mbf tod@y is dead, long live mbf tod@y

Hello everybody. This is the last post to mbf tod@y. My blog has been superseded by version 0.2, which can be reached in a matter of seconds by clicking here. The upgraded version is more flexible and, hopefully, graphically more pleasant. I plan to transfer all the contents of this blog to my new one asap, so right now the new blog looks rather thin. Thank you all for visiting mbf tod@y! See you at mbf tod@y 0.2...

Ciao ragazzi. Questo e' l'ultimo aggiornamento a mbf tod@y. D'ora in poi, orientate i vostri browser verso la versione 0.2 di mbf tod@y, che potete trovare qui. Grazie a tutti per l'attenzione. Ci vediamo presto su mbf tod@y 0.2

Copenhagen rules

I'm back in Milan after a fantastic weekend in Copenhagen, where I gave a speech on SimCity at the mighty ITU, probably the hottest place on the planet for game studies. As you can read on this month's EDGE, "The IT University processes masters students through its Center for Computer Games Research, where programmes combine technical and cultural studies. From September, a new Game Education postgraduate programme, which amalgamates resources from ITU and three other local universities, will offer units that correspond to actual jobs on the game development team. However, assistant professor Troels Degn Johannson is quickly to add that the courses are education, not strictly vocational. While many graduates will find jobs in the industry, he feels it's equally important that the research they contribute to during their time at ITU can accelerate the understanding of what makes a great videogame, and applying this to new forms and concepts" (EDGE, May 2004, p. 078).
I could not agree more.

MUST PLAY: GAMERS NIGHT GROOVE PRESENTS 8-BIT SPECIAL NIGHT

For the lucky ones who live in NYC:

"This month, GNG (Gamers Nite Groove) takes you back to a simpler time, before all the 1024 bit Super-DVD Polygon Cel Shading Ultra-realistic madness overloading our TV screens today. Check out a schmorgasbord of classic titles, including Castlevania, Gradius, Zelda, Dr. Mario, and some of the most beloved series like Double Dragon, Mega Man, and Contra, plus tons more!

With ten separate screens and two full size projectors, all NES angles are sure to be covered! If you feel like taking a break from the 8-bit festivities, come check out our screening of classic video-gaming film The Wizard, starring everybody's favorite wonder boy Fred Savage. Watch as he unveils Mario 3 for the first time to an unsuspecting late 80's audience!

In keeping with the spirit of GNG, We have invited some unique and talented performers to provide us with just the right musical vibe to accompany your 8-bit flashback! Zone out to the sounds of Bubblyfish(http://www.bubblyfish.com)
and Null Sleep (http://www.8bitpeoples.com/nullsleep/) as they combine a futuristic Techno sensibility with the antiquated sounds coming out of their Gameboys-turned-instruments for something truly original, and only fitting for an event like this! Hope to see you there!"

VENUE: Tribeca Grand Hotel, NYC: 2 Avenue of The Americas
WHEN: Mon, April 26, 8pm to 12am
TICKETS: $7 at the door
NEW YORK-TOKYO: http://www.newyork-tokyo.com

Hideo Kojima on the state of Japanese game journalism

"It is shit". Metal Gear's creator is not very diplomatic when it comes to Japanese game journos. "Most Japanese reporters who come here from an interview - Kojima says in the current issue of EDGE - haven't done their homework; they haven't done their research, and you hardly consider them being intelligent creatures at all [...] I am certain that most game reporters in Japan are not really journalists, they are useless idiots". Kojima also said that "It's easy for us to compare the quality of reporters from Japan and other parts of the world when we visit E3 or ECTS, and this fact makes me hard." You can read the complete interview, "Jojima versus the Big Robots", on the May edition of either EDGE or VIDEOGIOCHI.

I just had to...

