88 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2023
    1. Art is the hook that engages students…. The subjects are familiar so that students have much to recognize but they also contain elements of mystery so students have observations, ideas, and emotions to puzzle over [my emphasis]. (p. 24)

      Right, so the modern equivalent would be to design a game or an 3d animation in an intuitive way, yet the integration of pipeline in this systems makes it so that not even experienced professionals in the area cn develop a short film or an interactive experience through art that eases people into coding.

      I think we need to do a better job at this. If the system that allowed us to design the processes also taught it to people then we wouldn't have to chose between improving the learning curve and the system there should all be one. why did we stop shipping manuals with our tech..? ahh it was because we stopped caring about what the people that designed the tool thought.

  2. Jun 2023
    1. LeBlanc, D. G., & Lee, G. (2021). General Deep Reinforcement Learning in NES Games. Canadian AI 2021. Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association (CAIAC). https://doi.org/10.21428/594757db.8472938b

  3. Feb 2023
  4. Jan 2023
    1. axi  embodies a new generation of games

      Axie Infinity play-to-earn game

      Funded by a16z, this game allowed character owners to farm out their characters to "scholars" who would play them for a cut of the player's earnings. It has been accused of relying on predatory mechanisms to extract rent from lower demographic populations.

    1. The game went on to be a minor hit in Japan, selling over 100,000 copies -- and was followed up by a Game Boy version which, thanks to Pokemon's popularity, sold over 300,000, launching the new franchise.

      Interesting facts about the launch of the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series in Japan. The first game for SNES sold about 100,000 copies. The game that most launched the series, however, was the simpler Game Boy game, which "sold over 300,000, launching the new franchise." This article credits the success of Pokemon in part with the high sales of Story of Seasons.

    2. "It wasn't all that easy to apply the concept of living life in the countryside to a game design document," said Yasuhiro Wada, creator of the Harvest Moon franchise. Wada had moved to Tokyo after being brought up in the countryside. Though he had no interest in returning to that environment, he finally understood its advantages compared to the big city, and thus wanted to turn that experience into a game. The problem was that he didn't know how. "I needed to nail the player experience," said Wada, but he had a problem: "How do you express the game system of living while working?"

      Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, explained that he first had the idea of creating a game where the player cared for cows from growing up in the Japanese countryside.

    1. “It looked like we’d run out of time and would have to scrap the battling feature, but Nintendo made it clear they wanted battles in the game, so we had to make it happen”, he explained“So I just thought, ‘well no choice then, it has to be done,’ and the early battles were something you just watched. You would just see there was a battle and who won and who lost.”Morimoto revealed that when this element was first shown to Nintendo, the feedback was negative. “We showed that to Nintendo and the surveys we got back called it ‘boring’,” Morimoto said. “I guess they were right, but we were cutting it close to the deadline trying to add in battles that the player commands.“Ultimately, it’s what everyone wanted, so we got it to work with the Link Cable and made it a reality.”

      The story of how Pokémon Red and Blue were almost released without link cable battling.

    1. Ai Ebihara is the kind of character that you expect to hate from the get-go, but her struggle surprisingly becomes one of the better links in the game. Ai is pretty and rich, and she knows it – something that makes her insufferable at the start. She is always stroking her own ego, keeping up appearances, and spends her time being generally self-centered. But it takes a form of rejection to show Ai is dealing with some heavy feelings, even suicidal thoughts. What I loved so much about Ai’s social link is that it’s unpredictable – a rollercoaster of uncertainty. Every time you think you know where you stand with the girl and make progress, you get slapped in the face with an unsettling event or revelation. The question the link poses: Is there a redeeming quality about her? Can a kind soul be all it takes to save someone? Watching it all unfold is beautiful.  

      "The question the link poses: Is there a redeeming quality about [Ai Ebihara]? Can a kind soul be all it takes to save someone?"

