Emotions, Rhetoric, Mechanics

I haven't updated this section in ages...since the last entry, I've pretty much finished my genre chapter, written some stuff about game rhetoric, and also about emotions that games potentially support.

The last two subject actually seem more and more interconnected, so we'll see if they will merge in the end. Still, during May and June, I hope to complete both. My game mechanics library also needs an attentive eye in the near future.

Games & chance

I was lecturing about the element of chance in games at the local University of Art & Design last Friday. Here are the slides (PDF).

a game diet?

Dear gaming diary, this is a first! I can honestly tell you that we completed a game! Me and Satu's co-op odyssey of Baldur's Gate 2 resulted in magnificient victory :) (and a lame sequel teaser...)

It's so typical that its the last game I've finished in ages. Ok, you don't really finish the game I play the most, Winning Eleven. You just start another season or change the club, even after winning a triple ;) But still, there are just too many nn-hour games in proportion to the time I have. Even the most captivating ones often kind of get forgotten when something new comes along. At the moment, Prince of Persia is something like +60% completed, but I haven't played it in like three months...

I know, dear gaming diary. I'm a spoiled brat with too many games. Maybe I should take a game diet, and finish my plate for once before leaving the table.

running around

I'm in the middle of a totally mad week, work-wise. I have a projet plan to finish and I'm running around town (and the country) in meetings and seminars...

In the morning, I managed to send a paper on game rhetoric for my post-grad seminar (two days late, totally unfinished). Yesterday I wrote a review of a master's thesis for new media at the University of Art & Design, and today I was present in its presentation. It was nice, and the thesis, focusing on board game design, was very good. I'll return to UIAH on Friday, when I have a lecture on games and chance. Tomorrow it's Tampere and the post-grad seminar.

It's of course all fun and about games...but a bit stressful at the moment =/

Easter dwelling

Not much new, dear gaming diary. Easter was mostly spent watching season seven of Buffy, so not _that_ much gaming going on. We did play a round of Starship Catan (Satu won, again), and we're nearing the finish in our co-operative odyssey of BG2.

Other happy notes: My Atletico Madrid finally got promoted to division 1 on WE7I! And, I paid all my loan off in Animal Crossing! A Silver statue for my Ogami. Needless to say, the golden one has been there for Satu's Akane for some time already :)

AC reminds me that we should check out the new Harvest Moon - actually, I shoud have bought it while in the States for GDC... It also occurred to me that we don't have Forbidden Siren. Come payday, should do it. Also, I'm looking forward for the reissue of Tikal, a board game suitable for two.

...Then again, there is not enough time in the world to play all of these, my dear diary.