Links & notes for this month

• • Aspect of the Hare: Pike's World of WarCraft Blog: so you want to play a hunter
    Big guide to levelling hunters. Lots of good hunter stuff on here, actually, which muggins needs to learn quite fast.
    (tags: hunter wow worldofwarcraft games guides )
  • Versus CluClu Land: Essential Jargon: Procedural Rhetoric
    "What I like about the rhetoric idea is that it places the accent on how the work operates on the player, and this is essential for an interactive medium. What I don't like is that it's a resolutely utilitarian framework for critical analysis: it focuses in on the way that games might change our opinions for good or ill at the expense of the way games might transport, entertain, humiliate, and ravish their users." Pliskin on Bogost's Procedural Rhetoric; both the post and its comments are smart, nuanced discussion around the idea.
    (tags: games criticism rhetoric ianbogost iroquoispliskin proceduralrhetoric )
  • Strategic video game improves critical cognitive skills in older adults
    "There was a correlation between their performance on the game and their improvement on certain cognitive tests, Kramer said. Those who did well in the game also improved the most on switching between tasks. They also tended to do better on tests of working memory." Playing the game (Rise of Nations) didn't affect all tasks, but it had improvements on some - seemingly those involving task and process management.
    (tags: videogames research learning education science memory cognitive skills )
  • rodcorp: History painting permutations
    "Regardless of the dubious value of trying to dubiously value the art, one thing is immediately clear: in a reversal of casino logic, we value the rarity of the green stripe: 0, house wins."
    (tags: keithtyson art generative )
• • Hafsteinn Júlíusson : The napBook
    "The Napbook is a laptopcase which also happens to be a comfortable cushion." I could do with one right now.
    (tags: pillow notebook bag laptop design cushion )
  • Play The Majesty of Colors, a free online game on Kongregate
    "I Fell In Love With The Majesty Of Colours", a pixelated Cthuluesque love-hate story. Sweet; overwritten, but the core mechanics is nice, and the pace of the game is very soothing.
    (tags: games flash kongregate colours pixelated gentle reflective )
  • Visualising a forum thread - dpreview.com Developer blog : Digital Photography Review
    Some interesting visualisations of the way forum threads on dpreview - which has nested threads in posts - grow and progress. Interesting for the patterns it throws up, and somewhat useful, if only for rough, high-level analysis.
    (tags: flash visualization forums community discussion web dpreview trees networks )
  • Human Slinky Halftime Basketball Creighton University Omaha NE Video
    Bonkers. It's a man, dressed as something a bit like a slinky, and it broke me a little.
    (tags: video choreography bonkers slinky )
• • One More Go: Ikaruka, The Big Enemy Is Approaching - Offworld
    "Ikaruga doesn’t treat you mean because it wants to see you fail. Ikaruga treats you mean because it wants winning to feel wonderful. But the more I became addicted to that mechanic, the more uneasy I started to feel. Volunteering to be beaten and humiliated on the promise of eventual pleasure? Isn’t there a word for that?" I can't get on with Ikaruga - too much of a memory test, too much punishment, not enough pleasure - but I can totally understand these sentiments. Lovely writing.
    (tags: offworld blogs ikaruga treasure shmups experiential reward )
  • “The words should roll out of the mouth” - On the dubbing of “The Wire” in German | The Babbel Blog
    The Wire has started airing on German TV, in a dubbed version; fascinating interview on how to translate it whilst keep the flavour of the original show.
    (tags: wire dubbing translation german tv thewire language slang )
  • Eegra: Updates a thousand times a second!! : Five-word/Haiku Review Database
    How come I have not seen this before?
    (tags: games humour haiku reviews funny )
  • Offworld goes to hell - Offworld
    Preserved at least in the screengrab of this post: today is the 15th anniversary of the release of Doom, and Offworld have reskinned accordingly. Fun.
