"My Civ4 mod (a directed research with Peter Brinson) appeared at a conference "Games for Change" and a workshop "Logic and the Simulation of Interaction and Reasoning." Thank you, Tracy, for inviting me to demo at Games for Change. It's refreshing to meet fellow humanitarian developers!
About the mod: The original Civilization IV rewards imperialism through scoring the glory of the empire. I reprogrammed the game to score the health and happiness of the citizens. By adapting John Broome's extended quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and responding to Derek Parfit's repugnant conclusions, I designed an ethical calculus that rewards restraint, diplomacy and art in Civilization IV. See the presentation and play the mod." (USC IMD)
Brenda Brathwaite's Train is a tabletop game, one of six that the veteran designer is pursuing in a series on difficult subjects.
Train's game surface is a window, some panes broken, with additional broken glass scattered atop the surface of the play area. Three railway tracks extend at oblique angles across the width of the window.
The object of the game is to load yellow people tokens into boxcars and to move them from one end of the track to the other. Players roll dice to add passengers and move trains forward, and they draw cards to execute other actions, such as switching tracks, damaging a train, and derailing. Terminus cards on each track reveal each train's destination at the end of the game: Auschwitz, or another Nazi concentration camp. (Gamasutra/Ian Bogost)
I agree with Vivian Sobchack that "within the dominant cultural and techno-logic of the electronic there are those out there who prefer the simulated body and a virtual world..." and that these people are, well, basically nuts. The nanotech immortality fantasies of Ray Kurzweil et al notwithstanding, I think this perspective is increasingly a minority one, and I can't accept that there are many serious people out there who would argue for a completely disembodied, brain-in-a-vat/brain-in-the-machine cyberfuture. Indeed, I believe such thoughts basically emerge from an early wave of naive techno-utopianism and catastrophe theory, and have been propagated largely via non-technical and somewhat dim-witted (vaguely new age, often times stoner burnout) quarters. It all smacks of mediocre 50s sci-fi and its derivatives in Scientology and other tech/alien cult manifestations, and yet Sobchack talks about it as if this motive is at the dark heart of our culture. 
At the time of her writing, the notion that we (or at least those of us who will be able to afford it) are all going to live our futures through our brainstems in an all-encompassing, "jacked-in" Virtual Reality was at its zenith, particularly in popular culture. The fear was that people would become so wrapped up in their disembodied virtual existences (foisted upon them by their robot overlords) that they would fail to notice that the were, phenomenologically speaking, sitting in a tub of goo far away from the site of their action. But while the Matrix films provided the culture with an outlet for various anxieties about technology, identity and control, they were, at bottom, kind of vacant, semi-obvious entertainments that recycled ideas and story figures that have been around since the 50s. Their cause was putatively a noble one, but the films themselves were little more than the pop finales to the initial gasps of fear and anxiety that accompanied the birth of "the electronic."“Class is fundamentally meaningless,” says Lyotard. However, the premise of patriarchial narrative states that consensus is a product of the collective unconscious, but only if Baudrillard’s model of the preconceptualist paradigm of reality is valid. Derrida promotes the use of textual deappropriation to analyse and read society.
If one examines patriarchial narrative, one is faced with a choice: either reject social realism or conclude that the goal of the artist is deconstruction.
Flyar: Augmented Reality Twitter Visualization App from YDreams on Vimeo.
Courtney Love plans to take legal action over the representation of her late husband in Guitar Hero 5. Love launched a Twitter tirade, insisting that she never agreed to Kurt Cobain's final appearance in the video game – let alone the functionality that lets him lip-sync to Bon Jovi. "[I] never signed off on the avatar, let alone this fucking feature!" she wrote. "There's been four breaches of a very strict contract."
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).
The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs. (arduino.cc)
The discussion about the potential risks of academic engagement with/on YouTube got me thinking about hoaxes, viral marketing and astroturfing. Maybe the most radical threat that YouTube poses isn't the way it degrades certain forms of discourse, but rather how it enmeshes all communications -- genuine or not -- within a populist Everyman vernacular, the perfect disguise for the praxis of sales...(YouTube: Juhasz Final Video)
Getting Groggy is a scene.
Getting Groggy begins when the player is on the bed for the fourth turn. Getting Groggy ends when the player is on the bed for the tenth turn.
When Getting Groggy begins:
say "[if the player is unenlightened]You're getting groggy. The drugs are making you feel like you're being buried in sand.[end if]".
When Getting Groggy ends:
say "[if the player is unenlightened]As much as you try to resist their effects, the drugs finally overwhelm you.[end if]";
if the player is unenlightened, try going to sleep.
