IAM Blog Engine

Willie Rivers

10/12/2009

Game Culture

Earthbound is a role playing game on the Super Nintendo about a boy named Ness, who is chosen by a being from the future Buzz Buzz. Ness is on a quest to gather sounds from eight sanctuaries in order to kill a monster from the future named Giygas. Ness can not do it alone because he needs three friends to help him on his journey. His friends are Paula, who is really good at PSI, which means magic, Jeff, a student who is likes to build weapons to destroy his enemies and Poo, who is a master of martial arts. They are chosen to help Ness accomplish his goal.

In Earthbound the player’s goal is to find eight sanctuaries around the globe but this is not an easy task because in each sanctuary there is guardian. The player has to defeat each guardian in order to record the sound afterwards.  The sanctuary bosses have different themes and backgrounds in fights. The background in the sanctuary boss is a black and purple color. Behind the sanctuary boss is a purple spider-web that sometimes has servants fighting along side them. Each normal battle will have a different tune depending on the enemy you are facing. Every battle has a different battle screen because it makes each battle unique. For example if I was fighting an enemy in a desert, the background color would be brown behind the enemy. The background might also have decorative or doing different things with brown in the background.

In role-playing games the player is forced by the developers to explore different areas. Earthbound is no different from any role-playing game in that regard since it also forces the player to move place to place. Most places or towns that you go to would present certain problems and the player has to solve the problem within that place. This game sometimes makes the player confused. The player does not know which town they have to go next and what task do they have to do. The game gives out hints to help the player, but sometimes it is not a good hint and the player have to pay the character a lot of money who is giving out hints.  

One of the reasons why Earthbound is a great game is because the game makes the player laugh. The player learns that Earthbound makes fun of traditional role-playing games. The player knows this by looking at the character names. Some of the dialogue is funny because some characters say phrases that do not make any sense. The player also knows that some of enemies are designed in funny manner. The designers intentionally create weird and awkward moments to entertain the player. The designers did not want to create a serious traditional role-playing game that can bore a player. The developers want the player to realize that this game is different from traditional role-playing games.

 The game forces the player to level up and learn more abilities to defeat stronger enemies and bosses. The reason being is that this game is a turn-based role-playing game. The player is supposed to have some certain strategy in battle that is determined by the main enemy or boss. In order to know what strategy the player is supposed to know their own strengths and weaknesses and their enemy’s strengths and weaknesses. To know the enemy weakness, the player has to use the character named Jeff. Jeff has an ability to analyze the enemy’s strength and weakness. After Jeff’s analysis, the player should know what certain techniques are going to defeat an enemy.

Each character has their own unique abilities and skills and the player needs to know how they utilized in battle. The player needs to know what item and weapons are compatible with the character Ness is the main character in the game and he has all around stats. Ness has high hp, which means health, considered to the other characters. Ness preferred weapon of choice is bats and yo-yos. Paula is the best PSI user in the group but she suffers from low health, attack, and defense. She has to the best defensive equipment out of all the party members. Her preferred weapon of choice is frying pans. Jeff is a character who only uses physical attacks. Jeff can also make inventions like rockets and bombs which does a lot of damage to the enemy. But Jeff doesn’t have any PSI so he can’t use magic. Poo is the player last party member; he supports the party by healing them with magic spells. Poo does not wear any equipment so there is no need to buy him anything.

Earthbound has a couple of problems within the game. One of the problems is that this game does not have a lot of character development. Players are more connected with the characters in a role-playing game than any other genre because of its in-depth character development. But in Earthbound, the main character is a silent protagonist so he cannot talk and the other characters in the party rarely speak. So you cannot connect with the characters inside this game. One thing that is unique about this game is that the player doesn’t have to grind for money. The player has to call the main character’s dad for some cash and save the player’s progress. This also is bad news to the player because the only way to save is calling the main character’s father in a facility like a bakery or a hotel. So the player cannot save inside a cave or a forest.

            Earthbound is great game that is overlooked in gaming and should be recognized as one of the best role-playing games in all time. Earthbound is different from most role-playing games because the game relies mostly on humor to interest the player and the game itself mocks traditional role-playing games.  I haven’t finished this game yet but so far the game is so much fun.

