Power is the ability to exert your will on the surroundings – to make the environment, people, places, things, respond to your bidding. The ability to control part of the world around you. Most games are about power. Some people have claimed that many hardcore games are all about fulfilling the “male power fantasy”… the ability to dominate and master the world around them, by proving they are bigger, badder and more powerful than anything the game can bring against them. It primarily exists in two forms in games. The first form is the ability to take direct action that becomes increasingly more powerful as you progress through the game (eg. more powerful weapons in first-person shooters, higher-leveled characters in role-playing games, faster cars in racing games, etc.). The second form is the ability to control more and more things as you progress through the game (eg. more soldiers and resources in strategy games, more objects and tools in simulation games, or even something as simple as more tables in Diner Dash).

It seems to me that most games fall into one or both of these paradigms – either make your actions affect the world more and more as you progress, or give you a wider and wider array of possible actions as you progress. All of this is predicated on direct control – you command, they obey. Often instantly. That’s what feedback mechanisms are for, after all. They let you as they player know that You Are In Control – that you have agency, that You Can Change The World with the push of a button.

I think this view may be limited.

I think the enormous popularity of social games are showing why it is limited.

Think about it. Just how powerful or how much in control do you feel in a social game? Heck, not just the ones on Facebook. Even real-life games based around social interaction, like Charades or Taboo. The point of the game isn’t about power or control. It’s about interaction… it’s about making connections – between people, between ideas and words, between perception and action.

It’s about influence.

Which led me to start thinking… what would an influence-based hardcore game be like? What would the mature form of social gaming turn out to be, ten, twenty years from now? So here’s what I know about influence:

• Influence is not direct. It is usually indirect in pursuit of its goals. I don’t tell you what to do. I persuade you that it’s worth doing.
• Influence is based on connections. It’s not about what you can do. It’s about who you know.
• Influence requires that the other party have wills of their own, that are distinct from yours. We control robots. We influence people.
• Influence often is closely linked to several other societal phenomena. Morality, social norms, public perception, ties of friendship, emotions, traditions, ideas. We make appeals to God, to tradition, to principles and laws, to the things that touch people’s hearts when we want to influence them.
• Influence requires that you care about something – either the agent you want to influence, or the result you are influencing them towards. It requires meaning to be created for an action to be taken.

Where do we find systems of influence working in real life?

We see systems of power operating in the military, science and technology, and in feudal governments (which perhaps explains why those themes are so common in hardcore games today). Command, control, conquer. Beat the game. Beat it HARD.

Systems of influence are built to connect, to persuade, to relate. You find them in religion, in politics, in the media, in the ordinary everyday relationships between family and friends.

In other words, everything that hasn’t really been addressed fully by (Western) games as yet. There has been, even to this day a decade later, exactly ONE successful implementation of a commercial game wholly based around interactions between family and friends. (I exaggerate slightly for effect… The Sims series certainly contains many more iterations than just one game. Nevertheless.) There are no decent games about religious or political influence – the ones that aren’t backed up by guns and assassins, that is. There have been many that have tried to incorporate sub-themes or minigames of influence into games about power (the Fable series comes to mind, as do many MMORPGs). But they sometimes feel like they’re trying to shoehorn influence in as an afterthought, rather than as a core mechanic. Or they’re trying to mix and match with power games, instead of strictly focusing on mechanisms for influence, and that dumbs it down. (Dragon Age, I’m looking at you.)

I wonder what would happen if a developer tried focusing on nothing except influence. A game entirely focused on persuading people or NPCs to do things, a game about understanding people’s motivations, a game about making the right connections between peoples, desires and ideas. A game about building relationships and meaning with agents that have a mind of their own – that you can’t overtly control, but you can influence. It would be a remarkably interesting game to play, I think. Any suggestions?

Just recently, I read two manga series one after another – both dealing with Christian themes, but vastly different from each other. The first was Little House with an Orange Roof (a.k.a. Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie), and the second was Let’s Bible. The contrast between the two serves to illustrate an important point.

