http://www.antimodal.com/archives/36 Art, technology, and hype from the desk of Brandon Rickman Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:37:30 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 http://www.antimodal.com/archives/36/comment-page-1#comment-40 Brandon Mon, 09 Feb 2004 23:15:34 +0000 http://www.antimodal.com/archives/36#comment-40 Jane - The impression I got from your talk (coupled with not being familiar with your work) was that you were trying to present pervasive games as "merely playful". I know you commented that people often accuse you of "crazy making", but I didn't feel you had much of a refutation for that, or if you intended to refute it. As far as politics go, I meant (and I wasn't clear on this) the politics of the implementor, and their ability to get people to innocently participate in political acts. But I will read the article you suggest [<a href="http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/McGonigal.pdf" rel="nofollow">pdf</a>, <a href="http://www.fineartforum.org/Backissues/Vol_17/faf_v17_n08/reviews/mcgonigal.html" rel="nofollow">html</a> for the viewers out there]. Jane – The impression I got from your talk (coupled with not being familiar with your work) was that you were trying to present pervasive games as “merely playful”. I know you commented that people often accuse you of “crazy making”, but I didn’t feel you had much of a refutation for that, or if you intended to refute it.
As far as politics go, I meant (and I wasn’t clear on this) the politics of the implementor, and their ability to get people to innocently participate in political acts. But I will read the article you suggest [pdf, html for the viewers out there].

]]> http://www.antimodal.com/archives/36/comment-page-1#comment-39 Jane McGonigal Mon, 09 Feb 2004 22:28:45 +0000 http://www.antimodal.com/archives/36#comment-39 Hi Brandon, wow-- really great and powerful reactions to the exhibition and the conference. I agree with quite a lot of what you have to say. I just wanted to disagree, however, with your comments that I shy away from the political potential of pervasive and immersive gaming. Quite to the contrary, my most widely read article "This Is Not a Game: Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play" (available on my web site or easily found on Google) has exactly the opposite thesis: that immersive and pervasive play are, in fact, exceptional vehicles for political engagement and social action. I may not have had time to go into this at StoryEngines, but I'd encourage you to check out the essay so as to avoid characterizing my work as apolitical. I think I'm quite known for pushing a political angle. Furthermore, as a former flahs mob organizer for the Bay area, I have quite a lot ot say about the supposedly "apolitcal" nature of flash mobs. I believe that spontaneous erruptions of public play is inherently political... not just because it is disruptive (that's too easy)... to avoid ranting, I'll just invite you to email me and continue the discussion. Thank you again for your really interesting comments on StoryEngines and my work. Hi Brandon,
wow– really great and powerful reactions to the exhibition and the conference. I agree with quite a lot of what you have to say. I just wanted to disagree, however, with your comments that I shy away from the political potential of pervasive and immersive gaming. Quite to the contrary, my most widely read article “This Is Not a Game: Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play” (available on my web site or easily found on Google) has exactly the opposite thesis: that immersive and pervasive play are, in fact, exceptional vehicles for political engagement and social action. I may not have had time to go into this at StoryEngines, but I’d encourage you to check out the essay so as to avoid characterizing my work as apolitical. I think I’m quite known for pushing a political angle. Furthermore, as a former flahs mob organizer for the Bay area, I have quite a lot ot say about the supposedly “apolitcal” nature of flash mobs. I believe that spontaneous erruptions of public play is inherently political… not just because it is disruptive (that’s too easy)… to avoid ranting, I’ll just invite you to email me and continue the discussion. Thank you again for your really interesting comments on StoryEngines and my work.

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