Clickable Culture Official research blog of Phantom Compass: Culture, technology, commerce, and play. 2008-09-04T02:06:18Z Copyright (c) 2008, Tony Walsh Clickable Culture tag:secretlair.com,2008:09:04 Mixed-Reality Sweatshops tag:secretlair.com,2008:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5272 2008-04-11T13:59:00Z 2008-04-11T14:22:46Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2008 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Annie Ok sent word that Invisible Threads, a video she co-directed and shot in Second Life is available on the interwebs. The 8-minute film outlines "10 Simple Steps to your very own Virtual Sweatshop with Telematic Manufacturing."



The film is satirical in tone, but actually, worlds like Second Life which allow user-created content and real/virtual currency exchange are viable places for hiring out "sweatshop" labor, depending on what sort of work product you're looking for.

So-called "camping chairs," which pay Second Life users to linger in specific locations (known as "camping" in gamer parlance), pay a very low wage to workers in North America and Europe, but could actually provide a decent income in some countries. A few years ago, the New York Times reported that most Chinese gold farmers make under $0.25 USD per hour. The sweatshop featured in Invisible Threads pays in virtual currency equivalent to $0.90 USD hourly.
Comments?]]> Imminent Toronto Gaming Action tag:secretlair.com,2008:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5271 2008-04-08T18:14:00Z 2008-04-08T18:30:03Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2008 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Indie warlord Jim Munroe informed his mailing list today that his Artsy Games Incubator is holding an open house in Toronto at the Mobile Experience Lab on Wed. April 23rd at 7pm. Writes Jim, "there'll be short presentations of the games we made using accessible tools... we're also inviting people in the indie games community at large to bring their games-in-progress to demo -- and no, you don't have to identify as an artist." Yes, but how do we define "indie?" And what if I'm not indie but I'm making an artsy game?

The third installment of the Toronto Game Jam was announced to mailing list members today. Registration is now open for the frantic game-making event, which runs May 9 - 11, 2008. From the call-out: "It's FREE and open to anyone in the world with a modicum of game making ability. Coders! Artists! Designers! Musicians! All are welcome." Sounds like fun, if you can stay up for 72 hours straight.

Lastly, the Second Skin virtual world documentary will make its Toronto debut on April 21 and 23. I make a 15-second appearance in the film, so I'm totally biased when I insist that you go see it--more importantly, help the filmmakers get the word out to local media so that the uninitiated flock to the film in droves.
Comments?]]> ‘Second Skin’ Documentary Debuts Friday tag:secretlair.com,2008:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5253 2008-03-05T00:46:00Z 2008-03-05T00:57:38Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2008 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Those of you in Austin, Texas this week for South by Southwest may be fortunate enough to take in the debut of Second Skin on Friday. I've been following the documentary about virtual worlds and the real people who inhabit them for some time, and can't wait to see the final film (having weaseled my way into its trailer). The makers of the film will be vlogging their Texan misadventures for your enjoyment, and have been keeping a production blog for millions of internet-years.

Here's when and where you can catch this potentially generation-defining documentary:

Friday March 7 - 9:00pm - Austin Convention Center Theater

Tuesday March 11 - 7:45pm - Austin Convention Center Theater

Thursday March 13 - 1:45pm - Austin Convention Center Theater

See you at the Convention Center!
Comments?]]> Games and Moving Pictures:  Quick Links for 2008-02-03 tag:secretlair.com,2008:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5228 2008-02-03T10:21:01Z 2008-02-04T00:44:09Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2008 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Comments?]]> ‘Second Skin’ Trailer Debuts Today tag:secretlair.com,2008:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5225 2008-01-29T19:41:00Z 2008-01-29T20:30:11Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2008 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Since 2006, I've been following the adventures of the team at Pure West--filmmakers researching and journaling MMO game culture for a documentary which would come to be called Second Skin. The team's blog gave a behind-the-scenes look at the trials of the documentarians and their evolving subject-matter, but I was fortunate enough to meet the filmmakers first-hand during one of their many journeys across the U.S., Canada, and overseas. These guys weren't just trying to cash in on the swelling interest in MMOs, or exploit players as objects of curiosity or ridicule--it was clear their mission was to seek out and reveal some compelling human stories at the intersection of real and virtual worlds.