There is a difference between using Christian themes as a variation of a medium’s standard tropes, and using the standard tropes of a medium to explain Christian themes. One applies the Form of Christianity, but leaves the underlying structure and content unchanged. The other leaves the forms of the medium unchanged, but applies Christianity to change the structure and content. In simpler terms, Let’s Bible just uses Christian names and symbolism as a thin layer for what is in all essence a shounen action-comedy series. On the other hand, Orange Roof starts with a typical seinen romantic comedy setting, but gradually introduces Christian themes and messages through the behaviour of its characters. You can easily tell the difference once you read them. The creator of Orange Roof is a practising Christian – he himself gives testimony in his author comments at the back of every chapter (chapter 10’s comments are translated, for an example). Let’s Bible, on the other hand, is drawn by a pair of Koreans artist, who seem like they absorbed the surface knowledge of what the Gospel means and the major characters of the New Testament (probably from cultural acquaintance), but are not actually practising Christians themselves. Or perhaps they are practising Christians, but have not found a way to integrate their faith into their works.

To really create a good Christian manga, you need to have a strong background in the techniques of the medium, an understanding of its tropes and how to use them to tell a good story. And then beyond that, you must really think about the message, and how to best encapsulate it in a way that FITS with both the properties of the message, and the properties of the medium you are using. Orange Roof did it well. Let’s Bible did it terribly, because it fit the medium, but didn’t fit the message. A third manga, created by Americans, called Serenity, also tried it… that one fit the message, but didn’t really fit the medium. It was okay, but because it was targeted at American teens, there were certain stylistic choices that moved it away from pure manga and into a different sort of comic. It fit THAT comic medium very well, and I think it thus was a success on that level (as also proven by sales), but the medium was no longer that of manga.

In order to really create good Christian media content, you need to find a common ground where both the medium and message can meet and synergise properly to create something unique. The themes of Christianity must go deeper than surface level – in fact, sometimes they can be buried under the guise of what seems to be typical fare for the medium, but become more explicit as you delve deeper or further into it.

This is the problem that I also see in the Christian games industry. The reason why so many Christian games are bad is because the creators either lack a deep enough understanding of the medium they are working with (Christian educators who are trying to make games because they think the people they want to reach out to would be interested in anything if it comes in a “game” package), or they do not have a deep understanding of the message they want to bring (gamers who want to enjoy the same sort of games they’ve always played, but slap “Christian” labels on it so that they can feel justified in front of their non-gamer Christian family).

AND IT’S NOT GOING TO WORK.

You can’t slap on a “Christian” label to a standard hardcore game and expect that it would be good. Likewise, you can’t just package a “game” around what is essentially a bunch of Sunday school material and expect that it would be appealing to the audience. What is needed is a fundamental approach to the problem of designing Christian games – you need a deep understanding of the properties of the medium and the properties of the message before you can truly design a good (and fun) Christian game. The current games out there enjoy some limited success because of the sheer hunger of people for such games. But it’s limited. I believe that when we can see the real thing, we’ll appreciate what the difference is between a slapdash approach and a fundamental design approach. Unfortunately, that time may be a long time in coming.

I was reading a book on design research recently, and my mind returned to the topic of Christian video games. Lately, I’ve been exploring Facebook and Facebook applications, and how everyone in the industry is saying that social networking is going to be the next big thing in games. This train of thought merged with another one, which noted that many Christian groups are going online nowadays, through Facebook, and meeting and supporting each other online via social networking sites.

Is there any way to combine the two, I wondered?

You see, one of the primary difficulties I had, when thinking about how to design Christian video games that would be fun as well as accurately reflect the Christian lifestyle is the fact that Christianity is very much founded on lifestyle choices and relationships. Much of what happens in daily Christian living takes place through social interactions between people… and it was very difficult for me to reduce that to a mathematical model in a single-player game. I would effectively have to build a simulation – sort of a SimChurch – just to accurately reflect Christian living. And then, I would also have problems with my players perhaps not being able to relate it back to their real lives.

