It has been a busy and interesting autumn. What is new is that work with the IPERG project (http://www.pervasive-gaming.org/) since October, in the work package Massively Multiplayer Reaching out. It’s good on many levels: the people involved and nature of work. It’s great to get a chance to actually work hands on together with people whom I’ve met at conferences and whose papers I really appreciate. Among them is Petri Lankoski from Tampere uni and Elina Koivisto from Nokia. And it’s wonderful to get to work in a context where we will actually have resources to produce something. Ok it’s a prototype, but still. What I have really missed since I left the industry and the applied research approach we had in the game research studio is the feeling of accomplishment when a module actually functions, and one can see people interact with the product of one’s own handcraft. I have been asked to take on the role of leading the design, which on one hand feels really fun and on the other hand i’m scared to get so deep into that that I “forget” to do PhD-student-stuff. Well – in the big scope of things this is really a luxury problem. Speaking about luxury: at the big kick-off we were in this castle at Fraunhofer. A lot of gold and a bit stair of the type that I dreamed about as little girl: to elegantly descend from it in a marvellous dress… If I ever go there again I’ll bring a dress. We had another meeting here in Visby two weeks ago, but only for our work package. They were lucky to arrive and leave just before the big snow storm.
A horrible detail in my life has been a loss of broadband at home. A new one will be installed in a few weeks but meanwhile I’m going nuts. Since I haven’t developed a social life in Visby (except an online one) it feels really empty. Luckily I have had a lot of errands to Stockholm this month, and in a few days i'm off to the Other Players Conference anyway. Among things in stockholm is the phd seminar on communities and virtual worlds given by Daniel Pargman at NADA,KTH, and the fact that Daydream has their office in stockholm (they also work with the IPERG proj) ...The game I miss the most is Final Fantasy Online since all the AC2 friends are there. And I have EQ2 still pathetically wrapped in its plastic. (I will be at two servers as I have planned this far: Unrest and RunnyEye)
