When I Go Out With Artists

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Meg

An art class as an RPG, by Andrew Pungot

A little while ago, Harold and I caught the train out to Madison to go to the opening of a Drew University show including Kate‘s work.  I am so proud of Katie, for all the time and work she’s put into her art, especially now that we’re all older and have so many other responsibilities that it’s easy to let creative projects slide.  She did a collection of textile works that were thoughtful and funny at the same time. (I think there’s probably vocabulary to describe that.)

We went to dinner with Katie and Tryon and friends after the opening, including newlyweds Sophia and Kurt (of Hardcore Gaming 101 and a recent book on retro adventure games), and newly-engaged Becca and Phil. Weddings came up (somehow), and most of the ladies at the table copped to being wedding-criers.

“I didn’t cry at my wedding,”  Kurt said, “I haven’t cried since the end of Metal Gear Solid 3.”

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Words With Friends, Swedish Edition

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Meg

I was chatting to one of my Swedish colleagues about this inter-Scandinavian rivalry I’ve just discovered. Previous to this discussion, I thought I was so cultured and educated because I could recognize the Swedish flag. (Kidding. Well, mostly kidding.)

Swedish Colleague: For instance as a Swede, if there’s someone speaking Finnish, from Finland, you can just tell ‘em to speak Swedish instead cause they learned it in school, and it also proves our superiority, of course.

Meg: Americans do that all the time abroad. WHAT? SPEAK ENGLISH!!! EVERYONE MUST SPEAK ENGLISH!!!

Swedish Colleague: Yeah, but it’s not the same, cause it’s pretty pointless to learn Swedish compared to English. Thus we’ve owned Finland harder than English has the rest of the world.

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Working As Designed

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Meg

For about a month now, I’ve been taking a game design class through General Assembly. There is so much to learn, many interesting readings, and discussions in response to the readings, and surprisingly complex class projects. We meet Wednesday nights and Sundays, but on top of all the hours I spent working on the game, it makes for a really long week, which …oh! A slightly-younger version of me, waitressing and depressed, just created a time machine, opened a rift in space and time, and stuck her hand through to flip me off for complaining about that!

IMAG1570

This is a time management sim. Really.

It’s a surprisingly hard class sometimes, defining these massive philosophy questions about what constitutes a game and what creates fun. I’ve been really delighted to learn vocabulary for phenomena I’ve recognized, and been unable to define clearly. We’re asked to prototype games for assignments, and I’m surprised at how wide the gap can be between my intentions and what I’ve actually built with dice and pencil and rules. I’m almost embarrassed by how hard it can be, because solving design challenges is a large part of my work, it’s what I do every day.

On Sundays, I brave the weekend G train into Manhattan, since class meets right off Times Square, and I’m getting another space-time middle finger for complaining about this. Our instructors have organized a different student to bring coffee and donuts each week, so we have sugar and caffeine while we talk about games.

This time, my classmate brought in Dunkin’ Donuts donut holes and coffee in that cardboard carton with the plastic cap. The coffee container was leaking, but before too much coffee made it out and on to the table, my entire class leapt into action, quickly proposing a series of solutions, suggesting we turn the carton upside down, repurpose the water pitcher, find and repair the leak. (My plan, to all drink as much coffee as possible so there was nothing left to spill, failed to gain popular support.) The coffee was sorted in about a minute, because this is a room full of insanely creative problem-solvers, and I am so fortunate to be included.

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Paperback

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Meg

 

I was tempted to spray my Kindle.

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Origami Rocketship

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Meg
IMAG1585-1

The press kit by which all others shall be judged.

The Whit.li API was one of the standouts from last week’s TechCrunch Disrupt. Whit.li uses social media telepathy, like public Facebook updates and shared links, to extrapolate the user’s personality and mood.  There are endless applications for this — from compatibility profiles to hyper-targeted advertising — but the current demo is more of a proof-of-concept than an application. You’ll have to sign up through Facebook, which is my un-favorite way of connecting with new and unproven sites, but the awesome demo will let you see what Whit.li thinks of you, and learn a bit about either your personality, or about how you use Facebook. (My personality type came back “Satisfied”, which I think is secret code for doesn’t use Facebook upates for whining.)

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Words With Coworkers

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Meg

At work, I’ve designed a mission chain, set in Ancient Greece, and I’ve brought it to a meeting to try to get it approved.

“Well, the first thing you’re going to have to do is change the name of that mission,” my project’s creative director tells me, almost immediately. “You can’t just call a mission in our game after another game.”

“What? Call a mission after another game? You mean… the one called deus ex machina? The one set in a Greek theater? Involving the gods? And an awkward playwright? Where the seemingly unsolvable is solved?”

“Yeah. Deus Ex is just too recognizable.”

(When you’re in college, and people ask if your classics major means you’re going to teach classics after graduation, this is probably not what they’re referring to.)