But what if I made a game which intertwined their game lives with their real ones? What if I broke the magic circle that most games have, that place the game outside of reality? What if I deliberately designed a game which would take advantage of the social connections between Christians that are starting to grow on Facebook, and used that as a platform for them to continue to build relationships with each other, while teaching some aspects of Christianity at the same time? And that could also be used as a tool for outreach too, especially to their non-Christian friends on the same social network?

I think I’ve got an idea for such a game. Admittedly, it’s not groundbreaking. I’m basing a lot of the design off similar patterns I see in other games on Facebook which have proved to be successful, like Mafia Wars, Restaurant City and FarmVille. All of these use a design and business model that heavily capitalizes on the social aspects of Facebook, getting people to post messages to each other, and interact through the giving of gifts or cooperating to solve missions. I want to go along with that trend, but create a slightly deeper game (though it’s still going to be casual), with Christian themes in it.

I want to create a game about missionary work, where players take the role of missionaries doing outreach work at remote mission fields, each with their own challenges. And there are missions which they have to accomplish, which require the cooperation of friends as well, like smuggling Bibles into the village, or raising of funds to build a school, or similar things. Essentially, this game is targeted at young people (or older people, even), Christians who have never gone on a mission trip. I want to expose them to some of the challenges and activities that underlie a mission trip, as well as include a follow-through action in the game which would perhaps mobilise them to volunteer for missions. I could include links to real mission organisations, and others. Basically, the goal is to raise missions awareness, and educate the uninformed about what Christian missions is all about.

Am currently investigating Facebook developer’s platform. But I’m not sure if I have the time to work on this game. I’ll probably also need partners and money to develop and launch this.

It’s not the most original of ideas. Sure, it can probably be quite popular, if it’s launched now, because there’s quite a number of games that are similar already on Facebook. Still not my most ideal game, but it’s a step closer.  The trouble with Christian video games is that the message or core values of Christianity don’t often mesh well with the strengths and techniques of the video games as a medium. Video games are very good at process, and systems… at teaching people how to DO things, and work their way through problems, and gives rewards for successfully achieving something. Christianity focuses not on works, but on faith, surrendering to God all of life’s problems. It focuses not on achievements, but on relationships. How can you merge the two? That is the difficulty of design in this field. I need to find the rare instances in Christian living where the two can meet. Missions work is one of them (maybe). Social networking games can put relationships in their proper place in Christian games. But what else is there?

Of course, nice as they sound, I am taking it with a pinch of salt… I get the feeling my scores were significantly boosted by two things this last semester – one, the program we used was unexpectedly causing a lot more problems, so students were desperately grateful for any help they received, and two, I had huge amounts of free time to help students with the problems, because I hadn’t yet started my own Master’s studies and research. That’s not going to be the case this coming semester onwards, so I do expect a slight drop in my scores from now on.

Then, of course, we come to the more interesting comments – about how I could improve.

While most of them indicated I was doing great, there were a few things which I thought were important. I got two complaints that sometimes my responses to emails were a bit slow. I think I recall about 4 times during the semester when that occurred. Two of those times, I frankly discount, because they emailed me on a Friday night or Saturday, asking me about something due on Sunday. If I didn’t check my office mail on the weekend (and I usually don’t), then of course I would have missed it. The other two times… yeah, fine. I dropped the ball a little there. Should send acknowledgements when I receive emails, rather than sit silently on it while waiting for an answer before replying. Still learning good email communications practices. It always seems to me to be rather useless to just say “Received, thanks”, when I haven’t got anything more to add, but I guess it reassures the sender that they’ve been heard, at least.

(Then again, I remember one group sending an email to me asking to meet up within a hour or two of the sending of the email. I still managed to scramble to meet them, but just how often do they expect me to check my mail?! I think this generation is becoming too used to Instant Messaging… I remember when I used to be happy if I got a reply within a week of sending an email. I still associate email more with a sped-up version of snail mail than a slowed-down version of MSN Messenger. That’s why I use it to send infrequent but long messages, rather than the one-liner conversations that most people are starting to use it for. But maybe I’m just an old fogey.)

