Is there a market for innovation?

"First of all, why can't anyone leave the right analog stick alone? In third-person games, its job is to control the camera - that's what it's comfortable with. You try and work it into combat and it just gets frightened and confused." - Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw

One of the things that has been emphasised in the course so far is the idea that despite constant development, how slowly change actually occurs in the gaming landscape. Innovation can be a dangerous path for developers, and change is not always welcome as illustrated in the above quote from Zero Punctuation’s Yahtzee. Put simply, innovation is only viable when there is a consumer base willing to accept and learn how to function with the associated changes brought about through innovations within gaming.

Innovation is often used as a buzzword in the build up and hype created around new releases, and is IDEALLY a sign that you will be given a new and unique experience. However this is often not the case, and we are presented with either:

a) A repackage of something which already exists and works or

b) something which just doesn’t work (such as the frightened analog stick)

This could also be viewed both as a commentary on what consumers want to get out of games, and the reliance of large scale developers on what is knows it can sell. Why release something which could confuse or annoy people when you could just reskin the last successful game you released?

It’s not that I don’t think there isn’t innovative content being released, it’s just that there seems to be a lot of missed opportunities. In the pre-release hype for the Kinect (Xbox owner - going with what I know) the promise was that ‘you ARE the controller’ with this innovative new product. And the Kinect itself is a pretty amazing piece of technology; making a motorised camera with spatial and sonic awareness a household object is a feat in itself. But after the release it seemed that the main purpose of the Kinect was to play bowling and tennis/volleyball games. It soon becomes apparent that you’re still doing the same flailing movements to play volleyball as you did with an Eyetoy in 2003 (Does anyone remember Eyetoy?).



This seems like a terrible waste of development, and is even more frustrating considering the amazing array of uses found for the Kinect when hacked and adapted to purposes outside of games. The sites below present examples not only showing novel uses for the kinect such as Shadow puppets and web navigation, but also implementation of the kinect as a serious tool in hospitals.

http://www.1up.com/news/ten-best-unintended-uses-for-kinect
http://bitshare.tumblr.com/post/4007657631/how-the-kinect-is-revolutionizing-medicine

Is there no market for innovation, or is it simply a slow moving process between what developers are willing to risk and consumers are willing to accept?

With all this said, I did play the game which used the analog sticks for combat and it was TERRIBLE.

Why is it important to study Video Games?

The reading by Parron and Wolf reminded me a few years ago why I thought it would be interesting or important to study video games.

A few years ago I did a research paper on case that occurred in America, the Columbine school shooting where two male students killed 12 other students and a teacher along with severely injuring more and following through with suicide. Media was quick to make assumptions that the boys were influence by musician Marilyn Mason and ‘violent video games’.

Without sufficient research I feel like media is always quick to create and feed moral panics to society. It seems so simple to say that if an adolescent played video games, he is then capable of putting himself behind a gun and pulling the trigger. Perhaps I'm getting to psychological here but Parron and Wolf make valid points. The field of video game study as a disciple is quite limited and if university funding is subsided then needless to say doesn’t have a very bright future? Academic research would enable understanding of the element of performance. I think this is one of the most key points that it’s important to understand what you’re talking about. I played the game Tekken when I was a kid but I certainly didn’t grow up wanting to act it out. For me it was about the thrill and excitement of the game; the experience. I feel as though the element of performance have so many ways you could study it and that there is certainly more to what meets the eye. Social science indicates the many gamers use games to explore identity- the interactive element of video games requite its own close analysis. I think video games in the academic field could really break through if it is studied correctly without applying film theories etc to it.

Let's Play! - Youtube

Youtube is a growing community where videos of all kinds are uploaded frequently every day. There are well over a thousand people on Youtube who post videos of themselves playing Video games. Of those thousands, popular Let's Players like Achievement Hunter, The Yogscast, and solo Youtubers like Pewdiepie, Tobuscus and SeaNanners (as well as others) make a great profit from the amount of views their videos obtain. 

