March 2, 2007 is the world premiere of the new, improved Cruel 2 B Kind – the game of benevolent assassination - now, with booty! It’s happening 6 – 7:30 PM on a Friday evening in SOMA, San Francisco, and I really want you to play. And I know YOU really want you to take over SOMA like the nice little ninjas you are, and kill other players (and unsuspecting bystanders) with kindness.
You can sign up now. (You have to register by noon on March 2 to play.) What are you waiting for? Sign up! It’s free, it’s outdoors, it’s crazy, and there might be cupcakes! (Okay, there WILL be cupcakes!) What more could you ask for?
Well, okay, here’s more: I’ll be there live puppet mastering, with a few surprises for keen-eyed players. (So if you spot me wandering the streets and attack me, you might get a little bonus fun…)
For all you experienced C2BK players out there, here’s a secret scoop: This new remake of Cruel 2 B Kind is extra awesome. It’s extra awesome. Here’s why:
- It’s called the Booty Variant, and it represents everything we’ve learned from running the game in London, Boston, New York City, and more. We watched you play, we learned stuff, and we made the game more fun.
-It’s easier technology: You can play with any cell phone, using normal text messaging. And there’s a lot less messaging than in older versions, so the play is focused more on the streets and less on your screen.
-It’s more strategic: Your team has 3 weapons to choose from at all times, so you get to decide exactly how to kill each target. You also get to show off the weapons you like best and ignore weapons you’re not so keen on.
-It’s less obvious: Instead of everyone starting the game in teams of two, players can now choose to start the game solo, or in teams of two, or three, or more… so it will be a lot less obvious who’s playing and who’s not playing.
-It’s sillier: Each player brings a piece of “booty” to surrender when killed. Anything goes when it comes to the booty - yummy candy, weird haikus, cool old books, crazy stickers, lucky socks… you can make your booty whatever you want. There’s only one rule: no sentient creatures! Players get to keep all booty they’ve earned at the end of the game.
-It rewards good game play better: When a player gets killed, they surrender their booty the player whose attack impressed them most. So players who are doing an awesome job killing with kindness rack up more booty, and therefore more points. No more slouching at the back of your pack… you have to be in the frontlines, assassinating your ass off!
Monday, February 19, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The Free Candy Game - You MUST play with me on Valentine's Day!
I know the secret puppet masters of this very cool little puzzle game. It's called FreakAndie (yes, think: free candy!) and if you're in the San Francisco area on Valentine's Day, you can play. In fact, I really want you to play.
It's a one-day only game. It's free, it's public, and it's art.
Here's the deal: solve this visual poem puzzle to figure out the what, when, where, how and why of the game. (Hint: it involves subversive heart-shaped blinking LED displays embedded in public. Yes, really.)
The best part: if you solve the puzzle and come play, you'll be perfectly located and on time for the second annual valentine's day Public Pillow Fight. That's right -- two playful spectacles for the FREE price of one!
See you in the city for free candy and pillow fighting!
P.S. If you can't figure out the puzzle, IM me and I'll give you a hint. :) I'm on AIM as my webdomain name.
It's a one-day only game. It's free, it's public, and it's art.
Here's the deal: solve this visual poem puzzle to figure out the what, when, where, how and why of the game. (Hint: it involves subversive heart-shaped blinking LED displays embedded in public. Yes, really.)
The best part: if you solve the puzzle and come play, you'll be perfectly located and on time for the second annual valentine's day Public Pillow Fight. That's right -- two playful spectacles for the FREE price of one!
See you in the city for free candy and pillow fighting!
P.S. If you can't figure out the puzzle, IM me and I'll give you a hint. :) I'm on AIM as my webdomain name.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Who's the first ever woman keynoter at GDC week?
Me!
I'll be giving the research & design keynote, called "The Future of Collective Play", at the 2007 Serious Games Summit, part of the weeklong annual Game Developers Conference.
