Considering the profound global success of James Cameron’s Avatar, as well as the hype surrounding practical 3-D television at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the growing frenzy surrounding the current 3-D craze has got me thinking about the future of cinema and immersive entertainment yet again. Now, we’re no where near seeing holographic, pliant, lifelike simulations like the one illustrated in the clip above – in fact, in our lifetimes we’re more likely to see something like a real starship Enterprise constructed before we ever see its famous Holodeck – but, for all the commotion surrounding 3D, well, it has got me looking at some new entertainment ventures that are edging us closer to true, fully immersive digital entertainment. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘wii’
Edging closer towards the Holodeck
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Post-class Reflection: Economics 101, courtesy of Monday Night Football, Chris Anderson, and Mickey Mouse
Friday, October 30th, 2009
I’ll explain what this image is about momentarily, but first, let me begin with a prologue. Tuesday night in my Net Economics course at the UW MCDM a lively debate, to say the least, was had over Chris Anderson’s new book “Free”; whether free as a concept was good or bad. I took the free side, but it made me feel a little lonely. I almost felt like I was the only student in the room who believed that it’s a good thing that we’re moving towards a digital economy based on giving bits away, harnessing business models that find alternative sources of revenue. For instance, a fellow student mentioned that Microsoft has a 90% market share of netbook operating systems, a testament to the strength of their software, no doubt. However, I posited that if MSFT went the Anderson route and gave their OS away for free they could have a 100% market share. I’m not going to say what the reaction to that was, but considering our proximity to Redmond and the makeup of the class, which includes Microsoft employees, you can take a wild guess…
Anderson’s “Free” starts out by giving us a quick economics briefing, using that as backdrop to defend the notion of ‘free’. He explains that, for instance, traditional, or old media has used a third-party advertising model to earn revenue while still providing a “free” product. I may not pay for 30 Rock, but when I buy products advertised during commercial breaks on TV or in interstitials on Hulu, I am still giving my money to NBC. It’s pretty basic and has worked for Google, a benevolent empire that has largely amassed their wealth through selling advertising and diversifying revenue streams. Of course, the model isn’t absolutely identical – the web magnifies things by presenting opportunities to apply wisdom gleaned from specific metrics and target users with relevant advertising, as well as ways of satisfying niches with long tail services – but the principle is the same: subsidize one product (free content) with money made from another (paid ad space). Multiply and diversify.
With the notion of one product funding the other in mind, I further illustrate the point by explaining how I helped inadvertently save ABC, Monday Night Football, and the Disney company in 2004. Maybe. Or not. But keep reading! I think you’ll enjoy the reasoning anyways!
I’m letting the Mouse out of the bag…
Monday, October 26th, 2009You can’t say “let the cat out of the bag” when you’re dealing with a Mouse. BTW, I am SO INSANELY EXCITED ABOUT THIS. I’ve been waiting 5 years to see this game come to light and to happily say that I had a small part of it, and now that it’s all over the web and Game Informer is doing an amazing job covering what the developers are doing, I think it’s fair to share the following tidbit about a little game they call Epic Mickey…
Case Study on the Nintendo Wii Remote
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Picture from Wikimedia
I have completed a simple case study on the Nintendo Wii Remote, answering, in essence, the question: does the Wiimote succeed as a viable interactive device for immersing one’s self in narrative? Where does the Wiimote stand as an advanced interactive gaming input device?
The case study is available here as a PDF:
http://nerdacumen.com/Case_Study_on_the_Nintendo_Wii_Remote_by_Matthew_Stringer.pdf
This case study is a term paper, and the third and final element of my overall term project for COM 579: Theories and Practices of Interactivity, taught by Carolina Mello-E-Souza at the University of Washington, Fall 2008. The first portion of my term project was a proposal issued October 23rd (which was revised in November) and a presentation given November 13th in class. The final paper has diverged slightly from the proposal; there is no mention of the Holodeck, and haptics is not a portion of the primary discussion – but the overall question about the Wiimote that was propositioned remains.
As for the class presentation mentioned… I might make those slides available in the future. I am happy to note that I gave the presentation using an actual Nintendo Wii as the presentation platform, instead of a conventional PC running a Powerpoint Slideshow. I converted my slides to jpg’s then transferred them to an SD disc. I then loaded that SD disc into the convenient slot on the Wii and, using the Wiimote and the Wii’s picture viewing program, issued my slideshow in kind. I do not know if I am the first person to ever do this, but I would like to find out.
Case Study Proposal: The Nintendo Wiimote, or Moving Towards Haptics and the Road to the Holodeck
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008I am storyteller, and story interests me like nothing else. I’m interested in narratology. I’m interested in drama. I’m interested in the communication of perception, and vice versa, the perception of communication. I’m interested in how we craft perception through narrative. I’m interested in how we develop meaning through interaction. How do we interact with cultural artifacts? How are cultural artifacts representative of certain narratives? What are some artifacts that invite interaction – interaction that inevitably generates new narrative? Is consumption alone a form of narrative? Is interaction the purest form of narrative? How does the consumption of and interaction with culture define us, or, rather, how do we tell our stories through consumption and interaction? And, above all, how can our interaction with tools and artifacts generate new narrative? And on and on.
Retrieved from Gizmodo (c) Newscom/Photshot. This toy, another cultural artifact, can be used to generate narrative, or, in this case, the re-creation of a different artifact, commoditized in a new form.
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