Week Eight:Storytelling

We are compelled by stories and everything in media will follow a storyline in one sense or another. Since games are becoming a lot like movies, albeit a lot longer, the storytelling part of a game is important as it shapes the experience that you have playing a game
Some games don’t need a overly detailed story to drive them player to play, if the game play is satisfying enough; Games like Tetris had addicting game play and due to the nature of the game didn’t need a plot, the same can be said for racing, sports and fighting games; since the game play is the focus and selling point a detailed storyline is not needed nor is a writer required.
Now for the part about games that actually do need storylines. Good idea’s , game play and plot would hopefully make a enjoyable game, perhaps not the best experience ever but an experience non the less. Games such as Halo, Psychonauts , Silent hill etc are all genres that need to offer something else then good game play and let the story pull the player in and keep them interested. Since these games could be viewed at like interactive movies then all aspects of the story are important such as character development, atmosphere and plot development. In Tim Schafer’s Psychonaut’s the player was treated to a beautiful environment, compelling characters and a witty and interesting script – yet even with all these factors it had poor sales.
With MMO’s such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft the storyline takes a backseat to the online experience, I barely take notice of the storyline when I play because the storyline is slightly concealed and vague, ask me the name of any npc in WOW and I wouldn’t have a clue because the storyline is a primary factor in MMO’s such as WOW.
However I’ve also bee playing the predecessor to WOW , Blizzard’s Warcraft 3. Since it’s an RTS and the objectives centre around the part of the story that you are playing it is much more easy to take notice what’s happening in the story along with who’s involved.
I don’t agree that all game require a storyline, however the games that do I would want a character that I could relate to, if something happened to them I would actually care. The problem with some games, is that developers have realised storylines that work the best and then continue to reproduce similar games. The amount of urban gangster type games that have tried to gain the success of GTA is a good example..

I guess what I’m trying to say is that originality with good writing and game play makes a game worthwhile I’m starting to ramble so I’ll stop here for now.

World of Woecraft

As the release of World of Warcraft’s first expansion Burning crusade draws ever closer I find myself extremely irritated that I can’t play Wow at the halls in which I am staying. So any news on Burning Crusade is enough to satisfy my addiction. I’m annoyed that the expansion has been delayed till after the holiday season thus meaning I won’t be able to play in the Christmas break, however this will give me more time to level my druid and get better gear for when the level cap reaches 70. Although I’m glad that Blizzard isn’t pushing for the December release as I’d rather have an expansion that’s polished and bug free then a rushed version. A double-edged sword.
Rumours have been floating around that Warcraft will be made into Hollywood movie. I’ll wait into there’s actually any real information before I start to worry about that.

I’ll be getting the collectors edition, which includes; an art book, mouse mat, behind the scenes DVD and a nether whelp. All of which are goody good things.
Very pleased about the two new races, they seem to be shaping up quite nicely. I’m so gonna roll BloodElf.

Art Direction

An art director has one hell of a job.
I can imagine it to be stressful but still a very powerful and engaging career in which you get plenty of rewards and satisfaction. Still it’s one hell of a job.
An art director is in charge of the overall look of a game, which of course is a very important element to any game.
Any here is some information on what is actually required to become an art director.
Education and Experience:
Various degrees of education and experience will be considered:
· BFA from an accredited art/design school or equivalent diploma.
· At least three years experience in art management.
· 1 year experience in the game or film & television industry is essential.
· At least 1 shipped game as an art lead is essential.
· Creation of visual concepts and/or storyboards essential.
· Supervisory, leadership or project management experience is preferred.
· Experience with outsourcing art assets and integrating them into internally created art is a strong plus.
· Experience in art recruiting an asset.
Skills and Abilities:
· Communicate ideas clearly through concept art, conversation, and documentation. Ability to direct a team of artists in creating a unified vision and translating that vision onto the screen.
· Displays a high standard of excellence in personal and professional work.
· Ability to create, maintain, and evaluate art schedules and manage a team's project execution within them.
· Formulate and evaluate art tools and pipelines.
· Passion for the handheld hardware game's subject matter and world setting.
· Strong communication skills.
· Strong decision-making skills.
· Conflict resolution.
· Organizational ability.
· Trained artistic eye and art vocabulary.
· Objectivity with cross-project/company issues.