Dead Space is a game with a rich enveloping atmosphere that dives the player deep into its world. The player character interaction and the character character interaction is very fluid and throughout the whole game the connection to the dark and threatening horror/zombie film feel is never lost.
In Dead Space the player takes the place of Isaac Clarke a member of a small repair crew who were on a rescue/repair mission in search of the USG Ishimmura. From the window on the ship they are arriving in you can see the Ishimura and it is a massive ship and the sight is impressive. The ships design is very similar to the design of the Marines space ship in the movie Aliens, this is most likely due to the fact that the game is modeled after a horror film/ scifi movie and Aliens is already both. After hailing the ship with no response they start to dock with disastrous results. After a crash landing they make their way to the security check point where an alarm goes off and the lights cut, at this point a necromorph (a monster made from the dead body of a person) shows up and the player has to escape from it. From this point on Isac’s progress is moved along by his two surviving cremates who give him direction. Various things break that need fixing in order to get home alive and Isaac being the engineer has to do all of it while Kendra the technologist directs you from the computer core and Zach the crew leader directs you from the bridge. Eventually Zach dies and the source of the necromorphs is revealed to be a  mysterious marker th was removed from the planet during mining, it is much like the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey. After this Isaac takes the marker back to the planet’s surface in order to put it back and stop the necromorphs. It is then revealed that Kendra is a spy and plans to take the marker for her own, however she is killed shortly after trying to escape with it and a final battle with the giant over mind that controls the necromorphs ensues. After defeating it and placing the marker back where it was Isaac leaves the planet and during the final cut scene he sees his beloved whom he was receiving direction from when on the surface and in a video he watches her die but just then he turns around and is attacked by a necromorph  version of her.
When we think player interactivity the players HUD and other concerning data are often high points of interest, the  health and ammo system along with the HUD operate in real time and try to be as unintrusive as possible. The players health displayed as a bar with sections running along Isaac’s spine; The ammo for a weapon shows above the weapon when you aim with it and the ammo for his stasis pack is on his back in the form of a circle that becomes less complete as the ammo depletes. Lastly the player HUD is shown as a screen that floats in front of Isaac. The HUD’s position stays the same no matter where you rotate the camera, so if you are on the side of him then the HUD will look as if you are looking at a computer screen from the side because it comes up as a floating computer screen with the scan lines going across it and a slight translucency. The HUD reacts in real time during play not on a paused screen so if the player is being attacked and needs something that is in one of the HUD’s menus then they have to do so while that attack continues. This style of HUD is in keeping with the theme in the game, it is a nice compliment of new spacey technology with a very utilitarian design.This theme continues with the weapons in the game like the plasma cutter, a dangerous weapon that is really just a tool.
The character to character interaction in the game is also within this theme, it is almost exclusively done from communicators that they all have which cause a pop up window like the HUD to appear when someone is talking to Isaac, their voices have a the slight echo and scratchiness that radios have to them to help emphasize the fact that they are far away and also it gives you the feeling that at any moment they might just stop working. Along with the character to character interactive there are many notes, videos and audio recordings that help give depth to the game. These files can be brought up from the HUD and viewed the same that character to character interaction is handled.
The environment in Dead Space is very detailed. The visual and audio quality of the game great and so is the level design. The walkways have the girder-like appearance that the walkways in Aliens and the music is erie and ambient with a hint of death. Some walls have some random characters on them that can be deciphered later on if you get the right chart which is just on the wall about 3/4 of the way through the game, the writing is very angular which gives it a very dangerous appearance and much of it is written in blood or has blood smeared on it making it appear even more threatening. The game also has some interactive environments like zero gravity areas and places that are along the hull of the ship where there is no atmosphere. A case of this is the part of the game where Isaac has to fight a plant monster in a giant air vent and the player can run around the entire inside while always being right side up because of magnetic boots and the fact that there is no gravity in there. When in zero gravity areas he can leap through the 0 gravity air to any point. At many times in the game Isaac must exit areas that have air and repair places where he is exposed to the vacuum of space. His suit has limited amounts of oxygen in it and at times you must refill it from refiling stations while still out in the vacuum. The interesting thing about these moments is that almost nothing has much sound, the developers took the effect that the vacuum of space has on sound into consideration and so sounds are muffled dull and deep just as it would be in a vacuum-less space.
The interactive atmosphere and the consistancy of the themeing help bring the player experience to a new level. The depth that which the developers went to to keep the player immersed in the Dead Space world really paid off.

History of Dynasty Warriors 6 (Empires)

Dynasty Warriors is a hack and slash game created by Omega Force and published by Koei. There are exactly 6 Dynasty Warriors installments out today and more are being released. The sequels of these games are well known to most gamers, throughout the US and overseas. My purpose for choosing Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires is simple. I just didn’t find it too interesting, just more repetitious if anything. It had it some great qualities, such as graphics and customization, but I just could not get into it as much as I would have wanted too.

Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires was released this year of May and is played on Playstation and Xbox 360. This series is much alike DW6 but with a level-up system for weapons has been implemented and requires players to have their weapons adjusted at a blacksmith. Besides adding more attacks, players can also adjust what skills and abilities a weapon can have based on what items the player has collected from battle. The Renbu gauge is no longer an element that requires the player to build up as they play. Rather, their Renbu level is now determined by the rank of their character’s weapons. Strategies are implemented in battle by holding L2 and pressing the color buttons on the right of the controller.

This installment of the game adds a few new alternatives allowing players to serve as a vassal to another lord, or play as a solo-officer of no party, as well as giving the usual choice of being a ruler. As usual, the goal of a leader is to conquer China, while the goal of an officer is to support your leader until he/she unites china. The goal of a solo-officer is find a worthy lord to serve, thus changing your character into an officer. While serving under a lord, the player is given orders to participate in battles, serve as messengers and can disagree with their leader’s decisions and offer alternatives instead. Officers, as well as those that choose to serve no party, can accept freelance missions from independent parties, during which they can form alliances with officers you perform service for. During battle, players have the option of betraying their liege and fight against their former sovereign to gain control of the land, or defecting to another force.

My Game Play

My first time encountering this game was exciting. The graphics were breath taking and the characters as well as the look of the game were very well defined. . What I liked the most was the customization of the characters. I could really personalize it, such as the hair type, skin color, eyes, lips, and gender. Even the character’s clothing and the attributes you give them, plus I get to choose their fighting style and wielded weapons. However, if I just wanted to go straight to the game play, I would simply just pick from the premade generals giving to me.
I never played any of the other Dynasty Warriors sequels but I’ve read and heard much talk about them. I did however experience the first factor of this game; it could be pretty tedious. I was too busy customizing my character and it takes me forever to customize anything in any game. I just kept on making character after character, because I was planning on using each one for each scenario of the game, and of course to see how each weapon worked in game play. That was not the only thing that made it tedious. When it came time to give the character’s abilities and attributes, there were so many and I honestly did not know what some of them meant. If that’s not time consuming, I really do not know what is.

After all the excitement of seeing the graphics and customizing my character, it was time for my game play and I was pretty annoyed by one tiny tweak in the animation for the characters. Their mouths didn’t follow the audio. Surely this could have been noticed and fixed quickly, but I guess they thought it wasn’t a big deal. The thing I really disliked the most about the game was its repetitive game play. For one I was a bit confused as to what I was supposed to do. There was things scattered everywhere on the screen, I honestly did not know where to start. Of course after a time of playing I figured most of it all out.

Before each battle, I must first meet with my war council to decide upon military and political policies for the kingdom; then it’s time for war! I must issue direct orders to each officer or general commands to officers on the field. Take the offensive, defend my ground, or have all officers rally for an ambush. Choose the officer’s attack force, entice captured soldiers to join me, or expel them from my kingdom. I had to clear the initial area of enemies, before being directed to an awaiting battle via a red flashing signal on the player map. I used normal and powerful attacks, tapping out combos to annihilate groups of foes, who all conveniently display a red heath bar above their heads. While most of the enemies willingly wait for me in other parts of the map, lieutenants and bosses will come out of the wood works to challenge me. I could count on both hands and feet the many times I’ve died fighting head bosses and their subordinates. I had to carefully set up my attacks to avoid being killed again, and I found that having a horse with me saves much health and charge time. Each horse has a special ability, for instance, mines can land an attack just by jumping and slamming back down to the ground, knocking out groups of nearby enemies approaching me, giving me more time to charge up for my special. This special attack is used only when the power meter is filled up and there are also different typess, depending on the fighting style or you could just buy them. This attack can be pretty effective depending on how well developed the character is. While playing I never knew I could have more than one special. Each special was the color buttons on the controller plus the left back button. It was pretty simple to use, once I knew what do. Achieving a mission and gaining power over a enemies base meant more gold, more allies and of course rank.

