Ludosophy
Categories: News, Industry
[Login...] [Register...]
This blog is closed since June 30th, 2009, and my website has undergone extensive changes since April 5th, 2010. You may browse the archived posts here, or go back to le-ludophile.com
03/07/09
12:40:04 
The End of the Line
Categories: News, 145 wordsSend feedback •This blog is going to take a break. Until further notice, I will be blogging my game studies musings and info over at the Technoculture, Art and Games blog @ http://www.tag.hexagram.ca/?page_id=219. Please adjust your bookmarks accordingly. Also, this may be the occasion to visit and/or sign up at the RELIQ (Réseau d'Études Ludologiques Interdisciplinaire du Québec) (http://grou.ps/relq), where my postings will be aggregated along with many other game studies blogs.
As a tentative last post for a long while, I'll simply announce that my 8-Bit Metal album RE:Discoveries has been remastered and is now available for download. Just head to the Melomania section to listen to the songs or download the thing. Happy gaming and "See you next mission", as the blonde bounty hunter from one of my favorite franchises would say.
Permalink
15/05/09
14:39:35
The Duke Got Nuked (for real!)
Categories: News, 138 wordsSend feedback •Well, what a disappointment. 3D Realms has been closed down, which means that all development on Duke Nukem Forever has been halted...forever. Not that there was any sort of sustained development effort going around, from what I gather; but still, a single bored guy's extended coffee breaks, when totalled over the course of twelve years, could have amounted to something. I was expecting a DaiKatana. Or at least something unremarkable. But no, nothing. Well, at least my song based on Duke Nukem Forever just took on a whole new meaning. I may be the only person to have written a song about a game that doesn't exist. Or does it not exist? Is there not an imagined game floating around in our heads, of something ultra-cheesy, Dukey to the extreme, with aliens and imagined weapons and levels?
10/03/09
05:12:53
Découverte, Radio-Canada, 15 mars: Cyberdépendance
Categories: News, 397 words3 feedbacks •J'ai une opinion assez haute de Découverte en général. Je suis par contre plutôt inquiet du reportage qui nous sera proposé dimanche prochain, sur entre autres "la cyberdépendance". Phénomène intéressant qu'il convient tout-à-fait de traiter, d'ailleurs. Là ou mes orteils se raidissent, c'est lorsque j'entends dans la publicité pour le reportage, après avoir vu des images de Facebook, de poker en ligne ou d'autres sites web, "rien cependant n'égale les jeux en ligne massivement multijoueurs. Ils s'appellent World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, ...". Qu'on vulgarise la problématique de la dépendance aux jeux en ligne, je veux bien. Mais qu'on mette Call of Duty avec WoW? Le problème de dépendance sera t-il vraiment le même entre ces jeux de genres bien différents? J'ai soudainement peur d'entendre parler de dépendance au poker en ligne et que ce soit mis sur le même pied que la dépendance à World of Warcraft, ou qu'on nous montre des images de violence hors-contexte tirées d'un FPS pour horrifier le téléspectateur.
J'espère seulement que Découverte ne va pas faire un Fifth Estate d'elle-même... (tel que dénoncé ici, ici et là, entre autres...)
MISE À JOUR: J'ai vu le reportage hier. Ouf! Ma confiance en Découverte est réitérée. On a précisé que plus que le jeu lui-même, c'est la création d'un réseau social et des pairs qu'on finit par "ne pas vouloir laisser tomber" qui serait à l'origine de la dépendance; on a aussi établi que la dépendance ne se mesure pas seulement en nombre d'heures passées à jouer mais aussi dans le rapport entretenu avec le jeu. Enfin, une chercheure en psychologie à l'UQÀM a aussi mentionné que le seul protocole de recherche dont on disposait présentement était un copié-collé de celui du jeu pathologique - clairement inadéquat et présenté comme tel dans le reportage puisque la notion de gain présente dans les jeux de hasard n'a pas d'équivalent réel dans les jeux en ligne. Bref, je tire mon chapeau à l'équipe qui a réalisé ce reportage. Enfin, du journalisme de qualité qui couvre le monde du jeu vidéo de façon honnête et sérieuse. À une ère nouvelle...santé!
