Philosophy lecture

Today our lecture was about philosophy and the use of philosophy in games through narrative and mechanics.

Philosophy is defined as an academic discipline that exercises logic and reason to understand reality and answer questions about reality. Philosophy can be used in design as a source of stimuli, for game mechanics and to create a deeper experience for the player. 

We looked at 2 games as examples of this, both from the game studio That Game Company.

That Game Company created Flow, Flower and Journey. Flower and Journey were the two games we looked at for study as they are renowned for utilizing philosophical subject matter in their games game play and narrative.

Flower is a game where the player embodies a natural force that carries along petals like the wind. The game is difficult to describe, event the creator finds it difficult in the interviews we watched in class. 

Flower starts off in a room with flowers in pots on a windowsill overlooking a city, the levels are said to be dreams of the flowers that seek freedom in nature and away from the cities.

Journey is the other game we looked at and is one of the two i have actually played. Journey is an enchanting experience that pairs random players together in an adventure allowing them to co-operate freely without any requirements to do so, without the pressure to perform forced cooperative tasks the players do not feel compelled to fight against the rules. 

We watched a video interview of creator Jenova Chen about  Journey as well, though the interviewer is somewhat of a moron. 

This lecture relates to an Extra Credits episode where they talk about mechanics as metaphors, in other words it is them using mechanics to showcase underlying themes. This is what i will need to do for the next project when creating a game concept from my report subject.

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Harvesting

I've been researching embryonic stem cells for a few weeks now and through the research I've gathered i already know that the most common way scientists obtain stem cell lines is from donated embryos from In-vitro Fertilization clinics. When embryos are going to be discarded from the clinics they check with the owners of the embryos if they are willing to donate them to stem cell research. The cells would be destroyed if not so really it would be unethical to not use them for stem cell research.

http://cbhd.org/stem-cell-research/overview

This is the website of Bioethics, on the site they explain a bunch of ways that scientist car retrieve stem cells as well as the ethics of each method. The problem i have with looking at ethics is that they are largely subjective and related to religious beliefs of which i have none. On this site they respond to the question 

"Why should we value the human embryo?" with :

Underlying the passages of Scripture that refer to the unborn (Job 31:15; Ps. 139:13-16; Lk. 1:35-45) is the assumption that they are human beings who are created, known, and uniquely valued by God. Genesis 9:6 warns us against killing our fellow human beings, who are created in the very image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). Furthermore, human embryonic life—as well as all of creation—exists primarily for God’s own pleasure and purpose, not ours (Col. 1:16).

My and many other peoples view on this is that embryos are not conscious or alive, they are simply early stage cells and are is different to harvesting seeds from plants. It is true that a lot of the embryos that are used to harvest stem cells are destroyed in the process but this article from Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=embryos-survive-stem-cell-harvest in 2008 talks about how scientists are now able to harvest stem cell lines from a fertilized embryo without destroying it. 

"A team led by researchers from Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester, Mass., reports in Cell Stem Cell that it created five new stem cell lines by plucking single cells from embryos in the early blastocyst stage, a grapelike cluster of eight cells called blastomeres. Researchers normally create this kind of stem cell line at a more developed stage from the entire mass of embryonic cells." (Minkle, JR. 2008).

There are other ways to retrieve stem cells, although they are not embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells, though not as valued as Embryonic stem cells can be obtained without any harm done to anything. Umbilical cords and placenta are both valuable source of stem cells with no moral quandaries attached. 

Sustainable design lecture

Today's lecture was about sustainable design, we looked at several areas that contribute to this practice. Economic, environmental and social aspects all factor into good sustainability, these elements add up to a term called "the triple bottom line". If a designed product features aspects that fulfill these requirements then it has a great chance of being sustainable. 

A video that we watched talked about these elements and the fact that they require a fourth element to be successful, function. If a product doesn't fulfill its function well then it won’t be adopted by people and the elements of the triple bottom line will not be carried across to the world.

