Summary

During this entry course for ‘Research and communication skills’ over the past week I have been learning many different techniques and useful sources that I will be able to use each time I write and an evaluation. The program extended my knowledge on online searching and many more critical skills that I need. There have been sometimes when the lectures were hard to follow and I have also found it difficult to balance my project with the task given each week, but I have only treated it as a stepping stone to push my self to my best ability.

At the beginning of task 1 I was not able to understand the value of the lesson but as I searched more into the task I found myself noticing errors or habits that I have been making while doing my online research. During this study I was able to extend my research to another level, collecting primary and secondary source as well as aimlessly the surfing the internet for a good quote or image. This session has taught me to use the library more often because there are many more information’s found in books that cannot be discovered just by using google. The general skills I have learnt in this session has benefited me to write a descriptive research evaluation.

During task 2 I was taught the importance referencing the source that I have taken from the internet, books, article etc. having learnt Plagiarism in my collage years I was able to further my knowledge of referencing in the right way.  What I have found difficult in this task was finding the information about a certain source that was posted anonymously, it was quite frustrating to put into a Harvard reference without data about the writer or artist.

Task 3 and 4 of visual research and reflective writing was a difficult subject, the hardest part of the subject was finding the right topic to talk about. With the help of my previous sessions I was able to produce a review of the topic given. After a while of writing I was getting the pattern of writing the effectively, this part og the project was a stressful because of my project deadlines mixing in with my RCS work. But I was able to find my way around it and my solution was to relate the researches I was writing to my project.

The last task of this module about Ethics was a different type of writing from the other projects. I have this module easy because of the multiple skills I learnt from the past week. the only difficult part of this task was constructing the paragraphs for the analysis to be understandable, as I took my time I was hopefully able to write at the right technique. Overall as I overview all of the previews six tasks I think I was able to learn multiple new skills not only in writing but also in research, the only thing that I would have worked on was my time management for all the subjects because there were times where I was busier than the other and the quality of my work was not as consistent throughout the project. In the positive site this module has introduced me to new techniques that I will be able to use for any future evaluations, essays or even personal statements

Academic integrity defined as honesty in acknowledging the work of other people and giving credit where you have taken other people ideas.  

Within looking in this task I came across the topic of conversation of clothing brands using the famous logos such as Disney for their clothing branch, like jumpers and tea-shirts I believe that his topic itself is kind of sensitive as people obviously know Disney franchise as it has been established long before, 0ctober 1923, which makes the franchise 94 years old. I find it odd within using these kind clothing as I am not the type of person to wear such logos in my everyday clothing. However, I do believe it’s a matter of taste within people. 

Disney t-shirt Topshop 2016

A similar situation with famous popstar singer as she battles with Topshop (brand) over t-shirt using her image, I believe that this matter is unexpectable issue as she didn’t give consent to brand, I do get that with her status she is very known and very successful to what she made herself into but she is human after all to not accept this matter. The source also implies that Rihanna sued that brand too in 2013, this means that Topshop has been feeding off people craft and bending the rules in terms of the law and trademarks, this such a big issue as people had been sold illegal items, for several years and keeps feeding off other people success. Where is the originality? 

Blog- Harpers Bazaar     

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/news/a9740/rihanna-wins-legal-fight-with-topshop-over-t-shirts-using-her-image/  

Why do AI creators hold AI to a human standard?

some would argue that an AI is just a computer using logic to deal with algorithms and tasks thus giving it the illusion of intelligence. Although personally, id argue that logic itself is an essential piece of our brains as our brain can be broken down into logic & reason (the parts that think rationally and control many of our conscious decision making) and emotion & Instinct (the parts that control our subconscious, creativity, instinctive reactions, mental well-being, emotional state etc) although its true animals can have logic too, we design AI to have a specifically human level of logic and reason. in essence an AI is what a human would be without emotion and instinct and of course AI doesn’t need this to function because its not a living thing made out of fragile flesh and bones.

