Game On Extra Credit Visit

This past Thursday I took the opportunity to bypass the pleasant weather of the first real day of spring and spend it cooped up inside looking at the past forty something years of video game history. Now I fancy myself as knowledgeable on the history of video games and to a nerd like me there really wasn’t anything new to learn, but it was amazing to get some hands or eyes on time with some of the holy relics of the industry. The first thing you see as soon as you walk in is a PDP-1 and a nearby station running an emulation of the game Space War. I thought it was sad and almost disrespectful that so many of the people there rushed past it and other industry stalwarts like Pong and Nolan Bushnell’s original Computer Space to the section with the free arcade games. As I paid my respects to these forgotten idols I did come to the conclusion that it was their primitive nature that made people careless about them. They were behind glass and turned off, so unless you knew why there were there like I did you would have rushed past them too. This is more an issue with how the exhibit was set up and run then anything else. The next stop was the golden age of arcades area that had classics, like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, all set to free play. This was one of the more interesting areas of the exhibit to me since I have never played an actual Missile Command arcade cabinet or the original Bezerk, just the halfway decent Atari 2600 version. It was interesting to note that people would line up three or four deep to play Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, but almost all totally ignored Dig Dug. It really goes to show the staying power game characters have, it also shows Dig Dug is due for a comeback. The next part of the exhibit had systems from the original odyssey from the early 1970’s through the NES and all the way up to the Dreamcast. While this would have been an awesome trip to see the evolution of game design, a good 1 out of every 3 machines didn’t work in some way. This was a predominant trait among a large part of the exhibit and I will get into that in a second. The next section was the evolution of games from the mid 1980’s until the present day. The choices for some of the games on display were to put it nicely, questionable. The best example I can think of was a display running Infocom’s text adventure version of “ The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.” The text adventure is a genre long forgotten to the sands of time and I bet that almost no one has ever come across one in their life. When I walked up to it there was the game someone had just played and to quote it said “ Fuck You” then the games answer was “ I don’t understand the command ‘Fuck You” so while it was hilarious to see, it shows poor planning on the part of the creators of the event.
This leads to my issues with the exhibit both in how it was presented and how it was maintained. The exhibit seems to follow the old idea that games are only for kids. I say this because the place looked and smelled like a chuck e. cheese pizza. There were bright colors all around and these happy little robots by each game station explaining the game. Also to go along with this is the fact that most of the game stations were the perfect high for your average eleven year old to be the perfect height for the game. The thing is that when said eleven year old would approach the game is was most often broken is some way. A great number had either froze or wouldn’t load or the controllers were broken. I think this is due to the fact that almost every game up until current generation software was running on an emulator locked up under the display. I really think that almost all of this was due to the computers running these emulators overheating and the fact that a good deal of emulation is far from exact. The exhibit was also lacking in any staff to make sure the games kept running and to explain the significance to why the game was chosen to be in the exhibit. While each game did have a little card saying something about the game or system it’s on but most were about a sentence in length. For example they had a PC-Engine running Capcom’s “Fighting Street” and the entire card said was “ The PC-Engine was the first system to use CD-ROMS to play games from. First of all it doesn’t have anything to do with the game, which was the first Street Fighter game and secondly only nerds like me would have known what a PC-Engine was. They didn’t really go into any details about the system or the game. This was how pretty much all the games on display were, The cards also had basic instructions on how to play the game and I can see why a good deal of controllers might have been smashed in frustration. The card only offered extremely basic instructions and didn’t give any idea of what the player should be doing.

In closing, while it may not seem like I did really enjoy the exhibit. It may not be the best exhibit on video games ever put together but it’s a step in the right direction. Ten years ago the idea that video games belonged in a museum would have gotten whoever suggested the idea at best a stunned gasp and at worst beat up by a guy in a monocle. This does show that while games are starting to be accepted as an art form, they apparently can only be exhibited in a very childish way. I also knew going in that this wasn’t going to be for someone like me, someone that knows the causes of the great crash of 1984, or that the original name of Mario was Jumpman, but for people that like games to learn about where they video games have come from to understand where they are going. Perhaps if they do a Game On 3.0 and have some type of guide around to explain things like game play or cultural significance then people might get more out of it. In short for the hardcore gamer it’s like going to a shrine that is located in a Chuck E. Cheese. You’ve got the parents sitting along the walls checking their watches and trying to drag their kids away from the half broken Pac-Man machine. For the casual gamer it’s an interesting trip to see how games have gone from blocks to almost reality. For parents and non-gamers it’s a headache waiting to happen. Sadly there is no pizza here for them to drown their sorrows in.

