Meaning The Tenth Victim, this is an Italian film produced in 1965 in which disagreements are avoided by following those with violent personalities to partake in "The Big Hunt". This is a global form of entertainment in which attracts people looking for to become famous and rich..There are ten rounds for each player in the event (5 for the hunter and 5 for the victor). The survivor of ten rounds become extremely rich and can freely retire from the hunt.
The film strongly follows the story of a hunter and their victim and involves a lot of story about the romance and the mind games between while the rules and justification for the games are revealed.
I really enjoyed the film when i watched it, as I didn't get to watch it with the lecture I had to watch it elsewhere. Somewhat the story brought up current news and media stories of recent times and yet it had similar elements to the story of The Hunger Games.
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Critical Games Studies: Remediation and Games
In New Digital media, remediation is argued as a defining characteristic. New Media and Old Media is characterized by a spectrum ranging from Immediacy to Hypermediacy.
Immediacy
Immediacy is the media that aspires to a condition of transparency, aiming to make the viewer forget that they are watching a film of video. The use of photo-realistic images and immersive virtual reality is a great example of the techniques they would use in the industry.
Hypermediacy
These would be artifacts that are aware of and wish to display their own constructed nature, calling attention to their own constructed nature through the means of the internet and video game user interfaces.
Remediation can offer a range of conventions, we can easily find exampled of aesthetic conventions being used and passed between different media's. Photo-realism is a great examlpe of immediacy is not used to preserve to medium of photography.
Remediation usually takes place when time is needed for a new medium to develop unique content, such as games, television programs and many other aspects of media.
Immediacy
Immediacy is the media that aspires to a condition of transparency, aiming to make the viewer forget that they are watching a film of video. The use of photo-realistic images and immersive virtual reality is a great example of the techniques they would use in the industry.
Hypermediacy
These would be artifacts that are aware of and wish to display their own constructed nature, calling attention to their own constructed nature through the means of the internet and video game user interfaces.
Remediation can offer a range of conventions, we can easily find exampled of aesthetic conventions being used and passed between different media's. Photo-realism is a great examlpe of immediacy is not used to preserve to medium of photography.
Remediation usually takes place when time is needed for a new medium to develop unique content, such as games, television programs and many other aspects of media.
Critical Games Studies: Narrative and Games
This lecture was part of Robs tuition.
The narrative of a story has 3 very closely related elements of story telling,
Story
All of the elements which end up being depicted
Plot
The chain of causation (the chain of events that happen in the story)
Narrative
The order in which events are revealed
Events which happen in stories are presented in only two ways.
First Hand
Where the event is seen through the eye of the audience
Second Hand
Where the event is revealed to you by a character in the game
Facade is a game which we were shown, it is a game which heavily relies on narrative and as the user inputs narrative the game will change around it. Using complex AI the user can experience many different endings from being kicked out of the flat you are in to being killed.
The narrative of a story has 3 very closely related elements of story telling,
Story
All of the elements which end up being depicted
Plot
The chain of causation (the chain of events that happen in the story)
Narrative
The order in which events are revealed
Events which happen in stories are presented in only two ways.
First Hand
Where the event is seen through the eye of the audience
Second Hand
Where the event is revealed to you by a character in the game
Facade is a game which we were shown, it is a game which heavily relies on narrative and as the user inputs narrative the game will change around it. Using complex AI the user can experience many different endings from being kicked out of the flat you are in to being killed.
Critical Games Studies: Games Britannia Part 2
Monopolies and Mergers
This is part 2 of this mini-series on Games Britannia presented by Benjamin Woolley.
In part too Benjamin traces the surprising political and social impact the board games had on Britain over the past 200 years. Britain developed the idea of the board game as an instrument of moral instruction and exported it to America. In America it was made to promote the American Dream of free enterprise and economic success.
The documentary then went onto Monopoly, the best selling board game ever made, and how it was invented in America yet Monopoly is based on an English board known as the game for landlords, politics and communist game. After this Cluedo and Scrabble were then looked into as they are very popular games even to this day.
In present day we are in the Information Age and most British games designers have not become video games designers and leaving board games to American designers.
This is the end of this mini-series, I learnt a lot from these episodes and can see how much games have developed since the start of humans themselves.
This is part 2 of this mini-series on Games Britannia presented by Benjamin Woolley.
In part too Benjamin traces the surprising political and social impact the board games had on Britain over the past 200 years. Britain developed the idea of the board game as an instrument of moral instruction and exported it to America. In America it was made to promote the American Dream of free enterprise and economic success.