The Second Skin trailer makes its debut today, and I'm not excited about it simply because of my brief on-camera appearance :) I feel like this will be a topical, socially-relevant documentary that will make a lasting mark. Something that may end up as course-material some day (certainly I'll be buying the DVD). The filmmakers clearly poured their blood and sweat into Second Skin, and at first glance, it really shows. Congratulations to the Pure West team and everyone (it seems like dozens) they interviewed. I think you have a hit on your hands.

Comments?]]> ‘I Am Legend’ In Saintly Style tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5198 2007-12-18T19:16:00Z 2007-12-18T19:38:06Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Almost 7 years ago, a team of creative Canadians launched Broken Saints, an online motion-graphic novel which evolved over 24 chapters and garnered a massive international fan-base. Series creator Brooke Burgess described the series as "cinematic literature" in a 2002 interview. I'd call the series "groundbreaking" in that it pushed accepted boundaries of web-based storytelling as well as the technical limitations of Flash as a production tool. Unlike cartoon "webisodes," Broken Saints used a painterly, textured approach more at home on film than the web.

The award-winning series has since been remastered and released on DVD through 20th Century Fox, but the project team hasn't stopped there: The "band" reformed to produce a series of mini-films as part of a promotion for the Will Smith sci-fi thriller I Am Legend.

According to a press release Brooke Burgess sent my way, he and cohort Ian Kirby have been secretly producing the animated shorts since last spring, when they were approached by Will Smith's production company. The mini-films range from 3-9 minutes each, and feature original music, sound design, and voice talent from the Broken Saints audio team. Apple is hosting "Awakening" and "Isolation," which echo all the best Broken Saints production values in the I Am Legend universe.
Comments?]]> 2008 Producers Institute At BAVC tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5197 2007-12-18T18:53:00Z 2007-12-18T19:05:12Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Applications are due February 1, 2008, for next year's Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, a 10-day program designed to give eight teams of documentary-makers a taste of new media, gaming, and cross-platform possibilities. Hosted and organized by the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) in San Francisco, the Producer's Institute is intense, energetic, and highly productive. The program runs May 30 - June 8: For complete information, or to submit an on-line application, please go to: bavc.org/producersinstitute.

I was a mentor at the 2007 Institute (held earlier this year), and thoroughly enjoyed working both with BAVC and the invited documentarians. It was a fantastic opportunity to teach, learn, and cross-pollinate, and I'm sure the 2008 event will offer more the same.
Comments?]]> ‘Silent Hill 5’:  Now With Jiggle-Physics tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5189 2007-12-06T21:43:00Z 2007-12-06T22:55:42Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
I've been a fan of survival horror game series Silent Hill since the first installment in the series, not so much due to the game play, but because of its inspirational creative elements. The visuals and soundscapes featured in the series are haunting, distinctive, and memorable.

One of the most recognizable monster-types in the game series is a sort of "zombie nurse," a faceless female creature dressed in medical garb which shivers and shimmies through darkened hospitals, looking for a handful of your flesh. When the Silent Hill movie came out last year, I was disappointed that the zombie nurses seemed to be re-imagined as slightly more sexualized monsters. Basically they became less "zombie" and more "sexy nurse." A pity, since the original creature designs seemed to be far more ghastly (and far more scary) than the ones shown in the film.

Sadly, the upcoming Silent Hill 5 seems to turned the zombie Sex-O-Meter up to eleven, turning an exquisite walking corpse into Nurse McBoobs, complete with a nipple-exposing wardrobe-malfunction. Jeux France has the full-sized pics. If the game features jiggle-physics, I'm going postal.
Comments?]]> Quick Links for 2007-11-22 tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5175 2007-11-22T10:26:00Z 2007-11-22T12:31:58Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Comments?]]> My New Crush: ‘Tower Defense’ tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5151 2007-11-07T15:06:00Z 2007-11-07T18:45:20Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Please help me. I've become hooked on the dangerously-addictive Flash game Desktop Tower Defense after playing it under a dozen times. The first time I was exposed to the "tower defense" concept was through a custom-made Warcraft III mod (like this one here) one of my students showed me last year. The idea is simple: Plan, build, and maintain a defense system which automatically destroys waves of brainless attackers. The Warcraft version didn't pique my interest--it seemed too "busy," but the Flash version cuts to the chase, throwing out the fancy graphics in favor of finely-tuned game-play. The addictive nature of the game--for me, anyway--is in discovering optimal strategies for play given that the configuration of in-game defenses is limitless.

