The advertisement from Duncan Quinn: 2008 ad campaign shows us an extremely violent of woman reined and dominated by a man behind a car. This image surprisingly appeared in 2008 Duncan Quinn Suit .As it shows us, it seems like Duncan Quinn obviously enjoyed killing this woman and holding a necktie around the dead woman who is bleeding from her head. Like holding a dog, he is very much controlling his lady and an evil emotion l can see on his face. Perhaps Duncan Quinn want to show us a kind of dominance, power and male’s right in his suit, but it is against feminism as well.

The reality is that term “feminism” was used in early nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It can be involved into political and sociological theories, philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference, as well as the right of equality of the female. In Duncan Quinn advertisement, it eventually violates early theory about feminism, the necktie (means constrain), under a man’s dominance (means unequal between male and female), bra and bleeding head (means ethic oppression). Furthermore, until 1975, the first British Sex Discrimination Act was found, and with encouragement of the UK, the European Community ensured this law and followed Britain’s step. In the law, female and male have the same status in life, work and society, but Duncan Quinn ad did not respect woman’s right such as man’s power and woman’ s murdered.

Whether or not emotive modelling should be part of NPC development is a difficult question to answer currently. And i do believe that it’s not exactly a yes or no question of whether it should have a place in games with NPCs and more of a question of should it be included in certain games. Emotive modelling means that the AI by having their own emotions can decide how they interact with the player and other NPCs. Now this could have serious impact on gameplay depending on the game and could be both positive and negative for the player. Imagine the player needs to talk to an NPC but that particular NPC was killed by another for somehow upsetting the other AI. Usually without this emotive modelling the NPCs wouldn’t be able to interact in this way. A good example is from the article below:

“There was one time I was playing a murder mystery game we had designed – and there was this doctor who came to diagnose how a character was murdered,” he says. “However, the doctor was being very rude to my character and kept making dismissive remarks. Initially I thought it was a bug because I knew the doctor’s personality was mostly pleasant, and I knew I hadn’t been rude to him. I thought, oh man, why is he being such an arsehole to me?
 
“I looked through the code and it turned out that much much earlier in the game I’d been rude to a servant during dinner, and the servant had gone into the kitchen and told the people there what a jerk I’d been – one of those people was the doctor. He remembered that.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/12/video-game-characters-emotional-ai-developers

In FFXV AI are present constantly, from start to finish of the game. Some with their own personalities and traits, and others who are simply background characters. From enemy AI to friendly characters the player meets on their journey. When playing the game you’ll notice you are accompanied by 3 AI companions, each with different traits and personalities. They’re aimed at bringing something unique to the team and keeping the player immersed. They’ll follow the player wherever the player goes and they’ll traverse environments and fight in different ways. They appear to be quite intelligent AI on the surface but they do have quite a few issues.

They can notoriously get stuck on objects in the environment which means the only way to free them is to progress a large distance and the game will teleport them to you. The enemy AI in the game is relatively simple as they only have one or two attacks each with the exception of the final boss. The final boss of the game tries to mimic the player by fighting with the same weapons as them and using the same attacks, however they don’t seem to learn at all during the fight.

Receiving and completing the tasks that have been set throughout the RCS module has allowed me to learn a lot about myself, my work ethic, and my understanding of different issues and subject matters within the fashion and textiles industry. Throughout the past few weeks I have been provided with a new set of challenges to overcome in order to successfully complete the tasks.

I found this module to be very interesting, the lectures to be engaging and the tasks to be well explained, presented and easily accessible when needed. I found some tasks to be easier than others but all to be pretty substantial and at an even skill level.  Going into this module I feel I already had a lot of experience with referencing because I learnt to Harvard reference and reference a range of different sources during my art and design diploma, despite this it was refreshing to have the importance of referencing explained to me going into this course, I also found the lecture on plagiarism to be a very useful reminder before starting our tasks, encouraging us to become more confident in our work and not to rely purely on the sources we find in relation to our tasks.

All of the tasks forced us to develop a collection of information from various different sources, living in the modern age I find it very difficult to steer away from looking purely at online sources, I am aware of the importance of looking at books, news articles and objects to back up your opinions and facts, however this is something I feel I haven’t achieved well throughout this module, therefore looking at both primary and secondary sources is something I would like to make a conscious effort to improve on next term.

