All the world's a game,
And all the men and women player-char'cters:
They have their spawn-points and their weaknesses;
And one man in his time is many-class'd.
...
As much as I would love to continue the quote repurposed, I'm tired and my mood ill-suited to creativity. I actually do feel that the world is game-like; rather, my favorite construct for dealing with the world is to consider it in video-game terms.
Take social situations, for example: A person has a Charisma ("CHA") score, which can be modified up and down by various factors, like self-grooming, fashion, even the room's lighting. One person (the player) has an objective; say, to sway a person to his point of view and to take action based on that view. There's some manner of chance involved: no matter how good or bad the situation is, the end result can still surprise you, and this is represented by a Random Number Generator ("RNG"). The other person has some level of social inertia against this idea, representing a modifier to whatever number the RNG comes up with. Finally, the player's goal has a certain innate difficulty to it, represented by the number to best.
Now, so far, that's not video-gaming, that's D&D. Fair enough. But video games feature one thing that D&D does not: strict, pre-programmed dialog options. Every dialog can be represented by a 'tree' of things the player can say, the other person's reaction to it, and what the player can say in return, as far as any programmer or script-writer cares to take it. When confronted with a social situation, attempting to look down the dialog tree beyond your current branch or node is useful. So, too, is the idea that there are only a few real choices in a given social situation in a given moment: while you could, in reality, say anything, generally you only have a few reasonable options, and immediately cutting those potentially infinite options down to a small subset of reasonable ones can help to process them quickly, since, like in many games, there is a time limit to this.
The construct of life-as-video-games is useful elsewhere, but I'll leave this example on its own for tonight. I bring it up now, however, because I feel that it helped me make a bad situation survivable for myself and a few others tonight, and in the long run.
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
All the Games I've Ever Owned (I Think)
http://bit.ly/nawts_spreadsheet
That up there is a spreadsheet I made last week, with all the games I've ever owned, sorted in order of their release dates, with as good a critical review score for each as I could find. I think it's complete, but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed a few games that I just don't remember - even so, it's got about 250 or so games in it.
I made this spreadsheet for two reasons:
1. Someday, I want to go back to the beginning and play through each game, in order, and blog about it. If each game took 20 hours to play, I'm looking at 5,000 hours of playtime ahead of me!
2. I wanted to see how 'good' my opinion was when it came to purchasing games (thus the critical review for each). On average, my score was about 83%, which isn't bad - of course, for some systems, I had a more discerning opinion, and for some, less.
I hope to do more statistical analysis of my gaming habits in the future using this sheet, too - how many games for what systems I bought in what years, how good the games I bought in a given year were, etcetera. But for now, it's enough to see the general run of my gaming history, and to know that it was pretty good.
That up there is a spreadsheet I made last week, with all the games I've ever owned, sorted in order of their release dates, with as good a critical review score for each as I could find. I think it's complete, but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed a few games that I just don't remember - even so, it's got about 250 or so games in it.
I made this spreadsheet for two reasons:
1. Someday, I want to go back to the beginning and play through each game, in order, and blog about it. If each game took 20 hours to play, I'm looking at 5,000 hours of playtime ahead of me!
2. I wanted to see how 'good' my opinion was when it came to purchasing games (thus the critical review for each). On average, my score was about 83%, which isn't bad - of course, for some systems, I had a more discerning opinion, and for some, less.
I hope to do more statistical analysis of my gaming habits in the future using this sheet, too - how many games for what systems I bought in what years, how good the games I bought in a given year were, etcetera. But for now, it's enough to see the general run of my gaming history, and to know that it was pretty good.
Monday, September 06, 2010
Pokewalkin'
I got my girlfriend Pokemon SoulSilver a few days ago, as an early birthday present. She's played one of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, thinks Pokemon in general are adorable, and loves old-school RPGs, so I figured it'd be a good fit for her. I forgot about the Pokewalker accessory that comes with it, though I remembered, after purchasing it and seeing it in the box, that I had thought it kinda silly when a friend showed it to me back when HeartGold and SoulSilver first came out. (If you weren't aware, the Pokewalker is a pedometer that you can load a Pokemon from your actual game into in order to level it up, 1 EXP per step; you can also catch additional kinds of Pokemon and find a wide variety of items on it, both of which would be difficult to do in the early parts of the game.)
