Lazy Sunday MMO Play
Sunday afternoons are for relaxing.
Recently I wrote a post where I defined ‘MMO Syndrome’ as a kind of threat to the pleasure of single-player games. The syndrome comes into effect when the reward schedule and grind start to creep into the gameplay experience at the expense of other kinds of fun. I felt like the way World of Warcraft was structured made it difficult sometimes to enjoy single-player games, like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. I have been thinking about the article I wrote, and reading the comments it generated, which have shown just how many views there are on the subject. I thought I’d share another one here.
Today is a lazy Sunday afternoon and I’m a little tired from yardwork, and I find that I just can’t be bothered to play any of the games I’ve got at my fingertips. This is the perfect time for an MMO.
Blender: Learning the Ropes
So hello to any of my readers who have wondered where I've been lately. This post is obviously a little bloggish already, I know. All this inane first-person self-reflection! Sorry. I've been busy, no really. At the moment, a lot of my writing energy is being consumed by my PhD and a few paid freelancing jobs I've done over the last month. I have a review copy of Space Marine to tend to as well!
As a sort of 'relaxing' side project, I've been re-learning Blender modelling. Its a nice break from the words, but still creative/productive. So I thought I'd share some of my other work here - its my website right?! Anyway I am by no means experienced with this software, and I'm even worse with Photoshop, so my textures are demonstrative at best. I will probably update this post with a couple more snapshots of my models, unless I come up with something I'm actually proud of.
Anyway if there are any other modellers or Photoshop artists who read this, I'd be happy to chat about this aspect of videogames as well. I intend to at least get the hang of a workflow between Blender and Unity3D. Whether or not I end up being very good at it is beside the point!
Metal Barrels with a bodgey texture.
Crafted a tire. Not sure where the bumps on the inside edge are from.
Doing it With Style: Age of Empires in PC PowerPlay
Also, FarCry 3!! Looking forward to that.
So I actually got two articles out of Age of Empires: Online. The second one is now available for your reading pleasure in issue #196 of PC PowerPlay. So that's also my first magazine publication, congrats to me! (Self-congratulation on one's own blog: 30 Narcissist achievement points!)
The article is one of the new 'Perspectives' column that PCPP are attaching to some of their reviews that David Wildgoose describes as 'criticism.' In this case, I'm examining the nature of AOEO's art style. Its an interesting issue given that the art style of computer games is so often relegated to 'graphics' and measured in objective terms like number of polygons and draw distance. Here's the first paragraph:
In art forms other than videogames, the pursuit of high visual fidelity or verisimilitude is but one style of art amongst myriad others. In videogames, this pursuit of a visual realism is the de facto standard, and anything deviating from that is ‘artsy’ and somehow on the fringe. Even this discussion, which highlights the artistic style of Age of Empires: Online as an interesting factor worth exploring in particular, can easily be seen as positioning the ‘normal’ way of making games look realistic at the centre.
Now go and buy a copy of the magazine so I can continue writing these things!
Meet the Press
Thanks to Gawker Media for this delightful picture.
In a sudden turn of events, I've been the subject of three different interviews for journalists regarding my work in videogame studies. I hope my dear readers will forgive the hubris of talking about people who want to talk to me for a moment! This is a blog, afterall...
A few weeks ago, Flickering Colours was featured on ITJourno.com.au's column 'BlogWatch' that profiles smaller Australian technology websites or blogs to bring them to a wider audience. I was interviewed by Allie Coyne, and I've reprinted her story here as ITJourno is not an open-access site.
Following from that discussion, Allie and I talked about another project I'm involved in. Playculture: Journal of Videogame Studies is a new journal currently in the planning stages, and will launch with an accompanying blog section where we hope to create a faster, more topical discussion of gaming culture, theory and issues. Allie's piece also mentions the new videogame studies programs that Macquarie University will be offering from 2012, more information on that to come!
In other press-related news, I sat down with Jason Di Rosso from the ABC who is producing a radio documentary as part of the anniversary weekend celebrating the work of Marshall McLuhan. We talked for quite a while about how hot or cool videogames are, and what their message is about our culture. That documentary is still being recorded, so will be a few weeks before broadcast. I'll be sure to get my hands on a copy though, and make it available here if I can.