On behalf of Guilt-Edged Blonde, I challenge ALL YA'LL to summon even a small FRACTION of the UNPRECEDENTED choreopowers of SNEAKINESS such as I unleash up on you in this dance.
Guilt-Edged Blonde allies, please unleash your own SNEAKINESS to this song -- Busta Rhymes' Don't Touch Me Now (Throw Da Water On Em) -- which you can grab from Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTFbaE2WYFo
P.S. This is a solo dance-off. No one else in this video helped in any way with this dance-off. Especially not any Who Said I Was Dead members.
Find more videos like this on Top Secret Dance Off
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Top Secret Dance Off Playtesting
Adventurous playtesters wanted.
UPDATE: Cool... playtesters have joined from all over the world already: Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Italy, U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Scotland, Switzerland, Argentina... please join us if you are adventurous, creative, and like to help make your own fun.
UPDATE x2: Now, you can win real loot! I couldn't help myself when I found these gorgeous masks. Complete dance quests and win dance-offs, and you could earn this loot... I like to give playtesters something nice in return for their brave efforts. ^_^
UPDATE x3: I just completed my first dance quest! Here it is. The rules, in a nutshell: disguise your face and keep your secret weapons in check -- that is, dance without moving your feet.
Find more videos like this on Top Secret Dance Off
Top Secret Dance Off is a personal project. No funding, no sponsors, no reason... I just want to make this game.
There is nothing to do in this game site yet... but you can sign up now as a playtester, create your top secret dance-off handle, and pick an alliance. The alliance names should tip you off-- this is a noir-themed game.
Playtesting can be done from anywhere in the world and will begin shortly in 2009. No dance skills or talent required. However playtesting will involve undertaking a variety of challenging, top secret dance missions on video. You may find yourself rewarded more for awkward dancing than for a virtuoso performance.
You may play alone, or with up to four friends. Mask-wearing or other disguises is required.
So, I'm excited to undertake this project, which I am making in my spare time, because I really want to make it. No funding, no team of developers, no saving the world (at least not on purpose -- just me and Kiyash making a game -- just something I think will be a fun adventure that helps you develop a real superpower. This project is similar to when Ian and I made Cruel 2 B Kind, or when Kiyash and I made Ministry of Reshelving. I am pretty sure it will only be fun for people who like to participate in making their own fun. And I am definitely sure it will only be fun for people who like challenge and adventures and who want to develop an elusive superpower.
Go to the Top Secret Dance Off site now to learn more about the dance secret..
UPDATE: Cool... playtesters have joined from all over the world already: Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Italy, U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Scotland, Switzerland, Argentina... please join us if you are adventurous, creative, and like to help make your own fun.
UPDATE x2: Now, you can win real loot! I couldn't help myself when I found these gorgeous masks. Complete dance quests and win dance-offs, and you could earn this loot... I like to give playtesters something nice in return for their brave efforts. ^_^
UPDATE x3: I just completed my first dance quest! Here it is. The rules, in a nutshell: disguise your face and keep your secret weapons in check -- that is, dance without moving your feet.
Find more videos like this on Top Secret Dance Off
Top Secret Dance Off is a personal project. No funding, no sponsors, no reason... I just want to make this game.
There is nothing to do in this game site yet... but you can sign up now as a playtester, create your top secret dance-off handle, and pick an alliance. The alliance names should tip you off-- this is a noir-themed game.
Playtesting can be done from anywhere in the world and will begin shortly in 2009. No dance skills or talent required. However playtesting will involve undertaking a variety of challenging, top secret dance missions on video. You may find yourself rewarded more for awkward dancing than for a virtuoso performance.
You may play alone, or with up to four friends. Mask-wearing or other disguises is required.
