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I found this article about Second Life via Joystiq. It caught my eye because the BBC was reporting the new happenings of Second Life (or lack thereof), and I didn’t expect a news site like the BBC to write an article about it. Apparently they’ve written quite a few articles about Second Life though, just as many other news outlets have.

I hadn’t even heard of Second Life until a couple of months ago, and I thought that it was created some time in the 90s, but I guess it was created in 2003, according to this article. “Games” like this just don’t catch my attention because I don’t really have any interest in them. However, I think it’s cool that they’re so emergent; they probably attract all the subcultures who aren’t represented in mainstream gaming. I think it serves its purpose well in that respect, but I’m not so sure about the others. I haven’t ever actually played Second Life though, so I can’t be sure.

This article has sort of sparked my interest in it. I would like to try it out at least, just so I know what the gameplay is like and what people are talking about when they refer to Second Life.

I’m glad that I’ve been taking classes in IAM because I feel like I have more respect for all the different types of games people like to play. I used to be hypercritical. I’m admittedly still very critical of FPS’s, but if that’s what people like to play, then that’s what people like to play. My opinion can differ, but I can’t really tell anybody what their favorite genre should be.

I think it’s good to have an open-mind about games or else you’re just going to limit your experiences in the industry.

(For example, there’s this game called Redneck Jamboree. Do I think that there’s any possibility that this is a legitimately good game? Absolutely not. But I feel like it’s my duty to play this game and see just how many stereotypes about rednecks they’ve managed to include. I just can’t bring myself to spend $20 on it.)

As a journalism major, I read this article thinking to myself that it would be pretty awesome to get paid to sign up to play Second Life as a correspondent and then report on the happenings in the virtual world. I would like to aspire to do something similar, whether it’s reviews or cultural papers or studies.

Anyway, as a last thought: I don’t think Second Life has lost its appeal as this article has suggested. If it did, their userbase wouldn’t keep increasing. It might just be evolving into something new that some of the companies and other players no longer want to be a part of. What that is, I’m not sure.

lol picture ::

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/20/banned-psn-player-sues-nintendo-and-microsoft/

This article showed that Valve, a production company who developed the highly successful video game Half- Life, found marriage between public opinion and innovative game development was a better victory pathway than satisfying marketing demands. Their initial product, Half-Life was scrapped, since it did not appear to meet their internal quality standards. The game was not fun despite the artistic design, the levels tied poorly together and it was riddled with technical problems. However, often starting from the beginning allows other new ideas to generate.

It appeared the first step was to lie out the important components to developing a quality video game, and Valve defined them as:

1) Experiential destiny: player control of activity and next experience without lag time

2) Player acknowledgement:  visual reinforcement of player actions

3) The player should blame himself or herself for failure, not the game, so to continue to like the game

All designed to make the game palatable to the player. It seemed their next step was to find a perfect game-developer to put it all together. Having failed, they seemed to create their own avatar, the cabal. This cross-section of company talent combined their expertise with public play-testing to re-create Half-Life that met standard as well as financial success.

It showed that if you find talented people who can work together, there could be better success than when people work in isolation. This is however no easy accomplishment with egos, superiority complexes and self-demigods that often exist in this industry. But egos were outweighed by vision and some are energized by collaboration. This allowed widening of the opportunity to change what didn’t work for what did. In this environment leaders are needed, others with talent willing to be subordinate and skills need to be integrated.

In the end, Valve found groundbreaking success with teamwork, the cabal.

Blog Response

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/24199/

A Video Game for Angry Teens

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston are applying the aggression developed in video game playing, to treat teenagers with emotional problems. Using a Space Invaders-like video game, players shoot down alien invaders while avoiding the friendly ships. The game is connected to a heart-rate monitor the player wears.

Prior to playing the game, these patients are taught relaxation techniques, and then asked to play the game. When their heart rate reaches a certain level, they are asked to use the relaxation techniques to bring it down, while continuing to play the game. The idea is to create a stressed environment, and teach the teenager how to use techniques that will control his emotion and aggression. The blogger wants your comments on this new potential use for video games.

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This is a significant twist on video gaming. The complaint is usually video games bring out aggression in teens, but here they want the aggression to occur. This creates a stressed environment the teenager is then taught to control.  Teen-agers are already attracted to video game playing; I’m sure more than a therapy session, so that’s a great hook.

I believe aggression among teenagers is on the rise with so much negative inputs through music, entertainment, and school and just like stuff. Also I don’t believe there are not many successful and positive therapies to treat this aggression those teens would respond to. This seems like a great idea.  There would be an increase in communication between the teen and therapist, because video games would create a bond, developing trust and making the therapy more successful.

This technique could continue outside of therapy, and be used to control teen aggression while playing other video games. Therefore, the game can be played more relaxed, and the player might get something different out of playing, instead of frustration, especially with higher-level games that may be difficult to beat. These techniques could be expanded into and useful in other aggression provoking situations the teen may experience…

I would like to see future games develop like this to reach teens with other significant problems they have, like avoiding drinking and drug use.

