Blog Task Week 8 - Going Cardboard

This week’s screening was a documentary called 'Going Cardboard'. This was a documentary about how board games have become such an intense hobby for some of its fans.

The documentary focuses on some particular board games and how they became so popular from the early get go. Some of there were 'Dominion' and 'Settlers of Catan'. The fans and enthusiasts of such games were very keen on strategy and playing to win whenever they got together and played. A section of the documentary focused on the collections of board games that fans had created. One enthusiast claimed he had quite a small collection of board game but in fact the number of games in his collections reached the hundreds. This just shows how wide spread the fan base is for board games. Whilst on the subject, the documentary went to Germany where thousands of fans from around the world gathered and the world’s biggest board game convention. It was in this part of the documentary that you really got an idea for the size of the board game fan base and how popular board games were.

Although it is amazing to know how many board game fans and enthusiasts there are out there, the documentary did not appeal to me because I prefer digital games.

Blog Task Week 15 - Games Britannia “Joystick Generation”

After watching the previous two parts of the three part series of Games Britannia, it was time to finish up with the third part, Joystick Generation.

In this episode of Games Britannia Wooley explores how Britain has made the historic jump from board games to digital games.Starting in the 1980's Wooley explores the era of arcade games such as pacman and space invaders the really catapulted digital games. Wooley begins to explore the 90's and there is a particular focus on female characters in games such as Lara Croft. The documentary finalises by bringing the audiences attention to the present day, the internet age. An era where MMO's begin to dominate, games such as World Of Warcraft and Runescape. The documentary also looks at the Grand Theft Auto series and compares its morals to every day life.

This episode to me, was much more interesting than the other because I prefer digital games over non digital games. It provided a good insight into the history of digital games and how much they have changed over the years.

Blog Task Week 13 - La Decima Vittima

This week we watched a film called La Decima Vittima (The Tenth Victim). The film was based on assassinations. People could gain a licence and from this they would gradually receive a photograph and a name of someone that they would have to assassinate. The film was pretty silly and pointless. All the assassinations would lead up to the tenth victim of the two hunters with the person who killed the victim getting a prize of money.

This film influenced pervasive games. These are games that are in collaboration with the real world and real time. There is also a a short documentary we watched based on the game called Killer.

In killer people of the real world faked to be assassins. They would receive a picture and a name of a target (another person). It would be their job to stalk the other player and find out as much details as they can about them. Eventually they would have to assassinate them using non violent weapons such as wooden spoons, nurf guns etc.

  

Blog Task Week 16 - Remediation

In today's lecture we looked at remediation, here are my lecture notes...

















• Remediation can refer to a whole range of conventions.

• For example, we find examples of Aesthetic conventions being constantly traded between different media.

• ‘Photorealism’ an example of ‘immediacy’ is not the preserve of the medium of ‘photography’


Why does remediation take place?

• It may take time for a new medium to develop unique forms of content.

• Similarly it is not so surprising that successful conventions end up being traded between different media. The ‘goal’ of computer games was to render into visual 3D the text based narratives of early computer games.

• Television programme makers took the successful format of ‘Variety’ programmes from radio, who had themselves taken the convention from the music halls.


Remediation between Films and Video Games


Video Gaming and Film:

Bittanti (2003) looks at the history of video gaming in film and claims that there
is a convergence taking place.

Bittanti claims that there are now a body of films that
remediate, comment on, quote and adapt video games.

So much so these films are a genre of film in their own right. He calls them
Technoludic Films. A combination of Technology and Ludus (Latin for play).



Technoludic Film as Commentary

Here, Bittanti says, the video game is subordinated to the film. Film is used to critique the other medium (the video game). Film projects societies deepestanxieties about the medium of the video game, especially in relation to the escape of the self and the body from `reality`.

Among the films that exemplify this are The Lawnmower Man (1991) eXistenZ (1999) The Matrix Trilogy (1999ff)


Technoludic film as quotation

Here video games appear in films for illustrative purposes. They are not the central theme of the film but form part of the fictional world that the film is attempting to create.

