Music in games

Yesterday, I did a quest south of Menethil Harbour, in the Wetlands region, in WoW. The waters were new to me and so was the music played there. It was oriental, something I'd listen to while doing my yoga. In fact, it was quite irritating and it disturbed the game play. But apart from this particular area, I love the music in the game as it's extremely subtle, it reinforces the gaming experience depending on whether you're flower hunting or fighting troggs and it sticks to my mind like rabbits to hay. I sometimes find myself humming the tune played in Inns and in Stormwind. So, last night, I thought I should do something out of my passion for classical music and playing the piano. I'm not much into playing pop music but rather classical and instrumental and I figure that computer games must be a market for that. The sort of pieces I play at home are exactly what I want to hear (or not hear but on a subconscious level) in games. Perhaps I should start my own company for it. Then, I'd only have to find myself a symphony orchestra to accompany me :)

Think for yourself

It is often said that most users don't want to think when they're online. Whenever it's possible, they should be aided in appropriate ways, like when Google suggests phrases in your search. Naturally, I'm the exception. Among the first things I did when I got a new phone was to switch off the function where a dictionary suggests words based on the first syllables when I'm composing an sms. Neither am I a fan of my car's rain sensor nor the auto correction feature of Word. But at times, it's quite fun to have the program think for you, like I did today when spell checking an activity report I'm writing. Instead of EuroITV, Word suggests Erotic and Neurotic. Hmm, maybe not.

PhD comics

I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon this comic site on the hardship of being a PhD student before. Well, all the more joy to catch up with now then. (I adore comics, hope Santa Claus reads my blog...) Regarding the strip, I sure hope I never find myself in the same situation!

telephone of the future

I'm in a vintage phase again, as looking at things out of a time perspective sort of puts them in perspective. That goes for a lot of things, not only societal phenomena. I found this old ad in the comic magazine Kapten Stofil (4;2006), I especially like the byline claiming that this is how the telephone of the future will look like.

Three step model in London

I'm off to London in a week, exactly 2 years since I last visited this marvelous city. It'll be a brew of "very old", "old enough to be vintage" and "brand new" which I'm looking forward to. The "very old" and "vintage" part is covered by the Leonardo da Vinci and Sixties Fashion exhibitions at the V&A Museum. I'll be very short of time but I just have to make it to these two events, otherwise I'll be very disappointed. The Digital Hollywood event we'll attend - iDTV Lab is participating in a session called "Research, development and investment in internet, entertainment technologies and media studies innovation." - takes care of the innovations bit. Many of the sessions during this three day long media conference will focus on the future, what's hot right now and what's the industry focusing on right now. I wonder what the verdict on UGC will be, is it a hit or not?, and whether there will be any consumer research results presented. In a week, I'll be wiser.

News flash

A usability report I just finished is being news flashed, apparently :)

World Usability Day today

It's the World Usability Day (hear, hear!) today, make sure to check out the web casted events all around the globe here.

PhD-student's haiku poem

En höstlig doktorandkurs i Danmark
fick en aningen försenad avspark.
Men väl framme på ort
och kråset blivit smort
krossades illusionen om en lekpark.

Ett intensivt program tog fart
med syftet att göra mig smart.
Men lägesrapporten i halvtid
indikerar en övergödd humanoid
vars hjärna till pølse smalt.

In short: one week of intense academic work, sometimes for 13 h/day, in Denmark has been fun, inspiring but somewhat exhausting.

Update: Photos from the PhD week here.

Pervasive games

I wonder if there has been any pervasive games, like Uncle Roy all around you, in Finland and/or Ostrobothnia? It would be so cool to devote Christmas break to such a play. I need to refine that idea, no time right now though. I'm off to the PhD course in Denmark early in the morning and I haven't hunted down my suit case yet, no to mention packed... :)

Gaming

I won’t put all notes from today’s seminar on line as the ppt-files apparently will be uploaded soon.

I will mention the “aha!” though. Manu Pärssinen talked of current trends in the gaming world. Apparently, innovative and creative games do appeal to reviewers but not to the consumers as these games don’t sell. Licensed games and sequels on the other hand sell well, such as NHL 2005 and Cars. Does this mean that parents are a large percentage of the game buyers? Does it mean that it’s easier to buy a game with characters you’ve seen in the movies and on posters around town, than a game with unknown characters but with great reviews? Seems like the Long tail theory doesn’t apply here, although that’s how I pick my games.

About games and playing games, I enjoyed watching an enjoyment element in playing in action last weekend. We were a group of friends playing Alhambra, or Alahärmä as we call it, a great game, get it if you of some weird reason don’t already own it (and no, there‘s not a stock of money on my bank account now). Usually, there’s one clear leader and one evident poor looser when we play the game, leaving a bunch of mediocrities in the middle competing with each other. Therefore, most don’t really fight for winning but to get in second or third. No real challenge. But this time, all of us were doing about equally good. No one lagged desperately behind, no one spurted ahead and therefore, the fighting spirit and challenge increased big time. Everyone stood a chance to win and it made the game so much better and pleasurable. At the end, all agreed it was one heck of a game, much more enjoyable when you competed against everyone, not just a couple of contestants. Although one conclusion at today’s seminar was that the definition of a good game is very individual and hard to boil down to, say “a good story”, “graphics”, “social context”, I wonder if not challenge is applicable to most gamers. If there’s no evident challenge, then is there pleasure and enjoyment? I doubt that.

The tale of a perfect Sunday night

Today's great weather made such an impact on me that I had to head for the nature again. I actually brought a thermos bottle of hot chocolate this time which was great, however I forgot the cookies. Perhaps that's why the moose decided to remain at a distance as they wouldn't be up for any treats.

