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Introduction: TV, Videogames and Culture
- If we take a pessimist position, we could look at the "old" broadcast media as hierarchical, serving commercial or state interest.
- "We live in this very weird time in history where we're passive recipients of a very immature, noninteractive broadcast medium. Mission number one is to kill TV." --- Jaron Lanier, quoted in Boddy 1994: 116
- If we maintain this pessimistic view, we could define new media like videogames, as offering virtual consumption of spectacular but empty forms (images and narratives) in an ideal market. Computer games master the player, rather than vice versa, and ultimately "there is a shadowy ambition behind the concept of the virtual world - to have everyone safely confined in their homes, hooked up to sensory feedback devices in an enclosing, interactive environment which will be far more powerful tool of social control than television" (Stallabrass Julian, 1993: 104)
- Forbidden Siren
News
- EvilAvatar
- Fatbabies
- Gamer.tv
- Gamasutra
- Gamespy
- Games Industry
- Wireless gaming review
- Digital game developer
Game Developers and Game Mechanics
Videogames for Mobile Phones
October 2004: According to London-based consultancy Screen Digest, mobile phone gaming also will grow by more than six times to $6.4 billion between 2004 and the end of decade. Currently, Japan and Korea are well ahead of North America and Europe in market size, accounting for nearly 80 percent of all revenues derived from video game play and game downloads.
Big players investing a lot of money in the promising market of video games for mobile phones:
- Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS) bringing four top-selling titles including "Fifa Football" and "The Sims" to handsets.
- Eidos (EID.L)
- Ubisoft (UBIP.PA)
- THQ Inc. (Nasdaq:THQI)
Videogame Industry
June 14, 2003: Top 10 Videogames (all formats)
| Title | Publisher | |
| 1 | Enter the Matrix | Atari |
| 2 | Socom: US Navy Seals | Sony Computer Ent. |
| 3 | The Sims: Superstar | EA Games |
| 4 | GTA: Vice City | Rockstar |
| 5 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell | Ubisoft |
| 6 | The Sims | EA Games |
| 7 | Def Jam Vendetta | EA Sports |
| 8 | Return to Castle Wolfenstein | Activision |
| 9 | Hulk | Universal Interactive |
| 10 | Championship Manager 4 | Eidos Interactive |
| Source: elspa |
The Magic Box Statistics
- The Magic Box
Dengeki Console Game Ranking Top 50 Chart
September 2003:
PS-2 continues to be the console system with the most games, even though developers have ramped up Xbox production considerably.
From September through December 2003, here is the number of game titles scheduled to be released:
- PC: 190 titles
- PS2: more than 150 titles
- Xbox: 130 titles
- GameBoy Advance: 97 titles
- Gamecube: 92 titles
Feb 2004: Xbox Live Features
Xbox Live online gaming service, has more than 750,000 subscribers worldwide. Microsoft may not include a hard drive in the next version of the Xbox console, in favor of network-based storage that would reduce the console's physical size and cost.
- Title-managed online storage: a way for game players to store and share data via Microsoft's network.
- Include the ability for game publishers or group of players to create competitions for specific games and new ways to contact friends to play games through the MSN Messenger.
Nintendo
- Video on Nintendo's GBA
April, 2004: Nintendo plans to add video capabilities to show cartoons, movies to the Game Boy Advance (GBA). Nintendo's GBA, has sold more than 20 million units, including seven million alone of the GBA SP, a backlit version the size of a Post-It note pad, introduced a year ago. Starting in May, Majesco, a unit of ConnectivCorp. (CTTV.OB), will sell video cartridges that make the GBA like a mini-DVD player. Each $20 cartridge (video compressed by Majesco's technology) will carry 45 minutes episodes. According to Majesco, cartridges carrying 90 minutes will be available later this year. - Nintendo DS
Jan 21st, 2004: Nintendo will unveil a new mobile-sized game console, codenamed "Nintendo DS", equipped with two separate 3-inch TFT LCD display panels, separate processors, and semiconductor memory of up to 1 Gigabit. It's scheduled to launch worldwide before the end of 2004. - Does Nintendo DS compete with Sony's PSP?
Sony's PSP is meant to become the "walkman for the 21st century", it will play games, music and movies. Nintendo's DS focuses on enabling a superior gaming experience. Nintendo believes that video games should be fun and simple, like toys.