Looking back I feel as though I struggled more with the long written tasks, even though I am fairly confident in my writing skills I feel it is important for me to fully understand what I am focusing my attention on to succeed to an extent I am happy with. I learnt that it was important for me to discuss the tasks and gather second opinions on my ideas before moving forward with a task. The ‘Ethics’ task was one of my favourite tasks because even though it was a longer task I felt as though I understood the brief to the best of my knowledge and was able to see many pathways and opportunities within a limited theme.

This module has been useful in helping me to focus on direction and format within my work, both written and practical, it has allowed me to think more about where I gather initial my sources from in each project or task that will benefit my studies in the near future. I was grateful that there was plenty of explanation and direction given to us to ensure we fully understood the tasks set but still containing plenty of balance which allowed me to be independent and original enough in my work.

The first chapter from ‘Taste, Fashion and the French a Magazine’ by Sanda Miller addresses how “taste provides a rational universal basis which postulated an inborn faculty of taste deeming a beautiful object to a not so beautiful object” (Milller). It goes on to discuss philosophical aesthetics and how they have guided us in understanding our personal concepts of taste and the development of fashion magazines originating from the French Revolution.

Firstly Miller introduces how the first fashion magazine was produced in the 17^th century by Jean du Vise who published ‘Le Mercure Galant’ consisting of articles, illustrations and addresses of ‘merchandes de mondes’ and therefore was considered to be the first form of publicity in the sector. Although short lived this first publication allowed people to gain an understanding of the emergence of fashion in media and advertisement. During the 18^th century fashion magazines gained a higher status of the Enlightenment during the revolution due to their more intellectual profile.

The chapter goes onto discuss philosophical aesthetics and how they sought to understand how our experiences within beauty sets out to provide us with our own personal opinion, suggestively providing us with a reason as to why we acquire our own taste/aesthetic. This emerged as an enquiry into the concept of taste in order to deal with the shift in interest from aesthetic contemplation to subjective appreciation (the art work and our psychological response towards it). The subject of ‘taste’ began with British empiricist philosophers such as Anthony Ashley Cooper who sought to provide an answer as to why we seemingly have an emotional response to particular aesthetic experiences. David Hume investigated ways to come up with a more accurate definition as to why we seek a standard of taste proposing that ‘only a qualified observer is in a position to provide a proper verdict of the true standard of taste and beauty’(Hume) leaving a range of ongoing disagreements.

The concept in this chapter of fashion and taste being linked creates lots of room for discussion behind why we find things visually appealing and how trends are created due to a common denominator in our likes and dislikes. Furthermore the existence of personal opinion leads to the idea of ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ (Kant) suggesting that everything is art, and everything is beautiful depending on who is making the judgement leaving this down the ‘the delicacy of the imagination’. The linking of fashion and taste has been used throughout history to elevate fashion above its current state.

In summary the emergence of taste in the fashion industry has led to wide success and has been greatly accepted in order to maintain a functioning status within the fabrication of the media. The concept of philosophical aesthetics brings a new light into how we engage in criticism and how this is applied in fashion.  I feel that in turn this was very beneficial and will continue to be revolutionary to fashion magazines. I appreciate the depth of the history and the discussions and points made about each statement and feel I have learnt a lot about the importance of taste in order to help the growth of the fashion magazine industry.

Example of a good UI in a game would be Final Fantasy XV. This games UI does everything it should in a simplistic way for the player to understand. The information is presented and then removed when its not needed so that it doesn’t hinder the players experience and break immersion.

In a game such as FFXV colour is used to help the player keep track of their health. For example, the player will notice that when they are on low health their screen will go red alerting them that they need to heal. This is a subtle warning using colour to indicate the players health. Colour is also used another way in combat. It serves as a guide to which form of attacks the player should use on an enemy.
This is shown where when the player attacks an enemy, it shows a damage number in one of three colours (yellow, white, purple). White damage indicates to the player they are dealing moderate damage to their foe. Yellow damage shows that they are using a weapon that is effective against the enemy resulting in a higher damage number. Purple damage indicates that the form of attack they are using is not very effective as the enemy has a resistance to something you’re using.

Health – In FFXV, The bottom right of the screen displays each character in the parties health and the playable characters MP. As each character in the game is important, displaying every party members health is a crucial aspect in a battle. This feature allows the players to see which member of their team needs help and how much damage the enemies can do. When the player is attacked their health bar goes down and the number next to it (which represents their health) drops.
It also shows the players MP bar to let them know how much Magic they have left to use. This is crucial information for the game to help the player understand the game and strategize their gameplay. The health bar is easy to understand for anyone who’s playing the game as it has a very simple format which is similar to many past games and is also easy to understand even if you’ve never played a game before.