So it's a little surprising to me that it's been so fun to mess around with it.
Now, a caveat: I enjoy going out for a walk. Yes, I live in Florida right now, and it's incredibly hot and muggy and unpleasant outside, but even so, I enjoy a good stroll. So, when I use my girlfriend's Pokewalker, I'm actually walking with it. As an additional caveat, I was a big Pokemon fan back in the day - in fact, the original Pokemon Gold is my favorite version, hands-down. So, in retrospect, I'm basically a big ol' mile-wide-bullseye for Nintendo here.
But this isn't my copy of HeartGold, or my Pokewalker, it's my girlfriend's. And that actually made it more fun. Not just in the sense of, "it's someone else's toy," but because I can use it to help my girlfriend out. By catching Pokemon she couldn't catch for many hours of gametime, and finding useful items for her, I'm helping her playthrough without disturbing the sanctity of her saved game; for any couple, this is an amazing arrangement and one that should be much more commonplace.
Also: The Pokewalker reflects a growing trend, reflected in the video below, by Jesse Schell.
http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/#video-48439
He talks about how games are encroaching on reality, and how eventually, every game will have a portion in reality that translates into increased power or access within the game. While I think he goes a little bit far in his end-game scenario, mostly for reasons of balance and inter-corporation co-operation (though his presentation is hilarious and well worth the watching), he is, basically, describing exactly what the Pokewalker does: By doing things in the real world, you become more powerful in the game world.
Not only does the Pokewalker allow you to interface reality with fiction, but it also encourages 'good' behavior - in this case, walking and getting exercise, although the Pokewalker's instructions say that it won't work well if you're jogging or doing other non-walking activity. It's as if the game is actually encouraging kids, subtly, to go outside and play; something parents have been wishing video games would do effectively for the past 25 years, if not longer.
Because of this, and Nintendo's overall goal to tie their game systems to the idea of healthy lifestyles (see: Wii Fit, Boktai, among others), I would not be surprised to see a similar accessory become standard issue for whatever comes after the 3DS or the Wii - something similar to every gaming snob's prized cause, the VMU. A little pedometer that can have game mechanics loaded on to it from a specific game, then wiped and re-mechanic'd for a different game, but always able to read your daily step count, or heart rate, or BMI, or galvanic skin response... You get the idea.
And given how much fun it was for me to play with the Pokewalker, I hope the console manufacturers do, too. I wouldn't mind walking around and collecting Star Bits, or Missile Upgrades, or gold pieces, or whatever else the games I play would want to give me for being a good, fit person.
So it's a little surprising to me that it's been so fun to mess around with it.
Now, a caveat: I enjoy going out for a walk. Yes, I live in Florida right now, and it's incredibly hot and muggy and unpleasant outside, but even so, I enjoy a good stroll. So, when I use my girlfriend's Pokewalker, I'm actually walking with it. As an additional caveat, I was a big Pokemon fan back in the day - in fact, the original Pokemon Gold is my favorite version, hands-down. So, in retrospect, I'm basically a big ol' mile-wide-bullseye for Nintendo here.
But this isn't my copy of HeartGold, or my Pokewalker, it's my girlfriend's. And that actually made it more fun. Not just in the sense of, "it's someone else's toy," but because I can use it to help my girlfriend out. By catching Pokemon she couldn't catch for many hours of gametime, and finding useful items for her, I'm helping her playthrough without disturbing the sanctity of her saved game; for any couple, this is an amazing arrangement and one that should be much more commonplace.
Also: The Pokewalker reflects a growing trend, reflected in the video below, by Jesse Schell.
http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/#video-48439
He talks about how games are encroaching on reality, and how eventually, every game will have a portion in reality that translates into increased power or access within the game. While I think he goes a little bit far in his end-game scenario, mostly for reasons of balance and inter-corporation co-operation (though his presentation is hilarious and well worth the watching), he is, basically, describing exactly what the Pokewalker does: By doing things in the real world, you become more powerful in the game world.
