Month: November 2017

Soulcalibur II is a fighting game released by Namco, and is similar to games like Mortal Kombat and Tekken. In the game, female characters such as Ivy, Taki, and Talim are all clad in very objectifying clothing, as well as their dialogue in the game being flirtatious and suggestive in tone and nature. In this way, the game suggests that men who play the game are only interested in women who can serve some sort of sexual desire or appetite. Also the female characters’ fighting techniques all tend to focus on distance attacks or defensive attacks, which would imply that the game argues that women either attack from a distance or they tend to hide behind something while they attack. An example of this in the game is the character Ivy, who wears very revealing body armor and whose weapon is a sword that can extend across the field of play to do things like choke her opponent from behind. She also has attacks where she crushes the opponent’s head between her legs and tells them to “stay down”. These attacks and aspects of play all suggest rampant misogyny  on the part of the game designers.

Laser Tag is an interactive strategy game that places its players within a video game-like environment. It’s dark, there are black lights everywhere and you are fully-equipped with a battle pack and laser gun. The game can be high-intensity, unnerving, and is intended to pump up your adrenaline. You are given a name like “Ninja,” “Neo,” or “Shuttle” and sent out to shoot at opposing players. There are often two modes, where you can either play in teams or it’s “every man for himself.” Ultimately, laser tag draws you in by convincing you that you are actually playing within a different world, much like virtual reality. Laser Tag transports you to this space where everything looks different, and the sounds are different. It’s definitely an interesting mix between reality and video games. It exists in a space between the two areas. Strategy is also a very important part of laser tag. The more strategic and stealthy you are in your movements, the more likely you are to come in first or second place.

Link for Reference: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red_and_Blue_Versions

The goal or purpose of a game is crucial to its overall playability and popularity.  But there are games that treat play’s purpose in an interesting way – one that leaves it open to shifts in understanding and direction.  And this is an area in which a game may create divisions in its player-base.

Take Pokemon Blue, for example.  The game sends players out on a quest given by a character named Professor Oak, who enlists the protagonist as a researcher.  So, from the game’s start, the player is told that their mission is to fill the Pokedex (a Pokemon database) with every Pokemon in the region.  However, as the player sets out on this quest, there are other goals that become the purpose of playing the game: eliminating Team Rocket and besting the Elite Four.  And these goals become just as focal purposes of the game as completing the Pokedex – perhaps more so.

This creates a dilemma at the game’s end, wherever it may be.  Because if beating a game means fulfilling its purpose, which of the three tasks must be accomplished in order to officially beat Pokemon Blue?  Different players argue for all different answers to this question, which ultimately leads to the varying play-styles practiced (and degrees of effort exerted) by players of Pokemon.

There has recently been a discourse around the idea that some games are stupid and/or stupidly simple but at the same time fulfilling. Herein the saga of Bennett Foddy appears relevant, whose ridiculous online games have gained notoriety for their intensively specific and limiting nature. Fairly difficult to master, his games such as QWOP and GIRP became infamous for said attributes; the fury they incur has become their lasting legacy, as unending YouTube videos will attest. However, theses seemingly fruitless endeavors foster a new form of determination that turns into a games designated reward when finally conquered. So, no medal or trophies are awarded within his games, as is the usual expectation for success, instead, the recognition and mastering of said canons is in and of itself the journey and the prize.

http://www.foddy.net/

The physical space of play has a lot to do with how we experience games. Often times, a player can enjoy play more if he/she is in a comfortable environment/position. A lot of video games can be played sitting down, but some, like specific arcade video games such as PacMan, etc., are played standing up. What does the arcade environment do to the space of play? It makes it more social. A video game arcade is a space dedicated to creating a social gaming environment. It’s unique, nostalgic, and a little archaic, but still fun. Arcades can encourage physical social interaction while playing. The way that arcades are are set up encourages others to watch an individual who is playing the game, thus becoming the player’s audience. It doesn’t always have to happen this way, but the arcade seems to be an accepted place for this. The mood and atmosphere of the arcade creates a social space where others can come together to experience games as either the player or the audience.

