Innovation & workplace culture in the Australian interactive entertainment industry : the Halfbrick story

A recent success story of the Australian videogames industry is Brisbane based Halfbrick Studios, developer of the hit game for mobile devices, Fruit Ninja. Halfbrick not only survived the global financial crisis and an associated downturn in the Australian industry, but grew strongly, moving rapidly from developing licensed properties for platforms such as Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Playstation Portable (PSP) to becoming an independent developer and publisher of in-house titles, generating revenue both through App downloads and merchandise sales. Amongst the reasons for Halfbrick’s success is their ability to adaptively transform by addressing different technical platforms, user dynamics, business models and market conditions. Our ongoing case-study research from 2010 into Halfbrick’s innovation processes, culminating with some 10 semi-structured interviews with senior managers and developers, has identified a strong focus on workplace organisational culture, with staff reflecting that the company is a flat, team-based organisation devolving as much control as possible to the development teams directly, and encouraging a work-life balance in which creativity can thrive. The success of this strategy is evidenced through Halfbrick’s low staff turnover; amongst our interviewees most of the developers had been with the company for a number of years, with all speaking positively of the workplace culture and sense of creative autonomy they enjoyed. Interviews with the CEO, Shainiel Deo, and team leaders highlighted the autonomy afforded to each team and the organisation and management of the projects on which they work. Deo and team leaders emphasised the collaboration and communication skills they require in the developers that they employ, and that these characteristics were considered just as significant in hiring decisions as technical skills. Halfbrick’s developers celebrate their workplace culture and insist it has contributed to their capacity for innovation and to their commercial success with titles such as Fruit Ninja. This model of organisational management is reflected in both Stark’s (2009) idea of heterarchy, and Neff’s (2012) concept of venture labour, and provides a different perspective on the industry than the traditional political economy critique of precarious labour exploited by gaming conglomerates. Nevertheless, throughout many of the interviews and in our informal discussions with Halfbrick developers there is also a sense that this rewarding culture is quite tenuous and precarious in the context of a rapidly changing and uncertain global videogames industry. Whether such a workplace culture represents the future of the games industry, or is merely a ‘Prague Spring’ before companies such as Halfbrick are swallowed by traditional players’ remains to be seen. However, as the process of rapid and uncertain transformation plays out across the videogames industry, it is important to pay attention to emerging modes of organisation and workplace culture, even whilst they remain at the margins of the industry. In this paper we investigate Halfbrick’s workplace culture and ask how sustainable is this kind of rewarding and creative workplace?

Understanding expectations with multiple controllers in an augmented reality videogame

Player experiences and expectations are connected. The presumptions players have about how they control their gameplay interactions may shape the way they play and perceive videogames. A successfully engaging player experience might rest on the way controllers meet players' expectations. We studied player interaction with novel controllers on the Sony PlayStation Wonderbook, an augmented reality (AR) gaming system. Our goal was to understand player expectations regarding game controllers in AR game design. Based on this preliminary study, we propose several interaction guidelines for hybrid input from both augmented reality and physical game controllers

Digital copyright and the consumer revolution: Hands off my iPod

This book documents and evaluates the growing consumer revolution against digital copyright law, and makes a unique theoretical contribution to the debate surrounding this issue. With a focus on recent US copyright law, the book charts the consumer rebellion against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998 (US) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 (US). The author explores the significance of key judicial rulings and considers legal controversies over new technologies, such as the iPod, TiVo, Sony Playstation II, Google Book Search, and peer-to-peer networks. The book also highlights cultural developments, such as the emergence of digital sampling and mash-ups, the construction of the BBC Creative Archive, and the evolution of the Creative Commons. Digital Copyright and the Consumer Revolution will be of prime interest to academics, law students and lawyers interested in the ramifications of copyright law, as well as policymakers given its focus upon recent legislative developments and reform proposals. The book will also appeal to librarians, information managers, creative artists, consumers, technology developers, and other users of copyright material.

Jogos narrativos de videogame: criação e manutenção do estado de imersão

O objetivo deste trabalho é entender como o jogo narrativo de aventura para videogame consegue atrair e manter a atenção do jogador, imergindo-o no mundo ficcional, em face dos inúmeros estímulos existentes a sua volta. É sugerida uma definição para o jogo narrativo de aventura e a imersão e, posteriormente, estabelece-se uma relação entre elementos presentes nos jogos e as estruturas que atraem a atenção do indivíduo. Para isso, consultou-se material produzido pelas duas principais linhas de estudos de jogos: Narratologia e Ludologia. O conteúdo teórico foi comparado e exemplificado através da prática de diversos jogos, principalmente do console Sony Playstation 3. O próprio conceito de jogo narrativo, a prática dos jogos e a relação percebida entre seus elementos e as ferramentas para criar e manter a atenção revelaram que o videogame, através dos jogos narrativos de aventura, representa um potente meio para criar e manter o estado de imersão sobre o jogador.