Not only does the Pokewalker allow you to interface reality with fiction, but it also encourages 'good' behavior - in this case, walking and getting exercise, although the Pokewalker's instructions say that it won't work well if you're jogging or doing other non-walking activity. It's as if the game is actually encouraging kids, subtly, to go outside and play; something parents have been wishing video games would do effectively for the past 25 years, if not longer.
Because of this, and Nintendo's overall goal to tie their game systems to the idea of healthy lifestyles (see: Wii Fit, Boktai, among others), I would not be surprised to see a similar accessory become standard issue for whatever comes after the 3DS or the Wii - something similar to every gaming snob's prized cause, the VMU. A little pedometer that can have game mechanics loaded on to it from a specific game, then wiped and re-mechanic'd for a different game, but always able to read your daily step count, or heart rate, or BMI, or galvanic skin response... You get the idea.
And given how much fun it was for me to play with the Pokewalker, I hope the console manufacturers do, too. I wouldn't mind walking around and collecting Star Bits, or Missile Upgrades, or gold pieces, or whatever else the games I play would want to give me for being a good, fit person.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Tsel do Bahn, Part 1
I'm in Final Project now - a team of Internal Producers, Developers, and Artists making a game over the course of five months. We've finished the documentation stage, and the group has started on making the prototype: tough work for the developers, lots of back and forth with the artists... and nothing for the internal producers to QA test yet. While there's always a need to edit documentation, that work requires only one IP, not all four that I have in my team.
Since I'm also not allowed to program alongside the developers (for good reasons, admittedly), I've resumed a personal coding project that I started almost six months ago, and have worked on on-and-off as school allows. It's a Zelda-style game, with text-file scripts creating the rooms and interesting features (people, pits, blocks, treasure chests, and enemies). I'm using sprites from The Legend of Zelda GameBoy games, as well as Final Fantasy Adventure, so don't think I did the spriting work too.
The game in action - the hero, on the left-hand side, is about to push a block into a pit in order to travel beyond it.
My original goal was to create a simple Zelda-style game with Sokoban-style puzzles, where you push a block into a pit to turn it into passable ground, and that's where the name comes from (a portmandeu of "Zelda" and "Sokoban"). I've coded that entire functionality in this month, and I'm pretty happy with it, though I can already see how I can improve it a little.
I've gotten a few other things into it, too, as our documentation phase has wound down: multiple, switchable weapons with different stats and animations; a (rudimentary but functional) pause screen where you can choose between those weapons; tons of new functions for the scripting engine, like 'place actor', 'change sprite', 'change solidity', and 'change layer'; and map-specific dungeon keys, with a HUD ticker to keep track of them.
The rudimentary pause screen, with three weapons selectable in the corner.
Mostly, Tsel do Bahn is an exercise in me programming and designing a game with no constraints - there's no due date, no budget, no documentation. It's also an effort to keep my programming skills sharp, and to learn more about a reasonably common API (PyGame - though Tsel do Bahn also uses BuzHug for its databases). But, honestly, it's also an attempt to make the kind of game I want to play - an old-school top-down action-adventure, with puzzle elements, open to others to create their own quests.
It's also something I plan to continue with - I'm hoping to have enough tools, enemies, and interesting bits to make it a viably playable experience. My ultimate pie-in-the-sky goal would be to use Tsel do Bahn to complete NaNoWriMo; instead of writing 50,000 words of fiction, maybe I'd make 50 rooms of dungeon-puzzle action.
Since I'm also not allowed to program alongside the developers (for good reasons, admittedly), I've resumed a personal coding project that I started almost six months ago, and have worked on on-and-off as school allows. It's a Zelda-style game, with text-file scripts creating the rooms and interesting features (people, pits, blocks, treasure chests, and enemies). I'm using sprites from The Legend of Zelda GameBoy games, as well as Final Fantasy Adventure, so don't think I did the spriting work too.
