Don't know if any of you have heard about this, but it seems relevant to our class: Chines gamer dies after playing diablo 3 for 40 hrs straight. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/diablo-3-death-chuang-taiwan-_n_1683036.html

Great example of game design

The whole time we were talking about game design and how a well designed game should teach a gamer about it's mechanics naturally I was thinking of a certain video commentating on the sequel to Megaman, Megaman X.

The video creator is egoraptor, someone I think one of us in class has mentioned before (one of his videos was in indie game the movie). It's a pretty long video, but it's worth the watch for sure.

Heads up, language is pretty strong. Also it's funny.

A Note from the Casual, Occasional Gamer

      What does something have to have to qualify as a game? A set of rules? An agreed upon story line? A goal? A purpose? Possibility for growth and achievement? After reading Sutton-Smith's article, "Play and Ambiguity," this week, I realized an acceptable answer to this question is "I don't know." An interface can have all of these features or none of these features; what is most important is the player's experience and what he/she takes away from that experience. As a relatively inexperienced gamer, I can recognize that I've experienced some of the nuances of video games in things that are not labeled as such.
      Take this for example (try it out before reading on). Right off the bat, you have a mission: to figure out how this board of gray squares in front of you works. Naturally, you click a box to see what happens. The resulting sound enlightens you to click around some more to see if there is variance in sound across the board. Next, you try to see if there is any connection between position and time clicked in relation to when the sound is played shown by the visual cue of the illuminated boxes.With this knowledge, you can now move forward to make what you want out of this experience, whether it is to create something that sounds pleasant or horrendous. Everyone has their own strategy. Notice, there was never a tutorial. The creator of this game wanted every person to try it out and make those natural connections until he/she figures out all there is to know about this board of boxes. The only simple instruction that is given is "click a box." This reminds me of Caillois's idea of the natural instinct of paidia which states we are all equipped with this natural aptness, instinct, curiosity, and potential which allows us to thrive in unknown environments like the first level of a game. So, can we consider this musical board of boxes a game? I'd like to think so.
     Whether you have had every video game console in your home or simply just a computer, you have most definitely experienced the common mechanics of a game. In the words of Sutton-Smith, the definition of games is ambiguous, and in a practical sense anything imagined and/or with an ulterior goal/motive could be considered a game. During childhood we call it "playing," during adulthood we call it "recreation," either way, it all allows the same break from reality we all enjoy.

Response to King of Kong

As was the case with IGTM, the editing and post-production in KoK was used to make an argument about the gaming culture being portrayed. I was most struck by the uncharitable light that Walter Day- who in my estimation is an energetic proponent of the gaming community that should be lauded as a beneficent contributor- was portrayed. It seems that the most cringe worthy clips were used at times, such as the completely unnecessary shots of him performing his (admittedly poorly sung) original music. He was placed in association with the antagonist, the eminently unlikeable Billy Mitchell, so as to convey the impression that they were teamed up to a certain extent. When the actual quotes of Day are considered in isolation from the movie, it is clear that Day’s first allegiance is to the Twin Galaxies establishment, and the integrity of his game ranking platform. At no point was Day actually shown interacting with Mitchell with any greater affinity than with the other gamers, yet the producers implicitly created a sense of a group with Wiebe on the outside, and everyone else on the inside. His impartiality is affirmed towards the end of the film as Wiebe receives the apology letter, but this reversal was too little, too late. This is clearly not a film that would have been created by the group in question; instead we are again presented a view into the culture from the perspective of an outsider, in a kind of disapproving, voyeuristic tone – “look at these freaks!” I found that the laughs during the viewing were all at the expense of the group. Wiebe, on the other hand, was handled with kid gloves, and not much was made of the neglect he put his family through while pursuing his quixotic obsession. Documentary is a great format, but I am learning by examining these films that great care must be taken if the objective is a relatively unbiased view of the subject matter. In these two films, I suspect that wasn’t the case, and so the editors had free reign to portray these men as they liked; as a spectacle for the entertainment of the viewer, who can feel confident that he is quite “normal” and “un-freakish” compared to the objects of the films ridicule.

