Intrigued by: The Moog Guitar

I'm a lapsed guitarist at best but even I can see that the new guitar coming out from Moog (formerly famous for the Moog Synthesiser) is a pretty exciting development.

Evidently they've fiddled around with the metal in the strings and done magic with the pickups so that any note can have infinite sustain or instantly mute (and variants in between).

Hey, if Lou Reed is excited about it, who am I to say no.

Remembering: Oradour-Sur-Glane

I didn't take any photos when I visited the village of Oradour-Sur-Glane in the middle of France - it just didn't seem right.

64 years ago today, the 642 men, women and children of the village were rounded up by the occupying German army and massacred and every building in town was set on fire. Today the ruins stand as a permanent memorial. There's a large underground visitors centre providing the background to the event, from the rise of the Nazis to what happened after the massacre but ultimately - while the centre is still chilling - it's the ordinariness of the ruins that really puts life into perspective.

These are some pics from the official Oradour-Sur-Glane website.







Of everything in the town, it was the tramlines that really brought it home to me that this had once been a modern city. You can walk around and see bullet holes in the walls and burnt out cars but for some reason, imagining people going about their business riding the tram just made the place somewhere I could relate to.

The reasons offered for the murders vary but generally speaking it seems that with the Allied D-Day landings four days previously offering new hope to the French Resistance, the Germans felt a need to send a message - a brutal message - that this would be crushed. It's also said to have been a direct reprisal for some relatively low level Resistance attacks on a German tank convoy heading north through the area towards Normandy - which could possibly have been as minor as two pissed French guys on a hill taking potshots at the convoy. (According to a friend from the area).





The worst of it was in the church, where after some shooting, the majority of people were burned alive, only one woman escaping by jumping through a window 20 feet from the ground.

I realise this isn't the most cheery of posts but memories of walking through this place still affect me - both in making a concrete connection to the barbarism that humanity is capable of but also in helping me to put my own trivial problems into perspective.

As an Australian, World War 2 has always been somewhat an arms length thing - we know the stories and people who might have fought there but the realities of having the Nazis (or Japanese) walking down your streets is a whole other thing. Certainly a much bigger thing than anything that might trouble me. (I can't even think of anything that I'd care to list, that's how trivial it all seems).

Walking through other cities in France, I'd occasionally think about this and the fact that a string of invaders walked these streets through history, along with The Terror of the latter parts of the French Revolution and the seemingly endless parade of wars of conquest over the last few millenia and I'd really wonder how much we as a species have it together. But then I'd see elements of the beauty and the goodness and the progress we have made and realise that it's all much bigger and far more complicated than that and that life goes on.

Still, it seems important that we never forget the darkness we are capable of.
Which is why I'll remember Oradour-Sur-Glane.

Loving: Flight of the Conchords

Yeah I know they've been around a little while now but I've finally caught up with Flight of the Conchords after catching little snippets of their show on YouTube and on tv.

And I'm happy to say that they live up to the hype.

I bought their self-titled album the other day and it's been on the cd player ever since.

For the as yet uninitiated, FOTC is "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo" and in the last few years they've had a meteoric rise to fame, with a BBC1 radio series and now a successful HBO (Home of Bloody Oarsome) tv series.

Musically I'd put them somewhere in same field as Ween in terms of musical ingenuity, fun and their ability to effortlessly cross genres but they have a slightly more consistent sound and a Beck like ability to bring the groove. There are probably a number of other influences I'm not cool enough to have picked up on although it does seem as though they might like a little Bowie as well (judging by the all-eras Bowie tribute song called "Bowie" on the album)

The full first season of the tv show is winging it's way towards my place as we speak so I'll probably report on this at another time - for now, these clips from YouTube speak for themselves.

(Reinforcing my theory that the inclusion of robots automatically makes anything 50% cooler)



(Too many mutha uckers, ucking with my shi)

Struggling: with the assignment

11 days to go and I'm still researching every imaginable element of FPS gaming - by now I should be well on to designing a game and writing a report about the whys and wherefores, but the more I read the more ideas I have and the broader the project gets.

I still don't know whether to design a game for non-gamers or experienced gamers and haven't even come close to content yet (which I think will be learning language vocabulary but I'm not positive)

Yikes.

Pondering: a payment system for musicians

Insight on SBS last night had an interesting (if slightly shallow) look into the issue of music file sharing (or piracy if you will.)