The developers of the Dynasty Warriors franchise suspected that their game would live up to its moniker. I suppose they were right, taking how some actually enjoy this game; I on the other hand, grew bored of it. I hated the fact that the game never auto saved and you know what happens when you don’t save your progress? Everything you work so hard on gets completely lost and that drove me nuts. Don’t get me wrong I like the fighting system setup and even the loading menu, which allows me to choose from a list of songs to listen to as I wait patiently for play. This game is quite successful for the most part and it has a great story behind it. I would consider playing this game once more to see if there is anything more interest I could find or more tweaks within it, but only if there is not another game in my reach.

Although seemingly simple in game play and concept, Tomb Raider is one of those great classic games that not only helped inspire a genre but it also changed the way gender is portrayed in video games. Lara’s debut on the game scene challenged us to rethink women’s roles in video games and how their appearance can have a huge impact in how they’re received by an audience.

Up until the early 90’s female video game characters were sparse. Even rarer was the idea of a female character starring in a game. You had Samus and Chun Li but none of them were well known in mainstream America. When Tomb Raider was released, the game created a lot of buzz, mostly around its star Lara Croft. It was the first time that a video game had a sexed up heroine that received as much attention for her features as the game itself. The game received criticism for being sexist, having an impossibly proportioned sexy female lead that players could ogle at and control; fulfilling some sort of male fantasy. So much emphasis was put on what Lara looked like that critics missed the fact that Lara had a unique personality that hadn’t been seen before in a game. She was a strong, single, wealthy and adventurous female heroine. Extremely intelligent and very well educated, she was able to identify ruins of ancient cultures and translate dialects from all over the world. She was stubborn and not willing to back down from an adversary till she got what she was after and she did it all while fighting off dangerous adversaries and demons. Lara Croft was the female James Bond. Although their line of work differed, they both still conjured up images of sexy rich powerful adventurers who seem larger than life and are somehow idolized.

According to GameTap’s Ten Year’s of Tomb Raider: A GameTap Retrospective, when Toby Gard, one of Eidos’ lead designers, was first creating Lara’s character, he wanted to create a truly original female character that would “personify womanhood” yet be “strong and sexy through her actions”. His first concepts were too manly and strange looking as he tried to focus too much on making her look powerful and ignored her feminine side. One day while rendering her character, Gard accidentally made Lara’s breasts too large, but kept it that way, feeling that her strong personality would show that you can be powerful and sexy at the same time. It also was not bad marketing material either.

Lara’s appearance had such a big impact that it overshadowed the game itself. Yet the game was unprecedented for its time. Tomb Raider was able to give players the experience of exploring that felt life-like in the way the environments were presented and how Lara perceived them. It took the rigid linear path of prior video games and expanded it into an environment that made the player feel agency and freedom to do whatever they wanted in the game. They did this by making Lara’s surroundings feel massive and unending by making objects in the distance fade to black. From Lara’s perspective the player can somewhat see what’s to come ahead but because of the darkness, it’s really not clear what’s there until she explores more. This encourages the player to move around, compelling them to look at every nook and cranny of the level up close instead of trying to scope out the area from a distance. In underground temples and caves Lara’s vision is restricted more than if you were outside in the open. Underwater her view is reduced to almost nothing giving the player a feeling of dread as there’s no signs of what lies in the water.

The relative lack of music or sounds in the game creates an eerie atmosphere that adds to the adventurous and mysterious feeling of the game. When the player is exploring a level, it’s relatively quiet. There are sound effects when Lara runs, shoots, or interacts with objects in the environment, but that’s about all the sound there is in the game. Animals are silent until you turn the corner and run into them, giving the player a huge surprise. This puts them on edge for the rest of the level, wondering what else is lurking in the darkness, creating suspense that only adds to the excitement of exploring unknown territory. The newer Tomb Raider games have music cues or sounds that alert the player when a bad guy is nearby so you can stroll through the game relatively comfortably. But the sense of mystery and the unknown is the crux of the Tomb Raider games.  You explore because what’s ahead of you is not visible. The only time music is used in the game is when there’s a pretty extravagant level or there’s a big fight against a boss. A good example of this is in the third stage when you stumble upon a secret underground jungle and as you wander around enjoying the view the music starts up in this heart pounding beat, to someone who’s never played this before they’re left to wonder what’s going on and as they cautiously move forward suddenly a huge T-Rex charges at the player. Even when there’s music, the game still manages to surprise.

The engaging game play is also enhanced by the rich details that flesh the game out and give it character. One way they do this is through the archeological symbols that set up the atmosphere. The player knows they’re in the Greece level by the Greek architecture, the Roman numeral writing, the references to Greek mythology. Some parts actually play out these myths, having Lara dodge Thor’s hammer, or having her running from a giant boulder that falls from an Atlas statue. These details are fun little addition for players who actually know the myths. The same goes for the Egypt level where the player explores tombs filled with mummies and the sphinx standing ominously in the background. Additionally, the little puzzles they throw into the levels are hard enough to keep you stumped for hours and some of the secret med packs are near impossible to find. These important details help to expand the game into more than just running and jumping but make it a puzzle adventure game.