The documentary then went onto Monopoly, the best selling board game ever made, and how it was invented in America yet Monopoly is based on an English board known as the game for landlords, politics and communist game. After this Cluedo and Scrabble were then looked into as they are very popular games even to this day.
In present day we are in the Information Age and most British games designers have not become video games designers and leaving board games to American designers.
This is the end of this mini-series, I learnt a lot from these episodes and can see how much games have developed since the start of humans themselves.
Critical Games Studies: Games Britannia Part 1
Dicing with Destiny
This is another part to my series on Critical Games Studies, in this lecture we were shown a video call Games Britannia. Games britannia is a three-part series presented by historian Benjamin Woolley about popular games in Britain from the Iron Age to the Information Age.
The first part of the documentary started with an ancient Roman board game found in a Quarry at Colchester, it was named Stunway Game. This ancient game has been seen as evidence that the instinct to play games is a natural feeling and is is a large part in the mind of humanity. Humans need to eat, need to drink, need to socialize and need to play games.
There were more examples of games throughout the program such as Alea Evengelli, Hazard and Faro a game of chance and gambling.
Finally one of the most famous and most widely played game ever, Chess. Chess is a board game based around war. It was created in the 8th Century and is a game of skill with no random elements involved. It is a easy game to learn but incredibly difficult to master and play at a professional level.
That is all from Games Britannia Part 1, I will continue with the next part soon.
This is another part to my series on Critical Games Studies, in this lecture we were shown a video call Games Britannia. Games britannia is a three-part series presented by historian Benjamin Woolley about popular games in Britain from the Iron Age to the Information Age.
The first part of the documentary started with an ancient Roman board game found in a Quarry at Colchester, it was named Stunway Game. This ancient game has been seen as evidence that the instinct to play games is a natural feeling and is is a large part in the mind of humanity. Humans need to eat, need to drink, need to socialize and need to play games.
There were more examples of games throughout the program such as Alea Evengelli, Hazard and Faro a game of chance and gambling.
Finally one of the most famous and most widely played game ever, Chess. Chess is a board game based around war. It was created in the 8th Century and is a game of skill with no random elements involved. It is a easy game to learn but incredibly difficult to master and play at a professional level.
That is all from Games Britannia Part 1, I will continue with the next part soon.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Critical Games Studies: Gender and Games
This lecture was part of Robs tuition.
As part of this lecture Rob gave us text on how gender effects the game design industry. To be a successful games designer we will need to understand our audience which includes gender as the audience is either male or female (in most cases). Knowing your target audience is so important for example if you design a children's educational game but then release it at the target audience of 18-25 year old males then the game is likely to fail. Knowing the audience allows you to design the game around their interests and their ambitions as well as the themes and even advertising.
The first text we received was Segregation in a Male-Dominated industry: Women Working in the Computer Games Industry. This was based on how gender can effect the games design industry and the products from them. We are shown thought that a game which is developed with the audience of equal gender, both male and female, that the game will predominantly played by the male gender.
We also received an info-graphic showing data from 2009 based in the UK. The data show the population who play games, the percentage of people who play on consoles, what platform they use and many more. Some of the graphs show male and female others show age. From this we can see a good audience to target our game at.
For example, if we were to make a console game aimed at over 50 year old the audience is only 16% (both male and female) yet if we aimed the same game at 8-12 year old then the audience is significantly higher at 94% for males and 81% females.
Now I will go more into the readings and info-graphic.
Segregation in a Male-Dominated industry: Women Working in the Computer Games Industry (link)
This text primarily focuses on the segregation of occupations inside the games design industry based around gender and the female attitude toward working in a predominantly male industry and attitude toward the female career barriers, progression through the industry and promotion in the industry. People tend to choose occupations in which their gender is best represented, this is called segregation.
The EOC stated that occupation segregation has a negative effect on individuals, businesses and the economy which seems to be an ever grown problem not only in the UK. They also stated that the government need to address the situation in order to improve productivity, competitiveness and prosperity.
Women that are segregated into specific jobs tend to have less pay, fewer opportunities in their occupation, less job autonomy and less authority within their occupation. The higher salary jobs are believed to be more masculine rather than feminine even where duties are similar.
Segregation in the Games Design Industry
The games design industry is built up of a number of different specialties including development, production, design, level design, audio design, art and testing (Green et.al.,2007). In the 2008 Oxford Economics report figures suggested that the games design industry has over 9000 (yes over 9000) employees. A report by the online games magazine, MCV (2008) suggests that the percentage of women within the games design industry in core creation or development roles is around just 6.9%. More recent figures provided by Skillset (2009) suggest that women represent only 4% of the games design industry's workforce, a decrease from the 2006 report in which suggested 12% of the workforce was female (Skillset, 2006). The figure includes the non-developmental as well as the developmental roles women occupy in the games design industry. Developmental roles with the industry are those roles that are involved in the creative and developmental aspect of game development. These roles create everything within the games from the content, the style of play, the reward systems and ultimately influence who the target audience of the game will be.
