June 21-27, 2009: Week in Review

[Erik Hanson]

Certainly no small amount of activity in the news, beaches and streets this past week, but games thinkers aren't slacking off, either.

Meaning in Games:

I don't often link to interviews, in large part because the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be fairly low, both within the format of interviews generally and within the interviews themselves. That is to say, most internet-published interviews focus on less scholarly issues, and they tend to be lengthy affairs of 5 or more pages even if half of one page does cover interesting ground. Then again, that's not always the interviewer's fault. Either way, Tom Chick (Fidgit) does a great job of fitting incisive discussion on Sims 3 in a short space. (It seems there is a problem with this link in that it requests login information. You can "cancel" out of the prompts and still access the interview.)

Francisco Souki (Gamasutra featured post) talks about examples not only of ludonarrative dissonance, but also about clever, eccentric mechanics that can boost the narrative -- ludonarrative synergy, perhaps?

Jesper Juul points out that the Italian Association For The Study Of Semiotics has put together Computer Games Between Text And Practice. (Original Italian site) I haven't tasted it yet, but the menu looks delicious.

Emily Short goes deep into looking at procedurally-generated prose.

Kevin Kelly (KK*) explains that default states have implications.
Via Bill Harris

Ethics Systems

Nick Dinicola (PopMatters) explains why realistic consequences may be more meaningful than abstract "karma" systems.

Warwick Gavaghan (Gamasutra featured post) examines whether ethics scales make games more meaningful -- or less so.

Aaron Miller (Anyway Games) looks at the dynamic of obscured consequences for choice in games, including asking whether it's a problem if an important choice isn't necessarily flagged as a pivotal moment.

Games As Art:

Designer Scott Foe (GameSetWatch) tackles the "games are art" issue, but he not only clearly defines "art" ("the product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses and emotions") but also does a solid job talking about Will Wright's hobby-story-sport paradigm. I'm not entirely sure where the Alain de Botton aside was intended to lead, beyond the vague "keeping up with the Joneses" inferiority complex of the games industry.

Brenda Brathwaite (Applied Game Design.) applies her understanding of art appreciation and trained art criticism to what games criticism could be.

Stephen Dinehart (Gamasutra) seeks to divine the future of narrative in games by examining the history narrative theory (from Aristotle on). He doesn't just see interactive drama, but dramatic play.

Open Worlds and MMOs:

Damion Schubert (Zen of Game Design) explains the "hollow world" phenomenon in MMO maps.

Greg J. Smith (Serial Consign) looks at curiously (or frustratingly) locked cities.
via Rock, Paper Shotgun

BBC4 "Another Perfect World" documentary on virtual worlds
Region locked, so only UK residents can watch it online. There may, of course, be other ways.

In VGHVI podcast episode 3, Roger Travis and Mike Young talk about the confluence of fun and learning in games, especially MMOs.

Michael Tennesen (Scientific American) covers the legal future of virtual acts.

Errata:

Leigh Alexander (Sexy Video Game Land) probes the emotional appeal of Fumito Ueda's games (Shadow of the Colossus, Ico and, still in development, The Last Guardian).

Michel McBride-Charpentier's Critical Compilation of Okami was published at Critical Distance.

Zen Albatross and RacketBoy give an overview of the GameBoy system.

Aaron Miller (Anyway Games) also discusses the dynamics of Mass Effect and the expected upgrades in the forthcoming sequel.

Gabriel Lievano (Gamasutra Expert Blogs) defends frustration in gameplay.

Since there has been recent discussion on citations here at VGHVI, I thought it was worth noting that Jason Tocci (Geek Studies) also runs into difficulties with citations.

Emily Short explores the "accretive player character" in games -- a sort of player-character that withholds some mystery of motive from the player.

Michel McBride-Charpentier (Big Apple, 3AM) applies the theory of "flow" to Spelunky.

Michael Abbott (Brainy Gamer) loves Afrika, but worries that the developers may have over-emphasized boilerplate videogame elements, rather than letting the emergent play have free reign.

News:

Jason Rohrer signed a contract with Tool, an advertising company. Chris Donlan (Edge Magazine) got an interview.

July's Game Design Aspect of the Month is "mature games." (I suppose that may be rendered as the aspect being "maturity in game design," but that may prove an even broader topic.)

GDC Austin announces sessions focusing on "free to play" games.

Tale of Tales is working on an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's Salome.

Critical Distance is looking to broaden the ranks of its contributors.

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As always, feel free to contact me (here via note or comment, or @erik_a_hanson on Twitter) if you would like to point out something you think I missed, or if you'd like me to check out a site to add to my weekly review. I'm pretty sure our events section here is missing a couple things in July. Feel free to add them or let me know what's missing! I'm also thinking about my neglect for tagging the weekly review posts. If you have any ideas as to the best way to treat tags here, please share them.