Design inspiration from Culture

What is culture:
Noun
The ideas, customes, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

Differences in Cultures

• Customs
• Religious beliefs and mythology
• Music and performing arts
• Fashion
• Food
• Life-Style
• Language
• Gestures
• Architecture
• Laws
• Technology
• Philosophy

What are Cultural Events?

Chinese New Year, Thanks Giving, St Patrick's Day,  Christmas, St Whites Day, Valentine's Day, Davali, Tomato Fight, Day of the Dead, Halloween, Olympics, Oktoberfest, Bonfire Night, 4th July, Royal celebrations, Carnivale, Mardis Gras, Rememberance Day, Red Nose Day, Golden Week.

What is the Appeal to Discovering Different Cultures?

• Experience
• Expanding horizons
• Communication
• Diversification

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QBb6ZT8iNQ&feature=related

News reports on Fukushima

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZnZ3Q2W1lU&feature=relmfu

Top Scientist: Fukushima Meltdown Could Trigger Atomic Explosion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUP9dYgCnGg

Top Scientist: Fukushima Meltdown Could Trigger Atomic Explosion

Kurt Nimmo
http://www.llrc.org/index.html
http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.prisonplanet.tv/
http://www.infowars.net/
http://www.prisonplanet.com/

Professor Chris Busby on the Alex Jones Show, April 12, 2011.

A British professor and expert on the health effects of ionizing radiation told Alex Jones today evidence points toward a nuclear explosion occurring at the Fukushima Daiichi complex. Two explosions at the plant in March were described as hydrogen gas explosions by Japanese officials and the corporate media.

Citing data collected by two Russian scientists, Professor Chris Busby told Alex Jones and his audience the explosions at Fukushima were nuclear. The Russian scientists, Sergey A. Pakhomov and Yuri V. Dubasov of the VG Khlopin Radium Institute in Saint Petersburg, examined data related to the explosion at Chernobyl.

Japanese nuclear safety agency raises crisis level of Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7.

Using ratios of the radionuclides Xenon 133 and Xenon 133m which they measured by gamma spectrometer, the Russians demonstrated that the Chernobyl explosion was a fission criticality explosion and not principally a hydrogen explosion as has been claimed.

"I believe that the explosion of the No 3 reactor may have also involved criticality but this must await the release of data on measurements of the Xenon isotope ratios," he writes in a statement on Fukushima and Chernobyl emailed to Infowars.com.

Busby further notes that the surface contamination and of dose rates 60 kilometers out from the Fukushima site on March 17 exceeded that released at Chernobyl.

He explains in his statement that the damaged reactors at Fukushima "are now continuing to fission. It is hoped that there will be no separation of plutonium and possible nuclear explosion. I feel that this is unlikely now." Short of an actual plutonium explosion, the reactors remain open to the air and will continue to "fission and release radionuclides for years unless something drastic is done."

Dr. Busby noted a precedent for the dire scenario now unfolding -- a nuclear explosion at a plutonium production reprocessing plant in the former Soviet Union in 1957.

The incident at the Mayak facility was the second-worst nuclear accident in history after the Chernobyl disaster. The explosion released 50-100 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste and contaminated a huge territory in the eastern Urals. The Soviets kept the explosion secret for 30 years. According to a report on the accident, about 400,000 people in the region were irradiated following the explosion and other incidents at the plant.

Dr. Busby told Alex Jones that short of actual isotope readings, he cannot definitely state that the explosions at Fukushima were nuclear, although he believes they were. "We don't have evidence of that," he concluded, "we would need to have the Xenon isotope ratios."

ECRR - 2010 Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk

http://www.euradcom.org/2011/ecrr2010.pdf


"The European Committee on Radiation Risk is a spontaneous creation of Civil Society which was faced with clear and alarming evidence of the failure of its democratic institutions to protect it from the effects of radioactive pollution.
...

The ECRR's remit was and is:

1. To independently estimate, based on its own evaluation of all scientific sources, in as much detail as necessary, using the most appropriate scientific framework, all of the risks arising from exposure to radiation, taking a precautionary approach.
2. To develop its best scientific predictive model of detriment following exposure to radiation, presenting observations which appear to support or challenge this model, and highlighting areas of research which are needed to further complete the picture.
3. To develop an ethical analysis and philosophical framework to form the basis of its policy recommendations, related to the state of scientific knowledge, lived experience and the Precautionary Principle.
4. To present the risks and the detriment model, with the supporting analysis, in a manner to enable and assist transparent policy decisions to be made on radiation protection of the public and the wider environment.
   