UK National Gamers Survey 2009 (link)
This was the survey data we revived, you can check it out yourself on the link above. From the data we can easily see that the younger are groups play more games than the older age groups, but that's expected most people would assume this anyway. We also see that slightly more males play than females, this goes back into the segregation of gender but in the games design audience.
Companies will use this data to aim their game at a wider target audience, on top of other methods too for getting a more specific target audience.
Wrapping up
So from this lecture we have been informed just how important audience is when it comes to designing a game even before you plan a game. Audience is a main part in designing a game as it is in any type of media. I'm going to take his lecture and use it in my own games a lot more from now on, with my individual game being aimed at both genders and our group game based much more upon the male gender we can see how it has already affected my work.
That is all for this part, part 5 coming soon.
As part of this lecture Rob gave us text on how gender effects the game design industry. To be a successful games designer we will need to understand our audience which includes gender as the audience is either male or female (in most cases). Knowing your target audience is so important for example if you design a children's educational game but then release it at the target audience of 18-25 year old males then the game is likely to fail. Knowing the audience allows you to design the game around their interests and their ambitions as well as the themes and even advertising.
The first text we received was Segregation in a Male-Dominated industry: Women Working in the Computer Games Industry. This was based on how gender can effect the games design industry and the products from them. We are shown thought that a game which is developed with the audience of equal gender, both male and female, that the game will predominantly played by the male gender.
We also received an info-graphic showing data from 2009 based in the UK. The data show the population who play games, the percentage of people who play on consoles, what platform they use and many more. Some of the graphs show male and female others show age. From this we can see a good audience to target our game at.
For example, if we were to make a console game aimed at over 50 year old the audience is only 16% (both male and female) yet if we aimed the same game at 8-12 year old then the audience is significantly higher at 94% for males and 81% females.
Now I will go more into the readings and info-graphic.
Segregation in a Male-Dominated industry: Women Working in the Computer Games Industry (link)
This text primarily focuses on the segregation of occupations inside the games design industry based around gender and the female attitude toward working in a predominantly male industry and attitude toward the female career barriers, progression through the industry and promotion in the industry. People tend to choose occupations in which their gender is best represented, this is called segregation.
The EOC stated that occupation segregation has a negative effect on individuals, businesses and the economy which seems to be an ever grown problem not only in the UK. They also stated that the government need to address the situation in order to improve productivity, competitiveness and prosperity.
Women that are segregated into specific jobs tend to have less pay, fewer opportunities in their occupation, less job autonomy and less authority within their occupation. The higher salary jobs are believed to be more masculine rather than feminine even where duties are similar.
Segregation in the Games Design Industry
The games design industry is built up of a number of different specialties including development, production, design, level design, audio design, art and testing (Green et.al.,2007). In the 2008 Oxford Economics report figures suggested that the games design industry has over 9000 (yes over 9000) employees. A report by the online games magazine, MCV (2008) suggests that the percentage of women within the games design industry in core creation or development roles is around just 6.9%. More recent figures provided by Skillset (2009) suggest that women represent only 4% of the games design industry's workforce, a decrease from the 2006 report in which suggested 12% of the workforce was female (Skillset, 2006). The figure includes the non-developmental as well as the developmental roles women occupy in the games design industry. Developmental roles with the industry are those roles that are involved in the creative and developmental aspect of game development. These roles create everything within the games from the content, the style of play, the reward systems and ultimately influence who the target audience of the game will be.
Table Above: The percentage of men and women in each job description within the gaming industry.
UK National Gamers Survey 2009 (link)
This was the survey data we revived, you can check it out yourself on the link above. From the data we can easily see that the younger are groups play more games than the older age groups, but that's expected most people would assume this anyway. We also see that slightly more males play than females, this goes back into the segregation of gender but in the games design audience.
Companies will use this data to aim their game at a wider target audience, on top of other methods too for getting a more specific target audience.
Wrapping up
So from this lecture we have been informed just how important audience is when it comes to designing a game even before you plan a game. Audience is a main part in designing a game as it is in any type of media. I'm going to take his lecture and use it in my own games a lot more from now on, with my individual game being aimed at both genders and our group game based much more upon the male gender we can see how it has already affected my work.
That is all for this part, part 5 coming soon.