King of Kong

So this movie was much more uplifting than the first. I liked both of them, but this one had a little more humor in it. Maybe it was not intended to be humorous, but that's how I took it. The Bill Mitchell character was a lot of fun to hate. I would be really interested to know if he is truly like that in person, though. Today in class I heard Preston say that apparently he's even worse. The guy needs to get a grip. He has the world record in an arcade game and makes hot sauce, he's not that cool. I thought it was interesting to see inside the gamer culture, a culture I am extremely unfamiliar with. But I think this movie really didn't show it in a very good light. I'm sure not all people who enjoy gaming are as serious as some of these guys or as oddly passionate. I know for a fact my dad absolutely LOVES Galaga, and he's pretty beast at it, but in no way shape or form would he ever devote his life to it. I'd really liked to see if there's a documentary out there about a novice gamer. I'm not exactly sure what it's purpose would be or why anyone would want to do a documentary on that, but it would be a lot more relatable for me. Maybe we could make our own documentary! On an unrelated note, I got Super Meat Boy off of Steam! I was just so curious after watching Indie Game that I had too, even if it was $7.00. It's a fun little game, but I can tell it wasn't meant to be played on a computer. It's a bit challenging with the arrows and space bar, but I like it! I need to play more games, though so I can put a thesis together for my paper!

Currupted Blood Incident and learning via an open world.

Corrupted Blood Incident and learning via an open world.

                So after reading about the Curt Squire’s article and learning unintentionally from open world video game experiences I could not help but to think about the Currupted blood incident from World of Warcraft, and how the ramifications of this incident are still being studied by epidemiologists for its implications on how an epidemic could interact with a worldwide populace.

                For those uninformed, the game of World of Warcraft is Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, or MMORPG, and 10.2 million players play this game. It is, like many other games within this genre, a story of elves, swords, and sorcery. Players may choose between the bestial Horde, or the manicured Alliance and engage on epic adventures.

                The Corrupted blood incident spawned from a new dungeon released called “Zul'Gurub”, in which the main boss casts a spell known as “Corrupted Blood”  that was highly contagious and drained hit points. NPC’s could also contract the disease but would not have any of the symptoms and therefore became carriers of the virtual plague. Players teleporting out of the dungeon and to main cities caused massive epidemics that required virtual quarantine via the programmers at blizzard, and caused players to forgo going into any major city and fleeing to the corners of the virtual world to stay safe from the plague.

                From the event there are disease researchers and counter- terrorism experts studying the situation, as it predicts patterns that the populace could potentially take in the course of an epidemic. There is more here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18571

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/wow_terror

Games vs. Education

     Kurt Squire brought up an interesting topic in his article “From Content to Context: Videogames as Designed Experience.” He talks about how teachers and professors in today’s society should embrace video games as a learning tool. I agree wholeheartedly considering the plethora of potential possibilities that can be created on these platforms. Teachers can easily monitor video games in a classroom, making them a good creative outlet that can be both structured and secure. According to research by the NPD group, 91% of kids age 2-17 are playing video games as of October 2011. Taking this statistic into account, why not take advantage of this “new” medium and implement educational games into the curriculum?

     While researching how video games are changing the education system, I came across an infographic that explains just that: http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2011/08/25/how-video-games-are-changing-education/. There is one section in the infographic that shows how video games, computer games, and apple devices apps can teach literacy, science, geography, logic and history, as well as creativity, mathematics and communication. Some games, such as Super Brain Tease, Dr. Seuss’s ABC and Math Bingo are more obvious educational games, while games such as Drawn to Life, Angry Birds and SimCity may not immediately come to mind when thinking about education. The chart also includes the game Civilization III, which Squire discussed in his article, saying that although the game may not have been initially designed as an educational game, it can be used for educational purposes in reference to how civilizations are started and maintained. That being said, many games can be analyzed in this matter and given an educational quality or element that would make them beneficial for students to play rather than being a distraction or a waste of time, as some parents or teachers might see them.  