Watching Let's Plays can help those who don't usually engage themselves with playing games (especially in our course). There are people who would rather watch another person play through a horror game than play the game themselves. For example watching someone play Amnesia or Slender; they can avoid experiencing first hand the jump scares - alone, I must add -  because they are watching someone else play. It’s also very entertaining being able to see the different reactions that people have while playing certain games. You can see how they deal with certain situations which can be irritating, horrifying or funny to watch. Let's Plays can be of a person playing their way through an adventure game of some kind (e.g. The Walking Dead series). When watching another person play the game, it can inspire the viewer to play the game themselves and in their own way.

Popular Let’s players~ (I'll only mention a few because there's far too much to cover, sorry for leaving a lot out)

Achievement Hunter

               In our lectures, Rooster Teeth has been mentioned a few times. They’re the creators of ‘Red vs. Blue’ which they are most popularly known by. "Achievement Hunter" is a subsidiary of Rooster Teeth. Achievement Hunter upload many different shows, all recorded in video games, such as "Things To Do In" in which the staff show the viewer interesting activities in the game that weren't the developers original idea . Videos of Let's Plays from the Achievement Hunter staff are posted under Rooster Teeth's Youtube channel. Some of the games that they make Let's Play videos of are Minecraft,Worms, Farm Simulator 2013 etc.

The Yogscast

               The Yogscast is a very popular Youtube channel that does a lot of videos about Minecraft and Garry's Mod (as well as others, like Guild Wars II, Diablo III, Borderlands etc). Their Minecraft videos are the most popular of the genre on YouTube. One series of these videos feature the Yogscast members building and playing in a game mod known as Tekkit. Using the mod, which adds a more industrial side to building in Minecraft, the Yogscast have been able to create a story in which two groups of Yogscast members act as industrial rivals, squaring off in a story as "Honeydew Inc" and "SipsCo." This adds an "acting" element to the Let's Play, creating an almost movie-like experience for the viewer.

Solo Youtube uploaders usually have a facecam active while they play videogames. This allows the viewers to see their reactions, as well as make them feel closer to the person they're watching play. A lot of Youtubers have their own styles and importantly own personalities. Often they will also stream themselves playing which allow viewers to join in with them while they are in online games. The relationship created between Youtubers and their subscribers is important as it is where most of their success comes from. Often you'll see a lot of conflict between fan-armies for certain Youtube channels.

It's interesting how popular posting videos of yourself playing video games are on Youtube. As well as how entertaining it can be to watch someone else play the game instead. It isn't something to be left out when thinking about the popularity of games as it is a growing fashion upon gamers to stream online games.

I'm not gonna go any deeper into this but I'll post some youtube channels that I've subscribed to which have pretty good gaming videos. :)

- Pewdiepie
- SeaNanners
- Tobuscus
- Dunkey

feel free to comment more!

- Georgia C

A different angle about game balance

There is no permanent balance in game space

Ecological balance is shaped by all the players in game space, thus the unpredicted development in game space is created by players but not designer. Even the Chinese farmer is one of them which helped to build this ecological balance. There will always have one animal leaving in the top biological chain, it not only happened in reality but also the virtual world. Once the certain farmers have been banned by game manger (GM), I do believe another new force whatever Chinese farmer or America farmer will instead their position to maintain the ecological balance or, we can say, the world frame. One superpower will always exist, thus to prevent professional famer is impossible.

Mechanism against Company profit

I have to say, the current mechanism in online game has the reverse effect to the game company’s profit. For instance, these farmers sometimes are main character in big clans. It means they properly are the most actively players in the game, thus the big event in game space need their involvement. The game company also needs a high activity environment to induce the newcomers’ involvement. Base on this point, even the companies clearly understand farmer’s negative influence. Due to these players’ high public influence, they have no option but to acquiesce.

 Ecological balance on economics

On one hand, because the farmers always focus on the high level material, thus it makes the high level material more expensive than the initial period. On the other hand, compare with high level material, the weapon’s price cut down. Meanwhile, as they do not care the low level material, it makes more benefits for newcomer. As a result, the high level players have cheaper weapon and the newcomers earn more from primary material.