   "

In 2004, Dr Okeanov of the Belarus cancer registry visited Switzerland and presented data on increased incidence rates which were in line with those predicted by ECRR2003. Also in 2004, a study of cancer in northern Sweden showed that there was a statistically significant 11% increase per 100kBq m^{-2 Caesium-137 contamination the 5 years following the Chernobyl fallout (Tondel}

^{et al 2004). This can be shown to demonstrate a 600-fold error in the ICRP model, and supports the evidence given in ECRR2003 that the weapons test fallout had a similar effect with a similar error factor. The data from Belarus and the findings in Sweden 2004 could therefore be seen as a confirmation of the new model.}

 

Low levels of Fukushima cesium found in West Coast tuna

http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/28/low-levels-of-fukushima-cesium-found-in-west-coast-tuna/

May 28th, 2012
"Last week, the plant's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, raised its estimate of the amount of radioactive material released from the plant in the first weeks of the crisis to 900,000 terabecquerels - about a fifth the size of the release from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. A terabecquerel is equal to one trillion becquerels.

The revised figure more than two and a half times what was estimated in April 2011, when Japan declared Fukushima Daiichi a top-level event on the international scale that ranks nuclear disasters."


"Cesium-137 has a radioactive half-life of about 30 years, and traces of the isotope still persist from above-ground nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and '60s. But cesium-134, which has a half-life of only two years, "is inarguably from Fukushima Daiichi," Stanford University marine ecologist Dan Madigan told CNN."

"Madigan said the concentrations were likely higher in smaller fish, but shrank as the bluefin grew during their migration and processed some of the cesium in their bodies. Japanese government figures estimate cesium levels in fish caught off its shores at between 61 and 168 bq/kg.
"This year's study will be much higher sample size across a greater range of fish, ages and sizes," Madigan said. And if any fish are found with dangerous levels of radioactive material in their tissue, "It would be our responsibility to report it right away," he said. "

Genetic Mutation

http://www.geneticmutation.net/harmful-genetic-mutation.html

"If a germ cell suffers a genetic mutation, its offspring will carry the genetic mutation further. The hereditary illnesses are the best example in this case. In some cases, the somatic cell of the organism may suffer a genetic mutation. This will be present in all the descendants of the cell that live in the organism. These will make the cell malignant and lead at a certain point to cancer. Sometimes, the DNA practically repairs the cell, as the cell has a certain number of pathways. Through these, the mistakes can be repaired by the enzymes. Unfortunately, in most of the cases, the genetic mutation is harmful."

Can mutations in DNA which were caused by levels of radiation from Chernobyl be happening now?

Debate: Does the world Need nuclear Energy?

Since the counterculture Sixties, Stewart Brand has been a critical thinker and innovator who helped lay the foundations of our internet worked world.

  For:
 

•   Constant 'base load' energy
•   Waste of it will fit in a coke can where
•  

Against:

Why are the Governments of the world communicating about, monitoring or acting on the radiation coming from the Fukushima area?

http://www.ted.com/conversations/5712/why_are_the_governments_of_the.html

THREADS - Nuclear War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg



"Threads was aired on 1984, one Sunday night at 9pm to an unsuspecting UK TV audience, it single handedly put the nation off the nuclear war effort and was then quietly removed from the archives until 2002. Threads redefines the word grim and is hard to imagine what sort of impact this would have had on its viewers given its from an era in TV when there was only 4 channels and a Mary Whitehouse mentality towards censorship."

Irwin Redlener on Surviving a nuclear attack

How do we survive another nuclear crisis?

Are we at risk of a nuclear attack?

Can we permanently eliminate the risk?

From 1945 the world became nuclear.

95% of weapons since 1985 were with the USA and USSR

"Decommissioning" warheads isn't permanent. You can "recommission" them again.

General attitudes from the beginning of the nuclear age are seeming very very naive.
Duck and Cover campaigns released - However, teaching children to duck under desks would only partially protect them from falling debris - not from radioactivity - the real danger.