HCI – Human Augmentation.
As technology evolves over time, so does HCI. Virtual Reality (or VR) is one of the many ways that HCI is evolving. Virtual reality has been around for a very long time but recently huge strides have been made in helping to successfully enhance the experience. Just recently it was released to the public for use in games. VR has the ability to trick the mind into believing its somewhere else and change our perceptions. Its ability to do this means that people can experience things that they may never have the chance to. Below is a good article on how it is changing our world around us and some of the people responsible for this change.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36279855

I have chosen this image by Duncan Quinn, to explore ethical issues involved with this image. The first ethical issue which arose with the image was that the female model doesn’t have much modesty and could be seen as sexually exploited as she is only in her underwear. This contrasts with the male model who is wearing tailored clothing, the diversity within the picture shows the difference between models and clearly emphasises the controller from the submissive. The way the female is laying down and the male standing over her, gives the man a dominant character. From a feminist point of view it shows the man is controlling the women, this perceives that the women has less control over herself.

Looking in more depth of the image the female model has a tie around neck which is being pulled by the male model, this can be seen as domestic abuse as he is strangling her. The image can be perceived as violent and could possibly lead the audience to think its okay to exploit women. Furthermore it can the send a message that it alright for men to abuse women whilst looking smart and powerful while doing it.

As you do not see the female face it may seem that she is being strongly objectified as you only need to see her body to make a judgment, unlike the males face of which is looking straight at the camera. This image creates a fifty shades of grey feel about it for how men use women for their sexually gain and pleasure. The female has the characteristics of being a sex slave due to the pose and the submission.

Duncan Quinn is meant to be aimed at males, which sells suits and ties. You can see the products, a suit which the male model is wearing and the tie around the female neck. However the women in the image is the main point but the products aren’t really noticeable. This is a negative way to portray the models as it sends out the idea that women can be objectified. I came across blogs about the practical advert and how much controversy surrounds it. I found a blog by Sandra Winn who express her views on this advert. Sandra’s and my views correspond with each other on how the male model is the dominate and how the female is merely a object. I also found this quote by Paul Suggett, ‘Since the introduction of advertising many centuries ago, women have been objectified, and in some instances, insulted or degraded’, the advert by Duncan Quinn supports what Paul Suggett said by not showing the female with respect.

This image also brings up body image issues, other women may look at themselves in a negative way after seeing this advertisement, by looking at the model and her body. This will make them feel smaller and less respecting of themselves.

References:

Winn, s. (2008). Disturbing Sexists Ads: Duncan Quinn Suit Campaign Depicts Strangled Woman. Available: https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/duncan-quinn-suit-ad-depicting-strangled-woman. Last accessed 5th Dec 2017.

Suggett, P. (2016). The Objectification of Women in Advertising How Advertising Often Treats Women as a Commodity. Available: https://www.thebalance.com/advertising-women-and-objectification-38754. Last accessed 5th Dec 2017.

Freebird games is a small independent studio consisting of very few members, put together by Kan Gao to tell stories through interactive narrative and music. In 2011 Freebird studios became well known when they released the award winning game To the Moon. To the Moon is an interactive narrative driven game that has the player using very basic controls to solve puzzles so that they can fulfil a dying mans wish. It has a simple pixel art style that gives the game beautiful scenery.

However, the main reason behind my fondness for the game and the studio is how they realise the key importance of music in games. The soundtrack for To the Moon was praised worldwide with its emotional power and how it had such a large impact on the games success. One of the key aspects of Freebird games is that they are heavily focused on how music can impact the game. They charge relatively little for their games due to being an independent studio and they keep people updated on their progression in the form of a blog and news feed. A link to their website can be found below.

http://freebirdgames.com/

Upcoming indie games:

Finding paradise – Finding paradise is the sequel to the game To the Moon, developed by Free bird studios. This game coming late 2017 is probably one of the most anticipated indie titles due to the first games incredible popularity. It’s been 6 years since the last game and the anticipation for this game is incredibly high as the player base expects another masterpiece for the long wait.

