Category: Computer Games

Courtesy of Slashdot, an article, Trials and Tribulations by Nadia Oxford (Dec. 14, 2005) on the history of video game lawsuits. The history concludes,

As long as there is money to make, personal morals to uphold (however noble or whacked) and profits to defend, courts will never lack for activity. Gamers and non-gamers alike have reason to shake their heads as the strong foundation of Democracy is smothered by frivilous and petty lawsuits launched by weasels looking to get rich quick. But it’s undeniably important–as well as interesting–to review those historic copyright lawsuits that formed the prosperous industry of today.

A bit facile .. but true. The law is a form of commerce; another game for some.

The New York Times has an article on the growth in university computer game programs titled, Video Games Are Their Major, So Don’t Call Them Slackers (Seth Schiesel, Nov. 22, 2005.) This is part of a series on the training of artists across disciplines.

Traditionalists in both education and the video game industry pooh-pooh the trend, calling it a bald bid by colleges to cash in on a fad. But others believe that video games – which already rival movie tickets in sales – are poised to become one of the dominant media of the new century.

Certainly, the burgeoning game industry is famished for new talent. And now, universities are stocked with both students and young faculty members who grew up with joystick in hand. And some educators say that studying games will soon seem no less fanciful than going to film school or examining the cultural impact of television.

Continue reading Majoring in Games

In a previous blog entry I linked to a conference on Serious Games. Last week I was interviewd by Bob Greiner of the Washington Post for a story titled, Game Industry Finds Serious Outlet for Creative Energies. The article is quite good. Greiner has written an in-depth article looking at the opportunities for gaming in education.

According to a story in the Daily Telegraph online titled “Sony’s game’s up“, an electronics “geek” won a ruling against Sony to the effect that there was noting illegal to mod chips that overide the region specific coding that lets Sony control prices by region.

Matt pointed me to a story in Slashdot about a Procedural Arts free interactive drama called Facade.

From the developers:

Facade is a prototype of interactive drama, a new genre of character and story-intensive interactive entertainment. Facade is freely downloadable at interactivestory.net. In Facade, you, the player, using your own name and gender, play the character of a longtime friend of Grace and Trip, an attractive and materially successful couple in their early thirties. During an evening get-together at their apartment that quickly turns ugly, you become entangled in the high-conflict dissolution of Grace and Trip’s marriage. No one is safe as the accusations fly, sides are taken and irreversible decisions are forced to be made. By the end of this intense one-act play you will have changed the course of Grace and TripÔø?s lives Ôø? motivating you to re-play the drama to find out how your interaction could make things turn out differently the next time.

There is also a conveniently mirrored copy of a New York Times article Redefining the Power of the Gamer by Seth Schiesel (June 7, 2005) which discusses the innovations behind Facade. If I undestand it, the developers have built the AI equivalent to a set of laws of physics so that you don’t have to script the interaction. Instead you use ABL (A Behavior Language), a drama manager, a rule language and a discourse management framework to describe the characters, their goals, the units of the story, and natural language understanding. Very cool. Lets hope this idea gets woven into games.

The Online Computer Library Centre (OCLC) Newsletter (No. 267) has a set of stories about computer games and the difference between Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964) and Gamers (born after the 1970s). The conver story, The Big Bang! (Tom Storey) notes a shift from boomers who are career-driven, independent and idealistic to gamers who are motivated, resilient, confident and analytical. The story presents gamers as sociable (compared with boomers who are independent), which inverts the usual complaint that gamers are loners.
Thanks to Susan for pointing me to this.
Continue reading OCLC: Gamers and Boomers

The Globe and Mail has a story on Canada’s video game capital (Vancouver) in the Globetechnology section. The story is by Peter Kennedy and it is dated April 20, 2005. Thanks to Lorna for this.
Continue reading Disney to set up Game Development Studio in Vancouver

From an article in the Hamilton Spectator about a new program at McMaster that I am involved in I came across a reference to the NPD Group which does “global sales and marketing information”. They have a section just on the video game industry, see,
NPD Funworld. On the site they have reports that are for sale along with trend information.
There is also an NPD Canada site though it’s not clear when you are seeing reports/information clearly about Canada and when not.
Continue reading NPD Funworld: Tracking and Reporting on Video Game Industry

I have been trying to track down more about the Ubisoft campus and development studio. Here is a story, Ubisoft, Canadian govt to create “university” from Gamespot. Here is the Ubisoft announcement, Ubisoft – UBISOFT ANNONCE LA CR…ATION D’UN STUDIO DE D…VELOPPEMENT ¿ QU…BEC.
It’s interesting that this news appears on the French version of the site, but not the English!
Continue reading Ubisoft Campus