      This is a beautiful write-up of the Ai Ebihara social link in Persona 4. I would be curious what the author thinks the answers are to the two questions presented. In my view, Ai's redeeming quality -- that is the quality she uses to redeem her character in the end -- is the same quality that drove her unpleasant personality early in the arc -- introspection. The player "saves" Ai by giving Ai the courage to save herself. Part of the beauty of the link is that the rest is for Ai to figure out as she goes forward.

  5. Dec 2022
    1. Steam emulator for GNU/Linux and Windows that emulates steam online features. Lets you play games that use the steam multiplayer apis on a LAN without steam or an internet connection.

      Interesting project to make it possible to run some Steam games that ordinarily would require Steam to be running to run without Steam.

  6. Nov 2022
    1. Donations

      To add some other intermediary services:

      To add a service for groups:

      To add a service that enables fans to support the creators directly and anonymously via microdonations or small donations by pre-charging their Coil account to spend on content streaming or tipping the creators' wallets via a layer containing JS script following the Interledger Protocol proposed to W3C:

      If you want to know more, head to Web Monetization or Community or Explainer

      Disclaimer: I am a recipient of a grant from the Interledger Foundation, so there would be a Conflict of Interest if I edited directly. Plus, sharing on Hypothesis allows other users to chime in.

  7. 7nightstranslations.wordpress.com 7nightstranslations.wordpress.com
    1. Tanabe Meito is a psychology student in the “World of Light”, a completely ordered world were people don’t have a shadow. He’s not entirely satisfied, though; and when he meets a girl with a shadow called Shimon he ends going with her to the “World of Shadow”, a rural village where the people are shadows, and Shimon is the only one with both body and shadow. Right after that they meet two other persons with body and shadow: a girl with no memories, who they finally name Sou, and a woman also with no memories but who recalls being called Riri. Then they start living together in Shimon’s house, and have mostly slice-of-life happenings while they investigate a mysterious voice Meito heard just before going to the World of Shadow, and Meito gets used to the shadow people. And while that’s happening you have scenes of a boy who lives with his mother, who eats him, until he discover eating is love, eats her, and goes out into the outer world. Then things get real trippy, and nothing else makes any sense, until the very end, or ever.

      "And while that's happening you have scenes of a boy who lives with his mother, who eats him, until he discovers eating is love, eats her, and goes out into the outer world. **Then things get real trippy, and nothing else makes any sense, until the very end, or ever."

      This is as apt a description of MYTH as one could write.

  8. Jul 2022
    1. While we are in the process of updating our Minecraft Usage Guidelines to offer more precise guidance on new technologies, we wanted to take the opportunity to share our view that integrations of NFTs with Minecraft are generally not something we will support or allow. Let’s have a closer look!

      Above-the-fold statement on NFTs in Minecraft

  9. Mar 2022
    1. Twitch, the popular site where people go to watch other people play video games

      That's an oversimplification -- even video game streamers spend a lot of time just talking to their audience or watching videos.

      Twitch provides on-demand, human connection (like radio or TV before it).

  10. Feb 2022
    1. With Stadia's consumer model going down the drain, Google announced it would pivot Stadia to become a behind-the-scenes, white-label data center service that the company will reportedly re-brand as "Google Stream."

      I think that makes a lot of sense. Google doesn't want to do the "platform building" Microsoft and Sony excel at, and it doesn't have to.

      Imagine playing or trying out video games simply on the developers website.

  11. Jun 2021
    1. graphics are not really important in the grand scheme of things, even less so in puzzlers, but the diorama-like presentation of forests and cute animals immediately won me over, and I found small things like moving animals in the backround hours into the game. gotta admire the attention to detail.
    2. when it first came out, cubicity: slide puzzle was full of mobile shenanigans, but based on feedback the developers quickly 'de-mobilized' it during launch week
  12. Apr 2021
    1. The game is not too bad.. sweet graphics yet minimalistic.. but why the heck 1,5k achievements? I can barely concentrate on the levels because all the freaking achievements pop up all the time. One per level would have done the job just fine.. i love achievements.. but getting 1,5k for nothing is hideous.
    1. as it stands, this only goes to highlight what a miracle, what a classic for the ages Actraiser really is, whilst confirming itself as, unfortunately, one to avoid.
    1. Probably the only thing I'd like to see fixed now is the possibility of quick restart like in the old Timberman and not having to wait for the 'Game Over' screen to finally be back to the good ol' choppin'
    1. list of achievements does give you more incentive to replay the adventure if you're interested in that sort of thing.
    1. Reminds me ofo DVONN, but only with respect to disappearing hexes/spaces. DVONN is a much much better (actually strategic) game.