The game in action - the hero, on the left-hand side, is about to push a block into a pit in order to travel beyond it.
My original goal was to create a simple Zelda-style game with Sokoban-style puzzles, where you push a block into a pit to turn it into passable ground, and that's where the name comes from (a portmandeu of "Zelda" and "Sokoban"). I've coded that entire functionality in this month, and I'm pretty happy with it, though I can already see how I can improve it a little.
I've gotten a few other things into it, too, as our documentation phase has wound down: multiple, switchable weapons with different stats and animations; a (rudimentary but functional) pause screen where you can choose between those weapons; tons of new functions for the scripting engine, like 'place actor', 'change sprite', 'change solidity', and 'change layer'; and map-specific dungeon keys, with a HUD ticker to keep track of them.
The rudimentary pause screen, with three weapons selectable in the corner.
Mostly, Tsel do Bahn is an exercise in me programming and designing a game with no constraints - there's no due date, no budget, no documentation. It's also an effort to keep my programming skills sharp, and to learn more about a reasonably common API (PyGame - though Tsel do Bahn also uses BuzHug for its databases). But, honestly, it's also an attempt to make the kind of game I want to play - an old-school top-down action-adventure, with puzzle elements, open to others to create their own quests.
It's also something I plan to continue with - I'm hoping to have enough tools, enemies, and interesting bits to make it a viably playable experience. My ultimate pie-in-the-sky goal would be to use Tsel do Bahn to complete NaNoWriMo; instead of writing 50,000 words of fiction, maybe I'd make 50 rooms of dungeon-puzzle action.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Let's Play: For Professors
Note: Consider this a "first draft". There won't be many citations in this essay, at least not at the moment. But I'm hoping that eventually I could whip it into a more promising shape... Right now, though, this is just an idea I've had for a while that needed to get on paper.
Definition time. Do you know what a "Let's Play" is? It's someone sharing their experience of a video game, with their own commentary on top of it. They can include radical new takes on a game, information on content that was cut from the game, or just thoughts and observations (not always on the game in question). They can be either recorded video of gameplay with audio commentary, or screenshot reproductions of important moments with textual additions.
You can check them out here.
Definition time over. Thesis time now!
Now, the "Let's Play" format (hereafter, "LP", or "LPs" in the plural) is fun to read, but that's not why I'm writing this post. The point I'd like to make is that LPs represent a crucial step in the acceptance of video games as a critique-able, interpret-able art form. Rather than simply being a run-through of the game for experts, or a walkthrough for those stuck in playing a game, they offer a few things that have been available for more conveitonal art forms for years, but have been lacking from gaming: a way to experience the work in general without putting in inordinate amounts of time, a way to provide additional information about a work in context, and a format to provide and foster artistic interpretation of a work.
Consider a book, movie, or a piece of music. In all of these cases, it does not take someone a large amount of time to experience the work once; however, it will of course take many such experiences to truly digest the work and know it well enough to discuss it in a scholarly fashion. This is also true of video games. The difference, however, is that unlike the majority of books, movies, and pieces of music, they can require upwards of 80 hours for a single playthrough, a single experience. In addition, most games have multiple paths to take, all of which may be necessary to see the work from all angles and begin to know it well enough to discuss in a scholarly manner. This does not even include those games that have no well-defined (or, rather, have a user-defined) end-point, for which there can be no approximation of play-time beyond the statistical.
Now, a Let's Play does not substitute for experiencing a game first-hand. In either its video or text-and-image format, it cannot convey the feel of the actual gameplay, much as a video of a play does not convey the emotions of performing in the same play. What an LP can do, however, is greatly shorten the time it takes to experience a game the first time, from that typical of video games to that more typical of movies or books. When an LP covers the salient plot points, items of interest, and background information of a game (not to mention material that might not be included in the game itself, such as cut, exclusive, or paratextual content), it allows a scholar to experience a game for the first time. This, in turn, allows a scholar to more quickly dive into the game-as-text itself, now being at least familiar with its important parts, and not having sunk half of a month of work into simply reaching and defeating the final boss - and this allows a scholar more time to work on a scholarly view of the work, and lowers the bar for entry, allowing more scholars "in".