The ways to restrict the imbalance

The original purpose for the game is amusement. In some certain level, due to the game balance is based on the involvement degree of players, thus one 12 hours online professional players definitely will have more influence than those players who only take the game as a casual amusement. If the professional famer cannot be prevented, there are some optional ways to reduce the imbalance in online game space. First, In China, the current online game ‘Addiction Prevention System’ (APS.) is especially designed for teenage player who is under 18. According to this system, if the teenage that played more than 5 hours, their harvest in the game will reduce to naught. Thus it will force them to leave game. Nowadays, the APS is only running on those servers which located in China. Probably they need an advanced version especially for adults’ player. Second, as Constance mentioned the situation of ‘kill-stealer’. From my experience in the online game, the reason that causes this happening is the designer but not player. If the player has real power to gain the dropped items form monster, then there won’t have the words ‘kill-stealer’ at all. Because most of online game will give the dropped items to those people who made the highest totally damage to monster. It means the real powerful play will get the dropped items logically. Compare with that, some games allowed the player who made the last attack to get the dropped items. Thus it equates to encourage this ‘kill-stealer’ appear in the game.

Anonymity and online gaming

The anonymity afforded by the way gamers interact, through avatars profiles etc, can and does greatly affect how people conduct themselves in online spaces. Shooter games played online (Call of Duty/Halo) are filled with profane and tasteless remarks, petty fights and outrageous overreaction. A surprising amount of this behaviour is present in the gaming community as a whole, and I wonder what factors contributed to the proliferation and uptake of this attitude. Anonymity itself can affect the way we function in a social environment, but in the gaming world this is coupled with a suspension of reality and in quite a few cases violent and suggestive imagery. Does this give credence to groups decrying the influence of videogames in society? Is it just a userbase thing? Does there need to be more forceful moderation?

Some thoughts to jump off from, feel free to comment

Speedrunning - Another way of play

So, over the last week I have been almost obsessively watching in my spare time the 7 day speed running marathon that is (or was now) AGDQ or Awesome Games Done Quick 2013. Streamed live on Twitch.tv, it demonstrated some amazing talent. Done for charity, it eventually raised over US$420000 towards research into the prevention of Cancer.

But what is speed running you might ask?

Speed running in its most pure form is playing a game in order to finish it as quickly as possible. Where this breaks down is what “finishing” the game really consists of. For most games it’s broken down into different categories, usually with at least a 100% completion record (i.e. collecting everything in the game) and what is called an any% record (i.e. not getting every item in the game, but still finishing it)

Some speed runs are fairly skill based, with carefully planned out routes decided upon beforehand in order to maximize efficiency. Many however (and coincidentally) the ones I find most interesting are the ones that abuse unintentional glitches in the game, often in order to skip sections and items needed in order to progress. One of my favourite examples of this is this speed run of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Usually a game that would take 12+ hours to finish for an average player, the player in this video manages to finish it in just under 22 minutes using a glitch I don’t even entirely understand. The commentary on the run helps though.

What I find interesting however is developer reaction to it. One example of this was during the aforementioned AGDQ. During his run of VVVVVV, the player (known as runners, as in speed runner) of the game, upon finding out the developer of the game itself was watching him play it, apologized, saying that he knew the developer didn’t particularly like the “Speed Run” way of playing his game. This kind of developer reaction I find quite interesting. Is speed running a legitimate way of playing a game, or is it a form of cheating? In my opinion, it’s just another way that players have come up with in order to get more enjoyment out of their favourite games. What are your thoughts?

-Matthew Miles-Watson

Facebook games and privacy

This piece is a simple vent of my frustration at "casual games" in particular those tied in with social networking sites. My problems with these games are not the "they suck and are not real games" or "if you play these you're not a gamer" issues that are common, nor do I care if you decide to dedicate hours a day to Farmville.

Rather what I find to be the main issue is the ability, or in most cases requirement, these games and apps have for taking personal information associated with the social network sites involved. In reference to Facebook, of which I am more familiar, these games often come with a small disclaimer when you begin to use them, or sync them with your Facebook. It is here where they say things along the lines of "you totally want to get this game", "give us the ability to post on your news feed (read: spam your friends to oblivion)" and most often include "allow us access to your account, including any friends' information that is available to you". It is on this last point where I draw the line.

