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Doom as an interface for process management

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Published:01 March 2001Publication History

ABSTRACT

This paper explores a novel interface to a system administration task. Instead of creating an interface de novo for the task, the author modified a popular computer game, Doom, to perform useful work. The game was chosen for its appeal to the target audience of system administrators. The implementation described is not a mature application, but it illustrates important points about user interfaces and our relationship with computers. The applications relies on a computer game vernacular rather than the simulations of physical reality found in typical navigable virtual environments. Using a computer game vocabulary may broaden an application's audience by providing sn intuitive environment for children and non-technical users. In addition, the application highlights the adversarial relationships that exist in a computer and suggests a new resource allocation scheme.

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                    cover image ACM Conferences
                    CHI '01: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
                    March 2001
                    559 pages
                    ISBN:1581133278
                    DOI:10.1145/365024

                    Copyright © 2001 ACM

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                    • Published: 1 March 2001

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                    CHI '01 Paper Acceptance Rate69of352submissions,20%Overall Acceptance Rate6,199of26,314submissions,24%

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