“Because no one can save the universe…”

As I’m currently embarking on my literature review, I’ve been blazing through various conference and journal papers regarding different aspects of my PhD. Last night I came across a very enjoyable paper entitled “Game Over: Learning by Dying”, by Dimitri Grammenos, from the CHI 2008 proceedings. The paper presents “the world’s first universally inaccessible game (i.e. a game that can be played by no one)” and is intended as an educational tool for emphasising the importance of adhering to game design rules when designing and developing a game.

The game is designed around a reversal of the stereotypical Space Invaders scenario, whereby you assume the role of an alien at the top of the screen, defending the universe from the invaders at the bottom of the screen. Each level is designed to stress the importance of a fundamental game design guideline, with the guideline being displayed (along with some humourous quotes) at the end of each level.

The game has a very light hearted feel to it, but was evaluated by users to be a very useful educational tool for game designers. You can download the game at UA-Games and try it out for yourself. I found it to be pretty enjoyable, even though it was (not surprisingly) ridiculously unfair.

Not often you hear the argument this way around is it? Well whilst having a trawl through Digg I found this interesting video, with researchers stating they have found that kids who don’t play games at all are most likely to get into trouble.

The researchers in the video are also the authors of Grand Theft Childhood.

Yes, I know, the page has gone somewhat quiet.  The reasons for this are quite simple: the stresses of life.  Between broken relationships and University workload, my life is quite the mess these days!  So, just so you know, I will do my best to update the page with some worthwhile content in the near future, but expect a lower frequency of updates until maybe June time.

Hope all my readers are keeping well – both of you!

I’m a keen reader of blogs. It satisfies my curiosity as to what people (most of whom I don’t even know) are doing with their lives, as well as informing me about new cool and weird things which I never knew about before. On my Firefox bookmark toolbar I have a drop-down list of several blogs which I regularly check up on from time to time. One of those very blogs is that of Roo Reynolds, a guy who I found to be pretty inspiring and fun at the Serious Games conference in Derry back in September of last year. Anyway, upon my most recent check-up of his blog (why does that sound sinister?) I came across an interesting concept: Leaving the Skype client online in the background whilst away from home, whilst your family / partner does the same at home, giving you the feeling of almost being at home whilst away from home, known as Ambient Skype. One such activity which you can partake in, as shown in this picture, is falling asleep together. I found this to be both cute and somewhat strange, but cool all the same. Who says romance is dead?

Maybe I’ll try this sometime with my girlfriend.

Oh, wait…

Photo courtesy of Roo Reynolds. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 2.0 Generic.