W. Thomas Grové Portfolio - www.lion-gv.com » Travel

Six Cities, Five Countries, and Three Conferences in Two Weeks

lion — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:49:07 +0000

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. First, Yuki and I flew to Vienna, Austria where we visited our friends Lev, Christoph, Claudia, and Babsi. While there we attended the Game City event and visited the swank offices of Avaloop. While sleeping in Vienna we took advantage of its location to make day trips to Salzburg, Budapest, and Bratislava. We’re in agreement that Budapest was an awesome surprise.

Next we went to Copenhagen to attend the Unite 2008 conference. I covered the event for Gamasutra; here are some stories that I submitted:

While there I had the chance to participate in a round table interview with Unity execs, Atari President Phil Harrison, and former Criterion CEO David Lau-kee. If Gamasutra doesn’t post the entire interview I’ll eventually post it here on my site.

Other highlights from Copenhagen included the Danish Design Center (a museum of product design) and a brand new restaurant in the trendy Norrebro neighborhood. It was very reasonable, the service was friendly, the latte was outstanding, and the atmosphere was cozy. It is called Café N, except there is an Arabic-like tilde above the N. You can find it here.

And finally, I’ll be leaving Copenhagen tomorrow morning and heading to Toronto to represent Core Talent Games at GameON: Finance 2.0. Core Talent Games was announced earlier this week and is a new venture that I’ve been working on with the other co-founders since April. I love it when a plan comes together.

Moving Media

lion — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:22:10 +0000

Dancing is a series of videos on wherethehellismatt.com. I found out about this on my friend Dan’s blog. These videos, which have gotten progressively better, are really amazing. If you have time I suggest watching them in this order: Dancing 2005, Dancing 2006, Dancing 2008; if you’re short on time then you can just watch Dancing 2008. I was very moved by these videos and have watched each of them at least three times! Matt, who is dancing, used to be a game designer!

The Passage is an Art Game that has gotten the attention of many designers. You can download it here. Play through it a few times (5 minutes per session) and then read the Creator’s Statement. I think this is a game that Matt would appreciate!

I wish that there was a greater amount of moving media. I’m really happy when short form, somewhat avant guard stuff—like the above—ends up being genuinely moving. When you compare this to the amount of stuff that tends to be just a distraction, or art for art sake, it becomes an unexpected treasure!

On my way to TGS 2007!

lion — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:37:48 +0000

I’m leaving for Tokyo in eight hours, still have a bunch of packing to do. This will be my first time attending TGS, pretty exciting. I’m also planning on going to the Ghibli Museum, CoFesta; a contents festival, and Cedec; a Japanese developer conference. I’m also hoping to meet with some friends and fellow developers, and maybe even visit some studios thanks to Yuki!

Afterwards we will travel to Kansai to visit Yuki’s family.

Our Abstract Society

lion — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:36:02 +0000

I went camping for two weeks in Ethiopia with my family during this past Christmas holiday. There is a lot that I would like to write about Ethiopia that I will save for future posts that may not be written. What I would like to talk about today is a sense that many people get when they travel to countries outside of their developed nation.

“It just feels so real over there.”

When people say this they are referring to a sense of immediacy that is enchanting; a reality that has been obscured by the abstraction resulting from modernization. I don’t want to sound critical of modernization, it is what we have worked so hard to achieve, and what has allowed us to achieve so much. However, to consider it as concrete would be false and I think that it is important to be aware of the diversity of existence that exists in the world.

Some ways in which our lives are abstract:

1) We have no idea where the products we consume come from. When we buy chicken it is a bloodless breast sandwiched between cellophane and yellow Styrofoam. In rural and developing parts of the world you buy or raise the live chicken and kill it yourself.

2) People are statistics, casualties are numbers, when we go to war we kill with the push of a button, not the swinging of a machete. In short, much of our perception and action is impersonal.

3) We are protected from the elements by air conditioning and insulation

4) We don’t walk. By the way, if you live near a ghetto, try walking through it one day instead of driving around it… its amazing…

5) Our idea of philanthropy is charity. We buy a ticket to guilt-free lane via donating money to organizations who use it to live in large villas and drive Land Cruisers.

6) We believe what others report about our world instead of seeing it for ourselves.

7) We don’t have to worry about predators, or disease, or getting bombs dropped on us

This is maybe why 9-11 was such a shock to Americans. Some people need to worry about how they will survive, but we just worry about how to get our raise… or rather, our way of surviving is by having jobs and wages and the like, and not by avoiding crocodiles, bombs, or famine. So 9-11, if for a moment, made a lot of people worry about survival in this other, more immediate, sense.

I found it very hard to answer the question: “What do you do for a living?” How do you describe video game design to someone who has never played a video game? I don’t actually make anything physical – I work in a world of conceptual interaction that is eventually represented by code that is an abstraction of machine language. I think that being an options trader might provide a similar conundrum. These are occupations that are only viable under the protective, prosperous, umbrella of modernization. I must admit that I feel guilt, at times, knowing that a large part of my occupation is problem solving, and that there are more important problems to solve in the world than issues of game balance or usability. I console myself by proclaiming a desire to create media that will illuminate issues of moral relativity, personal growth, social injustice, and the like to a mainstream audience.

Ok, in summary, we make many assumptions about the world without using our powers of observation and contemplation to see things as they really are. Immersive travel (not staying in 5 star hotels for your entire vacation, having conversations with locals, eating with locals, etc) is a great way to gain a shift in perspective as informed by your experience of an existence that is at once foreign and familiar. If we can see more clearly, and empathize with others, then the decisions and actions in our life can be more informed. I can’t mandate the occasional exposure to a more gritty reality, but those who have stepped outside of their comfort zone are forever changed and speak fondly of the experience. So, if I can’t mandate, then I shale suggest! Please challenge your perception of what is real and please be open to new experiences and ideas.

The Journey of Man

lion — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 06:31:16 +0000

I just finished watching an absolutely fascinating program on PBS called The Journey of Man. It was a summary of the research of Spencer Wells and company whose Y-DNA genetic genealogy research has lead to a compelling “story” of human migration. Among the freshest information for me was that the first exodus from Africa was a coastal rout ~60,000 years ago that ended in Australia.

In the documentary, the interviewed Aborigines were adamant that they originated in Australia, but the amateur anthropologist in me can’t help but see many similarities between them and the Bushmen of Southern Africa. Well, anyways, I wouldn’t be the first person to point out that the Bushmen relationship to Tsodilo Hills mirrors that of the Aborigine relationship to Ayers Rock, or that both cultures ceremoniously enter into a trance state of consciousness.

Note that this image doesn’t really match Well’s findings, but it was the most aesthetically pleasing migration map that I found. One difference is that Wells’s research points to European populations being able to trace their ancestry back to Africa via Central Asia and not directly from the Middle East and Africa as this map depicts. Many Asians, Native Americans, and Indians can also trace their paternal heritage to this same Central Asian ancestry. “If Africa was the cradle of mankind, then Central Asia was its nursery”, said Wells.

You can read a more complete summary on the National Geographic website.