Prey for the gods – This upcoming indie title is being developed by ‘No Matter Studios’ scheduled to be released late 2017. It’s considered a harsh survival game inspired by Shadow of the colossus. In the game the player must navigate a dangerous snow covered environment in which they must craft supplies and battle monstrous sized enemies much like the enemies in Shadow of the Colossus which require you to climb them just to damage them. It has an intriguing art style and the survival aspect gives it a refreshing taste and unique feel.

Perception – Deep End Games is a team consisting of former Bioshock and Dead Space developers which have banded together to create a highly anticipated game known as perception. Perception has the player navigate around an abandoned mansion as a blind woman named Cassie Thompson. The player must solve puzzles and traverse the environment by using echolocation to determine their surroundings. This is done by using a walking stick to hit the floor and determine the location of objects. However, the player is not alone in this building and they must choose sometimes on being able to see and letting the monster see them, or traversing blind. The reason this is so highly anticipated is that the mechanics are relatively new to the games as not many games have used or successfully used echolocation as a way of navigation.

Overall it would seem that the most highly anticipated indie games are ones that either have a prequel which set a high standard, or games that take a spin on popular previous titles.

Reference:

image 1:  https://www.giantbomb.com/profile/majormitch/blog/my-journey-to-the-moon/91486/

Advantages of copyright – The most obvious advantage of copyright is its main purpose, the protection of your work being stolen by others. When work is taken by others and passed off as their own, we call it plagiarism. Copyright law was designed to give creators the security they desired so that others could not take their work and use it for their own purposes. This means that if i was to create a character for a videogame then i could protect my idea from being taken by another developer. This also means that i can’t take a popular character such as Mario and claim it as my own.

Another example of a benefit to copyright is that you can share your work with who you want and benefit accordingly. This means that if i was to design something and place it under copyright protection then i could essentially allow other benefactors to use it and earn money in their work. For example, if a company wanted to add Mario into their game they would first need to contact the company who owns the rights to Mario and ask for permission. This allows the company responsible for Mario to negotiate a deal in which they claim a certain portion of profits.

Disadvantages of copyright – One of the biggest disadvantages of copyright would be that it makes it harder to promote your work if you’re new to an industry. For example, if you are a musician, it can be hard to share your music as others wouldn’t want to share your songs for fear of copyright. Many websites that share content have had copyright issues in the past. YouTube being one of the worst for copyright issues. For a while on YouTubes platform, audio from games weren’t allowed to be shared which resulted in streamers suffering major loss to channel growth and income as their videos were being removed without their knowledge due to copyright strikes. An interesting website I discovered whilst researching highlights most of these issues.

http://copyrightkills.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/copyright-advantages-and-disadvantages.html

Is it possible to make anything new? This question itself seems a little pointless when talking on a broader spectrum. As every day every single living person creates something new, memories, bonds and even items. Narrowing it to game design in particular the answer would still be the same. Every year millions of individuals create brand new ideas, characters, environments and mechanics. Every single thing that has even been invented has had some sort of inspiration because everything we imagine is drawn from what we have perceived throughout life. Whether that be simply noticing the shape of an object and using that as material, or the sound of your environment around you. If you thought of it then it will be created in your image. No one perceives an idea the same as another. Its one of the many things that seperate us and make us unique. So yes, its as possible to make something new as it is to copy an idea.

Fashion Media

Fashion media: Past and Present edited by Djurdja Bartlett, Shaun Cole and Agnes. 

I’ve chosen this book because i think that the fashion media is one of a very interesting topic to write about. The title of the article is “Taste, Fashion, and French Fashion Magazine by Sanda Miller” I’d like to read and analyse this topic further in depth and writing me thoughts and summerize it from my perspective.

After I’ve read through the article I’ve manage to understand and get a vague overview base on the topic, the article is 8 pages long while i was reading the article I’ve note down some keywords as it will be useful because i don’t have the actual book next to me by doing this it’ll help reminded me and i can use it as a reference while reflecting to the article later on.

I’ve read through the whole article and decided to first unpack the first part of the articl (first paragraph on p.13) my analysis is that the text discuss how the fashion magazine have been one of the important stages to represent fashion, social, culture, and taste which is “conceived as a gazette that covers arts, theatre, and also gossip column which as accepted to be when Jean Donneau de Vise published “Le Mercure Galant”. To help me understand the whole article i have to first unpack everything bit by bit and then added up then gather my thought my understanding of the article is accurate as much as possible.

