Episode 35 — Pirates of Pizzazz

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Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport.  The thrill of choose your own adventure, and the agony of crafting for hour upon hour.  The human drama of gaming competition.  This is Games at Work’s Wide Virtual World of Games.

For the first time in a long while, the co-hosts are all together virtually, while physically in Raleigh, North Carolina, San Francisco, California, and Budapest, Hungary.  Michael M, inspired by an @ibogost tweet, spent 15 minutes (and it shows!) to create the Games at Work Podcast Game using Twine, and walks Michael and Phaedra through one of the branches.  You can play the game yourself!

The team talks about Minecraft — it’s got a crafting part, it’s got a mining part, it’s got a farming part, it’s got an electrical engineering part and oh, so much more.  With the generation playing Minecraft and other such building games that are focused on the player’s imagination,  rather than the game designer’s / author’s imagination, Michael R observes that today’s creativity and content will place new demands on the appropriate laws governing the technology.  Phaedra brings up the similarities to Lego, and after the recording was long over, Michael M learned a little more about Youth Digital Studios for app and game design classes for kids in Durham and elsewhere.

Michael R was looking forward to Fred Armisen’s talk on the use of technology and the creative process at Macworld.

Michael R is practicing for his role with Durham Savoyards, celebrating their 50th anniversary with their production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance March 14-17 and 22-24th.

Phaedra is excited about the upcoming East Coast Game Conference April 24-25 at the Raleigh Convention Center.

This episode was brought to you by the letters X,Y, ZZ and Y.  Was one smart dressed, rockin’ recording, this was…

Show links:

Twine — http://gimcrackd.com/etc/src/
Lost Treasures of Infocom — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lost-treasures-of-infocom/id577626745?mt=8
Minecraft — http://minecraft.net
Twitcraft on TWiT — http://mc.twit.tv
Tekkit Minecraft Mod — http://www.technicpack.net/tekkit/
Rube Goldberg — http://www.rubegoldberg.com
Minecraft computer built using Minecraft — http://www.geekosystem.com/minecraft-16-bit-computer/
Minecraft on iOS — https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/minecraft-pocket-edition/id479516143
Eden — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eden-world-builder/id405743220?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2
Lego — http://www.lego.com/
Lego Mindstorm — http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx
Futurehunting — will.i.am and Brian David Johnson — http://www.macworldiworld.com/special-events/futurehunting/
Macworld/iWorld — http://www.macworldiworld.com
Michael Rowe blog — http://triangleappshow.com/2013/02/final-day-future-visions/
Crazytalk for Mac at the show — http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/
Durham Savoyards — http://www.durhamsavoyards.org
East Coast Gamers Conference — http://www.ecgconf.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:13 — 36.2MB) | Embed

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Episode 34 – One Way Ticket to Mars

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You too can apply for the one way ticket to Mars by participating in the www.mars-one.com other worldly event.  You need to be ready to leave planet Earth, for good.  By round three of the selection process, the TV audience, just like on American Idol, will select the group of four pioneers to travel to Mars.  There have been over 1,000 applications already, before any announcement was even made!  This is a novel way to select our future interplanetary pioneers by leveraging entertainment for funding & publicity.  Michael M and Phaedra imagine other such games that could be use to fund big, big things like this, while missing Michael R for this week’s episode.

Rounding out the episode, Michael and Phaedra touch on Facebook’s Social Graph for how friends & connections are used for better searches and Phaedra’s recent trip to Singapore.  For their saving throws, Phaedra just can’t get enough of the Mars-One story, while Michael highlights the iOS game Storm Raiders and praises Tune In Radio which provides him with WUNC FM 91.5 radio all the way in Budapest.  He is a sustainer, and glad to have his Morning Edition, even if it is in the middle of the day.  🙂

Show links:

Mars-One.com — www.mars-one.com
Truman Show — http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/
Survivor — http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0239195/
Mad Max — http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/
Biosphere 2 — http://www.b2science.org 
Virginia Dare — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Dare
Steve Jobs yacht — http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/29/tech/web/steve-jobs-yacht/index.html
Love Boat — http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075529/
Old Salem — http://www.oldsalem.org
Astronaut Ice Cream — http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/9e07/

 Saving Throws:

Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sky-gamblers-storm-raiders/id574375380?mt=8
Tune In Radio — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tunein-radio-listen-to-live/id418987775?mt=8

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:15 — 36.8MB) | Embed

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Time off for bad behavior

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Well, it’s happened again… We missed another show, but we did think about some cool topics for next week. Phaedra and Michael will do a show next week all about Mars!!! So don’t space out, we will be back soon.

Episode 33 – Podcasters Make Bad Spellers – Verbally

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We are back! Phaedra and the Michael’s are back for an exciting episode of games at work, and this week it’s all about pixelated pavlovian responses – and we don’t mention Waze once!. Michael get’s us all to play a few simple games to make a point about pavlovian responses. We start with the cute kitten in Rescue Rush – where you leverage local maps to help rescue animals. And once again, Michael M. shows that while he loves playing the game, he refuses to help the developers by making the obligatory in app purchase. Or is he just showing the courage of his convictions, that he won’t get sucked into the trap! Phaedra then thinks about how the Girl Scouts could benefit from these type of Augmented Reality games – can you really share your cookies?!?!

We then move over to Pixel People, where we you build a city and people for the purpose of discovery via cloning and mutating people. Encouraging discovery and causing flow. Michael R. informs us that he’s flowed out on a few of his reason games, include the Simpson’s Tappd out game.
We ultimately decided that it’s not just a badges or point question, that it is really the Pavlovian bell question. Do you have enough bells in your day job, what is the cool factor that would get you to keep playing at work?

We’d like to go deeper on the subject of game stickiness and rewards, and how it should play out for a business environment. So drop us a comment, email, or tweet, and we’ll discuss in more detail next time on – Games At Work dot Biz!

Show Links:
Rescue Rush
FarmVille goes Hollywood
Segway History
Pixel People
The Game of Life
G Summit – San Francisco

Savings Throws:
Phaedra – Superman Lands in Russia

Michael M – Cards Against Humanity
Michael R – Moves for iPhone

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:29 — 38.2MB) | Embed

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