For those students keen on viewing the film As Real As Your Life which was briefly discussed during the History and Analysis 3 module and was planned to be shown as part of the "Becoming Cyborg" lecture on the 12th March there will be another chance to view this movie on 30th March at 6pm at MMU as part of the Technolust season that is currently screening.

For those that have not seen the trailer for this short film i have embeded it below

This screening will be a double bill of As Real As Your Life and the Korean film I'm A Cyborg But That's OK

X48 and Game Jamming

I thought that i would draw the class' attention to this event that has been running this weekend... The X48 GameCamp at the University of Derby. I have been following this as it has developed over the weekend after latching onto it as it flew by on my blog dashboard of updates from Wonderland. As an event closely relating to the idea of Indie Game Jams and the Global Game Jam discussed in the first session.

I am not sure how i feel about the corporate sponsorship of these sorts of indie events as it seems to fit somewhere between "Cool Hunting" and good publicity.

I think one of the things that is so interesting is the use of web 2.0 technologies to publicise the event and follow its progress (YouTube, twitter, blogging, facebook, Flicker, daytum, Last.FM play lists).

(I think we could all learn a little from this approach)

I think that it is also interesting to see the idea of a Jam with XNA rather than Flash or the ipod dev tools seen at a lot of other Jams.

InterfaceLIFT - Bit of Randomness

Hey People

Nothing to do with the blog, but just wanted to share this as it is a great little website. Its a wallpaper website that is full of user content, but there are some good wallpapers on pictures on here which are free to use.

The website is http://interfacelift.com/

See what you think and enjoy some good backgrounds for your computer

Violence in Video Games

My topic I will be writing my essay on will be Violence in video games. There are a lot of controversies surrounding this topic in recent times and I find it very interesting to do some more research about this topic and what other people think. This has been everywhere in the news, magazines and even in the newspapers so this is no news to anyone. I will be using various researches sources such as magazines, article and internet sources to do my research. The reason why I chose to do my essay on this topic was, as a gamer I like violence in video games and I find it a little boring to play games with little violence it them. So choosing this topic will help me express myself freely in a way I would like and argue for and against violence in Video games. This research at the end will give me a broad idea about the effects violence can have in a video games and children.

Mountain Dew Gets Warcrafted

Hey People

I have just found this on Kotaku and thought it would be useful for Alex's work at the moment. Mountain Dew have released a special Warcraft edition of their drink called Game Fuel. They have done this a few times before with some other games such as Halo 3 and Metal Gear Solid 3 (if I am thinking right)

You can find the link at

http://kotaku.com/5173387/world-of-warcraft-the-soft-drink

Cheers

Luke

Student Presentations - Peer Review

As those that presented for the H&A3 module will know I run a system of peer review with presentations, some of the marking criteria have changed so i thought i would release a copy of this terms peer marking sheet for you to see before you present

Charlie Brooker on Gaming. What's not to like?

Charlie Brooker in the Guardian discussing gaming.

Harsh, vitriolic, and amusing all at the same time. Just a short comment on the popularity of videogames and their sometimes deceptively un-intuitive interfaces. Not very deep but Brooker is always, in the very least, perceptive if you can shift through the swear words.

If he could team up with a design team and publisher, do you think a videogame from his imagination would rival his reality TV parody Dead Set (2008)? I'd buy it.

Resident Evil 5 - I Take It All Back

Hello People

Not In Thursday's Lecture, I said that I was not going to buy Resident Evil 5 and said how bad the demo was. But I won some money and ended up buying it after saw a video of Chris and Wesker fighting each other, so was hooked there and then.

I do take it all back though, the demo was bad but the game is so much better and the team based game mechanics work very well, even if they are a bit wooden and glitchy.

So I think I have learned a lesson in all this which is don't judge a game on the demo that is released (before or after the game has been released)

See you all soon

Are Games Good For Learning - Academic Paper

Hey people

I have been doing research for my presentation/essay and came across a usefull paper for ste matthews presentation. It poses the question are "Video Games Good For Learning?" and I have read the first few pages and looks good.

It is a bit old now as one of its focuses is Thief: Deadly Shadows and Dues Ex, but can be applied to modern games easily me thinks.

You can find the paper at the following URL

http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/MacArthur.pdf

Cheers People

Presentation Abstract - Title Change (Bio-Terrorism to Terrorism)

Hey People

Sorry about the late notice of this, but I have decided to change the title of my presentation to include all forms of terrorism and not Bio Terrorism imparticular. I have been doing research tonight and have found out that my terrorism research contains more infomation than the bioterrorism research to going to include both in the presentation/essay.

Hope this is OK and see you all next week

Luke

Resident Evil Research - Gametrailers Retrospective

As people know, I have been researching terrorism and bioterrorism in videogames and imparticular Resident Evil.

I have played all of the titles in the series already, but have been watching this retrospective in case I have missed anything in the story timeline.

I thought if people haven't seen it, it is a good video to watch just to recap over the series.

