serious games

a force more powerful-activism
america's army-how the military works
power politics III- how politics works
second life-live commerce
the sims 2- life simulations

serious games is a 1 billion dollar industry as opposed to entertainment at 30 billion

more ideas

in my insecurity I am thinking that should do a game about modern dance instead of the election or a game about the history of DC something that I know a lot about instead of a game based on something that I am passionate about but would have to learn on the fly.

I have some characters in mind.

"Mr 911" always returns to september 11, 2001 no matter what. He is a chicken little. He scares people.

"Ms 911 is a joke" says that the attack was a fluke and that it will be 50 years before something like that can happen again. It will happen when we forget that it can happen. Pearl Harbor to 911 was a long time we are too aware in the present.

"Mr Elect a black president now" It will never happen because Americans are accustomed to seeing a White male as president. It is part of our identity as a nation. This is why people were so upset with preemtive strikes it is not who we are as a nation. everything changes if a black person becomes president all of the years of psychological domination by Whites gets altered somehow. Every decision becomes a matter of race. every mistake and every triumph becomes a racial issue and we will see how racist this nation really is.

Grandparents

 
 

More Family Photos

 
 

Restored Family Photos

 
 

The Theater Experience

What if going to the theater was similar to the Rocky Horror show. A truly interactive experience. We ask the audience to dress up we tell them to yell out things outloud. We get them to use their cell phones to call someone in the theater or call someone onstage. Have a roaming camera to put them on screen like on Oprah. Make the theater experience better than the gaming experience.
The story must be compelling and it must take presidence over all technology. Technology must be driven by the story.

What if

This would be very cool. If I performed on the Sullivant hall Stage and in the Mocap Lab at Accad. You could show up to either place to see the performance one on video and one live at each place. The Accad experience would be more interactive and the sullivant performance would be more like a traditional theater performance.

dance dance revolution and other games

I recently played a dance game from Atari not dance dance revolution but similar. I think I will use the patterns from these kinds of games for my movement. I also saw a video made from Sims 2. This could be an easy way to use high quality graphics and animation to create sequences for my project. currently I am playing No One Lives Forever 2, a first person shooter. I think that Bacchanale is going to be cut out of the picture except as inspiration.

http://gamesfirst.com/?id=1010
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/01/23/ddr/?CP=RDF&DN=310
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-04-02-obesity-video-game_x.htm
Article about popularity of DDR

convincing people

We need to convince people that they need to do (A), they need to feel that it is in their best interest. That is what we need them to do. This is not lying?
Todd Clark

Video Games

I just read an article in USA Today about Dance Dance Revolution a game that uses a pad which players stomp out patterns that they see on a video screen. The article was saying how much weight teenagers lose by becoming addicted to the game.

I had a thought about using some of the ideas of the game like following directions, giving orders, telling the dancers how to move, when to move, using the rhymic patterns of a musical score only those who completed the task with a perfect score could move on to the next level. This would mean repetition until the task was completed. Saving the game would become important so you would not have to always start a level from the beginning.

There needs to be an objective such as becoming president.
Ah yes maybe you start off being a neighborhood leader, then the city council, then mayor, then govenor, then congressman, then senator, finally president. Seven levels to take over the world.

Catch Phrases

Axis of Evil
Doctrine of Preemption
Shock and Awe
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Jessica Lynch
Looters
Coalition of the willing
Decapitating
Embedding
Minder
Old Europe
Regime Change
We will be welcomed as liberators
September 11, 2001
End to major combat operations
Operation Desert Scorpion
Guerrilla-type campaign
87 Billion needed
Suicide attacks
Party officials will be allowed to return to their posts
Abu Ghraib
Beheadings
"no credible evidence that Iraq adn al-Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States"

Spoiled Rotten

Ron Vernon- "When I was a kid I got everything that I wanted. I never learned to appreciate anything except manipulation. If I could get you to give me what I wanted then I was a success." This is how I got into politics. I knew how to get the vote.

My New Camera

I just got this yesterday and I am more that a little excited. I have to get to know this camera very fast because I have a project due tomorrow and I plan to use it. Too bad it is raining out. I am excited that I will be able to film my project in HDV. Now, how do I get an HiDef projector? 

Perhaps, power destroys

I just had a thought about looking at how power corrupts. Looking at the government and the arrogance of power and how it makes people do things that they eventually regret. Also how people forget and after a while even the once most hated man in America can return to run for president.

Sitting at the EMMA Lab

This is me. Sitting and thinking about this project and trying to imagine what it will look like. I think I will create a character based on me, my look and to some extent my life. However, much of it will be fictional but based in reality. 

Ron Vernon

Ron Vernon is the main character in this game. He grew up in a small North Carolina town. Religion was central to life in his small town and he was a very religious person mostly because that was all he knew. The world that he lived in was very specific in its ideas and in its purpose. Everything changed when he left town and met people who found his way of life to be strange and unatural. He looked for others who believed as he did so he could find comfort and so that he could know himself. If everything he had ever belived was wrong then he was no one. Nothing created more fear and panic in Ron Vernon than being without an identity. Soon he would discover that giving people and identity made him a very powerful person. This power would allow him to ingest great amouts of evil and still have people see him as good because of an ability to make them feel important.

First Idea

So, I want to create a live video game. However, it is not the video game I am interested in. I want to touch people and make them understand something that I believe. That is that everything must exist. The good, the bad and everything in between. We must find goodness whenever we can but we must also accept the bad when it approaches and arrives. We should not let bad linger neither should good become the norm. Somehow we should live on the edge of both worlds falling frequently into both.