http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia reflections about cross media, participation, and play Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:50:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Quite fascinating: a student of game design by the name of Robin Burkinshaw created the universe Alice and Kev, two emotionally disturbed Sims who have been put in a desolate setting with just a couple of benches and who are trying to survive without money with just their Sims ... http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/21/homeless-in-the-sims-3-game-storytelling-or-social-experiment/ Next week I will be going to a conference in Urbino called "Modernity 2.0" - the topic is socio-cybernetics and many papers seem to be related to Luhmann, Gordon Pask and similar; I will be presenting the paper "The Obama campaign on Facebook: playful conversation, trust, and civic engagement in ... http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/21/going-to-modernity-20/ I am an online student! I am glad it's online because I heard there are 700-something students, and in real life it would be a real mess. this is the course: Ian Schreiber, is offering a online summer course on game design. Game Design Concepts is a large-scale online version ... http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/15/summer-course-of-game-design-an-experiment-in-education/ Like we didn't have enough reality shows, or we didn't spend enough time online anyway, the spanish developers of Tengaged has created the world-first reality social game. The game is very straightforward. When you sign up, Tengaged prompts you to create a cartoon-style avatar, reminiscent of Nintendo’s Miis. The avatars ... http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/15/big-brother-meets-facebook-reality-social-network/ As my Facebook Friends know very well, I have been recently obsessed by the hoax TV news clips by The Onion Network; here are a couple of them related to game culture, in fact they don't sound very different from the news in italian television Hot New Video Game Consists Solely ... http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/15/the-onion-on-games/ The third book of the trilogy edited by Pat Harrigan and Noah Waldrip-Fruin, after "First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game", and "Second Person: Role-playing and Story in Games and Playable Media", is out. Henry Jenkins interviewed the authors, and the results are interesting, take a look http://henryjenkins.org/2009/05/an_interview_with_pat_harrigan.html http://henryjenkins.org/2009/05/authoring_and_exploring_vast_n.html http://henryjenkins.org/2009/05/authoring_and_exploring_vast_n_1.html http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/15/third-person-authoring-and-exploring-vast-narratives/ McDonald launched a new interactive sign in Piccadilly Circus where passers-by can interact with images displayed on McDonald's giant LED screen. Is this video a hoax or not? http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/15/interactive-billboard/ It has been a long time since I thought I had something to say about cross media and play; in fact I am still looking for an academic job, applying here and there, and the focus of my research has kind of shifted towards play and playfulness in social media, ... http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/15/time-to-resurrect-this-blog/ Layoff, game about inflation and precarious work, designed by Mary Flanagan. They are part of this really cool Values at Play project; why don't they have anything like that in Europe? http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/06/04/layoff/ The program of Video Vortex 4 in Split is online, I will be talking on the second day, if you happen to be around say hi :-) The conference is happening under the illustrious wings of Geert Lovink and Lev Manovich, I am really looking forward. http://factorygirl.org/gamesacrossmedia/2009/05/19/video-vortex-4/