The other repeated complaint (again, two) was that sometimes my words were too kind, and I didn’t point out critical problems with their projects, so the grades they finally got didn’t tally with the comments I made. Hmm… not much I can say about this. I think it’s a tradeoff, generally – if I used harsher critical comments, I would no longer be seen as more friendly and approachable. And for me, at least, the kind approach works better than the strict approach. I realised most of my students aren’t actually interested in continuing on to develop games in the future, so I thought at least getting them interested in games and having a (reasonably) pleasant exposure experience would be good for them, rather than raising the bar to professional standards they require in the industry. Still… I know several times I was plagued with doubts whether it was a good idea to let some groups proceed with a decision which I could foresee a lot of problems with. Most of the time, I let them decide on their own which direction they wanted to proceed in, but gave them feedback on the appropriateness of their course of action (or the benefits and pitfalls of it) after their decision was made. Still not sure if that’s the best idea or not.

I realised something in the course of teaching this semester. There exists such a thing as “design sense”, or “design judgement”. Some people have it – they can unerringly sense which of the myriad choices they face would turn out to be the most entertaining, or aesthetically-pleasing, or make the most sense to their audience. I had a couple of students like that in my classes – they were quite sure of their direction and what they wanted to achieve with their games, and their game ideas were always simple and achievable, but fun. With those kinds of students, it’s a pleasure to just sit back, outline the problems they have to face, and then watch them go at it. Reminds me of me in my younger days, even if I do say so myself. ^^

Some people are blessed with naturally good intuition and design sense – it’s inborn in them. For most others, I think it can be trained through repeated experiences – you gain insight from experience as a substitute for natural instinct. And I think part of my job is to help them gain that insight into design through experience, by letting them make their own choice, grappling with the unknowns and trying to accurately foresee what the pitfalls and benefits that lie ahead of any given option. That’s my policy behind why I prefer to let my students make their choices instead of telling them they should do it this way or that way. And even if they make mistakes, or travel down the wrong direction, I’ll try to hint to them what problems they’re going to face, and see if they can exercise judgement in pulling back or going around the problems.

But what do you do with people who are completely lacking any design sense at all? I had a group like that last sem. I simply didn’t know what to do with them. It was really weird – they had the usual mix of good ideas and bad ideas…  but for some reason, they almost always chose the bad idea over the good one. It’s not that they were lacking in good ideas, mind you – their brainstorming session threw up a couple of gold nuggets, I thought. But whenever I left them to their own devices and to make their own choices, they consciously, deliberately… chose the bad idea. And remained convinced it was a good direction. I mean, I tried to be fair and point out that there could be ways to get around the problems that they were going to face… in retrospect, maybe they took that as encouragement that they were heading down the right path, instead of a desperate attempt to salvage what could be saved. But I might as well admit that my system totally failed when it came to that group, and they were probably justified in voicing a complaint about my teaching. I wonder how other teachers handle this sort of problem? How do you teach the tone-deaf how to sing, or the colour-blind how to paint? Is it possible, or am I always doomed to lose a few students to this problem?

Lately, I’ve been seriously thinking about changing my Master’s thesis topic away from “Nonverbal Communication Channels for NPC Interaction” to “Video Games as a tool for Christian Education”. In other words, I’m thinking about making the object of my research and the object of my hobby the same thing – make a Christian video game, and do research based upon it for my Master’s thesis. There have been several reasons why this is happening:

1) The gaming industry and gaming academic circles are now going into the original field of research that I was planning – nonverbal communications, using body language, gestures and facial recognition, etc. What seemed new and exciting and innovative at the time to me is now less so, especially because whatever research I do will take 2 years to come into fruition. I’ll be behind the forefront then.

2) The original research topic was, simply-speaking, too big a topic for me to research at a Master’s level, I think. Just making the game alone would be extremely challenging, especially since I don’t have the faintest idea who I can work with, and it’s not really a project I can handle by myself. Or rather, anything which I alone do in this field will almost surely be substandard, and I don’t want that. If I want to do something, let it be good. If not, don’t do it.