    (tags: doom offworld blog design )
  • When Linux fails | Tux Deluxe
    "The outcome of this rampant illegal software copying is that Windows is seen as "the first world standard" and any attempt to push a cheaper alternative is strongly resisted. They consider it trying to cheat local people out of getting the same quality of software that is used in the developed world, even though it's a legal way of getting quality software for free." Not what you'd expect, but totally understandable: as said before, there is a middle class everywhere, and it has the same aspirations everywhere.
    (tags: windows opensource linux africa aspiration middleclass software )
  • Steven Spielberg interview - Quarter To Three Forums
    ...and here's a tiny bit that got cut from the final interviewer, from Tom Chick's own site. Spielberg talks in more detail about balancing storytelling and gameplay, and expands a bit on the cutscene problem.
    (tags: tomchick stevenspielberg interview games play narrative cutscenes storytelling )
  • Steven Spielberg - Celebrity Byte - Yahoo! Games
    Tom Chick interviews Spielberg on games for Yahoo!. Spielberg is consumate and smart, as you'd expect, but also well-grounded; he really does _play games_. "Yes, I've played Half-Life, of course" - the "of course" is the important bit.
    (tags: games stevenspielberg interview storytelling narrative play boomblox )
  • Littlebigplanet: Sackboy Pattern In UK's Leading Knitting Magazine
    “Sackboy will be tremendously popular and this is the perfect time of year to knit the little chap. Knitting and customizing him means that he will be utterly unique and a very cool accessory. We’re very lucky to have him in the magazine and we hope that he’ll help to increase the already sizable crossover between the great communities of gamers and knitters, online or not.” Frankly smashing. I wonder if Mum's looking for a Christmas knitting project?
    (tags: knitting crafting games littlebigplanet sackboy )
  • Play This Thing! | MSG
    "In short, [MSG] defies many of the characteristics we normally ascribe to a tabletop RPG -- in the context of a very cynical, and very cool, cyberpunky future where even the minimal constraints on corporate action that currently apply are removed, and any residual ethical norms for businessmen are considered the domain of chumps. Excellent, in a word." Ordered, based upon Greg's writeup and also the fantastic downloadable version of the ruleset. Now, to find some players.
    (tags: corporate rpg games play roleplaying business satire )
• • The Making of... Dune II | Edge Online
    "Herzog Zwei was a lot of fun, but I have to say the other inspiration for Dune II was the Mac software interface. The whole design/interface dynamics of mouse clicking and selecting desktop items got me thinking, ‘Why not allow the same inside the game environment? Why not a context-sensitive playfield? To hell with all these hot keys, to hell with keyboard as the primary means of manipulating the game!" Brett Sperry, of Westwood, on the making of Dune II. Via Offworld.
    (tags: edge games interface ui hci interaction design rts strategy pointandclick )
  • Changing the Game
    "Changing the Game (order via Amazon or B&N) is a fast-paced tour of the many ways in which games, already an influential part of millions of people’s lives, have become a profoundly important part of the business world. From connecting with customers, to attracting and training employees, to developing new products and spurring innovation, games have introduced a new level of fun and engagement to the workplace. Changing the Game introduces you to the ways in which games are being used to enhance productivity at Microsoft, increase profits at Burger King, and raise employee loyalty at Sun Microsystems, among other remarkable examples. It is proof that work not only can be fun--it should be." I shall have to check this out.
    (tags: games play business culture communication learning education simulation book productivity )
  • Inside the world's most annoying economic crisis. - By Joe Keohane - Slate Magazine
    "As a result, vendors here are more likely to decline to sell you something than to cough up any of their increasingly precious coins in change. I've tried to buy a 2-peso candy bar with a 5-peso note only to be refused, suggesting that the 2-peso sale is worth less to the vendor than the 1-peso coin he would be forced to give me in change." They're running out of coins in Argentina, and it makes for a seriously odd situation - and a reminder of the differences between value and worth.