    1. A PvP level was added just for the sake of ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles, the only purpose of this this is game is achievement farming.
  13. Mar 2021
    1. Proton is a new tool released by Valve Software that has been integrated with Steam Play to make playing Windows games on Linux as simple as hitting the Play button within Steam. Underneath the hood, Proton comprises other popular tools like Wine and DXVK among others that a gamer would otherwise have to install and maintain themselves. This greatly eases the burden for users to switch to Linux without having to learn the underlying systems or losing access to a large part of their library of games. Proton is still in its infancy so support is inconsistent, but regularly improving.
    1. This is yet another one of the sad, sad list of excellent games that Asmodee contracted someone to digitize for the least amount of money possible, and it shows. It's a pity, because they're excellent games, but if you don't have the patience for them, it's infuriating to go through all those hoops. Any user doing a QA session for 10 minutes would have told them most of these.
    1. Based on my search, the game might be developed by neptun digital, an Android game called Brain On Physics Drop - Idle Balls Puzzle. It was released on Amazon, on June 29, 2017. Free.Later on Sep 4, 2017 it was put on google play store called Physics Brain Balls - Drop It On Dots. Free.Then in June 2018, its web browser version Love Draw released by Faramel Games. Free.Later here on Jan 9, 2019, Windows port showed up. Paid to play. Apart from all of this, the design of origin is simply modified based on a free game called Brain Dots released in 2015.A port doesn't deserve to be paid, let alone the origin of the port is not original at all.

      Not everything needs to be 100% original. People are allowed to charge money for their creations/work. "Porting" a game (probably writing from scratch if they are not the same developer) is not trivial.

    1. First off, achievement spam is not a selling point. In fact, this game broke my Steam client because it spams achievements. Whenever I closed it, it froze my client. What am I gonna do with there cheevos anyway? "Look, I got the achievement "Web 1720", am I cool now?"
    1. Good bit of content, but very little of it. 10€ for leviathans is a salty price for what it offers, if this was part of the Utopia DLC it's asking price of 20€ would have been easier to justify. Worth getting just to have more content in the game but paradox is really stretching by asking money for this little. Could/should have been a free update really.
    1. a strategy game for me is mostly about the mechanics and the replayability. I love good art and design, but function follow form!
  14. Feb 2021
  15. www.metacritic.com www.metacritic.com
    1. Difficult enough to prove a worthy challenge, with an over-complexity that might have benefitted from a little self-restraint.

      overly complex = unnecessarily complicated

    1. This tedium would be unacceptable in an action game, but Windbound is a survival game. In survival games, death is supposed to mean something. Loss of progress represents the stakes; repetition is the barrier of entry.
  16. www.metacritic.com www.metacritic.com
    1. Please, do not buy this. I am really tired of "games" that are given critical praise because its cool to praise or because its political correct to do. I will break up my review in points so its clear why I dislike this "game" : 1) This is not a game. This is a short story, like an interactive book. 2) This game is so short, that I completed it in a 3 hour bus ride. It was boring. 3) Its a story of a girl that have to take the reigns of her life after divorce. WOMAN EMPOWERMENT. Now you know why this game is rated so highly 4) This is a MOBILE GAME. I paid $3 to play on an iphone (after watching a gaming channel give it GOTY contender. Needless to say, I never watched that gaming channel again). I FELT I WAS ROBBED OF TIME AND $3. Imagine how much I hated this game to feel like I was robbed even though it costed me only $3. 5) This game costs $7 on the eshop. You could buy CELESTE for $9 on sale on the Eshop. That is a great game. I recently bought Hollow Knight for $7 on Playstation. This interactive novel should not be sold as a game. Period. It is a waste of time and money.