"No possibility of medical response to or meaningful preparedness for all-out nuclear war." Physicians for social Responsibility, Circa 1979

Micheal Specter: The Danger of Science Denial

Despite all of our accomplishments, Billions of people go to bed hungry.

Unless we change, We're going away.

We've never needed science to progress more than now.

We don't have the same relationship to progress as we used to.

Ask questions, Demand proof. Accept the proof.

World Nuclear Association: Chernobyl Report

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/chernobyl/inf07.html

• The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. 
• The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere and downwind. 
• Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning. 
• UNSCEAR says that apart from increased thyroid cancers, "there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident." 
• Resettlement of areas from which people were relocated is ongoing.

Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus

The contents of the sarcophagus will remain radioactive for 100,000 years.

Levels of radiation inside are 'suicidal'.

Scientists investigating are driven by the fear of a second accident at Chernobyl. The fuel rods are climbable through..

In part, errors made by the team and a errors made within the design of the reactor.
Radiation and radioactive dust threatens anyone inside the reactor.
Some rooms, they're only allowed only to be in for 10 mins. In areas that are high in radiation, they have to move fast.

Scientists were wearing only cotton wool masks.

Mistakes happen all the time, equipment outside isn't ready.

After 20 mins of waiting, they're finally underway - only 5 mins left to take the reading!

Whilst dropping chemicals to absorb the radiation, many pilots died as a result of super-high radiation posioning.

They now know, despite their sacrifice, almost no neutron-absorbers were dropped in the right place - none got into the core.

Then on the 6th of may, the emissions stopped.
The reactor lies in the sarcophagus. The 2000 tonne lid had been blown off in the explosion and had landed on its side, into the mouth, the core was scattered. Desperate for info - complex expedition were sent in.

Basement rooms were looked into in block 4 in the knowledge the reactor may explode once again

"At that time there were no places in the Block which were not dangerous, not by normal human standards It was dangerous for everyone. We entered fields of 100, 200 and 250 roentgens per hour, so we had to rush back. This kind of situation could crop up quite unexpectedly.You're walking down a corridor and the levels are not too bad, 1 to 5 roentgens per hour. Then you turn the corner - and suddenly, it's 500 Roentgens! You have to turn and run for it. That was really dangerous." ~  Viktor Popov, Complex Expedition.

Authentic Experiences and Modern Games

Authenticity - Relationship to Experiences.

What is an experience?
-A single or series of events which invoke an emotional responce which is memorable.

-There is no such thing as a completely forgettable experience as even the most uninteresting experience will be remembered as boring.

Authentic Experiences
-True to itself - stripped down of all frivolity and artificial accompaniment.

Joseph Pine, 2004 -
"There is no such thing as an inauthentic experience. This is because the experience takes place inside of us, it is our reaction to the events that are staged in front of us. So if we are in any sense authentic human beings then every experience we have is authentic."

Experiences can be shared but no two humans experience things in the same way.


There is no such thing as a completely authentic experience either?
An 'authentic' safari trip? Up close and personal, sun down on head, jeep, authentic food...
Grass roots, sense of danger, back to nature.

But, is this really authentic? Depends on what you're trying to achieve!

Paradox!

Pine argues -
"As people who wish to serve our consumers, we have to render what the consumer perceives as authentic."

How do we render reality?

By their very nature, Computer games generate 'inauthentic experiences' with artificial characters, environments and boundaries.

As game designers, we're creating a fictional reality and immersing them.
However, we never claim that its a real world. Player accepts and indulges in the fantasy of it for the benefit of the experience.

A talk by Joseph Pine.




Commodities > Goods > Commodotisation > Customization > Service > Commodotisation

Time to go beyond all this.

Experience is now the predominant economic goods.

There is no such thing as inauthentic! No such thing as truly natural experience.

Authenticity is now the new consumer sensibility- now the basis of the consumer sensibility.

Economic Output - Business Imperative - Consumer sensibility
Commodities > Supply > Availability
Goods > Control > Costs
Services > Improve > Quality
Experiences > Render > Authenticity

Be true to yourself.

1- Don't say you're authentic, if you're not authentic.
2- Easier to be authentic if you're not saying it.
3- If you're saying authentic, then you better be authentic.

Importance of Experiences within Modern Games and Design.

Jesse Shell, 2008 -
"Games designers only care about what seems  to exist. The player and game are real, the experience is imaginary, but games designers are judged by the quality of the experience"

Game itself is NOT the experience.