Sustainability has many benefits in various areas, an area we looked at was sustainable energy and how it is affecting cars. Oil will eventually run out and it is forcing people to find new ways of making cars and look for new fuel sources. They hybrid car was looked at, I know a fair amount about hybrid cars and firmly believe that even though they tick the boxes to make it a sustainable product, it is in fact a false positive. Hybrid cars use two engines, the traditional combustion engine fueled my fossil fuels and an electrical engine powered by a battery. These engines work in conjunction with each other to lower the amount of petrol the car uses, the fact is that hybrid cars still use petrol and the majority or electricity the cars use come from power plants that still use finite or harmful resources. The cars do reduce the cost of travel by reducing the amount of petrol they require which fulfills the economic side of the triple bottom line. The hybrid cars do reduce the amount of pollution output from the cars. The hybrid cars do help put across the message of caring about your carbon footprint. These all fulfill the triple bottom line, the problem is that the function of the product does not support this, the hybrid car is simply a half step in the right direction and not the full innovation the world needs.

We later looked at how this method of sustainable design can be and is used in games design. One of the mode obvious cases was the digital media and content, digital games have no packaging and thus no damage on the environment, they often have large communities that form their own cultures and in some cases their own markets and economies, the ability to increase the longevity of a game through online purchases gives credit to the economic side of the argument. Some prime examples of games that have had good sustainable design shown bellow.

Whats cool for kinds. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.whatscoolforkids.com/littlebigplanet.html

Little bog planet has sustainability through user generated content, long after the game had shipped the players were creating increasingly more imaginative levels. This game had user generated content as a focus from the start of development and it carried the game past release.

Foroughi, C. (n.d.). League of Legends: The Unsung Hero of the Online Competitive Gaming Scene. Retrieved from http://obsoletegamer.com/league-of-legends-review/

League of legends is an online multiplayer game that has a large community, the game itself is free and makes it's money through micro transactions.

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

I didn't actually realise until i came to do some more writing of my report that i haven't really uploaded my research here. I had been gathering it all in my research document and when i came to blog about my weekly lessons it just didn't occur to me to upload my research. I'm supposed to be doing this work on Wednesday during lesson if i have the chance and then roughly 2-3 hours of work at home, then work on Saturday. My Saturdays have been a bit hectic and unstructured of late so i will try to make it my day i upload my weeks work, I've recently been very forgetful of the work I've done, i can't remember much of my research and i can't remember the work I've done in other modules. I'm hoping getting an upload routine may help me.

Anyway, whilst i'm here i will upload some of my research.

http://www.allthingsstemcell.com/2009/04/human_embryonic_stem_cells/

This website had informed me of a great deal of information about Embryonic stem cells themselves and the history surrounding their discovery, it was very helpful in getting me up to speed on some of the facts. I knew a fair amount about them before but most likely no more than the average person that had read about them.

Rowland, T (2009), Human Embryonic Stem Cells: A Decade of Discovery, Controversy, and Potential, Retrieved from http://www.allthingsstemcell.com/2009/04/human_embryonic_stem_cells/

This image by itself probably means nothing to the layman but reading through the website article explained that this is infact an embryo in a stage of formation called the Blastocist stage which occurs early in the development cycle.

"the blastocoel, which is a fluid-filled cavity within the blastocyst, and the inner cell mass, also known as the embryoblast, which can become the embryo proper, or fetus, and is where hESCs are isolated from."

Medical Pamphlets

For my report i decided to go with something themed appropriately, i chose a medical pamphlet. I figured i would need to get some example and since my scanner is currently busted I've just have to get some examples of the web. After looking at these and making my own layout in Microsoft Publisher i am slightly concerned that 3000 words may not fit onto a two sided pamphlet. I will have to look at alternatives just in case.

Graphire, (2009). Free InDesign Templates: Brochure and Menu. Retrieved from http://www.designfreebies.org/design-templates/indesign-templates/free-indesign-templates-brochure-and-menu/

Uses of Embryonic stem cells

Embryonic stem cells are not actually used in practice yet, they are still an experimental biological tool harvested from donated embryos. Because of this they currently have no uses and all uses talked about are simply potential uses until proven that they work. One use that is proven is the stem cells original use, scientists know that the original use of a stem cell is to create other cells, many scientist speculate at being able to use stem cells to regenerate vital parts of the human anatomy, one i found frequently was spinal cord regrowth to help people regain the ability to walk. 

Since their are so many avenues of medical science there are many speculative possibilities as to what could be done with these little cells. Now that the science is being helped rather than hindered due to new funding and less governmental opposition many of these avenues have dipped into what they could use these cells for.

