Year: 2007

Or more specifically, the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” is up for an Emmy.

Quite a lot of the humor in this episode didn’t work unless you had some sense of what a virtual world was — and not just what Hollywood thought it was (Lawnmower Man, Disclosure, I am thinking of you!) but what they actually work like.

So the fact that the episode is seen as being that worthy is some sort of cultural metric for general awareness and understanding of virtual worlds and MMOs — at least among the Academy voting membership.

Chore Wars :: Earning Experience Points for Housework is another application of game logic to serious work, brought to you by the guy who made Urban Dead.

Chores are supposed to be serious. I can’t seem to get my kids to take them seriously, even by attaching monetary valuation to them.

Interestingly, the kids did have a good run about two weeks ago. The reason? They had found they wre missing a Pokemon game for the Gamecube from a few years ago. So they had to have it. And we refused to buy it, and told them they had to spend their own money. Goal established. Next, the game framework: they already earned dollars for their allownace by doing chores, but Kristen set it up so that whichever kid did more chores won the week and the higher dollar amount. The competition was on, and they did something like ten times the usual number of chores that week, and bought the game. Now they’ve reverted to their usual slothful behavior. 😉

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And I guess I need to feel quite flattered.

And no, knowing him, he wouldn’t say this just because he’s on our advisory board.

The other four:

• Ted Castronova
• Jessica Mulligan
• Jake Song
• Roy Trubshaw

I think I might have to shoot myself if asked to come up with a similar list. He himself mentions Philip Rosedale and Rob Pardo…

I almost linked this beautiful Second Life video the other day, but didn’t. Now New World Notes has an extended article describing how it was made.

Some interesting things to think about with this:

1. This was done in a multiplayer world. There’s nothing multiplayer about it. The power here comes from the ease of construction, not the setting. This could have been made in Maya or 3DStudio Max. But I bet the presence of an avatar adds a lot to the vibe.
2. The movie is, to my mind, art. In other words, it’s art in the form of machinima, made with a VW as a tool. But I am less sure that the in-world installation would be or was as powerful — the lack of music, of narrative, and so on, probably made it far less compelling.

How times change.

The site was knocked out of commission yesterday by a link from Penny Arcade. In his usual inimitable style, Tycho commented that perhaps I wasn’t crazy when I said that single-playing gaming was doomed.

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