Month: August 2003

From various sources, a game called Carabella Goes To College: You play the role of Carabella who begins at college – you then have to make decisions about what personal information you want to share with various companies and institutions.

It’s a game for the slightly paranoid and most of the decisions are pretty clear: The game is hosted on a site called privacyactivism.org. Do they think that you should be giving your email address away?

It makes me think of Gonzalo Frasca‘s call for political games: I always fear this kind of thing – some set-in-stone ideology that the game wants to hammer into your head. I just don’t believe that the plainly didactic is ever that interesting – art needs to have some sort of doubt or open-endedness to be worthwhile.

I tend not to write much about my work-in-progress, but let me try:

One of my basic arguments is that the rules of a game are designed to (and evolve to) be so clear and unambiguous that it is always clear whether a given action is allowed or not.
At the same time, actually playing a card game, board game, or any outdoor game like croquet tends to lead to much discussion about what rules to follow. I have played thousands of games and seen thousands of games played where discussion erupted around these things: Can you shoot the ball through the center hoops of the croquet field in any direction? Can you borrow money from other players in Monopoly? Can you move both clockwise and counterclockwise during the same turn in Trivial Pursuit?

I have seen this arguing about rules so many times, but for academic purposes, I need a source: Did anybody ever write about this? Any anthropological studies?

It is one of those academic moments: It would be much easier if I could quote somebody else saying this. (Perhaps I should write that article myself under pseudonym?)

The alternatives are 1) to plainly claim that that’s the way it is or perhaps 2) to do a microscopic anthropological study:
“Copenhagen, the evening of August 14th 2003. 4 young men are playing croquet on Halmtorvet. As the leader of the game shoots his ball through the center hoops of the playing field, a violent discussion erupts: Must you shoot through the center hoops from a specific angle; do you need to pass through both hoops or is one enough?”

Any sources, any ideas?

Which is the better game, Snood or Bust’a’move?

Let me get that: Bust’a’move (AKA Puzzle Bobble) is a wonderfully simple puzzle game with tons of Japanese cool:

Snood is a cheap, poorly executed ripoff with graphics seemingly done in Windows Paint.

Don’t know why, but a lot of people (especially in North America?) play Snood rather than Bust’a’move, Henry Jenkins here.

Hello? Stop playing Snood and get the real thing instead!

Still, if anyone could explain why a large white worm comes out of Pukadon’s belly when you select him (Super Bust’a’move on PS2) … ehr, what is this supposed to signify?