I recently read a blog post about intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. I’ve come across and heard a lot of talk following a similar thought pattern to this blog post, the common theme being that extrinsic rewards can be counter productive with a suggestion that we could learn from video games intrinsic reward system.

But increasingly video games have both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. How many hours did you spend trying to get the gnome to the end of left 4 dead 2 so you could wear your virtual Depeche Mode tshirt on xbox live. How many of us put our gamerscore or trophies on our forum post? Games are getting increasingly tied into the social networks that surround content delivery systems and as a result many video game rewards are not impacting on the game itself but give a little something extra to show off in these networks.

I can’t say I’m the world biggest fan of Achievements/PSN trophy system/Steam achievements etc but this blog post by Vince Curley at Microsoft is a fantastic behind the scenes look at Achievements work and the thought process behind them

Some pretty cool homeostatic demos.

Paul Pangaro has done a nice diagram on how artificial Intelligence contrasts with cybernetics which I am still getting my head around..

(c) Paul Pangaro 1990

If you are a ArchiMate newcomer interested or interested in just playing around with it you might be interested to know CETIS has developed a free ArchiMate modeling tool. Really worth checking out:

http://archi.cetis.ac.uk

Increasingly television has become a social experience and my frustrations with the Wii implementation of the BBC iplayer has left me thinking that companies will be forced to allow such an experience or lose out.

Today we can get easily get our fix through devices other then our standard television sets. Devices such as phones, computers, websites and consoles all compete for a slice of the viewing figures and more importantly the cash that comes with it. So how do these devices get and keep our attention and why won’t we just stick with our standard sets?

It seems companies such as Microsoft and Sony who have their consoles sitting under our sets think that they can get a slice of the action by delivering content through their console and in turn through their social networking software.

Microsoft know that Sky is a much more fun experience when friends who lives 1000s of miles away can decide to watch the football with you over xbox live, chatting away and then replaying the match on Fifa 10 afterwards. Similarly Sony offer you the chance to watch iPlayer or use your console as a DVR (via playTV ) while plugged into their PSN network. Sony even hope you might pull out your PSP in the pub to watch last nights neighbours you’ve recorded (which it is pulling from your PS3 at home via the pubs wifi).

Console manufacturers aren’t the only ones who know that a social experience is vital to keep viewers tuned in. The popular video site Youtube not only allows users to create profiles, leave comments and discuss content but also allows users to upload their own content Doesn’t it make your regular television set look rather outdated?

So the water cooler is dead. Watching is only half the experience. We shouldn’t have to wait until tomorrow to share.

Version 0.5 of the youtube randomizer was done tonight… yes ok so it doesn’t do much yet. But we have plans!

Check it out here

December 11th saw Sony finally open the doors to its ps3 online world Playstation Home and for those who have been living under a rock, Home is Sony’s 3D eagerly anticipated virtual world meeting hub or as Sony like to call it ‘Game 3.0′. Being in development almost 4 years now home brings high expectations, I spent 20 minutes in home this weekend with a friend and despite the reaction of popular web comic penny arcade I quite enjoyed it.

Anyone who has turned their PS3 on this weekend will have been presented with an extra icon under the Network tab on the XMB which will whisk you far away to Sony’s Virtual Land. Straight away you are presented with an avatar creation screen and having already created avatars on 360 and Wii this was a step that initially I really couldn’t be bothered with. It was nice to find however that avatar creation is not only prettier then the Wii and 360 counterparts, but also faster and easier (with none of that awful music that accompanies the Wii creation), although you can’t help but notice there a lack of clothes with more costing 59p a piece!

After character creation you are taken to your virtual apartment which is pretty but very bare and of course furniture or a bigger house will cost more of your real world cash. I didn’t spend long in the apartment but it seems you can invite your PSN friends there for a chinwag or to enjoy the virtual view from you virtual balcony.

There isn’t much to do in Home at the moment; as far as I can tell in Europe we are currently stuck with just 4 rooms although what is missed in quantity is made up for in quality. The rooms consist of a cinema, bowling alley, shopping arcade and a central meeting place all of which are are pretty, fun, colourful, vibrant and engaging. The best of the bunch is definitely the bowling alley which lets you and 3 mates play a short but fun game of bowling. Aside from bowling there are also snooker tables, arcade cabinets and chess games to get stuck into.

Home really encourages the user to explore so its a shame there isn’t much there, but then this is only a beta so there is plenty of time to release some engaging rooms. If the current rooms are any indication of what is to come then the signs are good.

Being the cheapskate I am I really hope that more freebies are released or clothes and furniture are given away as prizes in games. Lets face it, Xbox achievements are rubbish and Sony have a real chance to give away something a bit better then gamerpoints, how about a virtual t-shirt with my best Wipeout HD lap time on it, or the head of a big boss I kill in resistance 2 to put on my virtual apartments mantle piece.

So far so good. Although I recommend that you go out and buy yourself a wireless keyboard, ones with a usb are quite cheap now and it easily beats writing with the ps3 pad. Some users prefer use a blue tooth headset to communicate which again can be quite cheap now.

Great Stuff :)

• Rooms are greatAvatar creation rules
• Looks awesome
• Bowling is fun

Not So Great

• Pay for pretty much everything
• Current lack of content

I love TED talks; this is a great one from Dave Perry;

A very clever chap called Alex Popovich has got the PS3EYE working on pc. Info on doing so is on his blog here. I may pop up a screencast going throught the installation when I get a chance. If it works well for you then there is a paypal donate whatsit on his site; if you fancy giving a quid or two to support the project…