The only aspects of the game that tend to ruin this agency are the controls and the camera. The controls in the game are by no means perfect, trying to steer Lara around at first seems clunky and awkward and takes a few hours of playing to start to get more familiar with them. About 90% of Tomb Raider is spent jumping from cliff to pillar to wall to pretty much everything so when the jump button isn’t perfect it’s painfully noticeable. When Lara runs forward towards an edge the player has to hold down the jump button a few seconds before she leaves the edge in order to make her jump. If it’s tapped when she gets to the edge, she’ll just run off.  Lara’s mansion level has an obstacle course which helps you perfect this but the amount of finesse it takes to pull off sometimes can be frustrating. Next is the camera which Tomb Raider is notorious for. The camera is fine most of the time but becomes a problem when Lara has to do a particularly hard jump or when you need to do a succession of particularly hard jumps. When you come to a cliff located in a corner, the camera turns from being behind Lara to being in front of Lara, giving the player a grand view of Lara but refusing to let them see what’s ahead of them. You can use the camera button to force the camera to point in front of you but as soon as you let go it reverts back to the awkward Lara shot, causing the player to make a blind leap of faith that’s usually only successful half the time.

Despite how empowering and rich Lara’s character is, and how deeply immersive the game tends to be, Lara Croft still gets a bad rap for her over sexualized looks. Even though Eidos, the creators of Tomb Raider, have toned down Lara’s voluptuous body, the stigma still remains. The problem is that many people have heard of Tomb Raider and know of Lara but have never played the game. But it’s hard to really know a character unless you’ve played the game they star in because essentially the game is their story.

Some of us well know the Dynasty Warrior game it’s probably one of the most popular game that was ever release from Japan. The setting of the game is basically a spin-of of the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms series, which was originally a battle between 3 great kingdoms of China. In this game you can choose from three kingdoms Shu, Wu, and Wei and from each kingdom you choose a variety of characters. With the choice of the character you play out in a history. For example if you choose a character that was from Shu and play as him through the game then the game would end with the Shu side being victorious. But if you choose a character from Wei then Wei would be victorious.

The first Dynasty Warriors was released in 1997 on the PlayStation, but the game was different from the one we are use to today. Instead of it being a battle scenario it was more of a fighting game with the features of the Tekken game. The only difference was the addition of weapons and more exotics moves.  Later Dynasty Warrior 2 was released and from then on the rest of the Dynasty Warrior had brought on a new dynasty to the gaming industry.

In the game there are 3 modes that you play in Musou mode or story mode. They’re also a free style mode, where you can choose any character, any sides, and any levels.  Dream mode where are face with mini game, for example slaughter mode is where you try and kill the most in an amount of time. There also some special features that tells you about the characters that you have unlocked and the true history that was based of in the game.

Dynasty Warriors is a series that literally evolves through the years that passed by. Most people would like the idea that Dynasty Warrior is up to date with this year current technology. But some people don’t like the idea; mostly because that as the game progresses so do the characters do as well. For example in one game in the past used a spear as a weapon, but in the current game today that same character would now be using a sword instead of a spear. Due to this change most people would not like the idea that the character they probably grew up with was using a different weapon that they played with when they where young.

One of the themes that are placed in this game is open world scenario, maybe not like Grand Theft Auto or Spiderman, but the character can roam freely around with no boundaries. Another theme is a battlefield playing, like Star Wars Battle Front;            Dynasty Warriors lets fight as an officer on the battlefield to defeat the opposing sides. Event though the first Dynasty Warrior game was a fighting game it had become a war kind scenario. Dynasty Warriors is best know for portraying it characters with personalities, for example one of the characters is a ruler of the kingdom but he might have the personalities of a tyrant or an aristocrat.

The first time I had played these games was when the third Dynasty Warrior was out on the Play Station 2. At first I had hard time understanding it but as time pasted by I was hooked on it. When Dynasty Warriors four came out I was excited to play it, but when I bought the game and started playing it I notice that the character design was different than the last game and that there were more characters to choose from. But those weren’t the issues that bothered me it was the fact that the story line of the game had not changed or the layout of the game. I thought to myself ‘what a rip-off it just the same as the last game I played. They just change the character design and added more characters.’ After a while I realized that that was the point of these sequels just to add more characters and keep the storyline the same.

In 2002 Koie had released a spinoff of Dynasty Warriors called Dynasty Tactics. Unlike Dynasty Warriors Dynasty Tactics was almost like a civilization game where you plan where your unit would go or what units to create. Another spinoff that Koie had released was Samurai Warriors, while Dynasty warriors took place in ancient China Samurai Warriors took place in feudal era of Japan. Most of it characters was based of true generals that fought in Japan, such as Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The game itself was pretty impressive and the character design was also creative as well.

The game that I found the most incredible spinoff of the Dynasty Warrior series was Dynasty Gundams. As the tittle says instead of warriors that are from China they have gundams fighting in battle fields, but they also fight in space. If you don’t know what Gumdam is its probably the most favorite mecha anime that was ever released. It about a group of people rebeling against an emipre that want to take over the planet earth. They fight against this empire with large robots called Gundam. It a series that almost simalr to Dynasty Warriors. I mean that it the same thing in each new series but it evolves as the centuries continue onward. But in this game the have all the Gundams from all there series that was ever realesed. If you have not wacth the Gundam series you would be confused with the story line of the game, but after hours of playing this game you would want to watch this series.

The most reacent Dynasty Warriors that came out was the sixth, this one had almost everybody hiped up to go buy this game. But as I said before most of them was disapointed, because most of the characters has different weapons and different costumes. The storyline had stayed the same as the other games did but with different events happening. For example if the other game one of the character dies due to a fight he lost, but in the sixth that same character died due to a sickness. The lighting of the game is bright, like in the first Fable game, it was kinda hard to see when it was daytime cause it almost blinded you, when it was night time you had to ajust the brightness to see what was going on.

As the years past and technology becomes more and more advance so will Dynasty Warriors. We might not know how it will change or what other characters might be added to the fight, but one factor remain that Dynasty Warriors is one of the few game that the storyline stays the same but it evolves along with the technology.

Revolutionizing the Single Player Experience by Incorporating Online Play

Demon’s Souls is an exclusive game for the Playstation 3. Like most Atlus published games, Demon’s Souls had almost no marketing or advertising on release, but the game’s online features may have an impact as to how other game developers implement online features for single player games in the future. Demon’s Souls expands the idea of what it means to play online by incorporating revolutionary ideas into a single player experience.

