Month: July 2012

Dog-walking video (by Jhoosier42)

Thanks to Tricia for pointing me to this one. A dog-walking game which employs both a treadmill and an instrumented leash. From the look of it, dog walking has never been this hard or tiring. I can imagine a game like this fulfilling a real need in the large cities of Japan (there’s cat cafes too, after all). Some more thoughts on the coevolution of man and domesticated animals such as cats and dogs can be found in this article from which the video was taken. 

Nobody Beats the Drum – Natural Thing (by nobodybeatsthedrum)

Been neglecting the animal theme a bit. Was reminded to keep paying attention by Iskander (thanks!) This clip is like an alternate take on Pig Chase. I particularly like how the animals escape from their box at the end of the video.

I should mention these guys have a reputation for going a bit crazy on their videos. Have a look at this making of, for example.

If you can cut through the chest-beating and infighting, the Forge forums contain a lot of interesting ideas on the workings of tabletop RPGs. For example, here’s Ron Edwards (a controversial but highly influential figure in the indie RPG scene) talking about the various kinds of control players and game masters can have over a game’s storyworld:

  • Content authority – over what we’re calling back-story, e.g. whether Sam is a KGB mole, or which NPC is boinking whom 
  • Plot authority – over crux-points in the knowledge base at the table – now is the time for a revelation! – typically, revealing content, although notice it can apply to player-characters’ material as well as GM material – and look out, because within this authority lies the remarkable pitfall of wanting (for instances) revelations and reactions to apply precisely to players as they do to characters 
  • Situational authority – over who’s there, what’s going on – scene framing would be the most relevant and obvious technique-example, or phrases like “That’s when I show up!” from a player 
  • Narrational authority – how it happens, what happens – I’m suggesting here that this is best understood as a feature of resolution (including the entirety of IIEE), and not to mistake it for describing what the castle looks like, for instance; I also suggest it’s far more shared in application than most role-players realize

A clever web-based tool for making interactive stories. That is to say: stories with branching paths. Although there are some options for rudimentary logic, which I imagine might enable experiments that diverge from the typical Choose-Your-Own-Adventure mold.

A collaborative storytelling site that encourages users to write short bits of fiction. Others can react to those stories with sequels or (the neatest part I think) prequels. There is also the possibility of posting challenges, which are just that – challenges to users to write something according to some kind of theme or other constraints.

An interesting example of a play-by-post (aka forum) RPG that is heavily slanted towards storytelling. This means: no experience points, skill checks and that sort of thing. In stead, it features mechanics (some quite clever) that control who gets to say what about the storyworld. Points are awarded for participation in stories, which in turn can be spent on describing new creations. It is, however, heavily reliant on game master oversight, as not all rules are fully described.

A research agenda of sorts

Let’s make an attempt to focus this blog a bit more. Maybe make it a bit more useful as a research and design tool. So here’s a list of things I am currently interested in learning more about. They all tie into projects at Hubbub, so I’ll list them by project codename.

  • For BUTA: animals, animal ethics, animal cognition, art and design inspired by or aimed at animals, etc.
  • For SAKE: storytelling, collaborative storytelling, multiuser authoring environments, roleplaying games (tabletop, live, computer), etc.
  • For KOHI: coffee, culinary apps, gastronomy, tools for improving your skill at smelling and tasting things, etc.
… in the hypersocial atmosphere of Facebook, it is enough to just make noise to fake a persona. No actual interaction is required. And there is so much noise that the loss of one voice means nothing – there are a billion others ready to step up to join the chorus of social cacophonia. … I don’t think it’s really contact … just reflections from random angled surfaces.

ButtUgly: Main_blogentry_050712_1

I’ve made similar attempts at ditching Facebook in the past and had similar experiences.