Monday 22 September 2008

Alrewas Arts Festival #1

Tiles of the Riverbank



Here's the first of a series of blogs showcasing the achievements from the Alrewas Arts Festival 2008.

http://www.alrewas-artsfest.co.uk/
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Saturday 20 September 2008

Spontaneous Outpouring

Hello again.

I realise I did post but 5 minutes ago, but that was a *proper* post that I didn't want to wreck by adding other unrelated things that are not worthy of their own proper posts. So think of this as a mopping up session.
Pineapple Express Poster
Item #1: Pineapple Express


It's really shit, don't bother going to see it. I was quite disappointed really, rather than more Superbad-style hilarity, the film opts for an unengaging 'stoners on the run from a baddie' format. The dialogue is long-winded and largely uninteresting (albeit with a few decent one-liners) with the comedy restricted to shitty stoner dialogue that's probably supposed to be funny because it's mundane, but in fact is just mundane, and slapstick. I nearly fell asleep in
the cinema, but that's mainly because I was tired.


Item #2: Nihal (Radio 1)

Is this the worst Photoshop job ever?! The eyes are terrifying...







Item #3: New Look!

Hope you like the new header, badly positioned as it is (I haven't yet mastered HTML, but I'm trying...). This is the first of a few updates, so watch out for them avid readers!
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LG15: The Resistance kicks off


The third web series from LG15 Studios, creators of LonelyGirl15 and KateModern, officially started today following a series of tasters over the course of last week. The first episode is a kind of montage of these clips, arranged around a story of a girl being held by a sinsister organisation called the Hymn of One (which will be familiar to fans of the previous two series').

The Resistance
appears to centre around a mysterious organisation calling itself the Hymn of None, which is apparently a resistance to the Order, who have been kidnapping and killing girls for their blood... Their first move is to try to recruit the reluctant Jonas (another character from the Breeniverse) as their leader.

It looks like there are due to be ARG elements also. The video mentions an auction that will be taking place in just over a week, while one of the earlier videos features a flash of this URL. Intriguing...

Episode One:

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Monday 15 September 2008

Anti Spore in Rick Roll Shocker

Thought I'd check up on our friend the Anti Spore creationist nutter, when I stumbled across this:






But the Bible teaches us that God was not done with man. For we were His creation and He then spoke to Noah in Genesis 8:21-27 after the flood.
“21. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never gonna give you up. 22. “Never gonna let you down.” 23.”Never gonna run around and desert you.” 24. “Never gonna make you cry.” 25. “Never gonna say goodbye.” 26. “Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.” 27.”Never truly believe anything you read on the Internet. There will always be cases of Poe’s Law.”

It’s these teachings that I’ve spent my life learning, believing and becoming, that have made me the woman that I am today.

Oops. That's right, we've been Rick Rolled! Massive kudos to the creator for this elaborate and truly bastardish hoax, that apparently still has people (who apparently can't read...) fuming, flaming and ranting away.

More about Poe's Law can be found here.

Take it away Rick...
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Friday 12 September 2008

Superstruct: 10 days to go

Jane McGonigal's new project (in league with the Institute for the Future), Superstruct, is set to launch on the 22nd Sept and I'm getting pretty excited.

For those who don't know, Jane McGonigal masterminded World Without Oil, a project which asked participants to place themselves in an oilshock scenario and tell their story. The result was a massive, and I mean incomprehensibly gigantic, body of blogs, vlogs and podcasts, revealing an incredibly deep, detailed and vivid developing scenario. The quality of work submitted is astonishing, creating an alternate reality that is far more realistic and encompassing than any one person could imagine. Check out the concept and archive of work at worldwithoutoil.org. The game received a significant amount of praise in the media and awards for raising awareness on an important issue, and doing so in a uniquely engaging way. The accuracy of the predictions made in the game have also been noted. More information can be found on the game's Wikipedia page.

Superstruct looks set to build on this format. Set 11 years in the future, a supercomputer has just predicted the human race's demise in 23 years time. The game is going to ask people to think about potential causes and how we might avoid them. The list of 'honorary gamemasters' that has been anounced is impressive:
  • Tim Kring, creator of the NBC TV series HEROES
  • Warren Ellis, superhero comic book author and novelist
  • Tara Hunt, social network expert and author of The Whuffie Factor
  • Bruce Sterling, science fiction writer and essayist
  • Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and Wikia
  • Ze Frank, funniest person on the Internet
  • Chris DiBona, Open Source program manager for Google
  • Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media
There is currently an introductory mission going ahead here, inviting people to begin their story in the future, which is already looking pretty interesting, and somebody has even gone so far as to set up an in-game website: The Weather Project 2019 (read about Jane's amusing encounter with this site on her blog)

Anyways, more information at the Superstruct site, Jane's Avant Game blog, the Institute for the Future site and of course, ARGnet.
UPDATE: There's also a Facebook group, here!

