Author: Kars Alfrink

Designer turned design researcher. Postdoc at TU Delft. Exploring contestable AI.

Rough notes for T.L. Taylor – Play

MMOGs have roots in RPGs and MUDs.

Software and service.

Ultima, EverQuest, Wow…

Social contexts

MMOGs isn’t anti-social. Social isn’t icing on the cake. Social is the substance of the game. It’s key.

On- and offline connections mix.

Emergent social activity. E.g.: “guilds”; trust, responsibility, reputation.

Game devs aren’t giving players the tools to be social. Focus is on artefact first.

Rough map of guild – connections between players are offline

Transcript of in game chat. Lots of offline connections.

“Friends are the Ultimate Exploit”

EULA: sharing accounts is not allowed (in EQ).

Collaboration and teams:

Complex coordinated actions.

Co-creative culture

Players also produce and design. Emergent culture and technologies that change the game…

Players change the product in deep ways.

Game in box is just part of larger game space.

WoW opens up UI for players to change. Big differences between players.

Cheating – modification of game is debated.

IP – who should be the designer, what’s play?

Selling avatars on eBay. Game companies own the avatar so it’s not allowed. Embodiment – you don’t own your body!

In EQ there was a lot to do about fanfic.

WoW in game protests. “Protesting in game is not a valid way to give us feedback.”

Are game worlds public space? Or not because they’re corp. owned?

Commodification of culture. Designers want control over players / users. Let go!

Things that are happening in game are examples of bigger issues such as: UX, IP, mash-ups, P2P, etc.

Book: Play Between Worlds, T.L. Taylor.

Questions:

What about scale? Do these thoughts apply to smaller games? We need smaller games to experiment with governance and such.

Is there an end to the game? “End” is player-defined… Games should be better at helping people leave.

Can these games become the new platforms for productivity? There’s a lot of mumbling, but no-one knows. You pick up valuable skills while playing.

Does this apply to alternate reality games? E.g. ILoveBees… She did a piece on Majestic. Beta during 9/11. It was mixed with reality.

How can we use traditional ethnographic thinking? The work isn’t comparative enough to make any strong statements.

http://reboot.dk/wiki/Play

Rough notes for Matt Webb – Making Senses

Navigational metaphor. How to use senses.

5 human senses for features of next gen web browser.

Sight Distance – short distance is meaningful People who are looking Peripheral vision Moving through world – active vision All about surface, we only see cover, spectacle

What is sight?

Idea: sitemapdb. Zoals CDDB maar dan voor sites. Crumbtrail, local nav, search.

Smell We’re embedded in smell, we move through it. It’s a mute sense. Maybe we’re moving to smellspace rather than spectacle. Categories for smell are culturally dependent. 5 categories.

Bad meat: no mistake. Code has bad smell sometimes.

For browser we need taste too.

Taste Is active smell. Destroy things in our mouth. Flavor is taste, smell and sight as well.

Voorbeeld: screen grab, page type, terms.

Voorbeeld voor smell: browsing trend, heatmap, all links.

Moving away or towards a smell. Smell like barometer.

Sound Is like sight, it’s spatial. Sound is like smell too. Sound is signal of s’thing alive. Hearing is rhythm analysis.

Idea #4: identified rhythm, others to visit. Who else resonates with me? We could meet each other. Assistance. Make visible personal map of browsing. Map that’s just a map.

Touch Not sure. Touch is low res. Like everything else. Not good for look ahead. If you feeel it, you’re too late.

It’s all browsers do right now. Like stumbling around dark building. We can only flinch. Generalise it, create undo (for ajax).

Scientology

What does sense involve?

  1. reception
  2. perception
  3. instant perception

More senses

  • Balance
  • Echolocation
  • Magnetic
  • Electroceptive (vogelbekdier!)

Echolocation Sense of closeness. WWII listening ear. Before radar. Virtual glove = mobile phone. Use it to change channel.

Magnetic It’s like GPS! Sound that gets louder when you near decision point.

Electroception Use of peripheral vision. Infostreams. Ambient. Feed forward before something happens.

