August 06, 2003
Sims for Peace!
I attended a fascinating thesis defence today.
Some unkind souls might call that an oxymoron, but where I work - the Surrey campus of Simon Fraser University - there is a lot of fascinating research being done at the hazy borderlands between art and technology. To take but two examples of many, there's a professor is exploring ways of giving animated characters more realistic expressions -- exploring how a face's expressions give us insight into what a person is saying and feeling; other researchers are exploring intelligent fabrics, and so on.
This particular thesis defence was given by Cindy Poremba, a Masters student student who has also just joined the faculty at the campus as a sessional lecturer. She has also done research into why girls are turned off by technology, but her thesis topic today was "The Player as Author: Digital Games and Agency", an exploration of how computer game players become co-creators of the games they play.
She gave as one example the multitude of modifications done to The Sims. Whole communities have developed devoted to creating modifications for The Sims - clothing, furniture, knicknacks. For them, the main interest is not in the game play originally devised by the game's creator, Will Wright, but in their own enhancements.
A fascinating topic. You can find out more at Poremba's website.
I was especially intrigued with her accounts of two particular examples, both related to the peace movement. One was the creation of posters that could be downloaded and placed on the walls of the Sims' homes. The other is the insertion of anti-war messages and actions into the popular online shooter game, Counter Strike.
Poremba links to an account on the iafrica.com website by Keith Just, called "Give online peace a chance." You should read it for yourself as it's both entertaining and heartening, but here's one quote:
"Making their way with stealth and precision your team of crack anti-terrorist operatives takes up position on the roof of a building overlooking a tense hostage situation. After receiving the go-ahead you give the order to engage the enemy with extreme prejudice.
"All of a sudden you find yourself quite alone, the members of your elite team cry out in unison "We are martyrs for peace" and leap 30 storeys to their deaths while you look on in dimly-comprehending amazement."
When one thinks about anti-war activists, computer gamers aren't the first to come to mind. Maybe they should be. Their subversion at least isn't talking to the converted. The people accidently viewing the messages of the Velvet Strikers are usually not pro-peace; but perhaps some of them will start to think a bit because of those messages.
Posted by wetcoast at August 6, 2003 09:18 PM