Arden, the world of William Shakespeare, and also of Edward Castronova who conceived the online experience, has been released last week, together with Castronova’s book “Exodus to the Virtual World”.You can play it here.Various press releases highlight in turn its educational potential, the power of virtual worlds as “theme” social networks, the power of interaction and play in learning and so on. The question on how much can virtual worlds fall into the category of “gaming” is still open.At first sight Arden might fall under “adaptation” rather than transmedial storytelling, but in fact the player is engaged in creating new subplots within the storyworld, so the whole experience is truly cross media. I just started playing, will update later.A post on Terranova by Castronova says that as an experience “it’s rather boring” (it’s just a quote!) and that several of the playtesters said “Where are the monsters?”Apparently the lack of monsters were badly affecting the game experience. The answer to that was to take back Arden I and release Arden II: London’s Burning, which was initially conceived as a game.(This would answer somehow the question if virtual worlds experience can be considered as “gaming”, and the answer would be a sound “no” - more debate to follow)So, what you can see now online is Arden I, boring, apparently (I didn’t say that), but of immense interest for the academic community.

“Creative Minds United Against Global Warming” was the slogan I wrote on last year’s Christmas cards, I never thought it would become a competition, with a juicy prize of 500.000 euros..
Born from the union of the Dutch Postcode Lottery and PICNIC network, the same organization behind the Cross Media Week, the Green Challenge is a competition to create a product or a service to help fight climate change. The idea must be realizable on the market within two years. In addition to the prize money, the winner will receive expert coaching and support for the implementation of the idea.
Deadline for entries is August 30
Help save the world!

Technorati Tags: Call for papers, cross media, event, pervasive games

another great chance to ponder about the interrelation between cross media structure and games, and another call for papers that I am going to miss:

“The Future Play Conference focuses on three main themes. The first theme, future game development, addresses academic research and emerging industry trends in the area of game technology and game design. The second theme, future game impacts and applications, includes academic research and emerging industry trends focused on designing games for learning, for gender, for serious purposes, and to impact society. Finally, the third theme, future game talent, is designed to provide a number of industry and academic perspectives on the knowledge, skills, and attitude it takes to excel in the games industry.

Future Play addresses these issues through exciting and thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper sessions, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), workshops (including design, technology, and career workshops), and exhibitions of posters, games, and the latest game technologies and supports from industry-leading vendors. The highlight of the games exhibition is a peer-reviewed competition of games in three categories: Indie Games, Serious Games, and Student Games.

For Future Play 2007, Algoma University College teams up with the Ontario University Institute of Technology to bring you some of the most thought provoking and talented people in the gaming world today.”

Submission deadline: June 30, 2007

Technorati Tags: Call for papers, conference, event, games