what do you have to tell if you are a plant?
See this project: “Botanicalls Twitter answers the question: What’s up with your plant? It offers a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates that reach you anywhere in the world. When your plant needs water, it will post to let you know, and send its thanks when you show it love.”
It remininds me of creating a new reputation system in which the reputaion is created not by the user but by the objects… In “Botanicalls Twitter” the plants are giving positive feedback if you care for them.
play ‘n’ eat
I found this blogpost Julian Bleecker did a few weeks ago. He wrote about a very nice project by Kotaro Watanabe. Watanabe created hydrophobic paper plates. The photos were taken during a dinner.
It reminds me on my thoughts about play and function. It seems you can use a plate as an hybrid objects to eat and to play…
alternate game controller
I’m currently thinking about alternate ways of controling a game. Recently many interfaces have been developed trying to expand usual input devices.
Nintendo’s “Wii Remote” is a good example of creating a game controler which offers the user a new way of experience. There are many third-party controller expansions like Tennis Rackets, golf clubs etc.
Most of the Wii-Remote expansions are designed by adapting “classic” toys or like steering wheels, rackets, guns etc.
What happens if everyday objects or situations are used as alternate game controllers.
How would you perceive an everyday object if you know that it is used to control a game? Is there a changing in interaction between the user and the object?
I like the idea of controlling a game in a more passive way just by living your erveryday life.
“PMOG” is one example. PMOG is a “[...] massively multiplayer online game merges your web life with an alternate, hidden reality.” You can play Pmog by browsing the web.
“G-Link” by Ross O’Shea is another goood example of using your environmental data to modify a game.”The G-Link is a wearable device that allows computer games to emerge into the real world through everyday humdrum activities such as walking around, talking and so on.”
Your everyday life is connected to a game.
Objects or situations in everyday life have to correlate with the paticular game scenario in some way. This is difficult because
as i mentionend in previous posts games are highly self contained. Furthermore it’s is necessary to signify the object as a game controller.
- coexistence between “Play” and “Function” in one object.
- What is a appropriate combination between game scenario and object?
On the picture above you can see the logo from the game “Spore” designed by Will Wright and under development by Maxis . It will be released in Europe on September 5, 2008.
As a player you can “[...]control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social land-walking creature, to levels of interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture.” All creatures are desinged by players through an interface called the “Creature Editor”. “In concept, the editors start simply in the cellular phase and move to higher levels of complexity acting as tutorials for progressive levels of gameplay. For example; the cell editor as demonstrated so far has a small set of choices (three sensory, three movement, and three attack options)[...]”
(via Wikipedia)
For me the major idea behind spore is to determine its evolution. As a player you can adjust parameters which have heavily influence of the evolution of your creature. You have to design your creature well in order to survive and to build up a strong society. Within the game your creature has to compete against other creatures again designed by other players. So you can compare your skills with other players and learn very quickly.
- What if you translate the major idea behind Spore in everyday objects?
I think in this context plants are in accordance with the concept of Spore. Plants are living organisms. You can find about 350.000 species of plants with different characteristics and different needs. Like playing a game you have to follow a set of specific rules to make your plant survive or even grow.
As an owner of a plant you have to take care of specific circumstances and needs. You are supposed to create an environment which is specified to your plant…
- If your creature is not desingend well it will not be able to survive.
blogging objects - making bridges talk
I found this nice project by Tom Armitage. He connected The Tower Bridge with the popular micro-blogging Service Twitter:
“Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter web site, via the Twitter web site, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.”
(via Wikipedia)
It tells you when it’s opening and closing, what vessel is passing through, and which way that vessel is going.”
In his post he ponited to another approach of making buildings or constructions talk on twitter. It is quite funny to see how huge buildings or objects blogging in a personal way…
If you are a bridge It is kind of boring to let people know what you are donig all the day long. Open…close…open…close…
- What do you have to tell if you are a bridge?
switched biased dice
- import game data in everyday objects
- “The Game” (film) by David Fincher
- biased Dice
Idea:
Idea is to modify the everyday life of a person by playing a game. The course of action in everyday life is controled by the objects you use and by the personal choices you make.
Approach:
The objects or situations in everyday life are modified by a game based data stream. If a player is producing action or data ( e.g. rolling a dice, moving across the gameboard, moving the character) the object is performing accordingly to the data stream.
- the score of a dice decides whether a door in a room is closed or not
- players actions activate a process which can only be stoped by a person interacting with the influenced object; e.g. a person needs to take a seat to stop a growth of a chair (see also “Living with Things” by Monika Hoinkis)
Scenario:
The game scenario can be translated into a room or into a house.
- different levels or rooms of a house could be interpreted as different game levels etc.