Sony new devices
- SONY PSX
May 27, 2003: Sony unveils the "PSX", a game player, a TV tuner, a hard drive and DVD recorder in a single box!
Oct. 7, 2003: Sony Corp has displayed the new game machine 'PSX DESR-7000,' the next generation PlayStation, during the CEATEC JAPAN 2003 technology trade exhibition at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, east of Tokyo. Sony said it would begin selling the 'PSX,' an all-in-one game console and entertainment system, in Japan by year-end, at a minimum price of 79,800 yen ($719).
- SONY PSP
May 13, 2003: Sony unveils the "PSP" hand-held game machine (handheld playstation), to be launched by the end of 2004 (this device will compete with: Nokia N-Gage, Nintendo Gameboy).
Sony plans to release a digital camera and wireless phone adapter for this portable playstation.
Full Article and specs by gamesindustry.biz
Article on Mobenta News
October 2004: The first thing most people will notice about the PSP is the widescreen monitor that takes up practically the entire width of the device. The screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio and features a 480x272-pixel TFT-LCD screen (thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display -- also known as an active-matrix LCD). Sony has also designed an all-new format for the medium that will carry games, movies and other information for use on the PSP. Universal Media Discs (UMD) are 60-mm optical discs that hold up to 1.8 gigabytes (GB) of information. Sony reports that the UMD cartridge was designed to be manufactured quickly and for lower costs than earlier, lower-capacity portable media. The PSP features a main central processing unit (CPU), a media processor, a 3-D graphics processor, a security processor to prevent piracy and a final processor to manage power and conserve battery life.
Article on HowStuffWorks
- SONY EyeToy
Feb 25, 2004: First released last year, the EyeToy interactive camera has sold more than 3 million units worldwide, largely bundled with a package of minigames. EyeToy: Groove will be released in the spring for $29.99, or $49.99 bundled with the camera and will allow players to dance along to 28 songs licensed from famous artists like Madonna, Jamiroquai, or Fatboy Slim.
.: Forrester Research Forecasts:
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| PC Gaming | 36% | 37% | 39% | 40% | 42% | 44% |
| Online PC Gaming | 17% | 19% | 21% | 22% | 23% | 24% |
| Broadband PC Gaming | 6% | 9% | 12% | 15% | 17% | 18% |
.: Total Revenue in 2001: USD 4.7 Billion (2.8 Billion in 1997)
.: Source: Wired Magazine, January 2003 edition
| 4.7 Billion divided by Game Category |
2001 | 1997 |
| SPORTS | 22.2% | 18.7% |
| ACTION | 21.6% | |
| RACING | 16.9% | |
| ROLE-PLAYING | 9.1% | |
| FIGHTING | 5.7% | |
| ADVENTURE | 5.3% | |
| SHOOTER | 4.8% | |
| OTHER | 14.4% |
.: Sports Games Tot. Rev. in 2001 = 1 Billion
.: Source: Wired Magazine, January 2003 edition
| The players market and their share | 2001 |
| EA SPORTS | 44% |
| ACTIVISION | 12% |
| SEGA | 10% |
| ACCLAIM | 6% |
| MIDWAY | 6% |
| SONY | 4% |
| MICROSOFT | 4% |
| OTHER | 14% |
- IGDA International Game Developers Association
January 16, 2003, the Consoles:
Sony Corp has shipped 50.03 million units of its PlayStation 2 globally:
| PS2 sales in million | Jan. 16, 2003 | Sep. 19, 2002 |
| Japan: | 12.53 | 11 |
| Europe: | 16.02 | 12 |
| USA: | 21.48 | 17 |
| 50.03 | 40 |
Sales of the PlayStation 2 network adapter, which allows users to play games online, totalled over 400,000 units for Japan and the United States.
Evolution Studios, emerging entertainment software developer, is working with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe on sequel to World Rally Championship.