Aldo 9's new book has been slaughtered on Ibs review page. I had to do something about it. Fact is: Aldo 9 is way ahead of its times. No wonder the average reader despises and even ridicules his works. If Aldo 9 is a "wannabe writer", Alessandro del Piero is a "wannabe soccer player"...
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Stunt Drivin' in Sin Moscow

Let's face it. When it comes to driving, Italians are nuts. There is nothing scarier than crossing a street of an Italian city. But again, Milan is safe if compared to Moscow. This is why I can't wait to play Buka's action racing sim Moscow Rush. The idea is to race around the Russian metropolis in an attempt to earn cash, "Players will start out behind the wheel of a jalopy and before experiencing “infinite freedom” in the realms of upgrade options and career opportunities". Note the subtle product placement in the screenshot...
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Countdown to Denmark

I'm about to leave for beautiful Copenhagen, also known as the Mecca of game studies. I'll be giving a lecture at ITU on one of my obsessions, SimCity, as a part of the Center for Computer Game Research ongoing lecture series (which featured, among the others, Eric Zimmermann, Brian Sutton-Smith, Sue Morris, and Mary Flanagan). The title of the speech is: "All too urban. A game for free gamers. Playing SimCity and everything that comes with it". As you might know, the ITU is for game studies what Paris was in the late '50s for cinema: a place where the most talented and brightest game scholars discuss, analyze, and even design video games. The dream team includes such players as Gonzalo Frasca, Jesper Juul, Susana Tosca, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen and many, many more. The equivalent of Bazin is Dr. Espen Aarseth, author of the seminal Cybertext..

All too urban. A game for free gamers. Playing SimCity and everything that comes with it
I will discuss the evolution of the series (1989-2004, 15 years of simulating the urban). My lecture will focus on the many cultural aspects embedded in SimCity. I will also talk about how we play SimCity - what do we do with Will Wright's software toy? Why? As a player, I'm more interested on the experiential side [the effects of the game on the player] rather than the inner workings of the text, although I am aware that the two cannot be easily separated. I will use existing analysis of SimCity as a starting point to talk about 'something completely different'. Because to me videogames are not just 'texts' but, rather, ways of seeing the world...
Expect a very personal, solipsistic and overall useless account of a simulation that changed the way we play.

More info and directions right here.

Apocalypse Now: the Fan's Cut

Professor Sonia Livingstone is touring the facility, i.e. IULM University in Milan. Early today we discussed the role of the audience in the new media landscape. I have been a long-timer supporter (fan?) of Henry Jenkins's theories on fandom culture, while the rest of the PhD crew is much more conservative on this topic. I had to stand the usual observation that "fans that dress up as their media heroes are not going to change the world" (which is the most superficial reading of the fans community you could possibly produce - it is as if I described the semioticians as a bunch of nerds who like to draw greimasian squares...), Anyway, round two of the debate starts tomorrow. Feel free to enter into the arena. More info regarding the complete schedule of talks, lectures, and workshops can be found right here.
Talking about the role of fans in the new media landscape... An Italian company called Impronte Digitali (literally, Fingerprints) is producing a special version of Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now". It will be created with the suggestions of fans and released on DVD at the end of the month... You can find the fans' desiderata here. I wonder what Francis is going to say about this :-)

Corriere on Ludologica

Marco Consoli writes about Ludologica and simulation on today's edition of Corriere della Sera - Multimedia section (no link to the page, unfortunately). Are simulations the future of politics? Read the article to find out...

