My thoughts on AGT 09 so far...

This is the best act I have seen so far in AGT this year. Unpretentious. Great voice. I put my money on him winning the competition. One thing that puzzle me is the lady below who appeared in both Kevin Skinner's and Lawrence Beaman's auditions. Who is she? If the clips are genuine, she and her friends (near her) must be working for the producer of AGT that they can afford to jet-set and attend auditions in different cities in America.

In Beaman's audition, she sat behind David Hasselhoff on the front row, swaying her body when Beaman sang. Skinner came in EP 3 when the auditions were held in NY and Beaman, EP 5 in LA. And in between these cities, AGT went to Houston. The clips looks so similar that I am encourage to believe it is only real for Beaman. I wonder when these audition clips were first made available to the public.

Anyway, another comment I want to make is that had Simon Cowell been one of the judges, half of the act that got throught the next stage would have been kicked out. Like The Texas Tenors and Timez 2. The judges have to commit to say "NO" more often to audience who are easily moved by county nationalism with little regards whether their support is aimed at real talent. Simon knows when to do that when the audience fails to discriminate craps from talent.

Lastly, what do AGT and American Idol teach us about learning? How you assess shape the kind of gems that will come out through the education system. You would not get to see that phenomenal talent of Kevin Skinner and Susan Boyle from the idol format. So again, it is meaningless to talk about how the effectiveness of educational intervention when assessment could not assess the learning afforded by the intervention. Just my thoughts...

I'm so exhausted : /

I'm in such a bad state now. Weeks of energy-sapping work have taken a toll on my health. In the past 24 hours I had spent more that 12 hours sleeping. Still, I woke up felling more exhausted. The only thing that occupied me in sleep these past few days was work. Crazy. I even think about what I plan to do the following day in my sleep. I had no bandwidth to blog these days and I still had not completed the last 3 sections (from a total of 9 sections) of my methodology chapter. Arrgghhhh.....

Ok. Calm down. I'm on mc tomorrow. I'll spend the whole morning tomorrow finishing off the tail end of what that kept me busy. Then I will start working on my dissertation and hopefully over the weekend, I can finish 2 more sections of the methodology chapter. And yes, I hope to start blogging again.

Oh yes, I got news last week that I will be posted out the end of the year. I need to find time to update my cv and submit application. I'm tinkering where I should go. My guiding principle has always been that when you pursue a part-time graduate study, try your best not to make life-changing decisions, like changing job, move house, etc. Keep everything constant so that there would be no disruption to your study. Well, getting posted out is beyond my control. Where can I go where I can create a false sense that nothing much has change in my job and working environment? Hmm...tricky.

Mental hallucination: Another bad press about gaming

GamePolitic.com ran a post a few days ago alerting of a TV series portraying gaming in the bad light and add to the already public paranoia about the impact of gaming. The TV series is Mental. Yeah, it is crazy but it is named as such because it is about a bunch of doctors (remember ER) looking into mental patients. These doctors are probably bored to death with their job because they try so hard to squeeze something mysterious from their patients' case to make their job more fun.

So episode 4 is a another of hallucination about a kid gamer who is described in its preview as:

An 8-year-old bipolar boy whose life is consumed by a video game he plays in his head is admitted to Wharton Memorial for an accident involving a knife. When it turns out the accident was really a suicide attempt, Jack must try to get inside the little boy’s head to find out what is triggering his life-threatening rages. But when the boy bolts from the psych ward, Jack must try to save him by engaging him in his own mind game.

Respondents to the post in GamesPolitic.com (who are likely gamers) ridicule the episode and treat the mind game part as a poor excuse for a joke. Again, this kind of bad press is the last thing we need to raise the awareness of the non-gaming public what is real and what is perceived to be (or hallucinated) about gaming.

Porn producers and technology: Like moths to light

I am lost for words when I read news about Rez Trance-vibrator. First, it was Rapelay and now, this! God knows what else in between these two that I miss. I can't bear describing the Rez Trance-vibrator. You can read a gamer experience with it here (pics are available there too).

While I am excited about Project Natal and look forward to it being made available in stores, I am equally worry how the technology will be used as another medium for porn. The developers of Project Natal envision how the future of play looks like and I can just imagine what porn producers see the 21st Century porn see and feel will be. Let me just stop here. I leave everything to your imagination.

