So I just finished playing Portal. And I’m probably the least video game literate of those who post on this site, so what I’m about to say blooms from an ignorant soil… but is Portal the Citizen Kane we’ve been waiting for of the video game medium?
Continue reading ‘On Rosebuds of the Interactive Sort…’
Archive for October, 2007
This isn’t a good article on the merits of its comparison between controllers, but it did something to remind me of the fact that we can choose to design games for traditional controllers in the same manner that Wii developers approach their controller.
Of course, the only games I’ve ever had to really design new control schemes for was a dance pad fight game, which turned out just sort of funny.
Anyway, link.
Tic-Tac-Toe is broken. Checkers was recently broken. Chess is on the verge of being broken.
With these realities in mind, Frank Lantz and I have made a bet: Go will be broken within 50 years. I am betting that it will be broken, while Frank is betting that it can last much longer. The winner will buy the loser the nicest Go set that they can find.
You are all now witnesses. Keep us honest. See you October 19th, 2057.
Now this is user generated content that I can get behind!
Frontlines of the Nondigital - The Debate Over College Football and the BCS
Published by October 9th, 2007 in Frontlines of the Non-Digital. 5 CommentsPreface: So what’s the biggest game design challenge in the world? It’s deciding who is champion in NCAA Division 1 College Football. We all know of this sport, but does everyone realize in the 60+ year modern history that there HAS NEVER BEEN A CHAMPION CROWNED?
So to make a long, complicated story/problem short: college football relies on opinion and mathematical formulas to dictate who plays who in the BCS (Bowl Championship Series… not to mistaken for a playoff). I repeat: there is NO playoff. After the bowls, the NCAA does NOT recognize a champion. The Associated Press does (sports writers) and they cumulatively vote for who they think is the best team and that team earns a faux championship. The mathematical equations that are used to determine the bowl matchups are transparent but completely convoluted so no one really pays attention. In fact each week when the new BCS computer rankings are released, it’s a big surprise to see who comes out on top. These rankings take “strength of schedule” (a broken formula that I will get into later), opinion polls, and about 5 other computer based polls into account to make the BCS Meta-rankings. And the funny thing: all college football fans agree the system is broken but it seems to never get fixed. I want to argue two things: one, that an intrinsic part of the sport of college football is the debate to who is best; and two, that a better non-playoff system can be molded by game designers like us to effectively declare a champion.
Continue reading ‘Frontlines of the Nondigital - The Debate Over College Football and the BCS’
This is the best thing I’ve read about games as art in a while.
Realizing its been a long time since I posted, and it feels like Charley is the only one posting, here is another attempt to return to the blog; but first off, I wanted to find out if anyone is interested in doing an occasional Game Night? I was thinking of doing something like every other week, we can meet someplace and play one of the games from the Top 100 Games that Charlie (I think it was Charlie) posted earlier. If anyone is interested, post a comment here or you can email me at my first name (oren) followed by my last name (ross), and I use the gmail service. (Sorry for doing it that way, damn spammers)
Now for some of my thoughts…
Continue reading ‘LordN3R0 Returns!!’
This was assigned as a non-required reading in Marisa Olson’s Media Change class. Found the article really thought provoking and provided me with the direct answer to the question: will games achieve what cinema has? Yes, but in a very different manner… it’s going to take a game that’s socially relevant, that completely consumes the player, and provides powerful enough moments that it awakes the gamer by challenging him to reconsider the significance of his in-game actions.
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