We didn't have a chance to talk about the reading from last week but I found the article from The Economist really interesting. Knowing that there's a video for EVERYTHING on YouTube, I went searching. I found a video of a tour of the facility on Second Life and in all honesty it freaked me the hell out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmD1woHfn1k OR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s33Y5nI5Wbc
Second, I really enjoyed the speaker who came in last Friday. He did pose some very good questions. I wanted to clarify that I do agree with a lot of things he was saying but I feel like there are rules that are created to keep a game from becoming real life. Those rules are in place so that a clear line is drawn between reality and the game. The more and more games are becoming like real life or including real life for that matter the more and more blurry that line between reality and game becomes. Using the Spaight article, though no one knew Karyn, her death devastated all of them. They knew her through the game and ONLY through the same but when the game involved real people and their real-life stories (She was Miss Norway, etc) when is the game being played and when are you living real life? When does the game BECOME your real life?
I feel like it's a very blurry line that may become non-existant with the growth in games like Aion and WoW. Friends from your cyber world become your real friends, and real friends begin to enter your cyber playground--though it may be different, does it actually change anything? Are they different friends because the way in which you connect is different?
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Games as Education
In a blog posted in Yahoo's Video Games section, it was revealed that the Royal Navy uses the PSP for training purposes. The article shows how the Royal Navy has been "faced with the problem of keeping sailors up to speed on their math and physics classes while deployed far from home and in cramped surroundings, the Royal Navy has started issuing them Sony PSP consoles equipped with teaching and testing software."
This shows how video games have become a multi-purposed medium that may soon rival Computers and Television for being their interactive and informative.
This shows how video games have become a multi-purposed medium that may soon rival Computers and Television for being their interactive and informative.
Additionally, with the PSP one should also notice that it is portable and convenient. It is small, portable, and easy to use. What I find really interesting is how something as serious as the Royal Navy is using a medium that has been stigmatized for being nerdy, waste of time, and useless. Video games and cultures is become cross-medium and being taken much more seriously.
Link:
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/sailors-pick-psp-for-training-tool/1377670
Sex in Video Games: The Spicy Stuff!
As time goes on, it seems that the ideas of sex and other "taboo" topics have gradually become more acceptable in video games. From the character of Lara Croft all those years ago, to the Grand Theft Auto games, to the infamous sex scene in Mass Effect that even made news headlines at some point, to graphic scenes of blood, gore, and even rape in Silent Hill games (a fairly long-running series of survival horror games, not terribly popular in the US to my knowledge but interesting nevertheless if that genre appeals to you).
Is this a bad thing? I don't necessarily think so, so long as these topics are covered tastefully rather than for shock value or in a desperate attempt to be edgy. There are some things that I think should be heavily strayed away from (namely, the aforementioned rape in Silent Hill--while I'm aware it's just a video game, there are some topics that are a bit too much in my opinion) just for the sake of good taste. If these things are handled maturely, or at least as mature as the game itself is, I don't think they're terribly big deals. At the same time I'm sure some parents cringe at the idea of their kids playing games with any of this kind of stuff in them, but that's their responsibility to deal with if their kid is playing rated M games when they're underage, isn't it?
What inspires this is the recent Dragon Age: Origins binge I've been on--hey, I need something to do in my free time, don't judge me! For those not aware, Dragon Age: Origins is a Bioware RPG that came out recently, Bioware being the same folks responsible for the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games. DA: O is yet another reasonably open-ended RPG with a focus both on strategic combat and on plot/dialogue, where character morality plays into things, your party members constantly talk to one another and have opinions on what you do, and in one case as I accidentally discovered last night, your party members might even desert and attack you if you do something to particularly get on their bad side.
That aside... there is sex in DA:O. And even sexism! I made two characters, a male human rogue and a female human warrior, just out of curiosity to see dialogue differences between the two. And also because I wanted to make a second character for hitting things in the face with a very big sword. What did I notice? Well, besides obvious choices in who would fall in love with which character--it turns out a particular character you can get is a bisexual assassin who likes to 'take what he can get', and another is, as all dialogue has been hinting to, a lesbian--the dialogue is almost hilariously sexist in places for the female, with someone so often going 'Really? A female Grey Warden?!'--alright, guys, I get it, women aren't supposed to fight against world-ending evil monsters, or whatever. It's not done in a terribly offensive way, and whenever it happens there tends to be an equally smug response your character can give, though I don't know if most women would feel if it's okay if they ever played the game.
