Tag Archives: Collins

One Platform to Rule Them All

It seems so natural to have competing videogame platforms. We’ve all grown up with it, and without those options, we might feel something missing in the gaming world. However, this may not be the best situation. In her post, skrause2 brings up a quote by Denis Dyack (cited from the Collins reading) that suggests a single platform is not only the best situation for hardware and software companies, but an inevitable situation.

I strongly agree with the first assertion Dyack makes: that a single, ubiquitous platform will streamline the development of hardware and software (he goes into some detail as to how exactly things would improve on pg 83 of Collins). However, it is the inevitability of the convergence that I am not so sure of. As it is, the videogame industry is huge and growing, which means the players driving it must be profiting as well. With seemingly unstoppable growth and relatively high profit margins, there does not seem to be much incentive for the Big 3 (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) to converge. Rather, with so much opportunity for growth, they are each trying to set themselves apart as the best console. Also, in an industry as big as videogames (and only getting bigger), there seems to be room for multiple, established consoles competing for users. So, even though a long-term consolidation would likely produce higher profit margins and better games, the short-term incentives are pushing the market in the opposite direction.

 

For concrete numbers and figures, refer to this 2008 article on the unstoppable growth of the videogame industry: http://seekingalpha.com/article/89124-the-video-game-industry-an-18-billion-entertainment-juggernaut

Psychology of Sound

Sound is an essential diegetic and non-diegetic aspect of video games that receives very little attention. Every game has a unique soundtrack that characterizes the game. Nothing can make a person remember their favorite childhood game like listening to its sound track. Many aspects of video games are borrowed from movies, but after reading the article by Whalen, it seems like sound originates from research in psychology more than film studies. For example, the reason players can automatically interpret the hero and villain of the game is the sound they make while moving. In another example, players understand the right move from the wrong move due to positive and negative reinforcements. Sound helps with positive reinforcement because designers in built happy (pentatonich) music when a character levels up or finishes a stage. Through a subconscious awareness of the music, players know when they have made the right moves.

In earlier games such as Doom, Thief, and Sims that Karen Collins described, the sound once again plays a narrative role. In Doom the locations of the Demons are understood based on a change in music. The player doesn’t have to think that there has been a change in music so there must be a zombie. The brain automatically registers this change and tells our mind to become be careful. In the Sims, the creators knew that the game was all about user control, so they gave the users choice of what music they wanted. It would be interesting to learn why our brains automatically associate certain sound with good or bad. Another curious aspect is what Whalen would think of games such as Tetris which have no sound or narrative but still appeal to a large audience.