As has been stated, a Let's Play allows a scholar to see not only the text of the game itself, but also material that, while not part of the game proper, may provide further elucidation on a game's themes, or perhaps information as to the author's intentions. When an LP splices in cut content, they allow a scholar to see that cut content as it "could have been", in the context of the game as a whole. When they add official information that is not included in the game ROM, such as passages from instruction manuals and strategy guides, they not only can clear up things made unclear in bad translations or the LP writer's choice of path, but also provide a quick reference for further investigation; that is, more sources to investigate.
And when a Let's Play includes the LP writer's commentary, silly or scholarly, they perform the work that critiques of literature and textbooks on art have done for decades: interpretation of a work, which is itself a foundation on which one can build further critiques and investigations of a piece of art. While a typical LP covers the entire length of a game, from beginning to end, this means that, while comprehensive, they often leave plenty of room for further work: interpretations of individual scenes, game mechanics, and other portions of games as unconnected from the rest of the text. An LP writer often invites others in his or her community to contribute to the work, in the form of their own commentary, or interpretive artwork, or even competing LPs; in this way, each LP is itself a boiling stew of jumping-off points for further work. Finally, a good LP is always a fascinating read on its own merits, apart from the game it examines - and as a good read, it is itself a text that could prove worthy of interpretation and examination.
Since a Let's Play produces the foundation, support, and even the simple interest and time to invest in a scholarly work on a video game, it seems that they are, in fact, a critical step in the acceptance of video games as an art form, as they provide so much towards the experiencing and interpreting of games.
Definition time. Do you know what a "Let's Play" is? It's someone sharing their experience of a video game, with their own commentary on top of it. They can include radical new takes on a game, information on content that was cut from the game, or just thoughts and observations (not always on the game in question). They can be either recorded video of gameplay with audio commentary, or screenshot reproductions of important moments with textual additions.
You can check them out here.
Definition time over. Thesis time now!
Now, the "Let's Play" format (hereafter, "LP", or "LPs" in the plural) is fun to read, but that's not why I'm writing this post. The point I'd like to make is that LPs represent a crucial step in the acceptance of video games as a critique-able, interpret-able art form. Rather than simply being a run-through of the game for experts, or a walkthrough for those stuck in playing a game, they offer a few things that have been available for more conveitonal art forms for years, but have been lacking from gaming: a way to experience the work in general without putting in inordinate amounts of time, a way to provide additional information about a work in context, and a format to provide and foster artistic interpretation of a work.
Consider a book, movie, or a piece of music. In all of these cases, it does not take someone a large amount of time to experience the work once; however, it will of course take many such experiences to truly digest the work and know it well enough to discuss it in a scholarly fashion. This is also true of video games. The difference, however, is that unlike the majority of books, movies, and pieces of music, they can require upwards of 80 hours for a single playthrough, a single experience. In addition, most games have multiple paths to take, all of which may be necessary to see the work from all angles and begin to know it well enough to discuss in a scholarly manner. This does not even include those games that have no well-defined (or, rather, have a user-defined) end-point, for which there can be no approximation of play-time beyond the statistical.
Now, a Let's Play does not substitute for experiencing a game first-hand. In either its video or text-and-image format, it cannot convey the feel of the actual gameplay, much as a video of a play does not convey the emotions of performing in the same play. What an LP can do, however, is greatly shorten the time it takes to experience a game the first time, from that typical of video games to that more typical of movies or books. When an LP covers the salient plot points, items of interest, and background information of a game (not to mention material that might not be included in the game itself, such as cut, exclusive, or paratextual content), it allows a scholar to experience a game for the first time. This, in turn, allows a scholar to more quickly dive into the game-as-text itself, now being at least familiar with its important parts, and not having sunk half of a month of work into simply reaching and defeating the final boss - and this allows a scholar more time to work on a scholarly view of the work, and lowers the bar for entry, allowing more scholars "in".
