Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Interview With Eitan Glinert - Accessibility in Games

During the conference I recorded a couple of interviews, so besides the keynotes I got to hang out with some cool people and talk games. One of those cool people was (well is, I am sure he is still cool...) Eitan Glinert. Eitan and others have been working on a game that is equally playable for sighted and visually impaired people. Having low vision myself, this game is pretty interesting to me. The game is called Audiodyssey, it is available now as a free download, check it out.

He is also getting going on a startup in May called Fire Hose VIdeo Games, so if you need a job in May or so, perhaps you should contact Eitan....

Music in this episode is from Uncle Seth, (whose bass player I hung out with at the Toronto Podcast Meetup on Thursday, November 15) and The Mark Harold Band.

Listen Now.

Friday, November 16, 2007

T6 Flashback 12 - Mia Consalvo

I did not get a chance to go to Mia's talk yesterday, as I was off to the Toronto Podcast Meetup (which was cool BTW, thanks to Scarborough Dude, John Meadows, Mark Blevis et al). However, I interviewed Mia on T6, episode 52, so I thought I would post that.

Enjoy.

John Lester's Keynote

John Lester spoke yesterday at lunch (so you will hear some plates etc in the background...)

John is Linden Lab's Boston Operations Director and Academic Program Manager, oh and his SL name is Pathfinder Linden.

His talk was a lot of fun, check it out.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Constance Steinkuehler's Keynote

Constance Steinkuehler opened the show today, WOW. (I mean WOW both as like 'wow' and the gaming way....).

It turns out the playing MMO RPGs helps kids with literacy and scientific reasoning!

Enjoy the talk

Share Your Game Stories

Diane Devenyi, an MA student in education at York is distributing flyers around the conference. I just interviewed her for T6, and it sounds like a cool project. Basically she is trying to put a book together on the 'Chicken Soup' model.

Do you have game stories? Has gaming changed you? Has it changed your friends? Let Diane know at fearlessmaster@hotmail.com.

Don't forget to tag your posts and photos...

Well I gave a few introductory remarks at FuturePlay, asking everyone to tag their posts and photos. (Sadly I forgot my camera cable...).

Listen Now

Monday, November 12, 2007

Let's Make FutrePlay More Social

FuturePlay is a great event, and I know I always have a great time meeting new people, be they academics or industry types. One of the greatest things about FP (and frankly any other conference) is the social part. You meet new people, you end up going for a beer or a coffee, you go for dinner, or you just hang out between sessions.

OK, so it is social too, let's use this whole new fangled web 2.0 to be more social. How you might ask.. Well, I have learned a few things from some buddies of mine at events like Podcasters Across Borders, Podcamps, Barcamps etc. First off we have twitter. Let's twitter where we are going for a beer, where we are hanging out, or even just simple things like 'I want to go for dinner in Chinatown, anyone interested?' On twitter I am dbrodbeck So we can track tweets from each other, why don't we put FP07 at the start of each post?

I have the same name on Pownce (which has the added bonus of file sharing and friends lists).

We have a facebook group (two actually..) so feel free to post on the wall there or start some threads.

Another cool thing to do is to upload your pics to flickr and your vids to youtube. Please add the tag FuturePlay2007 to all pictures and videos from the conference. Oh yeah, if you are blogging or podcasting from the conference or about it, add that same tag.

As it has been said before, welcome to the social, and let's have a great conference.

T6 Flashback 11 - Clint Hocking Keynote from 2006

As promised, here is Clint Hocking's keynote from FuturePlay 2006. This should give you a taste of what we have had in the past at FP.

Clint talked about getting a demo beyond the Male 18-34 bracket, there are a lot of other humans out there that could get entertained, and perhaps more from video games.

(As a side note, I think I was the only one in the room that did not fall for the 'look under your chair for you 3D glasses' bit).

