Constance is in Wired! š
Games Without Frontiers: How Videogames Blind Us With Science
Scott McCloud’s comic on Google’s new web browser!
This artist is great!
delicious widget broken
Maybe since delicious got updated recently…Ā I’ll look into it soon.Ā Until then, my blogroll is dead.Ā š
Update
I sent off the revised Witcher review plus a draft of a Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword review off to e-Learning yesterday, and just now I posted the French version of Dangerous Decibels for review…Ā If you want to check it out, go for it, but keep in mind it still needs to be reviewed by the peeps who did the translation.Ā š
Back in Seattle. Can’t blog. Writing papers.
So, I got back to Seattle (on the 12th) after my brother and Nancy’s wedding celebration in Berkeley (on the 10th), capping the end of a month-long trip to the Bay Area for me and a short weekend trip for Robin.
I have an ass-ton of stuff to post here but I haven’t due to lack of time.Ā I’ll try to keep this short, and I might have to add links and photos later.
1. Last week I was busy learning Illustrator and then using it to make some pretty title graphics for a French translation to the Dangerous Decibels Virtual Exhibit.
2. This past weekend, Robin’s high-school friend Liz and her boyfriend Rob were visiting.Ā They went to a wedding on Saturday while Robin and I did some house chores and caught up on some movie watching.
3. Last night Michele Knobel emailed me comments to The Witcher review I’m working on.Ā Unsurprisingly, I need to beef up the academic literature part.Ā šĀ She was kind enough to send me ideas with regards to moral development models and such from Kohlberg and Gilligan as well as some other ideas for how to talk about moral education and stuff in my review.Ā Due at end of this week if I want to make the issue deadline.Ā Otherwise it’ll wait til the December issue.
4. I’m also writing a review for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS, also for Michele’s e-Learning journal.Ā She sent me a review copy of the game, after all… I suppose I have a moral obligation to write something.Ā :pĀ Seriously though, I think it’ll be a short but good overview of how badly I suck at action games and the various causes of failures in games (poor game ui design, poor player cognitive ability, poor player physical ability, and lack of motivation) and what this means for educators/teachers who are thinking about incorporating games in the classroom.Ā What if not everyone can/will play them??Ā Due date ditto above.
5. I need to add a bit more in my paper on ethical dilemmas while being a guild leader in WoW that I’m using for the In the Game Workshop in October.Ā Due Sep 1.
6. I have only an outline for another paper that I’m writing about expertise development in World of Warcraft for the new journal Transformative Works and Cultures.Ā I figure a solid week should be enough time to write what I need to.Ā It might suck at first but I think I just need a rough draft at this point.Ā Due Sep 1, also.
Games Learning Society 4.0 webcasts available
This is probably like a week old… but I just checked and the videos of the various presentations are up.
Two very good ones to check out are Jullian Dibbel’s presentation on griefers and their benefits to society and Lisa Nakamura’s talk on how race-but-not-race matters with our hate on gold farmers.
Check out all the videos at http://hosted.mediasite.com/hosted4/Catalog/?cid=b8aa7b8a-fac1-4e7b-80cb-9551d26a414c
All quiet on the western front…
I haven’t been posting much lately since I’ve been busy at a new temporary month-long job down here in sunny California.
Been meeting a ton of people and making new friends, as well as visiting my mom (my dad is in China right now), brother, sister, and high school friends.
Eating some good food:
- Pizz’a Chicago — mmm good deep-dish!
- that place on El Camino that used to be Senor Taco — sopas con carnitas!
- Dynasty for dim sum — pretty good…
- In-N-Out — double-double animal style
- some new Szichuan place for really red broth beef noodle soup, scallops, etc.
- quite good catered breakfasts and lunches at the job, too!
Playing some games:
- Ra — Aaron doesn’t like this game.Ā That’s okay because it was just me and Chris and new friend Jessica.Ā š
- Carcassonne — Jessica kicked Chris and my asses.
- Fury of Dracula — the 1987 version.Ā Dracula was totally pwned.
- Hearts — fun, old school game
- D&D 4th Ed. — really brief intro to combat pretty much through a one-shot adventure run by Chris.Ā Not entirely sure how I feel about it now, as each class doesn’t seem as distinct as in 3.5, but there’s definitely more balance I think.
- dodgeball at Jump Sky High — hella tiring!Ā I’ve gone before so I was prepared but damn.
Gonna try to meet up with Chris, Grey, and SG again this weekend to play Chris’s new game Pillars of the Earth and maybe War of the Ring or something.
I lead the International Christian Coalition now!
Check out what I found when I googled my own name! š
PowerMark Comics – Captain Mark Chen – BiblicalStrategy.com
Captain Mark Chen, also called PowerMark, is a professional soldier who joined the
Alliance at age 17. He became the youngest officer ever to lead an Alpha force unit
in the ongoing battle against Leviathan, a force of evil led by the Diviner whoās goal
is to establish a new world, one that will be free from individual thought or expression.Protecting an orphanage from an attack by Leviathan, he was wounded in combat.
Presently, Mark has been commissioned by the International Christian Coalition (I.C.
C.) to lead a mission to create Virtual Reality Episodes (VRE) of the stories of the
Bible. With his crew of kids and some really cool gadgets, PowerMark leads one of
the most important missions everā¦drawing youth back to faith in God and His Word!
Blogs that covered Games Learning Society 4.0 (GLS 2008)
David Gagnon’s blog
I met David while sitting in a session and noticed he was live-blogging. He’s a student at Madison. He showed me the augmented reality game they created for the conference where people can use their phones to do a walking tour of Madison, looking for clues, etc. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to try it out, it started pouring rain… like really, really pouring rain with thunder and shit. 8o
edurealms.com – Lucas Gillispie
Good coverage of the sessions he went to. I met Lucas (and a ton of others) at the airport on the way out from Madison (I guess I should be thankful that my original flight was canceled). He’s a Dark Age of Camelot veteran and it was cool hearing about his experiences going back to that game after getting burned out with WoW. š
Easily Distracted – Tim Burke
A fellow guildie who I met during the LAN party.Ā Turns out he had to take off early due to a family medical emergency.Ā Everything is good now, thankfully.Ā Go check out his blog.Ā He’s smart.
The Education Business Blog – Lee Wilson
Lee’s cool and plays WoW!Ā š
Also, check out some flickr photos tagged with gls2008
And finally, if you know of others I’ve missed, email me or leave a comment!