Critical Games Studies: Bibliography
This is the third part in the Critical Games Design series. Earlier in the year we were introduced to the Library resources in UCS. The library allows us to access a large selection of texts which will help us in our studies. This is a bibliography.
Adams, E. (2009) Fundamentals of game design. 2nd edn. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Politi, G. (2001) - Flash Art International Ed,
Jacobson, J. Hwang, Z. -Unreal Tournament For Immersive Interactive Theater Volume 45(1), pg 39 - 42, 3p
Caillois, R. 2006. "The Definition of Play. The Classification of Games". Salen. K and Zimmermann.E.The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. London. 122-155.
Kaminka, G.A. et al., 2002. GAMEBOTS: A FLEXIBLE TEST BED FOR MULTIAGENT TEAM RESEARCH. Communications of the ACM, 45(1), pg 43-45.
Finkel, I. L. (2008) "On the Rules for The Royal Game of Ur". In I. Finkel ed. Ancient Board Games in Perspective. London: British Museum Press. pp. 16-32.
Jacobson, J. Hwang, Z. -Unreal Tournament For Immersive Interactive Theater Volume 45(1), pg 39 - 42, 3p
Caillois, R. 2006. "The Definition of Play. The Classification of Games". Salen. K and Zimmermann.E.The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. London. 122-155.
Kaminka, G.A. et al., 2002. GAMEBOTS: A FLEXIBLE TEST BED FOR MULTIAGENT TEAM RESEARCH. Communications of the ACM, 45(1), pg 43-45.
Finkel, I. L. (2008) "On the Rules for The Royal Game of Ur". In I. Finkel ed. Ancient Board Games in Perspective. London: British Museum Press. pp. 16-32.
This was completed with the help of Zotero and Firefox which easily allow for referencing at a high standard. I hope these are correct if not please do comment to make me aware. The last reference was added after my extensive research of The Royal Game of Ur for a previous assignment.
Wrapping up
So from being introduced to Zotero a great tool for referencing I can now develop and
understand the uses of academic referencing which I have previously shown is a weak point
in my assignments.
Personally I struggled with this and using Zotero, I tried using it with Google Chrome in which you need a stand-alone version. After a lot of trial and error, a new browser and some help from other students I think I finally got there.
So that is the end of Part 3 of the Critical Games Design series. Part 4 coming soon.
Critical Games Studies: Paidea vs Ludus - Continued
This is part two in the posts of my Critical Games Studies lectures. For this post I will be talking about Agon, Alea, Ilinx, Mimicry which are all types of games. These have come as part of the Paidea vs Ludus post from previous which can be found here.
Newman goes on to consider different aspects of games/gameplay, using terms which Cailois (2001) adapts from Huizinga (see Newman, 2004, pp.22-26)
Agon - Competition
A competition game could be a game in which you compete with other players or computer AI to win a reward. A lot of games use this in modern day especially multiplayer/online games.
Some examples of a Agon game could be the FPS game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2, this game uses a competition of two opposing teams (based on the game mode) which have to complete objectives or eliminate the opposing tam to win. These games ar widely popular due to the competition in the games and also a lot of this style of game has moved into the Professional gamer industry increasing the competition to win prizes and to be the World's best.
Alea - Chance/Randomness
This would be a game which heavily relies on chance to play. A lot of board games use this as a vital tool, many using the game atom of dice in which the player can roll a completely random number every time.
There are many games using this but an example could be Monopoly for a board game or even parts of the game World of Warcraft which use this such as if you are trying to get an item when you are in a group.
Ilinx - Movement
Ilinx games heavily rely on movement for the game, the games try to effect perception by using movement of the game. Games which use this could be a lot of sports like football or rugby.
Examples of digital games could be the use of the Nintendo Wii, this is the revolutionary device which heavily involves the users movements to control the game.
Mimicry - Simulation, make-believe, role-play
These games are very popular the aesthetics of the game can usually attract the user very well. By creating a new world for the user to explore and adventure while changing the in game mechanics makes a very popular game.
games like this could be Sim City which is a popular game in which the user creates their own city and have to run it to keep their citizens happy. It is a fun simulation which is more of a game than a simulator.
Wrapping up
So with this it allows people to break down games into separate groups with this they can then continue to break down and analyse the entire game and understand all of it's mechanics.
That is all for part 2 of the Critical Games Design lectures. Part 3 to come soon.
Newman goes on to consider different aspects of games/gameplay, using terms which Cailois (2001) adapts from Huizinga (see Newman, 2004, pp.22-26)
Agon - Competition
A competition game could be a game in which you compete with other players or computer AI to win a reward. A lot of games use this in modern day especially multiplayer/online games.