    (tags: finance money currency worth value coins argentina )
  • Keith Tyson's History Painting print offer | Culture | guardian.co.uk
    "The artist Keith Tyson is offering 5,000 Guardian readers the opportunity to own a free downloadable artwork by him. The costs you'll have to bear are those of printing out the work on A3 photographic paper – and framing, if you so choose... You will be asked to enter your geographical location – which forms part of the unique title of each print."
    (tags: art culture online guardian printing generative analogue keithtyson )
  • GirlParkour - Parkour: Issues of gender.
    "The media would have us believe that those with the best ability in Parkour require and condition to bodies of hypermasculine levels, and the first notions of this concept seem quite logical. However, it is known to any traceur that the spectacle of the masculinized body is not in necessary relation to one’s ability of movement. Mass media tries to paint another picture with a careful selection of handsome, muscular men as traceurs... At its simplest, the hypermasculine spectacle is an easier sell to masses. However, our problem does not end at the body. It is not only the body that is masculinized, though, as we see the same pattern occurring to the discipline itself." Interesting article on Parkour and gender; specifically, the hyper-masculinisation of the art by the media.
    (tags: parkour gender spectacle media masculinity )
  • He beat WoW « Geekcrafting and Uberdork
    "Over three years ago I set a goal for myself. That goal was to have a max level character for every class in the game... Tonight, at long last, I’ve finally achieved my goal." Blimey.
    (tags: wow worldofwarcraft games levelling dedication )
• • A dessert to remember | Ask Metafilter
    Lots of suggestions for simple but yummy puddings here. Will need to check this list out again.
    (tags: baking cooking mefi metafilter dessert pudding )
  • Fitting curves to data using Ruby and the GNU Scientific Library
    "If you need to perform data analysis, provide graphics for your users in your webapp, or produce high quality plots I encourage you to investigate the combination of ruby, GSL and GNUPlot." Looks good. I should probably give this a poke some time; could come in handy.
    (tags: gsl graphing plotting data analysis statistics ruby visualisation )
  • Fatcat - Nitrome - Play Free Games
    "Feed cake to the cat for a megaburp; use the owl to block bullets." Lovely: you control the fat cat *and* the owl; the owl makes a path for the cat. It's slightly bulletty in places, and juggling two controls is tricky, but still quite laidback. A lovely, lovely flash shmup. The artwork and music helps, too.
    (tags: games shmup flash )
  • russell davies: analogue natives
    "So much joyful digital stuff is only a pleasure because it's hugely convenient; quick, free, indoors, no heavy lifting. That's enabled lovely little thoughts to get out there. But as 'digital natives' get more interested in the real world; embedding in it, augmenting it, connecting it, weaponising it, arduinoing it, printing it out, then those thoughts/things need to get better. And we might all need to acquire some analogue native skills." Yes. I am slighty frustrated by the attitude that you can make anything physical with an Arduino and some other stuff. It's the "other stuff" that's the important bit.
    (tags: analogue digital printing making friction )
  • IDEO Labs » Quick-n-dirty Multi-touch: Flash API + Wiimote
    "Our tireless multi-touch team is pleased to announce another bit of software meant to make your prototyping life a bit easier, via support for using a wiimote with our flash API to quickly turn any TV or projection surface into a multi-touch environment" Nice, simple, hacky.
    (tags: controller interface hacking multitouch design interaction wiimote ideo )
  • The Problem with Games Journalism: Part One | Snappy Gamer
    The comments thread on this is pretty epic, and I'm really not wading into that one. Suffice to say: it's quite a while before somebody mentions the word "criticism", and it's not in the main body of the article at all. That's the important word, to my mind.
    (tags: games writing criticism journalism rant misguided )
  • Julia Roberts | A Better Course
    "Of all the adverts I’ve seen this year, I think this (late entry) surprised me the most. Not because of the concept - the hilarious coincidence that sometimes people who are not famous share names with people who are famous has been used before - or the clumsy copy. It surprised me because I actually know the person in the photograph. And she really is called Julia Roberts." So do I. She really is, you know.
