Theory and Aesthetics of Video Games

I started my one and only class last night. It’s called “Theory and Aesthetics of Video Games”.

Over the last three decades, video games have become an increasingly important medium in terms of popularity, economic significance, and cultural impact. This course aims to provide a structural and analytical framework for the study of this emerging medium. Because video games are relatively new, we will explore ways to study, analyze and theorize about video games within a Fine Arts context. As with popular culture generally, a major question is whether video games warrant the sustained attention and critical investigation that we devote to works of literature, visual art, cinema, or music. Therefore, we will explore video games for their uniqueness as a medium but also in terms of similarities with other aesthetic artifacts. Topics to be explored will include: history and origins, aesthetics and interpretation, genres, interactivity and narrative, character development, game play, mise-en-scene, and social issues such as gender and violence. Note: for various reasons, we will be focusing almost exclusively on games from the three major consoles now on the market.

It looks to be a fairly entertaining class and seeing the make-up of the class it will be interesting to see what kind of discussions we will be having. The class is mostly male (28 guys – 2 girls) and for the most part they seem like the type of guys that spend a lot time playing video games. Not that I don’t spend a lot of time playing games myself, especially with all the free time I have now, but more than a few of them seem to be especially hard-core video game zealots.

Canadian Long Distance Codes

Canadian Long Distance Codes
Here is a list of numbers for Canadian long distance carriers. Dial one of these numbers followed by 1(area code)+number. Some are for overseas and some are North America only. I use 1015945 from Yak Communications on a regular basis. I believe it’s 5 cents a minute.