So, I'm excited to undertake this project, which I am making in my spare time, because I really want to make it. No funding, no team of developers, no saving the world (at least not on purpose -- just me and Kiyash making a game -- just something I think will be a fun adventure that helps you develop a real superpower. This project is similar to when Ian and I made Cruel 2 B Kind, or when Kiyash and I made Ministry of Reshelving. I am pretty sure it will only be fun for people who like to participate in making their own fun. And I am definitely sure it will only be fun for people who like challenge and adventures and who want to develop an elusive superpower.
Go to the Top Secret Dance Off site now to learn more about the dance secret..
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
I am on a ninja quest (to clean my apartment)
I love Chore Wars. If you've seen me give a talk in the last year or so, you know this, because I almost always talk about Chore Wars. In case you're wondering, yes, I actually play this game, and in fact I am a gold level subscriber! (For only $10 annually, you get access to much more interesting data about yourself. I strongly encourage you to go gold!)
Kiyash and I moved to San Francisco recently, so we rebooted our characters from scratch and renamed our Chore Wars party -- we are now the 41st Floor Ninjas -- and set up a whole slew of new adventures, like "Ninja brush Meche out" (our version of saving a (dog) damsel in distress) and "Ninja wash the dishes". Together we will ninja rule the universe (of our apartment)!! We also have one-off quests like the one above, typically annoying things like confirming airline tickets that become fiero-inducing challenges when experienced through the Chores Wars system.
You can follow my personal progress here or subscribe to our party's RSS feed. Because you know you really want to keep track of how often we vacuum or do laundry. Or mostly, you want to see when Kiyash or I contribute the most to keeping home in order.
P.S. Despite loving them greatly from afar, I've never met the folks who make Chore Wars. If you are reading this and YOU are the folk who make Chore Wars, you are awesome and I hope we meet someday and you should email me (my first name at the name of this blog dot com) so we can offically meet. In the meantime, thank you for your brilliant idea and amazing work and massive cleverness and awesomeness!
UPDATE: Kevan Davis the creator of Chore Wars emailed me. FIERO!! (if YOU pointed him to this blog, thanks ^_^)
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
These Games are Experience Grenades
Okay, I had a revelation.
Games like Superstruct and The Lost Sport and World Without Oil and Reverse Scavenger Hunts and Tombstone Hold 'Em and SF0 missions and The Go Game are "experience grenades".
That's a new term. I throughly Google-checked it.
Experience grenades: You play them, and that's like pulling the pin on the grenade. Nothing has to happen right away. Nothing has to change or be solved right away. Then, you wait. It's later -- an hour later, a day later, a week later, a month later... it goes off in your head, like the delayed explosion of a grenade.
You realize: You've learned something. Your cognitive patterns are different. Your view of the possibilities in the world around you has changed. Your sense of your own potential is changed. You're ready for something you didn't even know was coming. You understand something intuitively that seems alien or confusing to others
The thing is: This doesn't necessary happen DURING the game. During the game, you might not believe the game is working. in the best case scenario, you might think you're JUST having fun. Worse, the game might seem silly. You don't trust the design, it seems to be asking things of you that you don't naturally want to do. Or it might seem abstract -- what's the practical takeaway? IOr even worse, it might seem wonky or arbitrary or broken from your POV.
But it's working. If you're playing, the pin has been pulled. If you're really participating and immersed in the game, the work is happening in your brain. It just is. I've seen it again and again. The experience happens now, the payoff comes later.
Sometimes I know what the payoff will be, sometimes I just trust that a good game will produce something interesting. And the best thing that can happen in a game community is for players to trust that something interesting will happen, and to play as if it's an experience grenade, rather than instant satisfaction.
That's a strange thing to say about a game -- something we play to produce in-the-moment fun. But some games are fun later. They just are. Like trying adventures you have that you hate at the moment but looking back they are the adventures of your life, the stories you cherish, the bonds you made and the way you discovered who you could be.
Yes, that's a different kind of fun, a different kind of payoff. But games can be that, and it feels different in the moment than immediate and obvious fun (like Rock Band or pinatas).
