2008年10月14日火曜日

ETC-Global-JP Gets a Visit from Ira Fay, Game Designer, Electronic Arts


September 15, 2008... On Monday, September 15th, ETC-JP welcomed Ira Fay, a major supporter of the ETC and an alum, (class of 2004). Ira was on his way back from Shanghai where he was working with a team on the newest casual game for the Pogo Division of Electronic Arts where he works as a Game Designer.

Ira, on holiday for a few days in Japan, made it a priority to stop at ETC’s newest campus in Osaka, Japan. He came to meet and give a seminar lecture to the SHARP student team...imparting his wisdom gained from his experiences working at Electronic Arts. His focus was on casual games in general and more specifically as they pertain to his current position as Game Designer in the Pogo Division.

Present were Kunjel Chawda (via SKYPE from Seattle), Sean Kelly, Heejun Kim, Benjamin Taylor and faculty advisors, Dr. James Kuffner and Michelle Macau.

- Michelle Macau

2008年10月13日月曜日

Danjiri Matsuri


Masako Terahara, Heejun Kim, Benjamin Taylor, Sean Kelly, Michelle Macau

September 14, 2008... The ETC-JP team made its way to Kishiwada, a city south of Osaka and joined thousands of spectators from all over Japan who came to view the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri Festival.

Described as the “running of the bulls” except with portable shrines (danjiri), the 300 year-old festival began as a spiritual time to pray for an abundant harvest. The 34 shrines or floats, from individual neighborhood guilds, are hand carved by local carpenters, and weigh upwards of 4 tons. They are paraded through the town of Kishiwada for two full days in mid-September.



Not motorized in any way, each shrine is pulled by long ropes by 500 to 1000 citizens of Kishiwada. Men, women and children of all ages join in this celebration. Working both front and rear levers in unison, the danjiri teams literally skid their heavy floats around each street corner…done quickly to the beat of drums and shouts of the pulling team, corner turning is one of the most dramatic elements of the festival.

The excitement was made all too clear when in the late afternoon, one of the floats turned a corner and, right before us, several people stumbled. Quickly, the danjiri team working together pulled on the ropes and was able to slow down and control the heavy shrine. Meanwhile, those who stumbled were assisted by other team members and the tragedy was happily avoided.



The ETC'ers, escorted by Japanese language sensei, Masako Terahara, also had the opportunity to visit the Kishiwada castle and try on happi coats at a nearby second hand kimono shop.

- Michelle Macau

2008年10月6日月曜日

Nintendo museum Arashiyama

We took a trip on Sunday to Arashiyama to see the Nintendo history museum. It was great. Just to the right of the entrance they were selling DS systems and a game I haven't seen anywhere else. Just to the left of the entrance were lockers in which to check your shoes, bags, and expectations. The history of Nintendo, you must remember, is about 30 years of video games preceded by a long and rich era of traditional Japanese poetry playing cards.


That isn't to say the influence of modern Nintendo wasn't present. The first 20 minutes of the museum is an interactive room with a floor full of HDTVs. Specialized Nintendo DS units provide 2 interactive exercises- navigating a bird's-eye map of the area and locating specific cards from Nintendo's original game, as well as location-sensitive detail on each card on a wall display that spans the periiter of the room.

The next room has another pair of interactive experiences- a 2-screen immersive session of a simplified version of the actual card game, and round standing consoles with a series of minigames based around the cards and poets, in a peaceful virtual koi pond.

The second floor of the museum is a card showcase, with multiple decks from various eras and a giant tatami room containing a series of manequins representing poets featured on the cards from various eras in Japan's history.


The DS software for sale includes the 2-screen card game and a version of the map exercise. I bought a copy for myself if anyone wants to see it when I get back. Michelle could be convinced to buy a copy for the ETC if anyone expresses an interest. Unfortunately, it's only available in Japanese, and thanks to Nintendo's recent push to include more educational incentives in software, it includes a fair bit of kanji and requires a significant knowledge of classical Japanese poetry to play well.

Games

A couple weeks ago, I died and went to heaven. It turns out there are a lot of classic video games in heaven, which is more or less what I expected.A lot of classic games. No, really. A lot.

As in walls completely full of things that haven't been seen in the US in decades, if ever. All for quite reasonable prices.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, the details get kinda fuzzy around the time I found Star Ocean: Blue Sphere mint in shrink-wrap, but I woke up $90 poorer with an entirely too cute PC Engine, half a dozen games, and some nice pics. I hope to find my way back some time.