Power Up

The Play Research Group, UWE, Bristol
studying the technologies and cultures of games and play

posted by: sethgiddings at 13:08 | link | comments (1) |

The MyMedia list at the bottom of the page hasn't been updated for months - what is everyone reading and playing at the moment?

posted by: sethgiddings at 09:47 | link | comments |

 

 

 

 

 

posted by: sethgiddings at 09:41 | link | comments |

A spectre is haunting game development...

http://www.igda.org/qol/open_letter.php

posted by: sethgiddings at 09:25 | link | comments |

Returning for a third evening of discussion, music and gaming, Screenplay:SD welcomes anyone with an interest in game culture.

Springing from the annual Screenplay Festival at Broadway Cinema, SD looks at different levels of game culture to explore the ideas, developments and practices that go on in the world of videogames, ranging from game music to addiction and now the diversity of approaches to gaming.

This session in November will be the last SD before the main Screenplay Festival in 2005.

Featuring Lizzie Haines speaking on her research into the games industry (”Why are there so few women in games?”), there will be general discussion on games cultures/communities, diversity and audience development, considering the role and identity of festivals such as Screenplay.

Johannes Birringer moderates game-inspired electronica from Vastik Root and

Bury & Disinter, introduces the new book from Iain Simons & James Newman, "Difficult Questions About Videogames",

plus Paul Drury, retro-games man, offers you a whole selection of ‘games for people who don’t like games’…!

For more information contact
Rasheeqa Ahmad at Broadway on 0115 952 6600
rasheeqa@broadway.org.uk

Broadway Cinema
14-18 Broad Street
Nottingham NG1 3AL
www.broadway.org.uk

posted by: sethgiddings at 17:26 | link | comments |

Simulation and ideology: It seems to me that Simon Penny's Representation, Enaction, and the ethics of Simulation from First Person sort of takes Seth's points about the simulation beeing a creative enterprise (rather than a representation) further into direct critique of entertainment simulations. The article is an interesting read and also quite provocative depending on your own position obviously. Penny argues (warning: own interpretation) that because simulations are "not just representation" - because thy are "non-illusory experiences" ("In participatory media there is no fiction") - ideology is mediated through the back door as it were, bypassing ethical and idological meanings as they would normally operate in texts and fictions.

posted by: Rune at 11:37 | link | comments (2) |

As an extreme latecomer (sorry) I have now posted comments to Seth's and Adam's posts on simulations and booms. Anyway now follows something quite unrelated: I just love lurking on discussions among gamers. Today's citation is a quite typical one but still instructive, posted by Akorak in a thread on the eagerly expected (thats putting it mildly) Halo 2. Its about the role of narrative:

"First: Can we make sure no douchebags give away ANYTHING about the goddamn Single Player plotline. Jesus Christ people, shut the F up about plot points, some of us have barely logged an hour or two on the game."

This guy should definitely read up on his ludology.

posted by: Rune at 12:13 | link | comments (2) |

call for papers:

Ludologica Retro>

posted by: sethgiddings at 14:43 | link | comments |

In response to Seth’s comments.

If I begin with simulation defined by both the definitions you provided (a … model … that allows prediction and visualisation as time unfolds … (that) can be experienced as if it were real, even when no corresponding thing exists outside of the simulation itself), then we find ourselves with an outline of a world experienced in its rawest form. This is a model that can be experienced by a user and sometimes affected by the user though altering of certain “initial conditions”.
From this definition there are however two impossible extremes that arise:

1. You can’t have a simulation that accurately recreates some ‘real world’, as firstly, all measurements after a certain point become subjective and dependent on the tool of measurement (inevitably an artifice), and secondly the task at some point results in an infinite feedback loop, as the simulation must at some point in attempting to model the world, model itself, and in that model, model the model of itself again, and so on forever in to the Hegelian bad infinity that Zizeck describes when discussing self referential computer systems (Zizeck in Trend 2001p 21).
2. You can’t have a simulation that in no way corresponds to an external referent, as such a simulation would be utterly alien and unintelligible, and such a degree of unintelligibility is rendered impossible by the very possibility of its conception/perception (see Bennington in Royle 2000 p 70). The model must be made possible by the ‘trace’ (Derrida in Kamuf 1991 p 42) of the exterior that inevitably exists within it.

Some where between these two poles reside the models we experience. On one side attempting to include factors that refer to things external to the model in order to render the model intelligible (not to mention relevant etc.). On the other, incorporating aspects that do not have direct external referents, either as sacrifices to the limits of the model or as additions to alter the possibilities that the model allows.

The aspects of the model that have referents to external elements are its themes (I use this in its dictionary defined sense as to ‘give a particular setting of ambiance’). They are the traces (or threads I think is a nicer word here) that come from elsewhere and run through the model, giving us the ability to understand and possibly influence its processes. These must not be considered only visually. ‘Havoc’ physics engines are not the “real world physics” that they are often described as; they are physics models that attempt to incorporate as many themes from our traditional perceptions of the physical world as they are able. Themes in this context can be representational (a ‘real world’ location), imitative (a ‘living city’), referential (the use of literature and film content), inferred (the inherent malice of the soviet war machine), implied (the inherent benevolence of the American war machine), etc. The themes are a product of both the models and the users horizons of possibility and expectation (see Ricoeur in Valdes 1991 p492) combining to co-author the ‘world’ of the model.

I would therefore suggest that experience of these models cannot be seen as something separate, as the experience is always linked to external referents. Representation and simulation are not opposed; simulations are representative, never absolutely, as absolute communication is again impossible, but still inevitably. In the same way, I don’t feel that you can ask, “Can we think of a simulation as themed?” as I don’t think it is possible to conceive of a simulation without themes.

I don’t consider the notion of simulation as a mine field because of its implications for the topics we discuss, as in this field, while it is fundamental, its exploration as anything separate from its inevitable external referents is not, in my opinion, able to contribute anything to our understanding. To discuss simulation in this context is to discuss where a model sits on an infinite scale between two impossible extremes. Simulation is problematic for those whose areas of research still require are fixed ‘real’ that our mediums have helped to so thoroughly undermine, and research in to this undermining is always productive for our field (see p.s. below).

I think the notion of the theme, as it is presented here, is useful because it deals with the model’s inevitable referents and their implications in a more flexible way. To discuss a flying bird car potato war simulation is, I think, less useful than discussing the themes of anthropomorphism, vegg’o’machineism (please don’t ask for a definition of this), and adapted object physics that this particular model allows you to explore.

P.S. If you want to know what happens when you produce a simulated, but real, war with no correspondence to actual war, see ‘The Gulf War Did Not Take Place” (Baudrillard & Patton, Indiana University Press 1995) and “The Kosovo War Took Place in Orbital Space” (Paulo Virilio in Conversation with John Armitage http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0010/msg00203.html)

Adam Pitt

adam@illdefined.net

posted by: AdamPitt at 18:46 | link | comments (4) |

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