09/03/09
08:04:44
Programme & "After Dark"
Categories: Genres, News, Game Studies, 139 wordsSend feedback •Une courte mise à jour bilingue pour vous mentionner la mise en ligne du programme pour le colloque Penser après la tombée de la nuit: Bienvenue dans le monde des jeux vidéo d'horreur. Vous trouverez par ailleurs sur le site la chanson thème officielle du colloque, appelée "After Dark", avec voix et paroles gracieuseté de l'auteur. Quelqu'un sait combien de colloques académiques ont eu leur propre chanson thème?
---
A quick bilingual update to let you all know that the conference programme for the Thinking After Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Games conference has been put online. Also, there's a nifty official conference theme song available, titled "After Dark", with vocals and lyrics by yours truly. Now a quick question: how many academic conferences have had their own theme song before?
12/11/08
06:24:02
CFP: International Conference on Horror Video Games
Categories: News, Game Studies, 778 words1 feedback •This call for papers has been around the web quite a lot since we sent it out, but yours truly finally updates his blog to include it. As I am part of the organizing committee, let me also address a few questions we received so far. Think of it as an unofficial FAQ:
1) Yes, we will accept and expect proposals from people in the industry, not just academics.
2) There is no discipline restrictions, we seek an interdisciplinary conference focused on a given object (horror video games). Psychology, anthropology, sociology, biology, film studies, art history, literature, media studies, game design, architecture, computer science, physics or mathematics even, and any other discipline I did not think of, are all welcome to apply.
3) The conference being bilingual means we accept proposals and communications that are either in English or French. It does not mean that people have to write/speak/translate in both languages.-----
Thinking After Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games
Montreal, April 23-25, 2009The research group Ludiciné from the University of Montreal, in collaboration with the Research Group on the Creation and Formation of Cinematographic and Theatrical Institutions (GRAFICS) from the University of Montreal and the NT2 Laboratory on Hypermedia Art and Literature from the University of Quebec in Montreal, solicits your
proposals for the bilingual (French/English) international conference titled «Thinking after Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games». This conference will be held in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) from April 23 to 25, 2009.Call for papers
As fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind (Lovecraft), human beings have always taken a malicious pleasure in frightening themselves. If literature and cinema were and still represent good means for the expression of horror, nowadays, the experience of fear is as intense in video games.
While academia has been studying horrific literature and films for a few decades, such an interest for the videoludic side of horror has not, until now, showed up. Yet, since the cinematic staging of fear in Alone in the Dark in 1992, the Survival Horror has become a prolific genre offering a wide selection of significant games such as the Resident
Evil, Silent Hill and Fatal Frame series. Because it is at the crossroads of diverse cultural heritages and the latest technological developments, and because it exhibits the ins and outs of the matrix that governs all but a few games (spatial navigation and survival), horror video games require a deeper study.This international conference wishes to study horror video games (not necessarily labeled survival horror) from an eclectic range of critical and theoretical perspectives. It aims to fill a gap in game studies between general theory and analysis of particular genres and games.
Possible Topics
Here are some examples of relevant themes we wish to explore in this conference:Historical approach
- Origins and history of horror video games
- Impact of the technological evolution on horror video gamesTheoretical approach
- Simulation of horror, fear, terror
- Narratives and themes of horror video gamesTransmedial approach
- Transmedial study of horror video games (Games/Films/Literature)
- Remediation in films, literature and video gamesSocio-cultural approach
- Transnational analysis of horror video games (United States/Japan)
- Social and cultural meanings of horror video games
- Horror video games and censorshipAnalytical approach
- Aesthetics of horror video games (lighting, sound, editing, 1st/3rd person perspective)
- Study of specific games or series (Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, etc.)The organizing committee remains open to proposals that respect the general spirit of this call for papers.
Please submit your proposals no later than January 15, 2009 at the following e-mail address: [thinking.after.dark@ca.inter.net]. Acceptance and rejection notifications will be sent by the beginning of February.
Your proposal must include:
1. The title of your paper and an abstract (no more that 500 words).
2. Your academic status, your institutional affiliation, your department and your contact information (mailing address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address)
3. A short biography underlining your work related to the themes of the conference (no more than 250 words).A selection of papers will be published in a special issue of Loading…, the journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association.
For further information, please visit our website: [http://conference2009.ludicine.ca].
Organizing committee:
Bernard Perron, Conference Head, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Film Studies, University of Montreal
Martin Picard, coordinator, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal
Richard Bégin, Invited Professor in Film Studies, Literatures Departement, Laval University.