Books and films are linear.
-No choice, given everything on a plate.
-Direct mapping between what the creator creates and the audience experiences.

Games give the audience much more control over pacing and series of events.
-When trying to create interactive music, can be a nightmare. Building and building... As audio designers, player's needs must be catered for, control must be given.

More planning is required in order to ensure the user is given sufficient direction to experience what we intent them to experience.

Player is more immersed, they have more control. They need to feel they've created the experience themselves, despite it being designed for them all along.

How do we measure experiences?

Introspection.
-Act of examining own thoughts and feelings whilst the experience was taking place. Allows us to measure experience.

We can only know our own experiences.

Reflection, Observation and Evaluation = Informed judgements about what is working and what isn't.
Then this can compare with the intended experience.

Introspection is Imperfect - you may think differently from another.

We do not design or develop games alone, different members of a team will have different experiences and opinions. Hard to resolve as there is no right or wrong opinion with personal experience.

Intended audience won't be the only ones to play the game. People will interpret and experience game in a way which is totally unaccounted for i.e. A traumatized refugee or ex-soldier playing a gory game based on armed conflict.

Because of this, mindfulness of this reality is imperative.

Give the player the freedom to do what they want in the game and blur the limitations but still direct them towards the experience.

"Personal opinions cannot be trusted" - poses its own problems.
You can't leave every decision to play-testing.
Sometimes, we have to pull rank. Sometimes, we have to run with an idea to explore it.

Play-testing can only occur occasionally where as design is happening on a daily basis.
Core vision and achievements are useful to keep the game on track.

Introspection can be counter intuitive.

Try consciously think about why you're enjoying it and you'll find you're enjoying it less - taking yourself away from the experience to analyses it.

Passive emotion monitoring - Map emotions to a controller. Allow a play-tester to input to the controller where emotions happened.

What creates experiences in games?

Game Mechanics - What are they?
Jesse Shell ,2008 -
" Game mechanics are a core of what a game truely is. They are the interactions and relationships that will remain when all of the aesthetics, technology and story are stripped away."

1 - Space. Player's boundaries, space in which the player interacts with the virtual world.
2 - Objects. Things that reside in the space. Manipulated. Scenery, characters, actors.
3 - Attribute. Various statistics or components that make up the objects in the game. Broken down to XYZ.
4 - States. Variables of attributes. E.g  The % of health of a character.




These all define what is possible in the game.

One of the jobs we have as designers is to make sure the mechanics work correctly. Otherwise, players can become frustrated.

You can have controls which are designed badly.
Or..
Controls which are designed to seem bad and limit the player to enhance experience.

Even the best plot line, graphics and high audio quality will be unable to compensate for flawed mechanics.

BUGS
Nemesis of designers.
-Vigilant playtesting
-Virtually impossible to have a bug free game.
-The best games are those which developers have ironed out all game-breaking bugs and most if not all aesthetic bugs as these will be most noticeable to the player.

What creates an experience in a game?
Favorite experiences  in games?
What emotions?
What components contributes?
Experienced it in real life?

Plot -  One of the most powerful tools we have as a designer
- Triumph
- Tragedy
- Romance
- Humor


Games with no plot - Goals.


Player driven plotlines - unlike liner experiences, games have the unique potential to allow the player to play an active roll in the plot. Your decisions effect endings.

Perhaps experience is freedom of choice?

Player feels responsible for how the plot develops.

Characters

Almost every plot contain characters.
These can be broken down into categories -
Major - central role
Minor - Interlink major characters.
Redshirts - serve as convenient disposable elements.

Aesthetics

Visual graphics and accompanying audio is the primary bridge between game and player.
Make up everything players can see... including GUI.

"wow"

Why is Reality Important?

Environments in games which are historically accurate or which closely resemble real-world places are more believable.

Games with more realistic visuals and audio are generally more immersive - thus more believable to the player thus, in turn invoke stronger emotional responses.

More realistic and believable - easier for the player to make an emotional connection.

Stronger emotional attachments = Profound experiences = more memorable.

How Authentic Experiences and Our Relationships With Reality Are Shaping Modern Games.

Games are looking for authentic experiences. They have become more demanding.

Club Penguin. (not so) Free to play.

