This concept for the Mariinsky Cultural Center in St. Petersburg, Russia caught my eye as it reminds me of something I mentioned earlier: virtual constructs in real world 3D maps. Even if this image were a real photo and not a cg render, it’d still feel like something I’d expect to see inside a videogame. That mix of glass and brick is probably the reason. In any event, it’s a funky concept. Read more about it here.

via Dexigner

{Image source: Eric Owen Moss Architects}

Just yesterday I read an interesting post over on Blog Maverick. Mark Cuban basically lays out a way to create a self-policing environment for some forms of online content (specifically written content). I’ve had similar ideas for some time and even emailed some of them to Stephen King years ago when he was attempting to go straight to consumers with his online, chapter-by-chapter novel (which, btw, failed). From my perspective, the bottom line has always been: people are selfish and creators have to make it worth everyone’s while – especially fans – to not “share” virtual content. In King’s case, I recommended things like assigning a “lottery” code to a legitimate download; something that could later be used in some way. For example, including a fan’s name and details into a future novel. Or meeting and having dinner with a small group of fans during a book tour. Stuff like that. More than one entry (say, from someone who received an illegally-shared download) negated all submissions from that one lottery number. Tie that download to something they might want later, and watch fans guard that content tooth and nail.

Now I’ve just read about Google’s new service over on C|Net that seems to tie right into Cuban’s idea. From the C|Net article:

Google is set to launch on Monday a free Web analytics service that will let companies see exactly how visitors interact with their Web site and how their advertising campaigns are faring.

Google Analytics will let Web site owners see exactly where visitors to their site are coming from, what links on the site are getting the most traffic, what pages visitors are viewing, how long people stay on the site, which products on merchant sites are being sold and where people give up in multistep checkout processes, said Paul Muret, an engineering director at Google and one of the founders of Urchin.

It doesn’t end there. Read both Cuban’s post and the news article and let’s see if self-serving self-policing does the trick. I hope so.

I think I played, or rather, tried to play Dungeons & Dragons sometime in the late 70’s. Once. Considering I was a Tolkien fan and had read quite a bit of Michael Moorcock‘s “Eternal Champion” stuff (especially Elric), in addition to being an avid reader of Heavy Metal, one would think I was a natural for D&D. But for some reason it didn’t click with me. And from the description of the forthcoming Dungeons & Dragons videogame, it probably won’t be my goblet of tea either. But eventually it might. From this article on C|Net:

Indeed, Tom Nichols, Turbine’s vice president of marketing, said that while it won’t happen in the earliest versions of the game, which is now in beta testing, the hope is that in the not-too-distant future, D&D Online will feature user-created content. That could include such things as custom dungeons and the ability for dungeon masters to manage campaigns rather than groups of players going on quests directed by the game itself.

Did someone say “user-created content”? This sounds like an opportunity to mash-up the technology behind “Spore” (see previous posts: 1, 2) with an established game that needs that kind of flexibility. Now that would pique my interest.

Via Boing Boing comes word of an open source version of Dance Dance Revolution called StepMania. While familiar with Dance Dance, I’ve neither played it nor given it much thought. But this bit over on Boing Boing caught my attention: “Two dance pads plus a USB controller are about $30 (shipping included) on eBay and they work great with Stepmania… even on my Mac.” Wow. That’s inexpensive. Certainly someone out there is modding the Quake 3 source to take advantage of something like this. Keep on the lookout.

The ever-dependable BusinessWeek has an informative article on the growth of Industrial Design in China. For Core77 forum readers, much of this is already known as some knowledgeable forum members have previously posted chunks of the same info online, while some other Western designers have either made the move to China or are trying to find work in China and discussing those things (from salary negotiations to corporate culture). But the article does an excellent job of synthesizing all those bits into a nice whole. From the problems of design piracy and increased offshoring to the Chinese success stories, it wraps a number of issues into an easy-to-read piece. Highly recommended reading.