My interpretation of this article is dicuss the “fashion and taste” the art philosophers, and journalist critics criticised that is fashion considered as a form of art? The article also discuss personal opinion and personal “avowals” which is base on their experience of what’s considered beautiful and not beautiful like a painting for example which link to the “delicacy of the imagination”. The article also talks about the revolutionary of the fashion magazines, “fashion plate” (which is fashion illustration used in magazines) which considered as “wasteful elegance of the aristocracy during the Rococo period” 

(P.18)

(P.228)

Elizabeth Wilson (2003) Adorned in Dreams fashion and modernity, London, I.B. Tauris& Co.Ltd. 

To develop me analysis I’ve bring up this book Adorned in Dreams by Elizabeth Wilson and I’ve found this quote in chapter 11: Feminism and Fashion which talks about how clothes are important or unimportant for everyone in general whether men or women. Fashion had always considered and critised and argue by many critics and journalists some said that it’s a trivial subject and shouldn’t consider as a form of art, for people who interested in it would see it as a ways to express their personal style and taste and how appeareance can affected the way people think of their personality.

Mary Eliza Haweis 1870s.

This quote link to the “Fashion media” about “fashion and taste” and this quote stating pretty similar thing this one saying that people who associate themselves with beautiful things would see that taste and fashion are important to them that any flaws in colours would make them feel “disapprobation” and even “physical pain”.

Jukka Gronow 14 Aug 2017 Taste and Fashion: The social Function of Fashion and Style. http://somethingcurated.com/2017/08/14/taste-fashion-social-function-fashion-style/ [07/12/17]

I’ve found this online article about taste and fashion: social function and style this article is more current than the other two books which gave a diffent view and perspective to this topic but they all discuss the similar topic which is “aesthetic” and how each individual consider it as a important part of their lifestyle and how it’s socially acceptable.

References:

1. Fashion media: Past and Present edited by Djurdja Bartlett, Shaun Cole and Agnes.

2. Elizabeth Wilson (2003) Adorned in Dreams fashion and modernity, London, I.B. Tauris& Co.Ltd.

3. Jukka Gronow 14 Aug 2017 Taste and Fashion: The social Function of Fashion and Style. http://somethingcurated.com/2017/08/14/taste-fashion-social-function-fashion-style/ [07/12/17]

The key concepts of interactive narrative games.

Interactive narrative games date far back, but the ones we will look at are the Fighting Fantasy books created by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. When these books came out they became an instant hit as they allowed readers to forge their own path through a fantasy world. This allure gathered a huge following. The books consisted of numbered paragraphs in which the reader would choose a path and navigate through the numbers they were told to help create their own story. The player had to navigate their way through the book whilst they may have rules to restrict them and different mechanics to challenge them. The reader has to decide on a path and accept the consequences of their choice, whether they be immediate consequences or later down the line.

The books acted as a game that the reader could play by themselves which was revolutionary at the time. By rolling a dice at the beginning of the game they could create character stats such as luck and skill which meant that the story would never be the same as they could have a different character every time. This decision made the game very popular and would later inspire other games. The link below is an interesting article on the Fighting Fantasy books and how they were created. The webpage also has numerous articles on who Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson were as well as how to obtain these books.

1. http://officialfightingfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-is-fighting-fantasy.html

A key question is whether or not Interactive narrative is still valid and used in modern games. And the answer to that is simply, yes. There are plenty of modern games that successfully nurture the interactive narrative genre. From episodic titles such as TellTales Walking Dead. This game as an example is a good example of an interactive narrative. The game has you play a character and progress through different environments by making choices which lead you down different paths and change the nature of the game. Some choices may result in you losing and some change how the game can be played and eliminate other options from the game.

This article below on the web page talks about how interactive narrative video games have been changing throughout the years and the how the change in technology has had an impact on them. It mentions games such as Colossal Cave, Zoark and Kings Quest whist talking about how they had an impact on gaming at the time. Whether or not the success of the games are clear, what is clear is that interactive narrative will continue to be a part of gamings future. This is evident by the release of upcoming titles such as Detroit – Become Human, which is an extremely anticipated game that is completely based around interactive narrative. You’ll see the player choosing between a large variety of options without knowing the outcome and having to deal with the consequences which is what interactive games are all about.

1. https://www.imore.com/colossal-cave-walking-dead-legacy-interactive-fiction