What you see...

Another wonderful strip in the UF universe ("Imparing productivity since 1997") - almost makes me nostalgic for "those days", when web development was about tweaking html code and tables to get the effect wanted. Almost, but not quite.

Online Filmmaking

Top Ten Online Filmmaking Techniques article on NewTeeWee worth reading, one of the points (improvisation) goes as follows:
"the cheapest part of film making, writing a script, is the one least employed by amateurs"

- which is probably the other way around for machinima as opposed to "vlog" or video journals, since the script (and the recorded lines) form the basis for shooting scenes and hence you get a better feel for the story up front

Which might be why "rule" number ten is simply Animation - online being a fertile ground for mixing and mashing technologies without having access to a major server park to do the cgi

Have a cuppa

The internet works best for the market of one - the niches that might not make sense in terms of retail and traditional distribution. Where descriptions and a few images can give a good enough idea in order to try out the foundation for a relationship.

One such example that had an ad on one of the podcast I listen to is the Adagio Tea company. A great and appealing site, gives information while enticing you to give it a shot, offering various sample sets (for new customers or the gift market). Wonderful and appealing. With shipping up to a kg of $15 there might just be some greens and assorted others flying over for the autumn. Especially if the dollar stays on the south side of 6 NOK. One benefit of the economy over here going on 115% at the moment - increasing interest rates and good exchange rates for shopping online.

Games and then some

It is generally agreed that cyberdrama must give human participants an experience of agency. Usually this has meant that the participant’s actions have an appropriate and understandable impact on the world the computer presents to them. Other goals defined by Murray include immersion and transformation.
- Janet Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck (1997)

Being an avid gamer (and game reviewer as well) it is interesting to spend some time reading about the games and the industry from both an academic and a more “tutorial” or “insider” perspective. Especially now that my gaming has gone on an extended hiatus during the spring – just a few short sessions of Dragon Quest, and a quick play through of Another Code on the DS.

Time to get a proper gaming rig and really explore NWN2, and perhaps a 360 in time for Mass Effect as well) Update: picked up another PS2 instead, a small and quiet one - along with Final Fantasy XII to feed the addiction. Clocked some 80 hrs so far, loving almost every minute - the tweaks to the formula are right on for my play-style.

Recent fun finds include the webzine The Escapist – which first came to my attention because of an article by Mur (RIP GeekFu - my first fave podcast, now faded), on the “next pirates”. The content is game related, featuring interviews with people in the industry as well as covering themes such as piracy and next-gen development. They offer a newsletter highlighting the topics of the week, with both direct links to read online and a link to download the full issue as a pdf for later reading. Which is really nice for spending some hours on the train as I am right now.

The other is an extract from a book on First Person cyberdrama. And that is where I came across the three pegs for this post; agency, immersion and transformation.

Agency – I have an impact therefore I am

In most games you are the “hero” in the sense that most events you see or take part of change because of you or happen to you. Like in Final Fantasy – the world will surely end unless you happen to make the right choices and connections along the path. It is about mastery, somehow managing to do more than we can in everyday life. Rather than just watching events on television or envisioning them when reading a book – we “make” them and perhaps “change” them. This ties in closely with replay value; are there major branches of the story – such as going jedi or sith in KOTOR – that makes it worth the time to explore familiar territory again?

Immersion – I forget therefore I might be

The “best” games are the ones where the hours pass without a trace. Be it because you have to have just one more go at Bejeweled or Solitaire, or because you just want to have a look around the next area in an rpg like NWN. Just like a good book moves us into a separate realm, leaving all thoughts of the present (or the future for that matter) behind – so the game worlds draws us in. Escapism is mainly a good thing. But just like there is a difference between having a glass of wine and downing a bottle or three, so there is a difference between being immersed in a game – and being “lost” in the fake reality. People have died from exhaustion due to playing for too long. And have committed real-world crimes to avenge in-game transgressions.

Transformation - …? Who am I?

That was as far as I got on the train. So, playing games to play and explore your own boundaries, to test how you might react in certain situations, or to do things not normally possible / allowable / acceptable. There is some discussion in this paper, "Neo-Aristotelian Theory of Interactive Drama" [available as pdf, google html version linked]

Even to ask this question is to recognize the extent to which Janet Murray has engaged us in an exploration of the multivariant world of the networked computer and the holodeck -- or world beyond -- that we have glimpsed so far, just over the threshold in a new environment.
- review for HoH

And isn't that the "proof of the pudding" in terms of games being a viable outlet, source of insight and most of all entertainment? That we can have serious discussions about the hows and whys, while at the same time just enjoying the time spent playing? Like a Shakespeare scholar has a great time at the Globe. Games work on several levels, just like drama, literature and other creative arts can.



On a final note, a nice experience in terms of useability and flexibility is the latest iteration of the online support system for taxes here in Norway, this year they sent you (if oyu had opted in) an sms with a code for logging on and instantly seeing your "end result" rather than waiting for the letter to arrive in the mail. It has taken a few years, but every year it gets just a little bit better.

Counting down

The timer on the battery said 1:04 and should have been almost enough to carry me over, until 7-7-7, the mental anniversary for this little blog, four turns of the dates on from the gentle almost random beginning back in March of2003. But after I started typing (and hence using the wlan) it has jumped down to 46 and back up to 52 minutes, so maybe the proper reflection and re-cap post will still have to wait until tomorrow.

Regardless, as it has from the beginning the blog will continue to come in bursts and jerks, periods of silence followed by rapid posts over a few days, and then the cycle resumes. Life and work both have a tendency to conspire against long term steady commitments, unless I actually put it in Outlook as an appointment every few days. Perhaps over the summer, but for the next month life on the road means random schedules and connectivity.

As an example, the next post is from a train trip at the end of May - wrote it in word, but had some loose ends to connect and some links to find. Put here it is, a short month later. And there will hopefully be a bit more up over the weekend. If not, the third and final part (or the first of the last actually) of 7th Son will be coming out. Check it out, it has been hyped enough to be worth a free listen...

...and the sun has been gone since Sunday - and today the "one day rain amount" record was broken...

Lively

A new way to do my post, lending some time and effort to a beta from Microsoft this time 'round. More prescicely the Live Writer (beta 2 from early june)

Improvements

Are clearly needed - first and foremost in terms of including a spell checker, either an online version like blogger has, or the one in firefox for forms and such. Or preferably a way to use the installed ones from Office for multi-lingual blogging

Better use of the tags from Blogger; rapid entry like in most MS programs as a supplement to the pop-up list - and/or the option for grouping or sorting the tags

Edit: Consistent formating of h3 :) colorized all wrong

Nice touch

Using the online design right in the Writer, so you get a better feel for how it will actually read out there on the web.

And using auto-format - so the next style after a heading and a line break is "paragraph" by default

 

Overall? First impression - Nice enough, but might as well stick with Word for offline rants, and do the formating online with Blogger.