They took the usual mixture of musicians, young downloaders (all teens), ISP nerds, media academics and the odd music industry bod and had a really good chat about the issues. As you might expect, the teens saw nothing wrong with what they were doing in general and had a number of self justifications for their actions - including the fact that they didn't want to pay for another Hummer for Kanye West (though they had the decency to feel embarrassed/apologise to the artists present that they had downloaded.

The artists were more ambivalent, not liking missing out on direct money for cds but appreciating the value of expanding their fan base and getting more people to live shows. The record labels were unsurprisingly outraged and produced figures which seemed entirely made up (though they were only questioned once on this by a media academic and former muso) which suggested that a billion songs are "stolen" every year, which translates to about $200M in lost revenue in Australia alone.

After a point it seems that the boots were out for the ISPs, who were seen as profitting the most from this traffic. Jenny Mackie, the host - who I normally hold in high regard - seemed a little out of her techo depth here, putting across the view (which was accepted by pretty well the whole audience) that every bit and byte of ISP traffic converts directly to extra payment by the user. The reality of course being the people go on set plans with x amount of data (unless they are suckers willing to pay extra punishment fees for exceeding these amounts - generally what you get with cheap plans) which means that transferring music costs no more than anything else. The feeling was that the ISPs should somehow be paying the music industry (and I wonder how much of that would hit the artists) for the actions of their users.

The issue of how much record labels screw artists over was another one that no-one raised - my understanding is that the proportion of money from CD sales that ends up in the hands of artists is scandalously low, and only after the labels "expenses" have all been accounted for.

The issue of songwriter income came up which was a pretty valid point that I hadn't factored in previously.

Anyways, I was thinking about this all this morning and was wondering if there might be room for a paypal kind of service that enabled fans to make direct micro-payments to "support" their favourite artists. (i.e get a little guilt reduction by paying for downloaded songs) (Not sure how song-writers fit in there but perhaps this information could also be provided or if you chose to "support" a song, the donation could be split between the two)

I can see more issues arising with something like this - listed artists bearing the ire of their labels and fans wanting anonymity in case they were labelled as pirates (rather than just fans wanting to give their favourite bands a little extra cash)

Just a thought. (Interesting that you can watch the whole show online for free too - not uncommon I know but I like the contrast)

LOLing: The Delusionists

The Delusionists are a group of university comedy revue types, much the same as the D-Generation, The Chaser and Monty Python started out. They're from Sydney and I have no problem putting them into the company of those three - their stuff really works and they know how to end a sketch.

Jesus: Healer, Preacher, Carpenter



Dick in a bottle. (In case you can't tell)



A few good men

Loving: Oz

You can tell when I have major work to do - I seem to discover some amazing new distraction for "study breaks".

I've been watching Oz, a dark, gritty prison drama for a while now but I've just finished the 4th season and it really is getting better and better. (At times it seems to be going a little over the top with the melodrama and the speed with which worlds of crap seem to poor down on the heads of everyone - but shit man, it's Oz and it's ok.)

Oz is set in Emerald City, the experimental unit of Oswald State Correctional Facility, which means that rather than bars everywhere, the prisoners live in a more open plan kind of place, with the cells closed off by some kind of plexiglass. From a tv perspective this makes a lot of sense as you have a much clearer view of the whole goings on.

Being an HBO show (home of The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under - basically anything good from America that's been on tv in the last 10 years - except The West Wing), you get the full in-your-face gamut of language, sex, violence, drug use and other adult content. If you don't have a couple of people being brutally shanked (stabbed), beaten or otherwise killed in an episode, it's a slow week in the prison.

Episodes are tied together by some kind of overarching theme, provided by the shows narrator (of sorts), wheelchair bound Augustus Hill. These are often philosophical in nature and have ranged from the wide variety of home-made knives you find in a prison to famous people who have been prisoners (Galileo etc) and broader reflections on family or revenge.

I started searching the YouTube videos for something to show you but hit one spoiler and don't want to know any more. The link will give you an idea anyways.

Here's a clip I've put up previously that shows what happens when Seinfeld comes to visit Oz. (This came about because Seinfeld's cousin plays a thug biker in the show and apparently Jerry visits the set from time to time)

Seinfeld in Oz
by renzo433

Feeling: the pressure

14 days to go and 6400 words (and 2 game designs) to be done.

Shame that it's also a fairly busy time workwise.

I'd really rather start playing GTA IV right about now.

LOLing: Simon's cat

It's funny because it's true.