Films that exemplify this approach are Blade Runner (1982) Clockers (1997) a modern example of this sort of film would be Inception (2010)

Blog Task Week 17 - Semiotics

In today's lecture we covered semiotics, here are my lecture notes.

The signifier and the signified -

Signifier - Denotation - Marks on paper, sound in the air, an object - a real physical entity

Signified - Connotation - The mental concept in my mind when I hear the sound, look at the object - A cultural experience

An Indexical Sign - the moon landing footprint: just ordinary footprint however the indexical sign links to the Neil Armstrong moon landing footprint

The Iconic Sign - A photograph of a celebrity that is well known is an iconic sign. People know who the photograph and or painting is of, without being told

The Symbolic Sign - C A T - The letters do not look like a cat, the word is not the ‘sound’of a cat. The relationship to the creature is established by Convention.

Convention -

CAT = signifier

A photo of a cat = signified

The more symbolic the signifier, the more conventional the sign is.

Establishing Convention -

In order for us to make sense of the world we need to have Conventions. Otherwise every time we were confronted with images or text we would have to spend time working out what it meant as if for the first time.
Visual images can be put together or juxtaposed to establish conventions. Some of these seem `realistic`,
other juxtapositions are less realistic and require repeated attempts to make them seem `conventional`

Blog Task Week 19 - NGJ/OGJ

This week lecture was about new games journalism/old game journalism.

Lecture Notes:

New Games Journalism is New Journalism applied to game.

New Journalism is a form of writing that originated in the mid 1960's.

Journalism is a for of creative and artistic form of writing.

New vs Old - new Journalism is open about the author’s presence and experience as part of the story,
unlike “Old Journalism” which strives to assert
or imply objectivity.

Important writers of New Journalism - Wolfe, Thompson, Capote, Mailer

Wolfe's article 'The Birth of ' The New Journalism', is considered to be the start of the The New Journalism - Other influential articles include: The Lad Mag, Music Journalism, The Style Magazine, Profiles, Sports writing, Travel writing, Non-fiction books, True Crime.

New Games Journalism - New Games Journalism is “New Journalism applied to video game journalism”

Here is a quote from Wikipedia explaining what New Games Journalism is -

“Most New Games Journalism articles are not reviews of games in the traditional sense. They should instead be understood as being analogous to travel journalism, where the writer responds to experiences presented to them by the game world, as well as interactions with other players online,“real-world events surrounding game play, and other personal experiences and anecdotes which create a unique story. This story is not necessarily indicative of the experience any other player will have with the game and will be unlikely to offer
any value-judgement regarding the game's merits or failings.”

Here is the contrasting quote provided by Wikipedia about Old Games Journalism -

“Old Games Journalism typically focuses on an objective summation of the separate parts that make up a video game, such as graphics, game play, interface and control, as a method of analysis.”

------------ End of Notes ---------------

We then looked at and reviewed some articles related to the notes above.

I found New Games Journalism more interesting that Old Games Journalism because it is less traditional and more modern and mainstream. 

Blog Task Week 10 - British Museum Trip

For help with our studies on ancient games, we were told to visit the British Museum and look at certain exhibitions. Some of the main displays were of ancient game boards and pieces. The first displays we came across were of the lewis chessmen and tablemen from a precursor backgammon. In other cases we saw actual game boards from the Royal Game of Ur and Senet. These particularly gave us an insight to ancient board design.

The information gathered proved useful as we used it for our ancient game assignment and we also used the information to iterate game boards for our next design document assignment.

Blog Task Week 11 - Tweaking Ancient Games

Over the Christmas period I worked on my assignment which instructed to play an ancient game, iterate and tweak the rules of the game. Here I will share with you just one of the rule changes I had in mind.

After playing the Royal Game of Ur, I decided that the game could be too long for players to complete. The Royal Game of Ur requires the players to land precisely on the end square in order for their piece to be taken off the board. I found that after playing the game, if the players did not roll the exact number of squares required to reach the end square exactly, they would be moving back and forward past it for a long period of time.

