Digital Storytelling Association - News and Events has just launched a website for the recently established association. They have a section for News, Events and Feature Stories, which includes pieces from some of the members. Currently it includes text by known names like Brenda Laurel and Mark Bernstein. Oh, and Mark is writing about weblogs, and amongst others pointing to Torill and Jill's. :)
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:19 (0) comments

TIDSE 2003 a German conference on Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment to be held in March 2003 in Darmstadt. They want papers on "content" too, though, and have people like Michael Mateas, Jay David Bolter, Jason Rutter and Celia Pearce on the board of reviewers. Deadline for full paper submission (12 pages!) is December 15th.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:14 (0) comments

Second Life by Linden Lab is another new world in the Beta-testing stage. You can sign up as beta-tester now. From what they say on the frontpage, it seems that it would be pretty much like Sims Online, just not built on a previously known game concept.
I wonder what is going to happen when all these new worlds hit the commercial market next year? How many will perish because no-one visits them? Is it a fad? Or are massive multiplayer worlds here to stay as an intrinsic part of our future gaming experiences?
....A poster on EdGames says: "Who's got time enough for one life, let alone a second?" Maybe that's the core problem, some of these world designers forget.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:02 (0) comments

Via newsletter from IGDA, a little piece in Gamespot called:The Girl Gamer's Manifesto.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:38 (0) comments

And here is a link to Danish colleague Kenneth Hansen's ph.d. thesis from 2001 on Virtual Culture (based on empirical studies in AlphaWorld). In Danish, alas.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 14:08 (0) comments

Via Mark Bernstein: the bruno baldwin comic - interesting mix of mixed media comic and weblog.
And via Tinka, there is another interesting (traditional) comic here if you go to bottom of page. (in Danish).
And since Im looking at online comics today, I also remembered Scott McClouds Zot! online - there is a 16-week series online called Hearts and Minds online at the Comicbookresources site.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:47 (0) comments

Cybersociology.com back in 1999 devoted an entire issue to the question of Research Methodology Online.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 14:28 (0) comments

Did you know of this? BookHq which "compare Prices on New & Used Books, Textbooks & College Textbooks", 24 bookstores including Amazon in US and UK and Blackwells in UK. Not a bad place to start your comparisons :) - but not sure they get the paperback prices, though...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 14:14 (0) comments

Shorthand Poetry
160 characters in search of an author - The Guardian's text message poetry competition. You can find some of the recent submissions here. Works better as concept than the "short stories" for mobile phones competition I once had a go in - never heard anything about it after that. There is an old post of it somewhere...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:58 (0) comments

Quake meets real life....
Playing games with words - an article on how novelist Christopher Brookmyre was inspired by Quake for his book "A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away". So the BBC journalist beat me to it - I read the book this summer and have been wanting to write about it for some time ;)...He has these nifty "load game" scenes where he keeps loading "Real Life" with great dissatisfaction. But in the end, his mastering of the Quake levels helps take out the Bad Guys and all ends good, even Real Life. I quote (from beginning of book where protagonist thinks of his teaching job):

"
/set skill level nightmare
/set opponent_num=30
AWAITING GAMESTATE
LOADING REAL LIFE [tm] ENGINE
LOADING MOD: ENGLISH TEACHER
LOADING SOUNDS
LOADING MAP: BURNBRAE ACADEMY[burnb.asp]
LOADING GAME MEDIA
LOADING PENCIL
LOADING RUBBER
LOADING RULER
LOADING JOTTER
LOADING BLACKBOARD
LOADING OTHELLO
LOADING LORD OF THE FLIES
LOADING ROBERT BURNS - SELECTED POEMS
LOADING WEAPONS: PUNISHMENT EXERCISE
LOADING WEAPONS: HOMEWORK ESSAY
LOADING HAZARDS: WINDOW-POLE
LOADING HAZARDS: FIRE ALARM
LOADING HAZARDS: MALEVOLENT FART ACCUSATION
LOADING OPPONENTS
AWAITING SNAPSHOT...
RAYMOND ASH HAS ENTERED THE GAME
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Not this.
/Start new game
This will abort the game in progress. Are you sure?
_Y_es/_N_o
"
# posted by Lisbeth at: 10:13 (0) comments