I guess there is a market for this. While people may not talk about sex openly, I guess they are thinking about it a lot. I was quite surprise to learn that you can find sex service in Second Life and people associated with SL are very open about it (see report).

Anyway, I have to draw a perimeter what my research is and is not. Else, it gets very complicated and difficult trying to defend all fronts. I leave you with a glimpse of the possibility with Project Natal below. I know you are looking forward to have your hand on it too.

First six-month report of my PhD journey

I am in my first six months of my PhD journey. I have completed the first chapter and now working on chapter 3: Methodology which I plan to complete by the end of June. I just got my first semester results for the two modules I took - 1) Social foundation of learning sciences and 2) Qualitative methods. And guess what? I did well with an "A+" for the first module and a "A" for the second. I am so happy.

Next semester, I am going for just one module: Advanced special topic in the learning science. All other modules are not relevant to my research or I had taken them during my Masters programme. Everything is moving on well now. I am excited about moving into the next semester and start working on my literature review. I have been blogging regularly to shape ideas for the literature review and I can say that I have a good idea now how I want to approach my literature review.

Games, shooting spree and strategy for an election win

GamePolitics alerts me of this article in Spiegel Online translated from German to English by Google. It reports Germany's Interior Ministers have asked their parliament to ban all violent games. The move is in respond to shooting spree by a youth who plays shooting games during his free time. If you read further, it also reveals that the move is orchestrated with the hope that the parliament will approved the ban before the coming election. So it is more likely that call for the ban is political motivated than a serious attempt to go to the root cause of the violence.

This is somewhat similar to incident in Thailand which I have made a commentary here. Serious attempt to understand why teens kill have to go beyond from looking how they spend their leisure time, into investigating their socio-background to find the root causes what motivate them to have the instinct to kill. Ken Hardy and Tracy Laszloffy, family therapy scholars, warn us from blaming simple environment factors like video games and guns, but trace the roots of teen violence to four things: devaluation, erosion of community, dehumanized loss, and rage. I have a commentary of that here. Fascination to link media with violence will there all the time and if we read in between the lines, we can see that much of the euphoria is because playing the blaming game is easy, taking advantage public paranoia, than to uncover social ills as a result of bad political governance and our own neglect.

Experience opposing perspectival views from both side of a conflict in MMOG

Briefly, Gonzalo Frasca's article in Serious Game Source talks about change in perspectival view players experience when they play the role of the enemy in videogames. I have heard of videogames that allow players to choose whether they want to take the role of the good guy or the bad guy at the start or at an advance stage of playing so that they can experience opposing perspectival views of both side of the conflict.

In WOW, Nick Yee found that players would usually go for characters that are visually pleasing and associated being on the good side when they first sign up for an account. For their second account (alt) they would go for the least popular, gore-looking characters. While these visually least pleasing characters are not the bad guys of the game (but perceived to be by players), players using them experience being treated to some degree as social outcasts. In Whyville, Kafai reported that white players facing social discrimination in the game world when taking up black-bodied avatars.

So experiencing different perspectival views mediates what players take away from playing, impacts their identity development and how they "read" the game. Granado Espada does not have characters that are perceived to be the bad guys or allow players to take the role of the enemy. All characters in GE are pleasing-looking, and have their own attractions and special abilities. So opportunity to experience different perspectival view is non-existent in GE. But interestingly, there is a particular faction in the server that I am playing that is well-known for being the NUMBER ONE enemy of botters and macro-users. They seems to be policing the game for IAH (:D I'm just joking).

I can say they are disliked by many players. I wonder what it will be like to be in their faction, listen to their faction chat, and get into their faction activities like reporting and pk botters and macro-users. That will surely provide a good window why they do what they did. I think I should explore this. Or interview someone who have experience playing in their faction and other faction that are open to botting and macroing. Wonder what interesting insights can I gain.

Theodore's Every Picture Tells A Story

Theodore has a great article in Gamasutra giving an insight on the link between graphic artists' work and the narrative players make from a game scene. It seems that every single peripheral things that may deceivingly look insignificant, in reality are important because they provide a sense of before and after events.

Theodore uses the example of a plane wreckage to elucidate this point. The wreckage is the main graphic and every additional details, no matter how small they are, have their own narrative to tell and it is up to the players' imagination what collective narrative they want to take from the graphic which is situated in their playing experience. For example, bullet holes on the plane tells us that the plane was likely to be shot at. Or a charred plane tyre in a far distance background might possibly tell us that that the type could have burst into flame upon landing and forced the plane to swerve dangerously to its side before coming to a stand still. This is just one interpretation and the possibilities are only limited by players' imagination.