Enjoying: mean doctor slang

Ever wondered about the often incomprehensible acronyms and scribbles on medical charts? Chances are the doctor has more to say that you might think - and it's not always nice.

This website lists hundreds - possibly thousands - of these terms and makes for some entertaining reading.

Some of my personal faves:

Donorcycle - motorbike: the biggest cause of donated organs!
BTSOOM - Beats The Sh*t Out Of Me
PRATFO - Patient Reassured And Told to F*** Off
DENTIST - Doesn't Even Need Treatment - It's Sorted, Truly
LFTWM - Looking for 3 Wise Men (applied to young pregnant females who deny having had intercourse)
LGFD - looks good from door (but not closely examined, possibly an obnoxious patient)

Choosing: new wallpaper.

One good thing about the trip and the plethora of pix that came with it is the opportunity to change my desktop. These are the current choices.



(Holyrood Park, Edinburgh)



(One of the many oddly hyper symmetrical forests dotted around the countryside of southern France)

Dreaming: about going to Hell

Not a title you might expect to see all that often but I had a fragment of a dream this morning that is still bouncing around my lobes in a not entirely comfortable way. The details are fading fast but the vibe remains.

I was in a line in a marginally shabby hall near a few simple office tables with people sitting processing forms. One of the tables had a small machine similar to those used for finger-prick blood sugar analysis type tests but I was a little disturbed by the fact that they didn't change the needle between people, as though it really didn't matter anyway.

I hestitated about this and was told something along the lines of "just do it you baby" so I put my finger (my middle finger) in but turned it around nail side down. There was a small prick of the finger and a tiny drop of blood and then I wrapped it in a messy looking cotton-ballesque/papery kind of bundle.

I then proceeded through some narrow rooms, on my way somewhere and in the first were sinks/trenches(?) full of sewage (which looked a little like the toxic waste sections of Portal) and the next housed a man washing his hands that I knew I didn't want to talk to. There was suddenly a lot of nice looking sinks with soap beside them and after the last room I felt as though I wanted to wash my hands but felt that I shouldn't, it was a trap. Around this point I think I realised that this was hell and it was only going to get worse.

All very disturbing really - in my half awake state I then pondered what my hell would really be like - loud and crowded and aggessive dogs barking perhaps - and even now I have this vaguely uneasy sense.

I can put it down to the stir fry I made last night with a bunch of chilli in conjunction with being asked to formalise my Godfather status of some friends kid perhaps (which by the way I'm not in the least bit troubled about) and who knows what else is going on in my head.

I'm not a particularly religious person and I see the concept of Hell as a construct for social control but it wasn't a pleasant dream.

To top it off, there is a slightly lame half inflated blimp outside my window now which keeps bringing to mind the Spinal Tap episode of The Simpsons -

[During the Spinal Tap concert, a large devil appears and immediately deflates]
Tufnel: Well. It seems some silly twit did not get a big enough oxygen tank, but that's supposed to be a devil.
St. Hubbins: Filled up with air, it's very evil and impressive.
Smalls: We salute you, our half-inflated Dark Lord!

I have a strange mind sometimes methinks.

Investigating: Possible uses for First Person Perspective/Shooter games in education

Yep, it's this old hobby-horse again but I still believe that FPP/FPS games can prove useful in education. Research into this field is still a little scant but I have found some useful stuff - not just about using these games in military training either.

This is the proposal that I've put together for a uni project to investigate these options - now I have a whopping great 21 days to put together the 6400 words I've promised to deliver (and 2 game prototypes - or at least designs)

Title:
Creating the First Person Learner: Educational Applications of the First Person Shooter game genre.

1. Abstract
Gameplay in First Person Shooter (FPS) games is generally highly structured with the player given limited options in terms of the paths they can take and the decisions that they can make. They are often taught a specific skill, practise it for a period of time and when they have adequately demonstrated it, they are given progressively more advanced skills.

This often reflects students’ initial experiences of Vocational Education and Training (VET), during which they spend large amounts of time methodically developing foundation skills and knowledge in their chosen discipline.
This proposal describes a study that aims to investigate the potential uses of First Person Shooter style games as learning tools for students in the VET sector. It will centre around identifying the unique characteristics of the FPS genre and examining ways in which varying educational approaches might be applied to the design of FPS style games for these learners.

