I found a very interesting blog (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7443178) that talks about the controversy of JFK Reloaded. Some of the interesting question that it raised is why did JFK reloaded receive so much public attention, while other games that contain more violence are not heavily criticized. This did not occur to me, but that is true. Games such as God of War contains nudity, sex and decapitation, but yet receives great ratings compared to JFK reloaded, which is simply a shooter game . I believe JFK reloaded receive more criticism because President Kennedy was a symbol of the United States and an icon which many people living today still remember. If a designer created a game of how many ways can you burn/destroy the American flag, it would also receive the same negative reaction. Simulating an assassination of a respected President can actually provoke feelings of threat or endangerment. It is unlawful in the United States to depict any kind of threat to the life of a President.
I agree with a point someone made in class that if it was President Lincoln who was assassinated, then it would not have received as much publicity because no one knew him personally. On the other hand, the Kennedy family is still around and was the one who pushed for a lawsuit against Traffic (company that created the game). The game designer’s intention may be pure, but having an award of $100,000 to the person who can recreate the Lee Harvey Oswald shootings did not help them. Instead, the people see this as the company’s attempt to capitalize and promote the game in other ways than originally intended. In my opinion, Traffic did cross the line because they recaptured a very painful moment in American history without providing any background or context that this is a study or simulation of what really occur that day. The American people are not ready to have such sensitive topics be depicted in games. Therefore any games containing topics about 9/11, Columbine, V-Tech shooting will not receive any praise from the majority of the people.
Tag Archives: seeker
Promotion in Video Games
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500397_162-699689.html
I was really interested in the chapter in Bogost’s book on Promotion. I feel that he really didn’t go that in depth with the last type of promotion he mentioned, advertising in games. This article, although a little old, mentions how some companies are getting into advertising in video games. The article mentions how IGN entertainment and Massive Inc. are companies that can manage game advertising. The market for advertising in games is always increasing. It is very easy for game developers to input pictures into billboards in games. It is also easy for them to plug in a speech reference for non player controlled characters. The companies just need to express their interest in wanting to advertise in games.
From the early 2000’s until recently, I had only seen advertising in sports games. These games would feature billboards at stadiums or on the sides of race tracks. Even so, these sponsors would only be related to the game, like the game developer, publisher, or companies involved with the production. Maybe when playing a football game you would see a corporate sponsor advertising for halftime reports or bringing you the player of the game. It has evolved so that other companies are getting into advertising in games. This is a great way to help game developers help pay for producing their games, and allows the companies advertising to get a good deal, as millions of people will probably be playing the game and see that ad. There is also a whole new twist on in game advertising brought about by apps, which seems to have also caught advertisers attention.
Stereotypes within Genres
Bogost’s “pranks” in video games can refer to a satire about certain genres. The game Syoban Action that we played for this week for class was joke about anticipation and repetition of the original Mario game (just taking those aspects to the extreme). Many games incorporate unbelievable physical aspects to the game that make the game more, for lack of a better term, playable (user-friendly and enjoyable). Many Role-Playing Games (RPGs) do just this with regard to the interaction of your character and other characters. College Humor has done many videos poking fun at some of these unbelievable, yet readily accepted, oddities in games. In class, we discussed how types of media would resort to referencing their own media once many of the good ideas have already been taken. However, with videos like these, someone who plays games can find humor in a reference to something they know through a different outlet (I’m not sure where “Youtube Videos” would fit as media, but it certainly isn’t under “Video Games”). As video games have become more mainstream, references to them in other media was inevitable and “pranks” are not limited to just other video games, I feel, but could be anything from a webcomic to a video or even a blog.
Seeker: E.T. is not the Cause of Atari’s Collapse
http://2600connection.atari.org/et.html
In class, professor Sample showed the Atari version of E.T. and mentioned that others believed it was one of the worst games created, which lead to Atari’s failure. Initially, I did agree that it was a bad game; however, I wanted to know why it was the cause of Atari’s demise. In contrary to my finding, an article stood in defense of the E.T. game. E.T. was based from the movie of which it involved a friendly alien and a boy who was suppose to help the alien get home. The movie is non-violent and Howard Scott Warshaw, the game designer, had to create a game similar to the movie in a period of just five weeks. Unfortunately the only thing E.T. could do was to eat candy and grow flowers. That said, the design and action content of the game was unappealing to many young players. However, E.T. is not the sole cause of Atari’s collapse. Other factors were already at play which began to cripple the company’s success. These factors include Atari not owning a licensing agreement, which allowed other companies to create unsuccessful games that affected Atari’s name. Also these no-name companies were selling their games for one third of the price that attracted many consumers. These were but a few factors that contributed to Atari’s failure and E.T. cannot take all of the blame. Therefore, people need to understand that not a single game flop can bring down an entire company. It has to take several factors in order to do so.
Seeker: Early Game Company Logos
http://www.gamesradar.com/5-iconic-game-company-logos-that-must-not-be-messed-with/
After thinking more into the interesting design of the Atari logo, I decided to look into what some other early logos looked like compared to Atari’s infamous logo. I found this article from a couple of years ago where the author looks at five of the early logos, including Atari. I found it interesting that not only was the logo designed after Pong, but also that the author said it reminded him of the 2600 joystick. He continues to look at four other logos: Capcom, Nintendo, Rockstar, and SEGA. He makes valid arguments for why these five logos should not be changed, despite them being around since the beginning of the game industry. I agree that these logos are so iconic now, that they should be kept for the life of the companies. This article was posted because of the change to Rare’s logo in June, 2010. Rare is another one of the early developers with a classic logo. When they changed their logo, many people were upset because of how iconic their logo was to the industry. Also, I think that modern developers are struggling to come up with a neat logo that will be iconic for years.
User Input in Comics and Videogames
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?viewpage=new
MS Paint Adventures is a unique comic in that the plot is determined by the audience rather than a single author. Andrew, the creator of the blog, makes some starting frames for a comic and then the rest story is continued based on comments by other bloggers. I thought this was interesting for two reasons. First, the comics are all related to some genre of gaming, such as RPGs and fighting games. The second reason this comic is interesting is the view it presents on the debate of narrative use in videogames. When reading this comic it is obvious that once user input determines a story, the story can take many unpredictable turns. According to Aarseth, videogames should also have unpredictable storylines in which user input is rewarded. In the end, I believe that videogames with good storylines are better, but more user input will make the game more engaging for me and also allow me to play the game more than once with a different experiences every time.
HUD in contact lenses
http://www.geekosystem.com/terminator-contact-lens/
After talking about diegetic and nondiegetic acts in video games, I thought how video-like controls could be incorporated into everyday life. The nondiegetic operator act, or acts of configuration and setup, allow for the operator to often pause a video game and gain an advantage by changing weapons or displaying statistics. These types of controls are often referred to as the HUD, or the heads up display. However, what if a HUD was possible for real life? What if we could all see our own and other people’s statistics? This could soon become reality with the incorporation of a HUD into contact lenses. First designed to help diabetics monitor their blood sugar, a HUD has been successfully tested on rabbits. With this technology soon becoming available, how faded does the line between video games and reality become?