I thought that this is an important insight because the article bring to attention another key player whose works deserve recognition and not look upon as part of a collectively work normally credited to game designers only. So graphic artists too play a part in the kind of narrative players create from their game playing experience.

MMOG situated in multiple of networks that mediate players' identity development

Upon reflecting what I had learnt yesterday from the CRRP Conference 09 invited panel discussion, I realise that in trying to understand how players "read" and what they take away from playing an MMOG, we cannot solely look at culture and practices in the small "g" (g)ame and big "G" (G)ame, as Gee puts it. I figure that the MMOG under study is just one of many nodes in a network and that network too sits in a web of multiple networks. In Demerath words, negotiation and "orchestration" of competing discourses and social structures in these nodes and networks mediate players' identity construction. It will be quite difficult to see which node or network exerts the greatest influence on players' identity development. This is because very often it is not so much of the content that players are confronted with, but the social discourses that emerges from their interactions that mediates the meaning they take away.

I like to draw an example of a game that will definitely make many people in one particular country in the Middle East to frown in rejection (well, there could be many too who will rejoice :D). It is a game called Nijabigame. Below is a description of the game taken from its game website.

Ninjabi is an empowerment fantasy game set in the Muslim world, where a young woman dares to defy the rules and fight for her rights. The term Ninjabi is a combination of ‘Ninja’ and ‘Hijabi’ and is used by Muslim American women to subvert stereotypes. Ninjabi is a superhero who, like many Muslim women, sees her hijab as a symbol of strength.

In this platforming and fighting game, the player must collect support from the community by tagging the environment in order to make enemies vulnerable.

The main character, Layla, begins the game undertaking small acts of rebellion against the status quo. She sneaks begins her adventure by sneaking out at night, and tagging her neighborhood with her signature. This symbolizes mobility and claim to physical space as the a first step towards freedom. Layla’s adventures attract attention from the women in the neighborhood and she uses their support to confront their oppressors face to face.

Whatever lofty goals the developers of nijabigame hope to achieve, the process of shaping players' identity and worldview is not so simplistic. Players come into the game having armed with life experience, and exposed to real-world discourses as well as what they find in cyberspace pertaining to the central issue of the game. Negotiation of meanings from all these exposure can be reflective and kept with personal domain, but they can also be engaged in a social discourse. The two comic strips on the left are taken from nijabi.blospot.com and nijabi.com. They are just samples of many more available at their respective websites. Cartoon strip from nijabi.blogspot.com appears weekly on the Texan Daily. The descriptions read:

The ninjabi in this editorial cartoon is a fusion of this and a Texan identity. She reflects the voice of many Muslims who have experienced discrimination and struggle with defining their identites post-9/11.

It is an example of a node (if you wish to say so) or a network (if you look at the activities around the cartoon strips). And if nijabigame players are fans of the cartoon script, how they"read" and what they take away from the game will be mediated too by the node or network (cartoon script).
I am sure that there are many people out there who are confronting or exploring their subjectivity in various ways and means. Drawing cartoon scripts is one way. We can take the artists of these scripts as special individuals who are exploring and trying to come to terms with their identity as Muslims in a new found land. So drawing and sharing their arts and ideals can be so liberating and empowering, and can bring together like-minded people into constructive discourse. So if they too play the game, how they "read' and what they take away from playing will definitely be mediated with this new found space that liberates and empowers them to express what they truly fell.

So again, looking at what is within and around game is not enough. We need to see the multiple networks of nodes where the game sits in (and these networks and nodes are concerned too with central issue/themes of the game) in oder to understand what mediates how players "read" and what they take away from playing a game.

Popular Culture

I attended an invited panel session at CRPP today entitled: Popular Culture and Education is Asia. Panel included Peter Demerath (University of Minnesota), Zawawi Ibrahim (University Malaya) and Yoshitaka Mori (Tokyo University of the Arts).

What I take away for my research are these questions:

From Demerath

1. MMOG is a playground that attracts players from all nooks and corners of the world. Various culture and practices emerge when people of all background meet and interact. Players become "cultural innovators" whose identities emerge from the negotiation and "orchestration" of competing discourses and social structures.

Beyond MMOG, what are the multiple networks that have "educational effects" on players' identity development?