Link for Reference: https://bindingofisaacrebirth.gamepedia.com/Binding_of_Isaac:_Rebirth_Wiki

The Binding of Isaac casts each player as Isaac, a very young boy who has just fled from his mother into a trapdoor to avoid being sacrificed to God.  From here, the player must fight their way farther and farther down into the ground beneath Isaac’s house, killing monsters and bosses along the way.  Looming over the player’s head throughout each playthrough, however, is the unshakable message that death is unavoidable.  There is no real chase – only a power struggle.

If the player loses the game, they are killed by Mom (Isaac’s mother).  If the player wins the game, then they have successfully killed themselves, as Isaac must un-birth himself in order to reenter his mother’s womb and defeat her from the inside out, destroying her heart.  In either case, Isaac dies; there is no victory on the side of life in The Binding of Isaac.  Instead, the victory comes in controlling the terms of death – not its timing, but its dealing.  Winning in The Binding of Isaac is wrestling the reigns of death from God and from Isaac’s mother in order to administer that fate upon one’s own self.  This is shown all throughout the game, from the items you pick up, to the monsters you fight (many of which look like dead or aborted forms of Isaac), and everything in between.  Under such a light, death is revealed as nonnegotiable, although the hands that bring it are not.

After reading a chapter in a book I Know Who my Comrades Are, I wanted to muse on what privacy actually is, specifically in relation to mobile apps. While many users of mobile apps, when they first install an app, are asked if they want to allow the app to use their camera, microphone, and location, they don’t actually think about the implications of what that actually entails. For all intensive purposes, whenever a user of the app gives consent to the app to use their microphone, camera, and location, they essentially allow the app to not only use these things when they want it to, but also when they are unaware of it, as well.

It’s almost as if the app argues that unless someone wants to give up certain aspects of their own privacy that they will not be allowed to participate in the realm of the app. Many different types of media make this argument that one cannot participate in society while maintaining their own type of privacy. This is similar to many websites that do not allow people access without signing up for the website and creating an account when, for all intensive purposes, one would be able to enjoy what the website or app has to offer without needing to sign up.

Niantic, the parent company for the now infamous Pokemon Go, has just dropped information about an upcoming “Harry Potter” game they intend to release. Presumably under the umbrella of ubiquitous play, as that’s what Niantic is known for, the game was given no release date, but promises to immerse it’s players in the fictional world’s canon. Of course this marriage is as strong an allure as the aforementioned Pokemon Go was, as there exists a current generation wherein these  discourses, among many other, have become a connecting dialogue. Does this trend of nostalgia re-imagined, as the recent revamp and release of Crash Bandicoot will further attest, mean that the culture of gaming itself will turn less towards originality and lean more towards familiar foundations in the future? If so, how will that impact the industry, and what will happen when all the nostalgic oil is tapped? And if the revamped games aren’t up to par with their origin materials, will that halt production via gamers’ disappointed expectations? Will, like with Pokemon Go, the shine wear off fast and this trend disappear? Or will humanity’s obsession with the past be a driving force forward within gaming culture?

http://www.businessinsider.com/harry-potter-game-pokmon-go-iphone-android-2017-11

This week, I will analyse in a rhetorical manner the video game Crusader Kings II. CK2 is a dynastic simulator, where the player takes control of a medieval dynasty somewhere between the years 769 and 1337. What this translates to in-game is a lot of incest, infanticide, possible genocide, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and all sorts of wholesome family activities. The game is an absolute sandbox, so the player’s goal is whatever they make it. Thus a player might make a goal like conquer all of Britain, or convert India to Norse paganism, or seduce the pope and have his babies. Every character in game is represented by a group of traits that also determine their in-game personality (for example, with a character with the ambitious trait will be more aggressive and will be much more willing to act against their liege if it gets them something). The game excels at emergent story telling, where in-game events will form a narrative that creates a coherent story in the context of that specific game. I’ve had the game form interesting stories of assassination, familial intrigue, insane rulers, unstable political situations, and much more that is nearly akin to reading a novel like Game of Thrones with more interactivity.