GDC is roughly 20 years old. And I get to be the first woman keynoter? Woo! Thank you CMP game people.
I'm really, really happy about it. (Seems like just a few years ago - 2003? - that I was still a Conference Associate! Trying not always successfully to explain to everyone what a pervasive or alternate reality game was!)
I'll also be presenting the Game Studies Download: Top 10 Research Findings with Ian and Mia again this year (our #1 is really quite lovely) and sitting on the panel Erasing the Delta Gap. So it will be a busy GDC for me. But GDC is usually my favorite working week of the year. See you there!
I'll be giving the research & design keynote, called "The Future of Collective Play", at the 2007 Serious Games Summit, part of the weeklong annual Game Developers Conference.
GDC is roughly 20 years old. And I get to be the first woman keynoter? Woo! Thank you CMP game people.
I'm really, really happy about it. (Seems like just a few years ago - 2003? - that I was still a Conference Associate! Trying not always successfully to explain to everyone what a pervasive or alternate reality game was!)
I'll also be presenting the Game Studies Download: Top 10 Research Findings with Ian and Mia again this year (our #1 is really quite lovely) and sitting on the panel Erasing the Delta Gap. So it will be a busy GDC for me. But GDC is usually my favorite working week of the year. See you there!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
The Sorry State of Game Studies
Game scholars, we have a problem.
We are very good at explaining, often passionately, why digital games are worthy of serious scholarly attention. But we are so NOT good at organizing venues for lavishing that attention. And our collective failure to demand, create and support serious venues for critical games research is both embarrassing and disappointing.
In September 2007, the international meeting of the Digital Games Research Associaton will be held in Tokyo. The DiGRA meeting is generally viewed as the most significant scholarly conference in the field of game studies. A theme has been announced ("Situated Play"), a call for papers issued, and a word limit set. Full paper submissions are due 3 weeks from today.
And yet. There are no instructions anywhere regarding WHERE to submit papers. There is NO INFORMATION whatsover about what format to submit papers in, or in what style (MLA? ACM? Chicago?)
This sucks.
I am trying to prepare my research for submission, but I am so disheartened. How can the 2007 DiGRA Meeting be taken seriously, when it shows such a lack of respect towards the researchers who want to contribute? How can we adequately prepare serious research when it feels like we are working into a void?
I am disheartened that the most serious, organized opportunities for games research publication increasingly are through organizations like ACM and IEEE-- and they want technical research, or prototypes, or lab-based psychological/physiological research. (So does the game industry.) For the most part, they don't want theory, they don't want work that looks at the aesthetic, social, philosophical, historic, and other critical humanities aspects of games and game culture.
I always thought THAT was what DiGRA was for. And frankly, I have always thought that the DiGRA style research was vastly more important scholarship. Game culture needs to be understood, not just innovated.
I'm not railing specifically against the organizers of this particular DiGRA conference, or against the DiGRA board. We all share responsibility--where is the online outcry demanding more information about the DiGRA conference? I know there are other game studies conferences, but DiGRA is only major organization for games scholars. As a performance studies researcher (that's the field I have my PhD in) I can count on Performance Studies International as an reliable organization and a major venue for presenting new work. DiGRA should be the PSI (or MLA, or SIGCHI, etc.) of game studies.
Scholars, please get mad, make noise, join me in demanding a serious venue with concrete guidelines for DiGRA participation and submission.
UPDATE: They now have a FAQ page for the conference with a template, you can find it here. But the general consensus on the DiGRA member listserv is that the conference and organization is in need of major overhaul. Some of us have been discussing forging a better structure through a DiGRA North America chapter... stay tuned for a better game studies!
We are very good at explaining, often passionately, why digital games are worthy of serious scholarly attention. But we are so NOT good at organizing venues for lavishing that attention. And our collective failure to demand, create and support serious venues for critical games research is both embarrassing and disappointing.