Mission: Dinner With Sasha

Agent Moya wants Cole to go to the Reapers underground lair, find their leader, Sasha, and kill her. To get there, Cole has to travel down a long deep tunnel that is riddled with Reapers. Game play begins, and Cole has to engage the Reapers in fighting to travel deeper into the tunnel. Half way down the tunnel, you can hear Sasha’s voice say, and “I’ve been waiting for you, longing for you.” More Reapers continue to come out from hiding that you have to defeat. Cole travels deeper down the tunnel. Sasha’s voice appears again and says, “What’s this.” “ No, that’s not possible.” “You lie!”

Cole is still fighting the Reapers, but he can’t defeat them in hand-to-hand combat. It was more effective to use his electrical grenade power. He can then stand at a distance and blow them up. During this game play, the Reapers have more advanced weaponry. They have machine guns, suicide bombers, sniper machine guns, grenades, and can use them while fighting Cole in the tunnel. Towards the end of the tunnel, Cole finds innocent people locked in cages. Cole tells Moya, “I found where they are making the Reapers.” ”There is a bunch of people locked down here in cages.” Cole continues, “Machines are spraying black tar all over the place. Moya tells Cole to get the innocent people out of the cages, and then deal with Sasha.

Sasha’s voice comes out again, “You think I don’t see her, the way you parade her around like a common Jezebel.” “I see everything now, Kessier (Cole’s last name), all of it.” Cole replies, “What’s your problem.” Sasha responds,” You think you’re smarter than everyone else.” “You’re going to pay.” When Cole finally arrives where Sasha is, she asks, “What took you so long to get here?” Sasha disappears for a second, then reappears in Cole’s face, and tries to attack him. There is a timing button that you can press the second she reappears that will block her attack. If you don’t time it correctly, Sasha can hurt Cole. Her attacks are repeated, while the Reapers continue to attack also. Once Sasha is defeated and lay dying on the ground, she tells Cole, “Look at me. “ “You’ll never control it Cole.” “Look at me. “ “Look at what it’s done.” “It controls you.”

The story enters the narrative comic book sequence, and Cole is speaking. He states, “Sasha was nothing before the blast, but looking at her now; is this what my powers are going to do to me?” “A warped body and a twisted mind.” “Is that my future?” Cole believes that Sasha knows about the First Sons and the Ray Sphere. ‘If I’m going to dig myself out of this hole…” Cole begins. Then an explosion occurs, and Cole is knocked unconscious for a moment. Upon awakening, Cole says, “They came in fast, smoke was everywhere.” “Sasha got pulled out, whoever they are, they must be pros trained for this kind of thing.” Water begins pouring in, and the place starts to fall apart. “With no way back, I went forward into the Slums of the Warren. Mission completes, and 500 experience points are gained.

Via GrandTextAuto

http://www.funnyordie.co.uk/videos/32d666a5cd/call-of-duty-secret-spielberg-level-unlocked

Apparently people have waaaay too much time on their hands these days as seen in this article linked on joystiq that shows a laser cutter that has been programmed to play the mario theme.  While awesome as anything that plays the mario theme is awesome in my book  and an ingenious hack of a seemingly boring inanimate object, its kind of sad to think how much time this person sat there tinkering with the laser cutter to see how to get the tune just right.  Seriously. I hope this person isn’t at work and getting paid to sit around and be a total nerd because if they are, I’m totally jealous.

Its always nice to see developers getting along, Eric Ruth has made an 8-Bit version of Left 4 Dead and Valve has been aware of this and is ok with it. So the game is going to be made available for PC in 2010 for free, it is the whole game except that it is only two player not four. The idea of demaking a game is a very new idea seeing as how everything is all about the remaking right now and I think we could be seeing more demakes in the near future. You can check out the original article here,

Wet has taken a decisively annoying turn. I have had no progress this past week, just lots and lots of almost making it to a check point. The enemies kill her with just a little more than one hit from a bat or a plywood board, its just ridiculous. Anyways I can only hope that the game is easier on normal mode because hard mode has gotten really really hard and its been rather sudden, if I was one of the game designers I would have made the earlier stages harder so that the slope of difficulty was a little more gentle and not to mention less misleading. So heres to hoping that I make it though by the weekend.

GirlGamer had a short article about the new MMO released by Asylum Entertainment called “Garden Party World.”  The game is geared towards younger children and families and aims to create a game  ”that kids will be sure to enjoy time after time, but one that provides a safe online environment experience.”  Kids are encouraged to create their own unique characters, decorate tree-houses and invite other online players to their spaces in order to make friends.  There’s also other outdoor activities like collecting flowers and magical orbs.

The screenshots of the game are less than stellar, sortof two-dimensional environments with kiddie avatars floating around the screen.  It just hits me as sort of pathetic that these are the types of computer games that may grip the more wholesome, younger generation of gamers.

I mean, why go outside and play with your friends when you can log into Garden Party World and do it with less hassle.  This game emulates the idea of outdoor fun but without any of the advantages of experiencing something past the glow of a computer screen.