I see a new class of trusted game designers who are like personal trainers. The trainer tells you to do something, and you do it -- even if it HURTS! Even if it isn't fun in the moment! And the benefits come later. Not necessarily during. You trust the trainer's process and you do it to be a better person and a happier person in the long run.
There are a few designers that I trust like this. Simon Johnson, who made the Comfort of Strangers and Hip Sync. The SF0 designers. Kati London at AreaCode. If they make it, I know I can show up and play it and I will have an experience that explodes later in my mind and stays with me. I trust them and don't care what they want me to do. I know they have a design process that works and that they're tring to make people happier and more aware of the possibilities in the world around them. And I am trying to be that kind of trusted designer myself to as many people as possible.
So I thank people who show up to play my games and trust the process. People who played Superstruct -- I know that experience grenade will be going off literally for months and years to come. We've already celebrate how much we've achieved during the game - -but the real effects will unfold for years. That's just how they work. That's just how they're designed.
Someday I hope game designers really are seen as trusted personal trainers, and that we have the chance to take people through proven processes that pay off in the long run. More gamesight, a surprising social safety net and support system, a more engaging environment, a higher quality of life.
Games like Superstruct and The Lost Sport and World Without Oil and Reverse Scavenger Hunts and Tombstone Hold 'Em and SF0 missions and The Go Game are "experience grenades".
That's a new term. I throughly Google-checked it.
Experience grenades: You play them, and that's like pulling the pin on the grenade. Nothing has to happen right away. Nothing has to change or be solved right away. Then, you wait. It's later -- an hour later, a day later, a week later, a month later... it goes off in your head, like the delayed explosion of a grenade.
You realize: You've learned something. Your cognitive patterns are different. Your view of the possibilities in the world around you has changed. Your sense of your own potential is changed. You're ready for something you didn't even know was coming. You understand something intuitively that seems alien or confusing to others
The thing is: This doesn't necessary happen DURING the game. During the game, you might not believe the game is working. in the best case scenario, you might think you're JUST having fun. Worse, the game might seem silly. You don't trust the design, it seems to be asking things of you that you don't naturally want to do. Or it might seem abstract -- what's the practical takeaway? IOr even worse, it might seem wonky or arbitrary or broken from your POV.
But it's working. If you're playing, the pin has been pulled. If you're really participating and immersed in the game, the work is happening in your brain. It just is. I've seen it again and again. The experience happens now, the payoff comes later.
Sometimes I know what the payoff will be, sometimes I just trust that a good game will produce something interesting. And the best thing that can happen in a game community is for players to trust that something interesting will happen, and to play as if it's an experience grenade, rather than instant satisfaction.
That's a strange thing to say about a game -- something we play to produce in-the-moment fun. But some games are fun later. They just are. Like trying adventures you have that you hate at the moment but looking back they are the adventures of your life, the stories you cherish, the bonds you made and the way you discovered who you could be.
Yes, that's a different kind of fun, a different kind of payoff. But games can be that, and it feels different in the moment than immediate and obvious fun (like Rock Band or pinatas).
I see a new class of trusted game designers who are like personal trainers. The trainer tells you to do something, and you do it -- even if it HURTS! Even if it isn't fun in the moment! And the benefits come later. Not necessarily during. You trust the trainer's process and you do it to be a better person and a happier person in the long run.
There are a few designers that I trust like this. Simon Johnson, who made the Comfort of Strangers and Hip Sync. The SF0 designers. Kati London at AreaCode. If they make it, I know I can show up and play it and I will have an experience that explodes later in my mind and stays with me. I trust them and don't care what they want me to do. I know they have a design process that works and that they're tring to make people happier and more aware of the possibilities in the world around them. And I am trying to be that kind of trusted designer myself to as many people as possible.
So I thank people who show up to play my games and trust the process. People who played Superstruct -- I know that experience grenade will be going off literally for months and years to come. We've already celebrate how much we've achieved during the game - -but the real effects will unfold for years. That's just how they work. That's just how they're designed.
