Iife, Round Two

We played The Game of Life again in class today. This time, we played a game from a different time era. The first round, I played the most current version. The second time, I played the version from the 50's. The two games were strikingly different. The older version was much more complicated. It seemed like the game was dummed down over time. Also, something key to note was that the game seemed much more "real" to life, and there was gambling! They probably edited the game to be more ethical for families, you know, that good family values junk (lame). It was interesting to see how the game changed over the course of a few decades.

Choose Your Own Adventure Books

We had the assignment of reading a choose your own adventure book over the weekend. We had to read it three times. Not as exciting as I had hoped. I read Escape by R.A. Montgomery. The book was in the first person, so, "I" was a leader of a spy mission in the year 2035, and I had to escape from behind enemy lines with 3 other people. The first time I read it, I was out of food in these mountains in enemy territory, and I was about to die. But, in two sentences, I was rescued and the story was over. The story took me about ten minutes to read. The second time through a similar ending occurred. I was saved in the last two sentences I read. I tried to make a few bad decisions, but no matter what I chose, I always made it out. The books were fun though, and they were interactive because I was participating in creating the story. The story couldn't finish without my help. The ending couldn't happen unless I chose how it happened.

Dungeons & Dragons Interactive DVD

Today in class, we watched a Dungeons & Dragons interactive DVD. The DVD let you choose what decisions were made by the characters. The movie was alright. It was animation from the year 2000, so it was a little lame. The characters were annoying, but every once in a while, a funny line would find its way in. It was created by nerdy gamers most likely, so the script was nothing worthy of good. The DVD kept my attention when the class had to make a decision for the characters. This DVD was interactive because it requires the participation of the viewer. The DVD can't reach the end of the story without the help of the viewer.
When I think about what defines the DVD as interactive, I think about vinyl records. Could an LP be considered interactive? I think so because in order to get to the end of the album, you have to flip the record. The end of the media experience cannot occur without the listener's participation. Also, just like the things I've talked about in previous posts, the experience can't end without the participation of the player, listener, or viewer. Overall, the DVD experience was different and entertaining.

Virtual Pets

In 6th grade, I got a c- in my integrated math and science class. Why? Because I was feeding and pooping my friend's tamagotchi virtual pet. Was I a loser? No, it wasn't mine. Do I have a virtual pet now? Yes, well, I downloaded one a few minutes ago and it's sleeping right now on my Mac's dashboard. It's going to be an experiment. I'm going to see how well I can take care of it, and I'll post updates here. I was always intrigued by the things, but I never got into 'em. I've heard of people taking hours and hours of their day to take care of these things. (I wonder how my little Flappie will do with the little attention I have to spare). Here's his picture -

Post a comment to message him and I'll make sure he gets it.

Interactive Advertising

I'm an advertising major and right now I'm doing some research on interactive media advertising. I'm looking into advertising in video games particularly. It's interesting how interactive media has boomed in the last decade due to the internet and video games and what not. I think advertising using these media is also noteworthy. When I play a video game now, I constantly see ads. Also, I've noticed lately the increase in video and computer games put out by corporations. I remember the first one I played was a few years ago - Cap'n Crunch's Crunchling Adventures. I had to feed a "crunchling" crunch berries till it was big enough to go on adventures and defeat evil Cap'n Crunch enemies while riding a skateboard down a busy street. I'm still not exactly sure what a "crunchling" is, but the game was entertaining. I've seen Burger King release a video game for Xbox. So, what do you think about interactive advertising in the form of video and computer games? Post a comment and say if you like it, don't like it, don't care, or maybe say why to any of those. You and the Cap'n make it happen!