the reason we regard AI in this way is because of that fact, the fact that AI has no emotion, just logic and this creates a natural disconnect between us and the machine and we completely disregard them as capable of true cognitive intelligence. the opposite of humans doing this would be pets and animals for example because in the same way that AI is seen as purely logical, animals are seen as being mostly instinctive in all the actions they preform, in the end the most fundamental aspect of any living thing is self preservation and continuation of your species although the former can be overridden by the latter. although its been seen that when we actually interact with animals they’re vastly more intelligent than we seem to regard them and even see bits of ourselves within their behaviour. point is, is if we can do that with animals, what we see to be an instinctive force of nature, why cant we do the same with an AI we see as mostly logic? after all we are the ones that created them, although they have been purposefully programmed to only do what benefits a human and not self preservation, had we programmed them with algorithms to simulate emotion the feeling would be much different. in conclusion, the reason designers treat AI this way is so the programs can be seen as truly intelligent

The ramifications and fear behind a strong AI

many people are scared of the prospect of an AI becoming human like or having emotional programming because of how fiction, games and Hollywood have portrayed the worst possible scenarios of what could happen if an AI/robots became angry and went rogue (terminator, irobot, 2001: a space odyssey, portal and so on are prime examples of this) and it depicts a ‘planet of the apes’ kind of scenario where AI simply removes the humans out of the equation. this is very effective at portraying a ‘what if’ scenario in a horrifying way but you need to actually question how this would apply in real life and if its logical at all to assume that its even possible. realistically if an AI became sentient , with the way they function, they would still not be programmed for self preservation and thus would have humanities best interests above all else and would still be subservient. if however we programmed them with emotion or at the very least remove most of their restrictions that prevent individual thought then it would only be fair to treat them as equals and make sure to program them with an efficient, human sense of  morality, they probably wouldn’t revolt unless we treated them unfairly, and even then we’ve been known to simply pull the plug or reset on AI if it malfunctions (although this brings up another ethical debate of whether an AI that can think for itself being shut down out of fear or concern for efficiency is aggravated murder) all in all i’d say people just need to stop panicking over these fantasy nightmare scenarios and just let AI evolve naturally without condemning it as so many people do, this is the only way we can progress with AI and technology in general, ditching the old fears people have for the rise of technology and just let it grow as has the right to.

Bibliography

-Bostrom, N. and Yudkowsky, E. (2017). The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. [ebook] Berkeley, California: Machine Intelligence Research Institute, p.21. Available at: https://intelligence.org/files/EthicsofAI.pdf [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Hintze, A. (2017). What an artificial intelligence researcher fears about AI. [online] The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/what-an-artificial-intelligence-researcher-fears-about-ai-78655 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Valve (2017). An image of GLaDOS’ new body from portal 2. [image] Available at: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/File:Glados_new_body.jpg [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Honda (2013). an image of honda’s intelligent robot, ASIMO.. [image] Available at: https://www.proctorhonda.com/blog/2013/august/6/asimo-the-honda-robot.htm [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Pros and cons of copyright law

Copyright law has been around since the 1790s and has been being updated and changed ever since then, although in the modern era its hard to keep up with all the changes in media and its use especially in remix and parody culture. its a very good way to ensure an artist or creators original work is kept safe from being stolen and claimed by someone who didn’t make it and allowing others to share content and keep track of who created it although id say that this power has been abused on the internet to the full extent. see, i don’t think you can use these old and outdated methods to judge the new content boom on the internet and copyright infringement has been used as a bullying tactic by large corporations on the internet to stamp out completely innocent creators even if the original creator is credited, thus not allowing the content to spread naturally rather in a cold, corporate way with ad campaigns and such.

i think it’s pretty hypocritical of the companies and record labels, especially with music and art because a lot of the time corporations take credit for what an artist has made, effectively meaning these business executives that only care about money take all credit and royalties. take the current state of youtube for example, the copyright infringement detectors are most of the time automatic and don’t always work for fair use and even when an infringement claim is made by a real person its not always justified again because of fair use because claims can be made by anyone and if the corperation is big (nintendo for example) youtube wont even question if its fair use or not because they don’t want to lose a sponsor and ad revenue. theyve even gone so far as to demonetise videos if it steps outside of ‘advertiser freindly content

in summary for all the good it does for honest and original creators there is a real danger copyright could be abused and used as a tool for corporate censorship.