1010100 The Friend Network Services Inc. Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
1010119 Northern Telephone Ltd. New Liskeard, Ontario, CANADA
1010138 Metcom Canada Limited Markham, Ontario, CANADA
1010180 Elite Communications Inc. Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
1010195 Starcom International Optics Corp. Vancouver, BC, CANADA
1010199 4053605 Canada Inc. Burlington, Ontario, CANADA
1010215 Pronto Long Distance Inc. Westmont, Quebec, CANADA
1010219 3588599 Canada Inc. dba Sun Telecom Group Montreal, Quebec, CANADA
1010230 3855651 Canada Inc. Sainte-Marie De Beauce, Quebec, CANADA
1010242 Sasktel Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
1010320 3855651 Canada Inc. Sainte-Marie De Beauce, Quebec, CANADA
1010323 BC Tel Burnaby, BC, CANADA
1010324 TELUS Communications (Edmonton) Inc. (TCE) Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
1010348 Sprint Canada, Inc. North York, Ontario CAN
1010357 4053605 Canada Inc. Burlington, Ontario CANADA
1010363 Bell Canada London, Ontario CANADA
1010415 Execulink Burgessville, Ontario CANADA
1010422 Island Tel, PEI Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
1010424 Telus Communications Inc. Burnaby, British Columbia CANADA
1010434 Maritime Tel & Tel Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
1010445 NewTel Communications Ottawa CANADA
1010448 NB Tel Saint John New Brunswick CANADA
1010580 Onlinetel Corp. Kitchener, Ontario CANADA
1010615 PRIMUS Telecommunications Canada Vancouver, British Columbia CANADA
1010620 Telehop Communications Inc. Toronto, Ontario CANADA
1010686 AT&T Canada Long Distance Services Co. Toronto, Ontario CAN
1010710 3855651 Canada Inc. Sainte-Marie De Beauce, Quebec CANADA
1010773 Sprint Canada, Inc. North York, Ontario CAN
1010783 MTS Communications Inc. Ottawa, Ontario CAN
1010809 Asia International Services Corp. (AIC) Burnaby, British Columbia CAN
1010816 Consolidated Technologies, Inc (CTI) Vancouver, British Columbia CAN
1010844 Brooke Telecom Co-operative Ltd. Inwood, Ontario CANADA
1010858 AT&T Canada Long Distance Services Co. Toronto, Ontario CAN
1010869 AT&T Canada Long Distance Services Co. Toronto, Ontario CAN
1010920 Cyberlink Pacific Telecommunications Limited Vancouver, BC, CANADA
1010956 City Telecom Inc. (CITI) Scarborough, Ontario, CANADA
1010960 London Telecom Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA
1010978 RSL COM Canada, Inc. North Vancouver, BC, CANADA
1010980 Onlinetel Corp. Kitchener, Ontario CANADA
1010990 I Don’t Care Inc. Toronto, Ontario CANADA
1011010 Bruce Municipal Telephone System Tiverton, Ontario CANADA
1011035 Convergia Network, Inc. Pointe-Claire, Quebec CANADA
1011273 Westport Telephony Company Limited Westport, Ontario CANADA
1011582 North Renfrew Telephone Company Limited Beachburg, Ontario CANADA
1014321 Cyberlink Pacific Telecommunications Limited Vancouver, BC, CANADA
1014835 Huron Telecommunications Co-Operative Limited Ripley, Ontario CANADA
1015055 Gateway Telephone Limited North Bay, Ontario CANADA
1015066 MetroNet Communications Group Inc. Calgary, Alberta CANADA
1015128 Call For Less Oshawa, Ontario CANADA
1015151 ExaTEL Inc. Sudbury, Ontario CANADA
1015161 Telecom Quebec Inc. Bon Consell, Quebec CANADA
1015226 BC Tel Burnaby, BC CANADA
1015236 Roxborough Telephone Company Limited Moose Creek, Ontario CANADA
1015240 Bell Canada London, Ontario CANADA
1015322 BC Tel Burnaby, BC CANADA
1015350 Yak Communications (Canada) Inc. Scarborough, Ontario CANADA
1015355 Yak Communications (Canada) Inc. Scarborough, Ontario CANADA
1015363 Bell Canada London, Ontario CANADA
1015398 CanopCo Incorporated Toronto, Ontario CANADA
1015430 Bell Canada London, Ontario CANADA
1015431 Telus Communications Inc. Burnaby, British Columbia CANADA
1015489 Cogeco Cable Canada Inc. Montreal, Quebec CANADA
1015497 Tuckersmith Communications Co-operative Limited Kippen, Ontario CANADA
1015505 C.1.com Inc. Saint John, New Brunswick CANADA
1015565 Yak Communications (Canada) Inc. Scarborough, Ontario CANADA
1015566 Sprint Canada, Inc. North York, Ontario CAN
1015742 Hay Communications Co-operative Limited Zurich, Ontario CANADA
1015748 Amtelecom Communications Aylmer, Ontario CANADA
1015762 Lansdowne Rural Telephone Company Lansdowne, Ontario CANADA
1015793 Bell West Inc. Edmonton, Alberta CANADA
1015804 Phonetime International Mississauga, Ontario CANADA
1015826 Vancouver Telephone Company Ltd. Vancouver, B.C. CANADA
1015843 Triton Hospitality Communications Inc. Calgary, Alberta CANADA
1015945 Yak Communications (Canada) Inc. Scarborough, Ontario CANADA
1015967 Island Tel, PEI Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
1015972 Sprint Canada, Inc. North York, Ontario CAN
1015989 Wightman Telecom Ltd. Clifford, Ontario CANADA
1016002 Microcell Connexions Inc. Toronto, Ontario CANADA
1016022 Cannect Communications Inc. Vancouver, British Columbia CANADA
1016038 ASP Wireless Net Inc. Mississauga, Ontario CANADA
1016122 Optel Communications Corp. Toronto, Ontario CANADA
1016148 GT Group Telecom Services Corp. Vancouver, British Columbia CANADA
1016173 Telebec Ltd. Anjou, Quebec Canada
1016242 Sasktel Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
1016265 Telephone Milot Mobilite Inc. St-Paulin, Quebec CANADA
1016274 Bell Canada London, Ontario CANADA
1016283 NewTel Communications Ottawa CANADA
1016305 DACo Telecommunications Inc. Winnipeg, Manitoba CANADA
1016318 Bzaat Communications Town of Mount Royal, Quebec CANADA
1016321 Pacifictel Communications, Inc. Ajax, Ontario CANADA
1016336 Touchtone Communications 2000 Ltd. Vancouver, BC CANADA
1016353 NewTel Communications Ottawa CANADA
1016385 North Frontenac Telephone Corporation Ltd. Baden, Ontario CANADA
1016394 Nexicom Telecommunications Inc. Millbrook, Ontario CANADA
1016395 Nexicom Telephones Inc. Millbrook, Ontario CANADA
1016434 Maritime Tel & Tel Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
1016448 NB Tel Saint John New Brunswick CAN
1016449 NB Tel Saint John New Brunswick CAN
1016505 Telus Communications (Quebec) Inc. Rimouski, Quebec CANADA
1016510 Telus Communications (Quebec) Inc. Rimouski, Quebec CANADA
1016550 Telus Communications (Quebec) Inc. Rimouski, Quebec CANADA
1016616 Gosfield North Communications Co-op Ltd. Cottam, Ontario CANADA
1016650 O.N.Tel North Bay, Ontario CANADA
1016652 Borg Telecommunications Inc. Toronto, Ontario CANADA
1016653 O.N.Tel North Bay, Ontario CANADA
1016674 Managed Network Systems Inc. Windsor, Ontario CANADA
1016765 Mornington Communications Co-operative Ltd. Milverton, Ontario CANADA
1016775 Navigata Communications Inc. North Vancouver, British Columbia CANADA
1016793 Libotel Inc. St. Liboire, Quebec CANADA
1016833 9107-1365 Quebec Inc. Valcourt, Quebec CANADA
1016836 MCSC ACCESS IN CANADA (CSCN) Edmonton, Alberta CANADA
1016867 Northwestel, Inc. Whitehorse, Yukon CANADA
1016885 Videotron Telecom Ltee. Montreal, Quebec Canada
1016995 People’s Telephone Company of Forest Inc. Province, Ontario CANADA
1017643 Interurbain Sogetel Inc. Nicolet, Quebec CANADA
1018229 Thunder Bay Telephone Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada
1018888 Gateway Networks Ltd. North Bay, Ontario CANADA

Hong Kong Disneyland Opens Today

Hong Kong Disneyland Logo

Hong Kong Disneyland officially opens today.