If we look at the Japanese market the gap between PSII and the rivals Xbox and Gamecube is widening. Here are the amounts of game consoles sold by Sony's rivals in Japan in September 2002:
:: X-box: 0.27 millions
:: Gamecube: 1.5 millions
Microsoft Home and Entertainment Division, which includes the Xbox, games for personal computers and the company's TV products, posted an operating loss of $348 million in Q4 of 2002, on revenue of $1.28 billion. A year earlier it had revenue of $833 million and a loss of $180 million. The company loses more or less USD 100.= on each Xbox it sells at USD 199.=, meaning that strong sales for the platform actually increase its losses. MSFT Q4 2002
Exergaming or Exertainment
Exergaming or exertainment, the marriage of physical exercise and video gaming, is becoming a hot new niche. Many startups show off digital putting greens, optical sensors in miniature dance floors, biofeedback devices and cutting-edge workout contraptions.
Powergrid Kilowatt SPORT is a fitness product that helps entertain and enthuse you by hooking up to a video game while you use it. Enrolling the competitive instinct to get that little bit extra from you, the harder you work, the more competitive you are in playing the game. The company slogan goes along the lines of "Your body is in a workout... but your mind is in a game".
Powergrid Fitness's Co-Founder Greg Merril says, "Kilowatt is the first product to turn being a 'couch potato' into a physically demanding sport!"
The core function of the Kilowatt is in it's ability to measure, in real-time, the force the user exerts against the controller. Two microprocessors are used to translate the pressure readings into a joystick data stream that is compatible with all major video game consoles. A new manufacturing technique was developed to integrate strain gauge sensors inside a alloy steel rod.
Kilowatt Sport is available through at pwrgrid.com for a suggested retail price is US$799.99.
- Powergrid Fitnesss
Kilowatt build muscle strength and get in shape while playing video games
Global Adult Entertainment industry (US$m)
The global adult entertainment market was estimated to be worth a total of $39.4 billion in 2001 (Source: Datamonitor).
| Segment | 2000 | 2001 | 2002(e) | 2003(e) |
| DVD/Video | 16,000.00 | 16,720.00 | 17,484.00 | 18,212.00 |
| Escort Services | 6,885.80 | 7,306.00 | 7,762.70 | 8,196.60 |
| Magazines | 5,102.00 | 4,997.90 | 4,896.60 | 4,793.50 |
| Strip Clubs | 4,160.90 | 4,262.40 | 4,435.70 | 4,698.00 |
| Phone Sex | 2,830.20 | 2,967.50 | 3,134.90 | 3,242.20 |
| Cable/Sat/PPV | 275 | 325 | 375 | 425 |
| Online | 1,980.00 | 2,460.00 | 2,900.00 | 3,320.00 |
| CD-Rom | 356.3 | 450 | 512.4 | 575.2 |
| Overall | 37,590.13 | 39,488.83 | 41,501.24 | 43,462.49 |
- Jan. 2005: The multi-billion-dollar porn industry releases about 11,000 titles on DVD each year.
- June 2004: Online porn sites get about three times more visits than the top Web search engines, including market leader Google Inc.
- "Adult" at 18.8 percent, "Entertainment" at 8.0 percent, "Business and Finance" at 7.4 percent and"Shopping and Classifieds" at 7 percent. Visits to the top three Web search engines accounted for 5.5 percent of all Internet visits by U.S. users during the week ending May 29, 2004. Source: Hitwise
Reality TV
What is real in a reality TV show? The viewers.
- Reality TV Blog
- Reality Television on Yahoo
Yahoo Entertainment Directory - La Fattoria
The Farm, live from 1870. Italy 2004 - Music Farm
Fear Factor
Six contestants (three men and three women) recruited across the country battle in three extreme stunts. These stunts are designed to challenge the contestants both physically and mentally.
- Fear Factor
Imagine a world where your greatest fears become reality
Sport
- SecondsOut.tv
SecondsOut.tv brings you the best boxing action on the web.
Trendy Magazines
- SQUINTMAGAZINE
International high fashion magazine with no articles, just quality photos. - COLORSMAGAZINE
Films.Music.Exhibitions - LABEL
The italian style magazine for international dreamers.
label.Visions.Design.Art.Architecture.Music.Fashion.Literature. - *spark-online
Electronic Consciousness
Technology hasn't changed only our societies, it has fundamentally changed us. *spark-online is at the vanguard of recognising, and attempting to understand this change.
