Laura Neal
30/11/2017
Question Pair No. 6:
– “What do you see as the positives and negatives around copyright?”
– “Is it possible to make anything new?”
—
Although opinions vary, almost every person can agree that copyright is indeed needed. Its primary function is to ensure that creators do not lose legal rights over their own original work and can contradict how their work is used by others. It also ensures that creators are permanently credited when their work is used. ‘Work’ can refer to a vast range of mediums from film, television, art, songs, instrumentals and remixes, books, comedic jokes, brands, personal videos, writing of any kind, animation, designs and of course games, to mention a small number. The process is made easier by the fact that copyright is instantaneous and requires no paperwork for it to be initiated.
One other subject relating to copyright I have thought about in depth is whether anything I create can possibly be new or original. There will always be the argument that everything one has seen has originated from another place, and the same argument can be applied to music since sound is so easy to manipulate in the mind. Therefore, I sometimes try to prevent examining examples before creating work to ensure I do not collect too much influence from them.

However, there is no denying that copyright has become a significant problem for many creatives in the modern world. For these creatives, copyright law restricts what they can produce, and the threat of severe legal action only makes the situation even worse. One type of creative who faces this more than others are musicians. They find they need to be extremely cautious when creating work, since it is so simple to create music like that of existing music.

A good example of creators being restricted exists on the popular video-sharing website ‘YouTube’. This website has been slandered and in some cases ostracised by content creators and users due to content frequently being removed by ‘YouTube’s moderators. Their decision to remove said content is largely due to what they consider a breach of copyright being found in videos. The creators of parody videos often find their work inaccessible to their audience after removal.
In 2016, Benny and Rafi Fine, the originators of the ‘YouTube’ channel ‘FBE’ (Fine Brothers Entertainment’) sparked outrage after attempting to copyright the word ‘React’ on the website. This meant that if any other creators, famous or not on ‘YouTube’ specifically made a ‘reaction’ video, they would legally be obliged to pay a piece of the video’s revenue to ‘FBE’ or else it would be removed. Another main cause of anger was the fact that the brothers were trying to trademark a type of video which long predated their channel. The idea has been deemed greedy and unethical by thousands. However, after receiving enormous backlash from the media but primarily their own ‘Subscribers’ who have been ‘Unsubscribing’ in massive numbers, the idea and video have since been removed and the brothers have released a public apology. What remains is the threat of a bigger and more successful channel restraining smaller ones who possess potential creativity.

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

Yes, interactive narrative has a huge influence on gaming today as its use spans from larger Triple-A titles to smaller indie titles, this is because interactive narrative allows for decisions to be made by the user making them feel more connected to the game and in-turn improving user experience. Games like Stanley’s parable a great indie game based of making decisions by either defying the narrator or following him allows the game to exist not just inside the confines of a game a but rather becomes one with the user as they feel like every decision made by them directly affects Stanley, this kind of connection can only be created through an interactive narrative and its effective use applied to video games. Another example of interactive narrative is one made by me on twine an interactive narrative story telling creator tool, I made The Amnesia trap as a simple concept of interactive narrative. In my story the user wakes up to the fact that he cannot recall information from day to day this is due to his amnesia, so he has two decisions either reinvent himself or listen to the recordings and try to become himself from yesterday but the word trap in the title suggests he is trapped so either decision made by him leads to him doing the same thing every day with the same decisions, this is an effective use of interactive narrative as it allows for the user to visualize and understand the storyline effectively because they are interacting with the story and seeing it reveal as they click through. I feel like for my game development using interactive narrative will be essential to grab the user’s attention for a prolonged time, this is why I feel like learning about interactive narrative has allowed me to understand how to use it effectively within my game development if ever needed.

Sources and references

https://www.ceros.com/blog/narrative-design-video-game/

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/10/17/wot-i-think-the-stanley-parable/

Demonstrate the key concepts of the interactive narrative genre using twine. http://twinery.org – embed / link to twine

https://twinery.org/2/#!/stories/0f41ef43-17d2-4689-b3b9-4890edb463a8/play

https://twinery.org/2/#!/stories/0f41ef43-17d2-4689-b3b9-4890edb463a8

What were the key ideas of the Bauhaus?

It is hard to say how architecture , design and art would look like today if there was no Bauhaus. Famous German art school had a huge impact on these areas, furthermore influenced the development of modernist architecture and reinforced abstract tendency in art. Significance of the Bauhaus stems from innovative ideas and radical changes of views on different fields of art.