Game Journal-
More sailing this week as I continued playing Zelda: the Wind Waker. This week I discovered a way to sail around faster by finding the warp zones the cyclones. The trick was hitting the cyclone god with the boomerang and now I can sail way less. The sailing is really ruining this game for me. It is something that is an interesting concept and gives the game a great sense of scope and makes the world feel huge, but when you have to sail to an island, get one thing, then sail all the way back to the other side of the map it gets on your nerves rather quickly. This week I managed to find the fire and ice arrows. I had to get the ice arrows to solve a puzzle on a volcano. I was able to freeze the lava and run up the mountain. Once in the moutain I found a few enemies and found the power bracelets that let Link carry heavier things. The next segement of the adventure is an example of the type of sailing fetch quest the game is some times. I have to sail to an island and find a sage playing a harp. After talking to the sage I find out I have to go talk to the sage with the exact same harp he has. So then I go play the song for the next sage and learn I have to go back right where I came from. After I got back to the original island I saved and quit because after an hour of sailing and wandering around I didn't want to tackle a whole dungeon. Next Week the Earth Temple.

Homework for March 29th

1.Grodal makes an interesting case but I think that a game to be fun and sucessful needs both narative elements and elements of real life simulation. Many games are grounded in reality of actual things someone can do in real life, but enhanced in a way, for example being able to jump or hover in a platform game. Sure I can jump in real life but I am not able to do a double jump or hover by spining around with my arms out or with a raccoon tale. If games stuck to real life to closely they wouldn't be fun to play because you could, you know, actually go outside and jump and hover instead of pressing the a button twice. On the other side of the coin the game needs elements of a story to drive the action. Sure jumping and hovering might be fun for a few minutes but if there is no where to go or nothing to accomplish then the player loses interest and quickly quits playing. The interesting thing about games though is they need minmal story to drive the action unlike passive media. In Super Mario Bros. the whole story is the Princess has been kidnapped and you need to save her. Even more modern games that we think are story driven still have a very basic structure to them. Most of them are " Oh no Aliens have invaded the Earth save us!" or something of that varitety but now they feature character development that wasn't possible in the past.

Overall, I think Grodal makes a good case for figuring out what games mean to society. The only flaw is the fact that not all games are entirely real and have to be looked at with a critical eye to figure out their meaning.

2. I do agree that tactile senses anchor us to games. Over the years developers have figured out to make games for each platform that work to the srengths of the platform they are one. Console games are played in the family room or a kids bedroom where a comfortable couch or bed is and the player can sit down for hours in front of the television and play the game. Console games are also much simplier then their PC cousins because since the player has to hold the controller they can't have too many buttons to press or it would be uncomfortable to hold. The PC on the other hand is where most more complicated game styles like RTS or simulation games are played. these games are succesful on the PC because the keyboard gives developers more options for keys that can be used as commands. The addition of the mouse also allows for the precise movements these games require. Also many PC games are designed, some exclusively, to be played online against or with other people. This is due to the fact that developers know that almost any PC will have an internet connection that the player can use to play the game online. Arcade games are different all together and have gone through a few phases. The first one was during their golden age when games were designed to be quick and simple. They had to be simple so a person could walk up and play it and right away feel sucessful. Presently since home systems offer a similar or better experience then arcade games can offer, arcade games have turned into things like Dance Dance Revolution. Games that are really unique and can't be played at home. Games that feature skis that a player rides on or a dirt bike that moves and shakes as the player rides it are examples of the unqiue experiences developers are bringing to arcades.