      Nothing wrong with interactive novels being sold in the same store as games... as long as it's clear what it is (no false advertising).

      Somewhat agree with some of the other points...

    1. More and more, Im seeing this "retro graphics" (aka - lazy cash in.) money grab titles that are completely broken or absolutely terrible.. and they're RAPIDLY flooding the Switch like flies to horse dung. With no real reliable independent reviews of Indie titles available (Even MetaCritic is blank for at LEAST 70% of these indie garbage games..) players are left with no recourse but to flush hard earned cash on what is essentially a non-refundable gamble.
    1. Remember the helpful old man in the original Zelda for NES: "It's dangerous to go alone, take this [sword]" ? Well, TMF's tagline would be: "It's dangerous to go alone. Off you go, alone. Be careful, I guess."
    1. Choose from multiple unique paksets which offer different graphics and gameplay. Each pakset has different objects, buying prices, maintenance costs, themes and a whole unique gameplay. Every pakset is a new game.
    1. Transport Tycoon is easily one of the best Tycoon games, this variant offers indepth control over your logistic networks and zero breakdowns but with loads of new tools to get to grips with you will need to search up a guide.The other variant, OpenTTD, wants to remain more like the original. its not as precise in its logistics but much simpler to pick up and play.Both are multiplayerBoth are freeIf Simutrans feels abit obtuse, try OTTDIf OTTD feels too simple, try Simutrans
    1. As of today, you can Wishlist OpenTTD on SteamE. Historically, OpenTTD always had a single home from where we distributed the game. We used to be hosted on SourceForge (you know you are old, if you remember that being a thing :D), and slowly moved towards our own self-created distribution methods. These days, we mostly distribute our game via our website. But times are changing, and so is our hair. Over the last few months, we have silently been working to become a bit more visible in the world. Don’t worry, not for reasons you might think: OpenTTD has as many active users as it had in 2007. But more because we no longer think it is the right approach to only distribute via our own website.
    1. As of today, you can Wishlist OpenTTD on SteamE. Historically, OpenTTD always had a single home from where we distributed the game. We used to be hosted on SourceForge (you know you are old, if you remember that being a thing :D), and slowly moved towards our own self-created distribution methods. These days, we mostly distribute our game via our website. But times are changing, and so is our hair. Over the last few months, we have silently been working to become a bit more visible in the world. Don’t worry, not for reasons you might think: OpenTTD has as many active users as it had in 2007. But more because we no longer think it is the right approach to only distribute via our own website. This became painfully apparent when we noticed other people post OpenTTD on some stores. They are not always updated with new releases, sometimes even slacking behind a few years. And maybe more important to us: we can not guarantee that the uploaded version is unmodified and is the version as we intended. So, instead of fighting it, why not turn around and join them! Why not release our own, verified, builds on those stores! And this is exactly what we have been working on lately. And when I say “we”, a bit ironic to me, I mean the two developers that are around longest (myself and orudge) ;) A while back orudge added OpenTTD to the Microsoft Store. And today, I am happy to announce we will be on SteamE too! Well, we are on Steam, but we haven’t released anything there yet (sorry that I got your hopes up, just to squash them right after :( ). This is partially because of how Steam works, but also because we know we can bring a better experience for Steam with our upcoming release. That brings me to the most exciting news: if everything goes as planned, we will release OpenTTD 1.11 on Steam on the first of April, 2021! And that is not even an April fools’ joke! You can already Wishlist OpenTTD today .. and till we release on Steam, you can find our game via our website ;)
    1. Tired of games where there are tips and tutorials of all kinds and you can finish them without much difficulty?
    1. That fact that I am giving this little indie gem it's first review more than two full weeks after it launched shows the sad state on Steam of how the over saturation of asset flips and low effort garbage buries little treasures like this game.
    1. Ah, the old advertising games... It's kind of hard to explain for new generation of players, but back in the days we had games fully dedicated to certain brands. And they wanted us to pay for them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about games like Zool and Biker Mice from Mars that used to include excessive product placement. Even some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games had it. I'm talking about games that were created solely to promote a certain brand. Like Pepsiman, where we played as that weird Pepsi mascot, or Avoid the Noid with the scary bunny-like... creature from Domino's (there was actually another game about him, but it was just a “hack” of somewhat popular Famicom game Kamen no Ninja: Hanamaru). Like I've said, it's kind of hard to explain, but back in the days, kids were less sarcastic, while Ads were... well, a bit more than just Ads.With no Internet, with TV being way more than it's today and with way, WAY less rules applied (because SEGA does what