Category Archives: Links

Seeker: Game Makers/Icons

As we discussed in class and read in Stephen Kline’s Origins of an Industry the creators of the modern gaming world have had a huge impact on our lives. These people and their inventions (games or platform systems) have shaped the entertainment world around us for over 40 years. As the technology behind these inventions advances, these people have always been at the forefront, leading us towards the next great leap in the industry.

This reminded me of a show that G4 use to show several years back called Game Makers/Icons. The show comprised of 30 minute long episodes that discussed the games, characters, people, and platforms on which the gaming world is founded on. The original show, called Icons, ran from 2002 till 2006 with a total of five seasons. The show was originally called Icons but in the final season all the previous episodes were renamed under the title Game Makers.  The title Icons was still used for all the new episodes in the last season.

The most interesting aspect about the show was the many topics it covered including the rise and fall of Atari and Sega, the stories behind creation of the system mascots –Mario (Nintendo), Sonic (Sega), and Crash Bandicoot (Sony) –and of course the stories of the people who made the games and systems that we love. While the show might no longer air on G4, you can still read about the episodes on their website.

http://www.g4tv.com/gamemakers/episodes/index.html

Real Time Strategy Acts of Configuration

Galloway categorizes anything to do with acts of configuration without actually interacting with the game world as nondiegetic operator acts.  He specifically places Real Time Strategy (RTS) games in this category as the entirety of playing an RTS is interacting with the menus around the screen.  In a game like Starcraft, the mere act of placing unit production buildings in reasonable positions, or technological buildings in places that they will not be easily found or destroyed is perhaps, even, a majority of the gameplay.  This video is a beginner’s guide to Starcraft II in which the importance of building placement is emphasized and demonstrated.  Building placement is literally choosing where to build each building and is an act of configuration accomplished through the menu constantly on-screen.

SC2 Noob School

Not-So-Pure Process

While reading Gaming earlier this week, and seeing the different categorizations for Gamic Action, I was immediately struck at how many of these lines are already being blurred. At the very start of the reading where Galloway was talking about Pure Process,and then later about the Dromenon, the first thing that popped into my head was reaction command cutscenes. These are cinematic sections of games that also contain (often unexpected) playable moments called reaction commands. I find reaction commends so interesting because (aside from being tons of fun) they are a remarkable step toward making gaming experiences more engaging and integrating the different aspects of video games. They have broken ground in gaining a previously unknown compromise of digetic human and machine action.  They also make games more immersive by cutting back on non-digetic acts that call our attention to the fact that it is a game. With that said, I found two of my favorite reaction command sequences to share with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlq8NRFE6KE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39HkecWiQUI

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.

Using your eyes to control your avatar

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/eyes-instead-mouse-151319314.html

When reading another seeker’s post about the HUD contact lenses, it reminded me of a video I saw a little while ago about being able to use your eyes to control something on the computer screen instead of using a mouse or controller. The brief part of the video I focus on is the use of this technology for video games of course. This type of control system in the video game realm is described as a diegetic operator act. The operator’s gaze makes his/her avatar move in whatever direction you look, and basically takes away the need for you to use your thumbs to move in whatever direction you want. What would be interesting to me is how they would be able to incorporate more actions through just your eye movements, such as firing weapons, selecting, jumping, etc. I know that some of these actions can be seen through a few gaming consoles, such as the XBox Kinect or Wii. But, just using your eyes brings it to a whole other level of gaming, and hopefully this idea will expand into a lot more.

Cut Scenes and the Operator-Machine Relationship

http://www.thenextgreatgeneration.com/2011/12/storytelling-in-video-games-how-cutscenes-get-it-done/

I found it interesting during our class discussion that some people felt videogame cut scenes were often too long, and that like bugs or lag, they can detract from the operator’s diegetic experience.  This article defends cut scenes as an important mechanism for advancing narrative, but also describes them as essential to the “single-player experience.”  The author, Justin DiCozo, notes the frustrations of players who feel cut scenes usurp their control over the videogame, as well as how many modern game developers have played with the cut scene mechanism to make it more interactive.  I found this relevant because it relates to the tension in the “operator-machine relationship” that Galloway describes in his book.  In Galloway’s view, cut scenes are the machine’s chance to control the game, almost completely ignoring the operator.  As DiCozo notes, some games rely more heavily on cut scenes than others.  How important, then, is the aspect of “control” to the operator’s gaming experience, and at what point do cut scenes blur the lines between games and movies?

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?