Something I learned from playing LIFE

I will always lose. Always. Liz will win and I will lose.

As far as nostalgia goes, I'm not sure I'll ever really get the full effect, because I'd never played the game when I was younger. It does faintly bring up memories of playing boardgames with my family when I was a kid. Monopoly, Yahtzee, Clue, Battleship... they all live in a particular space in my memories. Those games work in our memories this way because of their design, because of the aesthetic of their boxes, game pieces, board spaces, the lettering and wording of the cards, dice... even the smell when you open the box or pass out the money or real estate. The feeling of those little houses in your palm, the cold metal of the famous Monopoly game pieces (I'm always the Scottie dog!), the clatter of dice in the Yahtzee cup... these types of experiences are very physical experiences, not just mental, not purely cerebral happenings.

for those of us fuzzy on the details

It's funny, but it also brings up the subject of definition. Look at all the words out there that have been invented in the last few years due to technological advances. And these aren't medical journal words, these are everyday words, used by 8 year olds and senior citizens.

choosing my own adventure

Turns out it's not nearly as exciting as the cover of the book would lead you to believe. The problem with this sort of interactivity is it's just too slow for the majority of consumers. Our culture has moved from reading and radio as chief sources of entertainment to television and video games, where you're being hit with about 30 images per second. Besides all of this, these books just aren't compelling reading, unless you're a preteen with a serious devotion to fantasy. Similar to the point I made in my last post on the dvd game, technology, and concurrently interest, have progressed too far past this realm of entertainment for it to be effective for the general population and not just a small, specialized demographic.

I was tricked into it.

First of all, I'd just like to point out that that was a tricky, deceitful thing that Joe did. It was kind of an unspoken vow for me to never play Dungeons & Dragons, and now I feel like an oath has been broken because technically Scourge of Worlds is Dungeons & Dragons and technically we have all played it.

I have personal standards to live by and good grief Joe, now the means of my learning is tearing down all I held holy.

Ha.

Okay, so as a piece of interactive media, I have to say that this game didn't really live up to all it could have. I'm guessing a lot of other people are going to feel the same way. The idea and the means are pretty interesting, like we talked about, it's a choose your own adventure movie, basically... aka a game. My little brother was really into this game called Fable for a while, and it was basically a souped up version of this, but a computer game. You chose the path to take, becoming good or evil or walking the line in between... with all kinds of stuff going on in the meantime.

I think the problem with using the dvd in this way is that the market's already cornered. Like the laser disc, the beta viewer, the mini disc player, etc, this is a medium that can't compete with the computer or video game systems that already exist. There are other avenues that would be far more interesting to delve into, such as the possibilities for movies. There is so much that could be done with perspective, audio tracks, etc that could completely restructure the idea of storytelling with movies. All those books we've read that never worked as a movie because of the multiple storylines within the same timeline could be realized visually, with the viewer in control of how much or how little of the story is seen.

Light Criticism - video

Cool.

LIFE experience: a retrospective (of sorts)

(1)The interactivity of LIFE (and board games in general) was much different from that of the lcd games in that it rises to another level. Other people enter the picture and the dynamic changes. On the other hand, there's really no skill involved, where even with the skill-level very low on the handheld games, some coordination was necessary. In the game of LIFE, ironically, it was all about chance, unless there is some sort of spinning technique I'm missing out on. (2)This could become an art piece if the game was brought to a whole new scale, similar to the idea of Issei's BFA show last spring. Including actual human beings into the movement of the board would make it more about experience but would also enter a whole new realm, performance art. Subversion could be another interesting avenue, changing up the game spaces, the cards, the journey across the LIFE board would become all together different. (3) There is definitely some sort of psychological factor when it comes to playing this game, or maybe that was just me. Getting so close to graduation and entering the "real" world gets a person a little on edge. Playing this game (and losing horribly... losing at LIFE) kind of bothered me somewhere in the back of my head. START OVER or GO BACK 15 SPACES while the rest of my fellow players went on their jolly way, discovering Uranium mines and playing the stock market (or ponies) was a bit of a hit to the ego. Also, due to a Share the Wealth card, Liz and I are not friends for one week. This game ruins people! (4) As far as dislikes go, I don't have a great many. I actually had a pretty good time playing it and being banker is pretty much the coolest. The psychological element is pretty interesting, as we were talking about before during discussion, there's a cetain element of art that is all about screwing with people's minds. This game definitely has a bit of that built right in.

little beepies everywhere

(1)These little games were full minutes of enjoyment, but it was only personally interactive. In some instances, there was only one button, and at most two, so although when the game was started, the object and strategy for success was not yet known, it was quickly identifiable.(2)All of us sat in our chairs, intent on the beeps and lcds in front of us. You could take it a step further by choreographing (in a way) the beeps. With about 16 of us that's not only technically difficult, but also would be pretty freakin cool, too. (3)The sound is the thing that stands out the most, as it probably was for a lot of people, especially since it was acknowledged. It's also interesting how important it became to beat these little games since we were all sitting together, meeting the same challenge (if you can call it that). In my head at least there was a small degree of competition (mostly because Liz had to be all up ons and whatnot, sayin she was the video game master. We'll see about that Liz Whealy!). (4)I don't know if this registered enough with me to produce any dislikes. Maybe if I was forced to play them for an hour, rather than 10 minutes, a substantial set of objections would form. That idea is interesting all on its own. (5)As we touched on during play, this could all be turned into an art experience through the use of sound and as I said before, made even more interesting by planning out and choreographing the beeps, or installing them in new environments.

for the accessorizers

Well done, but fake, ad.

for the Mac fans

Apple has the jump on us.



This is a display for a Mac Store in Berlin.

doodle

technorati tags:art, sketch

for the thursday procrastinator

the Blank Canvas Project...

for the seekers

paths.

analog art, easy, messy, thought-provoking.


as many participants as possible with chalk or some other biodegradable, earth-friendly substance that will mark a path from one's steps. ideal on a college campus during a dry part of the year. people walk around, their trail made evident by the residue left behind. the idea here is that although you maybe be walking alone with no one else around at say, 2am, actually feeling alone may be incredibly difficult.

begs the question, if you really think about it, are you ever truly alone? marks are left by every individual in some way, if we open our eyes to them, the world becomes much smaller. what other questions does this raise?

the tesseract and other inspirations

Alex Garland wrote a book called The Tesseract back in 1999 or 2000 or 2002. I read it over break, in about 4 hours. It is one big story comprised of three smaller stories comprised of several even smaller stories. Each character has its own perspective and importance. All the characters are weighted nearly equally, with more detail to a few key characters. All of this goes back to my Jan. 5th post. George Gissing eloquently expressed the beauty (and frustration, at times) of perspective. Every single individual sees things in a different way.

Garland touches on this in his own way (imagine that) in the Tesseract. The story is much richer with the understanding, emotions and ideas of each character.

Being a huge movie fan, I'm constantly thinking about these sorts of ideas. So what would it be like to make a film with this structure? Each and every character, no matter how seemingly small would have a scene, a story, a weight and importance. You would see one central plot unfolding through the eyes of all of these different people, with their experiences and personalities coloring their view of events.

That's a movie I want to see.

ps - the Tesseract was made into a movie, although I've not seen it. I'm skeptical of its quality.

for the uninspired...

behold!

For the New Year

"For it is the mind which creates the world about us, and, even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours..." -George Gissing