Nintendon't), Ads were more than just that annoying thing that interrupts Rhett and Link on YouTube. Those were almost art on their own. And the perfect scenario for a brand was to create the mascots so cool that everybody would want to buy merchandise with it. I mean, aside from the main product. Like, everybody loves Cap'n Crunch (huge fan here). But would you also pay for a PEZ dispenser with the man? Would you like a T-shirt? That's how it worked back in the days. And with video games starting to recover from large-scale recession of early 80s, when crappy products like Pepsi Invaders almost killed the entire market, we've got ourselves advertising games... that were actually quite good.Believe it, or not, but the games about 7-Up's Spot, Cheetos' Chester Cheetah and even McDonald's Ronald McDonald were actually pretty solid. And sometimes there were even games that tried to achieve more than that. From a fourth generation platformer with kickass soundtrack called Global Gladiators that used to include McDonald's kids Mick and Mack (previously included in the game called MC Kids, which wasn't as good) to a weird 3D action game called Darkened Skye, which featured magic system based on Skittles. Let's just say that advertising games were not as simple as you may think. And this one? Not only it's my most favorite game of the kind, it's, like, one of my most favorite puzzle games... ever. Together with The Incredible Machines, Supaplex and so on. It's that good.First of all, Pushover is a game that was made to promote a popular British snack Quavers (they're so curly!). Quavers are the curly potato puffs and their mascot, Colin Curly... just lost all of them. So, as Colin's ant friend, we need to go down through the ant hill to some caves (because reasons) and get them back. That's pretty much all the background we've got here. Nothing big, nothing really interesting, but... it doesn't matter. Like... at all. The thing is – Pushover is an action puzzle game, the story doesn't really matter in that genre, while gameplay-wise... well, like I've said, this game is totally awesome.Long story short, Pushover is all about the domino effect. You push (hence the title) one block and watch the others falling. Naturally, your goal is to drop all the blocks on level during the limited amount of time. After that, you'll be able to exit the current level and get the password for the next one. Which will be very useful, since the game comes with the whooping 100 levels, some of which will be pretty tricky. Sounds pretty dull, though, can't argue with that. I mean, who cares about domino, right? Pushing blocks on 100 levels... sounds boring, right? But it's not that simple.See, there are ten different types of blocks in this game. All with their own unique properties. And trying to figure out how to drop all blocks on the levels with just a couple of pushes? It's just fun. Very, very fun. So fun that I actually love this game more than Lemmings. And everybody knows just how fun Lemmings game is. Pushover is just... well, it's hard to explain, but it's one of those games, which just “click”. It's one of those games, in which “stars” aligned perfectly. Controls are simple enough, the puzzles are very interesting and tricky (but not too tricky to make you feel bad), the graphics is very cute, the sound has that awesome “Sound Blaster” feeling... Pushover is just one of those games that you can't stop playing. 28 years later? I still can't get enough of it. And it's not just me. Even though the game was ported to quite a lot of systems (there was even SNES version with all Quavers Ads completely removed), there was a fan-made remake released in 2006. Guess, it says something.What we have here is a 100% original (not remade) DOS version (runs through DOSBox), but guess what? No complains here. Even though very often Amiga versions had better music, Pushover was not one of such games (I totally prefer the DOS sound), while all “big three” versions (Amiga, Atari ST and DOS) look almost identical and I'm not a big fan of those “filters” from fan-made remake. I mean... it's pretty cool version and stuff, but... there's nothing like the original.So, yeah. I can't recommend this game enough. Pushover is charming, cute, smart and extremely addicting puzzle game from early nineties. You like games like Lemmings, Bomberman, Wrecking Crew and so on? You should totally check this one out. Like the original Goonies (which also got fan-made remake, by the way), this game is a forgotten gem from the past. It's in my Steam favorites and it'll stay there forever. I love it that much. Dixi.
  17. Jan 2021
    1. Really the only knock I have against short games is that there’s not more of them to enjoy. I’m not a believer in any arbitrary dollar-to-hour formula, and I prefer compact, complete experiences to meandering, padded-out ones. Games like Tiny Dangerous Dungeons are a great example of the quality you can wring from short romps, in part by limiting the potential for frustration and confusion. It’s a game that’s over as soon as it feels like it’s getting going, but if that’s the worst thing you can say about a game, I’d call that a keeper.
    1. It kills me this game didnt end up a classic in the minds of all gamers. People should scoff at new games and say "Dear god, why couldnt you do what a disney game thats demo was given away for free with kids meals at mcdonalds do, why cant you even manage to be as good as "Battle at Procyon"
  18. Nov 2020
  19. Oct 2020
    1. The net result is that in gaming, clever new interface ideas can be distinguishing features which become a game’s primary advantage in the marketplace.