The first condition I have no issue with, play what you like, it is your life. The second, whilst annoying, is easy to remedy because you can block the spam the first time it shows up, often with the ability to block all of the company's apps not just the one. However I find the third condition is a gross invasion of privacy. My right to chose who has access to anything I have posted is usurped by the simple click of a mouse. The friend may have done this unwittingly or they may be fully aware of the conditions of use. However it should not be their right to do this, intentionally or otherwise.

 Either way the company now has complete access to what I allow this friend to see, which used to be a lot more information before the latest change privacy settings. Whilst this can be avoided by the user it is only if they have the strictest privacy setting on their account, such as being not publically searchable. But why should the game user's friends have to inconvenience themselves, and anyone genuinely searching for them, to opt out in the first place? The Consent for these applications should be modified so that if the user wishes to subscribe, they can give only their own information to the company. If their friend wishes to use the product then they too can opt in, rather than having to go off the radar to everyone simply to avoid these applications. Another method would be to give the users' friends a notification that someone has signed up to an app, and if they would like to allow it access to their information too.

Now I detest these applications because I personally adore personal rights and speak of privacy qua negative rights. As such, I and am of the position that it should not be infringed upon by anyone without the direct consent of the person in question.

However this rant may have real world consequences. Now these companies often have statements saying, roughly, 'any information obtained will not be on sold'. While this may seem reassuring, think back to the problems SONY had when the PS3 Network's information was hacked. Even if the proprietors of these games are legitimate and have no malicious intent, what stops their information collection skills from being utilised by less desirable members of the internet society?

Has Einstein ruled me insane? - Gaming Addiction

From pokemon, to my substantial ms-dos collection, and of course age of empires (to name a few), it was fair to say I was your everyday casual gamer. That was until I stumbled upon the world that is online gaming.

I soon transformed from a cool calm and collected 100mouse-click a minute computer user, to a clicking over-use syndrome, keyboard slamming, microphone blaring hermit - all thanks to a game called league of legends (short for LoL). Posting my total game time from the last couple of years would enforce my point, but to retain what dignity I have left I may just leave that out.

Anyway I've been really interested to find the root of this evil that has turned a harmless pokemon trainer into a merciless online bandit and although I've jumped the gun a tad, an awesome resource was an article from Rock, Paper, Shotgun (reading 10) titled "What Is The Truth About Gaming Addiction" - http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2007/11/12/what-is-the-truth-about-gaming-addiction/, where a quote from Einstein "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" was used. Now for those of you that play the all-time consuming LoL you will disagree immediately because for me this is what makes the game so immersive. Not one single game could repeat itself, and one can always improve on their previous performance - it is a game where like Kevin was mentioning in our last lecture, you will NEVER complete, master, or be the best. And this fatal mix of a competitive natured young lad meeting a game that will provide endless hours of challenges is a recipe for disaster.

Would be stoked if anyone else shared similar experiences about possibly playing a game a little too much (for reassurance), and what drives you to continue this love/hate relationship with whatever your game of choice is.

Media Convergence

I know it's already quite old, but I just finished watching the "Digital Estate Planning" episode of Community (3rd Season, Episode 20). It's mostly done with 8-bit graphics to simulate a retro video game that the characters are playing throughout the episode's plot.

The episode quite comically highlights the stereotypes of generational and gender related differences between players. Pierce, the oldest character in the series (for those of you unfamiliar with it), spends the first  five or so minutes of the game walking towards a wall, unaware of which character he actually is and unable to figure out the controls.  Annie thinks the evil, flesh-eating 'hippies' of the game are cute and is, consequently, attacked by one of the them when she approaches it. Jeff then proceeds to accidentally kill Annie, whilst attempting to save her, and is then attacked by the hippie, himself. Through a series of other, pretty hilarious, events, the narrative accurately simulates the somewhat embarrassing process most 'non-gamers' through in attempting to figure out video game controls, rules and objectives.

If this episode and "Wreck-it-Ralph" serve as any evidence, the game-to-film/TV adaptations seem to work best when the film or television episode don't attempt to simulate any actual, or existing video game. Although, there are even tele-visual exceptions of this, such as the 'Mega Man' and 'Sonic the Hedgehog' cartoons, which were also pretty successful in their time.