Is it possible to make anything new?

In this day and age, you’d think its impossible to make anything new, that every idea has been exhausted and that if you show even a shred of influence of another’s work you will be condemned for it and have your work declared a rip off of an original property.

the truth is its not that were running out of ideas, its just that with our internet age connectivity we’re seeing a very large volume of creative works across all forms of media and discussing and interpreting them in hundreds of ways every day and sharing information and creative works instantaneously and with all that in mind its only natural we’d start to see algorithms and clear signs of influence even in original works. this is not a bad thing though, because creative ideas actually rely on influence and shared information, inspiration can come from just about any source after all. one idea from one source leads to influencing another creative idea to be fed to another source and so on and i’d argue that our vastly increased connectivity has allowed us to create and innovate more than we ever have before.

in conclusion, its entirely possible to make new things even if it means building on whats come before, no matter how far fetched it is there will always be a new and original idea out there, you just have to go to the length of finding it.

Bibliography

-Riverhead Books (2010). WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-UK copyright Service. (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Youtube copyright system. (2017). [image] Available at: https://harkeraquila.com/29864/opinion/youtubes-corporate-copyright-censorship-system/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Dark Souls- User-Game Synergy

Released back on September 22nd of 2011, Dark souls was produced by fromsoftware and is the spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls. It redefined the industry following its release by breaking through the mediocre stagnancy the industry was in back then by bringing back the oldschool brand of fair handed but brutal difficulty that had not been seen since the 90s and combined that with innovative game design, a unique user interface  a rich lore.

i could talk about how much this game means to me and what makes it brilliant ill stick to the point of this essay, the user interface. the HUD and inventory system takes notes from a lot of RPG games including the use of the classic stat points (vitality, dexterity, intelligence, strength etc) that can be upgraded for the in-game currency of ‘souls’ this can only be done at ‘bonfires’ which serve as your checkpoints during the game, which leads us to one of the core mechanics, death. whenever you die during gameplay you lose all of your accumulated souls and have only one chance to go and retrieve them but the catch is you are sent back to the last bonfire you rested at which can be close or very far, this conditions you to be afraid of dying in game instead of shrugging it off as a minor annoyance and reloading a save (you cant do this in dark souls as your data is constantly being autosaved)  this makes the bossfights and even standard enemy encounters nail biting as even the weakest of enemies can kill you if you arent paying full attention.

integral to playing this game is knowing your enemy, especially the bosses. each enemy type and boss has unique attack patterns and animations/wind-ups that you have to read, anticipate and learn so that you can dodge, parry or put your shield up accordingly and exploit them when you see a gap in their offence/defence although no matter how much you learn keeping focused and reacting quickly in a heart pounding battle is key to survival. what ties this all together is the way dark souls never directly tells you the story, you piece the lore and world together from npc dialogue, item descriptions, music, environment and visuals which in turn makes you invested in the npcs and even boss characters, telling a beautifully tragic tale of loss and decay.

to summarise, dark souls has a good UI because the game expects just as much from the player as the player expects from the game and creates a certain kind of synergy between player and gameplay that i’ve never experienced in anything other than a souls game.

The relationship between game design and human-computer interaction

understanding how our brains interact with technology is integral to understanding good game design. as can be seen by the  graph model i chose to represent this, games have an added advantage of interactivity over other forms of media, bringing the player directly into the experience first hand. one essential thing is knowing why and when we choose to play certain games and for what reason, for example mobile games and some pc games, flash games etc are usually only played when were bored and trying to pass the time on a train, on a bus, waiting for a doctors appointment, waiting for a huge download to finish or 3ds max to render and so on.