Demon’s Souls is a role-playing game (RPG) where the player customizes a character and makes their way through a world that exhibits a feeling of lifeless isolation. The game focuses heavily on the idea of comradery. The environment is bleak and littered with undead creatures. The game presents a level of difficulty comparable only by games from the early Nintendo era. The obstacles in these games were notorious for being unforgiving and only defeated by the most dedicated. The difficulty in the games from the past were defeated by means of trial and error compared to the games of today which simply give you less health or increase the damage of the enemies. It’s safe to say that games being made today are considerably easier than in previous decades. Even though Demon’s Souls is difficult to say the least, the game incorporates three online components that add a layer of interactivity to immerse the player in the single player experience.

The first, and probably most obvious online component in Demon’s Souls are the ghostly spirits the player will see attacking invisible enemies and doing various things within the environment. These are other players that are connected through the Playstation Network. Jim Sterling from Destructoid explains that these ghostly apparitions could be taken as a metaphor. The game is sending the player a message that there are others are with you in spirit, (2009). These ghostly spirits will remain visible for various amounts of time but can lead to valuable information and knowledge. The incorporation of this online feature acts as the veins that brings the online world to life and adds unique experience to the single player aspect.

The second online component manifests after a player dies. When a player is slain they leave a bloodstain on the ground. The bloodstain can be seen by other players connected online. If a player interacts with a bloodstain they will witness the last ten seconds of the deceased which could help them decide how to proceed. Although Demon’s Souls is a single player game, the players are seamlessly incorporating how others have played the game in order to make decisions regarding their current situation. For instance, if they touch a bloodstain that is in front a doorway, a red figure will appear of a person who had recently died. The player will see them walk into the room and start swinging their sword at the enemy that lies in wait. The precise location of where the enemy is hiding in the room and the player can prepare for the ambush. Besides learning the location of enemies through the unfortunate death of others, the replay can present a lot other information like where to step cautiously and how to proceed through traps. Similar to how the visible spirits add a layer of immersion for the player, Sterling explains “the stains also reinforce the concept of shared suffering and instill the feeling of empathy that keeps players invested in the Demon’s Souls experience,” (2009). Interacting on this retroactive level offers a unique experience to the player that would be hard to replicate by non-player characters (NPC).

The other aspect of online play is messaging. Players can leave messages on the ground for other players to read based on a preselected library of words and phrases. For instance, a player can cue another player into an enemies sneak attack or advise someone else to “Use fire on this next foe.” Messages get placed on the one ground and glow a blue color. A player can read a message by interacting the same way they would a blood stain, walking up a pressing ‘X’. Messages have the option of being rated and the rating is visible by the player reading the message, which can help the player determine if the message is legit or not. When a player’s message is rated, their health is replenished. This can help immensely as health is crucial in this game and when you are down in a fight, having a health boost can be the difference of victory or defeat. Like spirits and the bloodstains, messaging is an online component that adds to the level of online unity between players.

Multiplayer is present in almost every game released on the current consoles today but the multiplayer portion is usually a different entity than playing the game through single player. Even games that are developed and sold as having a robust online experience still separate the online portion of the game from the single player experience. An example of games like this are Halo and Little Big Planet which even include cooperative play but merely instill a feeling of playing the single player game with more people. The incorporation of online play in Demon’s Souls is different as it offers a feeling of comradery as players struggle though the difficult game. The hardships experienced by the players will potentially help others as they progress through the content. The players are interacting on a different level and rely on each other for help. Sterling explains “It’s true, certainly. That games such as Halo or Killzone have far superior multiplayer modes, because that’s what they are designed for. However, this is less about gameplay and more about capturing what it means to play with hundreds of people from around the world, connected by little more than a concept. The sense of ‘us vs. them’ that Demon’s Souls encourages is inspiring and truly brilliant, and provides a multiplayer experience that feels so much more alive and engaging than your average frag-fest or action game with a forced co-op mode,” (2009).

Demon’s Souls is a single player game, the online features offers a multiplayer experience unlike any other multiplayer game. These three elements of online play promote a new method of gameplay that can be incorporated into any genre of game. The game offers players a unique experience by offering new ways of interacting with others with very little direct interactivity. Even though there is minimal direct interaction, Demon’s Souls immerses players into the game through these online components better than most multiplayer games.

Source

(Sorry about the weird formatting at the start here, when I pasted some paragraphs from my email they were all…weird)

In September of 1998 the United States was introduced to the cultural phenomenon of Pokemon.  While Pokemon, or pocket monsters, were dazzling the covers of books, flickering on television screen, being embodied as toys, tradable cards and even articles of clothing, the first two Pokemon games, red and blue, became their own cultural icon.

Pokemon Red and Blue begin with the awakening of Professor Oak. Here, the use of first person is employed in order to create a sense of immersion from the very beginning. The player is asked their name, and here the user is able to choose from a list of pre-set nomenclature or to type a custom title in. While in later Pokemon games the choice to use a female avatar or a male avatar is offered, in the early versions of Red and Blue only a male option is given. This may have been in order to emulate Ash Ketchum, the protagonist in the television show, but it does establish the idea that males are explorers. The player is able to choose their name, is set in a first person view, but when ‘your appearance’ is revealed, it is obviously that of a male.

After filling in your character name, the story begins to unfold. The character waking up in bed, and then the game opens up into the classic, top-down, pixilated role-playing game view. As the player interacts with the environment, gender roles become apparent even in the first town. The only women that is set for interaction are a few non-named townspeople and then the character’s mother who is a nurturing, worry-filled, mother arch-type. In the building where Professor Oak works, all of his team are dressed in lab coats, when approached they spurt scientific phrases and above all, they are male. At this point in the game, the player chooses which pokemon to start out with. There are three to pick, one that embodies fire damage (Charmander), another for water (Squirtle) and the third is earth (Bulbasaur.)

Choosing one pokemon over another at this stage does not alter the coarse of the game. The only adverse effect this causes within the emergent narrative is that the players opponent, who emerges shortly before the player chooses a pokemon, picks the pokemon that is elementally strong against the one the player chooses. If the fire-type was selected, then the opponent would choose the water-type pokemon. Water has a stronger effect on fire pokemon, whereas if the player had opted for the water pokemon than the opponent would have selected the earth pokemon, because water has less of an effect on earth type pokemon. The strengths and weaknesses of pokemon elemental types can almost entirely be predicted by what one would expect in a real life situation. Water puts out fire, plants use water for growth, rocks are eroded by water so rock pokemon are weak against water, and so on. This mimesis is part of why Pokemon Red was a successful game at the time of release. The fact that the rules that existed within the Pokemon Universe imitated what the player already understood, made the game more playable.