I found  that this could drag the game on a lot. So I wanted to change the fact that players had to land exactly on the end square. The rule I proposed would mean that no matter what number the player throws on the dice, if it takes them to, and or past the end square, that piece could be removed.

This is just one of the rule changes I have implemented in my assignment. I imagine over the coming weeks there will be more blog posts.

Blog Task Week 6 - Dicing With Destiny - Games Britannia - Monopolies and Mergers

Episode 2 of Games Britannia showed a further insight into how the board games of today became popular through examples of early board games that touched on many subjects including politics. Games such as The Landlords game, Cluedo, Monopoly and Brer fox and rabbit. Some of these games focused on owning land or certain aspects within the game and pushed the players to strive to own the most money within the game. Players began relating to the way they lived real life. The Brer fox and rabbit game introduced the taxing of land in an attempt to redistribute the wealth around the country. During the wars monopoly boards even had maps on the back of them as they were sent out to prisoners in order to aid their escape. All of these games paved the way for companies such as Hasbro, the largest board game producer, to continue to evolve games into the modern times. Games started to appear on the television as games shows and they are even board games that include DVD interaction, bridging the gap between board games and TV.

This Episode was interesting to watch and see how simple board  games evolved into the games we know today, whether it be digital or non digital.

Blog Task Week 3 - Dicing With Destiny - Games Britannia

Last week we watched the first part of a three part series called Games Britannia - Dicing with Destiny. This series will provide me with information about the history of games, particular board games, and how they were played.

The first part of the series that we watched covered the very begging of games from the Ancient and medieval times, important games such as The Royal Game of Ur, Nine Men’s Morris and Chess. In the olden ages these games were not simply played for fun, but also to serve as a more strategic game.

For example, chess has been used to represent war, allowing players to have a better understanding on how a battle was fought. Players have to strategically move their pieces around the board whilst taking out enemy pieces and also avoiding being taken by the enemy. Nine Men’s Morris has also been considered a game that allowed games such as tic tack toe and noughts and crosses evolve. These early games were played more and more, as we reached the middle ages games started to involve certain kinds of gambling.

The documentary goes on to explain about a certain game called Faro which was popular among the upper classes during the 18th and 19th century. Gambling was heavily involved with the game Faro and caused many bankruptcies. Games with dice and cards became increasingly popular and these too also became branded with gamblers among games across the country. 

Games from other countries started being introduced to Britain through the world’s first games industry. Games such as Snakes and Ladders and Ludo were all adaptations of foreign games, Snakes and ladders being a Hindu game that portrayed the journey to enlightenment.

The end of the episode reiterates the evolution of the game Chess. It tells the story of how Chess has become a worldwide phenomenon, there are even tournaments around the world with Chess champions specific to certain countries. It even goes into detail about the first company to properly produce and makes Chess pieces that are still widely used today. Ultimately the documentary explains to us that current day Chess is about mastery of the game and over the opponent. 

I learned a lot from this documentary and look forward to seeing the next episodes in order to learn more about the history of games.

Blog Task Week 5 - Harvard Refrencing

Today we learnt how to Harvard reference properly using books from the library. The following bibliography comprises of two books, two journal articles and one specific chapter from an edited book.

1. • Lewis Pulsipher 2012, Game Design: How to Create Video and Tabletop Games, Start to Finish, McFarland & Company.
   • Marston, H. 2013, "Design Recommendations for Digital Game Design within an Ageing Society", EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGY, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 103-118.
   • Mooney, T. 2012, Unreal development kit game design cookbook: over 100 recipes to accelerate the process of learning game design with UDK, Packt Publishing Limited.
   • Simon Parsons 2010, "Critical Play: Radical Game Design", The Knowledge Engineering Review, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 353.
   • Castillo, T and Novak, (2008) 'Environmental Art: creating the illusion of life' T. C.  J. N. Game Level Design. Clifton Park, New York, pp 147 - 185.

