games blog

A new sponsored link for Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 3 movie which opens Friday, June 18th, is appearing at the bottom of your loading screen.

Upon clicking on the sponsored link, you can watch the Toy Story 3 trailer and answer a question, “What was your favorite toy as a kid?” and then be rewarded with 2 free farm cash!

Simple enough, and worth the free farm cash.

Please note, there is NO direct link to provide. The advertisement for this offer appears underneath your FarmVille Farm home page once you access FarmVille on FaceBook.

Will you participate in this sponsored link? If so, did the free farm cash work for you? Who is going to see Toy Story

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I just saw a weird ad on the right side of FaceBook , and I’m so glad I clicked it!!! This is apparently some new expansion that has not been mentioned ANYWHERE. Wanted to make sure you guys got the scoops.

So there is some kind of a “second farm,” a “fresh start,” “more land,” and something to do with Kansas!?

Hope this helps!

FarmVille Freak iBrad

EVOKE and INVOKE got some competition!  Check out Conspiracy for Good for “new kind of storytelling that allows for greater audience participation”, which claims to try to change the world for the better.

The credits list says Tim Kring, of Heroes and Heroes Evolutions, The Company P, of Momentum and Sanningen om Marika, with Nokia as their “preferred partner”.

They write:

By playing with the idea of a good secret society, we want to create it. Your actions will benefit real causes and people. By taking this seriously, you will make a difference now!

And under the causes, there is stuff like Street Child of Sierra Leone. I look forward to seeing how far P’s play it as if it was real philosophy takes them in this endeavor.

/discuss!

(I’m currently employed by Nokia Research Center.)

I’m impressed — and let’s be honest, flattered — by the fact that a dissertation filed in in 2009 already uses Pervasive Games as one of its more pervasive references. His main approach is performance design, and in addition to discussing his own prototypes, he also touches on stuff from GeoCaching to BotFighters and from PacManhattan to GPS Mission. Here’s the synopsis he kindly wrote for us:

Playtesting Klinterspillet

This thesis focuses on the design of site-specific games. These games are embodied games played in the city using pervasive technology. The field of site-specific games is established as a genre of  games, as those games in which the site and the players locomotion play a particularly important role. The site-specific games share many properties with pervasive games, and may be understood as a sub genre, where the usage of the site is the nexus of the games.

The thesis is based on performance studies, design science research, and theory of pervasive games. It is shown that there is a tight link between the study of play, games, and performances, and that playing a site-specific game can be understood as a special kind of performance. A branch of performance studies focuses on performances given outside the theatre, called the site-specific performances. These performances are usually designed with the site in mind, and either deliberately works with or against the site—what is known as the fit. On the basis of practices from site-specific performance design and situated design, a design method for site-specific games is developed.

The design method is based on a mission-style game with cards, and a creative way of exploring the city, called dérive, originating from the psychogeographical practices of the Situationist art movement. One important property of the design method, is that the design sessions take place in-situ. The design method can thus be regarded as a psychogeographical game.

The design method is evaluated using design science research as a framework through the idea of using both ex ante and ex post evaluations. Using a series of iterations, the design method is evolved through practical design sessions, game design, and game evaluation. In this connection several site-specific games have been designed, developed and discussed.

Evaluation of the design method shows that it supports early idea generation of site-specific games, and that designers found the method inspiring to work with. The evaluation also shows that alternation of individual and joint design sessions provokes production blocking and social loafing. The value of the methods in-situ design practice combined with the mission-cards is supported through the many innovative games concepts, which were the result of the design sessions conducted.

Working on a project for Nokia Research Center again, my day job is about my other research interests at the moment. Thus, I haven’t been able to read the thesis yet, but it appears to be a very interesting contribution.

Our belated congratulations, Erik!

Two more reviews have appeared in Amazon, by Chun-hyok Chong and Nathan Hook. Without further ado, here they are.

Brilliant, Not Practical
Chun-hyok Chong

I thinks this book is too theoretical or philosophical to get something practical. I was able to feel the authors had tried to write down their brilliant view or insight in the book, but it was not possible to feel the in-field expert’s power from the book.

A Defining Text
N.R. Hook

Firstly, don’t be put off by the title. This book is well worth reading for game designers, larp organisers and non-traditional theatre people.

Good points

• Strong readable style. Unlike some textbooks, this one can be read cover-to-cover.
• Accessable explanation of concepts such as the ‘magic circle,’ making this a good text for readers new to game theory generally. This is supported by extensive references.
• Avoids getting caught up in technological implementation details. This means the book will age well.
• Quite comprehensive in scope, includes a discussion of ethics and games which did not work well in the end.

Bad points

• Some of the same case study examples get referenced over and over again. This is partly a reflection of where pervasive games are now, does make the book coherent and the examples are all good in their own right, but a few more may have been useful.
• As an example of the above, Vampire larp gets a brief discussion as ‘almost accidentally gave birth to the pervasive larp genre’ but the international Camarilla society (both monthly larps, and 24/7 email and irc play used together than ran for years) isn’t discussed.
• The concept of ‘bleed’ is mentioned, but could have been expanded on further, particularlly in relation to some of the games described that are intended to carry a polticial message.

Take the mantle of the Prince of Persia in this action-packed side-scroller. Jump, fight, and run across rooftops as you battle your way to your destiny!!!

Can you light up a starfield by firing a single energy beam that refract from one star to all the others? You’ll need a steady eye to make it through all the levels of this puzzler

What’s your ambition? Chances are, you didn’t get to fulfill it in the original Sim, because while it introduced a host of new career paths for your Sims to follow, they weren’t all that well differentiated. Its latest expansion, Ambitions, aims to change all that, offering your proteges a set of desirable occupations to pursue: firefighter, architect, doctor, private investigator, teacher, ghosthunter, and stylist. Each comes complete with its own skills and activities, and you’ll also be able to get out and about in Twinbrook, the game’s new neighborhood, to put them to work.

“The biggest problem with many of these new jobs and skills,” says The Gua Mike Anderiesz, “is the time they consume. Find yourself in a multi-person household, for instance, and you’ll find it almost impossible to follow more than one of them in anything like the detail to make them most of all the new options.” All the same, Anderiesz concludes it’s well worth the purchase for Sims fans with time to invest.

It earns a thumbs-up from ’s Anthony Gallegos, too, who awarded the game a healthy 8.0/10. “I can’t picture myself going back to the old jobs,” he says, “but ultimately having only six to choose from is not all that much. Not that I expect it to stay this way, as I’m just sure EA is prepping more professions for us to purchase in the Sims online store.”

Even though the selection may leave a little to be desired (or to be developed in future), he’s still obviously impressed with the game’s tweaks. “The new profession system will doubtless keep Sims 3 fans busy for many more hours, and the other additions included will also give players plenty of new stories to tell for Sims both new and old. If this is the type of content we can expect from Sims 3 expansions going forward, content that evolves core game mechanics, color me impressed.”!!

• Release Damon from the Vampire Queen’s curse.
• Unique, dual-character gameplay.
• Over 30 locations to explore.
• Solve unique puzzles and unlock secret passages!