The point of the game is to catch more pokemon, train them by battling wild pokemon or other trainers, eventually defeat a set of master trainers called the Elite Four, and finally to beat the opponent that was introduced at the start of the game. While the game is played and territory within the universe is discovered, the player’s pokemon are “leveling up” by defeating foes. Each time on of the player’s pokemon defeats another pokemon, experience is rewarded. Experience then adds up to levels, each level requires a set amount of experience. As the character’s pokemon gain levels they are privy to learned attacks and defense maneuvers that may help in battle. When higher levels are achieved pokemon may also evolve into a stronger version of that pokemon. These evolutions are predetermined by level. (If Bulbasaur was picked at the beginning of the game, then it would evolve into Ivysaur at level thirteen)

While traversing the Kanto Region, part of the goal of the game is to collect gym badges by defeating the leaders of the gyms within the towns the character explores. These gym leaders always employ a specific element, fire, ice, ect. These gym leaders are male or female, but once again fall into the gender roles as established in the first map of the game. The first gym leader is Brock. The sprite used for his character is a staunch male, standing strong with his arms crossed over his chest. When exploring the zone of this gym, several anonymous avatars wander the scene. When approached, your character asks one of them, “What is [Brock] like?” and the answer is “Brock is cool. He’s not just tough, people like and respect him.” He uses rock pokemon in his arsenal, another supplement to his obvious masculine demeanor.

These elements are given a subdued strength or weakness depending on what gender uses certain types of pokemon

In the next zone, the gym leader is Misty. The same type of anonymous sprites wander this zone, but when the player asks them about Misty, she is described as “The boyish mermaid” and then one character mentions, “The cape is a famous date spot, Misty has high hopes about this place!” Not only do these statements not paint Misty in the same strong way that Brock was crafted, she is instead humored to be a petty teenage girl worried about boys. She is not given the same respect by the people who live in her town that Brock is given. Even her character design shows a distinct inequality in how women are presented. Brock was a fully clothed man, standing tall with broad shoulders and a serious scowl stretching over his face. Misty is less-than-threatening and sexualized as a red-haired adolescent wearing very small shorts and a top that doesn’t cover her mid drift.

This inequality in female and male gym leaders is substantiated throughout the remainder of the game. All other objects of authority are male; the strongest two characters in the highest tier of bosses, the Elite Four, men who work at the PokeMarts, the players adversary and even the anonymous characters that offer the most useful parts of the narrative are male. The female characters take on roles as gardeners, and the nurse stereotype is even given weight as every nurse throughout the game is a female.

Pokemon Red and Blue help to reinforce pre-established gender roles by placing men in a position of strength and heroics, while women are given more subversive roles.

Ryan White

Game Culture Class

Game Analysis Paper

10/27/09

Infamous is a versatile, open-ended, action driven videogame, based in a moralistic-driven paradigm. Its main character is Cole Mc Garth, a player-controlled protagonist and electricity-powered superhero. He is faced with a series of mission-based ethical dilemmas, in which he must choose good vs. evil responses. Based on these choices, Cole   either restore some order back to the demolished and quarantined Empire City, or further destroys it. These choices are not without repercussion, and controls Cole’s further development, how others in the video world respond to him and produce a kaleidoscope of different scenarios and endings for the game.

A Karma meter, ever-present in the upper right hand corner of the video screen, registers in the extreme oppositional directions, based on the player’s moralistic choices, which then can manipulate game play. Whenever a “Karma Moment,” is trigged, game play is arrested, giving the player the opportunity to reflect on choices made. One’s own personal moral thermometer further immerses the player into the game, and strengthens the interaction. This is a good addition and adds another dimension to the game play.

Designed as an interactive drama, Infamous constructs elements of neo- Aristotelian theory. The game finds a common ground between Ludological and Narrativist concepts in game culture, proving that these two theories can co-exist, and supports middle ground positions. The intense narrative stories that develop as playtime extends, alternate between comic book dramas and real world play, arise out of formal constraints, and provides an inherent motivation, from unexpected challenges and non-predetermined outcomes. In the mission where Cole is tasked to save the doctors or sacrifice his girlfriend Trish, the narrative will take alternating outcomes based on player choices. This motivation allows for positive player feedback.

In addition, utilizing an origin story allows the player to grow with and further immerse as Cole’s character grows, intensifying player attraction. Initially Cole, who unknowingly delivers the Ray Sphere that causes the biological blast, devastates Empire City and is the source of his powers, is transformed progressively throughout the narrative. The player partakes in the transformation from beginning to end, and the entire multiple up and down existences in-between. Within this interactive drama, the protagonist role allows the player to role-play and become a first-person immersed character, witnesses and experience situations as and game play progressives.

The well-designed formal constraints are balanced by equally advanced material constraints, allowing a variety of player directed and controller based interactions. Platforming, shooting, puzzles and role-play are additional game elements used for movement within the game, and engaging combat tactics. Cole’s movements within the game world are exhilarating, as he exhibits everything from the agility of Spiderman-like movements, with balancing, rail surfing, climbing and grabbing maneuvers to the Hulk-like power of jumping without injury, as he moves about the city.

Reward- incentive experience points are acquired dependent on actions, stunts or missions and impact Cole’s power intensity. He is able to take action in this richly interactive game world through manipulating the games interface elements, and these effects commensurate with the player’s intentions.

Within this sand-box style game, there is the freedom of playing the game the way you want, and explore the game environment independently from the game’s main objectives. This allows for possibilities not part of the original game design. Type of play is variable, as the player can choose to alternate unrestricted between open-world activities vs. mission-based experiences.

The player continues to have control of Cole over Cole’s actions as he is followed throughout Empire City, experiencing new-found powers, negotiating ways to maintain his energy sources, participating in mission assignments, and moving to higher levels of play experiences.The player has an exciting feeling of empowerment, and agency is experienced, as the formal and material constraints are well balanced.