Carl Therrien, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal
Dominic Arsenault, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal
Guillaume Roux-Girard, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal
29/10/08
09:43:09
Debunking misinformative studies
Categories: News, 1151 words1 feedback •I direct your attention this news item, which you may or not read: http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/games/story.html?id=9be7abe4-67ec-4820-bdc0-c02e78215326
It's that time again when it's time to debunk a newspaper article claiming that a study that claims to debunk myths on gamers indeed does! I'm sorry for the sentence structure. Just preparing your brain for the mental gymnastics that are at work in this classic case of legitimization and justification via unsound means. Let me start by saying that I have not read the study, as most people won't and will only have access to it by the filter of the newspaper article I am quoting. I think this is another of those studies that over-generalizes the concept of what a "gamer" is. According to the wording they provided, they identify someone as a gamer if they have "actively played video games within the past month". "Video games" here includes Solitaire, Minesweeper, Bejeweled, free flash games like card-matching or poker. Or Sudoku on a DS or iPhone.The average age of a gamer is 40, and half are women.
I wonder how they got these figures. 40, average age? Did they put aside all kids because they were too far from the median (écart-type in french, not sure what it's called in english)? Once again, this shouldn't be confused with the "gamers" that play Gears of War, Call of Duty, WoW, etc. An accountant that plays 5 mins of Solitaire during his coffee break is registered as a "gamer" here ("having actively played video games in the last month"). The average is more understandable now, as is the proportion of gamers: there is bound to be a link between people working with computers, in desk jobs, etc., and being a "gamer" as people working in factories or such wouldn't have computers on which to play Minesweeper during their break. I'm pretty sure women make up half of this workforce, and that there's enough seniors in this position to counterbalance the "young gamer". Mind you, the criterion of "having played video games as in minesweeper/solitaire/bejeweled actively in the last month" is just about the same as a general study of the population, so an average of 40 y. old and half of females seems about right. (Median age of Canadian population, 2006 census: 39.5 years; gender: 49% male, 51% female)
More than 82% play video games an average of 7.1 hours each week.
Now this is more surprising. I'm inclined to believe there are actually parents that play along with their children (you can rack up 4-5 hours during the week-end), and solitaire or minesweeper 10 minutes each day at work during a break or late in the evening can amount to an additional hour (or two or more if you play at work and also on evenings while dinner's cooking, for instance). Out of this number must be a small core of "real" gamers, teenagers that play video games about 20-30 hours a week and rack up the average. (I wonder if they excluded them as being outside the écart-type?) and the 5-10-15% of WoW players, notorious for putting in lots of hours per week. (I'm suspecting they count Second Life as a game too. And if they do, then where's the line drawn? Do chatrooms without 3D graphics and avatars count?)
The U.S. study also found that gamers who are young and single are far more social than their non-gaming counterparts.
Single gamers are twice as likely to go out on a date in any given month. They are also nine per cent more likely to go out with their friends than people who do not play video games.
In addition, gamers are 11% more likely to play sports than non-gamers and spend the same amount of time per week reading books as those who don’t play video games.Now, we know what the Canadian study used as a basis for defining "gamers", but not the U.S. one. I'll suppose they also mean "someone who has actively played video games in the last month". If that is the case, and if indeed this demographic represents 50% of the population, then what this really means is that half of the population is more likely to go on dates or see their friends or play sports than the other half. Hrm. Is there really a link somewhere in there? I'm pretty sure we could find that "young and single adults who are taller than the majority of the population" (which really means the taller 49%) are more likely to do some 3 things in particular than the remaining 51%, be it go to the movies, take the bus, buy their groceries in bigger bags, eat lunch at 12:00 or 11:00, etc.
While their social lives seem to soar above their Xbox-less peers, gamers also make more money than those who do not play video games, the study found. According to the IGN study, the average income of a gaming household in the U.S. is $79,000, compared to $55,000 for those households that do not play.