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics6.asp

This site talked about the possibly of using stem cells for early drug trials instead which would be much safer and potentially cheaper than animal trials. Human trials are still many many years away but the possibilities are vast.

Regenerative medicine is definitely the main focus or at least the area of research that has garnered the most attention, although there has been some interesting work on reversing the effects of cancer cells by using a stem cell framework.

Culture lesson

Today we looked at culture and the aspects of culture that can inform design. Some of the areas we looked at were;

• Customs
• Religious beliefs and mythology
• Music and performing arts
• Fashion
• Food
• Lifestyle
• language
• 
  

We initially as a class looked at japan and it's areas of culture. As individuals  we each took an area of culture and researched how Japan was different compared to other cultures. I took fashion and looked at classic Japanese clothing as well as the more modern youthful fashion.

Japanese Fashion

Japanese fashion has many facets and has changed dramatically over the past few years. A lot of Japans fashion stems from its history, and directly reflect the cultural beliefs and customs related with the time periods.

The most recognisable Japanese garment would be the Kimono.  The word Kimono literally means “clothing”. The Kimono is most commonly worn by Japanese women though at the height of their popularity there were also different types of Kimono worn by men.

During the Meiji era the traditional clothing of Japan began to change as clothing like suits and dresses imported from the west became popular. The Kimono is still worn today and is a common outfit for special cultural occasion such as weddings. Donning a Kimono is a popular experience for tourists.

Modern Japans youth have adopted their own fashion culture that is distinctly their own, dubbed as street fashion, these young people don vivid and extravagant get ups that truly stand out in an almost rebellious fashion when paraded around the street. A stark contrast to the formal suit wearing adult masses that have become so common in today’s Japan. There are several places in japan that have garnered a reputation for being social and commercial hubs for the modern Japanese youth, these places like Tokyo and Osaka. These places often have tourist coming to view the fashion on show and explore the wide array of outlandish clothing stores.

There is also a current style called “Sohoku” that involves mostly males that try to blur the lines between how genders traditionally dress. They don more decorative clothing in a

There is as large cultural fascination with cuteness, from this a lot of young females have adopted and fashion style called Lolita which is a fashion style based on Victorian era clothing style with a light colour style and a fascination with the depiction of youth, making themselves look almost childlike. From this came Gothic Lolita, a darker and obviously more gothic take on the style.

One of the most bewildering and exciting new movements involving clothing in Japan is called “Cosplay”, this is an activity and in many cases regarded as events where people will dress up in elaborate costumes that reflect some of peoples favorite characters from media such as games, cartoons, comics and the like. Cosplay is common at conventions but has really blossomed into its own cultural activity and has been adopted the world over. 

After we all did this and compiled it into a pamphlet style presentation document we came together again to create a small game concept based on the culture research. The result was....bizarre, we only had 30 minutes so it wasn't really polished or serious but it still showed what can be done with outside inspiration. 

Stem cell ethics

So today i tried to catch up on some of my research by looking at the political, ethical and moral issues with embryonic stem cells.
The most prevalent issues with embryonic stem cell research is in the USA. America has a very large religious culture who strongly opposed the use of embryonic stem cells. In 2001 president George Bush implemented a ban on federal funding for stem cell research, although private funding was still allowed it put a major dent in the research progress.
In 2009 president Obama rescinded this ban in an attempt to aid the research and make up for lost time.

I found this video showing Obama talking about his stance on the subject and reasoning behind rescinding the ban.

This shows there is still a clear moral dilemma about how embryonic stem calls are used but also shows a growth in moral standings and the understanding of how important medical research is.

Authenticity Lecture

 This lecture was about authenticity in games, i watched this video below witch is a TED talk about authenticity. The talk is more about authenticity in business but it still applies to games.

Authenticity is a tricky subject as it is ultimately boils down to how the viewer perceives it. Joseph Pine said "There is no such thing as an inauthentic experience", authenticity is an experience that is true to itself, meaning that an experience can be authentic even if it is fake.

The lecture led into a talk about what creates an experience in games, the four things were triumph, tragedy, excitement and . We also talked about games that have little or no story in them and how they go about conveying narrative even without an overt plot or storyline. Games like journey and Sim City were looked at, both games that have a light narrative but are mostly fueled by the players imagination and experiences.