The desolate urban environment screens in Infamous is attractive to the younger, anti-establishment, pop-culture fans, and many also have with strong attractions within the comic book world, that mimics similar environments. Cole’s status as a bike messenger places him less law abiding, more fitted to his crime-ridden ecosystem, and more acceptable in an actual counter cultural status. The iconic symbols seen in Infamous are more directed against the cultural norms of established law and order, and represent the antithesis.

Many of us have grown up with television representations of many comic book characters, have a familiarity history and can easily develop a personal attraction to the game.

The game Infamous switches from the 3D game world to a comic book narrative throughout the players experiences within the interactive game play environment. This comic book style interjection not only attracts video game fans but also comic book fans l, expanding the encashment areas and maintaining a higher degree of attention. This type of style enhances the narrative, improves the experiences and expands the level of play.  This constant alternation keeps the game from being repetitive and boring. In the 3D game play world, integration of the narrative with the game elements a variety of his perks the gamers interest more than when only game play mode exist.

As exciting play Infamous is, there were a few drawbacks that open possibilities for future improvements. The characters could be better developed. Zeke gets on your nerves after a while and Trish has a harsh personality. There is a repetitive nature of combat and enemy-types and movements are limited. The Karma System only offers extreme choices of Good or Evil, with no intermediate choices. Also the game is designed not to reward well if you waver between the two. It is hard to control the camera angle on screen that does not co-ordinate well with Cole’s quick movements, and makes some of the visuals difficult to see clearly.

Still, Infamous was an exciting, interactive videogame and I enjoyed being morally challenged.

At its core Sony Computer Entertainment’s 1992 Playstation release The Legend of Dragoon is simply another generic RPG that follows the adventures of an unlikely group of heroes. The story begins with the traditional white male protagonist, Dart, returning to his home village to find it in shambles. Like most RPGs and well known adventure tales, Dart fights off the invading soldiers and discovers that his childhood friend Shana has been taken to a nearby prison. He decides to rescue her and this sets in motion a collection of adventures that help Dart and the allies he meets along the way not only save the world, but discover new things about themselves. In spite of the cliché premise, there is far more to the game.

Unlike most games within the RPG genre, The Legend of Dragoon has more than just one social statement to make and does not just rely on shallow themes and faux equality. TLoD successfully breaks the limitations of the RPG genre by portraying and advocating for gender equality, being the most inclusive RPG of its time, and strongly criticizing racism.

During the late 1990s, companies like Square Enix (then Squaresoft), Namco and Contrail were rapidly putting out RPGs and vying for the most groundbreaking graphics and battle systems. While this led to better FMVs and battle systems, there was still a great deal missing. Queer characters only existed in the form of effeminate villains or sexually ambiguous undertones where one character had to die to preserve the character’s heterosexuality (like in Final Fantasy VII), people of color were rarely protagonists or playable characters, and women were generally relegated to supporting roles. TLoD was one of the first games to portray these groups differently and not show queer characters in a solely negative light. The best example in the game is that of Lavitz. To a heterosexual audience used to heterosexist norms and archetypes, he most likely presents as completely straight. But closer inspection of his actions towards Dart, Albert, and Rose would lead a queer gamer to have some doubts as to his heterosexuality. The scene between his mother and him where she states her desire for him to marry is also an obvious cue for queer audiences and those familiar with the practice of queer coding in Hollywood.

TLoD also includes both women and people of color as well rounded player characters and portrays them in positions of power. During the party’s travels, they arrive in the city of Deningrad. Not only is Deningrad the most prosperous, safe, and well respected city in the continent of Endiness, but it is run by a black woman. Queen Theresa reins in a form of meritocratic monarchy with the four Sacred Sisters of Mille Seseau. Each possesses a different sort of skill such as healing, strategy and combat, delegation, and intellectuality. In a way, each Sacred Sister is a representation of mythological female characters like Athena and Artemis. For instance, the character of Miranda possess all the attributes of the Greek goddess Artemis. She is quick tempered, an incredibly skilled warrior, devoid of any male attachments, and even the design of her chain mail closely resembles Renaissance paintings of Artemis.

Although TLoD starts with a standard protagonist, more characters quickly join the player’s party and most of them are subversions of classic RPG archetypes. The first female character introduced is Rose, a mysterious and incredibly powerful warrior. Though Rose is a magic user, she is far stronger than Dart and remains the strongest physical fighter for the majority of the game. In other RPGs, magic users are physically weak. Not only does Rose surpass the physical expectations of her gender, she is also respected by the other members of the party. Throughout the game, her wealth of battle experience is called upon and her gender has little to no bearing on the way Dart, the party, or most non-player characters interact with her. The other female magic user in the party for the first half of the game is Shana, who at first glance, seems to fit in neatly with all the female character conventions. She is physically weak, constantly getting herself hurt or captured, and finally acquires a White Dragon spirit, solidifying her as a healer character with access to only white magic. And yet, in spite of her standard female role, she shows far more ambition than any of the other characters throughout the game. Her sole mission is to better herself so she can help the other party members, but she never gets the chance as she is wounded halfway through the game and her character is replaced by Miranda (who also defies convention by being head of the Deningrad military force and a white magic user). Despite Shana never becoming much stronger, she is rarely coddled and her opinions are not disregarded because of her gender or lack of physical prowess. She, like everyone else in the party, is consulted with major party decisions and treated as an equal. The importance of including polar opposite female roles lies in one of the main points of gender equality; respect and treatment of an individual lies not in their gender but in the content of their character.

The other manifestation of gender equality dealt with in TLoD is the breakdown of constrictive gender roles. For example, Dart is the male archetype of the charismatic journeying swordsman who leads the party. But he shows emotional openness not only with women, but with the party and NPCs regardless of their gender. Before TLoD was released, few RPGs contained empathetic male main characters that were not physically weak or children. Dart’s empathy is most clearly demonstrated when the party goes to defend a Basil woodland fort. The screen is littered with both Basil and Sandora corpses and when the player approaches any corpse and hits X to interact with it, Dart will say, “He looks like the same age as me”, “There is no ally or enemy for the dead. Please, rest in peace…”, and “Poor soul…”.

