February 19, 2008 at 7:59 am · Filed under games, video
For those who’ve followed this blog for the past couple weeks, you know that I have a newfound appreciation of (obsession for?) work that blurs the line between videogame player and author. While most of the videos I’ve found do extra manipulation outside of the game (e.g. video effects), here’s a video that turns the available tools from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater into a space for composition. Normally, it’s a stealth action game; in this video it’s a photography sandbox. The author manipulates soldiers in the game, either by tranquilizing them or scaring them into submission.
Many of these moments highlight the more obscure programming decisions in the game – more than one shows the guards’ total distraction by the placement of adult magazines in their midst, for example. At their best, however, these moments show the game as a compositional space and the intimate understanding of the game engine necessary to create something like this, especially when the game engine is not open for modification.
Here’s a neat video of a French team who control a little robot through some custom Nintendo DS software. I wish I knew French because I’m starting to become more and more interested in custom modifications for hardware devices that are supposed to be “closed.”
Here’s another cool hardware project in which the artist creates a scrolling TV in front of the full stage background of the first level in Super Mario Bros.
February 10, 2008 at 1:05 pm · Filed under games, musicking
Here are a couple experiments in using the sound effects tied to the in-game actions of videogame characters to approximate the background music of the same game. The first clip is from Super Smash Brothers Melee on the Gamecube; second is Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. The second clip is more successful from a technical standpoint, but both are interesting explorations of the appropriateness of game sound.
February 7, 2008 at 1:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
An exploratory work – I’ve been recording in gamespaces for a while and found it interesting to watch what happens when I got a game started and didn’t respond to the motivation to play it. What does the game present to the player and how does the player/viewer respond?
Games Recorded (all on the Playstation 2 platform):
February 7, 2008 at 1:00 pm · Filed under fear, games
From a recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: “Stress levels are linked to subject focus on perceived social threats.” I just happened to find this article the day after I presented the project in the previous post. The study suggests that increasing exposure (in fact training people to recognize) positive facial images (genuine smiles) decreases the level of stress in those who experience high-stress situations regularly. The testing group was made up of telemarketers, but they might have done as well choosing graduate students. Another interesting point is that they conducted these tests by using games, trail versions of which you can play at MindHabits.