I feel like I could probably write an entire thesis on the whole convergence process based on this episode alone, but:

and this post is long enough as it is (considering the attention span of the average college student).

To make it easy for all of you, and also in relation to Dane's "Next Gen Imaging" post, the main point I was trying to make with all of this is:

The convergence between media forms seems inevitable. Despite all the criticisms and protests over adaptations and whatnot, we have to keep in mind that this process is relatively recent, and still has a lot of growing to do before it can really stand on its own two feet. 

Video Games analysed as texts?

The academic field of video game theory has passed through the first phase, media based academics have established that video games as worthy of study as a medium and is very much relevant to today’s world.

What the first reading does is not question the importance of studying video games from a media orientated perspective but simply discuss the importance of studying video games from multiple perspectives and disciplines. Within this text, there is a passage quoted from Tanya Krzywinska that expresses his concern that the research of video games will be exclusively conducted by dedicated departments. Amongst the consequences is risk that the field of video game research will become too industry focused, discouraging academics from other fields such as philosophy and political economy from formulating their own theories and approaches to studying video games. Like any subject of academia, the study will cease to grow if there is little variety, and an openness to explore and engage with fresh ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znKHxJHF25U

This YouTube link explains how a University in the U.S.A has incorporated the game Skyrim as a learning tool and as a part of the new history course they offer. The video is short and worth the watch as it explains how video games is already being analysed by academics as a modern application of cultural studies that include history, psychology and political standpoints.

This all leads me to what I want to open up to discussion: Is it possible that one day video games will be studied from an academic English based perspective that focuses on Video games as not just a medium but as a text; studying the ideas and themes of video games in the same way films and novels are studied today, for example using a close reading method?

Next Gen Imaging no longer about Megapixle but Time

Today I stumbled across a TED doco which talks about high speed imaging in cameras. The speaker, Ramesh Raskar (a researcher at MIT's Media Lab), invited the idea that no longer are the boundries of the seen confined by what is directly in front of us. Through his talk he explains at how the team at MIT developed a camera that uses lazer technology and ultra fast high speed camera tech (and I mean ultra fast - a trillion frames a second!!!) to see around corners. All that I could wonder is how cool the games are going to be which are developed under this tech model!! Haha Move aside Wanted CORNER SHOT!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C0FQPk5mv0

View it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_9vd4HWlVA

Are Video Games Legit?

Having taken the Comics Studies paper in Semester Two last year, I found the intro into this course very familiar. And since I recognize a lot you of from that paper I’m sure I’m not the only one! Both mediums have had, and continue to have, issues with cultural and academic legitimacy. And so both papers have started not just with standard introductions, but with explanations as to why these subjects are worth studying at all. Kevin succinctly made his point by showing us the massive Starcraft 2 demonstration in South Korea. I personally have found these justifications for studying these subjects a bit tiring – as far as I was concerned, since first playing Super Mario and reading Tintin, comics and games have always been culturally legit.

Neal Curtis in comics and Kevin Veale video games: trailblazers

Of course my personal opinion doesn’t matter, and the fact is that comics and video games aren’t taken as seriously as books or art. And even though I was exasperated at first, the more I read on the topic – of cultural and academic legitimacy – the more fascinating it becomes, almost as a subject in its own right. Why do certain mediums or disciplines have more cultural legitimacy, or cultural capital, than others? Perhaps it is to do with what is defined as art. 

Games can look pretty, but apparently that is not enough to constitute it as art, or at least a "true" art form - i.e. an art form with cultural legitimacy and capital. Philosopher Pierre Bourdieau outlined the two principles of legitimacy. Autonomous production, which obeys internal conditions inherent to the medium, such as pure aesthetics, and heteronomous production, which obeys external conditions such as commercial interests. Perhaps this is the answer, for video games fall into the second category. But wait a minute! Art may mostly be autonomous, but film can much of the time certainly be considered heteronomously produced too.