Music Market Status
- Consolidation of cost structures
- Fight piracy and illegal offers
- Increase revenues through new media distribution
- Redefine artist contracts
- Multi-channel strategy
- Offering of content online:
:. Multichannel
:. Mobile
:. Internet
:. STB - New Business Models:
- eMusiclive
This new service will soon allow concert goers to purchase portable hard-drives containing the night's performance. After a show at the club, attendees can pay either $10 to suck down the recording on their own thumb-drive, or $20 for a copy of the recording on an eMusic drive. Unlike some digital download services, the files will have no restrictions. Buyers can play, copy, or distribute the tunes as they see fit.
- Industry links:
- musicunited.org
- IFPI
Representing the recording industry worldwide - RIAA
Recording industry association of America
TV on Demand
ITV
- ITV.com
Who Wants To Be a Millionaire - ITV today
- Smart device developer contest 3
- Static 2358
- Goldpocket
solutions spanning the entire iTV production chain - from concept development through production and post-production, to delivery on all ajor set-top, PC, Mac, and wireless platforms - Broadbandbananas - Video Vault
- [itvt]
- Gemstar-TV Guide International
- Liberate
- OpenTV(pdf files)
- Wink Communications
- Digeo
- Microsoft/MetaTV
Connected Entertainment
- Mediabolic
Mediabolic, Inc. is a leading provider of end-to-end software solutions for connected entertainment products, enabling them to share and play back content from other consumer devices, PCs, and the Internet. Mediabolic’s technologies can be embedded in products like televisions, set-top boxes, and network-attached storage devices, allowing consumer electronics and PC manufacturers to extend and differentiate their products.
Directors
- KIM Ki duk
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (2003) - David Fincher
Se7en (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999) - Tony Scott
Enemy of the State (1998), Spy Game (2001) - Jim Jarmusch
Down By Law (1986), Ghost Dog (2000) - Chan-wook Park
Oldboy (2003), Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) - Wong Kar Wai
2046 (2004) - Andrew Niccol
Lord of War (2005), The Truman Show (1998), Gattaca (1997) - Iain Softley
K-Pax (2001) - Takeshi Kitano
Zatoichi (2003) - Michel Gondry
One of the most acclaimed and respected music video directors in the industry. - Chris Cunningham
Hypnotic, humorous and downright rude videos the industry had ever enjoyed. - Mark Romanek
Mark Romanek thinks with his eyes - the New York Times - Michael Moore
Random Threats from an Unarmed American - Wim Wenders
- Adi Barash and Ruth Shatz
Diamonds and Rust (2001) - Zhang YiMou
Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) - Quentin Tarantino
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004), Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), Jackie Brown (1997),
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Visionary Screenwriter
Andrew Niccol: Lord of War (2005), The Truman Show (1998), Gattaca (1997)
Great Movies
Lech Kowalski would say: "Above ground: Illusion of fairness, self-serving, self-feeding power structure. Underground: Reality"
- Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi) - Las Tortugas Tambien Vuelan // Der Himmel über Berlin (1987 Wim Wenders) - Wings of Desire // Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (2003 Kim Ki-duk) // Crash (2004 Paul Haggis) // Easy Rider (1969 Dennis Hopper) // A l'Est di Paradis (2003 Lech Kowalski) - East of Paradise // 7 years in Tibet (1997 Jean-Jacques Annaud) // THX 1138 (1971 George Lucas) // Midnight Express (1978 Alan Parker) // Runaway Train (1985 Andrei Konchalovsky) // Instinct (1999 Jon Turteltaub - Gerald Di Pego) // Insider (1999 Michael Mann) // Titanic (1997 James Cameron) // Point Break (1991 James Cameron) // Ghost Dog, The Way of the Samurai (1999 Jim Jarmusch) // 2046 (2004 Kar Wai Wong) // Man on Fire (2004 Tony Scott) // 25th hour (2002 Spike Lee) // One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975 Milos Forman) // Forrest Gump (1994 Robert Zemeckis) // Fight Club (1999 David Fincher) // Amnistad (1997 Steven Spielberg) // Gattaca (1997 Andrew Niccol) // The Truman Show (1998 Peter Weir, written by Andrew Niccol) // Lord of War (2005, Andrew Niccol) // Oldboy (2003 Chan-wook Park) // Hero (2002 Yimou Zhang) // Spy Game (2001 Tony Scott) // Unbreakable (2000 M. Night Shyamalan)
Independent Film / Documentaries
- Surplus: terrorized into being consumers
Why is the lifestyle of consumerism a source of such rage today? How come the privilege of buying goods does not automatically lead to happiness? Why all this emptiness despite our wealth? Erik Gandini's approach through Surplus is to portray this issue from an emotional rather than a factual perspective. Shot in the US, India, China, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, Canada and Cuba during three years. Surplus is the result of a complicated editing process by talented music composer/editor/percussionist Johan Söderberg. Surplus main man is John Zerzan, controversial philosopher whose call for PROPERTY DAMAGE has inspired many to take to the streets. - mitosfilm
- mijfilm
Mij means fog in Kurdish. Bahman Ghobadi is the first Kurdish director in the history of Iranian cinema. The film "Turtles can fly" is set in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq.