Obviously since is a director you’ll have to be good at communication with people and to be able to settle issues with people and directing them without dictating them. Also they should create art styles guides and can keep and direct the art to look consistent and clean, whilst keeping in the style of the game. It’s one heck of a job. All I can say is that it’s one of those dream jobs that you’ll have to work your ass off if you want even a look into this kind of level. Work hard or be prepared to bribe and blackmail your way to the top.
Since art style guides usually fall into the many duties of an art director then I believe that it is excellent that we are already starting to learn to how create our own.

Gameplay.

To me gameplay is the ultimate factor whether it’s a game that I’ll keep or if I pawn it off to Gamestation for store credit.
I love my graphics, I don’t deny that I like to be visually pleased when it comes to a game, however though graphics are becoming more and more important as time goes on it’s still safe to say that ultimately gameplay will rule over it. I think successful gameplay is how well you interact with the game and also how you apply different types of thinking to different games, which are all based on different elements of gameplay.
No two people can think exactly alike , so no two people will approach a problem the same way. I believe in order for game play to be successful it has to cater for everyone’s preferences on playing and personal thinking style.
The example I give you is the “As played by…” campaign launched by Maxis to promote ‘the Sims’ many titles. Considering that is one franchise that is literally all the same just on different formats, it is so open ended that there is many different ways to play it. The campaign features one person describing how they play the game so there’s one person that like to make stories , another that wants them to be rich, another that likes designing houses and such etc.
Even when it comes to RPG such as the final fantasy series, the gameplay and what the player gets out of the game differs. Though the characters and story is set, many people will fight different. A good game and good gameplay is something that appeals to everyone and it doesn’t matter who you are but you’ll get something out of the game that was worthwhile and will make you think “ I want to play that again.
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Writing about games.

All I ask is a FAIR review. However that isn’t always the case.
When it comes to review games and giving a fair review I can imagine it’s not so simple as everyone would tend to think. How can you grade entertainment value? I wouldn’t say that you can unless you are unbiased on a biblical scale.
Say if you took into account all of the technical aspects of the game such as how it was made, camera, value for money etc then it wouldn’t be a decent review. Sure I want to know if the game has a smooth playing feel to it but if it’s gonna bore me to tears then I’d rather not play it. However the game is usually criticized for game play and the idea behind it and if it doesn’t quite fit it won’t get a decent or even fair review. You’ll find that the larger companies usually always get excellent reviews whilst smaller companies tend to drift around in the review pool and not really get noticed or even make the cover.
Another thing when reviewing a game is to get the frame of mind of the person that the game was intentionally marketed for. If you have a 25 year old guy reviewing say Counter-strike then fair enough, he fits the market. However if the same guy is reviewing say a Harry Potter game then I can’t see the reviews being completely fair on that aspect. Either way you look at it, it is hard to judge games on every aspect imaginable, some games just won’t sit fair with a reviewer and therefore with get a lower score whilst a well known game gets a higher score then deserved. I think it all comes down to opinion: To often I’ve found myself being annoyed at a low score that was given on a game that I enjoyed.
The best review is the one you give, I guess. If you want to play a game then regardless of what score it was given you would of already made your mind up if you liked the game or not.

The future.

