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.
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.
posted by The Poison Ninja at 2:37 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks Nick. Perhaps Perron's terms give us a way to think about players who will engage with the sandbox games Frasca likes. You have an interesting point about marketing, though I doubt his terms will ever become well-defined and common enough to take hold in that sector.
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