week #9 excerpts

Gaming is for Grown-Ups: A View of the Industry

Jack Buser, Sr Designer, PlayStation Digital Programs

HARRISON:  I felt like such a geek because I loved this lecture so much!  AND HE DIDN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING GROUND BREAKING!  But it was so cool, because he put up pictures and played trailers for games and he made nerdy jokes that I understood.

Jack went over the different kinds of games which I will summarize because it is necessary to know when looking at the future.
CORE. People’s preconceived notion of ‘games.’ First-person shooters. Heavily graphic games that people get invested in.

CASUAL. “Time wasters” that people can just sit down and play for a bit. Like Rock Band or Guitar Hero.
ANCIENT. Mancala. Games have been and will be around forever.

SOLO. Pac-Man. Single-player games were a product of the 1970s. Before that single-player was basically limited to solitaire.

SOCIAL. Farmville and Facebook games. These games are redefining what it means to be ‘social.’
MASSIVE. World of Warcraft. MMORPG (Multi-Massive Online Role Playing Games). People do not consider these as “Social” games but they are. People meet people online, get into gaming guilds with them, and often consider them close friends or even get married to them.
MOBILE. Phone and handheld games that would be impossible to realize in the living room.

MOTION. Kinect, PlayStation Move (focus on getting the player active). He didn’t mention Wii even though Nintendo changed the industry by focusing on motion.

AR. Augmented Reality is the future. On the Nintendo 3DS, there are games that use the camera to capture the world in real time and then you fight things that are changing in this “world.” Down the road, this could be used for many things. For example, Jack showed a prototype photo of a street view and bubbles popped up displaying reviews for restaurants, common tips, tweets about a place, etc. Completely immersing the user in social media bullshit. Twitter is stupid… but it is still pretty cool.

There was also a Homestuck (Homestuck is a web comic that is vastly popular among geeks and nerds on web forums right now) sitting behind us. I didn’t get a picture, but here’s kind of what she looked like (sans horns). 

MWUAH <3

PANEL: Wildly Imaginative Voices & Visions

@ Harold Washington Library
Reading/Conversation/Signing
Led by Ann Hemenway

w/ Writers:
Susan Hahn, The Six Granddaughters of Cecil Slaughter (not present due to illness)
T. Geronimo Johnson, Hold It 'Til It Hurts
Adam McOmber, The White Forest
Emma Straub, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures

HUGH:  So I rushed over to this lecture not knowing any of the authors, and only knowing about this CPL/Columbia College Chicago fiction writing department led festival called Story Week Festival of Writers.  I missed out on an artist lecture (Jacob Hashimoto at SAIC) but this turned out to be a pretty neat event. It all started with the writers reading an excerpt from their books, and then Ann, the host, asking some great questions and overall being one better host speakers of a panel I've seen. The conversation traded among the writers well and each of them had very distinct things to say about the writing, writing process, and publishing process.

ANNE

Restless Heart: The Confessions of St. Augustine

Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove

Monday March 18th, 7:30pm

MIKE B:  At 7:30 on Monday the Tivoli showed, Restless Heart: The Confessions of St. Augustine, it was presented by some local church group, I forget the name. I got there at about 7:25, and it was pretty much what I expected, a relatively low attendance, around 200 people, average age hovering on the high side of 50, and the only people anywhere near my age looked like they were way to into Jesus. I felt like people could tell I didn't belong there, but maybe that was just me feeling like I didn't belong there.

METRO

Patrik 1.5-Sweden, 2008

GINO:  I went to an event at the Foreign Language Building on campus. It was Scandinavian night, and there was literally NOBODY there but myself and two other people. The plus side, they made us these cute Scandinavian sandwiches to snack on. As you can see, it was a small classroom with a small television. I'm guessing not a lot of people showed because many are already home for Spring Break. The crowd looked sad. Anyway, I chose this event because the movie sounded really interesting to me because it was about a gay couple who was trying to get a baby. I didn't know if it was a documentary or a fiction, but I was still interested nonetheless. It turns out it was a fictitious film, but it turned out really good! The only thing I didn't like about it was the small subtitles on the little television screen. My eyelashes were getting in the way of my reading.  

interviewing skills 

ERIN:  You would think by now one would know how to conduct themselves in a interview, but, Michele stated she has had many complaints from some of the businesses who have been at the current job fairs. For example, interviewees showing up with bad breath, sweaty arm pits, body odors and much more is unacceptable. SHANNON:  The main point that stuck out to me was to : always be courteous to everyone you meet.