If you consider have far the gaming industry has come in 5 decades it’s exciting to think what will happen in the next 5 decades. As our technology continues to improve in leaps and bounds we’ll soon have the power to do what we can’t in real life and experience it in high definition.
The way the gaming industry will evolve is like how every other form of entertainment will go, in fact games, music, TV and movies will probably merge into one media. Perhaps a game where one can listen to live radio and watch the news in a virtual reality world. Virtual reality , I suspect will be available in the near future and have games incorporate that. Perhaps games and consoles will evolve into a 4D media, incorporating the 5 senses instead of just sight and sound. Smellovision was rumoured to also happen in the near future – perhaps in racing games we’ll be able to smell the burnt tires and petrol.
With the Next-gen consoles on their way I think it’s safe to say that the inventive uses that the Next gen consoles have to offer (the wireless controllers, the Wii remote, online play etc.) will continue through to the successors of the new consoles.
Much like fashion, ideas of the old will creep back in at one point and perhaps all of the old 80’s games of the time will appear once more but in high definition. We have the technology to create some amazing games but do with have the idea’s to back it all with.
The iconic figures of our youth, I feel will still be with us in the near future; Sonic, Mario, Solid Snake, Lara , Pikachu and Zelda. I think there still will be hundreds of game based around them. In fact the only thing that can survive a nuclear holocaust are cockroaches and Mario.

90’s the era of improvement.

The 90’s were about the rise of industry, the technology getting more advanced, the graphics getting sharper and the game play getting more inventive. It was the era of maturity where corporations would buy out their competitors and games were more mainstream.
Demos became increasingly popular to try our games before you decided to buy them and due to the rising size of games floppy disks were being dropped in favour to the more spacious CD.
Doom found fame in the 90’s and was the most widely known FPS (first person shooter) and defined the genre for future successors. The RTS (real-time strategy) game Dune II set the standard for future RTS games such as Warcraft and Command and Conquer. Alone in Dark was the predecessor for titles such as Silent Hill and Resident Evil ,which would be known as Survival horror games. It was in the 90’s where Maxis set out with it’s ‘sim’ (simulation) games and would later dominate the charts with ‘ The Sims’ in the decade after.
The internet was also rising in popularity and to take advantage of this many games incorporated online play such as Quake , Age of Empires and Everquest.
Browser-based games also become more available thanks to web plugins, the games that they mostly offer are the arcade games, card games and puzzle games. Great for when you have nothing better to do in work/school.
The creation of mods (modifications) started in the 90’s which allowed the played to create custom objects such as skins and maps.
However the decline of arcades also happened in the 90’s and thus many closed down as the era of the 80’s was over. The rise of computer and console games out matched that of an arcade.
The Sega Genesis (also known as the Mega Drive) was dominating the market, after the SNES (Nintendo Super NES) debuted in 1991 it lost some of it’s market share to the new console.

Next is the 00’s.

The 8-bit era 80’s

A hotbed of companies start to arise and more unique games were being made. A flurry of games consoles invaded people’s homes such as the Commodore 64, Apple II and ZX Spectrum. The 80’s saw many things such as the first 3D game for a home computer (3D monster maze), the first iconic game in popular culture (Pac-man) and the first laserdisc game( Dragon’s lair).

The price and power of computers started to surpass the consoles with the favour of games circling graphic adventures. In 1980 Roberta Williams created Mystery house for the Apple II, which proved a success , she then went on to create Sierra-on-Line.
Whilst the Us had the Commodore 64 the UK had the ZX Spectrum and was hugely popular. 1984 saw the technology of mouse driven games with a point and click interface such as Lucasarts Maniac Mansion.
In the later 80’s a new era of 16-bit machines had started however were still too pricey for many people to afford until later on in the decade. MUDs (Multi-user dungeons) were also very popular in the 80’s due to dialup bulletin board systems. The Handheld LCD games of the 70’s had become more affordable and offered better game play and an affordable price tag along with it.
The crash of 1983 saw the computer market taking over the console market but it would not stay that way for long. The NES ( known in the UK as the Famicom, although I always refer to it as a NES) was released in 1985 and along with Super Mario Bros it became a big hit. Also a struggling and nearly bankrupt SquareSoft planned to release their last game title Final Fantasy and has become one of THE best selling series to date with the 12 in the series reaching UK shores in February.The legend of Zelda was born in this era as was Metal Gear Solid , the first stealth based game.
That was one hell of an era.

