A word from the editor

Abstract

Welcome to ACM Computers in Entertainment , a premier online magazine featuring video interviews with leading professionals and interesting articles on entertainment technology and its applications. In this April/June 2008 issue of ACM CIE, we feature the Video Interviews of Gabrielle Weinman at Team One (November 8, 2007) and David Harris at MTV New Media (November 8, 2007): • Gabrielle Weinman is the Creative Director of Interactive & Relationship Marketing for Team One in Los Angeles. She oversees all aspects of the creative work in both departments, integrating it with traditional advertising. Her biggest client is Lexus automobiles, and other clients have included Ritz Carlton Hotels, Flexjet, MTV, Air New Zealand, Infonet and Heal the Bay. Since technology constantly evolves and changes, her background in design, branding and traditional advertising gives her a distinct advantage. After working at Keith Bright & Associates and Hill Holiday, Gabrielle started as a Senior Art Director at Team One in 1992. In 1995, she agreed to spearhead the development of an interactive group at the strong protest of her headhunter who said she would never work in advertising again. Twelve years later, Gabrielle currently manages a staff of over 25 employees and a department that has won numerous awards including Cannes Cyber Lions, Clios and One Show pencils. In the video interview, you will hear Gabrielle's answers to the following questions: 1. What is the project that you are working on at the AFI Digital Content Lab? 2. What is the greatest innovation that you have brought to the project? 3. What is your experience working with the AFI Digital Content Lab? 4. What suggestions do you have that would make the Digital Content Lab more innovative, useful, and rewarding? 5. What do you think about the future of new media? 6. What are the major challenges in Interactive TV? 7. What are some of the Interactive TV projects that you are working on? 8. Do you find it difficult to design good user interface for Interactive TV? 9. How do you see the future of Interactive TV? 10. If you can do whatever you want, what would you do? • David Harris was born in Puerto Rico, raised in Texas, and received his undergraduate degree in Film, Animation, and Video from the Rhode Island School of Design. He worked as the creative director for Love Advertising, producer for ADV Films, Inc. (one of America's leading animé companies), and lived in Paris for a year in between. In 2003, he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue his MFA from UCLA in Film, TV and Digital Media. His thesis project, HOWDOISAYTHIS.COM, was sponsored by mtvU and Cisco and won the 2007 SXSW Web Award for Best Student Site. Since launching HOWDOISAYTHIS.COM, Harris worked in the development think tank at Fox Television Studios before taking his current position at MTV New Media, where he is working on the Players project, Jackass World, and a number of interactive projects that are as exciting as they are secret. In the video interview, you will hear David's answers to the following questions: 1. You call yourself the "MacGyver" at MTV New Media. Could you elaborate on your role at MTV? 2. How does MTV New Media compete with MySpace and YouTube in reaching the MTV audience on the Internet? 3. What is your experience in working with the AFI Digital Content Lab? 4. What suggestions do you have that would make the Digital Content Lab more innovative, useful, and rewarding? 5. What is the innovation of the "Players" project that you are working on at the Digital Content Lab? 6. If you can do anything you want at MTV, what will you do? In the Games section, we present: 1. Using Prototypes in Early Pervasive Game Development (by Elina M.I. Ollila, Riku Suomela, and Jussi Holopainen) 2. People, Places, and Play: A research framework for digital game experience in a sociospatial context (by Yvonne A. W. De Kort and Wijnand A. Ijsselsteijn) 3. An Architecture to Easily Produce Adventure and Movie Games for the Mobile Scenario (by Marco Furini) 4. Toward an Understanding of Flow in Video Games (by Ben Cowley, Darryl Charles, Michaela Black, and Ray Hickey) 5. NEAT-o-Games: Blending Physical Activity and Fun in the Daily Routine (by Yuichi Fujiki, Konstantinos Kazakos, Colin Puri, Pradeep Buddharaju, And Ioannis Pavlidis) 6. CHARACTER PLAY - The use of game characters in multi-player Role Playing Games across platforms (by Anders Tychsen, Michael Hitchens, and Thea Brolund) In the Entertainment Technology section, we present: 1. The evaluation of ARCO: a lesson in curatorial competence and intuition with new technology (by Styliani Sylaiou) 2. A Goal Oriented Development Tool to Automate the Incorporation of Intelligent Agents into Interactive Digital Media Applications (by Han Yu, Zhiqi Shen, and Chunyan Miao) 3. Feature Guided Texture Synthesis (FGTS) for Artistic Style Transfer (by Xuexiang Xie, Feng Tiany, and Hock Soon Seah) 4. E = Mc2 + 1: A Fully Digital, Collaborative, High-Definition (Hd) Production From Scene To Screen (by Artur Lugmayr, Hornsby Adrian, Piotr Golebiowski, Satu Jumisko-Pyykko, Fernando Ubis, Simon Reymann, Volker Bruns, Asta Kybartaite, Jarkko Kauranen, and Dirk Matthes) The Analysis: New Media and New Technology section, we present: 1. The BBC and its Web 2.0 Partners (by Ben Sutherland) The Announcements column highlights some of the upcoming events and conferences. Please visit http://www.acm.org/pubs/cie/conferences.html for a complete listing of upcoming and past conferences co-sponsored by ACM Computers in Entertainment.