How is the mass culture associated with globalising era, consumerism and individual freedom mediate players' identity development?

What kind of cultural resources players draw on to make powerful moral judgment about appropriate selves?

How players' identities impact how they "read" and what they take away from playing?

How to establish players' critical media and digital literacy? How do they learn these? And how they impact how players "read" and what they take away from playing?

From Zawawi

2. Cosplay is one of the emerging popular culture associated with media and videogames that transcend beyond game environment into the real world. Granado Espada too is a big hit with players for its baroque period costumes. I wonder what motivate players to engage in cosplay and how immersing in this culture (whether they are participants or just observers) impact how they "read" and what they take away from playing.

From Mori

3. When popular icon in television or videogame crosses into the realm of players' everyday life (Mori used the example of Doremon who makes an appearance in textbooks and other print materials), how would players read this development?

Do they see it to mean that the television programme or videogame associated with the popular icon is accepted by society as safe and good?

How would this perception impact how they "read" and what they take away from playing?

Granado Espada is the first and so far the only MMOG recommended to be used in Singapore Schools. While it has yet to make an appearance in the curriculum hours, only find solace in after-school activities, still what does it mean to players when they can play GE in school.

Another day to go for the conference tomorrow. I hope to take away as many probing questions for my research as possible.

Memorable expeirences = Dynamic experiences of subjectivity, affect and emotion

I found out an interesting news in Gamasutra by Leigh Alexander today. He reported what Sam Gilbert from MacArthur funded GoodPlay Project said during a panel discussion at the Games for Change 2009 Conference in New York.

Interesting quotes are below:

Bad experiences in games are important, Gilbert argues, because they're essential to engendering empathy. Getting "screwed out of loot" in WoW can teach a player "what it means to be taken out of something you feel you've rightly earned," he says -- and that design principle can encourage players to better empathize with others in the real world.

"Often times, to encourage change in the way we think about ethical issues, you need to be at the brunt of some bad moral issues," he says.

When a game forces players to take actions or confront issues with which they're uncomfortable, said Gilbert, it makes them "most reflective on what it is that you're doing, why you're doing it -- and often that can lead to very positive things."

Research questions for my study also focus on memorable playing experience: What kind of game playing experiences players find memorable? Why are these experience memorable? My hypothesis is that experience that they allow players to confront their subjectivity and impact their affective domain and emotion will rank high. This is also in line with Loyer's view of how where game design ought to put focus on.

From my own experience playing Granado Espada, I can remember vividly how I was in tears when I had to leave my first faction. Then there were many occasions where I have to come to terms with my online behaviour and conduct with my belief and life principles. Experiences that make me confront my subjectivity and impact my affective domain and emotion are memorable to me. Whether these are what I take away from playing? I do not know. How can I translate how players "read" and what they take away from playing into simpler constructs that players can understand and respond at ease. : /

Media and societal violence: Identifying the two camps on the debate

The second discussion highlighted by Terra Nova in respond to a never-ending fascination by some quarters to link media with violence in society was also started by Edward Castronova. Castronova provides a scathing attack on the authors of a paper "The Effect of Videogame Violence on Physiological desensitization to Real-World Violence" (see left).

Now I have not read the paper yet but Castronova's review brought to my attention the individuals from the two polarized camps on this issue. I am familiar with works of people in Castronova's camp but not that of Carnagey, Anderson and Bushman. I need to be familiar with their works, how their works are cited and who cited them , and also critics of their works. I need to explore more of such works as they will be useful for my literature review and help extend the discussion of my research topic from psychological perspective.

GE lanyard design: Magical bond and transcending game playing experience beyond fun and social enjoyment

On the left is a lanyard designed by Keo-Hime following Granado Espada theme. I thought the design was incredibly fantastic. There seems to be interest from IAH for the design. Whatever happens, I hope Keo-Hime gets her share of monetary reward for her effort.

Anyway, what interest me the most about the lanyard is what I draw from insights I gain making commentaries on an article post by Aldo Tolino in Gamasutra and a blog post by Henry Jenkins. The lanyard is an example of ludic artifact and it transcends game playing experience beyond the game environment. What is interesting about the lanyard is that while it is product of a player, but it came through from collective effort of critical friends who are fans of GE. There seems to be a kind of magical bond created from the process of making the lanyard that brings the designer and her critical friends together if not closer, and this magical bond transcends beyond this circle to include all GE players as the creator dedicates her design to all. Amazing.

