This is a bit of an old topic but something I’ve just stumbled over a few days ago during a presentation. About 10 years back in 2001 Rosemarie Fiore took long exposure photographs of entire game sessions of old arcade games.
These do a great job at capturing the game space described by the movement of the player avatar. You can see a photograph of Tempest to the right but you can see the entirety of the set on her website gallery.
The Avatar Machine is an interesting art project by Marc Owens. He tries to represent the aesthetics and viewpoint common in 3rd person MMOs. Certainly worth checking out his video of the device in action.
Granted the camera position isn’t optimal since it’s basically blocking the view on his own path but it’s an interesting take on the ongoing interweaving of virtual and physical spaces. I especially love the “warning” attached to the avatar machine:
The system potentially allows for a diminished sense of social responsibility, and could lead the user to demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment.
There’s a new video (one of hundreds) for Dragon Age: Origins out. Compared to the Marilyn Manson gore & tits fests of the other trailers this one is actually worth a look. Granted it’s still primarily a piece of promotional video but they touch on a few interesting points. A little bit about the visual design and the workflow.
They even bring up a few ideas I have lined up for yet another article about game spaces. And no, it’s not the one about boss fights…
Anyway, enough bla bla, here’s the video:
Just a little post to show you guys a few pictures. Io9 has a small gallery of Schuiten pictures. It’s part of io9s Future Metro feature this week. And just so you know, Schuiten’s a comic artist famous for producing interesting cityscapes and buildings in his works. Check it out real quick.