2. Introduction
While the use of computer games in education has been widely researched in recent years (Prensky, 2006), a significant focus of this research has been on the development of higher level skills such as problem solving and collaboration in third-person perspective games and particularly virtual worlds such as Second Life. (Kay, 2007)

Much less attention has been paid to the first person perspective genre, typified by the highly popular (and sometimes controversial) First Person Shooter. An initial scan of educational and games research however has indicated that this genre possesses a number of relatively unique characteristics that mesh well with behaviourist, cognitivist and even constructivist approaches to education.

Behaviourist.
Robyler and Havriluk (1997) point out that among the “needs addressed by directed instruction” (their term for the Behaviourist approach) are “making learning paths more efficient... especially for instruction in skills that are prerequisite to higher-level skills” and “performing time-consuming and labor intensive tasks (e.g., skill practice), freeing teacher time for other, more complex student needs”.

In 2005, Oliver and Pelletier devised a methodology which permitted a detailed analysis of how people learn from particular instances of game play. They compared a player of an FPS game (Deux Ex) who played a level having previously used a training level with one who had not. Unsurprisingly, the player who had played the heavily structured and repetitive training level first progressed through the level far more quickly than the second player and also mastered a number of essential skills that the second player did not.

Cognitivist
In 2001, Fuchs and Eckermann developed Expositur – ein virtueller Wissenraum, a game based collaborative project showcasing ten Viennese museums. This first person perspective knowledge space, built using the Unreal FPS game engine, made use of loci, a place based mnemotechnique dating back to the ancient Greeks, to enhance the meaning of its virtual museum exhibits by “connecting seemingly unrelated imagery to gain insight into visual similarities and connotations”(p.84).



They considered “the freedom of the user to go his or her own way in the virtual environment as an important feature that allows for individually shaped relational networks inside a complex field of knowledge”(p.84), which ties in well with Ertmer and Newby's description of knowledge acquisition under Cognitivism as “a mental activity that entails internal coding and structuring by the learner”. (1993, p.58).


Constructivist
Some researchers have also investigated the use of FPS games to develop higher level skills in decision making and problem solving using authentic and immersive scenario based learning approaches commonly found in the constructivist approach to education. (Colvin, Clark & Mayer, 2007). Barlow and Lewis from the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) presented a paper to the SimTecT conference in 2005 discussing their use of a customised FPS game (Operation Flashpoint) to develop and examine the tactical decision making skills of ADFA students in a variety of authentic scenarios.

I believe that elements from all of these approaches can be successfully integrated into an FPS based learning game, whether it be a drill based reinforcement of key concepts, using the arrangement of information in three dimensional space as a cognitive aid or engaging students with an authentic and immersive scenario based learning experience.

3. Methodology
This project will draw on the ADDIE instructional systems design model. This is a five stage process involving Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation and represents “a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools”. (Wikipedia, 2008) Given time and resource constraints, the project will focus on the first three stages of the ADDIE process.

In the Analysis phase I will initially seek to answer a number of questions which will give me a better idea of the strengths of the FPS genre, suitable content and activities for the games, evaluation strategies and pedagogical approaches to developing these games. Given my stated aim of examining games suitable for VET students, this will initially involve identifying particular types of structured tasks that would be appropriate to this form however all options will be considered as they arise.

Some of the key questions to be considered are:
What is the anatomy of an FPS game?
How do FPS games differ from third person perspective and virtual world games and what advantages do they offer?
How can FPS games be educational?
What kind of educational approaches lend themselves to this type of games based learning?
What are the factors that might determine the most appropriate target audience for an FPS based learning game?
What impact might game violence or destruction of virtual objects have on the learning experience?
In what circumstances might game violence or destruction of objects be appropriate in a learning activity?
Do single player and multiplayer games support different educational approaches?

A number of game design questions will also be considered including:
To what extent does the level of realistic representation of the learners' environment affect their engagement with the game?
What makes a game enjoyable and what makes a player want to play a game repeatedly?

In answering these questions I will draw on existing research into the use of games in education in general then focus on the use of FPS games and environments specifically.

I have a growing list of game oriented resources at http://del.icio.us/colsim/edugames
which will be my first port of call. From there I'll also look into writing from Marc Prensky, James Gee, the Serious Games Initiative, Constance Steinkuehler, Jack Thompson and other games in education writers and theorists as a starting point.

I will also make contact with Barlow and Lewis at ADFA and teachers at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, a respected game design school in Canberra.

Based on the findings of this research, I will develop design statements for and build prototypes of two small games using FPS Creator, a game development software package. These games will serve to demonstrate some of the possible practical applications of the FPS game genre in education.