You can find the video at http://www.gametrailers.com/player/46616.html

The Unfinished Swan

Student Presentations

Can ALL students book a place to present their work for this module on Doodle. Students can only book one slot and each slot can only be book once (Doodle has improved since last term). Presentation slots are on a first come first served basis... Students should keep in mind that the presentation is of a work in progress but should be of a professional and academic nature. Presentations constitute 25% of your final mark and will be peer reviewed. Please go to http://www.alanhook.co.uk/CVG_HA4/pa2_ha4_0809.pdf for further guidance.

For those that haven't used Doodle before please visit the doodle site here type your name in the box, pick your time on the day you prefer and click save. I will be monitoring the site to make sure people are taking part and that it is running smoothly.

Damian Redman - Jumping out of the medias scapegoat

Heres my abstract for the essay

Controversy and the games industry have sat hand in hand for years, the most famous and historic example being the Grand Theft Auto series. So many gameplay decisions made by GTA’s creators whether made to be satirical or not have been contested by the media. The biggest scandal surrounding the 2004 adaption Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and it ‘hot Coffee’ Feature.

Naturally when its latest instalment Grand Theft Auto 4 hit shelves April 2008, it was going to also meet the same fate at the hands of the media. However another game that shares countless similarities to the Grand Theft Auto series has emerged and has been able to avoid the controversy scapegoating by the Media, this game in question is Saints Row 2.

Through comparing the four biggest elements to Grand Theft Auto’s controversial status, Violence, Sexual Content, Drug and alcohol abuse with strong examples in Saints Row 2 to reveal in what ways volition Inc, Saints row 2 developers, tackled these highly taboo elements in the media’s eyes and were able to dispense the controversy. As well as the controversy angle both games will be summarised in their genre role to discuss which matches it the best.

The Starving Video Game Artist

Check out this interview with Jason Rohrer on IGN. Really interesting for those on both sides of the debate regarding art vs product, game artists and the economic decline, freeware vs platform games, and his games in general.

The Impact of Video games as virtual worlds for positive learning and development.

Here is a brief abstract of the topic I will be researching this semester.

Video games have for many years been researched as activities that promote the learning of an individual as they can allow for personal, meaningful experiences and developmental growth. Virtual worlds are increasingly having a more significant impact upon society as an effective method of aiding in human development and learning through the participation in an activity that many class as fun and entertaining. The real world value of video game play cannot be underestimated as further study into the theory and practice of creating a game allows for increasingly more accurate representations of important aspects intrinsic to positive human development. This does not even take into consideration the abundance of games intentionally designed to promote learning that are now being crafted for specific purposes, allowing individuals to have a truly interactive and experiential method from which to learn skills. While there are certainly stories of people allowing video games to impact their lives to their own detriment, in general and with regards to the vast majority, video game play promotes the development of the individual. It is through participation in video gaming as a voluntary activity, that a person becomes challenged to overcome obstacles and in many cases is not only developing personal skills but is also learning what can be classed as the virtual embodiment of cultural and social practices.

Alex Wallace - Product Placement and Marketing within Video Games

The topic that I am going to be studying is on product placement and marketing within video games. In recent years product placement has grown exponentially due to rising costs in the making of a video game. These can either be seen as just subtle advertisements in the game world or as something more integral to a game such as a gadget representative of a real product.

I am going to looking at how this aspect of games has come about and grown into something that is now considered commonplace amongst big budget video games. I am also going to be looking at how this affects the game and how the player is expected to react when exposed to such marketing techniques.

To do this I am going to be using the internet to research specific games that express product placement frequently throughout games. I will be looking at other articles that are on the topic and I will also be drawing a comparison between product placement in movies and in video games to see how they are becoming similar and the reasons why.

David Jaffe - Youtube Videos

Hi People

Alan has sent me a link on my blog for a selection of Videos created by David Jafee (Sony Developer and God Of War 1 director).

All of them can be found on his youtube account and just wanted to share then with the rest of the group to see what they think, he punts on videos like a Video Blog and ofter answers viewers questions that have been left on the video page.

They are rearly good and give you in insight to his life and current work load. you can find the videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/spidey999

200 bravely battled the gaming masses!

Hey if anyone doesn't knows Edge magazine's next issue is its 200th. To celebrate they are doing a special 200th issue cover for people with subscription's created by Media Molecule. As for everyone else Edge is doing something pretty crazy considering traditional print media is struggling at the moment. They are putting out 199 different covers featuring various video games/ characters from gaming's vast history. Its a pretty exciting thing to look at and I'm sure you'll find one person in the UK who gonna try and "catch em all" with a plush Pikachu doll on their shoulder. Heres a link to Edge Online where you can view the special covers in pretty high quality, as for the cover on this post I'm just a sucker for Advance Wars :), god I hope i find it!

http://www.edge-online.com/news/edge-200-issues

Auditorium

I know that innovation isn't exactly the best place to go at the moment as a topic and it is all a little touch and go, (i think that maybe things have got a little "blue sky" so they will be reined back in this week... but before i do...) here is a game i wanted to share, I thought it would be appropriate as we have people that have joined us from the music module. This is one of my all time favorite browser games.

Auditorium