In the “Escape” section of today’s New York Times, there was an article about Second Life. The piece starts off with a description of an angry Ben Folds getting drunk on stage, shooting laser beams from his eyes, then attacking the audience with a light saber. The author’s avatar, Urge Gainsbourg (wtf?), “vacations” in Second Life for the weekend, staying in an online version of Starwood Hotel’s new Aloft hotel (which will appear in the real world in 2008). According to Matt Gross, “Aloft’s arrival- on a digital tropical island somewhere in a vast virtual ocean- may itself signal the beginning of Second Life as a casual travel destination.”

Ken Perlin's essay discusses the differences between characters in media such a film and in video games. He claims that in film and books, the emotions of the character are real enough that we can buy into the avatar living in the real world and thus buy his/her story better. He goes on to state that in video games, this is not the case. The computer generated avatars are too static and don't have the capabilities to act on their own in a realistic manner. Unfortunately I would have to agree with him.

This summer, I worked as a game designer on a future title scheduled to release next year.

Janet Murray returns to us to present yet another wonderful piece on the nature of the game vs. puzzle vs. story. She does a very good job of separating these three terms, but as she is using them in reference to everything from scrabble to myst, I wasn't exactly sure if she was addressing all forms of games, or computer games in general. Anyway, I have always seen the narrative computer game as a combination of those three terms. One of the responses to her on pg. 10, declaires that books and films have already established themselves as a perfect medium for story telling, "so if it ain't broke, why fix it?". This got my attention, as in my opinion, the video game can not only tell just as good a story as any other medium using story, but it can incoprorate puzzle and game to enhance the experience.

While reading Mark Zimmerman's article on the 4 Naughties, I couldn't help but wonder where I'd heard his name before. So, like any good student of my generation, I visited my friend Wiki. Wiki told me that Mr. Zimmerman is the creator of SISSYFIGHT, an online game that I've actually played before (encouraged by my mother, who says that the game designers in her office play it all day on their breaks).

Anyhow, I encourage everyone to play it.
www.sissyfight.com

The "narrative" aspect of this game is simple. You are children on a playground. The point is to "take down" the self-esteem levels of other children by "teasing", "grabbing", or "scratching". You can retaliate by "cowering" or "telling", which gets everyone (who did something bad) in trouble.

Since we're on the subject of digital gaming, check out THE CONTENDER!!!
It's by Casio, "Where Miracles Never Cease."

We've come a long way, baby.

As weird as it seems, I guess this sort of calculator/game combination was a predecessor of the multi-function technologies we have today (i.e. iPods that store music yet have calculators and games on them; phones that double as cameras, alarm clocks, and calendars; etc.)

P.S. This is an ad for a calculator from the 80's, found on