3) I find myself talking a lot more about the making of a Christian video game to other people than I do about nonverbal communications channels. I think I’m perhaps more comfortable with that after all… although it is a little frightening, because I feel sometimes intimidated to suggest that as a formal academic study in my field. It feels like I’m shouting “I’m a fundamentalist Christian!” in a room full of liberal humanists / atheists. That’s sort of holding me back… even though in my rational moments I think it’s just an irrational fear with no proof… still I feel awkward, declaring myself that way.

4) I already found someone who’s interested in helping out – a programmer and a former VCF friend of mine, Jeremiah Goh, who’s now working with the Fellowship of Evangelical Students here in Singapore. That’s one skill which I lacked for the other project, but is present here. Also, the technical difficulty of implementing a Christian video game is a lot less than that of implementing a non-verbal communications channel game. I can actually see and have an idea of how to design the game I want for the Christian video game.

5) My original intention behind the nonverbal game was eventually to lead up to research into emotional-centric games like counselling, negotiation, etc. However, that in turn was supposed to lead up to games featuring Christian-centered activities (pastoral counselling, etc.). Why not just cut the loop short and go straight to making Christian games from the beginning?

There are a few objections causing me to hesitate, though;

1) I don’t have a clear internal sense that this is where God is leading me. Although a lot of the external signs seem to be lining up, I am asking for a clear sense of direction and conviction on the inside before pursuing this for the next two years, and so that I can continue on despite objections and criticisms in the knowledge that this is what God wanted me to do. I think I want to pray more and consult with other godly people before really going ahead.

2) Frankly, although the Christian component, and the implementation and application details are much clearer for this project, the academic and research part is a little weaker. I’m not sure how to approach and frame the study of this topic for my thesis.  Should I make a game and measure its’ effects on my target audience? Should I instead study the audience’s reactions to playing this game? Should I try to derive principles of design for religious games? Should I talk about how to embed religious instruction into games? Which approach is appropriate for a Master of Arts and Social Sciences? I’m not sure. Is the game which I want to make even aligned with Christian education principles in the first place, or is it just another fun game with Christian stuff in it? It’s entirely experimental, and because I think it’s novel and not much has been done in this field, I can’t tell whether it’ll succeed or I’ll have a failure in my hands after 2 years. Should I dare it anyway?

According to McCloud, most forms of media (books, film, comics, photographs, paintings, music) can be used in a wide variety of ways, from entertainment to education. What elevates a particular instance of a medium from “common” to “Literature” or “Art” (as the snobs would call it), can be shown like this. We call things Literature when the message and themes that the medium conveys is meaningful or addresses an issue that is, for all intents and purposes, speaks to our souls and is “serious”. In other words, if a book talks about coffeeshop gossip, it’s probably not Literature, but if it portrays the human condition under conditions of war, depravity, stress, etc. , it can be called Literature. Literature is concerned with the content and meaning of the message being delivered by the medium. Art, on the other hand, explores the medium itself, and the techniques and ways in which a message can be brought forth through that medium. In other words, a medium becomes an Art form when it finds new ways to express something that is cannot be expressed by other media and leverages its’ inherent unique properties. Artistry is concerned with the properties and techniques inherent to that medium, and how to use them effectively.

I found those two definitions remarkably useful in clarifying my thought processes, and helping me think in new ways about all the mediums I create in – short stories, visual novels, games. I’ve always been interested in pushing the boundaries of innovation in those media – I don’t want to stick to the simple and boring entertainment. I want to try something different, something unique. And now I know where to concentrate my efforts. The boundaries become defined. Art and Literature – changing how a message is conveyed through a medium, and changing the message that the medium is trying to convey. That’s my goal.

Elegant, simple, and completely coherent – the mood of the graphics and music changes as you progress onwards from imprisonment to freedom, and from pain to beauty. It’s a simple, yet extremely well-done piece of work that really shows the potential for games and the power which simple interactive things can evoke.

Read the first part after the break.

Planetstorm: Prisoner of War

Disclaimer: Planetstorm and all related intellectual properties rights belong to Challenge Games Inc. This fanfiction is written for leisure and non-profit purposes only.