Some examples of a Agon game could be the FPS game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2, this game uses a competition of two opposing teams (based on the game mode) which have to complete objectives or eliminate the opposing tam to win. These games ar widely popular due to the competition in the games and also a lot of this style of game has moved into the Professional gamer industry increasing the competition to win prizes and to be the World's best.
Alea - Chance/Randomness
This would be a game which heavily relies on chance to play. A lot of board games use this as a vital tool, many using the game atom of dice in which the player can roll a completely random number every time.
There are many games using this but an example could be Monopoly for a board game or even parts of the game World of Warcraft which use this such as if you are trying to get an item when you are in a group.
Ilinx - Movement
Ilinx games heavily rely on movement for the game, the games try to effect perception by using movement of the game. Games which use this could be a lot of sports like football or rugby.
Examples of digital games could be the use of the Nintendo Wii, this is the revolutionary device which heavily involves the users movements to control the game.
Mimicry - Simulation, make-believe, role-play
These games are very popular the aesthetics of the game can usually attract the user very well. By creating a new world for the user to explore and adventure while changing the in game mechanics makes a very popular game.
games like this could be Sim City which is a popular game in which the user creates their own city and have to run it to keep their citizens happy. It is a fun simulation which is more of a game than a simulator.
Wrapping up
So with this it allows people to break down games into separate groups with this they can then continue to break down and analyse the entire game and understand all of it's mechanics.
That is all for part 2 of the Critical Games Design lectures. Part 3 to come soon.
Critical Games Studies: Introduction - Interview
This is a the start of a group of posts based on my Critical Games Design lectures. We have been given specific tasks to complete and add to our blogs.
What is the title of the book (fiction) you are currently reading (or the last fiction book you read)?
- The Zombie Survival Guide
What is the title/topic of the book (non-fiction) you are currently reading (or the last non-fiction book you read)?
- Challenges for Games Designers
What is the last live performance (music, drama or dance) you attended?
What is the last live performance (music, drama or dance) you attended?
- DragonForce
What is the title of the last film you saw at the cinema / online or watched on dvd?
- The Green Mile
How often do you read a newspaper? (which one?)
- Every week, The Guardian
Which art gallery / museum / exhibition did you last visit?
Which art gallery / museum / exhibition did you last visit?
- I don't remember
How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?
How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?
- 10 hours
How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?
How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?
- 3 hours
That is it for the first in these posts, just a short interview.
Friday, 2 December 2011
Into the Woods: A practical guide to the Hero's Journey
What practical use is "The Hero's Journey" to story tellers and game developers?
Why The Hero’s Journey Is Important What makes the hero’s journey so important? Why should we bother with it? It’s important because myths are important. Myths convey the values of society. Myths are how we teach each other who we are and how we should behave.
Myths make possible our sense of community. We are thinking mythically when we show loyalty to our town our nation or our team. Loyalties to our friends or community are the result of strong myths that reinforce social bonding.
Myths give us a sense of personal identity, answering the question, "Who am I?"
Myths are what lie underneath our moral values.
Carl Jung argued that mythical motifs are structural elements of the psyche and says these patterns are in fact present in our brains, he calls them "The collective unconscious". He says we wait for a particular belief system to become implanted in our brain by the culture we grow up in.
This story telling is then set in our brains like a bird is wired to make a nest or a spider making a web, we have the same for story telling. We need these myths or stories to guide our lives they teach us new things and without them we would be lost. Rollo May says that to remain sane we must bring order and coherence into the stream of sensations and emotions entering his consciousness. Meaning we must have some sort of control over our thoughts and emotions.
Take away a mans myth then in result he will become mentally ill, depressed and he will lose the will to live. We need the belief that we matter, that we have meaning and we find our meaning in the myths we create. The best way to reinforce these myths is through storytelling and literature.
Raphael Patai wrote:
“Literature has the power to move us profoundly precisely because of its mythical quality… because of the mystery in the face of which we feel an awed delight or terror. The real function of literature in human affairs is to continue myth’s endeavour to create a meaningful place for man in a world oblivious of his presence.”
It seems that literature proves there is order in the universe, it says the in life, moral choices lead to outcomes. In fiction, there is meaning to human events because myths help us create meaning in our lives. The myths in our stories reaffirm the values our culture and teach us "the way we should be"
Why is this important to games? Rollo May has postulated that narcotics are myth-substitutes because they allow people to assert control over their environment, even if only for a short period of time. I contend that games are another example of myth-substitutes.
He says the her thinks games are essentially myth-reinforcing activities and that the player chooses the kind of games that reaffirm his/her personal myths.