HCI has its foundations in cognitive science, as such it is built around similar core principles (neuro science, linguistics, philsophy, psychology, anthropology etc) and has been improving since the beginning to make computer operating systems easier to understand and much more fluid to control and navigate and this in turn has fed into game design building on the same ideas of making games much more intuitive and immersive. for me what makes a good video game experience is something to immerse myself in, a reason to care about the characters and the world, good writing (not necessarily a direct narrative but this is also good) a satisfying game weight, a good set of mechanics that function well, a solid and creative art direction and most of all treating me like an adult and letting me discover things for myself with little to no exposition. games can still be fun without much of this but without many reasons to get invested like that it will just become another throw away game for pure entertainment purposes that ill forget about in a few months to a year. much like dark souls, a game that grabs me and immerses me into a game universe is one that will stick with me forever. this follows along the same HCI route of involving a lot of brain processes that come to us naturally to make a game feel real and to make us care about a fictional universe as deeply as we would something from our real lives.

Bibliography

– Fromsoftware (2017). Dark souls prepare to die edition box art. [image] Available at: http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/darksouls-prepare/index.html [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com. (2017). Dark Souls Wiki | Dark Souls Wiki. [online] Available at: http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Dark+Souls+Wiki [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Youtube (2015). Let’s Play Dark Souls 1: From the Dark (a full descriptive play-through). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUqg8XtAHnc&list=PLQDWoXFQ-YLpeEFkzeDZF1MmNQS7BDoI4 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Hitboxteam.com. (2017). Hitbox Team – Designing game narrative. [online] Available at: http://hitboxteam.com/designing-game-narrative [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-The Interaction Design Foundation. (2017). What is Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)?. [online] Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/human-computer-interaction [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-fromsoftware (2017). video upload of ‘the making of dark souls’ originally included in the collectors edition. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo4DyCEao8A [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

The artistic design of Edmund McMillen

Edmund McMillen is  the creator of the critically acclaimed super meat boy (10/10 on steam), the binding of Isaac, gish, aether and the end is nigh just to name a few.

originally starting out as a simple flash game creator on newgrounds, Edmund’s unique sense of both artistic and game design, worldless story telling and his love for experimenting with different styles of game-play (most if not all of his individual games have unique game-play mechanics) have captivated many a gamer, including myself. personally i think the way his games play and feel and have a fair sense of integrated, organic difficulty is really something to be admired and learnt from what id really like to talk about is how he managed to turn the drawings hes been doing for almost all his life into a playable form of media, the example ill be using is the binding of Isaac.

Binding of Isaac was one of the first games of Edmund’s i ever saw and as a 16 year old it horrified but intrigued me, what with a common theme in his art being to mix revulsion with a crude kind of cuteness in all of the character designs. his simple but effective designs and gruesome colour pallets and textures translate well into the selected art direction of pixel art mixed with soft, digital art backgrounds, this of course being from Binding of Isaac: rebirth because the original featured digitally drawn sprites, although i slightly prefer those sprites his art skill in rebirth had vastly improved since the original, McMillen also has a brilliant sense of symbolism in that every enemy has a history and direct reference to something like childbirth or old testament biblical jargon etc.

to outline it i love Edmund’s work because of how much painstaking effort and attention he puts in to designing characters and environments and translating them into games effectively, myself being a tradition artist i strongly aspire to design unique games featuring all my original character and world designs and id certainly love to make games like that some day.

Indie games currently in development i’m hopeful for

Praey for the Gods

Praey for the gods is a shadow of the colossus inspired game title set to release in 2018 for PS4, Xbox one, Steam and Android that was funded by kickstarter and developed in Unity by No Matter studios. its an action-adventure game featuring survival game mechanics wherein you as a lone warrior must uncover the mystery behind a never ending winter whilst trying to survive in a harsh, desolate environment and killing the gigantic, hostile creatures that live out on the bleak frozen island. they have a solid idea, a good art direction and are taking inspiration form a team ICO classic so this game if produced and put together well could really be something very special.

Fe

Fe is another upcoming game set for 2018, wherein you play as a small fox like creature trying to maintain balance of its forest home. the game itself centres around interaction with nature, exploration and stealth in a world packed with secrets and wonder as you try to reclaim the forest from ‘the silent ones’ strange alien-like beings that are disrupting the balance of nature all packaged in a stunningly beautiful art style and utilising a 3D platformer like control scheme. athough its being published by EA i really hope that Zoink (the developers of the game) pull together a wonderful experience somewhat reminiscent of the very well received Ori and the blind forest.