Fortunately, the sex scenes are handled rather maturely too and aren't a focus of the game. Each character has an approval meter which basically corresponds to their feelings on you--a particularly low approval may make them leave, while a higher one makes them stronger in combat, lets you learn more about them if you decide to talk to them while resting in camp, or just 'get some' if that's what you're into. Ahem. That said, the game gives achievements just for having sex with various party members which is kind of bizarre and unintentionally hilarious (one of them is titled 'Easy Lover'...) but I think that's more a product of living in a gaming era where every game wants to have achievements, now.
To sum up, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with any of this so long as, again, it's done relatively maturely. DA:O I think handles it with just the right delicate touch--yeah, it's there, but you can avoid it--not so much the sexism unless you play a male--so it's not being thrust in your face. And while I don't think you need sex to sell a good story, not one bit, I don't think it will make a good story worse unless it's handled poorly. In fact, if handled well it may flesh out the characters more and make the plot more interesting, and I think DA:O succeeded in this regard.
Is this a bad thing? I don't necessarily think so, so long as these topics are covered tastefully rather than for shock value or in a desperate attempt to be edgy. There are some things that I think should be heavily strayed away from (namely, the aforementioned rape in Silent Hill--while I'm aware it's just a video game, there are some topics that are a bit too much in my opinion) just for the sake of good taste. If these things are handled maturely, or at least as mature as the game itself is, I don't think they're terribly big deals. At the same time I'm sure some parents cringe at the idea of their kids playing games with any of this kind of stuff in them, but that's their responsibility to deal with if their kid is playing rated M games when they're underage, isn't it?
What inspires this is the recent Dragon Age: Origins binge I've been on--hey, I need something to do in my free time, don't judge me! For those not aware, Dragon Age: Origins is a Bioware RPG that came out recently, Bioware being the same folks responsible for the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games. DA: O is yet another reasonably open-ended RPG with a focus both on strategic combat and on plot/dialogue, where character morality plays into things, your party members constantly talk to one another and have opinions on what you do, and in one case as I accidentally discovered last night, your party members might even desert and attack you if you do something to particularly get on their bad side.
That aside... there is sex in DA:O. And even sexism! I made two characters, a male human rogue and a female human warrior, just out of curiosity to see dialogue differences between the two. And also because I wanted to make a second character for hitting things in the face with a very big sword. What did I notice? Well, besides obvious choices in who would fall in love with which character--it turns out a particular character you can get is a bisexual assassin who likes to 'take what he can get', and another is, as all dialogue has been hinting to, a lesbian--the dialogue is almost hilariously sexist in places for the female, with someone so often going 'Really? A female Grey Warden?!'--alright, guys, I get it, women aren't supposed to fight against world-ending evil monsters, or whatever. It's not done in a terribly offensive way, and whenever it happens there tends to be an equally smug response your character can give, though I don't know if most women would feel if it's okay if they ever played the game.
Fortunately, the sex scenes are handled rather maturely too and aren't a focus of the game. Each character has an approval meter which basically corresponds to their feelings on you--a particularly low approval may make them leave, while a higher one makes them stronger in combat, lets you learn more about them if you decide to talk to them while resting in camp, or just 'get some' if that's what you're into. Ahem. That said, the game gives achievements just for having sex with various party members which is kind of bizarre and unintentionally hilarious (one of them is titled 'Easy Lover'...) but I think that's more a product of living in a gaming era where every game wants to have achievements, now.
To sum up, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with any of this so long as, again, it's done relatively maturely. DA:O I think handles it with just the right delicate touch--yeah, it's there, but you can avoid it--not so much the sexism unless you play a male--so it's not being thrust in your face. And while I don't think you need sex to sell a good story, not one bit, I don't think it will make a good story worse unless it's handled poorly. In fact, if handled well it may flesh out the characters more and make the plot more interesting, and I think DA:O succeeded in this regard.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Just Wondering...
Today I made a frightening realization: Tetris is literally the only game I currently play. Now, this is somewhat understandable, as all of my other game consoles are at home, but still, the internet is a gross being and most definitely contains more than one type of addicting game. While I love Tetris with all of my heart, I am sad to say that my eventual beating of the game on Tetrisfriends.com will be bittersweet. Yes, it will be temporarily glorious, as I have been trying desperately for a very long time to beat the game, but what do I do then? I will ultimately be left empty handed, with the vast spectrum of internet games towering imminently before me and no ideas as to which ones will prove sufficient.
Thus, we can begin to dissolve what, in fact, makes an attractive and alluring game on the internet. People have varieties of tastes, but regardless, internet gamers, such as myself, are essentially all looking for the same thing. We want simplicity, entertainment, good background music, and something that will adequately waste time. This is why Tetris has been so satisfactory for me; it fills each of these requirements and even has multiple gaming experiences from which I can choose. Yet, as I said before, the internet has thousands of games, and finding a new one will be difficult. As I mindlessly wander addictinggames.com, I find games of all shapes and sizes. Their genres span from adventure to arcade, and it seems they have it all; but, as I do more investigating, trying some out for size, I find that most of the games are at fault. They are either so simple as to be boring, or so intricate and complex that it takes longer for me to read the instructions that actually play, and all tend to be similar in one way or another. Essentially, I am dissuaded within five minutes and forced to play one more game of Tetris, this time coming four lines closer to conquering level fifteen.