“The impact of online ratings on video game sales”

Online third-party reviews have been grown over the last decade and they now play an important role as a tool for helping customers evaluate products and services that in many cases offer more than tangible features. This study intends to quantify the impact online ratings have over video game sales by conducting a linear regression analysis on 300 titles for the previous console generation (PlayStation® 3 and Xbox® 360) using a data from the video game industry to understand the existing influence on this particular market. The findings showed that these variables have a weak linear relationship thus suggesting that quality of a title explains little the commercial success of a video game and instead this should cover a wider range of factors. Afterwards, we compare results to previous ones and discuss the managerial implications for upcoming gaming generations.

Innovación en tecnologías digitales

Los videojuegos ya no deberían ser vistos como el dominio exclusivo de adolescentes, sino más bien como parte de una corriente comercial, de hecho su impacto en la sociedad es de gran alcance. Por ejemplo, las innovaciones líderes en el área de diseño de procesadores, gráficos y la inteligencia artificial están siendo impulsados por la industria de los videojuegos, de esta manera es posible que en la actualidad el software del juego se utilice para entrenar a los soldados para la batalla, y entrenar a los pilotos en los controles de vuelo y de navegación. (Wesley & Balzac, 2010)

La construcción de la identidad a través de los videojuegos : un estudio del aprendizaje en el contexto institucional de la escuela.

Identificar las características que definen las prácticas de uso de los videojuegos en la población de niños comprendida entre las edades de 8 a 13 años, describir los principales arquetipos propuestos en la narrativa de los videojuegos, aplicar un dispositivo semiótico de análisis en la narrativa de un videojuego particular: el caso Pokémon, y analizar los dilemas que se plantean a estudiantes y profesores vinculando la función enseñante de los objetos tecnológicos con las modalidades de aprendizaje requeridas desde la educación formal. Encuesta a 239 casos en tres centros escolares de la localidad de Río Gallegos (Argentina), entrevistas grupales focalizadas a 7 niños usuarios de videojuegos, en contextos informales y en ciudades distantes (Patagonia, Buenos Aires y Valencia), entrevistas grupales a 20 docentes de los centros escolares, entrevistas individuales a 3 docentes de informática, entrevistas individuales a 3 psicopedagogos de los centros escolares. La investigación se contextualiza en la condición global y la hibridación de culturas vinculando a los sujetos de la educación y a la sociedad de la información. Siguiendo estos pensamientos se profundiza en las características de la digitalización del espacio narrativo y del espacio lúdico. Del entrecruzamiento de las categorías surge el análisis del problema desde diferentes dimensiones. El 71,1 por ciento de los hogares cuenta con computadora, el 77,4 poseé videojuegos en consolas (tipo Playstation, Family Game o Sega) y el 68,2 cuenta con consolas de videojuegos portátiles. Estos datos son muy significativos y corroboran la presencia de los videojuegos, en sus distintos formatos, en la mayoría de los hogares encuestados. Las manifestaciones reactivas a un modelo exhibicionista restringen las posibilidades de jugar, y por lo tanto de pensar y crear. El exceso, la fragmentación y la exhibición de la información elude, evita e inhibe la posibilidad de reconocerse como protagonista en la producción de sentido.

Desarrollo de videojuegos en 2D usando Simple DirectMedia

[ES]Los Indie games, o videojuegos independientes, son aplicaciones creadas por individuos o pequeños grupos sin apoyo financiero de distribuidores. A menudo se centran en la innovación, y se basan en la distribución digital. En los últimos años han visto un gran aumento principalmente debido a; nuevos métodos de distribución en línea (Steam Greenlight1, Xbox Live2, Playstation Store3, Android Market, Apple Store), nuevas formas de financiación como Kickstarter4 y potentes herramientas gratuitas para el desarrollo. Este proyecto se puede considerar como uno de los primeros pasos en el desarrollo de videojuegos independientes o Indie. Usando SDL como base se pretende diseñar y desarrollar dos prototipos de videojuego, el primero será un clon del conocido Tetris, aprovechando la poca complejidad de las mecánicas del juego para tener un primer contacto con las herramientas. El segundo, de mayor complejidad, se centrará en desarrollar las principales características de un juego tipo plataformas en 2D, del estilo Super Mario, Sonic o los anteriormente mencionados Super Meat Boy y Braid. La Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) es un conjunto de bibliotecas desarrolladas en el lenguaje de programación C, que proporcionan funciones básicas para realizar operaciones de dibujo en dos dimensiones, gestión de efectos de sonido y música, además de carga y gestión de imágenes. Fueron desarrolladas inicialmente por Sam Lantinga en 1998, en este proyecto se ha usado la versión 1.2.15 y se espera que este año se termine la versión 2.0, el uno de Junio de este año ha alcanzado el estado Release Candidate.