- different objects in a room could be interpreted or assingend to the game pieces
reputation / library system
My idea is based on ebay’s reputation system. The user is not evaluated by other users for a sucessfull transaction but in this case the user is evaluated by the objects he or she is trying to sell.
- you need to be nice to your objects
- treat your objects right
Approach:
Approach is to assign preferences and dislikes to objects.
- a book likes to be read
- a bicycle likes to be driven
The user have to interact with the objects to be regarded with favor.
- you have to make them happy
- you have to take care of the object
- you have to go after finding friends for the object etc…
Scenario:
One Scenario is to implement the idea into the ebay reputation sytem.
A second scenrio is to use the idea in a library: You can convince the objects of staying longer at your side.
- the user is able to extend the time the objects is in the user’s ownership
Feedback:
The Objects has to give feedback about it’s current state.
switched track me not / create a personal identity of an object
- blogject by Julian Bleecker
- spime by Bruce Sterling
- Track me Not by Daniel C. Howe, Helen Nissenbaum
Idea:
The Idea is to create an “meta personal identity” of an everyday object. The idea is based on the practice of data-profiling (logging user search activities and creating individual user profiles) by search engines like google, AOL etc.
Approach:
The object generates specified search-queries to produce an individual user profile. The search-queries are based on tags which are associated with the object. So web services like Google assign a personality the object.
It turns out that your bottle of water likes philosophy or your algebra book loves porn
- Bruce Sterling and the neologism “spime”
- The word spime is filled with semantics by the user through “taging”, “linking” etc…
Scenario:
If an user interacts with an object it starts generating the specified search-queries (e.g. If You open a bottle)
Problem:
The Problem is to produce feedback which is readable by the user.
- How could the user know that your waterbottle loves reading Wittgenstein?
- is the generated user profile produced by the object readable?
- how does it look like? see: websearch queries or: w3C definition: link
- nytimes:”Marketers Trace Paths Users Leave on Internet”
- ”buried in a list of 20 million Web search queries collected by AOL and recently released on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number was assigned by the company to protect the searcher’s anonymity, but it was not much of a shield”: link
PLAY ‘N’ FUNCTION
background:
My first ides is based on a talk by Amy Jo Kim(Creative Director of Shuffle Brain) “Putting the Fun in Functional - Applying Games Mechanics To Functional Software”
In her talk Kim explains the use of game mechanics in non-game systems and applications. These game machanics are used to make the “User Experinece” more addictive.
bild? -> game mechanics
Game mechanics can shape behaviour of the User. You can use them as a design tool to create players actions.
- conclusion:
There is a coexistence between “Play” and “Function” in one object.
- interesting/idea:
You keep the function / semantics of an object and make it more playful.
idea:
My idea is to find everyday objects or situations which can modified with game mechanics.
You can extend those objects or situations with game mechanics to create “ad-hoc game situations” with erveryday objects. The user is enabeld to experience objects/situations in a playful way of manner.
some queer and simple examples:
intention:
Intention is to amplify the semantics of an object / situation. The aim is not to make the object or the action more efficient: You can browse songs in your mp3 player with an efficient interface or you can browse songs in a more playful way via gestures, your movement etc.
You are not making your performance more effective but more fun.
-Through interacting with an object in a playful way of manner the user can explore the meaning of an object/situatiuon in a new way.
-You can master your everyday life in a playful way of manner.
examples
of creating awareness with or for everyday objects / situations:
“Audioshaker” by mark Hauenstein
- a good metaphor for browsing captured audio files.
“Living With Things” by Monika Hoinkis
- beautiful and very strong example for modifing objects with minimal interventions
“Öffentliches Ärgernis” by Mandy Meisner
- example for creating intelligent situatons in public spaces with minimal extensions.
modifing everyday objects/situations with game mechanics:
Ad-hoc gameplay:
Some situattions where people exspecially children create “ad-hoc game situations”:
- kicking a stone in the streets while walking from point a to point b
- hold balance with your chair (to wobble?)
- walking on top of a wall
situations which can be modified:
entering a subway train in a rush our reminds me of playing the game “Musical chairs”.
people trying to catch a free seat as soon as possible.
from wikipedia: “The game starts with any number of players and a number of chairs one fewer than the number of players; the chairs are arranged in a circle (or other closed figure if space is constrained; a double line is sometimes used) facing outward, with the people standing in a circle just outside of that. A non-playing individual plays recorded music or a musical instrument. While the music is playing, the players in the circle walk in unison around the chairs. When the music controller suddenly shuts off the music, everyone must race to sit down in one of the chairs. The player who is left without a chair is eliminated from the game, and one chair is also removed to ensure that there will always be one fewer chair than there are players. The music resumes and the cycle repeats until there is only one player left in the game, who is the winner.”
finding small games / principles which can be used to extend objects or situations:
tit for tat
Chinese whispers