Ludology.org

Games and moral values

Gamasutra asked around if game developers should teach values in their games and people answered. I find particularly interesting that the question itself takes for granted that games can teach moral values.

Our master's voice

Will Wright speaks, we listen (thanks Sofía).

The Uruguayan Oscar

Forget Scorcese. He'll get his Oscar eventually. The big news is that Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler grabbed his Oscar for best original song ("Al Otro Lado del Río", composed for The Motorcycle Diaries, Walter Salles' movie about young Che Guevara). It is the first time that a Spanish song receives the award. Sure, the Oscars are crap and so on, but this is a day of celebration in Uruguay and that is what it counts. There was a bit of controversy, since Drexler was invited to the Oscars but was not allowed to perform by the producers of the TV show, who thought that his face and voice were not commercial enough for one of the most broadcasted shows on Earth. Instead, they had Antonio Banderas singing and Santana performing (as if you could swap an artist by another simply because they spoke Spanish). Revenge is sweet, though. As Drexler went on stage to pick up his Oscar, he gave the most original acceptance speech of the night: he sang a bit of his song and then finished by “Thank You. Gracias”.
rDouble celebration in Uruguay then, since tomorrow, March 1st, the Frente Amplio starts its presidency, too. The first left-wing coalition to reach power in two hundred years. New government, new hopes and a shinny little Oscar for a country, in Drexler words, “with the name of a river/ a forgotten eden/ a field by the sea”, located at the “South of the South”.

A bunch of jobs

Troels Folmann lets me know that Eidos is expanding their studios in San Fransciso and they have 40-45 open positions. Certainly, the announcement happens early before GDC, so keep in mind that zillions will be applying. But, hey, isn't that the way it always works? Here's the list.

The Aesthetics of Play

The Aesthetics of Play Conference will be held in Bergen on October 14-15, 2004. Here's the full CFP. Abstracts (300 words) must be submitted by April 18th.

iPod playing more than music? / Play different /iPod Advance / and a thousand more witty titles

(via ThinkSecret) A job post at Gamasutra hints that Apple may be thinking into adding games (and even Flash support) to their iPods. I wonder how many games can you play with a click wheel interface? Probably of course they want to expand their current line of games, nice little time-wasters. But I guess that there is room for more casual games, a la Bewejeled, to land on the iPod. Time will tell if we end up getting an iPod advance. On the one hand, it would be interesting to see how Apple deals with games (an area where they had serious problems in the past. Anybody remembers the Pippin?)

Tetris unplugged

(via Kotaku) Finally, Americans are catching up Russian technology! In a beautiful example of game remediation (I say beautiful cause it looks great, hard to judge the game without playing it) you can now play Tetris without that stupid Game Boy console. Actually, it is not as unplugged as we wished, since it seems that batteries are involved somehow. Take a look at it and don't forget to watch the video. Personally, if I were to make Tetris a party game, I would be tempted to use cookies as tokens. Just imagine being able to eat a whole row of colorful tiny cookies! I know, doesn't sound very practical, but did I mention I haven't had any breakfast yet?

Making games out of movies

The New York Times has an interesting, short article, on the risks of making games out of movies. Nothing terribly new here, but at least a good overview.

New toys for new children

The NYTimes (free reg. req.) has an interesting article about new trends in toy design. Actually, they argue that a more sophisticated young audience demands less toy-like toys and more designy-looking gadgets. An interesting read.

CFP: Games Learning Society

Games, Learning & Society. Madison, Wisconsin. June 23-24, 2005. Cool name-dropping: Barab, Brown, Castronova, Doug Church, James Gee, Jenkins, Lemke, Squire, Zimmerman and our Center's very own Jesper Juul.
rThe CFP is up and the deadline is March 14th, so hurry up. The conference is so cool that it even has an exquisite full ASCII FAQ! Note: this should set the standard for conferences. From now on, let's not submit to any which doesn't feature at least a minimum of ASCII art.
rNote2: Notice the timing. Set right after DIGRA, it's a perfect excuse to stay a few days longer in North America. Keep in mind that Wisconsin is a blue state.