Play’s Republic

SL has a big challenge ahead of them if they are to make a true impact.  They are the leaders in the genre, but in order to stay ahead of others who will come around they need to rethink their approach.   Scalability is a huge issue when dealing with the corporate world and I just […]

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you know those moments when everything comes together - well mine came a bit late.  This whole semester I have argued in favor of the structurlist argument and intent, not really sure what to make of the “game design” impacts interaction discussion until I looked back at the many ways in which I changed my original […]

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At the recent Serious Gamers Conference in San Francisco, Jane McGonigal gave an overview of ilovebees - an alternate reality game that focuses on collective intelligence - but is really a viral marketing campaign for Halo 2 back in 2005.  McGonigal talks of how these games can be used to teach skills focusing collective cognition, […]

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While Juul has moved on to discuss the cross roads of real and not real rules versus play; I found interesting that both him and Gonzalo Frasca made such an attempt to bring together radical narrativists and ludologists.  Frasca - who is said to have coined the word ludology - argues that ludology was not meant […]

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I came across this list of 50 top gaming books - thought I would pass it on  - did not realize there were enough to determine top 50 http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3962&Itemid=2

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i came across this call for papers - it is due May 30th. 
Here is the description from the site - I think it would be great if someone could pull this off from class :).  The description is pretty vague and it is a trip to London afterall.    
The theme of the conference is “Theory & […]

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Here is a soup of symbols for those of you crazy for meaning making.   
Just Cause was released in 2006 about a specialist in “regime change.” (marketing magic = much nicer than mercenary and much less inflammatory than revolutionary.)  Here is the product description:
 
“In Just Cause, you take on the role of the flamboyant Rico Rodriguez - […]

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Interesting article on Linden Labs decision to not further promote the simulated gambling on it site.  Perhaps even more interesting than the cross section of the casino with 2nd life is the commentary about banning US avatars.  So much for a border less world…..
 http://www.online-casinos.com/news/news4364.asp

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it’s 12:20 am and I have finally discovered War of Worldcraft is not play, game or fun.   Playing these games reminds me of taking personality tests…I am definately not into exploring, I don’t see the point of having other players online with you, find the quests super stupid and am not sure how the hell […]

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