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