DVD
Hollywood and the American Dream
November 2, 2003 > Afternoon Session with Michael Gastaldo at Saint Mary's College of California
-
An American Romance - 5:00
1944 -King Vidor- Brian Donlevey, John Qualen -
Forty-Second Street - 4:30
1933- Lloyd Bacon/Busby Berkeley - Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler -
You Can't Take It With You (Lionel & Jean) - 4:00
1937-Capra-Kaufman & Hart/Riskin - Lionel Barrymore & Jean Arthur -
You Can't Take it With You (Jean and Jim) - 4:00
1937-Capra-Kaufman & Hart/Riskin - Jean Arthur, Jimmy Stewart -
Christmas In July - 4:00
1940 -Sturges, Dick Powell, Harry Hayden -
The Best Years of Our Lives - 7:11
1946- Wyler, Frederic March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Cathy O'Donnell -
The Grapes of Wrath - 4:00
1940- Ford - Nunnally Johnson - Fonda, John Qualen -
Sullivan's Travels (swamp church - 7:00
1941 -Sturges- Joel McCrea, Al Bridge, Jess Lee Brooks -
Meet John Doe - 13:00
1941 - Capra- Riskin - Cooper, James Gleason, Stanwyck, Edward Arnold -
A Face In The Crowd - 5:00
1957 - Kazan - Budd Schulberg - Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal -
Entertainment Tonight -1:33
-
Network - 5:00
1976- Lumet - Chayevsky - Finch
- Total running time: -64:14
America and the Hollywood Dream
November 2, 2003 > Night Session with Michael Gastaldo at Saint Mary's College of California
-
"A Star Is Born" - 7:00 ("home on the farm")
Wellman - Janet Gaynor, May Robson -
"A Star Is Born" - 2:30 ("Screen Test")
Wellman - Gaynor, Andy Devine, Frederic March -
"A Star Is Born" - 2:30 ("Vicki Lester")
Wellman - Gaynor, Lionel Stander, Adolphe Menjou -
"Sullivan's Travels" - 5:30 (opening)
Sturges - McCrae, Robert Warwick, Porter Hall -
"Christmas In July - 5:00 (last scene)
Sturges - Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Ernest Truex
- Total running time: -22:30
Screenwriting
Roughly 400 films get made each year in Hollywood, 250 by the major studios.
- Screenplay.com
On-line Script Library - Spec Script Library
To connect those who write scripts with those who source scripts - Wordplayer.com
Doing the Math
Entertain, Uplift and Enlighten Audiences
Professionisti dello Straordinario
- Daniele Finzi Pasca
Creator and Director, Teatro Sunil - Cirque Éloize
- Arctic Circus
- Heinz Spoerli
Tanzmacher - Cirque du Soleil
- Valerio Festi | Studio Festi
Il linguaggio della scena festiva - AiEP
AiEP is a cultural association, whose members are artistic researchers active in the field od dance, video, computer and interactive art. The main focus is to experiment, explore and develop a new methodology capable of creating an interaction and coexistence between different media, within one specific project.
- Trend Hunter
- Cool Infographics
- Information Aesthetics
- Interactive Architecture
- dataisnature
- Creative Observer
- Design Spotter
- feeladdicted
- Paleo-Future
- TechCrunch
- Trendwatching.com
- Graffiti Research Lab
- t r a n i s m
- Douwe Osinga
- AudioCubes.com
- we make money not art
- Pasta and Vinegar
- Lunch over IP
- Engadget
- Unusual News/Ideas
- CScout Trendblog
- Agenda Inc. News
- digg labs / stack
- Technorati
- Robots Dreams
- gadgetblog
- Create Digital Motion