What is the Hero's Journey?
During Joseph Campbell's research of thousands of myths he found common elements which kept appearing in these myths. Not all of them are found in one but many are found in different ones. After he categorizes these he says that the more of these elements a narrative has the more likely it is to strike a deep mythological chord with the audience. Campbell sumarises these elements which became known as the Hero's Journey, in these words:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
- Establishing the hero’s world.
- The call to adventure.
- Entering the mythological woods.
- Trail of trials.
- Encountering the evil on.
- Gaining the hero’s prize.
- Returning that prize to the community.
The Hero and his prize
Step 1: Pick Your Premise
First, pick your premise – your theme, your myth.Myths and stories consciously or subconsciously influence behavior. So you must decide what you think is important and make your game about that. You must decide how you want people to behave or think differently after playing your game than before. This is not a license for preaching. It’s the emotional connection you will create with the gameplayer, built up through time as he experiences the different facets of the issue that you have built into the game
Step 2: Create your hero
Next, create a hero who can embody that premise. Match the hero to your premise. A hero is a myth in action. Heroes are how the myths are brought to life, the hero usually possesses many of the following qualities:
Step 1: Pick Your Premise
First, pick your premise – your theme, your myth.Myths and stories consciously or subconsciously influence behavior. So you must decide what you think is important and make your game about that. You must decide how you want people to behave or think differently after playing your game than before. This is not a license for preaching. It’s the emotional connection you will create with the gameplayer, built up through time as he experiences the different facets of the issue that you have built into the game
Step 2: Create your hero
Next, create a hero who can embody that premise. Match the hero to your premise. A hero is a myth in action. Heroes are how the myths are brought to life, the hero usually possesses many of the following qualities:
- The hero has courage (or finds it in the course of the story).
- The hero is clever and resourceful.
- The hero has a “special” talent.
- The hero is an “outlaw,” living by his or her own rules.
- The hero is good at what he or she does for a living.
- The hero is a protagonist (takes the lead in the action at some point in the story).
- The hero has been “wounded” (maimed, disgraced, grieving for a lost loved one, etc.) or becomes wounded in the course of the story.
- The hero is motivated by idealism (at least at some point in the story).
- The hero is sexually potent.
Step 3: Create a Great Villain
Great villains are memorable characters, Often much more memorable than the heroes themselves. The greatest myth-based stories are those of the self-sacrificing hero pitted against the self-centred Evil One. Here are some characteristics of the Evil One that Frey outlines in his book The greatest myth-based stories are those of the self-sacrificing hero pitted against the self-centred Evil One. Here are some characteristics of the Evil One that Frey outlines in his book
- Traits similar to hero.
- May be full of hubris.
- May be an outlaw.
- Clever and resourceful.
- May be wounded.
- May have a special talent.
- May have great sex appeal.
- Traits dissimilar to the hero.
- Motivated by greed, avarice, lust for power, vanity, narcissism, and so on.
- Never acts out of idealism, although he may have an evil cause he believes in.
- Is often cruel.
- May win by luck, which the hero never does.
- Is not forgiving.
- Might quit – but only at the very end.
- May whine and grovel, which the hero isn’t allowed to do.
- May not be stoical like the hero. May not be loyal.
- Usually not physically superior – though his or her sidekick may be.
- No special birth or special destiny, though he may falsely claim one.
Step 4: Show the Hero's Regular World
The point is that the player must see the hero’s world that he is trying to save. Near the beginning of the game, you should show the player an example of how the hero is flawed, so that at the end of the game, he can see how the hero has been transformed.
Step 5: Disrupt the Hero's World
This is Campbell’s Call to Adventure. When the disruption shows up in the form of a person,Campbell calls the person the Herald. Campbellalso says that the hero may refuse the call, but that doesn't really apply in the game world.
Step 6: Enter the Mythological Woods
These mythological woods can be either a physical or a psychological place. It is the place where the hero must endure his inner and outer struggle. The outer struggle is to achieve some victory. The inner struggle is to discover himself and transform his character. As we progress through levels, we have to see the hero changing. Giving him betters toys at the end of each level is a good idea, but it just isn't enough.
Step 7: Confront the Evil One
What is important is that your hero confronts evil in whatever form you have chosen to present it, and defeats it. Ideally the hero should overcome his inner struggle in order to be victorious in the outer struggle.
Step 8: Acquire the Prize
Remember your premise? That’s the prize. This is the thing that was worth fighting to acquire. This is what makes the journey worthwhile for the hero, and for the player. Whatever the idea was that kept you up all those late nights through all those months of development, that is the Hero’s prize, and you have to let the hero, and the gameplayer acquire it. That’s the whole point of doing a story in the first place.