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Fireside Chat

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Meg

I’m at TechCrunch Disrupt, towards the back of a industrial hall during an informal panel of successful angel tech investors. It’s quite an interesting look at what makes a startup succeed. The interviewer’s gotten Ron Conway to admit to attending Mark Zuckerberg’s secret wedding a few days ago. Conway’s unwilling to give out any information, and finally tells the interviewer to stop asking, he won’t say anything about the other guests or the wedding itself, because we should all respect Zuck’s privacy.

A guy near me starts laughing, with those quiet, body-shaking laughs that occur only when you know you shouldn’t laugh, and you’re trying desperately to keep silent. I look over, mostly in solidarity with a case of inappropriate giggle syndrome, an affliction from affects me at awkward moments as well.

“Respect Mark Zuckerburg’s privacy,” he repeats, forcing a word out at time, through helpless chortles. “That’s great. Respect Facebook’s privacy!” He falls back into giggles.

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From TechCrunch Disrupt

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Meg


Spent today over at TechCrunch Disrupt, looking at new startup apps in Startup Alley, listening to the tech fireside chats, and, overall, just seeing trends in social media apps. After a couple pitches, I couldn’t help it.

Updatr Updatr uses your other social profiles to automate your Facebook updates. For example, Updatr pulls from your LinkedIn to automate updates about how no one in any other departments gets anything done, and how your coworkers are all morons. Updatr also finds your weather, localized by your recent checkins, before sharing a randomized comment on how depressing rain is, or how lame it is that you have to work when it’s so nice out.

Version 1.8 checks your marital status to create updates about awful in-laws, and checking the “City Resident” option will replace “Seriously, no one in *hometown* can drive!” with “Late again. Thanks, *local transit authority*!”

LoveMyLogo Every hot new startup already has a catchy name and logo. But, are hipsters really wearing your t-shirt? LoveMyLogo crowdsources actual t-shirt-wearing potential brand ambassadors, and enables real-time voting on your logo’s wearability and offline virality.  LoveMyLogo (beta) is available in Brooklyn, Austin, and Portland.

Footbllr After entering the football team followed by your significant other, Footbllr alerts you to during times of suboptimal contact, such as the last quarter of a close game, and also alerts you to major team negativity, such as a player injury or defeat to division rivals, that may affect a fan’s mood. Footbllr is free to download and use, but premium accounts offer the additional ability to set affectionate text messages of congratulation or sympathy, automated and sent based on the team’s success or failure.

Swagify Swagify’s new micro-location check-ins enable hardworking journalists to mark swag-positive locations on an interactive conference map, and enter a twenty-one-character micro-review to tag the swag in real time. Swagify also allows users to search swag-positive locations, read micro-reviews, and leave a seven-character micro-micro-review.

Ok… you probably caught on… these aren’t real apps. (Yet.)

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Subway Etiquette

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Meg

Sometimes I wonder about subway etiquette.

The other day I was on a train and noticed a man wearing an Autobots T-shirt. I poked Harold, with an attempt at subtlety, and pointed out the real-life counterpart to a Hasbro virtual-goods promotion we’d worked on for Next Island. I pointed out the three colorable fields, one of the attributes that caused difficulties, as if I could retroactively prove its desirability to players, and retroactively get back those hours arguing about it.

Exhibit A: Pretend Transformers Shirt

I’m not entirely sure why I want to snap a picture of the passenger in the Autobots shirt, it’s not actually my project and I can’t actually gather visual evidence to defend my argument last year, but I sort of do want a picture.  Is that weird? It seems strange, even invasive, but it seems just as artificial to maintain the usual subway commute fiction that no one else exists. We travel together in tiny boxes, shoulder-to-shoulder sometimes, refusing to make eye contact, and hoping no one break the the rules, and forces us to acknowledge another person. So, should I try to take the photo, while pretending to text, and he can follow the subway etiquette of ignoring fellow passengers? But what if he breaks it?

Can I tell him I worked on a project making virtual versions of the t-shirt  he’s wearing? Could I set up the camera, hold it in readiness, and then snap as I’m getting out of the subway?

There’s a commotion next to me, as I’m wondering whether I should take a video and look for a still later.  A couple near me is trying to see the cover of a tabloid that a man’s got folded under his arm, and after trying to get a decent view of it, they finally ask him for a look at the paper.

It’s one of the city’s daily rags, and the cover is a sensationalist news photo of a young girl, with bloodstained hands and an all-caps headline, standing in from of a yellow-taped crime scene.

“It is!” the wife says triumphantly. “That is the building next door to us!”

Like I said, I don’t always understand the rules of subway behavior.

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Words With Friends, GChatting Edition

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Meg

Roy: Why is the Muppet show theme song stuck in my head now?

Meg: because it’s time to play the music?
it’s time to light the lights?

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