Terra Nova

A Theory of Fun (The Art of War)

There are many online discussions regarding Raph Koster's Theory of Fun ("ToF", e.g. 1., 2., 3., 4.,5.) .   It is an insightful read from a thoughtful industry insider, and equally notable, it is  provocative  for the questions it raises. 

Virtual Magic Kingdom: It’s a Virtual World After All

Many Terra Nova readers have no doubt already heard about the impending launch of Disney’s “Virtual Magic Kingdom,” which will (re)construct several popular theme park attractions like the Haunted House and Space Mountain in a virtual MMOG environment.  This is a promotional project with the specific goal of motivating increased visits to Disney theme parks.

Sex 101

Finally (in this flurry of post-age), GGA has a bit on Sociolotron, the visual alternative to cybering.  Coincidentally, Wired has a bit on them too.  Games like this have been around for a while, and there's not much new to report.  But it's been a while since we talked about sex and VWs.  Thoughts?

Advertising 101

Second up, the announcement of the inaugural Advertising in Games Forum is attracting some attention. Game Girl Advance is not crazy about what this means for the future of games.

Critiquing Crawford

Chris Crawford was kind enough to send over a review copy of "Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling." Between State of Play 2, Accelerating Change, my own writing tasks, and Second Life, reading his book kept getting pushed down the stack, but I've finally had a chance to read it. I disagree with Chris on several points, but I still quite enjoyed it. I also appreciate his zeal in blazing his own path.

Read on for the ups and downs of "On Interactive Storytelling."

Economics 101

There is so much VW/MMOG discussion in the blogosphere today that I can't begin to make sense of it all. So I figured I'd spew out some placeholders for others to follow up on. First up:

The Economist has a short piece on game economics (subscription required), with the obligatory quotes from Ted. Best discussion on this is probably happening over at Crooked Timber, lead by the genuinely marvellous John Quiggin (whom I admire not just because he's Australian (like me) but who, alas, mispells Ted's surname).

We've done a lot on this before, so I won't make any comments here. They have some active comments running at the moment.

Will The Real Explorer Please Stand Up?

There is an ongoing discussion at another thread about how Thottbot impacts Explorers. While several people identify as being an Explorer, and others talk about what an Explorer is, it's not clear whether everyone is talking about the same thing

In da hood

TN readers will no doubt be aware that 404 games are working on a ‘hip-hop’ MMO. The list of collaborators is starting to read like a who’s who of rap and now includes DJ Pooh a.k.a Mark Jordan “writer” of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

I started to imagine role playing a character like the one that I play GTA:SA, this immediately started to make me wonder about the idea of what one might call “race-bending”.

Do You Trust Me?

Power, information, and trust frequently trade-off in interesting ways in virtual (as well as real) spaces. 

Rules & Borders

Santa Clara University School of Law is hosting Rules & Borders: Regulating Digital Environments on February 11th.    It looks like a good mix of industry folks, law professors, and legal practitioners.  The panel topics look very interesting--of special note is the "Ownership in Online Worlds" panel, which will be moderated by Professor Tyler Ochoa.