Session 2 Games 101

• What does the term avant garde mean?

Any artistic piece of work that is new is usually considered “Avant Garde”. So to sum this up “Avant Garde” means to experiment and try new ideas within the artistic community, this isn’t just art itself, but things like dance, theatre and so on. An example of “avant garde” would be a dance piece that involves paint, resulting in two artistic pieces.

• Is it still possible to be truly ‘avant garde’? and if so provide game examples

I personally say no usually because all the great ideas you’ve seen and still see have been done, this goes for the entirety of the artistic community. We’ve come a long way with art and what people do these days is inspire from other people rather than the environment itself. For example Leonardo Da Vinci was inspired by the construction of the human anatomy, but even then painting was still a thing back in Da Vinci’s era so his artwork wasn’t technically original. The thing that he did that was original was his drawings on the human anatomy. Overall it’s impossible to be truly “Avant Garde” since the majority inspires from other people.

Now to contradict myself a lot of artwork can be “Avant Garde”. Yes people inspire from other people’s work but you can take an idea and change it to you own. Any painting maybe a paint but they all have their own unique quality to them that makes them “Avant Garde”. Back to the example of Da Vinci and let’s compare his work to that of Picasso’s. Da Vinci’s style of art was very close to reality where Picasso was had a unique style of art which in result made him famous.

In in terms of the gaming industry. It’s difficult to be “Avant Garde” mainly because of what the audience wants which results in money. For instance the current fad in the gaming industry is RPG’s so the majority of games for this year are RPG’s, these instances make gaming less and less “Avant Garde”.

Games obviously have to stand out and be unique. In the end the RPG aspect becomes more of a rule rather than a unique feature to a game. Although these days games use various gaming techniques to create something “unique”.

Example the Witcher 3 stood out not for its RPG mechanics but how “massive” it is so other games took upon this and did a similar thing such as Final fantasy 15 and Assassin’s Creed origins.

Reference links

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/avant-garde

 

 

Session 3 Skill Stamina and luck

• Select one example to outline the key concepts of the interactive narrative genre?

The example I’m going to use is “The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt”. This games has a very indepth story due to the fact that this game is based of a book but this is very well translated into game.
To sum up this game “The witcher 3” is an Open World, RPG, action adventure, fantasy game.

How CD projekt Red approach this game in a graphical point of view is that they used an realistic art style but despite this being a fantasy games the concept of fantasy elements use in a real world like setting the realism adds a new element to the game. In this world it isn’t a simple adventure to reach a goal but you’re in a world where you’re involved with politics, racism and so on. In fact this book technically takes a fantasy element and puts it in a real life situation and the game translates this very well.
In terms of story and despite this game being based of the book you can interact with the story in anyway you want, or what options you have. Either way you take control of the story and it has consequences to your actions which in fact affect not only the story but the game. So you interact with this narrative and follow your own views on the world or mess around because you feel like it.
Overall this games does well on interactive despite it not being a telltell game and being based on someone else’s content. CD projekt Red captures the world of the book with the visuals and character interactions and you can truly see how dark this world but they took the extra step to include you in the story by allowing to choose how you approach the game which doesn’t only affect the story but the game.

• Does the interactive narrative still have a role to play in video games today. Give exemplary examples?

Well Telltell games are games that are designed to be interactive stories. Interactive narrative is very important in game, it gives you a perspective on how the creator wants you to see their world. This doesn’t simply mean story but graphics and so on. In the end this is an art form and every artistic creation has a story behind and luckily for gaming content is made specifically for interaction.

Interactive narrative will always have a role in video games regardless of what kind of game it is. The game may not have a choice system but you’re still interacting with the story.

 

 

Session 4 The history of Indie

• Why would you say that the “Indie” game scene is not a new thing and explain, give examples ?

I wouldn’t say the indie is anything new, nearly all big companies start of as indie companies. Bungie start off as an indie company before they became big, in fact they were a bunch of students eating pizza wanting to make games. Activision started due to a couple of workers getting tired of the company Atari so they started their own company. These examples shows that indie isn’t new, it’s existed for ages in the gaming industry, in fact it’s how industries start, it’s starting from the ground up, like most companies.