A tale of a perfect Sunday morning

I enjoyed a cup of coffee while browsing through the morning paper, being content that I wasn’t feeling all that hang overy. I decided to listen to this week’s pod casts I subscribe to, starting with the science news by the Swedish Radio P1. A very daring adventure an early Sunday morning, I know. While listening to the part on the recent discovery of the female gene (a “male gene”, or the sry-gene carried by most men, has already been identified and now, a group of researchers have found one gene determining the female sex) bright light hit my eyes. A pale, late-October sun rose above the roofs. Finally, after this weekend’s blizzard! I decided to grab my camera and have a walk (actually flopping around is more accurate due to the snowdrifts) in the forest to wake myself up and get some air. The serenity in the midst of the woods was incredible; it was just me, snow crystals and rays of sun light. Hard to top a morning like that!


Friday's blizzard left its mark.










It's such a shame I didn't get around to collecting any rowanberries this year. It's a Christmas tradition I have, to do a bit of alchemy in early October and voilà, you have a nice bottle of rowanberry liqueur at Christmas Eve. Sadly, it's too late for it now.






I went through the kids' play ground on my way home. They thoroughly appreciated the snow and chill, laughing in their sledges. I guess the birds of passage above us didn't quite agree.

Retro evidence

I'm attending a course in presentation skills, which I've really looked forward to. I'm great with words but talking, well, there's work to be done there, to put it diplomatically :) So, today I held a presentation about entertainment and it all went really well. Every participant filled out a feedback form and what's more, the whole session was being filmed in order to let us study our presentation closely at home to reveal all silly hand gestures and nervous ticks we do. Which was great, accept that we got the video material on VHS! That's way too retro for me! As I don't have access to a VHS player, the video will probably remain unstudied. Hopefully, I can transform it into a dvd at work though.

Occupational injury

For six months now, I've been training scientifically. That is training accordingly with my heart rate. Apart from reaching those training goals I set out to do, I'm fascinated by being in such a direct contact with my body when exercising. If I decrease the intensity of the exercise, of course I feel my heart's response to that. But what gets me going is to actually monitor the heart rate while increasing the pace, say from 7 to 7,3 km/h, and to make comparisons over time. One friend of mine interprets this as "being a control freak". Hm, another friend is more right on track I think "Oh that's just you, you're always so scientific!". Maybe it's an occupational injury.

CfP to EuroITV

The 2nd call for papers to EuroITV 2007 in Amsterdam is announced. More here.

MMORPG addiction

It's early Sunday morning, the snowing has ceased and it's all quiet outside. I'm having the first cup of coffee for today while skimming through headlines of online papers. I also found this blogpost on WoW addiction, written by a (now ex) leader in one of the largest and most respected guilds in the game. His story fascinates me, and what's more, there's a massive 797 comments to it! I'll actually try to read them, partly due to personal interest and partly as I noticed a participant of the same PhD doctoral course I'm attending in Denmark in November will present a paper on WoW.

Seminar on games

Conveniently while I'm preparing a powerpoint presentation on interactivity and games, especially World of Warcraft, an e-mail on the Media Research Seminar on games in Vaasa drops in. The seminar takes place on 31st October at the University of Applied Sciences in Vaasa and is open for everyone interested in media. Bits of the programme: Game world trends and product placement in computer games.

Memorable individuality

I'm enjoying a cup of coffee at the trainstation in Tampere again, while waiting for the train to Åbo. The cashier of the café did what she does every day, purely out of habit, telling me the price and whether I wanted to pay with Visa or credit card. But when she had a look at my credit card that I handed her, she burst out "Hey, I remember this card! You were here a month ago and I loved your image on the card!" That's pretty cool, I never thought the individualized credit card with an image I've taken and chosen myself would function like this, that people would recognize me through it. I always thought of it as a nice feature that'd please me. A nice side effect indeed.

Brain mono track

The Logitech keyboard I use at home simply gave up on me last night, as did the Microsoft one at work today. My primary reaction in both cases, when realizing none of the letters I typed actually appeared on the screen, was violence. I hammered the buttons harder and harder and now afterwards, I wonder why. It's not like the keyboard will start working thanks to my hammering it. If it's broken, it's broken. I wonder if this is a human basic instinct, I've watched people get a remote control without batteries in their hands. When they realize nothing happens, they shake it hard, hammer the buttons and slam it against the couch. With no success obviously.

Another indication of the mysterious ways the human minds works in: I got a mind game gadget last weekend. A ring was hanging in the midst of a tangle of iron and my job was to get it out. Naturally, the easy, obvious way to go about didn't cut it so I had to figure out more options to get it out. Which I did, it's just that when I'd tried them all, my brain shut down. If I took a break and tried to solve it a while later, it simply repeated the non-solutions I'd tried earlier. Nothing new came out, my brain was stuck in reverse, repeating the same old options to get the ring out. Scary. The ability to think of something new didn't exist. Sometimes, I see people doing this in life as well. People repeating the same actions all over again although they're clearly not a good solution. Oh, about the ring, I did get it separated from the iron web, after a good long walk outside.

Handicraft obsession

I'm off to an arts and crafts exhibition and fair now, I'm a bit nervous that my handicraft craze, that has been latent and quite for a while now, will blossom yet again with a vengeance. Knitting, cross-stiching etc is loads of fun, it's enjoyable but also quite consuming, tiring. I hope I don't end up like this lady in a neat, animated Finnish short movie. Anyone with a hobby ought to watch it.