Episode 0 – Prologue

I stood shivering in the cold north wind, clad only in a loincloth and chained hand-and-foot to the guy in front of me. We were at the end of a long line of prisoners slowly shuffling out of the troop transport and into the military base, where we were to be processed for military service.

Military service, hah.

The judge had been very clear when he handed down the sentence at my trial – 15 years of service in the armed forces for the Kollective, or imprisonment for life. Except that they had no more jail space since the Koleika Prison got bombed by the machines, so they would probably just throw me into a cell and then shoot me.

Technically, I would have been imprisoned for life – however short that was.

So naturally, I had “volunteered” for military service instead. Which resulted in a jerky ride in a battered transport out to the Ash Wastes, where new units of the People’s Militia were to be formed. The moment we had entered the base, however, the Machines launched an aerial attack on the fortifications. An explosion shook the trenches, and I instinctively cringed. Many other prisoners were also cowering in fear, some blubbering and refusing to move another step.

“Oh please…” I heard the guy in front of me whispering. “Oh please oh please oh please…” He was squatting down with his hands over his head, and flinched as the sound of gunfire roared out of the trenches. A machinegun started to whine, and was rewarded with a distant explosion and cheering that signalled the destruction of the aerial scout.

“Get up! Get a move on, you!” a burly soldier with a mean expression went down the line, kicking and hauling the cowering prisoners to their feet. Most of them started to stumble onwards, blinded by terror. “You can shit in your pants later, when you actually got some.” He aimed a particularly vicious kick at the guy in front of me. “MOVE, I said!”

I heard a crack as the boot connected with the guy’s ribcage, and then the prisoner went berserk. He lunged out of the squat with his arms outstretched for the guard’s neck. My left arm and leg, which were still chained to him, were nearly yanked out of their sockets. His eyes were bulging and his throat were making horrible gargling sounds, like he was strangling except that there was no obvious cause.

The soldier was caught off-guard, and gave a shout as he was knocked down by the prisoner’s tackle. They both dragged me down with them as they struggled on the ground, trying to reach for the army knife tucked into the soldier’s belt.

BLAM!

A shot rang out, startlingly close, and the prisoner’s head was blown to smithereens. Bits of his face and other unnameable objects flew in all directions, splattering me all over with blood and gunk. I turned around and saw her for the first time.

A brown-haired woman, pale as a ghost and with an eyepatch covering her left eye, dressed in tan military fatigues and a brown cloak. She lowered the huge pistol she was carrying and holstered it before striding over to where the fallen guard still lay on the ground in bemusement. Everyone seemed to be in shock, because the world seemed unnaturally silent to me.

It’s amazing how some people can leave such a strong first impression on you. I would never forget my first sight of General Danova, or the feeling I got at the moment – a heady mix of fear, terror and sheer awe. She looked like one of the ancient gods of humankind, come down to earth to smite anyone who stood in her path. I was torn between an impulse to run away screaming or lie down flat in hopes she wouldn’t notice me. In the end, I did nothing.

She strode up to where the twitching body of the prisoner lay on the ground and drew her army knife. With a grunt, she severed the arm and leg which were still chained to the rest of us, and then handed the limbs to the soldier, who was just shakily starting to get to his feet.

“Private, you will carry these limbs in line with the rest of the prisoners until they are released from their chains,” she said, in a clear and commanding voice. “Perhaps this will help you remember not to show unnecessary abuse to people who will soon become your fellow soldiers,” she added softly, before turning around to face us and raising her voice again. “As for the rest of you, let this be a warning. The armed forces of the Kollective will not tolerate cowardice or rebellion. If any of you breaks under fire like this man did, he will be shot like the mad dog he is.”

“Now move.”

She didn’t even have to raise her voice for that last line. We all quietly shuffled along into the processing office without a word of protest. The private marched stiffly in front of me, back straight and face forward as he carried the arm and leg that was chained. She watched us go, arms folded and her mouth set in a grim line. Beyond her, the other soldiers manning the fortifications also watched silently, mercilessly.

I shivered again, but not due to the cold north wind. I was truly in the army now.

