GDC Day 1: Afternoon

Monday p.m.

I. Videogames to Build and Retain TV Audience

         Randy from Virtual Heroes

                   Worked with Discovery Channel Canada advertise their race to Mars show. They wanted game content that could drum up buzz for the show.  (Www.racetomars.ca)

 

II. Out of the Box: EA Fuels New Ideas With Games like Madden and SIMs– Steve Seabolt and the slides of Rob Moore

       A number of athletes use Madden/NCAA Football and the NASCAR games to previsualize their own games (learn tracks, rosters, etc.)

         Play action simulator (XOs is the company working with EA) that is/can be used by college and pro teams. Allows you to draw in and set specific routes with after action review and play grading.

         Screenshots of players wearing VR helmets and going through the motions in-game.

Global Brand Development– Steve Seabolt

         SimCity Societies/BP Alternative Energy

                   BP came to them about 18 months ago and wanted to fund a game about energy.

                   Seabolt went to the SC:S team and worked pollution out and Carbon-based power in (along with some BP branding.

         In game you can use any power source that you want but now there is info about the carbon “footprint” /environmental impact of the source and BP (of course) paid them for it.

         OLPC– approached EA for Sim City. SO now there is an OS version for Mac/PC/Linux along with a toolkit. First EA OS project launched about 6 months ago.

         Alice 3D programming software (and a book). Alice 2.0 includes all of the characters and animations from The SIMs. All proceeds for the book go back the CM project.

                   Appeals to wide audience (girls and minorities)

                   Interactive computer games (boys)

         Free, runs on Alice, www.Alice.Org to download, available for Mac, etc.

“Doing Good” with The Sims (Key Take-Aways)  

         EA is not in the serious games business

         The SIMs label is uniquely poised to “do well by doing good”

         Decision Criteria

                   Is it consistent with the brand?

                   Will the player be delighted by the association?

                   Is it an opportunity “of scale”?

III. Being Brian Crecente: Using an Off-the-Shelf RPG to Teach Journalism– Nora Paul

         Playing the News

                   Part of a Series

                            Painting the News

                            Sensing the News

                   Nov. 2001

                            Brought together designers and journalists

                            Hard to get any traction

         GRAVEL– 2003

                   Game Research and Virtual Environment Lab

                            Interdisciplinary (University and Industry)

         Consensus

                   Interest in application and study

                   Issues of academic incentives

                   Lots of talk– little action

         Inspiration–

                   Classrooms of the Future

                   Kurt  Squire MIT Games-to-Teach

         Instigation

                   Matt Taylor

         Funding

                   CLA– Infotech Fees

                   $10K grant

                            Consulting (Matt Taylor)

                            Student assistant

                            20 copies of the game

         Game (Neverwinter Nights)

         Material

                   3004: Information for Mass Comm (required course)

                   Core of course is the information strategy model

         Course obj

                   Tech info gathering, synthesis, and analysis

         Game obj

                   Simulate the decision making process

                   See implications of choices

                   Reinforce good reporting practices

         Scenario

                   Train got hit by a truck making a toxic spill and necessitating evacuation

         Setting

                   Harperville

         Characters

                   22 characters

         Challenge

                   Come up with a story angle (health, public safety, transportation safety, etc

                   Identify key questions

                   Collect background information

                   Select and interview appropriate sources

                   Keep notes

                   Return to the news room and file an update for the news website

         What would Brian do?

                   Treat people the way that you want to be treated

                            The game gives 4 different personas for the reporter and they affected the outcome

                   Don’t rely on the officials

                            Involved making the loops complex enough so that you could discover from non-officials that you weren’t getting the whole story from the officials

                            Always use a 2nd sources

         Playing

                   Using the NWN art aspects rather than re-designing everything from scratch because of the budget

         After 6-8 months they tried it out in the lab with one of the honors classes.

         Trouble in game paradise

                   Lab use issues

                   Wider deployment

                   Play bugs

                   Students didn’t like running or using the phone in the newsroom

                   Graphic realism

         A new approach

                   Pine Tech’s Johnson Simulation Center

                            Had a game engine– needed material

                            Migrating content

                            Improved graphic realism

         Not yet ready for class

                   Editing work

                   Moving dialog boxes

                   Missing library/promise of live browser in the game

         TBD

                   Does it enhance learning

                   Usability issues?

                            Eyetracking

                   How does this fit in pedagogically into a hybrid learning environment

                            Lab/homework/project