This week on Spark’s regular, over-the-air radio broadcast, you’ll hear Spark 126: Games, Games, Games! which first aired in November 2010. But you won’t hear Spark 126 this week on the podcast, because we’ve promised no more podcast repeats. We’ll be back with a brand-new episode of Spark next week.
In the meantime, you can listen to the original broadcast of the whole show below (runs 54:00).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:00 — 24.8MB)
You can also listen to individual stories below.
Reward for Repetition
World of Warcraft is an on-line multi-player role-playing game. It can suck up a lot of your time, but it’s also a place where people make friendships and connections. And then there’s the “grinding”. Now, take your mind out of the gutter, “grinding” in WoW refers to repetitive tasks that are done to increase your character’s power in the game. Or, something like that. To find out, Nora spoke with Michelle Hoyle, a cybertechnologist & educator at the Open University (UK), and an avid WoW player. Michelle’s PhD research (with the School of Informatics at The University of Sussex) is in looking at WoW as a learning environment, so we went to her first to find out why some games are such a grind. (Runs 7:59)
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Games and Girls
When it comes to games in the 21st C, we still haven’t come that long a way, baby. Women are still underrepresented in the gaming community – both as players and as designers. Nora spoke with Jennifer Jenson, a game designer and a Professor at York University in Toronto. She recently completed a 3-year study of gender and digital gameplay. (Runs 12:11)
Play audio:
- Jennifer Jenson
- 3G Summitt – The Future of Girls, Gaming, and Gender
- Full uncut version of interview with Jennifer Jenson
Games as Art
One of the biggest debates about gaming is: can a video game be a piece of art? Earlier this year, film reviewer Roger Ebert got himself a lot of attention when he pronounced that video games can never be art. But some people in Canada’s thriving indie game scene beg to differ. Jim Munroe is an indie game community organizer and game developer in Toronto. And Mare Sheppard is a game developer from Toronto, who currently lives in Tokyo. She’s also the co-creator of “N.” (Runs 7:26)
Play audio:
- Download “N” here
- Jim Munroe’s blog
- The Hand Eye Society
- Roger Ebert – Video Games Can Never Be Art
- Music in the piece from Osmos
The Gamification of Our Lives
As gaming evolves in both theory and practice, a fascinating new trend is emerging. Now more than ever we are seeing the real world and game experiences combined. It’s The Game of Life – for real this time. Games have proven to be powerful motivators in influencing the choices we as humans make. Something in video games seems to touch a primal need in our psyche to achieve. Nora spoke with Seth Priebatsch, the “Chief Ninja” at Scvngr – a gaming company that is building a network that intertwines real world experiences with game dynamics. (Runs 9:09)
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Putting the Fun Back in Games
So we’ve heard a lot about intertwining our real lives with game mechanics, and how sometimes games give us tasks that are repetitive, boring, and suck time like there’s no tomorrow. Dan Hon has another request: keep gaming fun. Dan is a senior member of Wieden + Kennedy’s creative team where he specializes in games, play, and new ways of storytelling. Dan’s concern is that pretty soon everything from brushing your teeth to filling out your income tax return will be an opportunity to score. This could make gaming about the grinding chore of collecting points instead of true enjoyment. (Runs 8:00)
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Additional Information
For more information (and instructions) visit cbc.ca/podcasting
Hey, today's show about game design issues gave me an idea to ask the greater Spark community something that has been on my mind: is anyone aware of a program for talented teenagers – or other computer aficionados – to get involved in game design? I have a son who just picked up app design as a hobby, but he is not officially qualified and feels that he could not apply for any jobs in the industry. Are there places where people could get their feet wet?
I like the fact that you allow us to talk about things related to relaxation and other self-improving ways like
meditation techniques for beginners