    (tags: advertising marketing branding )
  • 'The best perk in the White House' | Film | The Guardian
    Lovely article about the White House cinema, the first occupant of which was Eisenhower. I came upon this post-"If Gamers Ran The World" if only to find out who the first film-literate (ie: willing to have it inside the White House) president was. The article is a gem.
    (tags: america politics cinema film twentiethcentury )
• • The Online Photographer: A Rant About the D3X
    A somewhat geeky - and swear-free - Downfall adaptation, but pretty spot-on nontheless.
    (tags: downfall nikon fullframe d3x pastiche parody funny photography )
  • Ciarán Walsh’s Blog » TextMate Plug-in: ProjectPlus
    A better way of handling TextMate projects, or so I'm told. Giving this a crack.
    (tags: textmate plugin )
  • The Disciplines of User Experience
    "...what is user experience design by itself, those areas that aren’t filled up with other bubbles? I tried to answer some of that in an earlier post, but the short answer is: not much, aside from coordination between the various disciplines, or what used to be called creative direction. It’s about the joining of the different disciplines, and not particularly a discipline in and of itself... Without the “raw materials” of the disciplines that make up UX, UX would be empty indeed." Some nice thoughts, clearly delineated, from Dan.
    (tags: userexperience ux design diagram visualisation practice )
• • Public objects « Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird
    "...most public objects - and certainly all municipal objects - should offer APIs. Furthermore, specifically with regard to public infrastructures like transit systems, I believe that this should be a matter of explicit government policy. What’s a public object? A sidewalk. A building facade. A parking meter. Any discrete object in the common spatial domain, intended for the use and enjoyment of the general public. Any artifact located in or bounding upon public rights-of-way. Any discrete object which is de facto shared by and accessible to the public, regardless of its ownership or original intention. How’s that for starters?"
    (tags: public objects everyware api infrastructure ubicomp )
  • TextMate Bundles - Revision 10979: /trunk/Review/Bundles/GetBundles.tmbundle
    Better than GetBundle, apparently - hunts down unofficial bundles on github and the like, as well. Nifty.
    (tags: texteditor textmate osx application plugin nifty )
  • The Brainy Gamer: Made by human beings
    "What a wonderful idea," Jennifer noted. "We never get to see the people who make the games." Michael Abbott is talking about LittleBigPlanet.
    (tags: games creation play littlebigplanet michaelabbott )
  • Game Roundup: DS Homebrew Edition
    Leanoard rounds up his favourite DS homebrew games. Some good stuff in here that I didn't know of.
    (tags: games homebrew programming nintendods )
  • Derek Powazek - Online Advertising without Douchebaggery
    "This is just one of many examples that show you can participate in online community without having to pretend to be something you’re not. In fact, participating with authenticity is not just morally good, it’s measurably more effective."
    (tags: ea tigerwoods games community marketing video viral )
  • YouTube - Tiger Woods 09 - Walk on Water
    Powazek is right; this is definitely smart advertising, and full props to EA/W+K for just taking the credit and not trying to make it "viral"; it'll do that anyway. Although: it really is a glitch, you know.
    (tags: advertising marketing games ea wiedenandkennedy youtube video viral smart )
• • alter ego
    "AlterEgo is a Ruby implementation of the State pattern as described by the Gang of Four. It differs from other Ruby state machine libraries in that it focuses on providing polymorphic behavior based on object state. In effect, it makes it easy to give an object different “personalities” depending on the state it is in." Oh, that could be really handy.
    (tags: ruby library statemachine programming patterns )
  • Welcome to Sackbook! Social networking for LittleBigPlanet™
    Oh gosh this is brilliant.