Bauhaus building, Dessau, 1925-1926

The key concept invented by members of the Bauhaus is functionalism which have become constant element of space design. Functionality was not only based on human body measurements but also psychology as they thought that emotional needs are no less important. In Bauhaus school of art everything, including value of modern architecture, depended on human being. People get such an architecture to which they matured. They found out that space arrangement influences the way of how people act and think so they aimed that whilst designing.

Repetitive forms have been introduced and elements enabling various combinations have become crucial. There were minimum of decorations, although all the space was occupied. On the other hand architecture regulates relations between nature, technology and humanity and it was carefully considered. Therefore, placement of the building was not random and windows constituted important issue as they can relate landscape with interior.

House am Horn, Weimar, 1923

Members of the Bauhaus put great effort into integrating all fields of art and creating an aesthetical  and technical unity. Moreover, all divisions between artists, craftsmen and industrialists blurred. The concept of an architect as creator of buildings turned into designer of community living and that is why this role is now so relevant. Thanks to the Bauhaus architects have become as well artists as scientists.

Do you feel that the ideas could have an influence on contemporary games design?

Innovative ideas of Bauhaus art school influenced almost every field of design. The reason for this is that the core thing about their activity is not creating any specific style or theme but completely new approach to perceiving the world. This approach can be translated also into games design.

One of the most visible similarities between Bauhaus’ ideology and contemporary games design is where the main inspiration comes from. In both cases it is human. Houses we live in must be suitable to our needs, as well as games we play. The way they are designed is driven not only by abilities, but also emotions of users. Psychological aspect of design was very important for the members of the Bauhaus and so do games designers who involve our emotionality in their creations to keep players on the edge of their seats.

The other thing which could have an influence on contemporary design is functionalism. We can observe the limitation of unnecessary things also on the field of creating games. There are no unexplorable levels and needless rules in games. Everything matches together and even the least element of gameplay is involving.

Usage of repetitive forms in projects of the Bauhaus could have inspired some of games designers. There is full bunch of games on the subject of matching similar elements and solving puzzles such as Tetris, Bejeveled etc.

Bejeveled 3

Vague division between members of the Bauhaus reappears among games designers. Their job demands advanced skills in various areas such as writing, mathematics and art. If someone takes care for only one a little part of game then he is not a games designer in whole meaning of this word.

Taking all this into consideration, it is certain that the Bauhaus school of art have a huge impact on contemporary games design. Even if not directly, a lot of modern ideas have their source in the Bauhaus.

references:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-bauhaus.html

https://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/en/architecture/bauhaus-building.html

What were the key ideas of Bauhaus?

First thing that was laid out in Bauhaus’s manifesto was about functionality and its number one importance when it came to making products. Bauhaus believed that all products made had to have a unique selling point in terms of aesthetics and had to be functional in their design, this meant making products inexpensive and long lasting while maintaining functionality of the product. Therefore, mass production was very helpful in saving costs. Second thing listed in the Bauhaus manifesto was about being smart and tactical with money and time spent building the product, this didn’t mean buying poor materials or trying to rush the production of the product and making it an unusable product for the means of profit, rather it meant using time and money efficiently together to make sure there was budget set and a time set for the completion of the project. The third part of his manifesto consisted of Bauhaus explaining how he believed that there was always a need for discovery in terms of design, this meant coming up with unique ways to use art and architecture to influence product designs, Bauhaus used this technique to come up with the earliest form of graphic design, this was because of his use of negative space which created graphic design as we know it today. Lastly Bauhaus emphasized the need for simplicity and effectiveness, this meant removing things that are not required for the product to function. Adding unnecessary things that make the product look pretty made the product clunky in the eyes of Bauhaus, so making sure that the products production was focused on multi-functionality and not just a focus on making it look pretty. Bauhaus really enjoyed influencing design that were more organic and felt down to earth in a way this made them more beautiful than products focused on being beautiful. I will be using the ideas of multi-functionality from Bauhaus in my game development.

Sources and references

https://www.widewalls.ch/bauhaus-manifesto-key-points/

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-bauhaus.htm

Do you feel the ideas have an influence on contemporary game design?

From my understanding I believe that Bauhaus had a small influence on games this is due to the complexity of games today and how they’re made with the idea of making them look as beautiful as possible, for example Triple A titles like Destiny focus on being beautiful rather than being functional. This has made the very popular titles being released today very lacklustre as they lack multi-functionality in terms of story and function. On the other hand, Bauhaus does have some influence on indie game designs this because they’re mainly focused on functionality which follows a memorable story line along with a gameplay which flourishes of functionality, this in a way gives them their own beauty in design as they organic in their design and aesthetics like the indie game Fez. Even today Bauhaus influences many small parts of the game industry which are growing bigger and bigger due to many platforms allowing for indie games to sell, therefore Bauhaus continues to influence contemporary game designs in small ways in this current period.