      Innovation in the video game industry helps it solve the public goods problem. Tweaking the economics helps the high upfront development cost be recouped.

  20. Aug 2020
    1. you could imagine my extreme disappointment after i came back after a year and a half to find that the entire exploration map was about 80% smaller, every different island was within clear view of your starting island completely decimating any sense of adventure or exploration you could have had.Almost all materials could be collected and all items built within four and a half hours. Islands are literally numbered one to five to display they're level of danger.not only that but you were practically spoon fed each advancement in the game, it feels like it was taken from a greatly ambitious open world, exploration survival game that would take months to finish and achieve everything in. To now being an arcade style iphone app game catered to ten year olds that would foolishly enter their parents card details in order to buy 10,000 roblox coins.
  21. Jul 2020
  22. Jun 2020
    1. Oh, and of course, there’s the fact that “sit on the ground” is mapped to the same control as “strangle the nearest person”, which can apparently lead to some pretty robust brainstorming sessions.

      I love this!

  23. Feb 2020
    1. I was able to use the "Gift to a Friend" link on HB on a game I already owned and was able to generate an email to a friend. They were able to successfully get the game.Seeing that my Steam account is linked to HB, I was more worried about clicking the "Reveal Your Steam Key" and getting hosed that way.
  24. May 2019
    1. Procedural Rhetoric. Bogost, I. In Persuasive games: the expressive power of videogames, pages 1–64. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007.

      "...the rhetoric of failure. Tragedy in games tends to find its procedural representation in this trope." (85)

      "Political video games in the sense I have articulated above are characterized by procedural rhetorics that expose the logic of a political order, thereby opening a possibility for its support, interrogation, or disruption. Procedural rhetorics articulate the way political structures organize their daily practice; they describe the way a system “thinks” before it thinks about anything in particular." (90)

      In thinking through This War of Mine, I'm interested in the notion that the game is designed to thwart winning, and indeed every choice the player makes bring them closer to survival or to morally bankrupt behavior or both. In many moments of the game's narrative, there are no good choices. In some play-throughs I have felt better allowing my characters to die than I have with exercising the power at my disposal, e.g. killing and robbing the old couple. And in a strange way, my characters seem to feel more comfortable with that choice, too. TWoM seems to fall somewhere in between Kabul Kaboom and traditional winnable games.

