Paul Bellezza

Via Kotaku, I linked up to this great article in Wired

Its a musing by a game journalist as to why we sometimes get uncontrollably hooked on a game for a week or two and then put it away cold turkey style. Here is an interview excerpt from the article by Clive Thompson:

"....Jonathan Hayes, a forensic pathologist in New York, regularly falls hard for gorgeous-world games like Ico, and recently he was swallowed whole by Resident Evil 4. He thinks the reason he stops playing a game is that he's unwrapped every skin on its onion.

"You kind of see through the game to its underlying mechanics," Hayes says, "and it suddenly seems no longer worth the investment of time." This is much like what Ralph Koster argues in his Theory of Fun: We humans seek constant novelty, so only gameplay that has nearly infinite permutations -- like chess -- can hold our attention forever...."

In my case I feel like I can't play many FPSs, RPGs, and most platformers any more just because I'm so used to the mechanics. This most recently happened to me with Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow which I creamed through in a week of constant play. At the moment, I see no reason to play with it. 6 Months later, I might pick it up again.

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Video Prototype Ideas

Team 1- Jorge, Paul and Mike B.

Mike Brazil likes pizza

1) Ubiquitious Cameras

- Couples in Relationships- Commuter Relationship Cameras
- Stalking through remote activated cameras (embedded in your partner's clothing)

2) In/Out GAme communication devices
- You can communicate with people within a game world from the outside
- Ex. World Of Warcraft- u can send a message to someone's cell phone from in the game
-Ex send them video

3) Two Way Television
- Cameras within TV and the broadcasters can SEE YOU (as well as you see them)
- Video Conferencing on a MAINSTREAM LEVEL

4) Appliances that respond to you

- Bed that makes itself
- Toothpaste that re-caps itself
- Stoves that cook whatever you want (like in Pee Wee's Playhouse)

5) Game systems that track your head movements and adjusts the camera accordingly
- B4 game starts it maps your eye locations (kind of like the Eye Toy)

6) Genetic Data PDAs
- Store data about yourself inside your body's cell
- Special devices (like PDAs) are used to transmit data about urself to banks, credit card companies, people ur interested in dating (like a genetic compatibility list)

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm not a regular reader of CSM but from time to time I peruse their technology section. Here's an article that asks the questions: Are Multiplayer Online games more compelling or more addictive?"

Notable Quotes:

"The games, with names like"City of Heroes," "The Legend of Mir," and "Asheron's Call" "are made to be addictive," she says." - Maressa Orzack, director of the Computer Addiction Study Center at McLean Hospital in Belmon,t Mass.

"For a lot of people, in their real lives they don't get to be a hero," he says. "Suddenly, [in the game] they're a cleric who can resurrect a warrior, can save other players. [Or they're a] a wizard who can cast out a rain of fire ... someone with great powers...A teenager might be the leader of a guild with 100 or more players, many of whom probably are much older". That's "very seductive" for someone who might not be entrusted with much responsibility in real life, Yee says. - Quote from Nick Yee Graduate Student Researcher at Stanford

"Players also may choose to play as characters of the opposite gender. Their motives are varied. Some think they will gain an in-game advantage: Women characters are more likely to be treated better and given more help by the other players, Yee says. But they also can be "treated like a second-class citizen." If a female and male character are of equal fighting strength, he says, the male character is usually asked by the group to lead an attack.

On the other hand, women who play as male characters often "say they didn't realize how cold, hierarchical, and impersonal a lot of male-male b"onds can be," Yee says."

"In general, MMORPGs are getting an unfair rap, Delwiche says. "When television was introduced, there was much concern about TV addiction," he says. "New media historically have tended to engender a lot of fear ... that bad social messages will be imparted." -AaronDelwiche, Aassistant professor of Communication at Trinity University in San Antonio

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

http://ascweb.usc.edu/asc.php?pageID=333

I just learned this was going on just down Fig on Adams. It's great to see some critical studies research on gaming! I'd love to find a way for us IMD peeps to collaborate.

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been kicking it, Perry Hoberman style! What what!

Presenting Tommy Trojan and that Stop Sign by Lucas in rudimentary 3-Dizzle.

Word.

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Via Kotaku:

NPR's All Things Considered has a nice 3 minute piece on WOW's plague. Researches from Tuft's University are interested in studying the effects of the plague on WOW's players asa parrallel to how people in the world might react to an epidemic.

It's pretty neat the NPR covered this and they also go into the notion of "play" as a part of many people's daily ritual. Score one for gamers and game researchers everywhere!

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Stein and I went out to the Track Field for our hand at a Panoram. Here ya go!

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)