Art Deco parties: production design from Bioshock and The Great Gatsby

So perhaps it is the mode of artistic production. Maybe in order for something to be culturally legitimate a single author is needed. Games have huge teams creating them. But wait a minute! So do films, and so does the work of superstar artist Jeff Koons. Maybe it is the fact that video games aim to entertain - but films entertain. Maybe it is the association with childhood that makes games low brow - but that association mistakes a medium for a genre. Maybe the main culprit is video games' relative youth, or perceived youth - although comics have been around as long, or longer, than film.

Basically, I have no answers, so hopefully this paper will help provide some.

Super Mario Land and a Jeff Koons sculpture: similar modes of production?

As a last thought, another result of studying these “new” mediums, and trying to justify them, is what I would call an obsession with concretely defining what the medium is. Almost as if having an authoritative entry in the Oxford dictionary would afford it more legitimacy. Although obviously important, I found this frustrating too. In the comics paper too much time, I thought, was spent on finding a one-line definition of comics instead of studying them. I was worried the same would be the case here. But after reading the Perron and Wolf chapter, I’m feeling relieved: “The definition of its object and the vindication of its examination are certainly representative of the first phase in the defining of a new field of research. For the most part, while textbooks with more refined perspectives have appeared … video game studies has passed beyond this phase.” (4) THANK GOODNESS. The gist I get from Perron and Wolf is “yes, we’ve already worked at defining them and have also decided that video games are worth studying – so then let’s start studying them!”. Excellent! I’M PUMPED.

(Eleanor Woodhouse)

Video games, culture, everyday life

Video games, culture, everyday life

One of the few games I’ve actually sat down and really spent a good amount of time on is Final Fantasy. What drew me in at the beginning were the graphics and how seemingly ‘real’ the characters are which differed from other games. But using the example of Final Fantasy, I’d like to examine how far games can affect our everyday life and how it becomes integrated in our culture.

References to final fantasy can be found in popular culture out of gaming itself. One example is the popular game itself being a movie franchise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttK8w7lMGvY (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Movie Trailer)

References to the game can also be found in mainstream movies like Charlie’s Angels and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Television series Robot Chicken included a parody of Final Fantasy VII called Final Fantasy Burger Chain. In the popular TV series Two and a Half Men, Jake begs Charlie throughout the show to take him to the video store to rent out the new Final Fantasy X. From these, we can see how games are becoming ever more integrated in everyday life, and even more so globally. This also brings about the interaction of culture and countries through gaming, as the visuals between Western and Eastern games differ by a great margin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wVogtCHJ70 (Robot Chicken)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6-d-YcYJWA (Two and a Half Men)

Final Fantasy has become so huge that it covers so many more aspects than just being “a game”. It might have started out that way, but now, people can buy Final Fantasy figurines, watch Final Fantasy movies, and search for Final Fantasy characters singing songs, their MVs, costumes and even a multiple fan made clips. A very popular fan made series is the Dead Fantasy Series by Monty Oum started in 2009 integrating the famous characters of Dead or Alive and Final Fantasy. This fan made series has racked up immense views on YouTube, as well as Monty Oum’s own website. So games like this have become more than purely just for entertainment, fans of the game can become closer to the game, its characters and Final Fantasy itself has become a brand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIy5Q3EB6ec (Dead Fantasy part 1)

Final Fantasy, being a game product made in Japan, is also closely integrated into Japanese culture. I’m sure everyone is familiar with Cosplay in which people wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character. In Harajuku (Japan), this is a familiar sight.

 Final Fantasy is also a favourite amongst cosplayers to role-play. Different to popular beliefs, cosplay is actually only popular in Japan, but is becoming more popular in the western world. Cosplay also influences Japanese street fashion and is considered as a part of a popular culture. Some people in fact, may know nothing about the games, never have played them before but dresses up as them purely due to the graphics, the characters, or purely just for the sake of cosplay. So unintentionally, video game characters are starting to become symbolic characters, what they wear, what their catch-lines are can influence culture, fashion and people’s everyday life.

So although we may not be “gamers” or play a certain game, we may in fact already be a part of it. Without us knowing, it may already be in our lives. So are games really just games? Are games just purely for entertainment and relaxation? Or have they become so important that without them now, we’d lose a part of our culture and cultural identity? Have they become a tool for global integration and exchange? How exactly do we define games now?