We also looked at player driven plot lines in games like Mass effect and Heavy rain, these are game stories where the stories are more expansive and the player has a sense of responsibility in where the story goes.

origins

So to start off the research I'll be putting up here I'm pretty much starting from the beginning  My first area of research detailed in my project plan is the discovery of embryonic stem cells in humans. This is basically my theme in a nutshell so it only makes sense to start at the heart of the issue.

Ok so i looked into a bunch of articles online till i found one that actually told me about who first found embryonic stem cells in humans. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/science/22stem.html?_r=0 This article by Gina Kolata talks about Dr. James A. Tompson, the man who in 1998 first extracted stem cells from a human embryo. This took place in his laboratory at the University of Wisconsin. From that point is sparked a whole host of ethical problems, questions and oppositions. I did find out the small fact that may have helped the matter a little if it had been more widely known, the first embryo he extracted these stem cells from was in fact donated by In Vitro Fertilization clinics and was an embryo that was discarded due to some form of structural damage which would have resulted in the embryo never fully developing.

My next area of research is to look into the other types of stem cells there are and how they compare to embryonic stem cells.

Update

Ok quick update before the nitty gritty. My project plan is complete but I've been having problems getting it onto the blog. Word and Photoshop seem to have it in for each other and it messes up my formatting every time i try and move it across. So until i can find a way around it i won't be able to post it up here.

So in todays lesson we looked at gamification, a subject i had learned about previously in a video by the Extra Credits guys.

 Extra Credits (2012), Gamification, Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dLK9MW-9sY&feature=plcp.

We also looked at Jesse Schelle and his presentation on gamification in the future. His views were that eventually gamification will be applied to everything from your shopping to your personal achievements. Both positive gamification and negative gamification like large companies and organizations getting a hold of peoples lives and habits through the use of gamification.
Jesse Schelle wrote the highly revered "The Art of Games Design: A Book of Lenses" book which continues to influence games designers today.

Schelle, J (2010), Design outside the box presentation, DICE2010, Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NzFCfZMBkU&feature=relmfu.

This was the Jesse Schell presentation we saw in which he talked about the possible future of gamification.

We also saw a TED talk from a games designer called Jane Mcgonigal who looked at how much people play games, why people play games and what people learn from games. She talked about four major things gamers are good at, Urgent optimism, Social fabric, Blissful productivity and Epic meaning. She talks about how she researches into how these skills learned through time gaming could be used to make changes in the real world.

Mcgonigal, J (2010), Gaming can make a better world, TED Talks, Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM

Theme decided

I checked my theme with Joe on Wednesday and he seemed to like it, it ticked all of the requirement so I'm good to go on this project too. The theme is the 15th anniversary of the discovery of embryonic stem cells in humans. I will be able to talk about the event and it's significance in the world today, how it could affect the world in the future and talk about how similar things in the past have affected the world today. I will have the project plan finished by Sunday and up here so i can have it checked before handing it in.

Theme ideas

After researching themes for this project i have come up with my 2 most promising events.


2013 - 15th anniversary of discovering human embryonic stem cells.
2013 - 125th Anniversary of the Jack the Ripper Killings.

I was going to go with next year being china's first attempt at landing a craft on the moon but i found this one afterwards after trying to find something that was a little more significant and scientific compared to most of the other historical anniversaries that were easier to find.

First lesson

My first lesson of games futures was a bit strange. It is very outside of the norm. It seems to go against a lot of how we have been doing things over the past 2 years. First of it's a big switch to more academic work rather than the practical work we usually do. I've never been that good academically, i was always better with course work and practical lessons which makes me a little nervous. I know that it is needed and i should have expected it since most if not all uni courses need to do some academic writing.

The project is currently to create an analytical report on a theme and how it could affect the people and the world and in turn the development of games in the future. It is an usual way of producing this kind of work considering the media it is about. Joe said it could be done as an academic poster bu i have no idea what that is. No doubt it is an attempt to do something academically focused and develop our presentation skills and methods. I have never been good at creating interesting looking documents that weren't art focused. Minimal seems to be my general approach.

Through research i have found some events that will either happen in 2013 or significant events in the past that have anniversaries coming up in 2013.

Hadron Collider being turned up to maximum output
Anniversary of finding a soviet agent in the British government
Anniversary of the Jack the Ripper killings
Anniversary of the first nuclear tests in Britain
Anniversary of the world record for the fastest steam railway