Jesse Shell,(2010) Club Penguin takes advantage of the psycology behind it's intended audience.
Virtual currency can be used to enhance the game but only if they're a paid member.

MMOs
Large numbers of players. Virtual Economy.
Raw materials > Commodities > Combined to provide services.
All have staggered monetary values.

Time invested = worthwhile = justified subscription fee.

Facebook games!

Although we are looking away from technology when looking at future designs, it is important to see how it bridges the gap between reality and authentic experiences.

Peripherals - the bridge.
Physical hardware which allow the player to interact with the game.
 Guitar Hero?? Rock Band?? Silent Scope without sniper rifle?

Where are we heading?

Project Glass? Oculus Rift?
Are the Holodecks so unbelievable?

Children of Chernobyl

 The fallout of Chernobyl was 400 times greater than the Hiroshima bombing- despite the fact that the uranium escaped is only 3% of the fuel.

1 million people are directly effected, including women and children...

Since the accident, congenital heart defects and cancer in the region around the Chernobyl power plant have increased by 250%.

The radiation has caused massive tumors and limbs which don't function.

Infant mortality rates in Belarus is 300% higher than the rest of Europe.

7000 children were on a waiting list for cardiac surgery who will die without the surgery. Thanks to those at http://chernobyl.typepad.com/chernobyl_childrens_proje/ the list has been shortened to 2400.

Volunteers from America come to perform heart operations on some of the most critical cases.

'Chernobyl Heart' is the term applied to these heart conditions.

Today, it is illegal to live in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone as unsafe levels of radiation remain in the forms of Cesium-137, Strontium-90 and Plutonium-239.

Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,110 years.

http://www.chernobylheart.org.uk/
"The cardiorheumatology department at Gomel Children’s Hospital - the only dedicated children’s hospital in the entire Gomel region of south-eastern Belarus - diagnoses and treats kids afflicted by all manner of hereditary and congenital heart conditions, ranging from high blood pressure to holes in the heart. However, they can only diagnose and treat the weenies, not operate, so if any of the little mites need operations, they have to travel over 200 miles to Minsk, and then all the way back to Gomel for ongoing post-operative care."


Return to Chernobyl

Chernobyl released 90x the amount of radiaton from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined.
Fallout rained down on several million people.

Belarus 2003 -Vesnova.
There are many children suffering with Chernobyl Heart. Many parents are too poor to look after their children and leave them at Vesnova for care.





http://ccoc.net/index.php/the-chernobyl-disaster/effects-on-children-today

"Today, the threat remains. Caesium-137, a radioactive isotope that was released during the accident, has a half-life of 30 years and will actively trigger radioactivity in the region for decades to come. Fractures in the sarcophagus built around the reactor to confine the radioactivity have allowed the toxins to escape. Radiation lurks in the water, the soil and the food: fruits, vegetables, milk and meat in the region are contaminated and will remain hazardous for generations."

"Radiation attacks developing cells and damages tissue, organs and bones. It weakens immune systems, leaving children vulnerable to an onslaught of infections and disease. Thyroid cancer, heart disease, genetic defects and weak immune systems define childhood for the people living in the contaminated regions. The rate of pediatric cancer in Belarus is 200 times the world norm. These children were born many years — some even decades — after the explosion."

Gamification

The lesson today was all about GAMIFICATION.

Gamification is the use of game mechanics and design in a non-game capacity.

Gamifcation:

• Applies to none-game applications and processes in order to encourage people to adopt a style of behavior or to influence them. 
• Makes Technology more engaging.
• Encourages people to perform chores they would normally consider boring.

Includes: Air miles, Checking in on social networks, Coupon collection, Educational Games and Petrol Points as well as many others like Coffee Cards.

We were then presented a lecture by Jesse Shell upon the subject.

"Who in this room is going to lead us to get there?"~ Jesse Shell.

This sort of reward system, as Jesse describes, could be very real very soon. It could be abused in so many ways but also inspire in us a need to be greater.

Jane Mcgonigal also describes the benefits of Gamification in a different, very human light.

People need the 4 superpowers to function as a game in real life:

+ URGENT OPTIMISM
+ SOCIAL FABRICATION
+ BLISSFUL PRODUCTIVITY
+ EPIC MEANING

Without these, challenges become insurmountable and all efforts obsolete.

If 'Reality could be fixed', we may find gamers stepping up to roles and saving more than Princess Peach.