Began to play WoW in the Thanksgiving break, I found I have already addicted to it. Last semester, I remember I asked Jeff that why people play games, are they very lonely, have nothing else to do or they are not interested in their surrounded environment? Jeff said no, but I doubt it at that…
So…here’s the short version: A structuralist/semiotic analysis of diegetic and non-diegetic sound in the game BioShock and how signifiers are decoded by users and how user experience is affected by whether or not they pick up on dated references. Part of what makes BioShock such an incredible game is the setting/environment and sound is a…
There is a reasonable amount of existing work in the area of avatars and online identity. Many researchers have commented on why people style avatars like themselves (or not like), identified the avatar as an extension of the self, etc … However, I do not know if I’ve ever seen a formal structural analysis of…
Emergency3 is obviously the third in a series of a games. This game is often considered a serious game, but I would say it’s more of a real-time strategy game that makes you really appreciate how difficult being a first responder or incident commander can be. This game takes on an isometric view with adjustable…
Quake may be the historical parent of machinima, but Halo arguably popularized and assisted with the creation of one of the first (maybe the first) large and active machinima communities. Machinima historians (they exist, right?) can probably chart the maturation of machinima filmaking using the Halo series as a recurring example. As each game was…
Read more Halo 3 and Machinima: Visual Language as Work in Progress
The last two or three weeks have brought a couple of writing opportunities my way, some of which involved extensive prewriting and others that involved very little. I can without a doubt say that the prewritten papers were much, much easier to finish. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I submitted a paper to…
http://groups.google.com/group/hcigames/topics There is a link to that article from this page. Anyone interested may also join the group. (Add tag:usability)
“Activities shape the requirements of particular tools, and the application of the tools begins to reshape dimensions of activity.” iPod Touch When planning on the next generation of ipod, Apple wanted a better view for photos and videos, and a more intuitive way of interaction. As a result, they integrated the multi-touch function and the…
Read more Examples on the reciprocal relationship between activities and tools
Interaction Culture 