Homework for March 15th
Johnson really gets things right it seems like. The first thing he talks about is the idea of a Sleeper curve. This refers to the idea that for the longest time people have always talked about and looked at games in a negative light, without even starting to look at the positive aspects they have. Johnson thinks that people are starting to "get" games as a useful teaching tool. The Sleeper curve is also a thing that happens because the player is an active participant in the narrative. In other media, the author has to tell you everything about the world because that is the only way the reader will learn about the world. They have to tell you everything because the printed word or film isn't interactive. You absorb what is told to you and continue on. Since you can actively move around a game enviroment, the player has a lot more room to explore different areas of the story and the game world. You can see this Sleeper Curve in every game you have ever played.This is mostly trial and error style learning. You learn how to time your jumps in Mario, you learn when to use a turbo boost in Burnout. The only way you can learn these things is by doing, not by letting the game do it for you like a book or film.

Telescoping is the idea of looking deeper into the game world and using what you learn to drive your gameplay experience. You have to take what you learn and apply it to the game. Once you learn a new move or hear of a new area to explore, the player has a desire to see these new moves or areas.

Johnson pretty much blows off the whole violent games thing for a few reasons. One that he mentions is that it has been done to death. There are thousands of articles and studies done about games and this isn't the focus of his writing. Johnson's focus is purely on thought processes related to games. How a person learns from a game and applies that knowledge to the game. I think Johnson is dimissive because of the approch he is taking to looking at games. Most writers are there to look for flaws, it's human nature because it's easier to find something that is wrong or doesn't work and talk about that and still sound smart. It's like the idea that if someone goes to a store and gets a gallon of milk and doesn't have a problem, they think nothing of it. If the same person goes to the store and they only have 2% when they like Skim, that person tells everyone they know that the store they went to is a bunch of 2% having jerks. Talking about games is no different. People see the violence or other problems of games and pounce on them, without taking the time to see what games offer. Johnson on the other hand takes the approch that ignores the bad for the sake of examining the positive side. I guess when he went to the store they had his type of milk.

Readings- Week 7

1. I think that Perron's new words could be useful maybe after giving them a few years to be seen in action. He makes a seperation between Player and Gamer and a Gameplayer. I kind of understand why he seems to think all three are different groups. I think he is trying to say a Player is a "Causal Gamer" someone who plays a game to kill some time and a Gamer is a more "Hardcore" player, while a Gameplayer is a combination of the two, that can sit back and enjoy a game as a game but also devotes themself to the story and gameplay. These new words seem to be useful from a marketing point of view more so then from a game design angle, and can actually lead to a further splintering of the market. All game designers are gamers themselves and create games for the gameplayer as defined by Perron, but the people on the board of directors really could care less about gameplay and care more about profits. People that run the big publishers are business school graduates, rarely artists or game designers themselves. They do their homework and know there are groups of people want games that play like an interactive movie and then people that want deeper interaction. So I think it is the expansion of the market and the introduction of big business that has splintered gamers into the groups the Perron has outlined. I think that has the industry continues to grow we will perhaps see these groups seperate further and become more defined.

Reading 2-
I really like the point Frasca makes. This has to be the first author we have read anything by that realizes that games are their own artform and need their own guidelines for critical analysis. He makes the point that games allow for a non-linear narrative and allowing the user to be an active creator of their experiance and not just a casual observer.

I really think this is the way that game design is heading and right now we are in a transitional phase. For the first twenty or so years of gaming creators tried to create a game that was a playable movie. The Full Motion Video games of the Sega CD were an early example of this desire and then the Playstation and Nintendo 64 finally gave designers the hardware they needed to make a game that looked like a movie but played like a game. I think now a new generation of game designers are coming up though that grew up playing these games and realize that there is more to making a good game then making a movie people can play. The popularity of genres like GTA sandbox games and MMO games prove that gamers want more then a movie, they want a world they can be dropped into and do whatever they want. This is going to be the new wave of game design. Game Designers will now need to focus on creating a world that is fun to play in instead of a static world players go through to get to the next cut scene. The potential for this style of game play is finally becoming available to designers with the new XBOX and Playstation systems, they can finally output near photo realistic graphics in real time, so they can now create expansive worlds that look and feel real, while providing an excellent backdrop for their gameplay.