Sleep Study Room is a room. "[if unvisited]YOU'RE NOT SURE WHY YOU DID THIS. You told your friends it was the eight grand the STIFLE foundation was offering as remuneration, but now, as the drugs flood into your system, something about that explanation doesn't ring true. Maybe it was what Jean said on the day you broke up, that you'd had so much trouble facing things that you'd put off dealing with the problems that might have saved your relationship, or if not that, at least ended it sooner, before the damage was done. [paragraph break]So maybe that was why you came here. To prove something to yourself. But if it was your courage you wanted to test, why not go skydiving or sign up for that humanitarian program you heard about, the refugee camp thing, the one where a quarter of the volunteers ended up quitting after less than a month? Or even better, why not just call Jean? [paragraph break]You can find no answers to these existential questions, no escape from the recursivity of your overanalytical and hypervigilant mind. But perhaps this 'treatment,' whatever it is, is just what you need to break the impasse. After all, the doctor said it was supposed to be a kind of therapy. 'Electrostatic dream therapy,' he called it. 'If this round of tests works out the way we think it will, it's going to revolutionize psychiatry,' he'd told you when you called about the Craigslist ad. So maybe you weren't being careless at all, signing up to be a guinea pig for this thing. Maybe this was your destiny, your way out of a lifetime of impossible-to-pin-down dysfunction. The thought gives you strength.[paragraph break][end if]The sleep study room is a rather bland hospital room with a single padded door to the south. An EEG machine sits in the corner next to the bed. A bundle of wires leads down from the bed and through a hole in the wall. There's a mirror on the east wall that you suspect is actually a window.[if unvisited][paragraph break]This is getting creepy. Maybe this was all a mistake.[end if]".
The bed is in the sleep study room. It is fixed in place and scenery. The description of the bed is "It's a typical hospital bed. Room enough for one." The player is on the bed.
The player wears an EEG cap. The description of the EEG cap is "[if the player wears the eeg cap]You examine the cap by looking at your reflection in the mirror. [end if]Hundreds of tiny wires are attached to a matrix of electrodes embedded in the cap. The wires collect into a bundle which is attached to the EEG machine."
In the sleep study room is a mirror. The mirror is fixed in place and scenery. The description of the mirror is "[if the player is wearing the eeg cap]You look at yourself in the mirror. The tangle of wires coming off your EEG cap makes you look like a futuristic Medusa.[otherwise]The mirror dimly reflects your image. If you squint, you can barely make out the outlines of a small room on the other side of the glass.[end if]".
Your reflection is in the mirror. The description of the reflection is "[if the player is wearing the eeg cap]The tangle of wires coming off your EEG cap makes you look like a futuristic Medusa.[otherwise]The mirror dimly reflects your image.[end if][if the player is enlightened][paragraph break]It strikes you that you look older somehow... Where did all those gray hairs come from? Maybe it's true what they say about nightmares.[end if]".
The EEG machine is in the sleep study room. It is fixed in place and scenery. The description of the EEG machine is "[one of]The EEG machine tracks your brain's alpha waves. You notice that it spikes whenever you think about Jean.[or]A standard-issue EEG machine. The more anxious you get, the more it responds.[or]The logo on the EEG machine indicates that it is manufactured by Meardrouy, Inc.[or]You see nothing else remarkable about the EEG machine.[or]The same old EEG machine, exactly as it always was.[stopping]".
The sleep technician is a woman in the sleep study room. The description of the sleep technician is "[one of]The sleep technician, an attractive woman in her late 20s, takes notes as she monitors the EEG and triple-checks the wires attached to your head.[or]The sleep technician smiles as she notices you looking at her, then resumes her work.[or]There's not much else to notice about the sleep technician.[stopping]".
Understand "get out of bed" or "get up" or "leave bed" as GettingUp.
GettingUp is an action applying to nothing.
Carry out GettingUp:
try getting off the bed.
Understand "go to sleep" or "sleep" or "fall asleep" or "relax" as going to sleep.
Instead of sleeping when the player is on the bed:
try going to sleep.
Going to sleep is an action applying to nothing.
After asking about Jean the sleep technician:
say "[one of]She presses a button on the EEG unit and writes down another note.[or][stopping]".
After asking the sleep technician about something:
say "The sleep tech [one of]smiles softly[or]clears her throat[or]brushes back her hair[or]sighs[or]scrawls down another note[or]makes an adjustment to your EEG cap[or]bats her eyes[in random order] and [one of]asks, 'Are you feeling the drugs now?'[or]says, 'That's something you'll have to ask the doctor.'[or]says, 'Now's not the time for talking.'[or]wistfully wonders aloud: 'Why do I do this job?'[or]says nothing.[in random order]".
Check going to sleep:
if the player is not on the bed, say "You try to sleep, but you can't. Maybe that's because you're already slumbering." instead;
if the player carries a totem, say "The drugs must have worn off. You feel much too alert to fall back asleep." instead.