Design and Performance Evaluation of Network-on-Chip Communication Protocols and Architectures

The scale down of transistor technology allows microelectronics manufacturers such as Intel and IBM to build always more sophisticated systems on a single microchip. The classical interconnection solutions based on shared buses or direct connections between the modules of the chip are becoming obsolete as they struggle to sustain the increasing tight bandwidth and latency constraints that these systems demand. The most promising solution for the future chip interconnects are the Networks on Chip (NoC). NoCs are network composed by routers and channels used to inter- connect the different components installed on the single microchip. Examples of advanced processors based on NoC interconnects are the IBM Cell processor, composed by eight CPUs that is installed on the Sony Playstation III and the Intel Teraflops pro ject composed by 80 independent (simple) microprocessors. On chip integration is becoming popular not only in the Chip Multi Processor (CMP) research area but also in the wider and more heterogeneous world of Systems on Chip (SoC). SoC comprehend all the electronic devices that surround us such as cell-phones, smart-phones, house embedded systems, automotive systems, set-top boxes etc... SoC manufacturers such as ST Microelectronics , Samsung, Philips and also Universities such as Bologna University, M.I.T., Berkeley and more are all proposing proprietary frameworks based on NoC interconnects. These frameworks help engineers in the switch of design methodology and speed up the development of new NoC-based systems on chip. In this Thesis we propose an introduction of CMP and SoC interconnection networks. Then focusing on SoC systems we propose: • a detailed analysis based on simulation of the Spidergon NoC, a ST Microelectronics solution for SoC interconnects. The Spidergon NoC differs from many classical solutions inherited from the parallel computing world. Here we propose a detailed analysis of this NoC topology and routing algorithms. Furthermore we propose aEqualized a new routing algorithm designed to optimize the use of the resources of the network while also increasing its performance; • a methodology flow based on modified publicly available tools that combined can be used to design, model and analyze any kind of System on Chip; • a detailed analysis of a ST Microelectronics-proprietary transport-level protocol that the author of this Thesis helped developing; • a simulation-based comprehensive comparison of different network interface designs proposed by the author and the researchers at AST lab, in order to integrate shared-memory and message-passing based components on a single System on Chip; • a powerful and flexible solution to address the time closure exception issue in the design of synchronous Networks on Chip. Our solution is based on relay stations repeaters and allows to reduce the power and area demands of NoC interconnects while also reducing its buffer needs; • a solution to simplify the design of the NoC by also increasing their performance and reducing their power and area consumption. We propose to replace complex and slow virtual channel-based routers with multiple and flexible small Multi Plane ones. This solution allows us to reduce the area and power dissipation of any NoC while also increasing its performance especially when the resources are reduced. This Thesis has been written in collaboration with the Advanced System Technology laboratory in Grenoble France, and the Computer Science Department at Columbia University in the city of New York.

Mit Kopierbarkeit ist grundsätzlich ein Versprechen verknüpft

Der Psychologe Stephan Grünewald ist einer der Mitbegründer des Kölner Marktforschungsinstitutes rheingold. Das Institut versucht, Marktprozessen durch qualitative Interviews und psychologische Analyse auf die Schliche zu kommen. Die Grundüberlegung: auch bei alltäglichen Gewohnheiten, Lebensstil und Kaufentscheidungen spielten psychologische Prozesse eine bestimmende Rolle. Ergebnisse aus diesen Interviews verarbeitete Grünewald kürzlich in seinem Buch Deutschland auf der Couch (Frankfurt a.M.: Campus). Daniel Buggert und Karl R. Kegler sprachen mit Stephan Grünewald über die Bedeutung von Kopien, Lebensentwürfen und Medieneinflüssen in der Architektur.

The pragmatics of computer-mediated communication between South African and Mexican drug traffickers

South Africa and Mexico are ripe with drug trafficking. The gangs and syndicates running the drug businesses in these two countries collaborate occasionally. Communication between these international drug business partners takes place on social media. Their main language of communication is English, mixed with some limited use of Spanish and Afrikaans. The key purpose of the interactions between the South African and Mexican parties is the organisation of their business activities. This study aims at examining how the drug traffickers position each other and themselves regarding their common business interest and how their relationship evolves throughout their interactions. Moreover, it is of interest to look at how these people make use of different social media and their affordances. For this a qualitative analysis of the interaction between two drug traffickers (one South African and one Mexican) on Facebook, Threema and PlayStation 4 was performed. Computer-mediated communication between these two main informants was studied at various stages of their relationship. Results show that at first the interaction between the South African and Mexican drug traffickers consists of interpersonal negotiations of power. The high risk of the drug business and gang/syndicate membership paired with intercultural frictions causes the two interlocutors to be extremely cautious and at the same time to mark their position. As their relationship develops and they gain trust in each other a shift to interpersonal negotiations of solidarity takes place. In these discursive practices diverse linguistic strategies are employed for creating relational effects and for positioning the other and the self. The discursive activities of the interactants are also identity practices. Thus, the two drug traffickers construct identities through these social practices, positioning and their interpersonal relationship.