Category: ideas

eReaders and digital books – doomed?

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Has anyone seen any good examples of digital comic books? (on eReaders or otherwise) If so, please comment.

I’ve come to think of comic books as my pulpy guilty pleasure. but I can’t stand them in any digital form I’ve seen. Whenever the-inevitable-transition-to-eBooks comes up, i think about comics. I’m sure I’ll enjoy fine literature in an eReader (potentially much easier to look up words, or references, influences, other people’s insights, etc.). But I think this is because some part of me treats reading “great literature” as a form of work. I can’t deny that eReaders offer many advantages as a tool for exploring great literature.
Continue reading “eReaders and digital books – doomed?” →

Sleeping Gods: The meaning of “video games” (as computer-driven interaction systems?)

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This was initially posted as a response to Tadhg Kelly’s blog post Techthulhu [Games and Future Fantasy] [@ whatGamesAre.com].

I think lack of sleep, yesterday’s ruminations on biometrics, and a few weeks of dissecting the philosophy behind joss whedon’s entertainment efforts all came together for me just now, to make a perfectly crazy ass rant. I started to re-read this and cringed. it might seem to contradict itself from once sentence to the next? is it one of THOSE crazy-as-fuck level rants? … huh. I dunno. but some of it struck me as very interesting. So i’m recording it here in my blog. hopefully revisit later (to either rethink it, or revise it to be easier to read). woof.
::: Continue reading “Sleeping Gods: The meaning of “video games” (as computer-driven interaction systems?)” →

The lure/illusion of short time investments (re: game play)

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Just commented on Christian Nutt’s feature at gamasutra : The Rise Of Dragon Age II.
I’ve been saying for years that “I’m just not an RPG guy” (though it seems I’ll avidly play every other genre). I think of it as a question of time : when I hear a game has more than 30 hours of gameplay – I hesitate to buy it. Because I know I won’t be experiencing everything it has to offer. (would you buy a DVD/Bluray if you knew some parts of the feature would be omitted?) Continue reading “The lure/illusion of short time investments (re: game play)” →

Analyzing Fighting Forms (cameras, stats, private communities)

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Would be cool if gyms sold videos as a standard service.

Just setup a couple flip cams around the room, covering the ring from all angles? When anyone steps into the ring, a recording starts (records to disk). Or maybe you trigger it by pressing a button before you start your sparring session. $2 to 5 bucks to download the giant raw recording via usb or simcard. maybe a couple more bucks for a dvd of it to be burned and delivered – next day. No restriction from recording your own videos for free, with your own equipment. This would just be a for-your-convenience cheapo service.

hmm.
HMMM!

and someday soon, you could setup kinect cameras, Continue reading “Analyzing Fighting Forms (cameras, stats, private communities)” →

Dickwolves, Rape Culture, Penny Arcade Fans and Fanatics

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Apparently the crazed faceless masses of our dear internet have gone off the deep end about Penny Arcade’s attempts to not feel guilty.

They made a strip, the Sixth Slave, about the ignoble underlying nature of World of Warcraft players, and it somehow became a lightening rod for rape culture. (they followed up with a strip, Breaking It Down, about the lunacy of attributing the comic strip to the promotion of rape, which was then misconstrued as mocking rape victims). Refusing to back down, they proceed to sell a tshirt and pennant featuring a dickwolves mascot and sporty logo.

Here is an interesting summary of the community response, PAX Speakers Withdraw Over Controversy, by Alexander Bevier. I couldn’t resist offering my penny’s worth of thoughts:

If you wish to change the culture, I would encourage you to do the hard thing: and attend these PAX events.
Seek to speak there, and engage the gaming culture, instead of abandoning it to fester. Continue reading “Dickwolves, Rape Culture, Penny Arcade Fans and Fanatics” →