Week 16 - Gaming Cultures

All about gaming cultures..........

I like the idea of online gaming and I do play games online myself. I think that online gaming adds an realistic feel to the game because you play against other people. There is also less chance of getting bored with the game. But you must monitor how much you play, otherwise it will take over your life!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I'm not part of many gaming cultures! Why? Because I haven't got much time to dedicate to hardcore gaming. But never the less, I still play games. In terms of Online games, I play: Counter Strike source, Half-life 2 deathmatch, and Mario Kart on the DS. I have also gor Pro Evo 6 on my PC, but I can't get the damn thing to go online. It could be my firewall???? Who knows????? I have thought about one of those online role-play games but never got round to playing one. The most of gaming I will get is about 2 hours a day, but usually about an hour. In the holidays I will play games more often, whenever I'm Bored.

Week 15 - The Game Industry

This week is all about the gaming industry

Back in the day, programmers used to write games as a hobby, then they started to sell these for low profit. Eventually games became popular and now the games industry is worth £billions. As a result the cost of making games are much higher, costing millions.

Making a game requires a team effort. There are Programmers and Artists. The Artists have varied jobs e.g. Music artist to compose music in games, games designers. The Programmers deal with all the technical side of making a game.

The Games Industry right now, is generally trying to get more people to become gamers. This is more apparant in Nintendo's consoles. Games companies are also trying to get games to be as much of everybodys lives as TV, Cinema, Radio and Music. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are making their consoles to be a part of everybodys living room (like a TV, DVD, VCR, Sofa, Beer etc) instead of it being in someones bedroom. Games are also being implemented in Mobile Phones and other electronic devices.

The problem with the games industry is that the more complex a games becomes the more expensive it becomes and the longer it takes to make. This means that games will need to sell more to achieve profit. This then leads to most of production costs are used on graphics, because good graphics sells, but games end up being rubbish. This is more apparant in the USA, but in Japan, gameplay is more important. An exception to this is Nintendo and their philosophy behind the DS and Wii. They (nintendo) state that the primary purpose of a game is for fun and entertainment, and that over-the-top graphics are not important in making a GOOD GAME!

Another problem is that the artists are used as games designers when they know absolutely nothing about programming and gameplay!

Week 11 - Gameplay

Finally something a bit more interesting..........GAMEPLAY!!!

Well.......Where do we start?????????????

Gameplay involves the full interactivity between you and the hardware. It includes Game Mechanics (rules and theroies that make a good game) and AI (the difficult bit). It is extremely important because if a game cannot play good, it is NOT a good game. In other words, if playing a certain game feels more like a chore, then it is a failure at being a good game. The game Mechanics define such rules that are usually needed to make a good game. However these rules do not have to apply to all games e.g. games of a new genre, games of a new platform (Wii, DS), etc. I mean that you can't use rules developed for a D-pad and buttons if there's no use to any (like a touchscreen), so you have to decide for yourself how to make a good game with new technology (usually with loads of testing).

I think that deciding how a game plays is the most important thing about creating a game. But I also think that gameplay should be defined before production, because bad ideas usually result in game with bad gameplay. Good gameplay is creates a good gaming experience and a good form of entertainment, like a good film or a good song that you can never part with. This is probably why programmers are the best designers. Just look at the old games like Tetris, Super Mario, Street Fighter -Pure Addiction..........and it never really gets achieved these days!!!

Week 10 - Elements of Game Design......Story and Characters

This week is all about characters in games.....

If you think back to characters in films and books, there is often one or few main characters that the story revolves around. Even Lord of the Rings focuses on Frodo and Aragorn more than any other character.

These days, Games with stories seem to have a bigger following then those games without stories. The Legend of Zelda series has had a growing fanbase since the first game came out somtime in the 80's. In this case the main character is Link (the squeaky clean hero), and sub-main characters are Princess Zelda (the damsel in distress princess - and you thought Snow white and Sleeping Beauty were annoying enough) and Gannondorf (the all-evil villian - could possibly be related to Wicked Witch of the West or Darth Vader). And all Zelda games (I think??) have used this template. There have been about 10 sequels and there has been no sign of anyone getting bored of it. I think it is this sort of story that people find irresistable.

But not all games with stories have to follow this pattern. Hitman has a small story in it and you are basically a hitman, who has to assasinate people. But the majority of games revolves around one character e.g. Tommy Vercetti from Grand theft auto, Lara Croft, Super Mario, Max payne, Metroid. Even Final Fantasy games have one main character accompanied with other sub-characters.

I personally like story games that have one main character, especially the Legend of Zelda Series!!!