Grand Text Auto

In my short time as a game design intern here at Tiltfactor, I’ve found the real difficulty rests in the balance between challenge and simplicity (as it often does with the rest of life). How do you foster arenas for motivation, learning, and fun without tilting too far into states of boredom or anxiety (as described in the Three Channel Model of flow)?

Kiili’s (2009) Extended three-channel model of flow (modified from Csikszentmihalyi, 1991).

In his paper “Digital game-based learning: Towards an experiential gaming model” Kristian Kiili (2005) argues for an educational game model, integrating educational theories and game design, that facilitates “flow” of flow theory in order to design meaningful and engaging educational games.

Ideally, medical solutions would be straightforward. If a patient had an illness, they could go in to see a doctor, who would then have a diagnosis and an effective treatment option that aligned with the patient’s preferences and desires. In reality, it isn’t so simple, and there often isn’t a “best” option. Pioneered at Dartmouth, shared decision making involves increased communication between health care providers and their patients, in order to find solutions that best fit patients’ interests. The results seem to be overwhelming, with almost 70% of patients surveyed preferred taking part in making decisions with their doctors (The Guardian, 3/10/12). At tiltfactor, we’ve been working on our shared decision making game prototype. In our most recent game iteration I worked on coming up with potential treatments—such as surgery, topical treatments, or electing to undergo screening, and other actable qualities of a patient—working as a TV presenter, paranoid of needles, or having the responsibility of taking care of two young children.

Play vicariously with Ignacio R. @Igman05 and @RandomOutput Daniel and their friends (who are you guys?) as these guys from San Francisco rock the buffalo game! Not sure who is winning, but maybe they will comment and let us know!

Congratulations to the MIT Press on 50 years, and on their new website.

The new site includes a new and improved system for ordering books directly from the press. If you want to try it out, allow me to recommend Twisty Little Passages, The New Media Reader, Racing the Beam, and/or the forthcoming (in just a few weeks) 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10.

IndieCade 2012 was the most exciting yet– great games, interesting talks, and an impressive crowd of makers and players. I met scores of new indie designers as well as old friends, and was impressed with the vision, energy, and enthusiasm of the folks I met. Glad to meet you all!

I missed the awards ceremony, but I heard it was fantastic. Some truly incredible games won awards, of many diverse genres and media including this really cool pervasive media game from USC called Reality Ends Here; a game called The Stanley Parable; Gorogoa, a hand drawn puzzler;  a beautiful point and click adventure game in the plant world; the board game where die are spaceship called Armada D6; a weird fantasy role playing game; and a physical art installation-game. I’d recommend learning as much as you can about all of these games– for great play, and inspiration!

The Univ. of California, Santa Cruz is seeking applicants for two new full time staff positions, a Lead Game Programmer and a Lead Game Designer to work with myself, Michael Mateas, and Luca de Alfaro in support of the CHEKOFV project.

Our first event for 10 PRINT is scheduled for:

Monday
November 12, 2012
7pm

at the

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA.

This means, of course, that the book will be printed and available for sale by then, which is less than a month from now.

The Harvard Book Store is an independent book store in Harvard Square, founded in 1932.

We have a great talk on campus this Friday!

Friday, 19th October 2012 4-5:30PM
Photography, Plugged and Unplugged
Dominic McIver Lopes

Haldeman 041, with reception to follow

From the moment of its invention, photography has been viewed as the contrary of drawing, with profound consequences for the epistemology and aesthetics of photography. When the invention of digital photography was seen to challenge the traditional view of photography, the response was to insist that digital photography breaks radically from analogue photography and to predict that it would acquire a distinct epistemic and aesthetic profile. In fact, however, this dialectic rests on a false picture of the nature of photography (and of drawing too). A new theory of photography that downplays the analogue-digital distinction makes better sense of how we have used and continue to use photographs as evidence and as materials for art. It also suggests how to think about the true impact of digital technology on the art of photography.

I discuss the history and context of electronic literature in this article about the new digital novel The Silent History. The article, by Eugenia Williamson, appears in Saturday’s print edition of the Boston Globe.

The Silent History certainly looks like a compelling project.

Another just-released digital novel which is also quite compelling, although it doesn’t have the same PR apparatus behind it, is Queerskins by Illya Szilak, designed by Cyril Tsiboulski. Although I’ve not read a great deal of this new novel yet, I’m impressed by its multimedia and literary engagement with a difficult aspect of recent American experience.

Just to be clear, I don’t condone gladiatorial fights (involving anyone) as a form of social control. That said, I believe the child gladiatorial fights in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy have several poorly and lazily designed elements that make the games both feel less fair to the competitors, and less fun to watch as a spectator sport.

Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake; we should have left
Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake; we should have left

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If you’re at IndieCade this weekend, you’re in for a special Tiltfactor treat: sets are available of our latest game, the riotously fun party card game buffalo. Stop by the Gamer gardens booth behind the registration tent and see what it’s about!

The Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz invites applications for a tenure track (Assistant) or tenured (Associate and Full Professor) faculty position. We seek outstanding applicants in the area of games and playable media. Preferred applicants will have research and teaching experience in games and graphics, with a research presence in the graphics community and the games and/or interactive media community, though candidates with specializations in other areas of games and interactive media will be considered. Specializations in areas particularly appropriate to games and interactive media, such as real-time animation and effects, procedural content generation, and novel interface mechanisms are preferred. This position will develop and teach courses within the undergraduate and graduate games and playable media curriculum, including being one of the primary instructors for the introduction to graphics and animation courses. Applicants are expected to develop externally funded research programs at UC Santa Cruz. The campus is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through their research, teaching, and service.

If you’re in or near the Santa Cruz area, come check out Critical Play, a panel discussion on Art, Games, & History.

10.3.2012 UPDATE: IndieCade is an international festival of independent games and Mary is one of the keynote speakers! Come see her speak at IndieCade and also play some of the latest games from Tiltfactor like buffalo and ZOMBIEPOX, which was part of the IndieCade Showcase at E3!