I’ve previously mentioned that the videogame mod community is having a hard time keeping up with increasingly complex content – specifically the CAD-like accuracy of the game model files used to create the normal-mapped textures that make the lower-geometry models look much more detailed. Most often I mention this issue when I discuss the options available for industrial designers and the opportunities being presented by this new reality. I see this as one part of a bigger shift toward a “content is king” world.

Need evidence that there’s a widening gap between the casual modder/modeler and the improving standards? Well, check out the recent news regarding the IGF 2006 Modding Competition over on Gamasutra (Link). From the article:

Finally, the finalists for IGF Best Mod – Doom 3 are Platinum Arts’s co-op ‘classic Doom’ throwback Last Man Standing, and Games[CC]’s closed captioning modification Doom3[CC] – no other entries in this category were of finalist quality.

The idea that an id game could be short of entries is almost unthinkable considering their place in videogame modification history. But I’m not sure which is more curious: the missing Doom3 mods, or the missing designers.

via Blue’s News

It may be called a “Virtual NYC Tour”, but it’s really just a slick use of Google Maps, a digital camera and some browser code. It’s neat (see for yourself – Link), but I didn’t lose myself in the idea of actually being in NYC the way I do when playing a videogame, which is the way I think of virtuality. Maybe after we figure out what “organic” really means on all the grocery store packaging out there, we can find time for “virtual”.

via Blue’s News

I’ve wondered aloud on this blog and elsewhere why companies aren’t hiring videogame modelers to create game content to be used freely for game modifications as a way of both getting free advertising and avoiding the wrath of gamers who traditionally despise real-world advertising shoehorned into their favorite game. If some mod or “total conversion” author chooses to include the branded content, gamers can either accept how the author has integrated that content or not play the mod. Simple as that. And with no repercussions. But leave it to media-savvy (and sneaky) Chrysler to use a back door… with keys.

Clickable Culture today has posted an entry (Link) concerning Chrysler-branded content shipping with the machinima-making videogame, “The Movies“. The revelation over at CC apparently came about as a result of outside blog traffic discussing a Sundance-sponsored machinima contest (as reported by the Hollywood Reporter and relayed via online website Backstage – Link). The new machinima video competition is titled “Chrysler in the Movies: Virtual Film Competition” and it’s set to be launched January 20th. Furthermore, it requires that participants use the Lionhead Studios videogame to create their entry (a shame, Half-Life 2’s higher-quality content and lip-synch capability make it a superior (example) – if more difficult to master – tool for machinima creation).

But as Tony Walsh over at Clickable Culture points out, “I think it’s fair to say this is not a contest about art, it’s a contest about marketing”; and as such, all that probably really matters is getting the logo to look good. However, as I commented on his blog, a real surprise would have been seeing Ford or GM creatively using these media avenues to market their cars. As posted earlier (Links), Chrysler already knows how to play this game.

As an aside, I’m wondering if Chrysler (via Lionhead) intends to update content (see my earlier posts/comments – Link 1, Link2, Link 3 – to understand why I ask).

Via Wonderland comes further evidence that the DIY revolution is in full swing. Introducing “SWITCH” (Link), a television program targeting females and which is, in its own words, “a Do It Yourself show where we create fun and fashionable items with electronics“. Cool. But I guess that excludes potato guns. Or for that matter anything to do with magnets. Having caught Bravo’s fashion unreality tv show, Project Runway, over the holidays (file under: Guilty Pleasure), SWITCH’s guest star, Diana Eng, is familiar to me. Anyone who designs female fashions with repelling magnetic clasps has my attention. Let the happy accidents commence! It’s sure better than an exploding potato gun.

{Interesting and a bit odd to see this story gain traction (e.g. Link). It’s almost as if the world’s never heard of Marie Curie or Grace Hopper.}

I’m not going to post a quote from Evan Douglis’s outstanding article over on Architectural Record, “Dazzle Topologies” (Link), because if you don’t follow him in the first paragraph you may as well just stick with the slideshow (available through this Link) … which is well worth a look. In particular, I’m really liking the REptile–Haku Japanese Restaurant work (detail from the tiles shown above).

I’ll definitely have to find the time to both visit that restaurant and search for more of Douglis’s work.

via We Make Money Not Art

{Image Copyright © Michael Moran}