SolidLandscapes sneak preview

Uber-flat artist Mauro Ceolin chose the Armoury exhibit @ S. Angelo Lodigiano to display the first piece of his groundbreaking new series, SolidLandscapes.
The philosophy of the project is simple, yet intriguing. Ceolin believes that videogame spaces represent a brand new form of conceptualizing and representing reality. He does not really buy the old real vs. virtual dichotomy. At the same time, he refuses the Baudrillardian/post-modern view that we live in the age of simulacra, thus all images are equal. Through his art, Ceolin uses the ‘contested spaces’ of videogames such as Grand Theft Auto and Tony Hawk Underground to show that they are not just metaphors, but ‘lived’ worlds.
He deliberately deletes all the proper ‘narrative’ elements that normally appear in the images (characters, objects etc.) in order to privilege the gamescape per se, i.e. a series of solid components also known as textured polygons. SolidLandscapes thus becomes a series of postcards from our videoludic present. Rather than a critical commentary to our ‘lived’ spaces architecture, SolidLandscapes is both an illustration and a condensation of space (and time) itself. In other words: videogame spaces should not be considered elaborations, modifications, or transformations of existing spaces. On the contrary, they represent a new form of thinking and producing space.
Just like Victor Burgin or Ron Burnett, Ceolin consider images as “hybrid mental constructs composed of fragments derived from the heterogeneous sources that constitute the media” and from our very own field of vision. This idea, by the way, is shared by Mario Ricco, who is currently writing a book on the logics of representation of Polyphony’s Gran Turismo. Chapter four of his analysis is ambitiously entitled “For a new conception of space and time”...

Stay tuned for more information about SolidLandscapes [update: the complete series will be presented in May].

Introducing SunTan

Alright, I can’t sleep again. I could meditate, ingest kawa kawa pills or swallow chamomile tea... Naaah, too predictable. I think I will procrastinate in front of my PC as a pathetic insomniac instead. Anyhow, here’s a $1+ million idea that I’m giving away for free because I’m a pathetic insomniac. I first thought about this at the GDC, which is sort of scary. I was talking to Aki and Ian while nonchalantly glancing at super tanned and healthy-looking Californians and, bang, it just hit me. Ok, follow me. EyeToy is big. EyeToy is fun. EyeToy rules. But, at the end of the day, it is just a game. We need something bigger, faster, brighter… Ta-dah! Introducing SunTan, a USB device for your PC and/or console that allows you to get a cool tan indoor! Picture this. On the right we have Mr. Gino Pino from Smallville, Italy. Gino Pino is bullied at school by jocks and girls because he looks pale as a pathetic insomniac who spends way too much time killing zombies or webloggin’. Gino Pino is contemplating various options (including quitting school for good, link to John Cheever’s Bullet Park). But then one day his best friend tells him about SunTan, a USB device for his PC and/or console that allows him to get a cool tan indoor and Gino Pino literally sees some light at the end of the tunnel. Gino Pino buys SunTan at Amazon.com. The installation requires four seconds. The healthy-looking tan is achieved after a few sessions of Unreal Tournament. I mean, can you see the freakin’ potential? This could be bigger than hula-hops (link to the Cohen Bros’ Hudsucker Proxy). We could sell this piece of crap, I mean, this high tech device for something like $59.99 (plus shipping and handling), make a million dollar and retire on a tropical island. The USP is “SunTan makes you look healthy even if you a misanthrope who spends his/her waking hours playing Counter-Strike”. The revolutionary technique to tanning for the game generation. Aki suggested we put a very tiny disclaimer regarding the, er, potential skin damage, something like “SunTan could cause premature aging, skin deterioration, and, occasionally, death”. We will clearly rely on a microscopic font. We could diversify the SunTan line and sell a “normal” version that emits UVA rays that get you tanned while you type something idiotic on your blog at 2 am or play a simple game on your PS2; plus a “deluxe” interactive version, whose UVA emissions are directly affected by the onscreen content. For instance, let’s say you’re playing Lionhead’s Fable (BTW, will it ever materialize? Who knows. I was sort of disappointed by the GDC presentation, but that’s another story). If it is broad daylight in the game world the SunTan USB lamp will emit intense UVA rays. If it is night – in the game world – it is switched off and you cannot activate it (it could become something else, a laser pointer, maybe? A simulation of Hal 9000 eye? Whatever). This could sell more than the silicone bra that increases your breast size (it really works! I'm using it). We could make a portable version and call it iTan. We could seel eVitamins to boost your tan, some virtual beta carotene, you know... We could…
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…