I am at odds trying to reconcile how lanyard is situated in the designer's exploration of her subjectivity and experimentations with many identities while searching for meaning to her existence and her relations to the social environment around her. I can see that the process of making the lanyard afford her some degree of recognition from her circle of close GE friends and overall, the GE community. This is very empowering and she has established herself in the community (even IAH notices her now).

So her playing experience transcend what we normally associated games with- fun and social enjoyment. For her, it is bigger and one that potentially affects and mediates her future. We cannot dismiss that she also sees playing as empowering and providing opportunities to explore her potential and interest. It will be interesting if I could interview her and find out more about how she read GE and what she takes away from playing.

How teens' experimentation with identities affects how they read game?

Henry Jenkins shares an autobiography of one of his students reflecting on her journey and engagement with popular media during her teens. The post reminds me that I too did collect pictures on my bedroom wall and in my scrapbook. Those pictures are pictures of soccer teams and players. I remember those collections meant a lot to me then and I had to save before I could afford to buy soccer magazines from sundry shops where they had pull out centre piece that featured a famous players or soccer teams competing in the English Division One, equivalent to today's EPL. I drew pictures of soccer players and paste them onto the cover of my school text books. Back then, I aspired to be like them, most importantly to be like my all time favourite player, Ian Rush. While I play nowhere near Ian Rush, I remember fondly calling myself as him when I got together for a game of soccer or even when I hanged out with friends. I agree that I was experimenting with identities back then and media facilitated that.

Jenkins' post alerts me to the influence of age factor on how players "read" games. Teenage is a period of time where teens explore their subjectivity and experiment with many identities while navigating their way in searching of meaning to their existence and their relation to the social environment around them. Hence, MMOGs can be seen as laboratories to experiment with identities and how this experimentation mediates how they "read" and take away from playing MMOGs.

Social bonds created in MMOGs: With who and how players choose as friends?

Face with never-ending fascination by some quarters to link media with violence in society, Terra Nova highlights a series of discussions held in the past on the issue. I start with my commentary of the discussion entitiled: Why Do Kids Kill? by Edward Castronova.

Castronova brings to attention the works of two family therapy scholars, Ken Hardy and Tracy Laszloffy, who according to him, "warn (us) from blaming simple environment factors like video games and guns...(but) trace the roots of teen violence to four things: devaluation, erosion of community, dehumanized loss, and rage".

Castronova then goes onto suggest that video games can potentially help teens with such background overcome the impacts of their experiences. One of the discussion paths centres on social bond players create in MMOGs. The contention is that the four roots of violence are "elements that damage an individual's bonds with a social group" or more specifically with the "mainstream" social structure. So the issue is, if affected teens are only exposed to teens who share similar experience, their bonds potentially will serve as "social reinforcements that make (their) group stronger, perhaps even increasing the isolation from... or the animosity toward... the "mainstream" (social structure)".

This discussion makes me thinks of a possible primary and many secondary research questions for my study. I wonder whether players my research subjects play with most often are those that share similar real-life profile as them or are they opened to play with just about anybody. I have read a paper that reports that players commonly establish clan (guild, faction, etc) consisting of individuals from their off-line networks in order to reduce the risk of cooperating with strangers. I guess it is always fun playing with real-life friends in MMOGs but subsequently, how open are players to embrace the community of strangers out there in the game world. Is there a rule of thumb that they use to decide who they can get closer with and who they should stay away? Or do these work on hunches? Or do they have like a self-imposed "probation period" to find out more about strangers from playing with them before finally loosen down their guard and become friends. I am sure the kinds of friends players have in the game world potentially mediate the kinds of conversations they have in game which in the end, impact how they "read" and what they take away from playing the game.

What BGT can teach us about subjectivity?

Watching the trio of Piers, Amanda and Simon gives you a good lesson how exploring one's own subjectivity is important in qualitative research. This particular clip (click on pic) is taken from the first semi-final of BGT 09 involving the performance of Julia Naidenko. See how they reacted throughout her performance and when they gave comments in the end.

Looking at Piers giggling and overly excited, I wonder what he really meant by "stunning performance" and "I am very grateful that you brought all your frieds with you". :D I see Amanda's interjection as a good prompt for Piers to check on his subjectivity. And Amanda cannot agreed with Simon on whether the Queen would like to see belly dancing underscores how gender too impact on one's subjectivity. It's like have three qualitative researchers looking at a phenomenon and all three come up with three different stories to describe it.

