Sim-U conference explores games in the classroom
Technology
Evan Billingsley
Issue date: 9/10/07 Section: News
- < prev Page 3 of 3
"My son fell into the trap of debt and credit that we all fall into in our 20s," Bogost said. "But he was five."
Bogost also jokingly said that it was fortunate there was no interest on debts in the game, but added that would be something he would add to a more serious simulation. After all, he said, an original source system of complete objectivity that a game is based on does not exist.
"The model is always someone's idea of the system. There is a subjectivity built in, and that creates dissonance," Bogost said. Players, then, compare the model that any game is simulating to their own preconceived notions of how they understand that model, he said.
One of the more popular examples of that experience in video games is "Second Life," a 3-D persistent online world with no set game objectives, but almost completely user-defined content.
Jason Cerchie, a graduate from the UA School of Architecture, spoke about the nature of "Second Life" during the conference, joined by his wife Sunny via her in-game avatar during the presentation.
"We were looking for something that allowed us to design," Jason said about what initially drew them to "Second Life."
"When I read about it, I thought, 'playing a videogame? That sounds perfect.'" He said the ability to ignore physics and let imagination be the only limit for his architectural designs was also attractive.
When he and his wife joined in 2005, Jason said he noticed the questionable aesthetics of his virtual neighbors, and others must have, too, because they began to hire him to build virtual houses in-game. The couple's first job paid an amount in linden dollars, the game's currency, that was then exchanged for a real-world amount of 30 dollars. As jobs kept coming in, they eventually joined the Electric Sheep Company, and are commissioned for virtual architecture projects that pay up to $15,000, Jason said.
"You can legitimately fail here without consequence," Jason said of the advantages to building digital architecture. "I spend more on Starbucks then I do on 'Second Life.'"
Bogost also jokingly said that it was fortunate there was no interest on debts in the game, but added that would be something he would add to a more serious simulation. After all, he said, an original source system of complete objectivity that a game is based on does not exist.
"The model is always someone's idea of the system. There is a subjectivity built in, and that creates dissonance," Bogost said. Players, then, compare the model that any game is simulating to their own preconceived notions of how they understand that model, he said.
One of the more popular examples of that experience in video games is "Second Life," a 3-D persistent online world with no set game objectives, but almost completely user-defined content.
Jason Cerchie, a graduate from the UA School of Architecture, spoke about the nature of "Second Life" during the conference, joined by his wife Sunny via her in-game avatar during the presentation.
"We were looking for something that allowed us to design," Jason said about what initially drew them to "Second Life."
"When I read about it, I thought, 'playing a videogame? That sounds perfect.'" He said the ability to ignore physics and let imagination be the only limit for his architectural designs was also attractive.
When he and his wife joined in 2005, Jason said he noticed the questionable aesthetics of his virtual neighbors, and others must have, too, because they began to hire him to build virtual houses in-game. The couple's first job paid an amount in linden dollars, the game's currency, that was then exchanged for a real-world amount of 30 dollars. As jobs kept coming in, they eventually joined the Electric Sheep Company, and are commissioned for virtual architecture projects that pay up to $15,000, Jason said.
"You can legitimately fail here without consequence," Jason said of the advantages to building digital architecture. "I spend more on Starbucks then I do on 'Second Life.'"
Be the first to comment on this story