Twitch is a site dedicated to interactive online video game streaming. It was recently bought by Amazon for around 970 million dollars. My question is: what does this online platform do to the space of play? If players are streaming their playtime live on screen for others to see, then how do other’s interactions with the game affect the way the player plays? How do these online gaming communities expand the space of play? I think that websites such as Twitch can enhance the motivation of a play only in the sense of achievement or ego-boosts a player gets while performing for an audience. However, this leads me to think that Twitch makes play a more superficial performative act once it is broadcasted out. In this sense, does Twitch transform the space of play into instant-gratification? Does play, then, become more about showing skill to viewers than it does about actually defeating the game?

On Sunday, November 5th, the Philadelphia Eagles destroyed the Denver Broncos 51-23, and given the nature of the game, there was a great amount of celebration among Eagles fans. By the end of the game, the Eagles used their back-up quarterback, Nick Foles, instead of their starting quarterback, Carson Wentz. This example of switching players argues that a team is willing to not play as hard if they feel that they have certainty of their win in a game. Because of this, it could be suggested that the better a team is playing, the more willing they are to slack off in the end of a game. This is almost like an analogy for the tortoise and the hare story; the hare feels far enough ahead in the race so it decides to take a break.

What one may wonder, though, is when does this point occur in a situation of play? At what point does a player or team decide to throw in the towel and stop playing like the game is on the line and become content with just relaxing? One could argue that this choice is directly related to the choice of how seriously one takes the game to begin with. If the team truly cares about winning, they would not at any time decide to take things easy.

Call of Duty: World War II – https://www.callofduty.com/wwii

As a die-hard fan of the original Call of Duty game play in games like Modern Warfare and World at War, I couldn’t be happier to see the Call of Duty franchise return to its traditional way of play. The recent games were fun to play but the movement mechanics brought me out of the game. In older Call of Duty games, I got consumed in the game play because of the small details that made the game play feel more real. Details like my character gets tired after sprinting for a while and would stop, the sway of a sniper scope when trying to pin point a distant shot, and the gore helped build the world in game play because they were aspects that I would expect from real world war. I would see other players get their legs blown off during a multiplayer match and in recent games, that wasn’t the case. I would shoot somebody in the kneecaps with a 12-gauge shotgun and the enemy player would fly back like a rag-doll. In real world experiences, the enemy should have no legs and the realistic consequences in the older games are what brought me in to the game play, ultimately investing me into the game further.

Link for Reference: https://youtu.be/9UOXhb6ZeHw

In many instances, the audience can play an important role in the game at hand.  The cheering crowd at a sports arena, the coaches on the sideline of a boxing match, the audience at a game show, etc. – all of these examples show a distinct and momentous relationship between the spectator(s) and player.  But, in my daily life, there’s one player-audience relationship that sticks out to me most prominently and interestingly.

Imaqtpie (a popular Twitch streamer and YouTuber for League of Legends) and his video editor, Sequence, are a perfect example of this relationship between the player and spectator(s).  Essentially, Imaqtpie only plays the game.  He spends his gaming time live-streaming on Twitch, just him, his natural commentary, and the gameplay itself.  He does not, however, create any of his YouTube videos himself.  Instead, Sequence does.  Sequence, as a member of Imaqtpie’s audience, goes through all of the day’s live-stream footage and compiles the best parts into a ten-minute (approx.) video that flows almost as if it were happening real-time.  He edits the video with his own appreciation and knowledge of Imaqtpie’s gameplay and style, creating content of his own in turn, full of jokes, sound effects, and overall feel characteristic of Sequence.  These YouTube videos are quite different than Imaqtpie’s live-streams on Twitch despite the gameplay being the same.  And this magic comes to fruition each time because of the interplay and understanding between Imaqtpie and Sequence – the player and the spectator.

Trivia Crack is a mobile app game. It was launched in 2013 and was modeled after Trivial Pursuit. The game allows the user to play against friends and strangers around the world. There are six different categories: Entertainment, Art, Sports, History, Science, and Geography. The player will spin a wheel that determines what category of question they will be asked. If they answer correctly, they will earn an icon representing the category they got correct. The first player to earn all six category icons wins the game. This app allows players to continue socializing with friends they may not be able to interact with in person. A player can use their Facebook friends or search by username in order to play games with people they know. This option allows players to maintain a constant social communications with friends over long distances. Players also have the option of choosing a random opponent, in which they will be placed in a game with someone from any location in the world.