Dr. B.'s Blog - Game Theory

October Fever

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:41:14 -0400

I haven't posted a lot lately so I thought I'd break the silence by posting about why I have a love hate relationship with October. This is the month when all of the much awaited games start coming out for the holiday season. While there are a gazillion new big budget games coming out this month I am only in for 3. Yeah, 3 to the tune of about $200+ (damn!) In order they are:

1. Fable 2 (already playing the pub games on XBLA)
2. Fallout 3 (the game that I bought the PS3 for all of those months ago)
3. Little Big Planet (while everyone else is uber excited for this one I am still a little lukewarm, but I need something else for the PS3, right?)

In other news, if you hadn't heard it yet Ninetendo is forcing me to buy a 3rd DS. Yep, they are releasing the Nintendo DSi which is going to be thinner, have a bigger screen, improved WiFi, and a camera! Nintendo has thus far been the only company to get me to buy the same system multiple times (no matter how badly I want PSPs in various colors). Damn them!

In non-what I want for Christmas type news. Micro$oft has teamed up with the NYU system to form a Games for Learning Institute. They've got $3 million to "cover the first three years of G4LI's research, which will focus on evaluating video games as potential learning tools for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects at the middle-school years." Geez, how can I get down with that?? It sounds like a great project. Do you think that we can convince M$ that they need to do a separate study on Mid-West kids and start a consortium with Indiana universities?

And with that I will take my leave...for now :-)

Tangential Learning and Video Games

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:20:17 -0400

Very cool YouTube video on Tangential Learning in video games. Definitely something that can be shared with New Media or Computers in Language and Rhetoric course. There are a few others (by the same guy) that are interesting, like video games and sex. Definitely worth checking out.

WiiFit Thinks I'm Old, Short, and Fat

Tue, 27 May 2008 16:58:23 -0400

Not that any of that might not be true, but I don't appreciate being told that by my game console! Yeah, I got a Wii Fit at launch because I had to have it. I was wondering how delicate it would be and it wasn't very delicate at all. When I entered my height and weight it shrank my mii and made my belly hang out of my workout clothes (this mind you NEVER happens).

In a society that is far too concerned with impossible beauty standards and children "dieting" in elementary and middle school for no good reason I worry about the additional damage of being called obese and having oneself represented as a dumpy avatar. Now I have to go and lie to my Wii and see if the process and outcome is any different if I make myself a pre-teen girl.

Briefly

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:44:31 -0400

Just a brief announcement. Penny Arcade is sponsoring a scholarship for students interested in going into the games industry. It is not field specific, and I am really interested in seeing if they award it to someone in the humanities :-)

via GamingAngels

Finished!

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:15:38 -0400

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. It has been a busy week. There were dissertation prospectus defenses and sockday parties and web 2.0 community meetups. I have been a busy beaver!

I did manage to stay up until 4:00 on Wednesday and finish Professor Layton. I was really excited to get to the extra puzzles that were based on how completely you have finished the game, but I was sorely disappointed. Not so much in the game as in myself. The puzzles were the same puzzles that you find in the game (and one might argue a bit more difficult), but I found myself almost totally disinterested in them when they were not connected to or advancing an ongoing narrative!

Wow, now that says a lot. I found the puzzles too easy in most cases, but I continued to play the game because I wanted to see what happened next in the simple (yet engaging) story. There is definitely a lot to be said for a good narrative.

Oh well, it's almost 5:30 so I guess I really should head off to bed. DST really sucks for me right now!

Critical Thinking is the Key to Success! (aka Professor Layton and the Curious Village)

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:01:20 -0500

Don't you hate when you write a long post and it gets lost in the ether. Here's my attempt to recreate it before I go to bed.

So I've been playing a lot of Professor Layton and the Curious Village on my DS before I go to bed at night and I find it amusing that "Critical thinking is the key to success!" is one of the professor's key phrases. As a teacher, it would be great if all of my students thought that way, right?

Professor Layton is a lot like Brain Age with a narrative. You solve a series of puzzles to get clues from the villagers. The game offers an interesting cast of characters including the sloppy detective, the beautiful lady in distress, the flamboyant servant with purple lip(stick) to match his purple suit who interjects "Woo Hoo" in a Tourettes-esque manner during his speeches, matronly little old ladies, and an assortment of village idiots.

