Midway vs Pontiac ·
252 days ago
All kinds of aceness in this new Pontiac ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO6ER2K65sE
How Toys Can Change the World ·
291 days ago
Will Wright has come up with yet another inspiring presentation about Spore, again to an audience of mostly non-gaming intellectual types. This one is my favourite of them all so far, placing the most emphasis on how his simulations are created as modern toys of
the Montessori Method, how Spore embodies a vast array of principles and dynamics that inform our understanding of the universe, and speaking openly about his aspirations to affect genuine social change among children and adults alike, designing Spore to exercise the human capacity for long-term thinking.
What a fucking dude.
The presentation can be watched and downloaded here:
www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/146
The Moral Cost of Videogames ·
312 days ago
An interesting short article by an ex-Edge writer, Matthew Devereux, voicing a concern about the fundamental nature and recurring themes of many videogames:
"Take, for instance, the idea of ruthless competition, that for every winner there are necessarily losers. Regardless of what game you're playing, the message is almost always the same: Do whatever it takes to win, even at the expense of everyone else.
Imagine if that were the moral of every movie and TV show you ever watched. Would the world be a better or worse place? Would you let your children play a game that promoted such a dog-eat-dog mentality?
Fundamentally, most games operate within a moral framework: good versus evil (or vice versa). But what games conspicuously lack is moral consequence. Once you've killed someone, stolen something, or blown up a building, that's usually the end of it – you'll rarely get to see the emotional impact of your actions on the characters around you.
Every bit of mayhem becomes just another item on a video-game to-do list. Games ignore moral consequence and emotional nuance to focus on the purely visceral. There are only two types of decisions you can really make: the strategically correct one or the strategically incorrect one. There is no "right" or "wrong" – only success or failure.
Unbridled competition combined with no moral consequence eventually leads to a lack of compassion. And without compassion, humanity is lost."
Read the whole thing
here.
Take Five ·
343 days ago
The Dave Brubeck Quartet performing Take Five in 1961:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o
Sia ·
396 days ago
She makes good music with good videos. She sang for Zero 7. She has a cool name.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=71-p7HlqpfY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VvbSOYJamA
Pole Position ·
416 days ago
Sadly, they really don't make them like this anymore:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om84Zc4-KcQ
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