Step 9: The Hero's Return
In a way, this is optional, but in a way it’s not. If the hero acquires the prize, you've done your job of delivering it to the community Whether or not your hero survives to deliver it to his community depends on the kind of story you want to tell. By the end of your story, Egri says you will have moved the character “from pole to pole.”
The Three Act Structure
This is Aristotle's Three Act Structure which is used to break down a story into three simple acts.
- In the First Act, you get the hero up a tree
- the Second Act, you throw stones at him (in other words, you make things harder for him)
- The Third Act, you get him down out of the tree.
This is a great use for the plot of the story but is in fact no use to use for character development or growth. Identification is this mysterious ability people have to live inside the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. It’s what allows people to dream the fictive dream. This identification with the hero somehow unites the gameplayer with the hero, and they somehow become one. the other surprising thing is how endlessly satisfying these stories are to us.
The more familiar the hero is, the more often we have watched him overcome ever-increasing dangers and challenges, the more we know what to expect of him the more we identify with him. The hero gains immeasurably from repetition.” A myth confirms and reconfirms our most deeply held cultural beliefs.
The Hero’s Journey isn’t a box of tools you can use to fix every story problems. But it’s somewhat similar to a circuit tester. You can clamp the leads around a problem spot in your story and check to see if there’s enough mythical current flowing. And if you don’t have enough juice, it can help point out the source of the problem.
Personal Comments
I actually found this article to be really helpful and well written. It was easy to understand and get my head around it. I made a lot more notes on this than I thought I would and the structures which have been shown in this article will come in very handy when it comes to character development and growth as well as developing a plot for my story.
Friday, 25 November 2011
Reading Week 8 - MUD's
Richard A. Bartle: Who suits MUD's players, who suit MUD's
HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS
MUD's are ditcher social of game like and the vast majority of MUD's are known as "games" by their players. MUD's can be of considerable value in non-game or serious applications. Could you put MUD under a pastime, sport, amusement and entertainment? Are MUD's games? MUD's are seen differently by players.
Absract 4
Achievers (diamonds) always trying to find goals and rewards. Players gives themselves related goals and sets out to achieve them They regard points gathering and rising in levels as their main goal.
Explorers (Spades) like to walk around and learn as much about the virtual environment as possible. They set out to explore new things and find bugs.
Socialisers (Hearts) are players that like playing a game because of it's social aspects such as chatting to friends over text or VOIP.
Killers (Clubs) set out in the gam to harm and cause distress to other people around them. They generally enjoyit the more distress they are causing.
If a game has too many of one of these it causes an unbalanced game.
Ways to emphasise
Players over world
World over players
Interacting over acting
Socialisers V.
Killers V.
HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS
MUD's are ditcher social of game like and the vast majority of MUD's are known as "games" by their players. MUD's can be of considerable value in non-game or serious applications. Could you put MUD under a pastime, sport, amusement and entertainment? Are MUD's games? MUD's are seen differently by players.
Absract 4
Achievers (diamonds) always trying to find goals and rewards. Players gives themselves related goals and sets out to achieve them They regard points gathering and rising in levels as their main goal.
Explorers (Spades) like to walk around and learn as much about the virtual environment as possible. They set out to explore new things and find bugs.
Socialisers (Hearts) are players that like playing a game because of it's social aspects such as chatting to friends over text or VOIP.
Killers (Clubs) set out in the gam to harm and cause distress to other people around them. They generally enjoyit the more distress they are causing.
If a game has too many of one of these it causes an unbalanced game.
Ways to emphasise
Players over world
- add more communication facilities.
- add more player-on-player commands.
- make communication facilities easy and intuitive.
- decrease the size of the world.
- increase the connectivity between rooms.
- maximise the number of simultaneous players.
- restrict building privileges to a select few.
- cut down on the number of mobiles.
World over players
- have only basic communication facilities.
- have few ways that players can do things to other players.
- make building facilities easy and intuitive.
- maximise the size of the world (ie. add breadth).
- use only “rational” room connections in most cases. grant building privileges to many.
- have lots of mobiles.
Interacting over acting
- make help facilities produce vague information.
- produce cryptic hints when players appear stuck.
- maximise the effects of commands (ie. add depth).
- lower the rewards for achievement. have only a shallow level/class system.
- produce amusing responses for amusing commands. edit all room descriptions for consistent atmosphere.
- limit the number of commands available in any one area.
- have lots of small puzzles that can be solved easily. allow builders to add completely new commands.
