Clint Hocking's presentation materials - talk, slides, short mpeg - from his GDC09 lecture, "Fault Tolerance: From Intentionality to Improvisation". It's meaty and weighty and it's really, really, really good, and covers lots of bases and I'll need to read it again. Lots of dense stuff about the balances between Far Cry 2's gameplay systems, designing systems for improvisation, and rebalancing games to what they want to be. My mancrush is not abated, sadly.

Lovely demo - some interesting interfaces that feel quicker than current alternatives, as well as experimental ones that, whilst slower and clumsier, represent information a bit better. I mainly like the form-factor, though - but what's the unit cost? These things get a lot better the more you have.

"Current mass-market games present simulations of incredible fidelity. Many of these titles also push genre boundaries and offer new mechanics to players. The problem, argues Ubisoft’s Patrick Redding (FAR CRY 2), is that these two developments are disconnected. Game output appears information-rich, but how much of that information can the player actually use to play better, and how much of it is just there to be spectacular or cinematic?" I would pretty much kill to see this. Gah.

"Perhaps the problem is that we so deeply rely on reference points like film, which require stories progressing over time, when we could be referring to things like sculpture or painting, which require no timescale and people find just as moving." Some good thoughts from Jonathan Blow; I think his point about games' unique ability to challenge is an important one.

"The next generation on from them - e.g. Jonathan Smith, Doug Church and of course Greg Costikyan (from whose classic essay on developing such a critical language the title of this post is lifted) are always eloquent, passionate and insightful speakers and spokespeople for their medium. Unlike Molyneux." Not too annoyed I missed this, given Matt's comments.

"Like TED for Music" - tons of transcriptions and video interviews with all manner of performers. Looks superb.

"The thing about games and virtual story worlds ... is at least they give you feedback and points for doing things. That way we know instantly what our strengths and weaknesses are, and how we are doing. We don’t really get that in everyday life."

Dan Saffer's talk from Institute of Design’s 2007 Design Research conference is now available online. Entitled "How To Lie With Design Research", it's an entertaining look at the many ways you can do evil things with research. Made me chuckle quite a lo

"Developing a compelling presentations involves a series of decisions and exercises to align your head with the fact that you’re delivering your content directly to people. No internet. No weblog. Just you." Rands on presentations and speeches.

Aaron had two talks turned down; both, from their abstracts alone, sound fascinating; from his fuller explanations, they sound like they had the potential to be fantastic. Still reeling from some ideas. Disappointed there's not space for this in the world

Nice presentation reframing issues as design challenges, and questioning why designers aren't solving design problems.

Wonderful talk from Doug Crockford. Must download.

Joi Ito, Justin Hall, and Ben Cerveny in conversation at SXSW. It really kicks off when Ben arrives - some of his comments are dynamite.

This presentation is on how a new generation wants social, creative, networked products, and how design can help not by identifying tasks to be productively performed, but experiences to be deepened and made fun. S&W on fine, fine form.

I didn't get to see Jeremy talk, which I feel bad for; he clashed with Julian and Nicolas' blogjects session. Fortunately, his prose is online, and a most enjoyable read