    (tags: littlebigplanet socialnetworking games play ps3 web20 pastiche scraping )
  • ThinkGeek :: Tuttuki Bako Virtual Finger Game
    "Simply stick your finger in the hole and a virtual representation appears on the screen. Then you can use your virtual finger to play all kinds of cool mini games... from swinging a panda to having a karate fight with a tiny little man." Um, wow. Although I'm always afraid of putting appendages in boxes I can't see inside, though.
    (tags: toys games electronics physical finger )
  • freckle: time tracking rethought » Blog Archive » Calamity howlers & positively selecting with surprise
    I think they're wrong, you know. It's not theatre; it's protocol. Maybe people aren't used to the protocol; if yours is the first app they encounter, they'll think that it's OK to show what passwords are - and perhaps that it's OK to write them down elsewhere in plaintext. Applications have a degree of responsibility for users' interactions across the internet, and quirky and cute as this may be, it's just not the place to demonstrate your shining personality.
    (tags: design interaction application freckle incorrect wrong naughty passwords security )
  • 15 Incredibly Creative Papercraft Artists | WebUrbanist
    The Brian Dettmer is beautiful. Also: didn't realise the heart/cube cogs were paper, not wood.
    (tags: papercraft paper folding design construction art )
  • russell davies: reader
    "...it's another little example of the way the ipod/iphone is such an attention-demanding device. It doesn't orient to you, it orients to itself." Yes. This is a problem.
    (tags: iphone accelerometer jealousdevices attention hardware design )
  • Strobist: Four Reasons to Consider Working for Free
    "The US auto industry is on the verge of imploding. People are losing their homes to foreclosure. And, on the off chance that you had the nerve to try to buy something, credit is almost impossible to come by. It is against that backdrop that I would like to talk about working for free. Why? Because I think it is one of the fastest ways to make yourself a better photographer, whether you are a pro or an amateur."
    (tags: strobist davidhobby photography free promotion learning process )
  • Elements of an EmotionML 1.0
    "To the extent that the web is becoming truly ubiquitous, and involves increasingly multimodal paradigms of interaction, it seems appropriate to define a Web standard for representing emotion-related states, which can provide the required functionality." No, it does not seem appropriate. It seems bonkers.
    (tags: w3c spec bonkers crazy emotionml xml markup sgml )
  • Zoey’s status has been updated. « Hardcasual
    Hey, I've been in that relationship too! These made me laugh a lot.
    (tags: games left4dead facebook parody pastiche funny )
  • Zoey posted a photo. « Hardcasual
    "bill. francis. louis - look here. help." Ah, the fun of the farm. It's all coming back to me now.
    (tags: games facebook parody pastiche left4dead funny )
• • Tina Fey's Pinball Past - Giant Bomb
    "Even sweeter, the folks at Pinball News have a clip from Pinball Expo 2004 where Medieval Madness sound designer Dan Forden plays a few takes of a mid-20s Tina Fey that didn't make it into the game. It's all a little too perfect, you know?" Super-awesome.
    (tags: games pinball voiceacting voiceover tinafey )
  • At 10:10, a watch smiles
    "Timex sets their watches to precisely 10:09:36 while Rolex waits almost a minute until 10:10:31." Some lovely observations collated by Kottke.
    (tags: clocks watches timepieces advertising branding marketing )
  • Versus CluClu Land: Is Death the Mother of Beauty?
    "Prince of Persia isn't Ninja Gaiden, and this is OK, because it's not aiming for the same tension-filled experience. It's a game that wants to be lyrical. It wants to be an musical instrument rather than a crucible, and it succeeds in this goal." Point taken. I might end up giving the Prince a chance, when my current crop of challenge-heavy games is worn down.
    (tags: games princeofpersia ubisoft criticism iroquoispliskin stylisation lyricism )
  • ZAPM
    "Zapm is a science fiction roguelike game by Cyrus Dolph. It's my humble attempt to create "the sci-fi Nethack". It is very much a work in progress."