Here's the kicker! Assuming what they call gamers, like in the Canadian study, is "someone who actively played video games in the past month", that is far - very far - from meaning they have bought a game console. I'd wager at least 50% of the found "gamers" are "PC gamers" or "mobile phone gamers" because Solitaire, Minesweeper are there. "Real" gamers and "false" gamers (you could say hardcore and casual, I guess) are conflated into a single category. 50% of people are 'gamers' (Solitaire/Minesweeper type), and "gamers" (the CoD/WoW classic image of the gamer) have xboxes, so 50% of people have Xboxes. Err, no. As for the average income, I'm not sure how that works, since they claim that the average household non-gaming income is 55k$ but the 2006 US economic survey rather found that the average was 45k$ - all homes together, gaming and non-gaming. So it appears that either things have gone dramatically wrong in the US in two years (it may be true), or either their study, for some reason, fell among higher-income households. Also, it's pretty obvious that people with money will have more time to play games, PCs at home on which to play, and jobs of the desk-and-computer type rather than manual or factory jobs. Which gives them plenty more occasions to play Solitaire or Minesweeper.
I'd be curious to see a study done on all owners of PCs to see if they have spent 30$ or more on purchasing a video game in the past month, or year. Or a study on all PC owners to see if any game bigger than 250mb is installed on their PC, for instance. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to believe I'm part of an elite that's successful in every aspect of their life from income to romance (who wouldn't?), but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
15/11/07
19:24:38
Backing up
Categories: News, 139 wordsSend feedback •I hereby declare November 15th as the official Back up your data day. My web host had a problem with their servers over the last week-end and so my website was down for a few days. They recovered my data on their backup drives, but I've still lost a couple of entries. You can visit the GameCODE blog to see my last few posts. In the meantime, don't forget to back up your data! At least my web provider, eMax Hosting, was very informative and quick to reply. It's good to know that they can meet such unexpected bad events and deal with them swiftly.
In other news, I'm playing Metroid Prime 3, and it's awesome. I'm also looking forward to Super Mario Galaxy. And Mass Effect. Things are truly quite hectic these days, but I'm just happy that way.
30/09/07
10:30:54
Appearing at a Guitar Hero panel
Categories: News, Music, Gaming Log, 191 wordsSend feedback •McGill university is hosting a conference called Pop and Policy later this week. As I understand, it's more or less on the topic of music, distribution, and copyrights in the "internet age". I've been invited as a panelist to a talk on the Guitar Hero phenomenon, so if you drop by on thursday afternoon, be sure to come. There will be music industry experts, one of the developers who worked on the game, and Daniel Levitin.
In other news, I think BioShock is pretty overrated. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm working on that so I can say it wasn't that good without people telling me I didn't finish it so I can't have an opinion on it. After attending the IGDA talk with one of the developers, I get the feeling they "shooterized" the experience a little bit too much for my tastes. What's left of the RPG elements isn't enough to warrant the kind of length the game puts you through. But then, the game was released in a drought of awesome titles, so as they say, in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
17/09/07
15:51:22
There's our Mass Effect female Shepard!
Categories: News, 98 wordsSend feedback •She's here!
Thanks to Penny Arcade's Tycho for pointing out to this video in today's blog post. And congratulations to Bioware for addressing this issue that was becoming quite a storm. I, of course, never doubted them, and knew all along that Jane Shepard was a healthy little baby. I'm sure I'll eventually convince even myself of that.
And don't these graphics look awesome? I don't usually give those polygon counts much thought, but this is quite well-done. Now I just hope they can convey these graphics with such artistic vision as in Gears of War.
Gamecode (gc)
00:58:03
A new song: In the Year 200X
Categories: News, Music, Gamecode (gc), 233 words1 feedback •Mega Man bursts out of your old parents' TV's pixels and into your speakers if you so choose - I just put up my latest song in the Melomania section and on MySpace. Give it a spin and enjoy the classic sound effects. I do think it's my best work so far, and that I've made a huge step forward by virtue of some sudden burst of inspiration, or something equally mystical. I think everyone knows that as regards classic NES music, things don't get much better than Mega Man or Castlevania. I have a nice, readable paper on 8-Bit video game music that's sitting on my hard drive. I sent it out to a journal and they haven't replied in 6 weeks, so I assume it means they didn't like it. I'll still hold it up for a while just in case they're only taking their time reading it, but then if I don't see any interesting opportunities to get it published, I'll put it up on my website.
In other news, this blog is now syndicated - which, as funny as it seems, should not be confused with the French word syndicat, the equivalent of a (trade or labor) union in English. You can head over to the GameCODE website and read, along with my posts, those from Kelly Boudreau and Cindy Poremba. And I expect our blogging ranks to continue growing!