Now for companies like Insomniac, they are still indie technically. Despite the fact that their hired by the bigger companies to make games they are still independent, so they have the creative freedom to create whatever they want even if they are the size of a company. CD projekt red is a perfect example of this, they’re an indie company the size of a small company.

Now to sum this up people like  Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes who made super meat boy are indie because they’re completely independent within their budget and making process but this doesn’t mean indie is a new thing because as I’ve said before these small group of friends could or can become a company.

• Has the term indie become meaningless ?

No the term hasn’t become meaningless. The word indie means independent and that’ll never change despite how many people do it. Being independent is a stepping stone to becoming successful, this goes for games, mechanics, technology, science and so on. You always start off with an idea you develop yourself or in a small group and when this idea is recognized then you become can become successful leading to other companies and more people wanting to work with you therefor making you a company. People do decide that they want to work alone and stay being indie but despite your choices being the term indie will never become meaningless weather you decide to stay indie or let it lead to something large.

References

Ash Toner (seriously I found all the information through him over years of chatting)

 

 

Session 5 Human computer interaction

• select one game of your interest and explain why does it have a good/bad game UI

As an example I’ll be using a game that I’ve played for a recently. After playing Assassin’s creed origins I’ll say the user interface is good. The reason being is that the game helps you indicate various things you need to do or actions you’ve performed. One example is that your stance changes to indicate whether you have your shield up or not, there’s also a stance to indicate stealth. So the various stances easily show what approach you take but this is more gameplay.

Now in this new instalment of Assassin’s Creed the creators wanted you to be immersed in the world more so they changed the various mechanics such as the mini map. They removed the minimap and made a compass system similar to that of skyrim, I say this works well for what it was made for, this does immerse yourself in the environment as well as gives you a sense of discovery.

As weird as this system is, depending on what weapon you select that weapon will appear on the character. Now for starters this looks weird because it looks like a magic trick of a suddenly appearing weapon but it works well because it indicates what weapon you currently have selected but they don’t have this for the bow system which is odd.

There’s a health, adrenaline and breath bar system that appears when certain actions takes place. I like how this system works are it doesn’t over crowd the screen with bars systems and only appears when needed, for instance the adrenaline bar and health bar appear when you engage in combat.

Overall these systems work well and show great indication to the player and I felt it shows what’s going on within the game.

• discuss how technology augments human abilities. Reflect upon the implications of the future of HCI.

Technology has expanded us as human beings, I see them more a extensions. For instance I see a gun as human augment as of the gun shoots unlike a telephone which expand our communication therefore enhancing a skill we already have. The point I’m making is that the technology created for human is usually created to expand skill we possess.

Lets simplify this. A man known as Hugh Herr lost his legs due to front bite so he designed some bionic legs so that he can walk as well as run and even dance. These legs are designed to be like human legs. Previously before he made theses legs he use to make basic legs so he can continue his passion for rock climbing but what he found out is that he can alter his body to make it better. For example he’d adjust the height of his legs depending on how confident he felt so he can feel taller or become smaller to “give the other an advantage”. This describes human augmentation at it’s finest. As Hugh puts it, him being disabled didn’t mean that he was broken but that technology was inadequate at the time. Hugh Herr also talks about how we’d all be wearing exoskeletons to enhance our physiology, to improve that we already have. This shows that human augmentation not only replaces that what we’ve lost but enhances what we already have.

References

Hugh Herr – Look on youtube. On TED he talks in depth.

 

 

Session 6 Artificial intelligence

• Some definitions state that AI is when a system thinks/acts like a human and other definitions state that it is when a system thinks/acts rationally. Why do you suppose AI developers wish to hold up human intelligence as a standard rather than pure logic?

The reason I can see why people would want AI to act more like a human than rational is because of sensitivity. Logical think is the best foward to a situation but this means you act heartless. For instance imagine a burning building and there’s a higher probability to save an ex convict than a child. Your goal is to save everyone but you’re limited on time so the logical answer is to save the convict, now let’s add emotions to the mix, despite the logic you’d rather save the child rather than a ex convict.

Now by all means the logical answer is the best as it’s rational but then you wouldn’t consider other factor and just go the easiest answer which isn’t always a bad thing. I feel that when building an AI you’d want it to have some form of sensitivity so that the AI may put logic aside so that it can approach a situation that humans consider morally right.

