Search Results for press

Text of my GDC Education Summit Keynote

Following reflections on Georgia Tech president Wayne Clough's appointment to the Secretaryship of the Smithsonian

Today G. Wayne Clough, the president of Georgia Tech, announced his plans to step down as of mid-summer to take the top post at the Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian has been plagued by many problems in recent years, from major budget overruns to a crippling executive corruption scandal last year that forced the last Secretary out. The challenges of the… read more

Not Interdisciplinarity, But Love

My keynote presentation at the 2008 Game Developers Conference Education Summit

Note: this is a written version of the keynote address I gave at the Education Summit at the 2008 Game Developers Conference. The original presentation was extemporaneous and included evocative (rather than explanatory) slides. This version has been adapted from the presentation and the slides in a manner that will hopefully preserve the ideas fully while maintaining their original context:… read more

Reading Online Sucks

Reflections on scholarly writing on the web

Or more subtly: reading online isn’t the same as reading on paper, yet we continue to treat the web as a distribution tool rather than as a medium with its own material constraints, both suited and unsuited to certain kinds of content. I’ve been thinking about this recently after I started reading a lot more scholarly writing online. Let me… read more

Sony, Global Infant

Opinion piece published in Gamasutra

From Gamasutra’s summary: In a fiery opinion piece, game designer/author Ian Bogost examines NPD chart trends to suggest that Sony’s lack of unified message on PS3, Blu-ray and the ‘average consumer’ is rendering ineffective its pitch to users. It’s also probably the only piece on Gamasutra that mentions Jacques Lacan. Sony is a global conglomerate which is significantly different from… read more

Digital Download Hell

Why downloadables aren't more accessible than physical media

Recently, friend and colleague David Edery wrote a nice feature on Gamasutra about how to make trial versions of downloadable software sell more games. He has some good points, including observations about how a trial shouldn’t just be the beginning of the game nor should it give away enough that a purchase is unnecessary. But there’s something missing from Edery’s… read more

Dwelling Machines

Introduction to a symposium I organized at Georgia Tech

This past Monday the School of Literature Communication and Culture and the Wesley Center for New Media at Georgia Tech hosted a symposium I organized called Dwelling Machines. Here’s the description, too small to read in the event poster above. This symposium asks whether and how technology might alter the way we perceive dwelling. Of particular interest are the aspects… read more

Snark, Meet Irony

How Boing Boing undermined its own argument against Amazon Kindle

There’s been a strong and decidedly split reaction to Amazon’s new Kindle eBook reader, which was released this week. As of today, Amazon reports that they have sold out of the device, so people are obviously buying it. But concern over its closed nature, including binding users to Amazon’s DRM-based sales channel, have helped the reader earn a 2 1/2… read more

Chumby and the Rhetoric of Openness

Small, cute, insidious

Note: Chumby representative Andrew “Bunnie” Huang has replied to this thread, and I have in turn replied to his response with more questions. I encourage you to read through all the comments for more detail. Finally, I should point out that I am not an attorney and nothing herein should be considered legal advice. Chumby is a WiFi-connected microcomputer that… read more

Lucifer Notes

A letter of complaint to U Haul, circa 1998

22 May 1998 The U Haul Corporation P.O. Box 21502 Phoenix, AZ 85036-1502 Dear Sirs and Madams: Chrome shimmering in the afternoon sun, fleets of U Haul trucks and trailers lie in wait on lots across the nation, armed with mighty orange racing stripes and obliquely printed American vistas—imagery meant to inspire even the most bleak-hearted self-mover to Napoleonic spirits.… read more

Operating Systems Prohibit Film Still Fair Use

Built-in DVD players forbid screen captures with software constraint

Recently, I had the need to capture a still from a DVD a Persuasive Games client had sent over as guidelines for some game assets. I didn’t want to rip the whole DVD, so I went to use the built-in screen capture facility in Apple OS X: the old standby Command-Shift-3. I was surprised to see the following result. The… read more