Ludology.org

International Conf. on the Sim. of Adaptative Behavior

SAB'06 takes place on Sept 25-29 in Rome (TGS is on Sep 22-24 so you can technically make it to both events). There's an CFP for a workshop on Adaptive Approaches for Optimizing Player Satisfaction in Computer andrPhysical Games that you may want to check out.

Origami Penis

Now you can build your own paper-based penis, the origami way! You can even animate it by playing with the testicles. Nice.

MMOD&D

D&D goes MMOG and the NYTimes (free reg. req.) talks to the folks who are making it happen. It seems that 300.000 people signed up for beta testing! Ok, here's my personal tip on how to stay away from MMOGs. Many credit card companies allow you to create a disposable credit card number. So, I create one for 1 dollar and then use that number when I install the MMOG on my machine. After my 30 day included subscription expires, the account can't renew and I can go back to my life. It may sound silly, but has worked for me so far. The only problem, of course, is that you must not install a new MMOG every 30 days...

Larmendieu

Today I spotted a pretty French last name: Larmendieu. I liked it for many reasons. First, it sounds pretty much like an anagram of my mother's last name: Larnaudie. Its beauty lays, though, on the fact that it could be read both as "l'arme en Dieu" (the weapon in God) or "larme en Dieu" (tear in God). It's funny the things that you may encounter while you are waiting for somebody to open the door and you have nothing to read but mailboxes.

Virtual scissors, virtual snowflakes

Simple. Elegant. Beautiful.

Tango tango

Last week, for the first time in my life, I played a videogame with that included a tango on its soundtrack. I love tango but that should not come as a surprise since I am Uruguayan (tango is as Uruguyan as it is Argentinian but they have better PR). I am sure some gameworm out there will find previous references of previous tango games (I do remember a Korean tango dancing sim that I saw 2 or 3 years ago at TGS). In any case, the game in question is Katamari PSP (it also includes some bossa, too).
rI have played hundreds of videogames in my life. Probably well over a thousand (actually, I never bother to count). Why is it that I didn't run into tango before? For the last few years, adding any kind of soundtrack has been really easy for game developers. So, why I didn't encounter tango before? The obvious answer is that there are not many games out there that could use this style of music? Why? Cause most of the game are exactly the same! I wonder if we could measure the originality of a game by the musical genres that it features.

A desperate cry for help

Buzzcut's Dave Thomas is in trouble. Well, not really but maybe his kids are. The fact is that he repeatedly surprised them playing Simpsons' Hit and Run on a severely damaged TV screen (the story is hilarious, read more here). I am not totally sure about his McLuhanian hypothesis but I do think that it is a clear example of player creativity. Maybe this kind of behavior is not often seen in rich societies, where children have tons of toys and games at their disposal. I've seen children in South America with only one game on their console that invented new ways to play that arcade game over and over. They inverted the gamepad; they tried to complete the game without firing, just by dodging the bullets (it was a space shoot'em'up). Children minds, unlike Abu Ghraib investigators, are inquisitive and restless. They are always looking for new experiences and new challenges. They are young enough to see the beauty of a pile of dirt. Alas, we can't anymore (I must admit that I keep trying but my allergies to dust will end up by killing me).
rDon't worry Dave, your kids are fine. The only problem is that they may actually want more distorted TV gameplay, so watch out for the other sets on your house (they may "accidentally" fall down)

I am not checking you out - I am just playing

Not sure if this makes for excellent gameplay but from a PR point of view, these guys are genius. A company in Seattle is printing clues on the clothes they sell, as part of an augmented-pervasive-whateveryouwannacallit game. In theory, it can generate interesting interactions, similar to people complimenting you on your pet or kid. Well, actually, it may end up just being a magnet for nerds. Yikes, I can imagine people scavenging through laundromats looking for clues. Ok, just one doubt. How are they going to prevent griefers from just going to the shop and getting all the clues from the clothes displayed there? I guess that is not an issue if they only sell online. Anyway, a cool concept as long as they don't print clues on underwear (ok, easy joke, couldn't prevent myself, sorry :)

Khronos projector wins Grand Prize at Japan Media Arts Festival

You know your friend is good when he gets the Grand Prize and Nintendogs ends up in second place! The Khronos projector, the fantastic interactive video-art installation made by my friend Alvaro Cassinelli, got the Grand Prize on the Art section of the Japan Media Arts Festival. I have no words to express how happy this makes me feel. This project is very much like Alvaro himself: smart, funny, high-tech and sensitive. You should definitively watch the videos on Alvaro's site. It's not the same as interacting with the system itself but it is still very impressive (and beautiful).
rUruguayans are not very patriotic except when it comes to soccer or to when a fellow Uruguayan succeeds abroad. We're such a tiny little country, so this does not happen very often. But when an artist from tiny little Uruguay wins the biggest digital art award in Japan, we all get very, very excited. Congrats Alvaro!

The Rub Rabbits

If by any chance you looked at the "now playing" section of this blog, you may have noticed that I have been playing the "Rub Rabbits", Sega's sequel to "Fell the Magix XX/XY" a.k.a. "Project Rub". Well, technically, "I haven't been playing it". I played it, since the game is over in just 3 hours. I'll post more extensively about these games in the future but right now I just want to point out to two reviews. It is very interesting how minigame reviewers always disagree on which minigames are great and which suck. Here's the Wired review and here's Gamespot's. As Forrest Gump used to say, "life is like a box of chocolates". You never know which minigame you are going to get.