Order to go is one of those small addictive Flash games, with a political incorrect agenda and a slightly ironic slant on Copenhagen Police culture. Help tidy up "bad guy" hang-outs in Copenhagen, "Ungdomshuset" and "Christiania", accompagnied by the voice of a policeman from Jutland yelling insults at you ;). Game designed as web-part of the Danish comedy series "P.I.S" (I will not explain that pun to non-native speakers!).
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:56 (0) comments

It has absolutely nothing to do with my research, but it is the second time in two days, I have come across:Independent Woman - played by kittens . It's one of those things that makes the net a worthwhile place to spend your hours of procrastination;)...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:15 (0) comments

Elsinore Library's website aka Helsingør Kommunes Biblioteker has just won this year's Danish price for being Bedst på nettet (Best on the Net) in the category "Institutions of Culture". It actually looks like a pretty good site book-wise; serving as more than just a portal to reservation of books. More like those, please!
# posted by Lisbeth at: 15:23 (0) comments

ELO 2002 Symposium - Featured Work: The Glide Project -looks interesting. Attempt to work with visual language as way of story-telling.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 18:28 (0) comments

Some pictures from Gonzalo Frasca's visit at the IT University, Friday the 15th.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:41 (0) comments

Sidenius i Esbjerg
# posted by Lisbeth at: 13:28 (0) comments

A Danish article on thecommercial take on interactivity: "Opfør dig ordentligt - også interaktivt" in monthly e-letter from Biteconomy.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 10:38 (0) comments

It is today that Gonzalo Frasca is presenting his paper Say it with a game: ludology, ideology and videogame rhetoric at the IT University (room 0.10, from 13-16). He is sitting in my office now, with a Mac Ibook, accessing the internet from a wireless connection I didnt even know we had at ITU! Small world...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:59 (0) comments

Espen Aarseth has been interviewed for the Danish newspaper Politiken, who is running several articles on the "Hitman 2 and the Sikh-ban" story today. The article is called Computerspil bryder grænser (Computergames transgress borders) - and in the print version neatly links to gamestudies.org at the end of the article. Espen draws attention to the fact that Hitman 2 is a game for grown-ups and that computergames as a genre is far from finishing their development. He thinks that online multiplayer games like Lineage where players can actually fight and kill each other will gain increasing popularity.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:52 (0) comments

Via EdGames - a link to the official site for the Rock, Paper, Scissors society, announcing amongst other things the World Championship in RPS. It also includes a page with Advanced RPS strategies, including advice on "How to meet Girls with RPS". Now, _that_ is somewhat close to what I call nerdy ;)
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:20 (0) comments

Of course, there had to be a site like this on the net too:Christian Computer Games..... a safe play-ground . You can find Bible games there, amongst other things...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 17:03 (0) comments

The Danish Online News Association (DONA) has apparently just sent out a newsletter with a Top 7 of weblogs, which includes both this blog and another friendly blog: Dust from a Distant Sun. I'm honoured :).
Other blogs mentioned are The Guardian Unlimited Weblog, Dan Gillmors ejournal, J.D.Lasica, Scripting News and BoingBoing.