To be continued…

Anime/Manga: The new anime season is starting from this week. A bunch of interesting shows that I’m thinking about watching…  Cross Game (the latest story by my favourite mangaka, Adachi Mitsuru), K-on (another KyoAni product, in a similar vein to Lucky Star), Tears to Tiara (fantasy adventure), and Winter Sonata (yes, the classic Korean drama is being turned into an anime. Goodness knows what it’s going to be like). I’ll probably post more in-depth thoughts on these another day.

Books: I’m kind of oscillating between a couple of books at the moment – David Drake’s When the Tide Rises (the 6th book in the RCN series that I’ve been buying regularly from Webscriptions), and Rhys Bowen’s series of Constable Evans Mysteries, which are a bunch of mystery novels set in rural Wales around the early 1990s. Kinda light reading.

Christianity: The search for a Senior Pastor for our church (since the last one left to become a missonary a year ago) has finally borne some results – a Rev. George Butron was unanimously recommended by the committee to be the top candidate for Senior Pastor. He’s scheduled to preach for 3 Sundays before a vote will be taken by the congregation whether to accept him or not. So far, he seems like a nice guy and an engaging speaker, based on his sermon today. Lots of anecdotes and managed to share his own testimony while putting out an altar call. As a speaker and preacher, I think he might be okay, though there were a few careless errors here and there with regards to Scripture referencing. I haven’t had a chance to see how well he operates as a teacher or pastor yet, but there’s still two more Sundays (and Easter) to go.

Games: Playing Baldur’s Gate a lot this week. Actually, I’ve been playing a lot of games this week – Hourglass of Summer (the other visual novel that I went to great effort to get), Baldur’s Gate, and dabbling in a bunch of other games. But mostly Baldur’s Gate. I had bought the entire set (Baldur’s Gate, BG II, and both expansions) some time ago for a really bargain price, but never got around to playing them seriously until now. Now I’m planning to finish them before I lose interest again.

K-Pop: Nothing much. Watching a little bit of everything – following SNSD in variety shows, a little bit of Family Outing, a little bit of We Got Married, and a little bit of Coffee Prince.

Shows: Have decided not to go for Cats. Must save money. However, my cell and I are planning to watch a movie this Good Friday holiday. Finally, I can use that free movie ticket that I’ve been hoarding up for  nearly a year now. It expires this month, so I’d better use it fast. There’s supposedly a new Jackie Chan movie coming out…

I think I’ve realised something about myself, though. I’m easily addicted to problem-solving. As long as I am reasonably familiar with the parameters of the problem, I can spend endless hours trying a bunch of ways to get the job done. This explains why I can get sucked in so easily into things like programming, philosophy, and gaming (especially the latter). After all, a game is usually nothing more than a bunch of problems dressed up in an attractive package. And game design is even better – it involves solving problems about how to construct interesting problems for other people to solve.

The last two weeks at work have been a classic example of this, and surprisingly quite fun. My students are making their computer game prototypes now, and calling on me for help whenever they get stuck. Sometimes I can’t help them, but most of the time I can at least suggest some avenues of approach to the problem. And sometimes I can solve it outright, then and there. I guess all that experience working with programmers on several games does pay off, even though I still don’t do much programming. I can think like a programmer, which is half the battle in itself. But how do I teach Arts students who have a phobia regarding programming that it’s not really about math as much as it is about logic (which is also used in law and philosophy), and sheer perseverance through trial-and-error? I’ve come to realise that craft of teaching involves the destruction of mental blocks and attitudes that hamper the students as much as it is about forming good habits of thought and imparting skills.

In any case, it looks like I’ve acquired a new past-time… trying to make simple games in Blender by myself, just for the sheer fun of it. It’s also useful to prove to my students that it IS possible in the time frame given (if I can create a game by myself in 6 weeks, surely they can create a similar game with 5 people in the same amount of time…). And it’s always nice to practise a rusty skill. I’m kinda sick and tired of people assuming that I don’t know how to program and looking down on me for that, when actually it’s just that I don’t mention my programming skills because I know they’re not up to par with other first-class programmers I know, and I prefer to specialise in design and writing anyway.