Das Tagebuch Murnaus

A Scholar Who Brings Philosophy to Video Games

By ANDREA L. FOSTER
Chronicle of Higher Education Volume 51, Issue 10, Page A33

Video-game developers can be visionaries, not just technicians, says Ian Bogost. His own career reflects that view.

Before his current appointment at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is an assistant professor in the university's School of Literature, Communication and Culture, Mr. Bogost worked in various digital-media studios as chief technology officer, interactive media developer, and digital-media consultant. His ideas on video-game rhetoric and criticism draw on his longtime interest in playing video games and his academic training in literature and philosophy.

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He had me up until he invoked Derrida.

Related article about Bogost, in the same issue with the same author:

Video Games With a Political Message

Georgia Tech professor devises interactive ways to look at campaigns and policy debates

By ANDREA L. FOSTER

Playing video games can persuade voters to change their minds on important political issues.

Startling but true, says Ian Bogost, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His passion for analyzing and designing video games has made him a hot commodity for political campaigns bent on creating interactive games that drive home a political message.

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Well, the gaming convention at Phoenix (Tempe, actually) was pretty good, but it could have been a lot better if I hadn't been so ill. Fateful Readuhs will know that a few weeks ago, I picked up a cold that was circulating around the office and it turned into bronchitis. I was getting worse and worse and finally got some antibiotics from the local clinic, three days before leaving for Phoenix. They did the trick and it was 105 degrees and clear there, no dust storms as there had been a day or two before. The winds are hot down there - I felt as if someone had turned the biggest hair dryer in the world on me.

The bronchitis cleared up but then turned quickly into laryngitis, so I could not speak above a whisper without triggering a coughing fit that would throw my back out (never had that problem before). It figures - the one week in the year I really want to use my voice, it fails me. I did not have a very high energy level either, so I ended up not playing any games at all, just walking around and talking to people as best I could.

My copies of War Plan Crimson arrived from the publisher the day before I left, so I sold a few of those in the dealer's room, as well as some other tin-box games I brought down. It occasioned a lot of comment, unfortunately fascist-US-invading-other-countries-for-their-natural-resources games were not a theme of the conference, so I did not sell as many as two years ago when the theme was the Battle of the Bulge and I happened to have the newest one published at the time.

A game magazine publisher asked me to write up Arriba Espana and Battle for China as feedback game proposal items - I guess now that I have sold a couple thousand of these, he can take a flutter on re-re-publishing it! A small-press publisher and I will be working on a revision and re-issue of Green Beret as a map-counter-card game, and I was also asked to send something to another gaming magazine that publishes micro-games (one-page maps, few counters, several games in an issue and very nicely printed).

I got a few nice items in the flea market, and the game auction was very funny, as always. Lianne baked herself poolside like a pork chop, and we went out a couple of times, including hitting a music/video store a few blocks down the street. I got some good "difficult music".

The flights there and back weren't bad except for the stupid airport security, it seems to be routine to have to remove one's shoes now. Surprisingly, all the metal in my leg doesn't seem to trip the detectors.

Wasn't at work yesterday because Bad Bird (Big Bird's evil cousin, the one you hear about but never see on camera) came to visit - a stale-dated chicken wing brought me down with food poisoning. I'm better now, though.

I got an oldish Agfa 310 colour scanner for my old Mac at a garage sale on the weekend - only 5 bucks and it works fine. Scans of various photos may soon follow.

Before very long, my next game will be published - War Plan Crimson, an alternative-history game about a US invasion of Canada in the late 1930s. Inspiration drawn from an actual war plan drawn up by the US Department of War: http://harpers.org/PlanEh.html. Should make me rather popular at this year's gaming convention in Phoenix.

Here's a shot of the cover art, showing US Marines raising the Stars and Stripes over Halifax harbour:

It's just here for reference's sake - a list of the games I've designed and where they have been reviewed: http://www.islandhosting.com/~ltmurnau/text/mygames.htm

Prophecy tonight - wheee!

Just for future reference, here is the complete ludography for Microgame Design Group, the DTP game company with which I was associated for 8 years.

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Bad night. Probably less than two hours of sleep all told; I finally got the pain under control about 5 this morning with Advil and hydromorphone, after walking in little circles in my driveway for half an hour to help it take effect.

In talking with dzherzhinski yesterday, he noted that since the tooth is not sensitive to heat or cold, it is probably not a nerve problem and what it probably is is an infection or abscess under (above?) the tooth. I need antibiotics, not another drilling session. Makes sense to me.

One thing I am thinking about doing at the expo in Phoenix is a large-scale demonstration game of my design Battle of Seattle, a game on the anti-WTO riots in December 1999 available free from my website (some kind of downloading problem with the rules right now, though).

Last year I found some policeman playsets at a local dollar store - 35 little blue cops, each 2" high, for a buck. I bought a couple of bags and converted some of them into civilians by trimming hats, cutting off revolvers, ponytail headpieces and Mohawks made of DAS clay etc.. Last night Aki and I painted them up with colourful clothes, green hair, red boots, black hoodies and so forth. Aki also made up some little signs on stickers for them to wear - "NO WTO", "EAT THE RICH", and so forth. Maybe I'll take some pictures.

Next we will make up a large map and use the figures in the demo game. Should be fun!

Sitting here eating my sandwich early and I want to tell you what I did before I came here to sit and eat my sandwich.
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