So if you stop by courtesy of DONA news, welcome!
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:28 (0) comments

Frasca's (Blog) Travel Adventures
As Jill mentions, Gonzalo Frasca of Ludology.org will be visiting the IT University this Friday in room 0.10 (the big auditorium, entry through Glentevej 65, 2400 København) from 13-16.00. The title of his talk is: Say it with a game: ludology, ideology and videogame rhetoric . It will be great meeting him again, and since the department holds a digital camera, perhaps we should get some pics too!
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:40 (0) comments

OK, Blogger seemed to have fucked up my archives after my move and this doesnt help. It simply wont post the archives anywhere, though I provide the usual archive addresses. Argh! Any idea what's wrong?? Testing!!
# posted by Lisbeth at: 14:43 (0) comments

The John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 13:04 (0) comments

Many of the blogs in this cluster is mentioned amongst a lot of links on the list of Internet Research Periodicals at Netzwissenschaft.de.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:12 (0) comments

The Ph.D. species
Jill recently anguished about finishing, Hilde is nervously waiting to hear something about her ph.d. Meanwhile, this guy accuses us for not writing understandibly (via Jesper). And this other guy has actually written a comic strip about graduate life (via Frank).
Yes, these three last years have definitely been full of ups and downs; being a ph.d. student is not just a job, but a lifestyle and way of thinking which easily permeates all aspects of life, for better for worse. Someone should write a book about us one day...;)
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:50 (0) comments

A good introduction to the concepts oftext and textuality written for an Australian course on Introduction to Multimedia.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 15:45 (0) comments

There is actually some interesting stuff on how people perceive interactivity in this article:Citizen Perceptions of Online Interactivity and Implications for Political Campaign Communication.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 14:57 (0) comments

Via The Games Network list, an interesting example of performance in game space: people performing an episode from "Friends" on a Quake server! : The Obsessive Mouse
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:53 (0) comments

Via EdGames, the possibility to test your game desing skill in a Game Design Competition with the simple rule: "design a great two-player game with simultaneous movement using pieces most people are likely to have around the house."
Deadline is December 31st, so you could for instance think it up during your christmas holiday ;)
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:44 (0) comments

Via konzack, the Virtual Performance Bibliography, which also lists the bibliography of chat communication, a good site with articles for which I had lost the URL.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 15:18 (0) comments

Disposable Love - the rise and fall of a virtual pet. Article from the New Media & Society journal, this available online as pdf.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 14:09 (0) comments

JonblOGG is a norwegian blog (in Norwegian) by Jon who is writing on the internet as narrative medium.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:55 (0) comments

Now in Gamasutra An Interview with Gary Gygax about the transition from roleplaying games with pen and paper to massive multiplayer rpg with mouse and screen.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 10:30 (0) comments

K. Parrish aka Squish has made a new blog on moo. Lots of useful links!
# posted by Lisbeth at: 00:17 (0) comments

So, does playing Counterstrike really make children violent? Judge for yourself in this little digital video made by teenagers for a Danish 1-minute-short film contest on the topic on young people, IT and movies. Contestants are young people btw 14-25, and all is part of the Netdays initiative.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:48 (0) comments

Post Mortem - a classic dectective mystery game which looks just up my alley. In production. The compagny also made Syberia, which is available now and gets good review in Politiken.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 15:27 (0) comments

I have set up a little page with Mobility, Mobile Games and Surveillance Stuff for use in our department. Links most welcome.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 15:20 (0) comments

OK, here is an new example of games as spectator sport. Oddly fascinating. So you think you can play Tetris? (Note, big mpeg file!)
# posted by Lisbeth at: 15:09 (0) comments

Virtuelle Realitäten is a German anthology on virtual worlds, primarily from a psychological perspective. Sonja Utz, whose name I haven't come across before, has written an article for this on "Identity and Interaction in virtual communities" (in German) and another article for another new book Online Social Sciences, called "Forms of Research in MUDs". Would be interesting to look at, but she has no publications online, and the books seems a bit too expensive to buy just for that :(. Typical problem - but would be nice with more articles on specific research methodology for virtual worlds (and in English, preferably! ;)).
# posted by Lisbeth at: 14:47 (0) comments

Group Sikhs to ban Hitman 2 - well, apparently there are many ways that Denmark can make itself publicly known...Eidos, the Danish-based compagny which produced Hitman2 is being accused of portraying Sikhs in a racist way and linking them to terrorism. Sikhs demands that the game be recalled.
//Update Thursday: actually Eidos is an international game publishing compagny, it is IO Interative which developped Hitman I and II which is Danish. And basically it is Eidos which is targeted by the Sikhs, so no need to be paranoid, this time//
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:08 (0) comments