Happy Meal Sega Games

We played with some little lcd sega games in class today that came from a Mckey D's Happy Meal. I think these little games could be considered interactive because the player has to engage in the game and interact with it. They have to "choose their own adventure" in the game. The player creates their own moves and each time they play, the moves are different. It was fun playing the games as first, but got a little frustrating and annoying as time passed. We were required to play for 15 minutes, which doesn't seem like very long. The games got old fast, and the constant beeps and squeaks from the game got annoying (didn't help that 20 other people were adding to that). The thing that stood out the most was the sound of a winner every minute or so. The games do a series of different toned beeps at the end of the game to signify victory. As I would be concentrating on my game, I would hear a winner every minute or so. I didn't like the constant beeps I guess, and the stupid car racing game was impossible to beat, but overall it was fun. This experience could be turned into an art experience by synchronizing the games with other players to make a song. If a group of players started the games in an orderly fashion (first person goes, then 10 seconds later the next and so on), then the games would create a song of beeps as the player moves and wins at the end. Every "song" would be a little different too, but if everyone won, the "song" would end with the victory beeps from each player. - The blue one owned me-

The Game of Life

Today we played The Game of Life in class. This game, like other board games is interactive because it requires the players to control the game and dictate the results (to a certain degree). The players have to spin the spinner, move the pieces and choose the cards. The players make decisions about how they want to play the game. While playing, I noticed how much I had to do to make the game work. Spin the spinner, move the little car with me and my wife in, put kids in the back of our station wagon, pick a career card and salary card, adn so on. This board game could be turned into an art experience bycomparing the ending lives of all the players. Ever players' lives change throughout the game (they change jobs, go to school, have kids...). Playing the board game was a little different than playing the Happy-Meal game in that the board game offered a few more ways to make the results different. The Happy-Meal game also had a set amount of max time for the experience. After about 3 minutes, you were either dead or you beat the game. In the board game, some of the groups in class finished before the others. There was no set max amount of time before the interaction would end.

Flip Books (question mark?)

So I was thinking about what some different kinds of interactive media could be. I went to wikipedia to see what other people have said about interactive media, and in the terminology section, I noticed one example of interactive media is flip books. I never thought about how you have to interact with flip books. In order to experience the art in the flip book, you have to flip the book - creating interactivity. I don't know about anyone else, but I used to make flip books all the time in school when I was bored. I always made the classic stick figure who would run up a hill and then fall off the side of a cliff where he would fall for a few frames before he slammed into the ground and his stick figure body parts went flying all over the post-it-note page. Check out this one below. Reminds me of a young director I used to know (myself).

Gallery Idea

I had an idea for a sweet gallery to show any kind of art. Most galleries (well, most that I know) have an open format for viewing showings. After experiencing the "The Telephone" that I talked about below, I was thinking about how much I liked the fact that I had to walk down a corridor to get into the piece. So, what if there was a gallery that was like a giant maze, and down ever dead end, or in different cubby corners, there would be pieces of art. I think this maze format would have cause the viewer to interact more with the gallery and the pieces in it. I just think that corridors leading to art add a certain interactive element to viewing pieces. I would get excited to see what's next. I would think about what could be down the next corridor. When I normally walk into a gallery, I usually wander to the pieces of art that really catch my eye first, and sometimes I don't even go to the ones that don't really appeal to me at first sight. Going down a corridor would get me excited about every piece. Maybe I'll post a sketch of my idea.

Exhibit Experience

I went to the new exhibit in the Museum of Art today. I walked around and experienced the different pieces there. The exhibit was called Video and Photography from the Western Bridge. I walked around the museum, but I really only looked at the two pieces that really caught my eye. Then, I heard something - the sound of a telephone. Then I heard it again, and again. I was drawn to the far side of the museum, where I was led by the increasing sounds down a hallway and into a large room with a movie running. The film was called, "The Telephone." It was a piece about the progression of the use of the telephone in a conversation. That was my take at least. It was really interesting how the artist, Christian Marclay, guided the viewer through the progression with sound. The film started with the dialing of the numbers. A few clips were shown from different 20th century films. Then the film progressed through the process of a phone call using many different clips pieced together and synchronized. One of the best parts was that the music that would play on a individual clips appeared to go along with the piece as a whole. My favorite part was at the end of the film when there were long pauses in the conversations happening in the different clips. The long pauses really drew me into the piece. I liked how I was drawn into the piece by the sounds. I had to walk down the hallway and into the room to experience the piece.

Woorden One

So, my blog. Thinking about interactive media, a lot of things come to mind. In the posts to follow, I will hopefully share my thoughts about interactive media through text, pictures, video and who knows what else. I'll explore advertising and marketing techniques, campaigns, and technology, as well as share art and discuss whatever I find interesting within these rhelms.