Carry out going to sleep:
say "You drift off to the near-inaudible whirr of the EEG machine. As your eyes flicker shut, you see the sleep technician bending over you, a quizzical, almost bemused expression forming on her face...[paragraph break]";
move the player to Origin Point;
remove the EEG cap from play;
now the player carries the flashlight;
remove the sleep technician from play;
now the time of day is 4:00 AM.
Instead of getting off the bed when the player is unenlightened:
if the player does not carry a totem, say "[one of]The sleep study technician gently pushes you back onto the bed.[paragraph break]'If you left now, you'd just pass out somewhere outside. Don't fight the medication,' she says. 'Just relax.'[or]You try to get up, but the drugs are kicking in ever more strongly now. You can barely lift your head, let alone your entire body.[or]You can't.[or]The nurse smiles quizzically. 'Just go to sleep now. It will all be over soon.'[or]You muster up a second wind, despite the increasing paralysis caused by the drugs. You manage to get up onto your elbows, but that's as far as you can go.[cycling]".
Instead of getting off the bed for the sixth time:
say "You expend your last bit of energy trying once again to get out of bed. But the drugs have worked their magic, and you are helpless to resist them.[paragraph break]";
try going to sleep.
A person can be strapped down or free. A person is usually free.
Instead of taking off the EEG cap:
if the player does not carry a totem,
say "As you groggily try to remove your EEG cap, the sleep technician presses a button on a pager-like device she carries in her pocket. Moments later, two burly orderlies enter the room and strap you down.[paragraph break]The sleep technician shakes her head and smiles at you as the orderlies depart. 'Don't be alarmed. Sometimes the drugs make you have paranoid thoughts. It will be better this way,' she says. 'Now just relax...'";
now the player is strapped down.
Instead of taking off the EEG cap when the player is strapped down:
say "Your arms are now strapped firmly to the bed, making it impossible for you to reach up and remove the EEG cap.".
Instead of getting off the bed when the player is strapped down:
say "[one of]Unfortunately, you are now strapped to the bed and can't move at all.[or]Not happening.[or]The straps are too tight for you to move.[or]You can't.[stopping]".
The sleep technician carries a clipboard, a pen, and a pager.
The padded door is a door. The padded door is south of the sleep study room and north of the Purple Hallway.
Instead of opening the padded door when the player is on the bed:
say "You need to get out of bed first."
The Purple Hallway is a room. The description of the Purple Hallway is "The hallway south of the sleep study room glows with purple luminescence. It is very unusual for a hospital hallway, and stretches for what seems like a hundred yards. At the north end is a heavy steel door. [if unvisited]For the life of you, you can't remember coming down this hallway when you arrived. Indeed, you can't remember much about what happened before you got here. You wonder if you drove or took the bus. If you drove, you're in trouble, because you can't remember where you parked.[paragraph break]A familiar person stands near the door at the far end of the hallway.[end if]"
The steel door is a door. The steel door is south of the Purple Hallway and north of the Gelatin Orb.
Instead of opening the steel door:
say "As you open the door, your mind reels. Suddenly, you find yourself propelled through what feels like a thick gelatinous goo. Your vision blurs. Something SNAPS--";
move the player to the Crystal Cavern.
Torrent Raiders is a dynamic network visualization realized through the idioms and aesthetics of arcade-style video games. Driven in real-time by the activity of bit torrent swarms, Torrent Raiders takes place on the ad-hoc networks created by bit torrent users. Torrent Raiders playfully addresses issues of domestic surveillance and intellectual property by putting players in the role of a mercenary copyright enforcer, encouraging them to capture evidence against peers on torrents in order to collect bounties. Players assist in the distributed surveillance of these torrent swarms, sending information to a central server where it will be used to drive further visualizations of this information. As a dynamic visualization exploring privacy, piracy and surveillance, Torrent Raiders challenges Internet users, content pirates and government spooks to examine their allegiances and mistrust their computer connections. (torrentraiders)
Among the oddest but most telling of the cultural changes accompanying the computer revolution is the one that emerges out of the late I960s social movements, in which a significant segment of youthful intelligentsia embraced the computer as a revolutionary technology that might transform the world along some of the same lines suggested by the counterculture in general (see Turner 2006 for an especially pointed history). In retrospect we can see that this has to be one of the most successful instances of co-optation in the history of social movements; for despite their appearance of transformative power, it is the ability of the computer to expand the feeling and fact of mastery that is most compelling about it. Much like their extended experiments with the profoundly capitalist medium of rock music and profoundly self-gratifying mind-altering substances-visible especially as the supposedly cognitively liberating psychedelic substances gave way to destructive and strongly isolating substances like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin-the counterculture was unable to escape the capitalist and hierarchical strand of dominant American culture it thought itself to be resisting. In the end, this revolution became about exactly the individualistic power it said it was resisting, in no small part via the embracing of a technology that wears its individualist expansionism on its sleeve. (153)
