Juergen Musil

Light Sabers!

Juergen — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:19:44 +0000

WiiMotion Plus and light sabers in action. enjoy!

Face the candidates

Juergen — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:38:27 +0000

Take a look at the recent debate between Barack Obama and John McCain in the CNN Soulcalibur Space studio. Although both candidates weren’t very talk-active, they still came up with some sharp arguments

Between game worlds and social worlds

Juergen — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:02:06 +0000

Virtual worlds are often referred to as virtual social worlds or virtual game worlds. I see such a diversification problematic since it gives the impression that virtual social world wouldn’t need a game component and just rely on social communicative activities. Let us think of games as a compound of behavioural, fictional and communicative elements, then it becomes obvious why focused gatherings and affinity groups emerge around virtual game worlds. Constraining user activities like games do it is not something bad, as restrictions allow the world creators to make user decisions and activities interesting and meaningful for them. In the real world we have taxes and laws to direct and guide the behaviour of the citizens. Games inherently refer to concepts from other domains. They imitate and stylize structural and dynamic elements of systems and provide people so a familiar, yet different environment for spending their time. Ignoring this principle and instead following a path of feature populism by piling up popular features and hope that a lively play experience will emerge is risky and needlessly complicated. Making a liked virtual world is a though job and it won’t get easier by totally omitting elements that are vital for a community and later for a society to emerge.

Check out Damion Schubert’s post on a similar issue.

Jonathan Smith is sorry

Juergen — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:48:18 +0000

Check out Jonathan Smith’s great performance during keynote of Ste Curran at the Nordic Game conference.

Have your own R2-D2!

Juergen — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:17:47 +0000

I you have ever dreamed of your own functional R2-D2 then go to this website. You can choose between types: a projector/multimedia hub version in life size or a wireless webcam in miniature format.

Mirror’s Edge video!

Juergen — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:47:18 +0000

The video confirms the first impressions of the screenshots. Hopefully the control and navigation will be as smooth as the video suggests. Also I am interested how many testers got queasy during play. Have I heard the word “Cloverfield” ….

Ben X film launch

Juergen — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:29:28 +0000

Ben X: The critically acclaimed Belgian film about an autistic boy who tries to escape bullying by retreating into Archlord’s virtual world starts next week in Germany and two weeks later in Austria. Hugh, will be a busy movie weeks, since Indiana Jones 4 also starts in that week…

We’ve won! Get over it

Juergen — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:49:37 +0000

Check out Richard Bartle’s article in the Guardian.

Leadership Forum ’07 Videos

Juergen — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:26:18 +0000

The complete video coverage is available here.

ESA Foundation Student Scholarship

Juergen — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:36:23 +0000

The ESA Foundation offers 15 scholarships à $ 3000 for full-time graduate students who apply until May 15th, 2008. Including fields are graphic design, computer science, animation or programming, digital entertainment or software engineering. More infos at Gamasutra.