Timi will share… | Social Business Strategy

…analysis on social business, interactive media, games, e-democracy, poetry, food, passions

February 14, 2008 • 12:11 am 0

Gods, avatars and me

After months of procrastination, I finally got around to read ‘Lord of Light’, an epic science fiction/fantasy novel by American writer, Roger Zelazny. The timing is good because this coming Friday, we’re having a workshop on Avatar Societies with Mark Meadows as guest lecturer.

‘Lord of Light’ (awarded the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and nominated for a Nebula Award in the same category) is about ‘gods’, their avatars and their epic battles, touching on many points of Hindu and Buddhist teachings. It’s set on a planet colonized by the remaining people of a destroyed “Urath”, Earth. It’s a strange planet occupied by hostile indigenous race. To be able to survive, the crew of the ‘Star of India’ used chemical treatments, biofeedback and electronics to control their minds and manifest superhuman powers. They achieved near-immortality through reincarnation using the growth of new bodies and electronic mind transfer. So these ‘first peoples’ managed to continue controlling the planet by being birthed as different avatars.

An avatar in Hindu philosophy refers to the incarnation or bodily manifestation of a divine being, or the Supreme Being (God) onto planet Earth. The Sanskrit word avatāra-means “descent” (avatarati) and usually implies a deliberate descent into lower realms of existence for special purposes.In the world of information technology and interactive media, avatars most commonly refer to the representation of a user. At the very core, it uses an image or name or a combination of both, residing in an environment which usually allows interaction with other users.At least, that’s what I think.

What do you think? Did you ever stop to think how many ‘avatars’ or representatives of yourself is out there in the brave new world of interactive media?

Filed under: Culture, Digital worlds, Games, Social / online media analysis, , , ,

November 3, 2007 • 2:28 am 0

thoughts on games and ads

i make a distinction between games that are / part of the interactive narrative itself and those that are obtrusive because they’re real function is just to be simply channels of the brand. many companies nowadays use stories or games in online campaigns albeit unsuccessfully, because they still tend to apply old rules to a new medium. a lot of creativity – and restraint – are needed for advergames. creativity in developing concepts that authentically reflect users needs and restraint in injecting the brand in every nook and corner. i think for and advergame to be successful it should be prepared to lose part of its advertising nature and embrace the fun and chaos of games. advertisers should immerse themselves in the gamers’ world and respect their culture. start with the very basic: gamers don’t like being distracted from the game. that’s just disrespectful and totally against the Code ;-p .the challenge is to make the ‘branded environment’ disappear: weave the proposition seamlessly with gameplay. this is why emotional interfaces like avatars can hold huge potential for advertising or branding. make it about the user, not about the brand. brand = user.

check out two sites i got from our company blog:
jelly battle – these jelly-buggers are quite addictive. simple, smart, entertaining. kewl.
le courage was visually stunning and had a promising basis, but the story was not cohesive and was not sustained. it was thin. also there wasn’t really a gameplay to speak of. the game was more of an afterthought that an integral part of the story.

Filed under: Games, , ,

July 1, 2007 • 1:24 pm 0

Emotional interfaces

<Originally published at MediaCatalyst blog>

There are some pretty interesting developments in human-computer interaction and interactivity concerning emotions.

One is the growing initiative in trying to measure the emotional impact of the web, one of the key topics in the CHI-Nederland organised conference that the EA (Experience Architecture Team) attended about a week ago. The speaker, Marco van Hout proposed that since Web 2.0 has shifted the focus from information to experience, companies should also start looking into measuring the emotional impact of Web 2.0 experiences. He presented the LEMTool (Layered Emotional Tool), which was developed for use on a company’s website, product or environment. The LEMTool will enable organisations to gain more insights on the emotional experience and incoporate the results in the design process.

The second one – which I personally find more interesting and more relevant – is about NPCs (non-player characters in games) as emotional interface.

I came across a presentation of Mark Meadows (a.k.a pighed – portrait artist, writer, engineer, developer, gamer, owner of an avatar company, ‘leads designers into burning buildings and lead them out again’), wherein he talks about the role of non-playing characters (NPCs) in mediating and measuring emotions. His basic conclusion is:

“Because humans are emotional animals, we must interface with emotional machines.
The next step is to combine existing technologies and interweaving those into new stories and interface.”

Machines or websites gaining tangible emotional dimensions — I am thrilled by this perspective. This development is gaining even more ground outside the framework of websites with the creation of various interactive artifacts. I do believe that this is the next stage in the evolution of interactive narratives – definitely something for MC to play around with.

The Emotion Machine called NPC – presentation:
http://bore.com/prz/07-03-07_sanfrancisco/

HeadCase Humanufacturing:  http://www.headcaselabs.com/index.php (The business of avatars is also something we ought to look into more closely .)

Pighed’s Headcase blog: http://blog.headcaselabs.com/ (interesting stuff for think ‘n’ stinkers)

Filed under: Digital worlds, Games, ,

May 9, 2006 • 11:54 am 0

The many faces of games

Many of my friends know how much of a game (and films) junkie I am. I must admit, however, that lately I haven’t been junkie-ing to the max due to an overflow of deadlines at work and school. That’s also the reason why I haven’t been blogging as much. Plan to graduate in less than 2 months so it’s Panic Time, Hell Week and Obsessive Mode all in one. Pretty soon I will lock myself in quarantaine mode for 10 days or so just to feel in control again (and finish all deliverables of course!).

But I just can’t deny my nature if I don’t play so now my solution is to play short, fun games. Classics like pinball and minesweeper ;-p and all those cool and creative games from www.orisinal.com

Simple, creative, fun and totally addictive. Check out Bugs and that shooting game (forgot the name)… These are my temporary replacement for RPG’s and my way of comforting myself because I haven’t gotten round yet to buying Oblivion! ;-( Oh well, that will definitely be something for after graduation…school gets in the way of gamng y’know ;-p Besides, this latest game from Elder Scrolls requires total devotion and commitment ;-)

On another note: I am curious as to how game themes and narratives will be influenced by religion and spirituality. Seems that this particular theme is gaining more ground everyday. From godcasting to real-time strategy games, religion, spirituality and philosophy are starting to inhabit the gaming world. Not surprising given the fertile ground of games for conflicts, morality and world views. Besides, these themes are already part of the stories weaved around different games. I wonder, however, if these will truly be alternatives to games typically marked by ‘violence’ and sex. Check out this MSNBC article for more info:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12597157/?GT1=8199

Filed under: Games, Ideas,

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analyst, poet, dream-dweller. a.k.a. 'delunna'

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