It was only during qualitative class that I learnt to explore and appreciate how important it is to establish my subjectivity. Well, not all subjectivities can be addressed but it is important to be aware of them and how they mediates how you generate and interpret your data. I see subjectivity as a lens for readers to understand where you coming from and appreciate how you see your research. Another thing I learn about subjectivity is that it is not a one-off process where in one sitting you can pen down all your subjectivities. It is a process of discovery. So far I have gone through two rounds of subjectivity writing and in the process learn more about assumptions and biases I have - in short, I learn more about myself. I will do the exercise again when I during the stage of simulataneous data collection and analysis.

Well, I don't think that the judges in BGT will be ask to write their subjectivity statement in any foreseenable future. But it would be great if we can have a peek into their mind through their subjectivity writing. While I agree there will be benefits, I also think the controvesy this will invite outweighs its benefits. Just sharing my thoughts.

Choosing from four screens: Interactivity still does not impact narrative

Following up on Wesolowski's great article Beyond Pacing: Games Aren't Hollywood, Wesolowski argues that cinematic narrative is only possible because of the absence of any interactivity in films. He adds that any decision made about a film (even decision to stop watching), is made outside the process of film watching. "Within the process, there are no decision you can make with regard to the film you're watching." So no audience interactivity here like in games.

A respondent to Wesolowski's article brings to attention one possible exception, the experimental film "Timecode" by Mike Figgis. He says "The film consists of 4 scenes shown on the screen simultaneously (which take place in real time, without cuts), but the audio only comes from one of the scenes. In the theatrical release, Figgis controls the audio for what he wants the audience to pay attention to. However, in the DVD release, the watcher is allowed to switch the audio channel at will, so you do have direct control of how the movie plays out, at least as far as the sound goes."

While I agree there is somewhat limited audience interactivity in Timecode, I can't see how such interactivity have any bearing to the narrative of the film. The film narrative continue to be linear and audience are not shaping the outcome of its narrative. Choosing which screen to see may give the audience one perspectival view if the shots focus on looking at what is happening in the film from one character's lens. Choosing to look at different characters' lens may give the audience more complete picture from every characters' perspectives. Still, even when, as Wesolowski puts it, "when miscommunication happens, a film just goes on at its own pace".

Another interesting note from Wesolowski is his comment about films that encourage thinking and discussion. He says

" ...the process of building an interpretation. The message of a film is not delivered instantly. It takes time, so your perception of the film and its message changes over time. Your reaction to film is your own, individual process - you kind of "play the Reservoir Dogs game" in your head. But it doesn't affect the way you watch the film, only the way you interpret it. Again, it happens outside of the process of film watching. Naturally, you can discuss or even object to the film's message. But the message itself won't change. "

In games, interpretation and actions on what is perceived and interpreted are live, and they mediates the outcome of the narrative.

Wesolowski's Games Aren't Hollywood

Another word for "pacing" is "storytelling". We never tell stories to players; we just put them in games. Then players tell our stories to themselves.

- J. Wesolowski

There is a great article in Gamasutra by Jacek Wesolowski entitled Beyond Pacing: Games Aren't Hollywood. Reading the article makes me wonder how Steven Spielberg inaugural videogames will look like. Will it has the same cinematic effect like his many epic films. God knows.

In his article Wesolowski argues that "games aren't Hollywood". According to him, in many blockbuster films, you find a prescribed formula to achieve "cinematic effect of mounting tension" that glues the audience to their feet, roller-coastering their emotions over alternate climatic peaks and downslide reliefs, and at the end of the movie they are "left shaken and wanting for more". This effect can be achieved when the intensity is paced as "an increasing wave of peaks and relief".

Wesolowski argues that in games you cannot pace intensity as you see in film for the fundamental reasons that unlike film:

• games are not linear
• games are interactive
• the audience are not passive but participate in the shaping the outcome of game narratives
• games rely on repetitions
• games are "three to twenty times as long as film" (so intensity is much slower and hardly noticeable when compares to film)
• games has "more individual action sequences than in film" and so more difficult to connect gameplay and narrative
• games needs redundancy because "you never know which part the player is paying the most attention to"

Further, he argues that intensity in games works differently than in film when he says that in games:

... we can either escalate sensory stimuli or build up abstract meaning. The former happens when guns, explosions or enemies get bigger, putting the Hero in a greater danger than before. The latter happens when each part of a narrative means something -- but together they mean something else. "I am your father, Luke" is more than just a paternity acknowledgment.