The new theme park had a trial opening on Sunday September 4th, and discovered that filling it to near capacity was not a good idea. At 311 acres Hong Kong Disneyland is less than half the size of the original Disneyland in California. A spokesman for the company admitted that the more than 29,000 visitors to the theme park had suffered when it was almost filled to its daily capacity of 30,000 during the charity trial run a week ago, ahead of its grand opening today.

Capacity problems aside, getting the park into the communist country has not been easy. There have been many problems along the way and the media loves to find fault in any company with such a reputation as Disney’s.

Shark Fin Soup on the wedding banquet menu was criticized for being wasteful and cruel to sharks by animal rights activists. The activists complain that shark’s fins are harvested inhumanely by fishermen who brutally hack the fin from sharks and toss the bodies back into the sea to die, a practice known as “finning.” Shark Fin Soup is a Chinese delicacy and is adored by the masses, so making a balance between cultural sensitivities and conservation can be tricky. In the end, the company said that it had made the decision to remove the controversial item from its menu because it was “not able to identify an environmentally sustainable fishing source” that could make sure the fins used for the soup were not the product of large-scale butchering of sharks in open seas.

The government of China has also had its share of rebuke for giving up too much in its negotiations with Disney. People have expressed concern over the high-profile union between two major forces in their lives: big business and government. With the government investing over $3 billion US another concern is over Disney opening an additional theme park, this time in mainland China, within only a few years – which would damage profits. Disney has announced that a new park in Shanghai could be under construction as early as 2010 if talks go smoothly.

Critics denounced Disney for euthanizing dozens of stray dogs that had lived in the area during construction. Around 40 dogs, some of which were used as unofficial guard dogs by construction workers, are believed to have been given lethal injections after being caught by government dog catchers.

The park has also been criticized for its fireworks shows adding smog to an already polluted environment.

A group of activists put a large stuffed Mickey Mouse in a cage at the entrance to the Hong Kong Disneyland on Sunday in a symbolic protest against labour exploitation.

But despite all the criticisms and logistical problems, Hong Kong Disneyland opens today and, for this Disney fan, it’s hard not to feel the magic.

Katrina

More shocking news about the situation in New Orleans. Jacob Appelbaum and Joel Johnson are in the New Orleans area, helping with communications reconnect efforts and documenting what they witness. Jacob writes:

It’s a strange future we’re living in and have no doubt about it, we’re living in the future. It’s too bad that we’re living in that other future, the dystopian one. The one with terrorists, murderers, corruption at the highest government levels, global wars and a world with an environment being destroyed by serious pollution. A world where people are now literately drowning in it.

I’m sick

Well it was bound to happen, and now it has. I woke up this morning at about 6am with a terrible sore throat and nobody to take care of me. I just hope it doesn’t turn into a full fledged cold / flu / pneumonia.

Video Gamers Do It Faster

New research correlating video game experience with proficiency in the operating room indicates that those who have played video games in the past were significantly faster and, more importantly, created fewer errors than people who had no previous video game experience. And my Dad always told me video games were a waste of time. (Of course I’m not a doctor but maybe if I hadn’t spent so much time playing video games…)

Urine Powered Battery

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have created a credit card-size battery that runs on urine as a disposable power source for medical test kits. Urine is rich in ions and ions are what makes electricity electric – or something like that.

Now if we could only hook it up to our cars…

But What About Petro-Points?

Petro points will have to wait. I received the following email from a friend, and while Snopes says “not buying gas” won’t help the problem because a one to three day boycott of gasoline is too short a period to make a difference, maybe there is enough of a spin on this method that it might work.

Instead of forwarding this to 10 people, I’m posting it on the blog so that the 500 or so people that come here daily (assuming some of you are gas purchasing Canadians) will get the message.

It is rumoured that we are going to hit close to a $1.42 a litre by the winter. Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Someone offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the “don’t-buy-gas” on a certain day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, this is a plan that can really work. Please read it and join.

We all know that we’re being controlled by the oil companies. Does everyone remember how they drove up the prices and got the gas prices to where they wanted them, claiming there was a shortage of oil. Well, there isn’t any shortage now, and the oil is more abundant than it was 35 years ago when the price of a gallon of gas was 29 cents!!!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of litre of gas is CHEAP at $0.78 – $0.85, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace… not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars we can’t just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here’s the idea:

PAY ATTENTION HERE

For the rest of this year, DON’T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), PETRO-CANADA & SHELL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of PETRO-CANADA and SHELL buyers. It’s really simple to do! Now, don’t wimp out on me at this point…keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to at least thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300), and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)…and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That’s all. How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 30 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I’ll bet you I didn’t think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $0.64 OR LESS RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK!!!!!!

But it won’t reach 30 million Canadians, there aren’t even that many Canadians with Internet access, nor that many that actually buy gas. I guess the point is to just tell as many people as possible.

Update: Well I’ve decided it won’t work. Read about it in the comments.