e437 — Dipping into Dots | Games At Work dot Biz

airport signage with mechanical spinning flaps that make the delightful "pfffllllaaaappppfffff" sound as they reset the text — Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Published 23 October 2023

Michael, Michael and Andy get back together on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean once more to start off this episode with several cool examples of flipping dots artwork. Michael M remembered seeing a Vestaboard last weekend in Durham. Have a look at the links in the show notes for visual examples of each of these.

Continuing with the delight of the vintage clickety-clacking of the spinning flaps, the co-hosts enjoy checking out the newly created retro GameBoy and iPod examples. The iPod even has a haptic click wheel!

Then, switching gears to serious games, the team takes a look at the Trust & Safety Tycoon game, where the player takes on the role of the Trust and Safety team on a social network. This experiential learning through game playing reminds the team of Ian Bogost and his persuasive games. It also brings to the fore the Streisand Effect.

Next up, a couple of stories about UNESCO’s plans to create a virtual museum to spread awareness of stolen cultural artifacts. This provides a launch point for the museum in a box from Andy, the IT Crowd’s story about the Internet in a box from Michael R., and the Widernet effort from Michael M. Thanks to the Wayback Machine for preserving the Widernet website!

The team close out this week’s episode with a discussion on movie special effects.

What is your favorite special effect in film (or otherwise)? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!