Someday I hope game designers really are seen as trusted personal trainers, and that we have the chance to take people through proven processes that pay off in the long run. More gamesight, a surprising social safety net and support system, a more engaging environment, a higher quality of life.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Special Mission: Inventing the Future! UPDATED with 300 micro-forecasts
UPDATE:
At our Fall 2008 Technology Horizons Conference, we crowd-sourced five questions (via Twitter, blogs, email, and SMS) about the Blended Realities that we will likely all be living in by 2019.
We received over 300 micro-forecasts in less than 24 hours. Here are the massively collaborative results! (Posted in order of how many contributions were made -- the future of society won in a landslide!)
The future of SOCIETY: Now that it is 2019, how do you share your feelings?
The future of HEALTH: It's 2019. Describe your experience with health care.
The future of FOOD: In 2019, how do you decide what is fordinner?
The future of SECURITY: In 2019, who defines your identities, and who governs them?
The future of ENERGY: In 2019, what are you energy sources for your mobile, home and business life? How are they advantageous? Disadvantageous?
*
We're competing to invent the future! PLEASE JOIN OUR GAME!
At 5 PM Pacific Time on Tuesday November 18, 2008, this blog post was updated with the following five questions about the year 2019. Each question is posed by a different forecasting team at the 2008 Blended Reality conference at the Institute for the Future. Each team is competing to collect the most answers, and the most interesting examples, from the most diverse community possible.
PLEASE JOIN OUR GAME! Answer one, answer two, or more BEFORE 12 NOON PACIFIC TIME WED NOV 19, 2008.Update: TIME'S UP! 30,000 words worth of ideas received in 19 hours!!! Results will be posted soon on Superstructgame.net ... stay tuned!
*
You are invited to post your reply to one, two, or more of the questions in the comments.
We're racing to see which future gets the most replies, as well as the most INTERESTING replies, in just 19 hours!
Please share this post with friends, followers, and colleagues and help us see how much participation bandwidth we can harness in less than one day!
Ask folks to Twitter their reply (using #2019) or to send email reply (to superstruct@iftf.org) or to paste a blog comment on this page (URL: http://tinyurl.com/replynow)
At our Fall 2008 Technology Horizons Conference, we crowd-sourced five questions (via Twitter, blogs, email, and SMS) about the Blended Realities that we will likely all be living in by 2019.
We received over 300 micro-forecasts in less than 24 hours. Here are the massively collaborative results! (Posted in order of how many contributions were made -- the future of society won in a landslide!)
The future of SOCIETY: Now that it is 2019, how do you share your feelings?
The future of HEALTH: It's 2019. Describe your experience with health care.
The future of FOOD: In 2019, how do you decide what is fordinner?
The future of SECURITY: In 2019, who defines your identities, and who governs them?
The future of ENERGY: In 2019, what are you energy sources for your mobile, home and business life? How are they advantageous? Disadvantageous?
*
We're competing to invent the future! PLEASE JOIN OUR GAME!
At 5 PM Pacific Time on Tuesday November 18, 2008, this blog post was updated with the following five questions about the year 2019. Each question is posed by a different forecasting team at the 2008 Blended Reality conference at the Institute for the Future. Each team is competing to collect the most answers, and the most interesting examples, from the most diverse community possible.
PLEASE JOIN OUR GAME! Answer one, answer two, or more BEFORE 12 NOON PACIFIC TIME WED NOV 19, 2008.Update: TIME'S UP! 30,000 words worth of ideas received in 19 hours!!! Results will be posted soon on Superstructgame.net ... stay tuned!
*
You are invited to post your reply to one, two, or more of the questions in the comments.
We're racing to see which future gets the most replies, as well as the most INTERESTING replies, in just 19 hours!
Please share this post with friends, followers, and colleagues and help us see how much participation bandwidth we can harness in less than one day!
Ask folks to Twitter their reply (using #2019) or to send email reply (to superstruct@iftf.org) or to paste a blog comment on this page (URL: http://tinyurl.com/replynow)
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