These two kinds of intensity tickle different parts of our brains. Escalation is visceral and relies on our perception, while meaning buildup is cognitive and relies on our understanding. Escalation is temporary, because it's easy to replace a big gun with a small one.

Meaning lasts. Once we learn to like a character, it takes a lot to convince us to hate them.

To make things even more difficult, he adds, what players take away from escalation and meaning build-up are mediated by players' subjectivity. He says:

You can give them a bigger gun, but they may still like the previous one better, because it made a nicer sound, or because it fit their style. You can give them a useless but funny sidekick, and they may not appreciate it if they are challenge-oriented.

[...]

Audience tastes differ, too, but most filmgoers will agree they watch films for one or more aspects of the narrative.A player may or may not care about other players, the story, the challenge, the opportunity to express themselves, and so on. The game's message needs to be much more robust, because you never know which part the player is paying the most attention to.

But all is not lost. Moving away from pacing Hollywood style and looking at four exemplary games, Wesolowski suggests that pacing can be done by 1) players' skills, 2) balancing sections of play between giving players the liberty to do whatever they want and forcing them to play through short introductory sections, 3) setting, and 4) allowing events to emerge that guide players' decision.

Wesolowski concludes that pacing is "a complex function of player actions, parametrized by game's dynamics and aesthetics." He adds:

It's a dynamic, rather than preset feature, hence it's difficult, and sometimes impossible to specify it upfront and then design a game to it. We can't just take the increasing wave, and slap it onto the gameplay.

We often see ourselves as all-powerful creators of worlds. Our job is to present, and our players' job is to admire. But in reality, our job is to create an interesting, consistent, and interactive system.

All of its components, including decorations, and the narrative, are interdependent. If the underlying process is interesting, rewarding and entertaining, then it will create a compelling intensity pattern dynamically. We don't have to predefine the pace.

Another word for "pacing" is "storytelling". We never really tell stories to players; we just put them in games. Then players tell our stories to themselves.

Wesolowski's article provides game designers' perspective on players' gameplay and is congruent with game researchers' findings that players may not necessarily play according to how a game is designed but exercise some degree of agency in shaping the kind of game playing experience they wish to engage in.

Games and suicide: Exploitation of public paranoia

Article summary in Bangkok Post

What happened?
A 12-year old boy jump to his death from the sixth-floor balcony of his school building.
Why he did that?
It is perceived that he did that because his father banned him from playing computer games.
What happened next?
No investigation was done to establish why he committed suicide but the government had ordered the closure of 72 websites offering access to online gambling and games.

If you ask me, what happened here reminds me of what the government of a middle-eastern country did when H1NI virus first came under the spot many weeks ago. The government decided to cull all pigs in farms within the city. The farms were in squalid conditions but the government did not have the political will then to order their closure for re-operation on the condition that operators must place high regard on cleanliness of the farms. So, taking full advantage over the H1N1 virus scare (which was popular under the name swine virus even though it is not established that the virus comes from the poultry) and heighten public concern over hygiene resulting from the virus scare, the government ordered the culling.

While I do not support any form of gambling and welcome the closure of the gambling websites, I feel strongly it should not be done or be seen as a respond to the suicide. I see no link between the suicide with online gambling and games (unless a thorough investigation is done and is proved to be the case). The Thai government here too lacks the political will to order the closure and rides on increasing public concern over the suicide and its perceived link to gaming to order the closure. One repercussion (which is likely to be intended) will be continued public association of games with addiction and other ills fanned from this incident. What a pity.

GamePolitics are against gambling too but feels that "it would seem reasonable for the Thai government to at least conduct some sort of investigation before closing down online game websites".

