Ludology.org

Welcome to my world

I had this conversation early this morning while looking for a game at the local game store.
rMe: "_Hi, I am looking for game 'xyz'. Do you have in stock?"
rClerk: "_That game is really bad"
rMe: "_I know, but I still need it"
rClerk: "_It is my duty to tell you that it totally sucks!"
rMe: "_I am well aware of that but I need it for another reason."
rClerk: "_May I ask what reason could that be?"
rMe: "_Well, the game includes some products that are advertised through the gameplay"
rClerk: (eyes wide open) "_Are you buying the game for the advertising in it!!!!?????"
rMe: "_Yes and no. What I mean is that I need it because I do research on games"
rClerk: "_Are you one of those people who study violence in games and say that games are bad for children?"
rMe: "_No, I do not study violence in games. Anyway, do you happen to have a copy of that game?"
rClerk: "_No, I do not have it in stock. And even if I had it, I shouldn't sell it to you. It is really bad!"

CFP: Game, set and match II

The Game, set and match conference will take place in Delft, The Netherlands on March 29-31, 2006 . Deadline for abstracts is September 30th. Here's a link to the event's web site, which includes a CFP.

More toy museums

Things to do in Tokyo before you die. Well, preparing my upcoming trip to the Tokyo Game Show, I have decided to visit Tokyo's toy museum (as you can see from the previous posts, there is a trend here). It seems that there are at least two different museums (at least, I got two different webpages, in Japanese of course). Here's one and here's another. Does anybody out there have any info on about these places? Please let me know. Of course, I am also going (again) to the Ghibli museum.

Meaning and emotions in Final Fantasy

Glen Spoors just completed a PhD dissertation entitled Meaning and Emotion in Final Fantasy X (congrats!) You can download it as a .doc document here.

Joaquin Torres García Alladyn Toys

On my previous post, I mentioned the toys designed by Torres-García. Joaquín Torres-García is probably the most famous Uruguayan painter and one of the most relevant 20th century Latin American artists. As the son of an art historian, I was well aware that Torres García had designed toys but I never read much about them. Actually, my friend and Powerful Robot partner Sofia Battegazzore had first-hand experience with them. Her father was a student of Torres García and Sofía, as a little girl, was allowed to play with the original toys when visiting the artist's widow. Quite expensive toys considering that his paintings can easily fetch half a million dollars in auction!
rAnyway, talking about toys, the fact is that you can buy reproductions at the Torres García Museum in Montevideo. But apart from those, the available information online is quite scarce and that is why I decided to upload the pictures that I took at the Museu del Joguet de Catalunya in Figueras, Spain. The pictures' quality is far from stellar but I hope it can help scholars looking for information about them.
rAs I previously said, if you want to buy reproductions of these toys, you can find them at the Museum in Montevideo or at the Caixa Forum in Barcelona (at least that's what the Museum's pages claim. I was at the Caixa Forum a few months ago and I do not remember seeing them). Here are links to the reproductions' catalogue (in Spanish and in Pdf format). Link 1, Link 2, Link 3.
rAnd here are the links to the pictures that I took at the Museu del Joguet. The pictures show all the toys that were on exhibit as of August, 2005. All pics include the displayed information (in Catalan). Here's a shot of the Aladdin Toys catalogue. Bull dog, crow and truck. Picture of Woman and Man. A 1918 invitation to a toy exhibit. The cover of an exhibit catalogue on Torres García toys at the Fundació Caixa Catalunya april-june, 1998. For those interested in the book, the IVAM bookstore says that it is out of print but just in case, here's the ISBN 84-482-1512-5. A printed advertisement for Aladin toys in French. Two birds. Last, but not least, animals and trees from the jungle made in 1917-18.

iPod Video circa 1930

I ran into this magnificent hack while doing research at the great Museu del Joguet de Catalunya (Museum of Toys of Catalonia, in Figueres, Spain). This clever artifact allowed you to turn your phonograph into a zootrope so you could watch short animated films on it. According to the displayed data, it was built in England around 1930 by Reid and Co. - a piano manufacturer. Interestingly, it does not seem to combine visuals and music since it would be technically possible to include a soundtrack for the animation. My guess is that the animation was so short that it was not worth to produce an expensive record to go with it.
The kinephone -as it was called- on display features Felix the Cat. In other words, it did pretty much what the rumored iPod video is supposed to do. I wonder if you could port Doom into it...

You can find higher-res versions of these images here and here. Figueras is about 2 hours from Barcelona and it is better known for being the home of the Dalí Museum. I never liked Dalí that much and the museum, while worth visiting, was not nearly as interesting to me as this Toy museum. The collection mainly focuses on Catalonian and Spanish toys, as well as some French, European and US games and toys. The exhibit includes many dolls -specially Mariquita Perez, a very popular 20th century Spanish doll- and rarities such as Spanish Civil war games and dolls as well as wooden toys designed by Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres García.

Media Terra: Games and reality

Update: the festival has been postponed. Go here for updated info.There is a call for papers, presentations and games for the Media@terra festival that will be held in Athens from December 7 to 11, 2005. Games & Art, in Greece, it doesn't get better than this. I wish I could attend, but I have a previous engagement. For those of you who are lucky enough not to have previous engagements, make sure you submit your work and bring me some spanakopita, please. Deadline (for the submissions, not for the spanakopita) is October 30.

The Khronos projector

I wonder why I haven't posted about this before. I guess I usually post about things that are new for me since writing is a way of understanding, too. The fact is that my friend Alvaro Cassinelli has presented his Khronos projector at Siggraph a few weeks ago and it was a real success. This video-art installation allows you to "scratch" the video screen, back and forth, as it you were a DJ (ok, this is as close as I can describe it.) Depending on how deep you press on the screen, a part of it will go back or forward into the future, while leaving the rest of the image unaffected. In other words, you travel through time by touching the screen. This creates some amazing effects and encourages participants to explore the video with a degree of interest and will for experimentation that is so refreshing in this been-there-done-that world of video art. Here's a link to the project. I've know Alvaro for years, we went together to high school in Uruguay. Now he is a researcher at the University of Tokyo and I'll be seeing him in a few weeks which is, of course, wonderful. Make sure you check out his project site and take a look at the videos, you'll get an idea of what this project is about. At the top of the page there are videos introducing the whole concept and if you scroll down you will find plenty of short video demos.
Like all great art, it's a toy for grown-ups that makes you explore and question what surrounds you. Who could ask for more?

Mr Miyagi knows best

Catch.flies.with.your.chopsticks. Now! (thanks JM)

Open question

I have a question for you guys out there. Feel free to post a comment or email me. I have observed -and I sort of remember from personal experience- that when children are playing with multiple dolls, they need to be holding the one that is virtually "speaking" at a time. In other words, in make-believe conversations, the dolls that are doing the talking need to be held in the player's hand. Otherwise, dolls that are not being held do not "speak". Of course there may be exceptions, but I wonder if this particular behavior is normal accross cultures. Thanks!