  25. Jan 2019
    1. ideas

      Watching this reminded me of a horror game I used to watch playthroughs of back in the day. Aqua Regia was used as a component to create acid at one point in the game. Thinking about it now, there were a lot of alchemy elements to that game... Go google Amnesia: The Dark Descent for a good time (and jumpscares lol)

    1. many psychologists simply accept an operational definition of intelligence by spelling out the procedures they use to measure it. . . . Thus, by selecting items for an intelligence test, a psychologist is saying in a direct way, “This is what I mean by intelligence.” A test that measures memory, reasoning, and verbal fluency offers a very different definition of intelligence than one that measures strength of grip, shoe size, hunting skills, or the person’s best Candy Crush mobile game score. (p. 290)

      Ironically, there is research showing that video game performance is positively correlated with intelligence test scores (e.g., Angeles Quiroga et al., 2015; Foroughi, Serraino, Parasuraman, & Boehm-Davis, 2016).

      Not every inaccurate statement in the textbooks was as silly as this one. Readers would benefit from browsing Supplemental File 2, which

  26. Jul 2018
    1. In Chile, the Rosas et al. study (2003) evaluated the effects of introducingeducational video games into the classroom and found indications ofpositive effects on learning, motivation and classroom dynamics.

      Good publication to look at research studies proving OCC and video game creations and educational tools were beneficial to classrooms

  27. Mar 2018
    1. FIDUSPAWN

      see: pokemon, digimon, beyblade, any other early 00's or late 90's 'mon.

  28. Nov 2017
  29. May 2017
    1. Video Game History Foundation is racing to preserve ephemeral gaming material and the physical documentation of video games.

      Would love to go to a museum like this!

  30. Dec 2016
    1. But she argues that, when it comes to machine design, it’s not exactly about giving people what they do or do not want. What matters, Schüll says, is ‘the accentuating, accelerating and elaborating that happens between the wanting and the giving’.
  31. Apr 2016
    1. window dressing

      @sorcha on twitter https://twitter.com/_sorcha/status/654787074273316864 writes: "I'm not convinced by your dismissal of 'window dressing' when the mimetic experience of historical games is such a big draw"

  32. Nov 2015
    1. Only four years old, Twitch already has 100 million viewers who consume 20 billion minutes of gaming every month. According to one 2014 study, Twitch is the fourth-­most-­visited site on the Internet during peak traffic periods, after Netflix, Google and Apple and above Facebook and Amazon. (Amazon bought Twitch in 2014 for about $1 billion, all of it cash.) And there is money in it for the gamers themselves, called ‘‘streamers’’: Fans can subscribe to channels for extra access, or they can send donations of any amount. Streamers with modest followings can make respectable incomes — hundreds or thousands of dollars a month — and the very top streamers are getting rich.

      (This is entirely peripheral to the subject of the article. I am making note of it because I have barely heard of Twitch until recently.)

  33. Sep 2015
    1. But in a digital world, how do we connect ourselves and our children to what were once oral traditions? Hollywood has accomplished some of these tasks. The recent screen version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings brought us a classic story that is based on the epic tradition. Yet how many of us have stopped and talked with our children about the deeper meanings of this tale? As the sophistication of video gaming grows, can the power of this entertainment form be used to educate children about the pitfalls of following a herd mentality? Could these games help children develop their own internal compass in morally ambiguous situations? Or perhaps even help them think about their own ability to act heroically? And as we plow ahead in the digital era, how can the fundamental teachings of a code of honor remain relevant to human interactions?
    1. BushmanandAnderson and others have marshalled a lot of evidence looking at the experimental effectsof playing violent video games, and not only does it tend to increase aggression (althoughthat finding is a little bit controversial right now), but just as importantly, kind ofsaturatingyourself in these violent images and these violent games what it definitely does is itreducesyour cooperative, kind tendencies. So be wary of, or be mindful of, these violent,saturatedplaces of our culture.