Beyond Creativity

Darkest Hour - a historical trip to Normandy

An brilliant mod is out:

'Darkest Hour - Normandy 1944'.

http://www.darkesthourgame.com/

Actually, it is a mod for Red Orchestra (http://www.redorchestragame.com), which I earlier reviewed with hilarious paintball add-ons ;-)

Historically Darkest Hour is amazingly accurate. The mod team must have inspected thorougly the actual Overlord-plan and historical battles.  The maps of Darkest Hour are architecturally advanced and challenging. Similarly, real team play is needed to achieve goals in this game.

A funny detail: When I was at school, I received many history awards. Actually, I was planning to become a history teacher. But what happened ?!

Now I can at least be immersed in history, occasionally ;-)

When all this playful Darkest Hour activity takes place in a virtual battlefield, it is also quite peaceful and environmentally-friendly (at least I hope so).  Was that a weak or strong argument for gaming ?

Virtual Worlds - Where is the Business Beef?

Virtual worlds like Second Life provide some interesting features for prototyping new concepts. The following articles decribe some of these advantages:

- Virtual worlds get another life

- Scripting in the SL sandbox

On the 9th of June 2008 in Galway in Ireland we will have a workshop called "Going Virtual: Are There Real Opportunities for Business in Virtual Worlds?"

With Robin Teigland, Brian Donnellan, Brian O'Donovan and Steve Mahaley.

We will touch following topics:

1. How are business organizations using virtual worlds to create value?

2. What are the benefits of private vs public virtual worlds in these efforts to create value?

3. What are the best practices for implementing these virtual world efforts?

4. How are organizations attracting avatars in world?

Steve will be in the USA, while Robin, Brian D., Brian O. and I will be in Ireland.

Let's see how immersed we will get and how well we will 'fly'! (Since I love flight simulators, flying in the SL gives me kicks)

In the meanwhile ... Do you have a good Second Life collaboration or business practise to share?

The Nerd Test

You must have noticed my interest in quizzes?!

Maybe I will never learn to understand myself, therefore I like to take these tests ;-)
The following test "revealed" that I am social nerd. Am I?

Please, try the Nerd-quiz:

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Social Nerd   You're interested in things such as politics, psychology, child care, and peace. I wouldn't go so far as to call you a hippie, but some of you may be tree-huggers. You're the type of people who are interested in bettering the world. You're possible the least nerdy of them all; unless you participate in other activies that paled your nerdiness compared to your involvement in social activities. Whatever the case, we could still use more of you around.  ^_^
Musician
Drama Nerd
Literature Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Breaking Boundaries - Participating a Pilates Class

When you learn to laugh at yourself, there is no limit in entertainment :-)

A year ago I got interested in Pilates. It all started when I received an Inch-Loss Pilates DVD as a Little-Christmas present. I adore you, Lucy Knight :-) Ever since I have been a living room practitioner (only). Pilates seems to be advantageous for my breathing and body.

In April 2007  I had a research trip to Berkeley. There were too many meetings and too much sitting in the Innovation in Services -conference. So, I made a brave move and participated a  r-e-a-l Pilates class in the fabulous Claremont Resort hotel. There I was, the only man in a company of 8 amazingly talented women. Uhh, how gawky and uncordinated I was compared to them!  Somehow I felt like Wally in the Dilbert cartoon, but the reality was so different ;-) I am not so sure if I will participate public Pilates classes in the future *:o)

Red Orchestra - a Great Game or Just a Toy?

In my country, the Independence Day means remembering the wars we fought 60 years ago... Additionally, 80 % of Finnish men have served in the military, voluntarily. 

No wonder, we are so keen on playing military simulators of the 2nd world war era. One good example is Red Orchestra:

What makes this game so special? It has a fast Unreal-engine behind it, gameplay is well designed and it is realistic. I find it addictive and I sometimes play it with my friends. However, the game includes brutal scenes  and therefore I recommend to adults, only. Earlier I took a look at another military simulator, a mod called Finnish Defence Forces - Operation Flashpoint.

Still, isn't it a bit dumb to play games like that? In comparison, you should check the following paintball video from American woods. (Thanks again, Ari (Heinola) for this excellent tip).

BTW, What is the difference between boys and men?    

Bigger and more expensive toys ;-)

Creative Gaming - Human Tetris

In pervasive games  gaming activity continues from the video screen to physical surroundings. My colleagues doing games research have lately investigated also casual games and their future perspective. One of the first casual game in the world was ... Tetris !

I have often dreamed about playing my favourite games in real life settings.

