Author Archives: geoffreylong

Geoffrey Long is a media analyst, scholar, and storyteller exploring transmedia experiences, emerging entertainment platforms and the future of entertainment as the Lead Narrative Producer for the Narrative Design Team at Microsoft Studios. He is an alum of the MIT Comparative Media Studies program, a FoE Fellow with the Futures of Entertainment community, and a co-editor of the Playful Thinking book series from the MIT Press. His personal site can be found at geoffreylong.com.

Barry Kudrowitz, Boy Genius.

Remember my friend Barry, the guy with the Toy Design Workshop I’ve been yammering about here? Yeah. He’s a freakin’ genius. He’s also the player in the wide-collar suit about halfway through that video. (Warning: big movie!) Any of you cats who wonder what life is like at MIT, it’s just like this.

Links list: 05-23-2007.

The origin of Spacewar. A little context for yesterday’s post. The Golden Compass trailer on Yahoo! Now that’s a Care Bear. Refurb TV: $249. Tempting, awfully tempting. Q&A with Bone colorist Steve Hamaker. Beautiful work… …and a beautiful office. I covet that huge scanner. The studio of Craig Thompson. Old-school. Hey, we have the same […]

You know you’re an MIT designer when…

…You spend all evening recreating Spacewar! in Adobe Illustrator. My reasons for doing so will be revealed as soon as the paperwork is actually done.

We all have our d(a)emons.

Links list: 05-15-2007.

Apple seizes 9.9% of US laptop sales. 1 in 10 laptops is a Mac. Apple wrestles with 3rd-party iPhone apps. Web apps the “secret door”? The Golden Compass screens. This looks goregous. Sci-Fi Wire: Abe Sapien swims into love. Wonder if this will include the BPRD history? Datlow and Windling’s The Cinderella Game. Wow, check […]

Links list: academics edition.

There have been a number of interesting academic programs and resources flitting across my desk in recent weeks, so I thought I’d compile some of them here. Henry on GAMBIT. More information on my possible next gig. Transmodiology.org. Another academic blog from Christy Dena. DIGRA Games and Film SIG. The Oxford Internet Institute (OII). 3-year […]

Links list: 05-10-07.

nonobject Design Fiction. Lukic’s a genius. Gehry’s IAC building. Also, look up the article in the new Vanity Fair. Jim Crace’s Useless America. This has the makings of legend. Grant Morrison on 52. “Marvel’s Civil War [was] played out as a blockbuster movie… 52 was more like a couple of long seasons of a TV […]

The termination of interminability.

My friend Peter actually came up with that title, but it so perfectly sums up my current state of affairs that I had to swipe it. Thanks, Peter. At 9:31 AM this morning I received the email from my THESIS advisor. The document has been accepted. I am now officially graduating. WOO-HOO!

On interactive narratives, part I.

I’m sure that this is going to be just the first part of a long-runnng series of ruminations on the art of interactive narrative, hence the tacked on ‘part I’ above. Still, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, now more than ever. In recent years, there’s been a quite heated […]

Defending Goliath.

There’s a brilliant essay by Mahohla Dargis in today’s New York Times called Defending Goliath: Hollywood and the Art of the Blockbuster. It’s brilliantly written, includes dashes of insight (such as contamination anxiety being a core motivation behind many film purists’ snobberies) and has a poetic twist to it that feels reminiscent of a really […]