Category: general

I’m done with it even if it isn’t done!

So I turned in my draft of my prospectus a week and a half late. Oh well.

I did a bit of pruning and adding to the blogroll so check it out.

I always like checking out new gaming blogs and it is sad when one stops updating or disappears. There are a couple I left on the list that haven’t updated for about 6 months and I just can’t make myself delete them. I keep hoping that they will update again some time. I know I’ve gone a month or two without updating so I try to cut them some slack. I’ve been blogging on my own website since January of 2004 and on on geocities since around mid-2002 and I know it is tough to keep updating so I’m hoping that the blogs will come back to life. (which reminds me, I’ve got some old posts over on geocities somewhere I should import. I guess that is what winter break is for…)

Prospectus

So my first real draft of my prospectus was due last friday. I still haven’t turned it in. I’ve got something but I still don’t feel comfortable turning it in.

I think the biggest problem is that the only time we read a prospectus is when we are writing one. So I don’t really know what a prospectus actually looks like so I don’t really know if I’m doing it correctly.

grrrr….. I guess I’ll hack around on it a bit more and email it off Sunday before I leave town.

must resist urge to start playing new game…

I’m no Rock Band All-star but I am a little slow…

A week and a half or so ago there was a Rock Band contest held on campus. I had played Guitar Hero 2 a little but and I was in a band back in high school so even though I had never played Rock Band I figured I would go and check it out. Well, it turns out that I ended up on the drums and even though I had messed around on our drummers drum set playing drums in Rock Band ain’t the same as playing a real drum set (for one the drum pads that take the place of the cymbals are at the same level as the ones that are supposed to be drums which means that it makes it hard if not downright too hard to bother with to hit the “snare” with your left hand and the “high hat” with your right so you end up doing the snare with your right hand and the high hat with your left). Needless to say we did not win.

This week I had an interview for a teaching fellowship so I went to get a new suit. While I was at it I figured I would go to Radio Shack to pick up some stuff I needed. One of the things I was going to get at the shack was watch batteries. You see, I had got this little key chain sound maker thing out of a gumball-style vending machine and I pressed the button on it and it didn’t make any noise. So I’ve been meaning to get batteries for this thing since I came back from Tokyo so I go to Radio Shack and tell the salesperson I need batteries for it and she looks at it and pulls out this little plastic tab sticking out of the back and it works.

So I’ve had this noise maker thing for something like two and a half months and all I had to do was pull the tab out so the batteries would make contact…

Can you digg it?

This is mainly for anyone who reads this stuff through rss, but I thought it would be useful to give a heads up. Lately I’ve been making an effort to submit and digg any interesting stories I come across that are gaming related. If you go to the main page you can see them on the right but if you really care you can put my digg rss feed into your newsreader http://digg.com/rss/jccalhoun/index2.xml
I’m trying not to digg stories like “OMG teh trailer for GTA4 is out!!!!” but rather stories that are a bit deeper and have something more to them than simply posting the latest press release and when I run across what I think it a particularly good blog post I try to submit it to digg so it will show up in that fee as well. …and that feed is probably the only place anyone will see it since I think the most any of my stories has gotten is like 6 diggs or something…
So if you care, subscribe to the rss. If you don’t then subscribe anyway!

Monday night Starz shows Hollywood Goes Gaming

I don’t have Starz so hopefully someone will make this “available” online. Monday night Starz is going to show Hollywood Goes Gaming. However, based on the description I wouldn’t get my hopes up for a knowledgeable or accurate discussion:

Hollywood makes movies based on video games – “300”, Lara Croft – and hit video games are often created from movies (“The Godfather”, “Scarface”). Meet the stars and players from both industries in this Starz Originals production. 2007, TV14, USA

We all remember that great game that inspired the movie 300, right? It wasn’t as if 300 was based on a comic book and not a game or anything…

Still, I’m sure it will be worth a look for those that have Starz.

What’s in (the lack of) a name?

So I’m doing what most videogame studies people do, reading Edge Magazine and I notice something. This is something that most people have probably noticed years ago but I’m a little slow sometimes. So what did I notice?

The articles in Edge Magazine are apparently created from the hive mind of the magazine’s staff because they don’t list the writer’s name on any of the articles. When I bought this issue of Edge I also bought Games™ Magazine which slavishly follows Edge’s style and layout and they don’t give their writers credit either. Well that isn’t entirely true, because Edge does qive their columnists credit.

So columnists are more important than the person who writes the cover story? Is this common practice in the UK or in certain types of periodicals? I can only assume that they are attempting to give the magazine a uniform style and don’t want to single out anyone. But what does it say about game journalism that the most respected videogame magazine doesn’t tell you who is writing what?

AoIR Vancouver

So for the 3rd time in something like 2 years I’ve just gotten back from a conference in Vancouver. Vancouver must be some academic conference magnet or something.

AoIR was a good experience. Met some people from other departments in IU. Met some people from THE Ohio State U. Caught up with a couple people I had met at other conferences. Good stuff.

The conference was held at Simon Frasier University. I couldn’t help but think that there was a “T” missing from all of the SFU logos I saw around.

I gave my paper on the last day of the conference, during the last session, in the biggest room (the same room the keynotes were held in). The other person that was supposed to be on my panel didn’t show so it was just me. I’m sure the 6 people who showed up enjoyed my rousing presentation that raised lots of questions but offered no answers.

While DiGRA was great — mainly because it was in Tokyo — I think I made a lot more connections and had a lot better conversations with people at AoIR.

I have to say though that I’m all traveled out. Going to two different countries two months in a row and being 6ft 4 flying in coach is not my idea of a good time. Tall people shouldn’t have to ride in coach!

Now on to writing that prospectus thingy…