Blog Task Week 2 - Paidea and Ludus Games - What Does It All Mean?

Newman, Author of the book, What Is A VideoGame?, refers to a French sociologist, Roger Caillois when describing games as Paidea and Ludus.

Paidea -effectively means playing for pleasure

Ludus - refers to being constrained by rules where there is a clear winner

Newman goes on to consider the different aspects of this in games, using four terms to define specific games under the Paidea and Ludus concepts.

Agon - competition games

Alea - games that involve chance/randomness

Ilinx - games that involve movement

Mimicry - games that are simulation, make-believe or role play

Here is a table that shows some games that fall under each of the category's and a description as to why they do so...

- Call Of Duty - A highly competitive game, but easily falls under the Paidea category as you are not constrained by any rules. There is no order of which you must kill enemies or how to do so. You do it at your own will.

- FIFA - Extremely competitive and falling under the Ludus category simply because the rules of football cannot be changed. No matter the level of competitiveness, you must still confine to the fact that to win you must score more goals than your opponent. 

- Minecraft - This open world builder allows players to play at their own pace and go and explore as much or as little as they please at one time. Minecraft's chance/random aspects come into play when searching the world. The player could head towards a huge mountain in hope of mining coal, but not actually find any.

- Chess - Chess is obviously confined to strict rules in which you must move your pieces around the board in order to defeat your opponent. However there is no chance of knowing what your opponent is to do next, so there is a randomness as to which you must wait to see what move you are going to do in return.

- The Sims - The Sims is a movement game because you have to control characters and tell them how to live their lives. You move them from place to place as they build their own house and construct families. They are no rules to this game the player is free to create what they desire.

- Splinter Cell - The Splinter Cell game series is widely known for its movement in games in relation to stealth. Players must move around the level whilst hiding from guards by climbing, crouching, crawling etc to stay out of sight. The player is confined to the rules that they must get from A to B in order to complete each level and sometimes are even confined to the fact that they must not get spotted by guards.

- Lord Of The Rings Online - This is an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. The player creates a character in which he customizes in terms of appearance and skill. The player then takes on the open world completing quests in order to improve his/her skills at free will. Sometimes main story quests must be completed before other quests, but generally the play is free to play at their own pleasure.

- Forza Motorsport - A car racing simulation game that puts the player in control of many famous cars as they race around famous race tracks. This game focuses on attention to detail with all the vehicles and location from around the world. The player is constrained to the rules of the  race when playing the game. For example they must complete a certain amount of laps before winning the race, they have to beat opponents to that finish line in order to win.

Blog Task Week 1 - First Post About The First Week Of Being A Student Games Designer

Starting Out As A Games Design Student

After a week of introductory sessions in which we met fellow students/lecturers and were handed our timetables for the upcoming weeks, we began to settle in nicely to the course.

After already having lectures on the introduction to design methods and the introduction of 3D modelling this week, we were introduced to critical games studies. After being talked through the module break down and shown various suggested readings and hints that we will be delving deeper into the history of games, we were told we would be assessed on managing our own blog... and here it is.

For the first post in my blog I will be telling you a little bit about myself, specifically in digitally and non digitally terms, so that you can gain an understanding of why I am a Games Design Student and mainly why I love games...

Q: What is the title of the book (fiction) you are currently reading (or last that you read)?
Q: What it the title of the book (non-fiction) you are currently reading (or last that you read)?

A:  To kill two birds with one stone, strangely, I am not at all into reading. I guess I would be if I spent more time going out of my way to purposely read, but in general, it doesn't excite me much. That is not say I have never picked up a book in my entire life, because I have. The last fiction book I read was probably a toss up between the last Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows, or the last Lord of the Rings book, the Return of the King. It was so along ago that I read a book from start to finish, that I couldn't tell you which one I read last. How ever I can confirm that I have actually read both the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings books in their entirety.

In terms of non fictional books, well that was probably a couple of days ago when I read a chapter from The Art of Games Design: A Book Of Lenses by Jesse Schell. Honestly its probably a book I will be reading much more of, not only for academic purposes but it was actually quite an interesting read considering my passion of games.

