Free Culture Game
http://www.molleindustria.org/freeculturegame-eng

Is Google Planning To Buy Valve?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view
http://www.hrej.cz/novinky/2008/09/17/google-kupuje-valve/

More evidence that satire doesn't transmit over the interwebs
A game in which your "task" is to "wipe the Muslim race from the face of the Earth" has, predictably, got people wound up
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/gamesblog/2008/sep/11/blogpost1

MAHISH: dodej .))

MAHISH: jj, ta se hodí do života zvídavého člověka .)

KHALAVERA: po třech měsících mám před sebou už jen pár stránek, super kniha:)

Buying Spore, or just renting?

I admit I haven't yet picked up a copy of Spore (beginning of the school year and all) but I figured it was being released to universal acclaim, sales, yada yada. And of course all of the pre-release information hyped the game to no end, and fans seemed, well, fanatic, about getting their hands on the game. What a difference a day or two makes. Check out the review scores for Spore on Amazon's site. As of my writing this, there are 1840 1-star reviews of the game. Why?

Not the gameplay, it seems, but the DRM protection. A common complaint from reviewers-- 'you don't buy this game, you rent it!' You need to go online to authenticate the game (nothing new there) and the game allows you to authenticate three times before having to call and ask permission for more authentications from EA (disclaimer: I'm taking this from the reviews, so if the information is incorrect, please post and let me know). Seems very close to Apple's iTunes model of managing music, thus causing the user to carefully ponder just how/where/when to 'spend' those few copies.

While Spore isn't technically a virtual world (or is it?), this also brings back parallels for me of players' rights in virtual worlds. If we are encouraged to see these worlds as our new Commons, our coffeehouses, etc, do we have any say in how we use them? Will this outrage amount to anything for Wright's creation? For future games? And as we probably don't own that epic gear in MMOGs, so too, maybe we are only renting our single player games now as well?

http://terranova.blogs.com/

AVATAR the new you
MYFANWY ASHMORE (CANADA), ARAM BARTHOLL (GERMANY), TOBIAS BERNSTRUP (SWEDEN), ZENG HAN & YANG CHANGHONG (CHINA), DANIEL HANDAL (USA), CLAUDIA HART (USA), CEES-JAN KIEWIET / WYRIHAXIMUS (NETHERLANDS), DAVID MELÉNDEZ (MEXICO), STEVE MILLAR / ARAHAN CLAVEAU (UK), MELISSA RAMOS & RHYS TURNER (AUSTRALIA), JUSTIN SHOULDER (AUSTRALIA) TALE OF TALES GAME DESIGN FORUM (BELGIUM)

Curated by Malcolm Smith
The original Avatars came from Indian mythology; they were the bodies the Gods used when they chose to walk upon the earth. Today the term Avatar is more commonly associated with the graphical action figures we use when we play games in online worlds. Like virtual alter-egos, our avatars can be whoever we want them to be; musclebound commandos, lithe blood elves, penguins or Pokemon.
If you are on Facebook, Myspace, a dating site or if you can Google yourself, you have a virtual identity. As more and more of our time is spent online; socialising, conducting business, broadcasting our opinions or looking for love; the way we are perceived there is becoming as important as in real life. Avatars are more than a puppet or a plaything; they are the new you.
The artists in this exhibition are inspired by Popular Culture rather than High Art, through games such as World of Warcraft or Half Life, virtual environments such as Second Life or the Sims, or content sharing sites such as Flickr, and Youtube. They question conventional attitudes towards gender, spirituality, violence, technology, sexuality and identity, examining how these issues have been transformed by online technologies.

http://tmp.acp.org.au/current/index.php#gallery1

Who plays, how much, and why? Debunking the stereotypical gamer profile
Dmitri Williams, Nick Yee, Scott E. Caplan
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/121394419/ABSTRACT

Rozhovor s CORY ARCANGEL ( [ MAHISH @ Game culture, art and studies & ludology... a tak ] )
http://contemporary-magazines.com/profile84.htm

MOYYO: ja jedu ve ctvrtek

// ot: ste tady nekdo na ty gcdc? :)

A Bridge between Virtual Worlds
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21203/?nlid=1265&a=f

NFS soundtrack meets WoW characters hehe:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJXz8nNxLLA

MAHISH: no to si musíš prodloužit registraci

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KHALAVERA: mi to píše

Your online subscription to
"Space and Culture"
has EXPIRED as of 1 Jun 2008.

tak nevím...

sage má otevřené do konce září kulturní žurnály a jeden z nich se teď věnuje virtuálním světům

A new issue of Space and Culture is available online:
1 August 2008; Vol. 11, No. 3

The below Table of Contents is available online at: http://sac.sagepub.com/content/vol11/issue3/?etoc

The Geography of Virtual Worlds: An Introduction
Eric Gordon
Space and Culture 2008;11 200-203
http://sac.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/11/3/200

Placeworlds: Using Virtual Worlds to Foster Civic Engagement
Eric Gordon and Gene Koo
Space and Culture 2008;11 204-221
http://sac.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/3/204

Datascape: A Synthesis of Digital and Embodied Worlds
Eric Kabisch
Space and Culture 2008;11 222-238
http://sac.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/3/222

The Experience of Embodied Space in Virtual Worlds: An Ethnography of a Second Life Community
Shaowen Bardzell and William Odom
Space and Culture 2008;11 239-259
http://sac.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/3/239

Spatial Regimes of the Digital Playground: Cultural Functions of Spatial Practices in Computer Games
Sybille Lammes
Space and Culture 2008;11 260-272
http://sac.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/3/260

The Case for Education in Virtual Worlds
Rebecca Nesson and Charles Nesson
Space and Culture 2008;11 273-284
http://sac.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/3/273