5. Results and Discussion
Assessment of this project will centre around a final report which documents and discusses the outcomes of this research. This report will examine the methodology used and outline the answers found to the questions listed earlier. It will consider the success or failure of my attempts to integrate learning strategies into FPS based games and consider approaches for future developments of educational games.

During the course of the project I will regularly discuss the use of games and particularly FPS games in education by posting observations and reflections on my edublog at http://gamelearner.edublogs.org. This reflection process will enable me to formulate my ideas and seek feedback from the wider games in education community. I will include a summary of these posts as an appendix to the report.

I will also include an annotated bibliography of the six most significant publications that I find in my research .

Due date:
June 13, 2008
Final Report – Methodology and findings
4000 words
50%

June 13, 2008
Annotated Bibliography (6 x 200 words)
1200 words
15%

June 13, 2008
Reflections
1200 words
15%

June 13, 2008
Game prototypes x 2
N/A
N/A


Easy right? :)

LOLing: Yahtzee reviews Painkiller

Painkiller is an old school first person shooter game from a couple of years ago now and hilarious game reviewer Yahtzee appears to have enjoyed it a lot. (He says it far better than I ever could so just enjoy the clip)

Remembering: the London Eye

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Originally uploaded by Couch media

I'm not sure if this is cheating (in blogging terms) but I have a tonne of pix from the trip and it seems wasteful not to make use of some of the better ones.

I like this one because it gives a sense of the scale of the London Eye and the menacing clouds in the background add a little drama to it. (You can click on the image to see the larger version)

For a glorified ferris wheel it was probably a little exxy at 15.50 (pounds, not dollars) but after a while you get a little immune to the tourist trap gouge and just figure - well, what the hell, might as well see what the fuss is about.

A spin around the wheel takes around 30 minutes and is somewhat pretentiously referred to as a "flight". (Evidently something to do with British Airways early involvement with the project according to the PC)

I have to confess that I was keener to try the Eye after seeing Karl and Susan having a go on it on an episode of Neighbours last year (although they had a bubble to themselves and weren't sharing with a German family with an uncanny knack for being everywhere you want to go)

There were some pretty impressive overall views from the thing - but not really translating so well to photos and it was impressive to get a bird's eye perspective of the endless muddle of streets that make up the city but I wouldn't write home about it (unless I had some blog space to fill :)

Returning: from the Tour

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Originally uploaded by Couch media

Both the Tour Eiffel and "the tour" (the whole grand 6 week thang).

Amazing, just amazing. After a few early attempts to keep posting, it soon seemed more important to just be getting out there and getting into it, so apologies if you've been missing me but I'm sure you understand.

I'm still processing everything at the moment (and re-acclimatising) and I want to try to avoid boring people with endless banging on but I'll run through a story or two in posts to come. I'm also (slowly) putting pics up which are in the slideshow below.

In short, highlights:

U.K - London's hustle and bustle, the greenery, the history, trying haggis, Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, the Welsh countryside, Portmeirion (Wales, where The Prisoner was filmed), the Tate Modern, stumbling upon William Blake's grave

France - the food, the good looking people, the lush countryside, the considerate drivers (seriously), the very nice trains, the food, smooth wines, Rickard (an aniseedy apertif), the OTT grandeur of the chateaus, seeing Da Vinci's grave, visiting Oradour village war memorial, the anarchy of Paris traffic



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Feeling: for the train conductor

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Originally uploaded by Couch media

This is a station in Wales

Still loving France - just having trouble getting pics up online
So far we have seen Angouleme, St Emilion, Bordeaux, Bergerac, Perigeuex and now Limoges

Visiting: the village

DSC02046
Originally uploaded by Couch media

Fans of The Prisoner might recognise this place - it is a tripped out private village on the coast of Wales called Portmeirion. Strange and beautiful place.

Meanwhile we are a week into the France leg of the trip and it is still awesome - countryside, architecture, food - I may not come back

Fighting: French keyboards

The trip is fantastiqué but this french keyboard layout is driving me nuts

The trip is fqntqstiaue but this french keyboqrd lqyout is driving ,e nuts
The auick brozn fox ju,ps over the lqwy dog

Nu,bers qre qll in Cqpitqls; the comma is now a ;

gaaaaaaah :)

Visiting: Sunny Llandudno beach

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Originally uploaded by Couch media

It's a cliché to take the piss out of English (and Welsh) beaches but it's hard not to sometimes.