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

game culture reloaded

Thanks to Gareth for his sterling work in sustaining the game culture blog with such fascinating resources and thoughts. We now have a new cohort for this MA module, so watch this space for other games and play related discussion.

posted by: sethgiddings at 12:47 | link | comments (1) |

"Halo 3: Homophobia Evolved"

Not much have been written about racist, sexist and homophobic player behaviour in online computer games. A recent, very sad, video about the ways players speak to their co-player using a nick name 'halogayboy' tells about cruelties hidden behind online anonymity. The player who has put the video online describes the behaviour in a hopeful manner: "Not everything in this video was said with hate. I can take a joke, and I never took offense to what was said in it. My purpose for this video was only to raise awareness. Next time you're interacting with a gay person, even an obvious one that has gay written all over him/her, be sensible. They're not asking for it, that's just who they are, and unlike me, they may in fact be hurt by your comments". See the video here.  

posted by: urbnomad at 00:01 | link | comments |

CfP, Play conference

Organiser: School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh
Date: 23rd-24th May 2008
Information online: here
Abstracts deadline: 29th February 2008
Themes:

• Play and identity: Playboys and playgirls: gender and sexual play; Playing with the self: race, gender, nation, class; The body as playground: transformations and decorations.

• Play and the arts: Representations of play; The play's the thing: performance and theatricality; Playing with representation: from avant-garde to postmodernism.

• Playing the game: Playing the field: sport and play; Leisure and organized play; From Mancala to Majong to Mario: the games people play; Play.com: the internet as playground.

• Play and philosophy: Philosophy in play; play in philosophy; The limitations of play: play as a finite concept; Language games.

• Play ad transgression: Playing with fire: dangerous play, serious play, subversive play; The carnivalesque; Parody and satire.

posted by: urbnomad at 16:21 | link | comments |
cfp

Tourist's learning games

Many tourist attractions sell decks of cards with pictures of the attraction as pure illustrations in the cards. They may be good souvenirs for remembering the places afterwards, but I would suggest that there are more effective (and more fun) ways to use games when visiting new places.

I had visitors last weekend and, among many other things, we went to see the Cullinan Diamond to the Tower of London. Next day we strolled around Bristol and visited SS Great Britain and Suspension Bridge. But when one visits a city for the first time and sees plenty of new things, most is forgotten very soon.

Of a pure coincidence, my visitors brought me a traveller's version of a popular Finnish board game, Afrikan tähti - the star of Africa, for a present. It is a game translated into 16 languages that has sold nearly 4 million copies worldwide. The goal of the game is to find Cullinan 1 aka The Great Star of Africa token from one of the cities on the game board and travel back either to Cairo or Tangiers with the diamond. Obviously, we played the game in the late night after returning to Bristol. What occurred was that seeing the actual diamond made both the game and the visit much more interesting.

Some days before Christmas I found the Bristol edition of Monopoly and bought it. After 10 hour walk around Bristol last weekend, we were happy to sit down and play the game which was full of places we had just seen. I was eager to buy Unite property as I am currently living in their house. Great Western Dock was my visiors' favourite as they liked the place very much. Unfortunately it was also one of the cheapest properties in the game. After some time I even got over the fact that the only university in the game was University of Bristol and finally bought it. Again, the game helped us to go through the places we visited during the day. In addition, properties were now loaded with emotional content, which made it quick to remember who is the one who owns, for example, the most expensive property, Anchor Road with Bristol at.

What I experienced was a good example of how learning with games becomes more effective when the subject is embedded into the game system and not only added as an illustration. In Afrikan tähti, it was the goal of the game to find one particular diamond and in Bristol Monopoly, sights and places were tied with properties of different value. Even in the third game we played, a Clifton Suspension Bridge card puzzle which we had bought just for the fun of introducing this new way of experiencing cities, was interesting. In order to be able to solve the puzzle, one needed to memorise the shape and different parts of the bridge. When the puzzle was built, one had also learned more about the dimensions of the bridge. However, in a jigsaw puzzle, the picture in it is not actually relevant for the rules of the game. Still, unlike when playing with cards, it is impossible to be without noticing the picture(s).

Afrikan tähti, Bristol Monopoly and Suspension Bridge jigsaw puzzle were games of what they represented, but a deck of cards may be used for many games none of which is directly linked to the pictures in the cards. I think it would be justified to call the three games 'learning games'. They tell, through their rules or the way they are completed, that Cullinad 1 is the most valuable diamond, Temple Street is a street in Bristol and not the most valuable one and Clifton Suspension Bridge is build on a cliff. On a contrary, a deck of cards with Tower Bridge in every single card only makes the bridge feel boring after a while.

A triangle of creating effective experienceshas been created at the Lapland Centre of Expertise for the Experience Industry. The triangle consists of 5 levels (motivation, sensory/physical, learning/cognitive, emotional, spiritual/change) and 6 sectors (personality, pureness, narrative, use of several senses, contrast and interction). Using games when visiting new places, games usually work on the levels of learning and emotion after one has first sensed the sight. So, if you haven't tried the excellent feature of Nintendo Wii to create puzzles of any personal pictures on you memory stick, try it next time you are going through your travel photos.

I am still wondering why is it that Cribbs Causeway far away from the city is more expensive property than Broadmead in the city center? On what basis are these decissions made and who benefits from them?

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Pictures by hanna wirman.

posted by: urbnomad at 15:38 | link | comments |

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