In Medias Resolution

"Your game practically changed my life... It was the most fun I had with him since he had been diagnosed... My father passed in the spring of 2012, only a few months after his diagnosis. Weeks after his death, I could finally return myself to playing video games. I tried to play Journey, and I could barely get past the title screen without breaking down into tears. In my dad's and in my own experience with Journey, it was about him, and his journey to the ultimate end, and I

I swear. One day, when I am a professor of my own lab, I will play this song, the Final Fantasy Main Theme (orchestral), for the graduation processional theme for the students who will be graduating from my lab with formally-recognized degrees in Game Studies. #personal #inspirational

これ、ただＣＭだけですが、見た後に非常に感動になった。皆にとって、夢を持つことすごく大事だと信じている。この前編の主人公の沢口花子さんの話はとても興味深くて、僕と同じく３４～３５歳ぐらいでもまだまだ人生、夢などで頑張っている人に非常に気に入っている。小学校で先生として勤めているのもすごく懐かしい。もちろん、最後に「つづく」て書いてあったので、次のエピソードを楽しみにしている。おすすめ。 #japanese #personal #inspirational

I needed this. From Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" (1940): "You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure." This sentiment, it is not at all where I am right now, today. But it is still true and I still want that for everyone. I needed this. #advocacy #gradschoollife #musings #personal #inspirational

In my lab every graduating season, there appears to be a custom of placing the graduating PhD candidate's thesis near the daily newspaper for everyone to check out. This season is no different. I browsed the PhD thesis placed there, felt the negligible heft of it in my hands. To think, this was a person's life for several years, their every working thought bent towards the production of this binding of pages. I continued to silently regard the thesis this way for some moments

And just like that, I just got the go ahead to attend GDC 2013. I didn't even ask. I was just chatting with the Associate Professor about my field and then BAM! "Yeah, let's fund it" became the casually-spoken, operative phrase. I am beside myself. #gdc #funding #bigboss #conference #fun #gradschoollife #industry #inspirational #masters #naist #trip

Talking at length with the Associate Professor of our lab last night became a great wellspring of awesome, crazy, yet equally legitimate ideas. One idea in particular came together through this discussion which, if I am able to pull off with any workable degree of finesse, will be simultaneously the most audacious and effective thing I have ever produced academically. Yes, I am dying to tell you about it, but I'd rather show everyone once it is finished. And in stating as muc

I nearly leapt out of my seat when I read this. Thankfully I can still control myself: "The actual concern of computer game philology lies in the development of a model of interaction between the player and the game. This approach is guided by the idea that literary theory is, at its core, a theory of interaction between the human mind and a meaningful array of signs, constituting a semiotic process in which the materiality of these signs is secondary." (Julian Kucklich, The

http://flickr.com/meaningfullyplay Meaningful Play 2012の参加者や発表者の写真でござる。われわれは最後らへんにある。 The Flickr account of the presenters and attendees at Meaningful Play 2012. I'm towards the end. Meaningful Play 2012、２日目終了。また、様々なプレゼンに見に行って、いっぱい勉強できたと考える。今日、もう一人の日本から来た発表者の東京大学の博士と一緒に晩ご飯し、たくさん興味深かかった相談・話があってよかった。やはり、日本にMeaningful Playのような研究会がほとんどなくて、必要である。なぜ、日本ではゲーム研究が行われてないのかな。 Meaningful Play 2012, Day #2 complete. Again, I was able to attend many interesting lectures and I think I learne

「宇宙戦艦ヤマト」isn't just some anime title. It is a phenomenon with a myriad of mantles. Transliterated, it is Uchuu Senkan Yamato. Roughly translated into English, it is Space Warship Yamato. Re-dubbed and retitled for broadcast in Hawaii in the early 1980's, it was Starblazers. It is the very reason why a 4-year-old me was even made aware of the existence of Japan. Pick any teenager off the street at random, and the chances are fairly high that their proverbial gateway drug to Ja