Thus, I find it interesting that even with such a severe magnitude of games, a website such as addictinggames.com can be so fruitless. I feel that because internet games tend to be free, players are slighted in the actual quality of the games themselves, and even in the variety of games that are available. While there are hundreds and thousands of games, in all honesty, I find most of them to be very similar and whole heartedly disappointing. Therefore, I was just wondering if I will ever find another suitable game in this hodgepodge of internet entertainment, and if so, how long it will take for me to accomplish such a feat.
How Often Do You Jump?
I read a pretty interesting article criticizing a lot of common game design choices on Kotaku today. Entitled "let's talk about jumping," the article was a well thought out rant (though there was quite a bit of Dickens style rambling when it came to describing games) that touched on a number of issues that the author has with game design over the years. Chief among them is the proliferation of jumping. Think about it, how often do you really jump in real life? In video games however, you jump all the time, even for trivial things (many games require a jump to get on top of a 10" high ledge rather than just stepping up). Kind of silly and quite non-intuitive (for someone who hasn't played video games) actually. Double jumping, naturally, annoys the author even more. Tim Rogers (the author) made a number of other good points: e.g. skill-acquisition-driven progress is a somewhat artificial way to progress and quick-time events are a heavy-handed way of giving the player control. It's a pretty long read (30 pages printed, I checked), but if you've got the time check it out (just be sure to skim the descriptions of games, I'm sure ya'll know how Mario works).
Video Games with Friends
Video games don't always destroy relationships, but there isn't as big a market for "feel good" video game news. Sure they'll run a story about the adorable seal pup that was just born at the local aquarium, but where's the story about people who stay in touch with video games.
I've got a group of friends that gets together fairly often to play Super Smash Bros. What ensues is an insanely fun, button smashing, cursing match. We talk, kill each other, and laugh.
I haven't gotten a chance to play in a while, but once I get some free time and hard drive space to reinstall my Windows partition I'll start playing more FPS games again.
Nobody that I knew previously to playing WoW still plays, but I've become good friends with some of the people that I've met. Teaming up with a friend in PvP and slaughtering the entire opposing team is insanely fun.
My current roommate plays a free online game called Cybernations a "free browser-based nation simulation game." Over the past few months, I've been explaining World of Warcraft to him and he's been explaining Cybernations. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I'll give it a try over winter break.
I play Scrabble (well.. Words with Friends, a Scrabble/Literati clone) with friends on my phone. Gloating when you get a 7 letter word
I don't think that I play too many video games. They help me keep in touch with friends and something that we can all relate to, even if we're living far away now.
I've got a group of friends that gets together fairly often to play Super Smash Bros. What ensues is an insanely fun, button smashing, cursing match. We talk, kill each other, and laugh.
I haven't gotten a chance to play in a while, but once I get some free time and hard drive space to reinstall my Windows partition I'll start playing more FPS games again.
Nobody that I knew previously to playing WoW still plays, but I've become good friends with some of the people that I've met. Teaming up with a friend in PvP and slaughtering the entire opposing team is insanely fun.
My current roommate plays a free online game called Cybernations a "free browser-based nation simulation game." Over the past few months, I've been explaining World of Warcraft to him and he's been explaining Cybernations. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I'll give it a try over winter break.
I play Scrabble (well.. Words with Friends, a Scrabble/Literati clone) with friends on my phone. Gloating when you get a 7 letter word
I don't think that I play too many video games. They help me keep in touch with friends and something that we can all relate to, even if we're living far away now.
Spike's Videogame Awards
This upcoming Sat. at 8 pm Spike TV will be holding their annual Videogame Awards. I think Spike's VGAs have come a long way in the last couple of years. When it first started in 2003 the show was pretty much a complete joke where the actual games didn't matter. They used to just say who won without telling the viewers who the nominees were and celebrities would accept the award. It's gotten a lot better since then and has become a credible event because of a lot more focus on the games and a lot of promotion from popular website gametrailers.com. I think that adds a level of credibility. The winners are chosen by fans that vote on Spike's website. Is this the equivelant to the Academy Awards? No I don't think so nor do I think it's necessary for video games to have one major award show. The way it is now every video game website and publication has their own awards and you can choose for yourself which is the best one. With that being said I'll most likely be watching the Spike VGAs.
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