Vampires in the Rain

I've been assisting the Finnish gaming magazine Pelaaja, and we were having a party on Saturday. Lots of Winning Eleven - kudos to the We-UK team, too, for a brilliant premiership patch - and a peek at some interesting demos courtesy of E3.

Prince of Persia looked quite amazing, at least audiovisually. I also got a glimpse of the next Buffy game (incidentally we finished watching season 6 on dvd yesterday), which seemed ok. But there was also another vampire-hunting title, Boktai: The Sun is in your Hand, the Hideo Kojima GBA game which has a light sensor peripheral attached to the cartridge. Sunlight produces energy to the player-character in the game, or something along those lines. It seems that it is quite difficult to play the game here in Finland, where the beginning of the summer has been rather cold and bleak! I guess vampires thrive here ;)

Silent night

I tried Silent Hill 3 briefly last night. I was very impressed by its brooding atmosphere. I'm eager to see how the game develops. I'm not too familiar with the series, although my (somewhat waning) interest in all things horror has kept me following the games. I remember buying SH2, trying it a couple of times and generally liking it, but then something happened.

Grand Theft Auto 3 happened. I never returned to the village of Silent Hill, as the game felt terribly constraining in its closedness. At some point, I purchased the original SH for psx, but it has only gathered dust. I have had an idea of playing through the series but there is always the same obstacle: the economy of time :( In the same genre, I should also find time to play Project Zero as well...and continue Eternal Darkness. *sigh*

This all reminds me that I should read Diane Carr's article on Game Studies.

Soccer in the MOD

Ok, so I myself present serious evidence how soccer fandom gets intermedial, i.e. how the enthusiasm seeks comfort in various different media products. I play soccer (on a very low level), I watch it on tv pretty much every chance I get, and I am addicted to the Winning Eleven soccer game series (known as PES in Europe) on the PS2.

Yesterday I patched the game with a WeDoIt Italian club edition patch. This is a marvelous example of fan-based petty producing. The team behind the patch has modified the existing teams into Serie A clubs with meticulous care and detail. Authentic audience chants for the clubs are included. And I can finally play a season on the helm of Brescia, with Roberto Baggio masterminding my offence. My season started with a story-book underdog defeat of Lazio, with the 'divine ponytail' providing a masterful through pass :)

As my friend Thomas noted, it is astonishing that the console industry does not want to purchase these fan productions for distribution, as has happened in PC gaming (Counter-Strike, Gunman Chronicles, Local leagues for EA Sports' NHL series, etc...). Anyway, my respect for the WeDoIt team.

I rule

...in Utrecht. I'm happy to say that my paper on rules was accepted for the "Level Up" DiGRA conference in November. I'm eager to see the full programme, supposed to be up at the site later this week. See you there :)

Rules, rules, rules

I've been working on a couple of things lately: rules, design patterns, and simulations.

This entry is about the first one. In practice, I'm working on a chapter titled ”Making and Breaking Games: A Typology of Rules”. It introduces a particular approach to the study of rules. As the title suggests: how rules make a game, and how games can be broken down by analysing rules.

In the chapter, different aspects of rules are studied: what are their functions, what do rules govern, what is a ruleset, and what kind of hierarchies do the rules of an individual game contain. By studying the relationship of game components (such as pieces or player characters) and the procedures associated with them (moving them on a board or manipulating them in other ways), I've come up with four types of rules: component rules, procedure rules, environment rules, and theme rules.

I believe this approach opens up a perspective for future studies regarding game genres as well: a rule typology provides incentive for approaches where game genres are defined by taking both the rules and the thematic content (subject matter, means of representation or simulation, audiovisual elements) of games into account. My plan is to continue onto game mechanics and dynamics from here, and build a genre typology based on what kind of procedures are the primary ones in particular types of games.

Soul Calibur II brings death to little animals :(

It is unfortunate to open this diary with such a sad bit of news. I own a US/JAP Gamecube (well, actually the Panasonic Q, the coolest console on the planet), so I bought the Japanese version of Soul Calibur II. Sadly, I did not know that the save files from Japanese and US games do not like each other. While saving my game in SCII the console formatted my 251 memory card, wiping off my progress in Metroid Prime and Wind Waker :(

The saddest thing was, however, that apocalypse fell on our six month old, beloved Animal Crossing village and its inhabitants.

Pinky and Hornsby, You are dearly missed by me and Satu.

Whoever claims that games fail to awaken feelings of commitment and loss is gravely mistaken.

"What's up with your Ph.D?"

Is the question I get to hear frequently. From now on, this blog will provide the answer.

Games without Frontiers is a blog about my Ph.D. thesis bearing the same title. I have been working on it - more or less (mostly less) actively since 1998. The focus, scope and result of the project have changed considerably through the years, but during 2003, it is nearing completion. Or, at least there should be a first draft out. I have set myself a deadline, December 19th, that this blog reminds me of.

There's a lot still to do with this blog, mainly with archives and stuff, but even in this beta form, the basic purpose should come across.