Category: Links

A fascinating profile piece on Paul Linebarger aka Cordwainer Smith, psychological warfare specialist as well as writer of subversive science fiction such as Scanners.

Keita Takahashi on some of his current thinking and of course the lovely, lovely park: “Of course, what I want most from the park is for it to be a space for children and adults, as well as the dogs or squirrels in the park to be able to play, although it might be a little bit dangerous.”

I’m pretty sure it’s not helpful or accurate to liken gamification’s critics to the Tea Party. Some of gamification’s ideas are interesting. But they should be applied with care and moderation.

“The single greatest thing Nidhogg does is that it understands how to entertain a crowd as well as its players.” a wonderful example of a videogame with performative qualities.

“Nu nieuwe diensten als Foursquare, Runkeeper en talloze andere ons handelen in data vastleggen, en onze progressie in het leven kunnen meten, zullen onze levens steeds meer aspecten overnemen die we voorheen alleen kenden uit games.” Juha snapt het, en legt het lekker helder uit. De tentoonstelling waar dit voor geschreven is (over naturalisme) lijkt me ook de moeite waard.

“Spy Party is two-player game with one player taking the role of the spy and the other taking the role of the sniper. The spy may be one of any number of party guests, joined by an ambassador and a double agent. The spy has four tasks to complete: Bug the ambassador, steal a statue, transfer a microfilm and contact the double agent. The sniper has just one task: identify and assassinate the spy.” This game sounds excellent. I want to play it now.

“So here it is: all recent urban plans I saw where based on the assumption that some sort of growth (demographic, economic) would propel the city back into the limelight. Now that this assumption has been slashed we need to rethink our urban strategies. What will the city look like in a contracting world?”

An awesome two-player indie dueling game with some wonderful performative qualities.

I’m told that if you look these guys up in SF you’re treated to a bizarre ARG-like experience.

Once again a lovely This happened – Utrecht report from Iskander. Glad to see the theme of “thinking through making” shone through this time around.

“The only way to be a Post Digital business is to be a thoroughly, deeply, massively digital one. To be digital in culture not just in capabilities. To know how to iterate in public, to do experiments not research, to recognise that it’s quicker and better to code something than it is to describe it in meetings. You need to be part of the wider digital culture, to have good sharing habits, to give credit where it’s due, and at the very least to know how to do ellipses in Processing.” Duly noted.

“Rather than merely a place to do work, the choice of a like-minded coworking community with the right amount of diversity and exposure to new skills and ideas could be as important as choosing a neighborhood to live in.” A solid overview of the cowering phenomenon. Although I love the concept, I have rarely seen it work well.

“…when the ecosystem stops rewarding complexity, it is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.” Which is to say: always be aware of your own actions, prevent them from becoming bureaucratic.

Solid advice from Eric Zimmerman on common pitfalls of educational game design. I can certainly relate to many of these.

“I suspect the lag also contributes to the extreme unease the system sometimes creates – we’re deep in the uncanny valley of interaction.” Chris finds Kinect slightly scary, and requiring an American size living room.

“How to Live Safely is actually a novel, about a man named Charles Yu searching for his father in quantum space-time. He lives in Minor Universe 31, with science fiction wrapped around an inner core of approximately 17 percent reality (by volume). He’s a time-machine repairman, armed with his TM-31 Recreational Time Travel Device, TAMMY the slightly neurotic user interface, and Ed, his nonexistent but ontologically valid dog.” On the to-read list.

“The purpose of the Cyborg, as well as his own homeostatic systems, is to provide an organizational system in which such robot-like problems are taken care of automatically and unconsciously, leaving man free to explore, to create, to think, and to feel.” A good design guideline, if you ask me.

“…there’s going to be an interesting job coming – somewhere between design and communications – expressed in behaviour. And something to do with animation and something to do with choreography.” I don’t think that’s a new job, I think it’s interaction design. The descriptions here are spot on though, and embedded behaviour is sure to come to the fore in the coming time.

Games for education is a topic close to my heart. However, I found this article to be a disappointing mess of hype and hunches with the occasional good idea hidden between them.

“…the most fundamental acts of design are essentially a combination of talent and practice. Like a sport or a musical instrument – performance, not process…” Of interest mainly because I am looking for new ways to frame design for students and trainees. Methods in stead of processes might be a helpful approach.