Listen and enjoy

Paper Sessions - An Example

Now we have keynotes (I will post one of them later today) at FuturePlay each year and then there are the paper sessions. I recorded some guy presenting a paper on experimental psychology and game design last year in London at FuturePlay 2006.

This talk should give you a good feel for the paper sessions.

If you check this dude's blog you can get the paper and the powerpoint slides....

Listen Now.

Friday, November 9, 2007

T6 Flashback 10 - Interview with CLint Hocking of Ubisoft

Episode 41 of T6 is flashback number 10.

From FuturePlay 2006 an interview with Clint Hocking. Clint has been working for Ubisoft in Montréal for five years. Most recently he worked as scriptwriter, lead level designer and creative director on SPLINTER CELL: CHAOS THEORY. Before games he worked in the web industry and experimented with independent filmmaking while earning a masters’ degree in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. He lives happily in Montréal with his fiancé and his dog.

Clint and I talked about the future of game design and the fact that games need not just be fun, they could also be what Clint calls 'engaging'. There is a whole other market out there beyond the 18-34 year old males.

Clint is working on a project currently for Ubisoft, but I could not get it out of him. Perhaps Sam Fisher knows....

Music in this episode from The Rantings of EVA and Battery Life.

Listen and enjoy....

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

50 Bucks off Your Registration, and a 30 Dollar Gift Certificate (and that is in Canadian Money...)

OK, this just came across the tubes to my email....

The Future Play Conference 2007, November 15-17, at the Novotel in Toronto, Ontario, is just a week away. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to improve your skills, expand your business, leverage academic research for game design, and network with potential partners and prospective employees.

We only have a few spots left at Future Play 2007, and we really want a full house, so help us help you (…and we’ll show you the money):

Already registered? Tell a friend, and when they register before the deadline (and type your name in student id number slot on the registration form) we’ll refund $50 of your registration fee, or give you a $30 gift card from Future Shop, or email you

a $25 electronic gift certificate from Chapters. Get five friends to register and you have some nice spending money coming your way for Christmas!

Not registered yet? Register before the deadline and we’ll refund $40 of your registration fee or email you a $25 electronic gift certificate from Chapters.

Get out of your office or cubicle and we’ll see you at Future Play! Who else will you meet? Game development experts and researchers from across Canada, the US, the UK, Sweden, Norway, and New Zealand. You’ll meet people from Microsoft, Garage Games, Groove Games, MIT, UOIT, Western, the MARS Discovery District, Carleton University, Michigan State University, Silicon Knights, Artificial Mind and Movement, and many other keen minds from in and around the gaming world.

Special note: a Pre-Conference Seminar, on November 14, geared towards game production professionals, will teach attendees about ways to improve their production processes and management skills, will allow for networking with other like-minded professionals, and will provide participants their personal copy of "The Game Production Handbook". (Sponsored by the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre). Details are on the website.

Don't miss out. Register Now (this offer expires 9 am Friday Nov 9th)! http://www.futureplay.org

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Constance Steinkuehler Keynote

As our (why do I say that, there is just me typing these things...) coverage of the upcoming Keynotes at FuturePlay 2007 continues, let's move on the talk by Constance Steinkuehler. Constance's talk can be summarized below (from an abstract of one of her papers).

"For those with a vested interest in online technologies for learning, the knowledge and skills that constitute successful participation in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) places them squarely among the most promising new digital technologies to date. In this paper, I broadly outline the qualitative results of a two and a half year cognitive ethnography of the MMO Lineage and describe the current trajectory of research we are now pursuing, based on those findings: (a) the empirical investigation of focused research questions in order to document and analyze those core practices that constitute gameplay in virtual worlds, and (b) the development of educational activities for after school clubs that capitalize on those capacities found throughout our research. This essay concludes with a reflection on the multiple relationships between games and education, highlighting the potential for such technologies to transform not only the means of education but also perhaps the goals."

This one sounds very cool, as a psychologist, and a gamer, I am not missing this one.