FW: [-empyre-] games experimentation

["Helen Stuckey" <hstuckey@acmi.net.au>]

hi this post got eaten by the system so its a bit out of date but I'll throw it back as I would be interested to hear peoples response to differing approaches to agency in art project using games and commercial games.


weekend workshop has kept me away from reading all the great posts.

Many thanks to Kipper who i failed to introduce - apologies Kipper I am a very big fan of Escape from Woomera and full of respect for you intent to build games that have serious play. As Rebecca touched on play is one of the great pedagogic tools which is a reason why games attract so much hostility as groups in society fear that they teach violence and other antisocial behavoir.

I am really interested in Jim distinctions as i feel it is the 'play to win' that impassions people in their game play and drives game play. I also find a real distinction in agency in art games and commercail games where art games are very focused on the impact of agency on their player/users and most commercail games are goal focused (in a play to win sense) and do not reflect on the implications of the player actions beyond bringing them closer to their goal. Multiplayer worlds offer more complex relationships (with other players) and are less guilty of this and the new Lionhead game by Peter Molyneux - Fable - promises a more complex relationship to players and the world where all your actions have consquences for your character within a moral universe.

machinima is linear narratives (short animations) created using game engines technology. 
We will be presenting, what i think is one of the best of the genre - RED VS. BLUE - created in HALO at ACMI on Sunday 22 August in the cinemas. Two of its creators from Rooster Teeth Gus Sorola (Simmons) and Geoff Fink (Grif) are coming out for the event which is fantastic. http://www.redvsblue.com/

For lovers of ICO - this is the next generation 
http://tokyopia.com/tk/archives/000090.php


-----Original Message-----
From:	empyre-bounces@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Jim Andrews
Sent:	Sat 19/06/2004 1:14 PM
To:	soft_skinned_space
Cc:	
Subject:	RE: [-empyre-] games experimentation
i'm following the discussion with interest. intriguing to hear from people
developing computer games for gallery environments. a couple of questions,
if i may.

what is machinima?

being a director developer, i subscribe to the dirgames list and
occassionally read it. most of the effort there seems to cd or shockwave.
and the shockwave stuff is usually short shrift, like a $5000 budget for
some sort of promotional game for a commercial site. so it's mostly quickie
reruns of well-known game concepts. no discussion of art, per se. technical
questions about external casts and so on. the list is a valuable technical
resource for lingo programmers. and that's how most director lists are.
there isn't really any successful list devoted to art game programming that
i'm aware of. are there some?

perhaps a more interesting question now. i'm wondering if people developing
art games have had the same experience i have had that often you find
yourself wanting both a 'game mode' and a 'play mode'? art and game are
related primarily via the notion of 'play', it seems. you can play to win or
'just for fun', play chess or a guitar, etc, several notions of 'play', some
important to the activities and approaches of art, some not. you could say
art is enlightened play (on a good day). thought of that the other day. in
any case, in the couple of projects i've worked on 'art games', i have found
myself in a situation where some of the features i've wanted to program were
'play to win' oriented while others were more concerned with 'art play',
explorative, compositional, features. and usually they are not suited to the
same 'mode' of play (game mode/play mode). i've found the game mode/play
mode distinction useful as a design paradigm and wonder if others have too.

in game mode, you 'play the cards you're dealt'. whereas in play mode, you
have more tools to explore the materials and maybe compose aspects of the
game yourself or change environment parameters and so on. play mode is not
competitive. game mode is. it seems a game without a game mode is more like
a guitar than a game. and a computer game without a play mode is usually not
very enlightening: playing to win a computer game can't be taken seriously
for very long.

ja
http://vispo.com/arteroids


_______________________________________________
empyre forum
empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.subtle.net/empyre




**********************************************************************
This communication contains information which is confidential and the copyright of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail please notify the sender immediately and delete it from your system.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not be the views of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, unless specifically stated.
**********************************************************************
This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by
MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses.

**********************************************************************