As well as working for Pixel-Lab, I occasionally do bits for Mudlark, who held a launch event in Birmingham last Friday.
It sparked off a lot of thoughts about communications, which I’ve written up for them here.
There were a few definitions given of the term post-digital, including Matt defining it as “a state in which we [...]

I started typing a response to this comment, but it became a post.
But is there such a thing as a wrong opinion ?
Onto your point, when everything is connected, doesn’t culture become a common denominator as it is accessible to everyone ?
As I have access to this globalized world that reaches from one point of [...]

(This is written for Russell Davies’ Lyddle End 2050 project. The photos are all of models I made for it, and you can also see them as a set on Flickr).

We’ve lived through a lot of futures and most of them, we didn’t see coming. We’ve imagined many more, and I have a lot of [...]

I’ve been noticing more and more the keen divide between my life led online and my life led in meatspace, and am getting interested in ways to close the gap, especially in public.
I had some laptop stickers printed saying “Hello there. Yes you. Just because I’m using a laptop at this table, that doesn’t mean [...]

It’s an odd climate in which to coin such a post title, but a few things I’ve observed have been rattling around recently.
The ongoing economic crisis seems to drive people to more conservative tactics, which aren’t necessarily safe (i.e. retreating to currency in the name of liquidity doesn’t seem like a very sure bet…). The [...]

(In which the author/typist apologises in a roundabout way for posting less nowadays)
I need more time to sit and think about this, but Jane Pinckard has posted something very good, though preliminary, about emergent trends in entertainment.
There’s definitely something to this:
Facebook status updates are absolutely brilliant ways for expressing an immediate state, and allowing someone [...]

For the first 10% of GTA IV, I had a backseat driver. “Go left here!”, “You missed the turn!”, “No not that way”. The most annoying thing about this particular backseat driver was that it was always right, even in times of crisis. It led me from one waypoint to the next flawlessly, but I [...]

Some friends and I once invented a game while working together in a night club. It’s called One-Behindmanship, and basically turns good door etiquette into a competitive game. By being the last of a group through a door without anyone realising, you earn gloating rights. “After you” is a perfect way to telegraph and cause [...]

I used to have something called a “league of greed”. It detailed every single thing I wanted, and put them in the order I wanted with the price next to everything. At the bottom was a total, which at times was unattainable, and at other times just represented a hell of a lot of potential [...]

I’ve been asked to deliver a keynote at Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer. Provided everything goes to plan, this post will be automatically published while I’m giving the talk.
Slides and a written version of the talk can be found at the Pixel-Lab site or a few entires on in this blog. For now, [...]

(CC licensed image by Roadsidepictures)
I ran an event for work a few nights ago, and one of the things that came up in discussion was this blog entry by Ste Pickford. He raises an interesting question:
I’m playing GTA4 right now but I’m not very good and shooting / aiming games, so I’m struggling with some [...]

There’s some interesting work being done at Playing Together. Talking about social gaming and the Wii in particular, they quote a few kids/teenagers:
“I was addicted to Unreal and i knew all the cheats.”
How often did you play it?
“All the time!”
And why did you stop playing it?
“I grew up! [laughs]”
[Male, 19, Yorkshire]
It goes on:
I do wonder, [...]

This is interesting. Our brains conserve energy on a very basic level, much like emotionally driven motivations that (ideally) impel us to seek the highest value for the lowest investment of energy and time, and reflexes automating things that first require much practice.
Monotonous duties switch our brain to “rest mode”, whether we like it or [...]

I just read Glasshouse, by Charles Stross. He is by far my favorite author at the moment; aware of many technological trends that are not on many people’s radar, he extrapolates them and infuses them with the influence of games too.
Glasshouse shows something important about games: Their ethical inertness.
This post has spoilers in it, so [...]

Of all the game developer events I’ve been to, GDC probably has the highest proportion of women attending, though they’re still a small minority. It is tempting to hit on them, especially as a single young man, but for the whole conference, I didn’t. The reason why is that I suspected something, and had it [...]