My Email System is Kaput

My university decided to outsource the email system and management, and transfer took place at last weekend. The consequence of the transfer is that I am not currently receiving any emails. I hope that that the email service will be up soonish. Meanwhile, I can be contacted by phone or facebook.

Update: it seems that I started to receive emails (send today after nine); emails from weekend hopefully arrives at some point.

A Paper Accepted to GDTW

A paper Gameplay Design Patterns for Social Networks and Conflicts by Staffan Björk and me was accepted to The Fifth Annual International Conference in Game Design and Technology (Liverpool, 14–15 Nov, 2007).

Here is the abstract:

This paper explores how games can be designed to make the social networks of characters as part of the gameplay. We start with a premise that game characters and social relations between them are import in games. We examine several games and derive gameplay design patterns from those games. Models from social network analysis, actor-network theory and Egri’s model for dramatic conflict is used to focus the analysis. In addition to isolating design patterns from existing features of the games, we look situations where game structures do not support social networks or conflicts as proposed in above-mentioned theories. Patterns identified include Competing for Attention, Gain Allies, Social Dilemma, Internal Conflict, and Social Maintenance.

Update: I also posted full paper.

All Games Are Educational?

University of Toronto researchers have discovered that differences between men and women on some tasks that require spatial skills are largely eliminated after both groups play a video game for only a few hours. (Elias, 2007)

So study implies that games can help to improve skills from driving to math. There were also a study that gave evidence that surgeons skills can be improved by playing games.

Gameplay Design Patterns for Believable Non-Player Characters

Petri Lankoski
Media Lab
University of Art and Design Helsinki

Staffan Björk
Interaction Design Collegium
Computer Science and Engineering
Chalmers University of Technology and Göteborg University

Situated Play, Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference
(c) 2007 Authors & Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). Personal and educational classroom use of this paper is allowed, commercial use requires specific permission from the author.
Definitive version is be available in conference proceedings and http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/07315.46085.pdf

ABSTRACT
Descriptions of humans require several qualities for people to experience them as believable: human body; self-awareness, intentional states, and self impelled actions; expression of emotions; ability to use natural language; and persistent traits. Based on these we analyze non-player character Claudette Perrick in The Elders Scroll IV: Oblivion to detect how these qualities can be created in the interactive environment of a game. We derive the gameplay design patterns Awareness of Surrounding, Visual Body Damage, Dissectible Bodies, Initiative, Own Agenda, Sense of Self, Emotional Attachment, Contextual Conversational Responses, and Goal-Driven Personal Development, which point to design choices that can be made when designing believable non-player characters in games.
Author Keywords
Gameplay design patterns, non-player character, game design, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Continue reading “Gameplay Design Patterns for Believable Non-Player Characters”