The attractions of Granado Espada

I found a number of websites here, here, here and here featuring interviews with key players in Granado Espada - Hak Kyu Kim (imcGames CEO), Grantley Day (Vice President of Product Development at K2 Network) and Peter Cesario (Operations Producer also at K2 Network). K2 Network is the publisher and distributor of Granado Espada in North America and Europe under the name Sword of the New World. In MMOBase, Granado Espada setting is described as (brackets added):

" ...it takes place, as the title indicate (Sword of The New World), during the time when European explorers, adventurers and colonists braved the lengthy, perilous Atlantic crossing in small, sailing ships. Some did so in search of riches, whether by establishing new, profitable trade routes or by taking them through force of arms. For others, the vital motivation was to build a better life in a land where they could escape tyrannical oppression and openly practice their beliefs. However, the game’s primary focus is not historical accuracy. Rather than trying to simulate the harsh and frequently unappealing realities of the period, it transports players to a romanticized version that seems likely to provide a suitably sweeping yet somehow familiar backdrop. "

Interesting excerpts of the interview are below.

On what are the attractions of Granado Espada...I wordled excerpts of the interviews related to GE attractions and this came out.

" It has a really unique feel and position in the marketplace, both in terms of the game play and feature sets, and in terms of the consumer model

a huge quest system, trading houses, diversity of classes, and depth in game play

a huge PvP system that will offer something to every type of player. What we do not have from the Korean side is the dreaded grind, that Korean titles are often associated with

the level progression is similar to other MMO’s released over the past few years in the American market.

a few that really stand out such as the game’s unique setting, stunning graphics, and its one of a kind multi character control scheme

there is room for a highly unique and exciting MMO such as Sword of the New World Vis. The fact that no other title in the genre offer’s the player the ability to control up to three character’s at once is almost enough in itself! But add in the distinctive setting, highly detailed and striking visuals, and almost unlimited character skill combinations, and Sword of the New World Vis is a title that no MMO fan should miss out on!

you are given the option to create a party of three characters to explore and conquer the world

Granado Espada was the winner of the 2006 Grand Award for Best Game in Korea. Gamers highly valued the creative game system and appreciated the beautiful graphics, the dynamic action, the fast-paced gameplay, multiple character control system, the NPC creation, etc.

some of the most amazing visuals I have seen in an MMO - and not just another clone of a current MMO, but rather something that looks new and different.

The art-style of the game caught the eye of many MMOG veterans, who saw something familiarly fantastic yet altered just enough to make the game feel new. Gun-slinging was just as prevalent a combat style as swordplay, and the multi-character control system stands as a brilliant gameplay adjustment on a tired old formula.

At first, we were definitely attracted to the setting and the graphics...On top of that, we really enjoyed the unique player characters. There’s really nothing that Sword of the New World compares to in the Western market. The Baroque style is unique, the UPCs certainly are a draw, and the setting is fantastic.

Set in an original world with a story modeled after Europe’s exploration of America, the developer of the title, IMC Games, looked for a period where there was little exploration and development in the game world, and settled on the 17th century. Not to mention the access to such great content including architecture that is used in the game.

Sword of the New World’s Multi-Character Control (MCC) enables players to control up to three characters at once. No longer limited to playing just one character at a time, with MCC players can access their favorite classes immediately and combine them for fast-paced, dynamic action.

The multiple stances per character class that allow for diversity in play styles without the downside of having to create or go through some elaborate process to change you characters skills will also be of huge benefit to players. Not enough healers for your RAID, simple, move your scouts from Assassin style back into Healing style (when the combat has died down) and proceed. The level of flexibility will be a refreshing change to players.

On why change the title to Sword of the New World...

The title is being changed for the West to remove the steep entrance curve that exists in the game currently, and to change the flavor of the name to be more interesting to the western marketplace

On what changes to be made to the game for Western markets...

The primary changes to the title are in character creation. We are offering many more options to the North American players when they start the game. Each character class is going to have many costumes and outfits available for selection. We are also making subtle changes to the control scheme so that players who have been playing other MMOs will be able to slip into SNW vis’s control scheme and feel “at home”. Additionally, we are adding a significant storyline to the title and revamping the whole quest structure. I believe that the snw vis players of 2007 expect great stories and interesting quests when they play their games.

On whether MCC will encourage less socialization...

Sword of the New World still contains many dungeons, bosses, quests and PVP instances where parties are essential; the bonus that players can achieve by forming social groups and fighting for prizes will be of great boon to most. On the positive side, you want have to spend hours trying to find a healer for your party, since most groups have the ability to have their own!

On why less buzz now...

One of the things that hurt us concerning release was the fact that we launched the same day as E3. And E3 this year garnered even more interest because it was in a new venue and the focus of the expo had changed. When E3 hits, people shift their focus on to what’s new and what’s upcoming, not so much what’s just released.