I keep thinking about what I'd do to make my own game in this genre. I'm imagining a Road Warrior scene, shot from above, where the "tower" to be defended is a moving convoy of tricked out roadsters and off-road vehicles. Start from your home base with a tanker full of oil, upgrade and repair your defenses at each checkpoint, manage precious resources such as fuel and ammunition... if only there were a few more hours in a day to work on this...
Comments?]]> links for 2007-10-01 tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5103 2007-10-01T11:22:00Z 2007-10-01T22:05:10Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Comments?]]> links for 2007-09-11 tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5080 2007-09-11T11:28:00Z 2007-09-11T13:01:23Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Comments?]]> Shadow Puppet Game Worlds tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5062 2007-08-27T14:31:00Z 2007-08-27T13:48:07Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
Shadow puppetry involves projecting a silhouette onto a thin screen to produce the illusion of reality. It's an ancient form of storytelling that has re-surfaced in some modern animated shorts, and lately in at least two video games. Forget three dimensions. Forget photorealism. This is flat black at its best.

Check out Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, a scrolling shooter game (seemingly in the concept stages) by illustrator/animator Michel Gagné:


And then there's Limbo, an amazing-looking platform game (also apparently in the concept stages) by Arnt Jensen.


I'd love to see these games get published, and hope that someone has the sense to bring Jasper Morello to life in game form.
Comments?]]> A Few Cross-Media Pies I’ve Had A Finger In tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5060 2007-08-25T15:06:00Z 2007-08-25T14:55:10Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
I'm not always able to talk about projects I've been involved with, so when I get approval from clients (which, thankfully, is most of the time), I'm not shy about highlighting some of the outstanding initiatives I've worked on:

1) The Fallen Alternate Reality Game (a.k.a. "Ocular Effect"), to which I contributed story writing and game design (for Xenophile Media with Double Twenty Productions), was nominated for an Interactive TV Emmy Award earlier this month. Earlier this year, the project won a SXSW Web Award.

2) Thursday's Fictions In Second Life launched last month, a project by The Physical TV Company I was briefly involved with earlier this year in Tasmania. Gary Hayes of the Project Factory worked with the team after Tas and co-developed quite a wild-looking environment for the virtual world, involving elements of the Thursday's Fictions book and film. Some really creative effects were used for this, and Gary's posted a meditative YouTube walkthrough for your viewing pleasure.

3) Metaversatility has launched its cross-media game for upcoming movie The Nines. The game touches the web, Second Life and will bleed over into physical space as well. I'm happy to have been involved (even if very briefly) during the conception stages as a design consultant. The game has already made a few headlines, most notably at Variety online.

Hopefully I'll get clearance in the next month or so to discuss a few other fun cross-media projects recently-concluded and ongoing.
Comments?]]> Microsoft Kills Fan-Fiction Based on Xbox 360 Games tag:secretlair.com,2007:index.php?/clickableculture/7.5043 2007-08-15T17:15:00Z 2007-08-15T17:23:30Z Tony Walsh http://www.phantomcompass.com/ Tony Walsh for Clickable Culture, available via Atom. Copyright (c) 2007 in whole or in part, Tony Walsh.]
The good news is that Microsoft has spelled out how gamers are permitted and prohibited from using Xbox 360 games in machinima and other derivative works. The bad news is that "You can't add to the game universe or expand on the story told in the game with 'lost chapters' or back story or anything like that."

Historically, universe-expanding fan fiction related to TV shows and movies has in some cases extended fan interest in a given property, or has even been incorporated into the property's official canon. Killing fan-fiction (which almost always adds to a property's universe or storyline) pretty much invalidates any of the activities Microsoft has permitted, in my view.
Comments?]]>