs. ie: Taking the example of "Heroes Evolutions", what parts of that story are best told through the tv show, or the graphic novel, or the games, or the webisodes?

Thesis Idea 3) using multiple screens to illustrate causal relationships in a branching narrative. If you could see discrete moments in time simultaneously across multiple screens, how would that effect your understanding of causal relationships in a narrative or effect the choices you make to influence the narrative?

Three technologies to learn -
1) Flash
2) iPhone Apps
3) VXML, or other mobile technology that can initiate/receive calls and SMS messages

We were also asked to create a 'photo-journalistic' image of our current selves as we would remember ourselves 5 years in the future...(still not really sure what this means.)

This photo represents how I might look back on my graduate school experience. I feel pretty isolated and like I'm not really enjoying my experience, being in school, being in LA as much as I should. Perhaps I'm taking things too seriously, I'm too wrapped up in my own thoughts... This assignment made me think of something Oprah Winfrey said, "...I weep for the woman I was in my 20s." Five years from now, I don't want to feel like the best is behind me, but rather that the best is yet to come. I accept that I may stumble through this period in my life with the hope that better things are on the horizon.. Which brings me to the next assignment -- reasons I (or anyone for that matter) might fail in the next 18 months...

GENERAL
-Fuzzy ideas – not concrete
-Under/overestimating scope of project
-Not creating a digital prototype early enough
-Not having enough crew
-Not knowing how to manage your crew
-Poor time management
-Inability to communicate/articulate your idea to other
-Inability to get others excited or interested in your idea
-Doing something that’s been done
-Not setting the bar high enough
-Setting the bar too high
-Not asking critical questions
-Not listening to critiques from others
-Not listening to advisors
-Losing interest, losing passion

PERSONAL
-Giving in to family pleas to come home to Chicago (because no work gets done in Chicago)
-Balancing (or not balancing) work and personal life
-Not working with a skilled programmer
-Choosing something that is important and relevant, over than something I’m personally passionate about
-Not taking time to take care of myself, keeping healthy, getting enough sleep, eating well, exercise, etc...

The future has arrived, but are you ready for the world in 2010? The world I created for CTIN532: Interactive Design and World Building is a futuristic, sci-fi vision of the present. All the technology, conflicts, and sheer weirdness represented in The New Times (a fictional news publication I created as the atlas to this world) are ripped-from-the-headlines, taken from real-life news media. The world is much stranger than you thought.

2010: The New Times

2010: Stories from the Second Floor Blog

The equivalent of a postcard in 2010 (or in 2008, for that matter) is the sms/text message. This image of a mobile chat is branded with the 2010 "I <3 NY" campaign to re-brand New York as the premier 21st century city. As attention increases in value as a commodity, every aspect of life is fair game for advertising.

I Imagine this conversation is a casual encounter between two people who met on the 'Social' page of The New Times.

I've also started this blog for one of my characters as a way to expand the fiction of the '21010' world

Stories from the Second Floor

The premise is that this character, Irena, was hired to write a profile piece about life on living wage in the form of this blog, that will be linked from 'The New Times' website.

Neuroscientist Gary Small thinks the internet is changing the way our brains work. His new book, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Human Mind posits that millenials/ "digital natives" are really good at making swift connections and decisions, but bad at recognizing subtle facial gestures. Small predicts that natural selection will favor these brains, and traditional interpersonal/non-verbal communications skills will become extinct.

The Modern Brain, Newsweek
iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Human Mind

Continue reading "Evolution and The Internet" »