As has been stated, a Let's Play allows a scholar to see not only the text of the game itself, but also material that, while not part of the game proper, may provide further elucidation on a game's themes, or perhaps information as to the author's intentions. When an LP splices in cut content, they allow a scholar to see that cut content as it "could have been", in the context of the game as a whole. When they add official information that is not included in the game ROM, such as passages from instruction manuals and strategy guides, they not only can clear up things made unclear in bad translations or the LP writer's choice of path, but also provide a quick reference for further investigation; that is, more sources to investigate.
And when a Let's Play includes the LP writer's commentary, silly or scholarly, they perform the work that critiques of literature and textbooks on art have done for decades: interpretation of a work, which is itself a foundation on which one can build further critiques and investigations of a piece of art. While a typical LP covers the entire length of a game, from beginning to end, this means that, while comprehensive, they often leave plenty of room for further work: interpretations of individual scenes, game mechanics, and other portions of games as unconnected from the rest of the text. An LP writer often invites others in his or her community to contribute to the work, in the form of their own commentary, or interpretive artwork, or even competing LPs; in this way, each LP is itself a boiling stew of jumping-off points for further work. Finally, a good LP is always a fascinating read on its own merits, apart from the game it examines - and as a good read, it is itself a text that could prove worthy of interpretation and examination.
Since a Let's Play produces the foundation, support, and even the simple interest and time to invest in a scholarly work on a video game, it seems that they are, in fact, a critical step in the acceptance of video games as an art form, as they provide so much towards the experiencing and interpreting of games.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Reading "Let's Play"
So I read a lot of Let's Plays ("LPs") - the screenshot type, of course; anything else would be "watching". I also read them aloud to my girlfriend, and she enjoys it. I try to do voices and such. She enjoys them enough to make sure her computer is recording every chapter, in fact.
So I was thinking, that might be a good way to keep in touch with her while I go to school in Florida. It wouldn't be a supreme amount of material... And if I decided to get creative, I could splice the screenshots into a video and send a whole presentation instead. But at the least, the audio files alone would work well in a "RiffTrax" sort of way; just read along with the original material while I read aloud.
Of course, I'd have to step up my readings a little - when I'm just doing it for my girlfriend, I don't worry about things like coughs, or mispronunciations, or anything like that.
But still, could be fun.
So I was thinking, that might be a good way to keep in touch with her while I go to school in Florida. It wouldn't be a supreme amount of material... And if I decided to get creative, I could splice the screenshots into a video and send a whole presentation instead. But at the least, the audio files alone would work well in a "RiffTrax" sort of way; just read along with the original material while I read aloud.
Of course, I'd have to step up my readings a little - when I'm just doing it for my girlfriend, I don't worry about things like coughs, or mispronunciations, or anything like that.
But still, could be fun.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Some ideas, for future reference.
This is what happens when I watch too much Star Trek: Enterprise.
Idea one, for an FFRPG campaign: Uses only non-human races. Essentially a Chrono Trigger type deal, with Humans erased from the timeline; the party must travel through time to prevent the same thing from happening to all races.
Idea two, for a video game (or maybe something else, with tweaking): A history professor is somehow sent back in time, due to a war involving time travel in the future. He has a camera that transforms into objects he takes pictures of. Using that, he has to keep history the way he knows it, stay alive, and figure out a way to get back to his own time.
...Oh, yeah, and this is the first post to this blog in a couple years. I may actually start posting to it again; I'd kind of like to. But if not, I can still use it as a scratchpad.
Idea one, for an FFRPG campaign: Uses only non-human races. Essentially a Chrono Trigger type deal, with Humans erased from the timeline; the party must travel through time to prevent the same thing from happening to all races.
Idea two, for a video game (or maybe something else, with tweaking): A history professor is somehow sent back in time, due to a war involving time travel in the future. He has a camera that transforms into objects he takes pictures of. Using that, he has to keep history the way he knows it, stay alive, and figure out a way to get back to his own time.
...Oh, yeah, and this is the first post to this blog in a couple years. I may actually start posting to it again; I'd kind of like to. But if not, I can still use it as a scratchpad.
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