Play’s Republic

Digital playgrounds like the ones mentioned here are incredibly popular with the kids these days. Neopets and the Cartoon Network are also sites that are incredibly popular. The catch with this are the masses of commercial messages being targeted at children through these tools. It’s particularly concerning considering how susceptible children are to advertising messages. [...]

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 A textbook published by gaming company Capcom, dedicated to teaching children (through use of comics) about the ins and outs of video gaming culture, industry, history, and the creative process, distributed to primary schools and libraries all over Japan?
Why can’t WE have something like that?
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/11/capcom-releases-japanese-textbook-about-video-games/

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Early on in the course, we covered learning within games, primarily as a function of gaining faculty within a semiotic domain. We have never, not once, discussed games as learning devices used to learn about a specific type of content, however, and we especially didn’t talk about “edutainment” games. In the name of [...]

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As the tags might suggest, this is an aside about something that I still find somewhat amusing. One topic that I always recall coming up in class about World of Warcraft is its plot- and/or lack thereof. As convoluted and nonsensical as it may be, however, I’m simply amazed that it still manages to be [...]

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 So. Doki Doki Majo Saiban, for the Nintendo DS: you’ve probably not heard of this game before, but judging by the title alone, you might be able to guess that it’s yet another quirky Japanese title that will probably never see release in U.S. stores. Here, though, there’s another good reason why this game won’t make [...]

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Toward the beginning of the semester, we often discussed the differences between the Heraclitean and Platonic perspectives toward power, play and being. According to Heraclitus, from the agon, characterized by conflict, strife and unpredictability, grew the playful chaos of the Universe. “History unfolds at the whim of a child, carelessly playing.” Contrast [...]

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An industry newsletter this AM points to a new Harris poll on videogames and kids:
Percentage of households where children report that their parents limit “how much time they can spend playing games:”
* 54 percent of 8-12-year-olds
* 38 percent of 13-18s
Additionally, “71 percent of the younger group said they must abide by rules on the kinds [...]

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C|Net has covered this before (and I know Micha has mentioned Cantu in class), but it remains lots of fun. Chicago chef Homaru Cantu is known for his witty, technology-driven experiments with food. This is play in its most basic sense: Indeed, the lowest levels on Maslow’s hierarchy are often the sites [...]

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Our discussion in class last night made me remember the games of my own childhood. Garrison talked about creating his own games with friends – I think many of us did this. If we didn’t make up entirely new games, we certainly made new rules for existing games. Many of these rules [...]

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