Sources and references

http://www.gamesreviews.com/news/07/fez-cost-over-half-a-million-to-make/

https://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/3037-destiny-2-gpu-benchmark-frametimes-graphics-optimization

> A) select one example to outline the key concepts of the interactive narrative genre?

In my opinion, The Stanley Parable is a game to which can be a shining example of the key concepts of the interactive narrative. Though categorised on Steam as a ‘first person exploration game’ The Stanley Parable is one game that highlights its interactive narrative by having a narrator that says what Stanley (the player) is going to do and where they are going to go, the player can then choose whether or not to follow the Narrators, well, narrative. Your decisions as the player directly affect the narrative of the game as shown by the Narrators reaction to such choices and in some cases the Narrator trying to coax the player back into his own narrative or getting somewhat passive aggressive when you continue to ignore him.

With the players decisions come multiple endings to the game, roughly nineteen in total, all of which are dependent on what the player does during the game and at what points the player chooses to listen to or ignore the Narrator. There is an ending in which if the player obeys the Narrators every word, Stanley destroys the ‘Mind Control Facility’ whilst the Narrator talks about how Stanley is now free and can do whatever he wants. That ending is both clever and ironic in the context of games as although the player may have freedom to do what they want in games; the majority of players are still controlled by games and the narratives that drive them even in the interactive narrative genre.

> B) does the interactive narrative still have a role to play in video games today. Give exemplary examples?

In a word, yes. Interactive narratives and games with them still have a major role to play in the video games of today because giving players the ability to choose what they do can immerse them in the game more so than if they were just following one set narrative path. On top of that, giving the player choices with consequences and changes in plot points adds a replay ability factor to the game, the option to play through the story x number of times to see all the endings.

Gaming companies have taken on board the interactive narrative, modelling their games to give the players choices that directly affect the game and how the plot unravels. Titles such as Life Is Strange, Dream Daddy: A Daddy Dating Simulator and Until Dawn are three exemplary examples of how the interactive narrative is being still being used and used well in video games. All three employ multiple narrative arcs dependent on what the player chooses to say/do, each with consequences that appear later in the game or right after the choice has been made.

Life Is Strange has the most interesting use of the interactive narrative though as it also uses a time travel mechanic that allows the players to change some of their choices right after they’ve been made, seeing only the short-term consequences as an indicator for what their choice has resulted in. The games immense popularity and multiple game awards show that interactive narrative does still hold a place in the gaming industry.

Ried, M. Bulitko, V. Interactive Narrative: An Intelligent Systems Approach [pdf]  Available at: https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~riedl/pubs/aimag.pdf [Accessed 1 December 2017]
The Stanley Parable on Steam. Store.steampowered.com Available at:  http://store.steampowered.com/app/221910/The_Stanley_Parable/ [Accessed 1December 2017]
Endings. The Stanley Parable WIki  Available at: http://thestanleyparable.wikia.com/wiki/Endings {Accessed 1 December 2017]

> What are the key components of Post Modernism?

As a simple way of putting it, Post Modernism is a critique of modernism and the structures of our modern world with the key point being made that there is no absolute truth. Expanding on this ideology you can see that often social constructs are brought into question or torn down by those with the Post-Modern view. Where the majority followed the belief of things being very black and white (Good vs Evil, male or female) the perspective of Post Modernism was the shades of grey in between, weakening the once powerful and unquestionable ideologies. These shades of grey offer light to minorities such as those in the LGBT+ community, ethnic/religious minorities and movements that strayed from the ideals of the time that were often barely regarded by the masses. Why should gender and sexuality be so binary and restrictive? Why should minorities be ignored or walked over? These are just two of the questions that PostModernism asks.

Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum? 1989 Guerrilla Girls null Purchased 2003 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P78793

The image above was created by an anonymous group of radical feminist, female artists called Guerrilla Girls who were dedicated to fighting both sexism and racism within the art world. Their entry to the art world ‘Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum?’ in 1989 called out the museums, critics, curators and artists for the lack of artwork created by women and artists of colour in mainstream exhibitions.  The Guerrilla Girls and their work falls under the post modern title as it brings into the question the sexism of the art world with the question as to why female artists can’t seem to get their artworks in museums yet so many of the nude pieces in art gallery’s are of women.