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Eek. I did it, I sent it-- my abstract for the DiGRA Conference (well, I guess it's really called the DGRC?) I'm far to excited about this, the mere *possibility* of having my paper accepted. It's all way too much fun for the junior reseacher!

Actually, if it doesn't get in, it just gets rolled straight into the thesis, so no harm done there. It's a comparative analysis of two anti-violence/war game interventions, Tiny Signs of Hope and Velvet-Strike: Patches of Peace, Tiny Signs of Agency in Online Games.

Posted by cloo @ 02:41 PM EST [Link]

I have to admit [hangs head in shame], I almost don't want to use Fantasy-Theme Analysis as a formal research methodology because of its cheesy name. Something about explaining my thesis involves a fantasy-theme analysis of online game mods makes me think I should follow it up with a little Vulcan gesture or something...no? Does Christine Boese's doctoral dissertation on the Xenaverse help or hinder my case (actually, its very good). Anyway, FTA's generally used to explore the shared world views of a group of rhetors (like, perhaps, people who create artifacts in game communities), so I can't argue against the match. Actually, its quite nice to have a framework to work from, I don't know how far I'd get arguing "because I say so" (even if I do it here all the time).

Posted by cloo @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]

It doesn't get better than Feral Robot Dogs (alive again after its /.ing). Hobbiest robotics taken to its natural, wacky extreme. The idea of open source, hack robotics is of course something I've been following, and I do hope this will reach the level of "game mod" popularity and interest (although how is this affected with the artifact moved offline). The related (draft) paper Open Source Toys is one of those things you read and wish you had written yourself. I'm still fascinated by this idea of extending the Mindstorms system through a kit of sensors and components that lead away from a male gendering of the system.

Posted by cloo @ 12:52 PM EST [Link]

I can't underestimate the unexpected tiny pleasures I get from site statistics. For the person who found this site via the keywords "homemade masturbation lego"-- well played! For the 10-15 people a day who find this site via "sextv," how horribly disappointing for you... I'd personally recommend Nerve instead.

Incidently, never did get to see Avatars Offline, I just flew in to John Wayne International (lol) too late. So the same reason as last time! Ran into Celia Pearce the next day and was talking about my thesis work, to which she remarked that that had pretty much been the topic of her keynote the day before, which of course I also missed. *Sigh*

Posted by cloo @ 12:06 PM EST [Link]

Off tomorrow morning to present at Life by Design: Everyday Digital Culture. Going to try to pimp New Forms while I'm down there, although that's a bit of a roadtrip for the Irvine crowd...Hey, though, I'll finally get to watch that Avatars Offline movie from last year's GDC. A whole year of anticipation-- now what can live up to that!?!

I'd love to bring my firefly or some other Lego project to demo, but I'm pretty sure they won't let something that looks as much like a bomb as the RCX brick through customs. Actually, I hope not!

Posted by cloo @ 10:58 PM EST [Link]

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