Posts with keyword: gaming

7 entries

Exploiting Online Games

Tue Nov 13 16:44:00 2007

I had a fascinating discussion with Gary McGraw last week about his latest book Exploiting Online Games: Cheating Massively Distributed Systems. For the next two days I was telling everyone about it. The issues surrounding online game security are representative of the kinds of security issues that plague any large-scale distributed system. I heartily recommend the interview and the book to anyone who plays games or is just interested in the larger security picture.
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The Core of Fun: Raph Koster

Wed Mar 28 12:38:00 2007

Raph Koster introduces himself as an alien from another planet: a game designer. He's the author of The Theory of Fun. He starts by introducing structure in music and art with some cool audience participation. There are different dimensions to fun: Hard Easy Visceral Social Hard fun is about solving problems. The problems tend to be mathematical Therefore the grammar of hard games ignore presentation. He applies the theory of fun to Amazon.com and concludes that it's not structural, not fun. There a lots of sequential steps and don't provide any "fun" or feedback. The magic ingredients: Territory -
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Creating Alternate Realities: Jane McGonigal

Tue Mar 27 12:34:00 2007

Jane McGonigal(click to enlarge) Jane McGonigal is a "happiness hacker." Or at least that's how I'd summarize what she said. She does this by designing alternate reality games. Alternate realities do away with limitation in an effort to explore possible alternatives to current situations. (Slide to be here by Friday.) Jane gives a "forecast from the future" of things she thinks will be important for technology and tech companies. Here are the things she mentions Quality of life is the primary metric for evaluating everyday technology Positive psychology is a principle influence for design The public expects tech companies
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Violent Video Games Change Brains

Wed Nov 29 21:28:00 2006

A study looked at the direct effects of videogames on teen brains and documents functional differences between the brains of teens who play violent games and those who play non-violent games. This Newsweek article interviews the researcher behind the study, Dr. Vincent P. Mathews, professor of radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
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Teaching with Games

Fri May 26 03:33:00 2006

Russell Hunter sent me a link to this article about using games in the classroom. As I mentioned earlier, this is an issue that I've grown a little concerned about. In the article David McDivitt, a high school teacher from Indiana, talks about a controlled experiment he did with his 20th century history class. 65 students were taught a subject (status of Europe prior to WWII) using classroom discussions and video games and 45 were taught the same subject using traditional methods including a textbook and classroom discussions. All were given test before and after the week-long experiment. The
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Social Computing Symposium

Wed May 10 13:35:00 2006

Ross Mayfield is blogging the Social Computing Symposium. There a lot of information about games and their application and social impact. Good stuff, given my questions about the space.
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Clueless in SimLand

Mon May 8 13:42:00 2006

I was listening to Edward Castronova's PopTech! presentation (Gold From Thin Air: The Economy of Virtual Worlds) today and had a scary thought. I've never been into video games, but as I listen to presentation's like Ed's, I always feel like I'm missing something. Not the fun and adventure, but that the world is moving to a new place and I'm not following. I've always prided myself on staying up with technology and not being stuck in the last decade, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe there's this whole world out there that I'm conveniently ignoring. For example,
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