Lynks Cables UK sells cables which should make it possible for me to finally connect my Revo (which only came with a com/serial port) to my wonderful laptop which only came with USB ports. Sigh...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 12:14 (0) comments

Mobile Game Phone from Nokia is in the news today. Apparently Nokia is taking arms against Nintendo's Gameboy.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:58 (0) comments

Everquest fantasy offers real rewards - another story on EQ at the BBC site.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 11:56 (0) comments

For my chapter on performance in virtual worlds, i should have gotten hold of this long time ago:Theatre in Cyberspace.
I notice that one of the chapters is on the Kafka-space in AtheMOO - a virtual world built with the purpose of exploring performance and theatre in cyberspace. They have done some interesting things inside AtheMOO, but unfortunately the world seems to have gone "dead": I keep receiving "updates" telling me that they are "now" celebrating AtheMOOs 5 years birthday. Problem is the 5 year anniversary was in 2001. Anyone knows what happened?
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:53 (0) comments

The IT-University as the 12th University!
Lots of happy exitement at the IT-University today, as it was announced that, as a part of a new constitution for the Danish Universities, the government has recommended that we now officially be recognised as the 12th official University in Denmark. This recommendation is the result of a very positive external evaluation, which acknowledges the very high level of teaching and research taking place at the institution.
To non-Danes which are used to read about us as the IT University, this might not seem very significant, but on Danish grounds where we are normally referred to as the "IT-højskole" (the IT School, more or less), it makes a lot of difference. Also being recognised as an independant university means that we will no longer formally be connected to the Copenhagen Business School, which might be an advantage sometimes. So a joyous day indeed, especially for one like me who has been here almost from Day 1.
IT-højskolen bliver Danmarks 12. universitet
# posted by Lisbeth at: 17:10 (0) comments

Non-linear narratives in Copenhagen
The Danish Film House is showing an Alain Resnais series during the month of November. It presents an unique opportunity to watch almost all of this "new wave" literary-oriented director's films, including his most well-known films "Last Year in Marienbad" (script by Alain Robbe-Grillet) and "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" (based on Margurite Duras' novel). Some of the other films have never been screened in Denmark before, and I look forward to watching "Mon oncle d'Amérique"(which actually stars Gerard Depardieu before he turned into an oeuf) and Je t'aime, Je t'aime (about being stuck in time).
If you are into the so-called "non-linear" narratives and nouvelle vague film, Resnais is a must. He might not be easily accessible, but he is definitely interesting. And one of those film auteurs, Gilles Deleuze discusses at length in his "Cinema: Temps" book.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 17:45 (0) comments

En kåbe af sproglig elastic / A Robe of Linguistic Rubberband
Note! A post for Danish readers only...
...Kender I det? At man nogen gange går ud af en boghandel med en helt anden bog, end den man gik ind for at købe? Det skete for mig igår, hvor jeg pludselig fandt mig selv i besiddelse af et lille skrift med titlen "En kåbe af sproglig elastik 2". Skriftet består af (desværre anonyme) ordrette citater fra debatterne i Folketinget, gladeligt noteret af folk fra Folketingstidende - og jeg har grint lige siden.- Jeg lader nogle af perlerne stå et øjeblik, her på vej hjem fredag eftermiddag... Go' weekend :)

"Hvis man vil citere mig for noget, jeg ikke har sagt, vil jeg sætte pris på, at man citerer mig korrekt."

"Jeg bøjer min hat i respekt for de lærde folk."

"Vi kan ikke leve med, at tiden bare går".

"Så skal vi være der som et søm i et bræt."

"Jeg ved lige nøjagtig hvordan man skal sætte ind og sikre, at skoen klemmer så eftertrykkeligt, at den bliver nødt til at lytte til, hvad folket siger."
# posted by Lisbeth at: 15:45 (0) comments