Japanese are inventive people and their TV shows are really funny. I welcome you to watch the following video called 'Human Tetris'.

I am sure Alexey Pajitnov (Алексей Леонидович Пажитнов) would be proud of this :-) The Japanese TV variant is closer to Welltris than Tetris ;-)

P.S. Thanks Ari (Heinola) for this idea.

The 5+ Questions You've Been Avoiding

Remember when I blogged about the animation movie "Eight Irrisistible Principles of Fun"? Now there is a sequel.

This Flash-movie is called "The Five Questions You've Been Avoiding". Once again, it is thought provoking, visual and funny at the same time.  The idea is to make you think about those innovative opportunities you don't normally recognise. (A detail: I did not digg the muzaki (music) in the animation but you can always turn it off ;-)

In overall, I like this operation model and business model of Gus Stanier & Michael Bungay Stanier & Co.  Their team shows expertise by providing excellent stuff for free. I therefore encourage you to use their commission-based consultation services as well.

Which Hero Are You? Escapism and Creativity

Playfulness and tolerance for ambiguity are often seen as elements of creativity.

Let's play :-) Please, take this funny test: 

Which Superhero Are You?

Do you want to analyse your results? I collected some explanations in here . You may believe in them or not ;-)

BTW, my hero (test result) was Green Lantern:

""Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination."

Tests are sometimes great entertainment and escapism at the same time. 

Does this hero test just confirm my twisted self-image? Or does it really describe me?

Please, let me know about your test results and what do you think about this test. 

Snow Flakes - Dreaming of a White Christmas

Snow, the Scarce Resource.

While Europe (even the Alps and Nordic countries) is lacking snow in December 2006, there is plenty of time to dream about snow and skiing adventures. Children and adults alike are eagerly waiting  for snow (and Santa Claus = Joulupukki = Julbock) to appear. I am personally suffering from this lack of snow and therefore I am planning to take a splash  by practising outdoor winter swimming and visit Lapland early next year with my family.   

As an Official Christmas Task I welcome you all to create snowflakes with this web tool ! Mindless work at best! BTW, did you know that the form of snowflakes is like a fractal and it is based on a mathematical formula!

My Christmas Reading Recommendation shall be "Enhancing Creativity Through “Mindless” Work: A Framework of Workday Design" by Kimberly Elsbach and Andrew Hargadon.

Highlights: "To enhance creativity among chronically overworked professionals, workdays should be designed to alternate between bouts of cognitively challenging and high-pressure work (as suggested in the original model by Hackman et al. 1975), and bouts of mindless work." . I hope that this article will make you and I  to change our working habits ;-)

Thank you for reading this blog. Many e-mails and phone calls have made me happy. It seems to me that this Typepad-In-Blog-Commenting-System is not perfect, it is just great there are other channels as well.

I wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

Mikko

Mods and dedication: OPF FDF -MOD

Nowadays online games provide entertaintainment and challenge beyond television. Many of us are hooked up with games like World of Warcraft or Sims or Poker.

Lately I have been admiring the WW2 Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) Mod and especially the high quality of work this mod team have accomplished. The talented FDF crew has modelled terrain, various Nordic trees, winter&summer landscapes, vehicles, weapons and uniforms. They have even digitised music and sounds from the 1940's. These guys have managed to create an atmosphere and interactivity that attracts gamers, sociologists and historians alike. Word 'culture' has now a new meaning to me! This FDF mod(ification) is based on Operation Flashpoint (OPF) engine, but it is a game of it's own.

What motivates modders to spent thousands of hours building a mod? My colleagues who do games research and open source communities research may be better in answering this. Olli Sotamaa interviewed various mod teams and wrote a paper about his experiences. Olli found reasons like creating a work portfolio and showing off your talents to game houses. Still, altruistic reasons like creating something novel and common good came up. The development community spirit and the support of larger gamer (fan) community plays significant role.

Carl Rogers saw already in 1954 that creativity was motivated by people's self-actualising tendencies, the drive to fullfill their potential. Teresa Amabile sees that 3 crucial components are involved in the production of creative work: intrinsic task motivation, domain-relevant skills and creativity-relevant processes. Mod-makers need to that a lot of (technical) expertise, but also skills to communicate and solve problems creatively and co-operatively.  I would find it interesting to apply Amabile & Co's Work Preference Inventory (WPI) to game and mod developers. This personality inventory taps the major components of intrinsic motivation (self-determination, competence, task involvement, curiosity, enjoyment and interest) and extrinsic motivation (concerns with competence, evaluation, recognition, money or other tangible incentives, and constraint by others).  Has somebody done this kind of research already? I am just curious :-)