Earlier this year I already ↵reported on “Payne & Redemption”, the other Max-Payne-themed “meatspace-movie” besides the short ↑Max Payne Hero. But meanwhile at ↑payneandredemption.com there is a wealth of material worthwhile to check out for everyone interested in movie-adaptations of computergames. The above picture is a clipping from the publicity still “Psychoanalysis”, property of The Payne & Redemption Production Team. Copyright © 2006. For details of specific credits. … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2006
To my taste the most beautiful Christmas tree I ever saw, right in the centre of Munich at a quite romantic square. It is garnished with 8000 tiny cold-light LEDs by Osram. A sign beside it boasts that it is till now the largest Christmas tree equipped with those LEDs. But today I learned that in Berlin, in front of the so called “red” town hall, they have one sporting 24,000 similar LEDs. Does size really matter when it comes down to romantic ambience? I guess hope so. Anyway, wikipedia’s entry ↑LED really is enlightening [weak pun, I know—can’t do … Continue reading
According to Sterling (1993) it was John Perry Barlow who first adopted Gibson’s concept for use of all kinds of perceived technological spaces. Barlow stated that cyberspace “is where you are when you’re talking on the telephone” (Rucker, Sirius, and Queen 1993). Featherstone and Burrows (1995) differentiate between Gibsonian cyberspace and Barlowian cyberspace but, as is evident in the following quote, Gibson himself seems to have adopted Barlow’s definition. “I think in a very real sense cyberspace is the place where a long distance telephone call takes place” (Josefsson 1995). (↵Jakobson 2006: 25) Featherstone, Mike and Roger Burrows. 1995. Cultures … Continue reading
If it wasn’t for my having an appointment here and now, there’d be little wonder in the downtown Manhattan spaghetti joint being perfectly deserted at that time of night. Way past the graveyard shift, uncanny twilight, floor covered by classical black and white checker tile, rows of lavishly upholstered benches, matching diner-style tables squeezed between them, an enormous mahogani bar in the back, and nobody to be seen. A cliché setting. But the cliché doesn’t miss its target and brings home the menacing ambience quite nicely. Just if I’d not be nervous and frightened enough yet. Alas, there’s no … Continue reading
↑Material World is an interactive, online hub for contemporary debates, discussion, thinking and research centred on material and visual culture. It is the brainchild of scholars working in the anthropology departments of University College London and New York University, but aims to create a new international community of academics, students, curators, artists and anyone else with particular interests in material and visual culture. We will use this digital framework to post exhibition, book and other reviews; discuss key topics; develop online reading groups and symposia; post links to images, objects and collections; highlight cutting edge research and fieldwork, conferences, … Continue reading
Heinz Fromm, since June 2000 head of the ↑Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz [“Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution,” Germany’s domestic intelligence agency] voiced some ↑notable statements during the last days, from which—quite inexplicably—it was deduced that Fromm is perfectly at ease with his service using information stemming from torture-interrogations: “Für die Aufklärungsarbeit der Nachrichtendienste muss gelten, dass allen Gefährdungshinweisen, die wir bekommen, auch nachgegangen wird. […] Man sieht den Informationen im Übrigen nicht an, woher sie stammen, und wie sie gewonnen wurden. Die Möglichkeit, dass sie nicht nach unseren rechtstaatlichen Grundsätzen erlangt worden sein könnten, darf nicht dazu führen, … Continue reading
Link
wake by radio
This indeed is an unusual specimen of fan-made artefact—the first one of its kind I ran across thus far. At myspace music there is the ↑Alan Wake 24-Hour Real-Time Online Radio Serial, seemingly brought to us straight from Silver City, Panama: “Alan Wake wakes with amnesia … And the mysteries continue to unravel.” This hardly can be called player-made content, as their are no players of ↑Alan Wake, because the game has not yet been released. After having seen ↵“A Dream within a Dream” in an e-mail to me ↑Bryan Alexander jokingly dubbed this piece of ↑fan machinima produced … Continue reading
ADM, whom I know already for quite some time—in fact as long as ye olde days of ↑Max-Payne modding glory—has made his promise true and, on 22 September 2006, fired a new ↑Alan-Wake fansite online: ↑brightfalls.com. The weblog focusses on the news about Alan Wake, and ADM, with his excellent contacts to Remedy, does a tremendous job of collecting every item published on Alan Wake, as soon as it is published. There was quite some of it during the last three months. Head over to ADM’s new site if you want to know everything about the game which there … Continue reading
Now is the time to hop aboard: “↑Remedy Entertainment, the developer of the ↑Max Payne games and one of the leading independent game studios in the world, is ↑looking for Gameplay Designers to work on the upcoming next-generation title ↑Alan Wake.” The most interesting to me is this line from the ↑recruitment info‘s list of desired skills: “Proven experience with modding, level editors, scripting and creation of story-driven gameplay” via entry at brightfalls.com … Continue reading
The wall went down last month. From now on in computer gaming, there were to be no real barriers between creator and audience, or producer and consumer. They would be collaborators in the same imaginative space, and working as equals, they’d create a new medium, together. (↵Au 2002) “Day of Defeat” is a mod—a fan-made modification to a pre-existing game. Or, in modder jargon, it’s a “total conversion,” the most ambitious form of mod, in which all the graphics and gameplay of the original title have been reshaped by fans to create an entirely new experience. (↵Au 2002) The community … Continue reading