[-empyre-] week 3: platforms-within-platforms: videogame development & preservation

[Gabriel Menotti]

Dear all,

The last days have been a bit quiet due to a temporary crash on the
empyre list server and a misunderstanding about the debate schedule. I
apologize for that.

Luckily, Ian Cofino has provided a lot of food for thought with a deep
scrutiny of the fighting game community, a group of specialized
players that organize modes and structures of playing in supplement to
the standard ones. To this particular subculture, the development of
the core videogame industry can be troublesome, as it challenges their
“underground” identity. In that sense, the fighting game community
seems to have an ambiguous relation with the mainstream industry, not
entirely dissimilar from the one that “normal” hardcore players have
with social/casual games development.

There is still a lot to be discussed on that matter, and I hope that
the threads about game championships and chiptunes are kept alive and
kicking for the rest of the month. But the new week also brings new
topics, which I will introduce by referring to Alex Gibson’s
sidetracking (which wasn’t, really).

Gibson evoked the idea of “gamification” of media technology: the
incorporation of game mechanics into a given system’s interface in
order to shape particular behaviors of its end-users, without limiting
of forcing them into it. Daniel Cook unpacked the different
implications of this idea and shown that the debate around it is not a
new one. In sum, game design tap into dimensions of ergonomics and
usability that are not normally taken into account by everyday
interface design. This brings into question the essential character of
videogames as sociotechnical systems that exist in relation to others
within a larger media circuit.

This week, we intend to explore this dimension by referring to
communities involved in the creation of new strategies for videogame
development and platforms for their historical preservation. One
particular example of both cases can be found on the practice of
system emulation. Our guests will be:

* Daniel Cook
Daniel Cook is a veteran game designer who runs the popular game
design website Lostgarden.com. He writes extensively on the
techniques, theory and business of game design. He is the Chief
Creative Officer at Spry Fox, was a professional illustrator in his
youth and managed to collect both a degree in physics and an MBA.  His
most recent projects include Triple Town, Panda Poet, Steambirds and
Ribbon Hero, which turns Microsoft Office into a game.

* Jerome McDonough
Jerome McDonough is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of
Library & Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.  Prior to joining the faculty at GSLIS, Professor
McDonough headed the Digital Library Development Team at New York
University.  His dissertation, "Under Construction: The Application of
a Feminist Sociology to Information Systems Design," explored the
interplay between software engineers and end-users in the construction
of identity in graphical, computer-mediated communication systems.
His research focuses on metadata and digital preservation, and he is
currently serving as the principal investigator for Preserving Virtual
Worlds II, an IMLS-funded project investigating the significant
properties of computer games and interactive fiction for preservation
purposes.

* Rafael Trindade
Rafael Trindade is a Brazilian ROM hacking aficionado. With the Cine
Falcatrua collective, he has organized a series of workshops on
Creative Emulation during 2006-2008, as well as KinoArcade, an event
that explored gaming as a cinematographic experience. Nowadays he is a
Literature student, planning to take over the translation of SNES’
Final Fantasy 6 into Latin.

Best!
Menotti