TLoD also focuses heavily on racism and its effects. As the story unfolds, the true plot is revealed and it centers around a period in history called the Dragon Campaign. The Dragon Campaign was a war fought 10,000 years ago for multi-species independence from the ruling race of Winglies. Winglies were pale skinned, white haired, blue eyed and magical winged beings that built floating cities and used their technological and magical knowledge to enslave all other races they deemed racially inferior. The Winglies can be viewed as being heavily drawn from the Nazis of 1930-40s Germany and when the party enters the remaining Wingly enclaves, they are met with a great deal of wariness and shame.

During the second half of the game, the party travels to the deserted Wingly law city Zenebatos. Despite it being devoid of life, there are many machines still operating there and when they are interacted with they will interact with respond to the PC as if the city is still populated and in working order. Two of the laws being heard and passed on in the Legislation Center are blatant references to acts of racism and genocide that have occurred in history. The first is an enforced Wingly veneration bill and the other is a land repossession act. Along with the act, TLoD makes an even more obvious allusion to the mistreatment and genocide of Native Americans with the PC of Kongol. Kongol is the last of a race called the Gigantos, who were all but exterminated by Wingly slavery, war, and human intolerance. The facial features, skin tone and philosophy of the Gigantos draw heavily from Native American cultures and Kongol even dresses in stereotypical warrior attire and carries a tomahawk.

Although the game is often overlooked in the sea of Playstation and Playstation 2 RPGs, there has still not been a game that is quite as unique in its inclusiveness and socio-political themes. Even to this day, there have been only a handful of RPGs that take such a strong stance on social justice and gender equality. And with the way RPGs are currently heading, there seems to be more and more aspects of The Legend of Dragoon and less of the trite Final Fantasy conventions that outsold it at the time of its release. In spite of the fact that it was originally overlooked, the game still has one of the biggest online followings and will remain a treasured classic for gamers who either are not white, heterosexual men or want to experience a game not limited by that audience.

A Sense of Emergency

There is a fine line between what makes a good game and what makes a terrible game. Despite multiple theories, it really comes down to the realism in game play. Emergency is what every player needs to feel in an amazing game. The sense of being emerged in a game is from the correct amount of realism. If a game was to have too much realism and the game becomes too hard and doesn’t sell, too little realism and the game is too easy. In Left 4 Dead, the game perfectly demonstrates the right amount of realism to make it a great game. In Left 4 Dead 2 the game over stepped the right amount of realism by making the levels in the daytime rather than at night. Levels in the daytime take away from how scary the game is and most of the suspense.  In Left 4 Dead, the right sense of being emerged into this post apocalyptic world that is overrun with zombies and almost certain death around every corner. Gamers being emerged in the realism of the game play resulted in Left 4 Dead’s success and many others.

Left 4 Dead sold hundreds of thousands of copies because players were easily emerged into a post apocalyptic world where players had to fight for survival.  Beside its perfect amount of realism, Left 4 Dead had good artwork and good stories, which are also needed to make a good game. Left 4 dead was set at nighttime to build up suspense and capture its audience in the moment of the game and really connect with the characters. It also made it a lot easier to scare the players. Every level was portrayed at nighttime and players had to use their flashlights on their guns and use light from the level itself like a cars headlights, a fire in an oil drum, emergency lights, etc. In some parts of the level it would be pitch black and the player could only see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Another example of the balance of realism and game play in this game would be that if a Hunter or Smoker were to jump on a survivor, the survivor needed another survivor to help get the infected off either by killing it or knocking it off. If a survivor were to get hurt to a point the survivor would start walking slower and slower to each point of damage the player got to. And until that player healed he would continue to walk at that pace. If the health bar went down to 0 then the character would fall down on the ground and stay there until one of the other survivors helped him up.

In Left 4 Dead 2, some of the levels are in the daytime and that takes away from the suspense that the game is supposed to have. Without levels being in the dark, it can’t hold the suspense to the players. While it does makes more sense to travel in the daytime during a zombie apocalypse, it takes away from how emerged the player will feel. But in the game it needs to have suspense filled moments that make the player scared and want to get out alive. In the day time its not so scary. While taking the realism into a new world, Left 4 dead 2 is adding more melee weapons to add more in depth cooperative game play. Weapons like a chainsaw, baseball bat, and machete, are available to have a little fun with some zombies. While Left 4 Dead 2 took out most of the suspense and horror, it still has a lot of hype because of its more in depth cooperative game play and the addition of new melee weapons.

A game can be too unrealistic and too realistic at the same time. The Game, Alone in the Dark, is a perfect example for this. While this game did absolutely terrible in almost every aspect for a game, it still had some pretty good ideas. A good example of realism in this game was that you could only carry what fit in your coat and had a GUI that showed your actual coat. Your GUI also showed the exact spots you were hurt. If one of your arms were slightly damaged, it would show cuts and bruises. If your arm was extremely damaged, it would show a huge gash and a lot of gore. An example of too much realism in this game would be in the very beginning when the player would have to keep pressing down on the right analog stick to keep your eyes from getting teary. Too much unrealism would be when the player has to get into a taxi and drive to escape from dying. In this part there were many terrible examples that made the overall game terrible. The car you were driving could literally reach warp speed, would glitch through the ground sometimes for no reason at all, and also through entire buildings.

Another example of a good amount of realism was in the game Burnout Paradise. The drive-thru’s don’t actually make the player stop and wait for the car to get painted, refueled, or repaired.  Some aspects of realism were frustrating, which were whenever the player loses a race, he would have to drive all the way back to where the race started to re-try.  Unrealism is also needed in games. In Burnout Paradise the car would still crash, but it would take a little more than it should to take the car out. The player could drift into the wall going over 100MPH and drive away like nothing happened, and in Grid the game play was too realistic by having the car even slightly clip one of the barriers and it would crash.

A sense of emergency is needed for every game to be successful. The sense of being emerged motivates the player to strive for the best. The realism in game play is different for every game and for genre of game. The balance of realism in game play is not needed in every game. A game like Tetris still emerges players and motivates them to do their best when it has no realism in the game play at all.  Although emergency being a state of mind, every successful game has been able to captivate its audience and inspire them to play for hours and hours without having the game get boring.