Bibliography

-Swirsky, J. and Pajot, L. (2017).A still image of edmund from indie game: the movie. [image] Available at: http://img7.gram.pl/thumb/20130213112058.jpg [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

–Indie game: the movie. (2017). [film] Directed by J. Swirsky and L. Pajot. Canada: Blinkworks.

– Newgrounds.com. (2017). Bluebaby. [online] Available at: https://bluebaby.newgrounds.com/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-McMillen, E. (2017). The Binding of Isaac Artbook. [online] The Binding of Isaac Wiki. Available at: http://bindingofisaac.wikia.com/wiki/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Artbook [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Praeyforthegods.com. (2017). Praey for the Gods. [online] Available at: http://www.praeyforthegods.com/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-No Matter Studios (2017). A screenshot from Praey forthe Gods’ reveal trailer. [image] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzDl2THyF4w [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Wiki. (2017). Gurdy. [online] Available at: http://the-boi-rebirth.wikia.com/wiki/Gurdy#Gallery [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

-Zoink (2017). Production image of Fe. [image] Available at: http://www.zam.com/article/648/whats-going-on-with-ea-originals-and-fe [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

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The research and communications module this semester has given me a newfound appreciation of the influences behind contemporary art movements. Learning about the development of art and design from the Avantgarde movement to Postmodernism has been fascinating. It has forced me to explore areas and styles that I have not researched before – for example I discovered I now love the style of 60s psychedelic underground culture, where garish, clashing colours were effective in engaging the viewer while having typography that was a statement against clear communication.

Learning about the transition of movements and understanding the reasons why change occurred has also helped me recognise the importance of design. Counter cultures I researched were interesting because of their various styles; they went against convention whether it was Shepard Fairey’s politically charged graffiti or jazz album covers by Reid Miles – they were made in retaliation of mainstream style. This is important because mainstream design and ideas should evolve and improve. In the future I want to look into more depth of these styles in order to develop my own style.

The connection between theory and practice is vital, knowledge of history in both its successes and failures educates us for the present. On reflection the lecture on postmodernism has aided me in discovering a major influence on my future graphical practice. Swiss Style had always appealed to me but I could never address what the style was. I am now conscious of the”less is more” approach in my future work and I now recognise why the appeal of work from Wolfgang Weingart and Armin Hofmann has stood the test of time; researching their experimental practice in regards to manipulating typography and image through layering and photography while observing what I like about their work has encouraged me to take inspiration and experiment to create my own style. This has been beneficial to my graphic design rotation where in studio based work I have struggled to manipulate typography; now I have a basis of knowledge to aid my decisions by comparing with the work I like and use the processes I’ve learned are behind it, this also gives an idea of the impact certain design can produce in order to improve my own.

This module has also exposed me to different ways of thinking making me more mindful of the factors that are influencing how art has changed and how it is changing. The quote “technology is the mortal enemy of art” from Rodechencko’s 1922 constructivism manifesto was an interesting concept that has made me reflect on how technology has had an effect on not only how I experience art but also how I make it. This has influenced my opinion on finding inspiration for my studio based work; I now think I should go to more galleries try and look for inspiration everywhere rather than rely on the internet to find something that relates to my research, if I’m struggling with designing on a screen i should try designing off screen.

Tim McDonagh is a freelance illustrator that I connected with after attending a presentation by him in my foundation art course. My interest started with his ink pen and digital techniques that produced an amazing colourful style.

“Greedo” Pen ink on paper,2015. Illustrator: Tim McDonagh[6]

“Greedo” is a unique piece of work; rather than for a client this illustration was made out of his own interests – the story being his love of Star Wars. It was from this image that he was noticed by Egmont uk to create illustrated STAR WARS: GALACTIC MAPS. His advice to aspiring illustrators was to “be sure to create work that you love and that you enjoy working on.” The work and clients will come later on” as an aspiring illustrator I connected with this because there is usually such heavy focus on tailoring style and design to a brief(or client) where developing my style should also have more emphasis.[2]

“Witchcraft in Liberia”, Animation, 2016. Illustrator: David Folvari.[3]

David Foldvari is another illustrator I find relevant to my interest in illustration and in developing my own style; this image was from an editorial for the Telegraph on child witches in Liberia that was about the unfortunate story of a child accused of witchcraft.[5] Foldvari’s saturated black ink on a white background is an example of how style can influence the feeling of the subject; his style can cover darkly political subjects with its dark appearance. I also connect with his concern “that we’re going to go back to the ’80s and people are going to think illustration is nicey-nicey and not saying much”[4] I think its important that illustrations say something in order to help educate and communicate, Foldvari does this though editorial illustration that articulates news articles, issues and viewpoints from just an image, otherwise why have an illustration?

