We Play Life

Playing around with Etacts, an app that mines data from your...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:44:16 -0500

Playing around with Etacts, an app that mines data from your emails, it ended up doing this chart.. It’s the mails sent and received from my ex throughout our entire relationship. Amazingly, it maps so well to the feelings involved at the very right times.

Like my favorite actress said: "let's cut the bullshit on love" #wisdom

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:38:49 -0500

Like my favorite actress said: "let's cut the bullshit on love" #wisdom

Well, my new iPhone 3GS turned me into an even sicker data junkie.. seriously.

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:40:54 -0500

Well, my new iPhone 3GS turned me into an even sicker data junkie.. seriously.

Want the secret for extreme productivity? Forget the charger of your mac at home and know you only have 50 minutes to get shit done!

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:24:38 -0500

Want the secret for extreme productivity? Forget the charger of your mac at home and know you only have 50 minutes to get shit done!

I like #formspringme.. Good implementation (it's nice to see it dealing with scalability) and opens the door to amazing insights from people

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:05:20 -0500

I like #formspringme.. Good implementation (it's nice to see it dealing with scalability) and opens the door to amazing insights from people

#10yearsago I was coding an endless soccer game and writing a letter for a time capsule to be opened in 2025. And we were all listening Moby

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:50:14 -0500

#10yearsago I was coding an endless soccer game and writing a letter for a time capsule to be opened in 2025. And we were all listening Moby

#10yearsfromnow we'll still be using Google.. and Twitter despite the 3rd world war. Ill have my private flight to space booked for 10 grand

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:50:12 -0500

#10yearsfromnow we'll still be using Google.. and Twitter despite the 3rd world war. Ill have my private flight to space booked for 10 grand

I had too much fun doing a little acting for this Pindonga...

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:27:24 -0500

I had too much fun doing a little acting for this Pindonga episode..

"Eat the banana or we have to put you down!" .. god bless south park.

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:25:37 -0500

"Eat the banana or we have to put you down!" .. god bless south park.

J U S T I C E

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:07:59 -0500

J U S T I C E

Sometimes I surprise myself to the kind of songs I put 5 stars in iTunes... I always end up downgrading them to 4.. 5 must be beatlesque

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:45:10 -0500

Sometimes I surprise myself to the kind of songs I put 5 stars in iTunes... I always end up downgrading them to 4.. 5 must be beatlesque

Watch the (explosive) trailer for “Software is the new...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:15:00 -0500

Watch the (explosive) trailer for “Software is the new Rock”. A documentary about The Whuffie Bank’s launch on TechCrunch50.

Interview about the future of economical systems in the internet...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:47:00 -0500

Interview about the future of economical systems in the internet age and The Whuffie Bank’s role in that. Here’s the full article by Stowe Boyd.

Coding twitter bots is the most avant garde form of literature.. #hackathon #whuffie #drunk

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:42:00 -0500

Coding twitter bots is the most avant garde form of literature.. #hackathon #whuffie #drunk

I suddenly remembered the delicious taste of Passion Pit's debut album "Manners".. if you're a person of taste, trust me.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:47:11 -0500

I suddenly remembered the delicious taste of Passion Pit's debut album "Manners".. if you're a person of taste, trust me.

A friend of mine went to his childrens school and gave a talk to all the teachers about #TED.. Everyone w/ kids should do that!!

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:50:04 -0500

A friend of mine went to his childrens school and gave a talk to all the teachers about #TED.. Everyone w/ kids should do that!!

I think that the constant buzz I hear on my left year is actually the boiling gray matter of my brain... computer: I'll turn you off now.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:26:34 -0500

I think that the constant buzz I hear on my left year is actually the boiling gray matter of my brain... computer: I'll turn you off now.

I think I'm breaking a personal record for stress level right now... (un)fortunately, I flourish under this kind of condition..

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:18:32 -0500

I think I'm breaking a personal record for stress level right now... (un)fortunately, I flourish under this kind of condition..

Quick Thoughts on Games as Art

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:28:00 -0500

So Austin Mace, a student, sent me a quick mail with questions regarding games and art for a paper he must write.. I thought I could share some of my answers here. I used to think about this stuff a lot some years ago..

1. What company do you work for and what is your job title?

Popego Co., I’m the CEO.. but it’s not a gaming company, we do AI. I used to work for Three Melons, an advergames company.

2. Would you consider video games to be considered an art form just as movies now are considered art?

Games explore a unique dimension of storytelling that’s impossible to reproduce in film, literature, painting.. That’s the dimension of interactivity. Games model experiences through rules and goals, and the task of the game designer is to shape and define interactions. That’s a whole new field for human creativity.

3. if yes to question 2, what would you argue to your opponents regarding the artistic integrity of a video game?

Those who do not consider games as an art, are usually the same kind of minds that considered rock and roll a devilish thing in the 60’s or novels a polluting thing in the 16th century… Games are the most avant garde form of expression today because it is uniquely tied to technology.. just like film was in the early 20th century. Obviously there are a lot of commercial games out there.. just like movies and books. But as the internet becomes a dominant space of our cultural life, artistic games are starting to gain more and more adopters.

4. Are certain games considered more artful in your eyes compared to other games? (example: Mario Paint vs Fallout 3, Saints Row, Oblivion, Bioshock)

Of course. Katamari Damacy to me is a perfect example of a deeply artistical game, in its uniqueness of gameplay and visual style.. but essntially the gameplay. Unfortunately, most of the console games tend to be very conservative in terms of gameplay due to the high costs of developing them.. but in the last years, new channels of distribution like Xbox Live or PSN really opened a big door for indie games with more artistic means.

5. Some consider video games as the greatest art of the 21st century. Would you agree with that statement?

I used to agree with that. We’ll have to see. Games (specially hardcore games) are still a thing that are mostly played by people under 35 years old. As these generations grow older, I think they’ll become more common… but to become an influential art form, you have to carry a big message, say something relevant (think Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” as a great example of this in movies).. I don’t see many games doing that… Metal Gear Solid tries to do it.. but mostly relying on filmmaking techniques, not really gaming per se.

6. Some measure artistic merit in what lasting impact a said medium has on society. What’s your take on what impact games as a whole have had on society?

Well, it’s nice to quote Nintendo’s chief on PacMan: “if games were influential, everyone would be in dark rooms, hearing repetitive electronic music and eating pills”.. I think the impact of games has more to do in terms of making the new generations more ludic towards life. Yet, I don’t know if games have found a big influential masterpiece that could inspire revolutions..

7. The founder of the independent game studio Evouxion and Popego Santiago Siri has said this about games; “You can think of a sculptor as someone who creates with the three dimensions of volume; or filmmakers as creators of stories through the use of space and time captured by a camera. The art of games is about sculpting Fate.” Would this be an accurate depiction of what makes a video game art or is there more to it than that?

That’s the very essence of games if you ask me. You’re moving in this 5th dimension that goes beyond space and time.. Games are about all the possible spaces and times given a specific set of rules. That’s powerful. And as AI improves, we’ll be able to shape and model experiences in very sophisticated ways.

8. Are there any additional comments you’d like to make regarding this subject?

Games are art, because you *play* them. In the very same way a musician plays an instrument. Or you go to see a play in the theatre. Play is encoded in our genes so we can learn.. just like dogs play to learn their hunting skills.. and life’s nothing but a game ;)

The nicest thing of designing a #pechakucha ppt is that it's the closest a slideshow can get into becoming a rythmcal, almost musical thing

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:34:45 -0400

The nicest thing of designing a #pechakucha ppt is that it's the closest a slideshow can get into becoming a rythmcal, almost musical thing