The infamous Ed and Jake invited me on to their tremendous, terrific Tomorrow’s Tentacles radio show yesterday. After hearing about death, space and yet more of Jake’s worms, I had a chat about gamification. Check it out at their posterous account!
The Hot Seats.
What a morning! The sun’s out, the birds are singing…
Anyway, enough of that wishy-washy weather whimsy. I know what you came for: tentacles.
Fortunately, Ed and Jake have been dishing up an hour’s worth of Tomorrow’s Tentacles on a weekly basis, for a grand ten weeks! It’s a loosely themed variety show, with lots of content from out and about in the city. I’d particularly recommend Show 9 for Ed’s report on the Hackney Riots – recorded on scene! – or show 8 for the slightly disturbing sounds of a colonic irrigation on health reporter Andy. Or this week (show 10) when Ed and Jake made their very own riot-themed songs from scratch.
This one’s coming your way from Ed at Onthenatureofthings. Here’s a little bit of context from his blog:
Recently, as I was listening back to his interview I begun to find myself fixated on a particular section, in which he discusses the way in which he views the human body. He describes his view of life as being very ‘mechanistic’ and as I listened to him talk about the body as ‘pumps’ and ‘shunts’ I was inspired to compose a short piece from his words.
See the full post here, including a wonderfully strange picture – excellent stuff Ed!
On the warpath to Oxford... Picture: fusedfilm.com
It’s one of the buzz words of 2011: gamification. But what does it mean? Who uses the word, and where is it in your life? I went on a mission to find out.
Have a listen – or download this, using the little arrow on the right, from Soundcloud to take it portable – and find out!
… and other important questions, answered by Kim Blake!
At the 2011 Science Communication Conference, I sat in on the Science and Games session. Kim Blake, of Blitz Games Studios, and Martha Henson, of the Wellcome Trust, gave talks. I caught up with them both to chat about science and games afterwards.
Blake had taken an industry-focused approach to the talk, outlining the need for science to engage more with the game industry. Computer games are bigger business now than movies, with enormous market reach and financial turnover. They are also a major employer of people with science skills, especially maths and physics. Think about your favourite game – someone had to work out how all the bits and pieces move in their environment, and to do that, they had to understand the equations and principles behind it.
More than that, though, Blake explained how the most effective game designers are often from a science, rather than computing, background, because they have the creativity and training to look beyond existing solutions and paradigms. She called for better accreditation for courses touting training for the games industry, and a better awareness for students of the opportunities in this large, and growing, area of employment.
Oh, and she’s got some good thoughts on gamification too! Have a listen.
(Note: please ignore my rather nervous introduction!)
She mentions TrueSim… patient triage simulation!