E.g.: Emergency eject before something bad happens.

Other senses

  • Danger
  • Quantity
  • Good or bad
  • Dereferencing

Step back: summarize

Reception isn’t enough we need perception.

Why now?

Wayfinding – “The Image of the City” – direct toepasbaar op grote websites. Direct manipulation is dominant. Navigating isn’t enough.

Data exists everywhere and we’re just revealing it.

Renaissance of the senses.

Before pangea – early cambrian period. Illustration of sea floor. Dirty seas – only touch on surface. Seas clear, light penetrates, sight and senses were necessary. Ideas in book are nonsense but designers can use it. We’re in the same situation. Oceans of internet are clearing. We’re building super senses.

End. No questions?!

http://reboot.dk/wiki/Making_Senses

Ruwe notities van Michael Thomsen’s keynote

Wat is renaissance?

Waarom van computer naar innovatie – vanwege blinde vlek voor massive change.

Eigen en andere ogen openen voor innovatie.

Digitale tech. is alomtegenwoordig, dus we moeten verder kijken dan technische issues.

Op verzoek van Thomas verhaal over renaissance.

Concept is vaag en moeilijk te plaatsen in moderne context.

Teveel conferenties over “kleine dingen” (RFID, etc.)

Renaissance met grote R – weg uit de middeleeuwen. Opkomst van humanisme en individualisme.

Westerse wereld is niet klaar voor wedergeboorte. Ogen openen van blinde man is moeilijk.

Renaissance met kleine r + vraagteken: betere aanpak maar mogelijk antiproductief.

Niet proberen wiel opnieuw uit te vinden, focussen op grote issues.

Derde perspectief: focus op comm. tech.

Comm. tech. invloedrijk in opkomst en ondergang van beschavingen.

Opmerkelijk vroeg succes: oude Egypte. Sumerische cultuur schrift ontwikkeld over 5000 jaar. Egypte heel snel. Tempo van ontwikkeling in samenleving nam ook toe.

Alfabet werd niet herkend als superieur aan hiërogliefen. Elite had liever laatste: blindheid voor verandering.

Semieten namen alfabet wel over. Instrumentaal in opkomst in monotheïsme (!)

Gat tot 800 BC. Grieken kregen alfabet van Phoeniciers.

Abstract alfabet inspireerde abstract denken. Bijvoorbeeld Adam, individu, etc.

Grieken werden ingehaald door Romeinen (vonden ze lui.)

Rome verloor Europa aan de middeleeuwen.

Andere kant van de wereld: China ontwikkelde zeer moeilijk schrift. Drukpers uitgevonden. Werden introvert. Gingen in winterslaap.

Zonder drukpers geen reformatie, geen opkomst van wetenschap e.a. En dus ook geen 19e-eeuwse comm. tech.

Drukpers zorgde dat fictie, religie en politiek zich massaal kon verspreiden.

Koninkrijken worden niet gemaakt of gebroken door comm. tech. Maar heeft wel grote invloed. Zij die nieuwe comm. tech. het beste kunnen aanpakken hebben voordeel.

Is er een digitale renaissance? Wie zijn de genen die er voordeel bij hebben?

Renaissance niet zeker.

50 jaar na drukpers, nu 50 jaar na computer. 1500: chaos, meeste productie werd gezien als porno. Als iedereen mag gaan schrijven krijgen we alleen maar slechte tekst. Klopt maar we hebben ook goed spul gekregen.

Digitale tech. verandert kennisproductie. Maakt het dynamisch.

Kracht van polylog (dialoog online): wedergeboorte van mondelinge overdracht?

Orale overdracht: geen waarheid, geen historie maar verhalen, geen individu want bestaat alleen als onderdeel van groep, geen oppermachtige god, geen bureaucratie, geen staten.

Wat gebeurt er na deze renaissance met eigendom, kennis, de staat, religie, etc?

Hangt van onze acties af.

Wie heeft er baat bij (laatste vraag): diegenen die niet aan mass media hangen, zij die het beste zijn in dialoog. Westerse cultuur is niet waarschijnlijk, blind door onze eigen paradigma’s.