Oddly enough all of the villagers have puzzles that they want you to solve (and they can't solve them for themselves). You need the clues that they give you to solve a series of mysteries. There are disappearing artifacts, a murder, kidnappings, and more to come I am sure. I have finished 4 or 5 chapters of the game and the puzzles are starting to get a little challenging (either that or it's the cold medicine that I've been taking at bedtime). What is (so far) obviously absent from the game is word puzzles. Professor Layton 2 has already been released in Japan and a third is the works so hopefully the the developers at Level-5 will pull in some wordsmithy types to develop some word puzzles!

Additional game features?

In addition to the clues that you get from the villagers for solving the puzzles you can also earn money (picarats) that can be used to buy bonuses at the end of the game.

You can download new puzzles every week via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Wednesday Gaming @ GDC

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:53:26 -0500

While I spent far too much time touring the Expo at GDC I played a lot of games as well. Want to know what I played? Here's a quick list and my 5 word maximum first reactions!

Hellgate London- Really Liked It

Crysis- Liked It

Spore Creatures (DS-Pre-release)- It could grow on me

Wii Fit- Strangely addictive (and the Nintendo guy got me to hula hoop in public!)

Dishwasher: Dead Samurai (XNA community game for XBLA)- Definite Download

Little Gamers (XNA community game for XBLA)- Definite Download

Penumbra:Overture- Not for me

Warriors Orochi (Pre-release for the PSP)- A hack & slash feast. Gots to get me some of that!

Bionic Commando (watched a demo)- A Black, male, Lara Croft with dreads...not really my type of game this one.

Fez- A GDC Indie favorite...a cross between Echochrome and old school platformer

Tuesday GDC Notes

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:51:44 -0500

On Tuesday I went to sessions from both IGDA and the Serious Games Summits. You'll find those notes below the fold. :-)

GDC Day 1: Afternoon

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:34:06 -0500

So day one is over and here are my notes. You can find them below the fold. Now to find some food.

GDC Day 1: Morning

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:44:04 -0500

well the morning of day one is official in the bag! i made it through almost the whole morning before my body decided that food would be necessary to keep my blood sugar up and I had to sneak out before the last morning session, but 3 out of 4 ain't bad, right? I'm posting my notes from the a.m. below the break for those who are interested in what when on in the Serious Games Summit today.

GDC Pre-Game Show

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:01:56 -0500

Been waiting until it was late enough to go to be so that I don't wake up at 3 a.m. PST. I think that i should be able to go to bed in an hour or two so that I can get up and have breakfast and coffee before I head over for day 1 of GDC. I am prolly going to sneak back and forth between the Serious Games and IGDA Summits for the next couple of days. What I am really looking forward to is the Show EXPO!! I am counting the days until that kicks off on Wednesday.

Wish me luck!

The Internet Just Saved My Marriage

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:15:11 -0500

Ok, not really, but Michael Lopp over at Rands in Repose wrote a very cool piece on understanding nerd behavior called The Nerd Handbook. The post is very cool even though Lopp does make the heteronormative and male centered assumption that all nerds are men and that they have girlfriends rather than boyfriends. What about us female nerds with girlfriends...would that make Lopp's nerd brain explode?

The Handbook explains my unnatural connection to my MBP, my control issues, and my love of games just to name a few. I am going to immediately email this to Lisa and then print out multiple copies and tape them to the walls of the rooms in the house where she tries to talk to me and my nerd brain doesn't allow me to listen.

*On a more serious note, I really do listen to everything that Lisa has to say...otherwise she might hurt me!

It's Completely Innocent I Tell you!

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:17:17 -0500

The US Army is sponsoring an XBox/Halo 3 contest. Of course they are not looking for strategists and sharpshooters to recruit, but their contest is only open to US residents over the age of 18.

Of course you do have to register your gamertag (XBox Live username) and confirm your account information which includes your name, address, etc. but I'm sure they wouldn't want to use that to contact folks.

Is this a sign that America's Army for the 360 is not doing so hot? Come on ya'll get outta my gaming.

Xbox.com | Calendar of Events - U.S. Army Heavy Weapons Play & Win Sweepstakes

Wanna Write for An RPG?

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:32:32 -0500

BioWare Austin is looking to hire writers for a new role playing game (RPG) that they are developing. You can find the full call here.

Maybe one of ya'll have the skills to take on this position. Check it out and if you get the job I want to be in on the beta at the very least!

Safe and Sound

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:47:47 -0500

I have arrived in Vancouver, WA safe and sound and am blogging quickly before heading out to dinner. Gotta come back and go over my notes for my presentation on storyboarding in games tomorrow. I am looking forward to it and now have a good use for the pictures of Dragon's Lair and Sims storyboards that I took at the Game On exhibit. Hmmmmm, I wonder if that was legal...oh well, at least it was for a good cause!