Game Journal- March 8th
So this week I took a break from my usual Zelda playing due to an extremely heavy workload. Sadly midterm papers and tests have to come before any serious game playing. I did manage to play a game this week, so here is a little mini entry on the game I played this week.
The game I played was Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Gameboy Advance. This is a spin off/ side story of the Mario RPG games that have appeared on Nintendo’s home systems. In this game you control both Mario and his brother Luigi has you explore the BeanBean Kingdom to stop the evil Crackletta. The story is pretty simple in tradition with Mario games, but what makes the game so interesting to play is the writing. The game is littered with references to classic Mario games and even to Nintendo itself. The game is also extremely funny, especially Crackletta’s henchman Fawful.
The game is also extremely fun to play. While it is an RPG in the sense that it has stats like hit points and items to equip, it also strays pretty far from the RPG formula. The battle system is turn based but unlike most games where you take a turn and wait for the enenimies to take their turn, you are in full control of both Mario brothers at all times, allowing to dodge and counter attacks. The game also strays by feeling more like a traditional Mario game when you’re traveling the world. There are blocks to break, coins to collect and jumps to make and all sorts of mini games that make the game fun.

Overall, I would say I am about halfway through the game, it is a funny, smartly written and simply fun game to play. I have played this mostly on my commute to and from school on the train and it has made the hour or so ride fly by.

Alison McMahan Reading-
This is McMahn's defention of immersion-
"Three conditions create a sense of immersion in a virtual reality or 3-D computer game: (1) the user's expectations of the game or environment must match the environment's conventions fairly closely; (2) the user's actions must have a non-trivial impact on the environment; and (3) the conventions of the world must be consistent, even if they don't match those of 'meatspace.'"

Now using McMahan's concept of immersion to look at the game Halo we can see that maybe the reason the game is such a success is the fact it meets all of these requirements to their fullest.

Fisrt the player goes into the game expecting a futuristic war set on an alien planet with a bunch of cool guns and big explosions and stuff of that nature. The game delivers as soon as you turn on thrusting you in the middle of a battle on a far off planet with lots of cool guns, explosions and creepy aliens to shoot.

Second the player can see the results of their actions right away. The player shoots down an alien trasport and it blows to bits right in front of them. The game also shows the impact of the player through cut scenes and explains how their progress is effecting the war.

Third the player knows the rules of the game and needs to succeed. The player needs to know how many times they can be shot, how many times each enemy needs to be shot and which weapons work the best against them. The player also needs to know how to drive the various vehicles in the game, and they all control fairly the same. These factors have no relation at all to real world physics but make perfect sense in the game since everything in the game is balanced around it's internal physics system.


Mark Wolf Reading-

Mark Wolf's ideas fit well with today's modern games. Right from the start he makes the distinction of how games have become like movies and while both use space in a similar way, the idea of space in a game is different. In a movie you can see everything but you can't walk around in the scenery and explore it.Continuing to use Halo as an example. Halo has a very movie like presentation with long cut scenes and character development and things of that nature, but what Halo does what a movie can't is create the idea your in the middle of an interplanetary war. If Halo were a movie all you be able to see is where the camera is, but in the game since you control where the camera goes, you also control the action. This is an important distinction all the other writings we have read for this class have seemed to miss. Games might be similar in story structure to a book or movie, but the way the story unfolds is way different and that is a big factor in understanding what a game as a text is trying to say.

Game Journal- Week 6

Another entry , another week on the high seas of Hyrule. This week I found myself at about what I can assume is the midpoint of the game. As in all Zelda games you can tell your about halfway through the game when you get this sacred artifact. Also like all Zelda games since a Link to the Past, there is a dual world going on. Previously it was a more of a light world/dark world, where the dark world was a copy of the light word but suffering from the effects of Gannon’s evil power. This game puts an interesting spin this tradition by having the second world sealed on the bottom of the sea.
How this world became sealed and covered by an ocean through an extended cut scene. All the cut scenes in this game are done with the graphics engine and not pre-rendered. I like when games do this because they keep you in the game better. I think by the time the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Revolution are really thriving that pre-rendered visuals will be a thing of the past.
The story takes an interesting turn when you find out the true identity of your trusty talking ship, The King of Lions, and Tetra the Pirate. After this point you have to return to the surface world to find the remaining sages. At this point I got bored and saved for the time being as I sailed to both islands on the map and couldn’t figure out how to do what had to be done.