Unieke positie om de toekomst te beïnvloeden. Westerlingen moeten aandachtiger en opener zijn.

Er zij grote krachten die tegen radicale verandering zijn. Maar die zijn gedoemd.

Gebruik reboot om de grote vragen onder ogen te zien.

Als je dat doet ben je hierna in ieder geval verfrist en misschien herboren.

Reboot 8.0 questions

Here’s some questions to ask during Reboot 8.0 (heard after Michael Thomsen’s talk on renaissance?):

What’s the point of it all? Is it actually going to happen? Re-renaissance? What’s the impact of current way of writing on our thinking? What happens to privacy when we’re interconnected? What will be the next phase of democracy? Are we doing everything we can with current tech? How do we work together on larger scale to improve the world (e.g. Amnesty)? How can we be more honest with users of our tech? What is the next step? Where are the lifeboats on our titanic? What will not change? What will our children think of all this? How can we monitor this change and make it accountable? If all this stops what trade will you do tomorrow? Is this the end of nation states and will we live in 2nd Life? How can we be smarter together? Are we on thee verge of letting massive availability kill the idea of greatness?

Preboot

I’m sitting in the main room of Kedelhallen watching Thomas fiddle with his laptop. We’re ready to start rebooting. Yesterday we arrived in the evening, quickly checked into the hotel and went into town for a bite. After a burrito at a dodgy latin tourist trap, we went over to a stylish coffee bar for some espresso and sweets.

Aso, I’ve given my new IXUS 60 a spin yesterday, and am very pleased with it’s performance. Later I’ll start uploading some stuff to Flickr.

Preboot is done, let’s get rebooting. (Yay!)

links for 2006-06-01

MacBook at a glance

White MacBook product shot, courtesy of AppleSo today I dropped by both Apple stores that have recently sprung up in the centre of my hometown to check out the new MacBook. My thoughts in a nutshell:

The shiny screen isn’t as shiny as the xblack ones on Sony’s Vaios, I actually kind of liked it.

The matte finish on the black MacBook really does get all oily and smudgy, like Derek already pointed out a while ago.

The new keyboard looks great. The spacing between the keys doesn’t bother me since I have big hands, but the flat surface of the keys is an annoyance. Interestingly, the guy at the shop told me that the new keyboard is supposed to prevent the keys from touching the screen when closed – which is the only real problem I have with my current 12” iBook G4.

All in all it looks like a really sweet piece of hardware. Nevertheless I think I’ll wait to see what problems spring up with the first generation and when those are fixed, probably take the plunge.

links for 2006-05-20

Signals from the Leapfrog offices

Or in other words, what I’ve been up to, besides keeping myself busy over at Info.nl.

  1. Reboot 8 is shaping up to be another great conference. I’m already looking forward to seeing Matt Webb and Chris Heathcote speak, among others. I’m also still thinking about doing something myself, the question is: what?
  2. While we’re on the topic of conferences, make sure you don’t miss The Web and Beyond – the 10th annual SIGCHI.NL event. I’ve been helping with the organisation and must say it’s promising to be an interesting look at the web 2.0 phenomenon from an interaction design perspective.
  3. I have a heap of articles and posts lying around waiting to be fed to my del.icio.us account (I actually read all that stuff before bothering you with it). Now to just find the time to tag them all – to think this stuff is supposed to have a low cognitive load!
  4. Right after visiting Reboot 8 I’ll be off to beautiful Italy for some much needed R&R. Be sure to keep an eye on my Flickr photostream for slightly crappy cameraphone shots of Napels, Rome, Florence and Venice. Looking forward to that!
  5. Finally, you may have wondered about the “martial arts enthusiast” bit in this blog’s introduction. Between all of the above I’m getting myself ready for some examinations in Takeda Ryu this summer. When I get back from Vienna, I hope to be a certified teacher’s assistant and second dan in Aikido. Wish me luck.

Now back to our regular programming – deathly silence while I get some more client work out the door.