Extenuating Circumstances is a weblog by Dan Hon

links for 2007-06-18

• NewTeeVee Joost: It’s The Metadata, Stupid! «
  Sigh. See, this is what happens when you don’t write about stuff because you think your job means you’re not allowed to. Someone else writes about it, and not as well as you could’ve.
  (tags: joost arg metadata interactivetvdoneright interactive tv television tvshow heroes lost)
• Twitter / abovelondon
  Stuff Above London
  (tags: abovelondon twitter satellite skies night)
• Roo Reynolds - What’s Next? » Blog Archive » interesting2007 - now that *was* interesting - thirty interesting things
  Roo’s notes of Interesting 07. I take issue with the “can videogames be art” question for a variety of reasons.
  (tags: rooreynolds interesting2007 russelldavies)
• Katamari: Beautiful Katamari Details Roll Into Your Life - Kotaku
  Beautiful Katamari appearing on XBLA in four months. Yum.
  (tags: xbla beautifulkatamari katamari xbox namco xbox360 via:kotaku)
• Versions - Mac Subversion Client
  What looks to hopefully be a good SVN client for OS X. Wonderful icon/homepage design.
  (tags: svn subversion client app osx)
• Leopard’s new menubar is hideous - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  Oi. I said the new menubar was shit, too.
  (tags: leopard osx 10.5 menubar tuaw shit ui hci design)
• Slashdot | The Impossibility of Colonizing the Galaxy
  Stross on colonisation hits slashdot, predictably has to explain what it is he was actually talking about due to crappy article summary
  (tags: charliestross slashdot space colonisation)
• Sofa - Design, Interfaces & Software
  The same people who made Disco are making Version. Oh dear.
  (tags: sofa design macosx apple application developer osx disco version)
• Variety.com - Fox taking a shine to ‘Halo’
  Fox becomes primary licensor for Halo merchandise. This doesn’t mean Fox is back doing the film.
  (tags: fox halo via:variety microsoft microsoftgamestudios wingnut licensing)
• News - Halo 3 viral marketing beings // Xbox 360 /// Eurogamer
  Eurogamer covers the Halo 3 campaign. Not 42. Not Mind Candy, either. Possibly Bungie/MS internal?
  (tags: halo3 via:eurogamer eurogamer arg marketing campaign)

Dan, I really really want to hear your thinking regarding video games as art. From memory (and insufficient notes), Rob Mortimer shared some examples of beautiful games at interesting2007, but more importantly got into the area of emotional engagement.

And you shall! As soon as I, um, get some time to write about it properly. Which will probably happen quite soon.

I was half worried that you might take issue with me (apparently) taking issue at your comment, but that really wasn’t the case - videogames *can* be art, and I (along with other people) get quite upset when they’re dealt with by a broad brush as being rather juvenile.

Dan, I can’t possibly take issue with you, since a.) you’re so very very nice and b.) didn’t express an opinion either way on the question, but simply reported the title Rob chose for the his talk. As it happens, I agreed with him that they are art, and so I expect we agree too.

But then, I think games (not just virtual worlds, but actual games) can be a place to meet up, exchange stories and get to know each other, so I’d be similarly annoyed by anyone using the broad juvenile brush.