I'm pretty interested to see how they're going to be running this, whether specific global in-game events will occur to guide the game, or more specific missions in a more ARG vein. Either way, it's going to be awesome.
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Wednesday 10 September 2008

Anger Management

MCV and CVG brought my attention to this charming little blog this morning.

I wish that I was one of those people who could read things like this, and calmly detach themselves from it, think this is just one of those nutters that will shout and scream in impotent rage until they are blue in the face, and the only person that will suffer is them. I wish I was like that.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go straight to the comments and write YOU R A FUKIN A**HOLE AND YOU IS WRONG, but I can't help but...seeth with rage as I read it.

I think the reason is that I can't stand the smug self-righteousness that is impossible to have any meaningful kind of argument with. The kind of argument that, not satisfied with berating a game for disagreeing with your values, it goes on to casually decry it's creators as evil promotors of homosexuality. The kind of argument that responds to comments by calmly stating that people 'often get defensive when they know they are wrong'.

Seriously, how can somebody be that annoying and then complain when they receive death threats? And when are the moralists who regularly decry computer games as the greatest evil of the 21st century going to realise that they are the best marketeers in the whole anarchic industry?

That said, some of you venomous commentators should really chill out! As a result of the massive flame war that is the anti-spore blog, the opinions of that idiot are going to be far wider read than this blog will ever be, which is a shame because I would like to think that mine is a little more entertaining.
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Tuesday 2 September 2008

Games Rant #1

Here is a ridiculously belated response to Alec Meer's Story Must Die! article on CVG.

Story must not die!

Story has not yet lived! True, at present stories in games remain a travesty; an irritating interruption akin to the insurance adverts in the middle of Hollyoaks, but why should this be the case? I’m confused.com!

The main issues that have gamers reaching for the ‘skip cutscene’ key faster than they can crowbar a headcrab lie with the implementation and content of the stories that clunk awkwardly through our games. Who wants to temporarily pause their game in order to watch a section of a poorly-acted sci-fi B-movie? Not me! But for some reason, many developers seem to think we do. It seems odd that in this lucrative era of ‘blockbuster’ games, many productions still seem prepared to settle for such an appalling lack of quality in terms of writing and acting.

More often than not, the story feels like a feeble attempt to justify the course of the game. Too often the player is reduced to acting as a mere chauffeur for the player-character, ensuring they are present and correct at the required moment in the plot. It’s a contrived and rudimentary solution to delivering narrative and it really needs to go: It’s one thing to include a clichéd, shallow and frightfully unengaging narrative in a game, but to regularly thrust it in the player’s face by forcing them to perform mundane tasks as a poorly disguised plot mechanic, or wrestle control from them to display yet another tedious cutscene, is quite another.

In order for story to succeed in a game it needs to engage the player, not artificially by locking their character into the plot, but by intriguing them, emotionally involving them and bestowing them with the power to advance it themselves (or not!). Imagine a braver BioShock: The player, thrust into the aftermath of the fall of Rapture, is left to assemble the plot from the fragments left behind. The true narrative of the game is in the hands of the player: the detective, archaeologist, explorer and survivor. The story of Rapture becomes an interesting sub-narrative that deepens the game experience.

Even Half-Life, although in story terms about as interactive as Desperate Housewives, is still capable of offering a level of depth to the proceedings. In Alyx, Valve have not only created the first sidekick who’s face you don’t want to empty your clip into, they have created a point of emotional impact. Even though the player has no control over the outcome, the story is compelling enough that it becomes a legitimate part of the game experience. It’s amazing what a small amount of characterisation and one iota of originality can do.

After all the immense technical developments of recent years, it’s about time games began exploring what is truly possible when you translate story into an interactive environment. Imagine the intrigue of Lost, the mythology of Heroes, the pacing of 24 and the drama of...Harry Potter or something, combined into one tasty interactive gaming package. I’m salivating at the prospect.

Further Reading:

Daniel Haggard's excellent analysis of narrative in the Half-Life universe

Alec Meer's original article
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Monday 1 September 2008

Assorted Rubbish


OK!

Been spending a lot of time working on the final preparations for the Alrewas Arts Festival, which kicks off next week. It's going to be an extravaganza of community art projects and workshops, I'll post a round-up of some of the highlights soon. Expect to be impressed.

I designed the logo. Hope you like it!

Couple of pieces of tasty tunage for you:


Lykke Li - Swedish girl with quirky voice and nice tunes. Bit Feist-y, but with a more produced electronic sound.

MAX RAPTOR - a shameless plug of my mate's band. They keep getting better with classic, infectious, shouty rock. Great performers who shredded up Barton Heartfest on Saturday. Also catch them at the Alrewas Arts Festival Party in the Park (Sat 13th).

Spoon - they're just great. Can't stop listening to the Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga album.

and finally, love it or hate it, this tune is going to be massive. You heard it here first.

The Natural Confectionery ad I posted the other day had been bothering me as I was convinced the voice was Dixon Bainbridge from The Mighty Boosh. Turns out I was right: Matt Berry (also of The IT Crowd and Garth Merenghi's Darkplace) does indeed provide the voices. So that's alright then.
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