Gamasutra has a feature article entitled “Videogame Aesthetics: The Future!” which is a nice read. Some of the issues raised have been frequent topics on some of the CG sites, so this piece does a decent job of pulling some related things together. And because I’m relatively well-informed on comic book artists, the author’s comments citing that medium as a good example of visual diversity won points with me. The only fault I really find with the article is the focus on videogames to the exclusion of other, similarly immersive experiences. It was nice to see mention of game mods and even tools like the Quake NPR renderer, but some immersive environments have done noteworthy things (to be fair, many others are as guilty as most regular videogames in their uninspired visuals). Perhaps that exclusionary focus was set up by the intro and the discussion centering on aesthetics vs gameplay (virtual worlds having no “gameplay” to speak of); but I would have liked to have seen it opened up a bit. Perhaps next time.

Nice interview over on BusinessWeek discussing the design of the US $6000 Logan automobile with designer Kenneth Melville. I thought the one-piece injection-molded dash was interesting. As was his comment on swallowing one’s pride to meet the goals of the project (anyone who has worked at a simple plastic products company where cost was a huge issue has done this). Sure seems like the design industry doesn’t speak enough to that issue.

Over the past several months I’ve posted a series of questions on the Second Life forum Hotline requesting more complete guidance on the advertising of real products/services inside the SL virtual world (see earlier entry – reLink). It appears that RW advertising within Linden Lab’s Second Life simulation has a clear, green light. From the Hotline response:

A company wishing to set up a business in Second Life can purchase land in Second Life from Linden Lab (whole sims) or from Second Life residents (parcels of any size).

That company could do so directly or through an agent. In either case we would want to be sure that in fact the sales are being done with the blessing of the company (in your example Nike) and are not actually trademark violations.

I assumed this would be the response – once it finally came. Linden Lab effectively opened the door when they brought up the issue of legitimate use of corporate trademarks by residents implying that there was a valid circumstance under which this could be done. Next up: convincing RW corporate marketing that virtual world advertising makes sense and is cost-effective.

I actually caught this a few days ago but still wanted to post it here figuring a few people haven’t come across news of the press release from Siemens. From the Siemens website:

Siemens developers have produced extremely thin, miniature color displays that can be printed onto paper or foil. And the displays can be produced at very low cost compared to LCD panels. The first displays will become available on the market in 2007.

Visions of “Minority Report” cereal boxes danced through their heads…

{via MIT’s Adverlab}

{Image Copyright © 2005 Siemens Corp.}

Having been offline on vacation for most of the past week I’m amazed at how much news I miss. And of course being out of sync with the latest in what’s going on makes tuning in more difficult. However, maybe being a little out of sync is a good thing, since it got me to read something I might not have made time to read. BusinessWeek has an interesting article on Chinese handset design corporation TechFaith. It’s not long and worth the read. I have to wonder if there’s room for a mid-position R&D player and consequently whether TechFaith will eventually become a larger corporation (ala Palm or RIM), perhaps shrink (as indicated by the downward valuation of their stock) to be more of a niche market player, or somehow hold the middle ground.