In September 2007, the international meeting of the Digital Games Research Associaton will be held in Tokyo. The DiGRA meeting is generally viewed as the most significant scholarly conference in the field of game studies. A theme has been announced ("Situated Play"), a call for papers issued, and a word limit set. Full paper submissions are due 3 weeks from today.
And yet. There are no instructions anywhere regarding WHERE to submit papers. There is NO INFORMATION whatsover about what format to submit papers in, or in what style (MLA? ACM? Chicago?)
This sucks.
I am trying to prepare my research for submission, but I am so disheartened. How can the 2007 DiGRA Meeting be taken seriously, when it shows such a lack of respect towards the researchers who want to contribute? How can we adequately prepare serious research when it feels like we are working into a void?
I am disheartened that the most serious, organized opportunities for games research publication increasingly are through organizations like ACM and IEEE-- and they want technical research, or prototypes, or lab-based psychological/physiological research. (So does the game industry.) For the most part, they don't want theory, they don't want work that looks at the aesthetic, social, philosophical, historic, and other critical humanities aspects of games and game culture.
I always thought THAT was what DiGRA was for. And frankly, I have always thought that the DiGRA style research was vastly more important scholarship. Game culture needs to be understood, not just innovated.
I'm not railing specifically against the organizers of this particular DiGRA conference, or against the DiGRA board. We all share responsibility--where is the online outcry demanding more information about the DiGRA conference? I know there are other game studies conferences, but DiGRA is only major organization for games scholars. As a performance studies researcher (that's the field I have my PhD in) I can count on Performance Studies International as an reliable organization and a major venue for presenting new work. DiGRA should be the PSI (or MLA, or SIGCHI, etc.) of game studies.
Scholars, please get mad, make noise, join me in demanding a serious venue with concrete guidelines for DiGRA participation and submission.
UPDATE: They now have a FAQ page for the conference with a template, you can find it here. But the general consensus on the DiGRA member listserv is that the conference and organization is in need of major overhaul. Some of us have been discussing forging a better structure through a DiGRA North America chapter... stay tuned for a better game studies!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
surgery is crazy
my first experience with IV sedation and surgery today. better than i expected, plus i now know that i love valium. anxious flying, be vanquished forever!
4 days in bed recovery planned, no pain meds other than straight up ibuprofen because of allergies.
i bought vera wang pajamas last weekend for the occasion, somehow thinking that it would make a noticable difference in my morale... but i feel too gross to put them on yet. at least they cheer me up looking at them folded up on my night table next to a vase of white roses and some l'occitane honey lotion that will be used fby kiyash or foot reflexology to distract me from pain. there is also a stack of "fun reading" such as the new American Fascists book, which is very serious and scary and yet (I swear) full of insight for someone who identifies herself as an existential game designer. A real post on that later this weekend when i am more lucid.
i start teaching my new ubiquitous computing/game design course on monday... i hope i am up for it! recover! recover!
i am also hoping to drag myself -- okay, have kiyash drag my self -- to the Palace of Fine Arts a 7 pm for a little Vanishing Point live event Saturday night. if you're in the area and feeling playful, check it out!
4 days in bed recovery planned, no pain meds other than straight up ibuprofen because of allergies.
i bought vera wang pajamas last weekend for the occasion, somehow thinking that it would make a noticable difference in my morale... but i feel too gross to put them on yet. at least they cheer me up looking at them folded up on my night table next to a vase of white roses and some l'occitane honey lotion that will be used fby kiyash or foot reflexology to distract me from pain. there is also a stack of "fun reading" such as the new American Fascists book, which is very serious and scary and yet (I swear) full of insight for someone who identifies herself as an existential game designer. A real post on that later this weekend when i am more lucid.
i start teaching my new ubiquitous computing/game design course on monday... i hope i am up for it! recover! recover!
i am also hoping to drag myself -- okay, have kiyash drag my self -- to the Palace of Fine Arts a 7 pm for a little Vanishing Point live event Saturday night. if you're in the area and feeling playful, check it out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
