Ludology.org

Digiplay Seminar

DigiPlay 3: Leisure Constraints, Entitlement and Access to Technologies of Leisure, will take place on September 15th 2004 at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.

Ghibli Museum

Just counting the days for September, month of the one and only Tokyo Game Show. I am quite busy at the moment, but every free minute that I have I spend it trying to research on extra cool stuff to do while in Japan. So far, the Ghibli Museum is climbing up the charts really fast!

The color of games

NYTimes' Circuits features a story on the portrayal of black characters in videogames (I use the term black and not African-American, for many reasons. Well, first, I am blogging from Denmark. But secondly, even if I were in the US, it doesn't make much sense neither, as a friend, who is African but not American, keep telling me. In addition to that, the term African-American always seemed discriminatory to me, since it would seem that you would have real Americans on one side and then African-Americans on the other (one of them are so pure that do not need the extra adjective). And, of course, don't get me started on the use of the term American to describe people from the US. You guys stole our name! Simple test: how do you call people from Europe? Europeans. How do you call people from the Americas? Well, eh, who cares? See? Those millions of dark skinned people who did not invent the chewing gum or the H bomb still deserve a name. Too bad a small few feel that they are the only ones entitled to it).
My point here is that people do care about identity. People do care about names (isn't it awful when somebody mispells our names?) and people do care about race. You may agree or disagree, but it happens. And this article (free reg. required) claims that it is quite surprising that black characters, who have not played a main role in games, are now all over the console screen... as criminals. Certainly, nothing new, this debate took place a couple of decades ago for Television. And now it is coming to games. Trust me, it is here to stay. Of course, the easy way out is to just play with green aliens but we all know that humans are far more interesting to play with. Guess what? They do not travel to the console alone. They carry with them all their sorrow, politics and stupidity. Enjoy.

Serious Games Summit 2004

After the enormous success of the Summit at GDC early this year, there will be a new, bigger and even more serious ;) Serious Games Summit at Washington, DC, on October 18-19. Sadly, I won't be able to make it, but Ian Bogost will be carrying around his Wi-Fi controlled Gonzalo puppet, which will enlighten you all on the secrets of seriousness. Hey, this is supposed to be serious stuff, right, so stop making a fool of yourself Mr. Frasca! Well, and now for something completely serious, move on to Ian and yours truly's blog, the one and only Water Cooler Games, for a 25 bucks discount for the conference. (message to Ian: dude, we are now offering coupons... What is next for us? Porn links? Pop-ups? Online Casinos? Anyway you guys, save those 25 bucks, take the bus in DC and peacefully demonstrate against the Thief in Chief, a.k.a "W". We gamers know that "W" is the letter of "W"arioware, the most evil among the evil ;)

New Ivory Tower Article

Danish ITU colleague and Age of Kings maverick Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen is Mr. August at the Ivory Tower. He's resigning from his position of editor of the column (too much work to do), but before leaving he offers us a balance of what happened during the last 18 months within the dungeons of the Ivory Tower.

ITU wants you

Open PhD position at DIAC (Department of Digital Aesthetics and Communication). What else can I say? I'd be great to have you around. Keep in mind: deadline is August 26th, noon sharp, so hurry. up.

Videojocs

If you speak Catalan, then you know that "videojocs" means videogames. I just received notice of an academic course on the Military-Entertaiment Complex (in Catalan), dictated by Josep Sort i Jané. It will take place from August 16-20 at Prade del Conflent (that's on the French side of Catalunya). You can learn more about it here.

Other Players deadline extended

Yes, your most private wishes have been granted. The Other Players conference extended their deadline until August 16th, so you can keep polishing that paper that may bring you academic glory, fame and plenty of "otherness". Seriously, I am certain that it will be a great conference, so start up those word processors.