• A lot of people are scared by the prospective of AI. What do you think would bethe ramifications of us achieving true “strong” AI?

There will be consequences like all decisions made. The thing is that what you’re doing is making is another human or in fact another race and depending on how the AI is built whether it’s built to be logical or emotional. Either way it’s how the people respond to this, it’s all about the interaction with the AI and if it’s aware then it’ll response to these human emotions.

 

 

Session 9 own

• What do you see as the positives and negatives around copyright?

The main and the only good thing I can say about is that it protects your product and gives credit where credit is due, plus you can manipulate this so others can use your product and you set the limitations.
The downfall is that corporations such as Nintendo can be greedy with such products. Now by all means punish those who remake your product, or simply claim your product as your own but in certain situations it can be ridiculous. Now YouTube is seen as free advertisement due to reviews on content and such, so most corporations leave it be since these content creators aren’t remaking or stealing content but showing the public how good this content is which is amazing in my eyes, someone making content to promote others content shouldn’t be punished for it as it helps your business with FREE SERVICE. Nintendo don’t take advantage of this in fact they’re greedy when it comes to YouTube content.  Their policy on copyright on YouTube is that if you earn money from anything that has Nintendo content then that money HAS to go to them which is extremely ridiculous as the content promotes Nintendo’s content for free may I add and in the end Nintendo still get the money.
Overall I like how copyright gives credit where credit is due but I hate how some people take this and make it so other can’t enjoy their content, it’s not productive and it fact ruins their own product for the lack of notice or how hard it is to obtain.

• Is it possible to make anything new?

Technically no because but we do expand our new found discovers and make them better.  As “Tony Kushner” says “the imagination can’t create anything new, can it? It only recycles bits and pieces from the world and reassembles them into visions” I fully agree with this statement as anything you see in creative work has some resemblance of the real world or others work.
Now here’s where I contradict myself. Consider the fact that these creations are technically new but the reality is that it’s different puzzle pieces to create a new image. For instance the game “Darksiders 2” is extremely similar to “The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time” but one is very bright and happy and the other dark and gloomy, since “Darksiders 2” is newer that’ll be considered as the unoriginal product. The thing  “The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time” uses aspects that aren’t so original therefor making the game unoriginal. Overall the developers that made the game did make an original product as they use one another as an inspiration to create a good game and as I said before they used certain puzzle pieces to make one new image.

Overall you can’t create new content, in fact it’s impossible as there’ll always be some resemblance to the inspiration.

 

 

Reflective Summary

I’ve learnt a lot during this module and a lot of these topics have helped expand and opened new perspectives on how I can creatively think. These topics gave some insight on the game industry but felt like more philosophical opinions on gaming itself. For instance the topic “Avant garde” and how gaming is considered art. I found questions like this to be very opinion based and didn’t really help to understanding the gaming industry and how it works but it did allow me to understand the term “Avant Garde” and how the gaming relates to it.

The two topics I did find very interesting was “Own” and “Human and computer interaction”. I felt that it related more to the gaming industry. The topics discussed about various things that not only the gaming industry but other industries have to work with but that’s mainly copyright, with human and computer interaction it discussed how technology integrates with humans today which felt like it gave more insight on the gaming industry. The other topics felt like a philosophical discussion on how robots can take over the world or why gaming is art but this doesn’t mean that these topics were bad, as I’ve said the other topics felt more opinion based so this allowed me to open up my perspective on gaming as a medium.

I found this module challenging as I was a little disorganized with the essays and wish to learn  from this experience. I also need to Harvard reference more to support my arguments. I could criticize myself on the amount I wrote but for one I don’t feel like I need to write load about some of the these topics and two If I Harvard referenced more or simply did more research then that way I could write more. Overall I think my main problem is my productivity and how much work I put into these weekly blog. Maybe I could make a schedule of sort to allow myself more time so I don’t procrastinate too much.

In conclusion this module has helped me realise skills that I need to implicate into my overall productivity when making not just my essays but my work in general. With the module itself I now have new knowledge and perfective that’ll help me progress forward as a games design.