    (tags: roguelike games exploration terminal )
• • MTV Multiplayer » What I Learned About Gamers By Watching My Girlfriend Play ‘Left 4 Dead’
    "It’s easy to roll your eyes at the people who look at an Xbox 360 controller or Dual Shock and say it’s too complicated. “Left 4 Dead” proves there are hardcore experiences — not just Wii and DS games — that can draw them in…but the controller remains a challenge that won’t be easily overcome." I'd never roll my eyes; modern pads are very complicated, and twin-stick move/shoot is one of the hardest skills to acquire. Still, a nice piece of commentary on what learning to use a controller looks like, and a healthy reminder.
    (tags: games input interface controllers difficulty left4dead learning fps )
  • Dubious Quality: Fallout 3
    "So when I play Fallout 3, and I think this is probably true for most people who are over forty, some part of me is always wondering if this is what it really would have been like. Not in terms of enemies, but in the way that humans banded together into small groups to create enough order to survive." Bill Harris on a perspective on Fallout 3 that I'll never have.
    (tags: fallout3 games billharris coldwar apocalypse postapocalyptic survival )
  • xiao（シャオ）｜タカラトミー
    Click "CM Gallery". Watch. In order to illustrate the xiao's ability to not only take but also print photographs, Takara Tomy really pushed their anthropomorphic metaphor to the limits.
    (tags: camera print electronics technology japan anthropomorphic maximumstrain )
  • Review: Consequence-Free Prince of Persia Reduces Frustration, Loses the Fun | Game | Life from Wired.com
    "Yes, it's true that at no time while playing Prince of Persia did I feel any of the frustration that I felt on a regular basis in Mirror's Edge. But neither did I ever feel the joy of doing something right, of stringing together a perfect series of vaults and wall-runs and feeling like it was based on my own skill. Can one exist without the other? Is it impossible to create joy without difficulty? I don't know. But Prince of Persia lost something significant." I'm a bit worried about the new Prince, especially having read this; the challenge/reward balance is hugely important to it as a series, especially since the marvellous Sands of Time. Also, more worryingly: are developers shying away from letting players fail any more?
    (tags: princeofpersia review games gameplay mechanics challenge failure reward )
  • 'Facebook Army' wreck £1m home | Metro.co.uk
    "The Facebook Republican Army, based on Brighton's tough Whitehawk estate, looks for parties on Facebook. The gang boasts it travels nationwide – and has even bought its own coach." Oh boy.
    (tags: facebook socialnetworking crazy parties fail )
  • paulhammond.org: Minimuni
    "As the about page says, if you live exactly 6 minutes from Sunset Tunnel East Portal, 8 minutes from Duboce and Church, and 10 minutes from Church Station you may find it useful too." Bespoke tools for yourself that might happen to be useful to others. I like this a lot.
    (tags: travel muni sf web application timetable personal situated software )
  • Pirates of the Amazon Firefox Add-on -
    "The Firefox add-on "Pirates of the Amazon" inserts a "download 4 free" button on Amazon, which links to corresponding Piratebay BitTorrents. The add-on lowers the technical barrier to enable anyone to choose between "add to shopping cart" or "download 4 free". Are you a pirate?" Almost certainly not the first example; perhaps one of the best realised.
    (tags: piracy online greasemonkey plugin torrent free subversion )
  • Dubious Quality: Rocket Man
    "That's how I got here. How long will it be before someone builds a raft and sets sail in space? Bill Gates has over fifty billion dollars. What if Richard Garriott had fifty billion dollars? If he wanted to, would that be enough money to build a rocket to get him into space, and a self-sustaining environment in which he could live? Would he want to sail away and never come back? ... No matter what happened in our future, [whoever built that raft] would forever be the first. A thousand years from now, people would remember his name." Bill Harris is awesome.
    (tags: space travel kontiki exploration lonliness )