Q: What is the last live performance (music, dance or drama) you attended?

A: I last went to the Royal Albert Hall to see the genius himself, Mr Noel Gallagher, perform live for the teenage cancer trust. Music is another big part of my life its something I enjoy and is something that contributes to my mentality daily. I've been to plenty of live music performances before too, including Linkin Park, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, I have even been to the V Festival in Chelmsford an impressive four times where I have seen the like of Chase and Status and The Prodigy.

Q: What is the title of the last film you saw at the cinema or watched on DVD?

A: I watch a lot of films, on DVD and at the cinema. The last of which I saw was the most recent Superman movie, Man Of Steel. Without spoiling the film I enjoyed it compared to the other Superman films because it showed Superman in a new light, a weaker Superman that in order to gain his powers has to find out where he originates from. I prefer watching movies at the cinemas, mainly because I like things to be louder and everyone likes loudness and seat rumbling. Going to the cinemas reminds me of when I always used to go a lot with my dad.

Q: How often do you read a newspaper?

A: Quite simply, never, boring over exaggerated garbage is the view that I have always had over newspapers. The only time I ever pick one up is too view the sports section on the back when I am queing in the barbers, but I suppose even that is something every man feels obliged to do as part of the standard barber shop routine...

Q: Which art gallery/museum/exhibition did you last visit?

A: Eurogamer Expo 2013. This was a hugely interesting and popular event, mainly due to the fact that the next generation of consoles is literally looming around the corner. I went with fellow students of my Games Design course and actually we were free to explore at our will, which was a good thing because we all had different gaming interests. For me it was all about the consoles, especially the next gen ones. I've never been a huge fan of PC gaming, probably because I have never owned a PC with a good enough spec to run games, but most probably because I enjoy gaming online with my mates and my mates have always owned consoles. So for me to get my eager mitts on the next gen consoles was something I was very much looking forward too. My first taste of next gen was when I sat  down to play Need for Speed Rivals on the Playstation 4. My first impressions, graphics, hugely improved, but I expected nothing less. I got my hands on a five minute demo where I played as the police chasing down rival street racers (played by others around me). The Playstation 4 was impressive, but for me Sony have always been second best to Microsoft and that is why I went straight after the Xbox One. After queing for forty five minutes to play a sixteen vs sixteen team death match on Battlefield 4 for the Xbox One, I finally got fifteen minutes with Microsoft's console. The first thing I did instead of choosing my load out and running into battle was to invert the Y axis control because I am weird like that, then I hit the dashboard button. I was desperate to play around with the new dashboard and see how things had changed, but due to restricted access and some frowns from the staff, I thought it was best to jump back into the game. Without going too much in to detail, basically I was blown away with the scale of the game and the sheer number of things happening on screen. I cant remember the last time I was so immersed into a game then I was for that seemingly very short fifteen minutes of game play. Oh and I came sixth on my team, which out of sixteen is not too shabby I guess.

Q: How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?
Q: How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?

A: How long is a piece of string? Every single day I pick up the controller to my Xbox 360. I love playing console games, occasionally mobile games on my iPad, but most definitely console games. The best thing for me about gaming is sharing the experience online with friends. Whether its a first person shooter, racing, football or more recently sandbox epicness, I am always playing with someone online. For me, single player games are not as appealing as multiplayer games. Even if I am playing a game online against people who are not my friends, I would rather be online that playing single player, most of the time. Not to say that I do not play single player games, I have played through Skyrim and enjoyed that a lot and also actually quite enjoy the Splinter Cell series, although more recent Splinter Cell titles have included multiplayer which is an added bonus. On a normal day I would say i spend between two to three hours playing video games, on a lazy day perhaps a day off with no essentials to do, maybe as long as six hours playing games. I don't think I am yet to meet a fellow gamer who would say they play any less than that either... yet. 

In terms of playing games that are not video games, occasionally perhaps once a week, I play football for 90 minutes.