Games as Teaching Tools

After reading Kurt Squire’s “From Content to Context,” I did some light Googling to try and find a few relatively high-profile examples of how games are working their way into the American educational system. Naturally, one of the first links to pop up features Constance Steinkuehler (whose “Why Game Studies Now?” we read during the first week of class), the current Senior Policy Analyst at the governmental Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this position, she is tasked both with aiding in the development of new educational games and discovering the potential (or already utilized) applications of preexisting titles with regards to education, health, etc. Given that President Obama has cautioned against the harmful effects of excessive "screen time" in the past, it may come as a small surprise to some that such an office exists. However, the President has expressed a desire to further the creation of truly stellar educational software (per the above link, "I want you guys to be stuck on a video game that's teaching you something other than just blowing something up"). Setting aside the possible oversimplication of current games as Michael Bay-influenced explosion fests, it is encouraging to see the government seriously looking into the prospect of video games as educational tools (especially with someone as knowledgeable and seemingly passionate about the subject as Steinkuehler is leading the charge).

Another result that I found interesting was this NPR article about a special public school in New York. The school, known as "Quest to Learn," (official website here) aims to utilize both games themselves and the idea of "game-ifying" the classroom in order to promote a more stimulating learning environment for children. For example, in the aforementioned article students explain how they learn math/english/etc. through playing a specific assigned role (banker, travel agent, etc.) in the imaginary society of Creepytown. In essence, this sounds like a more game-centric version of the Montessori system we discussed briefly in class today (although I am woefully unlearned in the Montessori system, so that could be way off base). What I found most interesting is that the students of this school still have to take the same standardized tests as all public school students in the state, which could either severely aid or hinder such "experiments" in the future based on school-wide scores. Finally, you will note that the NPR article is from way back in 2010, and I really have no idea how the program has been faring since then. Due to the website still being active, I hope it proved to be a reasonable success, but I'll try and dig up some more information on how it has been progressing in the time since.

Neopets

While reading Kurt Squire’s “From Content to Context,” I couldn’t help but be reminded of a website I used to frequent when I was younger that was called Neopets.  Though technically not a video game in the typical sense of the word, Neopets is an online community where people can interact on message boards, raise virtual pets, go on quests, play games, and do much more.  I personally believe I learned a lot from playing Neopets; however, I cannot fully agree with Squire and modern educators on their opinion that most online multi-player games and their interactive aspects can be used as educational aides in achieving literary academic success.

Steinkuehler and Chmiel are cited as stating that “mentoring, writing FAQs, participating in message boards, developing fictional back-stories…” are similar to practices valued in school and could be used as activities to help learners in school.  I must disagree with this opinion.  Though kids and teens who are already literate and who already possess satisfactory use of language may progress their writing skills through creating backstories and writing on boards, kids with a poor grasp of grammar and mechanics will not progress their skills.  I have seen the message boards first-hand, and it is not a pretty sight.  Most kids do not care about using proper grammar, spelling, or mechanics.  They spell words in the stupidest ways, sometimes using alternating lowercase and uppercase letters which are unappealing to the eyes.  When older kids try to correct the younger kids’ grammar, the younger kids always respond in a snarky manner and say they do not care about spelling and the like.  This indifference towards learning perhaps shows us that children are not ready to use multiplayer games as a teaching aide.

           Though I do see the educational purposes of these games, I think the games should not be implemented as a learning tool until children mature to a point that they are able to take things more seriously.  However, I honestly don’t believe online multi-player games should really be used at all.  Most kids find those games fun, and mixing a past-time with schoolwork can have a negative effect.  Instead of the desired effect (that the games make learning fun), children may end up thinking that mixing their schoolwork with their favorite game makes the game seem boring!

A Fun Little Game

        Although I've already posted on the blog I'd just like to share with everyone this video. (WARNING: CURSING MOST LIKELY HAPPENS....ALSO IT'S JENNA MARBLES for those of you who hate her). Now you're probably wondering why I posted this video and the reason for that is that this video talks about how App Games make us completely obsess over them. I think we all can agree when we say we've spent hours playing a meaningless phone game. I just posted it to give us all a bit of a laugh. It's kind of long, but it is funny if you watch even 2 minutes of it.

        Also right after watching this video, I spend 30 minutes playing Rocket Cat Adventures (that game by Progressive I talked about in class). Every time I lost I'd just restart the game to beat my score. http://www.progressive.com/goodies/rocket-cat/index.html There's a link to the game in case any of you want to play.