The swinging 60’s and 70’s

This was where the basics were laid down in basements. Games were still unknown to world at this point however there were certain individuals who began programming and creating their own games in their spare time. In 1961 a game called Spacewar! was created and available to purchase, it was also traded online .
The 60’s might have been where it started to form yet the 70’s is where it began to prosper.
A coin operated version of Spacewar! was released in 1971 but renamed Computer space however it wasn’t a big success. Nolan Bushnell finally made his own company Atari in which was a huge success with games such as pong (I remember spending many a day playing this). The craze had started and was paving the way to the huge worldwide success of video games. Space Invaders soon followed and was a big hit, Atari followed this with Asteroids and use of colour was becoming more and more popular. Arcades sprung up over midnight and the coin-operated games of the 1970’s ruled.
The 70’s saw the first portable handheld games such as Tic Tac Toe. LED’s and VFD technology would last until the 80’s when LCD technology would become more affordable to become the leading alternative. The 70’s also ushered in home computers and consoles. A popular way of getting a new game for yourself was simply to type in the games source code (which were widely available in books and magazines) and program it yourself. I’m sure glad it’s not like that now.

The begining of Games

The start of it all.

Know one can say for sure who developed the very first videogame as it wasn’t deemed a “videogame” at the time of creation. There consist of three likely candidates however.

The first being a simulation game created in 1948. It was a simple game recreating a missile being fired at a target . However due to limited technology being available at the time and graphics could not be drawn electronically so they had to make do with targets drawn on an overlay. It was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith and Estle Ray Mann if you really wanted to know.
Our next candidate is A.S. Douglas who developed OXO in 1952. It was the electronic version of noughts and crosses and was played on a EDSAC, it was developed to prove a thesis on the interaction of humans and computers.
Our last candidate is William Higinbotham who created the game Tennis for two in 1958. The game consisted of a tennis court(hence the title), however it was very simple and showed only a side view of the court. It had two controllers so was probably the first two player game created.

The way I see it is that all of these games were the very first videogame. We have the very first simulation game, the first human versus computer and the first 2 player game. While I’m sure other claims to who invented the first videogame will pop up either way it was going to happen some day and I’m sure glad it did.

About me.

Howdy,

In this post I've decided to talk about where my gaming addiction came from. Lucky you.
My brother and I were always dropped off at my Uncle's house when my mom had to work; he still had his Atari at the time and would get it down so we could play it. I spent a large amount of time playing Pong and paperboy, when I look back it's quite sad that I've turned into a Graphic's whore along the way and demand so much more from the games I play now compared to back then.
My uncle was also the first person in our family to buy a computer; so all three of us (my uncle, brother and I) would play Doom after dinner. My Uncle would control the movement , my brother got to shoot and I got to open doors - a very important role indeed. We would also play Alone in the Dark - probably not the best game for a 7 year old at the time, maybe that's why I'm not keen on Horror games.
My family would have torniments of Street fighter, Tekken and any other fighting game that we owned. So I've pretty much grown up with games, going through the nes, n64, dreamcast, PS1, Xbox, Ps2, Gamecube and countless gameboy handheld's.


Well how's that for a back-story?
As a gamer now I'll pretty much play anything if you shove the controller/mouse in my hands. I don't play a lot of sports games or war games but I quite an open gamer - I know what I like and I know I love.

Toast is good. Very good.

Um. Oh. Hum.

It's taken me ages to get round to do this blog and I haven't a clue what to write about, things barely make sense in my own head so it should be expected that this blog will turn into a rant page of random words useless to anyone that dares to read it.
Looking at other peoples blogs I sit here and think " Damn you and your english skills." Also other people have about 5 blog entries by now compared to my pathetic one entry - if you can even call this an entry.
I might as well yammer on about myself for a while. My name is Nicola Johnson - ever call me Nicola and I will kill you, capiche? I'm rarely not playing on a console or on my computer. I'm also a fan of Anime and manga, I also love Darth Vador - he is sitting in my room at the moment listening to The Pixies.
I have no lifeskills - at all. I can't cook , I gave myself food poisoning the first weekend I moved in, I will most likely die of starvation whilst staying at Uni.

Taa ta.