“Stadt Theater Basel” offset lithograph,1963. Designer: Armin Hofmann[1]

I am interested in the manipulation of photography with typography and one of my favourite graphic designers Armin Hofmann does just this. This poster shows how condensing simple visual elements (in very much Swiss design style) can be incredibly effective for communication. For me it gives the feeling of movement and performance like shadow puppets which is fitting for message of Basel theatre. It is also a good example of how effective photography can be without the clearest resolution. “Sensible and meaningful form of advertising can be achieved by simplification of the formal language and by restraint in the treatment of the verbal message” I connect with this because in a world bombarded with colour, imagery and information it is important to remember sometimes simplification is most effective to communicate graphically.

References

[1] AIGA | the professional association for design. (2011). 2011 AIGA Medal: Armin Hofmann. [online] Available at: https://www.aiga.org/medalist-arminhofmann [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

[2] Floyd, J. and Floyd, J. (2017). Star Wars: Galactic Maps Illustrator Tim McDonagh Interview | StarWars.com. [online] StarWars.com. Available at: http://www.starwars.com/news/charting-the-galaxy-an-interview-with-star-wars-galactic-maps-illustrator-tim-mcdonagh [Accessed 2 Dec. 2017].

[3] Foldvari, D. (2016). Witchcraft in Liberia. [Blog] davidfolvari. Available at: http://davidfoldvari.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/witchcraft-in-liberia.html [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

[4] Ideastap.com. (2016). David Foldvari: Illustrator. [online] Available at: http://www.ideastap.com/ideasmag/the-knowledge/david-foldvari-interview [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

[5] Rowley, T. (2016). The child witches of Liberia. [online] S.telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/child-abuse-witches/index.html [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

[6] TIM MCDONAGH. (2017). PORTFOLIO. [online] Available at: https://www.mcdonaghillustration.com/#/greedo/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2017].

– Give some examples where you see games being clearly influenced by other work?

In the survival horror game, Resident Evil 7, it is clear that the movie Texas massacre chainsaw had an influence on the production of the game. The dysfunctional, inbred family in the Texas massacre chainsaw movie live in an isolated, derelict house and have scattered idols of human bones around different locations just as the Baker family’s rotting mansion. The Baker family dinner scene in Resident Evil 7 borrowed heavily from the scene in Texas chainsaw massacre, as both introduce the disturbed minds and sadistic nature of the family members, that the protagonists and player would have to escape from.In the action role-playing game, Dark Souls, designs of characters, tombs and monsters resembled many of those from the Anime Berserk. Siegmeyer from Dark Souls is a large character, his bulkiness and round shaped armour is almost identical to Bazuso from Berserk as he shares the same proportions and round onion-like shapes.   

1. A) Neural Networks are often used for predictions and/categorizing things. What ethical issues might arise from the use of neural networks when used for decision making in games?

The use of neural networks for decision making in games can lead to the game being quite unfair or one-sided, depending on how the decision making affects the player. For example, if neural networks are used for the programming of an ai boss that can dodge and block attacks, the experience for the player will be unfair. The reason for this is that the boss will have an advantage over reaction time to the player’s attacks, as the neural network will predict and calculate different possibilities of player’s next decision. Another issue the implementation of neural networks in AI has is that the AI could not follow its purpose. If the neural network is programmed to survive and attack the player, the neural network could decide to continuously dodge the player or move away. Neural networks can also make mistakes if it has not gone through cycles of the particular tasks it has been programmed for as it would not fully understand how to achieve its set goal this can also annoy the neural network and cause it to react strangely.