Category Archives: reTransmit

cool things I’ve learned from others directly or found online which hopefully relate to the core topics of the blog

Parisi Speaks

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Nice couple pages over on C|Net about the (re-)emergence of web 3D in an interview with vr pioneer Tony Parisi. Good article. The only issue I have is this quote from Mr. Parisi:

The bulk of the interface design will come from (the) gaming community, with additional innovation through these proprietary 3D chat worlds. But in most of these chat rooms, there’s nothing to do! You see someone’s avatar, and they’re picking their nose. It’s a piece of glitz attached to text chat. In an application like “Everquest,” you have exactly the same environment design and you’re there to do something. There has to be a purpose.

There is no real “purpose” in Second Life either other than what people who sign on bring to it, yet they somehow either manage to find things to do or not – just like most people do in real life. The assumption that people want to do more doesn’t really jive with what I’m discovering. Not everyone wants to spend their evenings slaying dragons or mining virtual gold or, for that matter, creating virtual content or managing virtual property; alot of people just chat about real life issues. So in that way, these 3D interfaces are more like teleconferencing than gaming. Now that the technology is here, we might discover that most people would rather just talk than fire their BFG’s at each other.

I also wonder if Parisi is aware of the serious discussion going on about open-sourcing Second Life. I mean, how can Linden Labs not be aware of the open source solutions beginning to invade their space… one of the people behind Croquet is giving a virtual talk inside Second Life! Interesting times. Now excuse me while I load Maya and work on a nose-picking animation.

XBox 360 Design Process

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When people there were asked what company might have made the console, they guessed Sony or Apple. That thrilled Microsoft executives.

*sigh*

Doesn’t Microsoft already make products? Don’t those have a design language and strategy behind them? What happened?

Read the full spiel here. Via Blue’s News.

To What Degree?

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Interesting C|Net article on the growing numbers of Game Design undergraduate degrees. Some interesting points were the conflict between the technical, hands-on side and the academic observational side (tbh, what comes to mind are a bunch of professors who want to play, but can’t for fear they’ll ruin their credentials!). And the “burn-out” issue was also interesting. That brought to mind the whole Electronic Art’s “sweatshop” thing from a few months back when a worker’s spouse blogged about how bad the working conditions were… here in the U.S. of A. It also reminded me of my visit to the Polycount site yesterday. What was once a forum bustling with activity has been relatively quiet for some time now (the new, higher game design standards seem to be taking their toll on casual modders). Looks like the industry really is growing up.

Not So Fast Company

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Via Core77 comes word that Fast Company magazine’s June 2005 offering is an “all-design” issue. I have to admit, from what I’ve read online I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, any publicity is good publicity… right? But with articles like “How to Act Like a Designer” and “ … Or Just Look Like One”, is this the right message when the biggest problem in the professional design world is the general perception that Design is superficial? and something you can farm out overseas for free (the cost of design being wrapped up in other, higher-cost program items like tooling)?

I know. Some of the articles address that problem. Let’s just hope the guy who rushes out to buy his black turtleneck and tre’ cool specs gets that far before he starts using those articles for toilet paper.

[Note: I’ve fixed/updated the links to the two articles. Fast Company apparently updated the headline on that second article a few weeks after it was originally posted; the two articles originally came as a pair. And as you can see via their time stamp versus when this post was published, they were updated as a pair.]

Where’s My Mood Ring?

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There’s really nothing in this article, “Digital Fashions On The Horizon“, over on CNN that’s news to some of us, but posting the link here because it’s being covered by mainstream media… and that’s still of interest. I’m wondering how long before some journalist does a real interview with someone that makes a living doing virtual fashions (a couple candidates come to mind). Just wait til XBox 360 makes micro-transactions for player-created content a reality (assuming that the currently discussed, limited capability is breached; gamers are plenty resourceful). Or Sony’s new System Exchange comes online. There’s going to be an interesting little hiccup in the Real world when that happens.