Acting over interacting
- provide a game manual.
- include auto-map facilities.
- include auto-log facilities.
- raise the rewards for achievement.
- have an extensive level/class system.
- make commands be applicable wherever they might reasonably have meaning.
- have large puzzles, that take over an hour to complete. have many commands relating to fights.
- only allow building by top-quality builders.
The next part is a direct quote from the text.
Player interactions
Achievers V.
Achievers V.
- ACHIEVERS: Achievers regard other achievers as competition to be beaten (although this is typically friendly in nature, rather than cut-throat). Respect is given to those other achievers who obviously are extraordinarily good, but typically achievers will cite bad luck or lack of time as reasons for not being as far advanced in the game as their contemporaries. Achievers do not need the presence of any other type of player in order to be encouraged to join a MUD: they would be quite happy if the game were empty but for them, assuming it remained a challenge Because of this, a MUD can’t have too many achievers, physical limitations excepted.
- EXPLORERS: Achievers tend to regard explorers as losers: people who have had to resort to tinkering with the game mechanics because they can’t cut it as a player. The overall number of explorers has only a marginal effect on the population of achievers. In essence, more explorers will mean that fewer of the really powerful objects will be around around for the achievers to use, the explorers having used their arcane skills to obtain them first so This can cause achievers to become frustrated, and leave. More importantly, perhaps, the number of explorers affects the rate of advancement of achievers, because it determines whether or not they have to work out all those tiresome puzzles themselves.
- SOCIALISERS: Achievers merely tolerate socialisers. Although they are good sources of general hearsay on the comings and goings of competitors, they’re nevertheless pretty much a waste of space as far as achievers are concerned. Typically, achievers will regard socialisers with a mixture of contempt, disdain, irritation and pity, and will speak to them in either a sharp or patronising manner.
- KILLERS: Achievers don’t particularly like killers. They realise that killers as a concept are necessary in order to make achievement meaningful and worthwhile (there being no way to “lose” the game if any fool can “win” just by plodding slowly unchallenged), however they don’t pesonally like being attacked unless it’s obvious from the outset that they’ll win.
- ACHIEVERS: Explorers look on achievers as nascent explorers, who haven’t yet figuredout that there’s more to life than pursuing meaningless goals. They are therefore willing to furnish them with information, although, like all experts, they will rarely tell the full story when they can legitimately give cryptic clues instead.
- EXPLORERS: Explorers hold good explorers in great respect, but are merciless to bad ones. One of the worst things a fellow explorer can do is to give out incorrect information, believing it to be true. Explorers enjoy the company of other explorers, and they will play more often if they have people around them to whom they can relate. Unfortunately, not many people have the type of personality which finds single-minded exploring a riveting subject, so numbers are notoriously difficult to increase. If you have explorers in a game, hold on to them!
- SOCIALISERS: Explorers consider socialisers to be people whom they can impress, but who are otherwise pretty well unimportant.
- KILLERS: Explorers often have a grudging respect for killers, but they do find their behaviour wearisome. It’s just so annoying to be close to finishing setting up something when a killer comes along and attacks you. On the other hand, many killers do know their trade well, and are quite prepared to discuss the finer details of it with explorers. Sometimes, an explorer may try attacking other players as an exercise, and they can be extremely effective at it.
Socialisers V.
- ACHIEVERS: Socialisers like achievers, because they provide the running soap opera about which the socialisers can converse. Without such a framework, there is no uniting cause to bring socialisers together. Note that socialisers don’t particularly enjoy talking to achievers they do, however, enjoy talking about them. Increasing the achiever/socialiser ratio has only a subtle effect: socialisers may come to feel that the MUD is “all about” scoring points and killing mobiles, and some of them may therefore leave before matters ”get worse”.
- EXPLORERS: Socialisers generally consider explorers to be sad characters who are desperately in need of a life. Both groups like to talk, but rarely about the same things, and if they do get together it’s usually because the explorer wants to sound erudite and the socialiser has nothing better to do at the time.
- SOCIALISERS: A case of positive feedback: socialisers can talk to one another on any subject for hours on end, and come back later for more. The more socialisers there are in a game, the more new ones will be attracted to it.
- KILLERS: This is perhaps the most fractious relationship between player group types. the main reason that socialisers tend to despise killers is that they have completely antisocial motives, whereas socialisers have (or like to think they have) a much more friendly and helpful attitude to life. The fact that many socialisers take attacks on their personae personally only compounds their distaste for killers. Increasing the number of killers will decrease the number of socialisers by a much greater degree. Decreasing the number of killers will likewise greatly encourage (or, rather, fail to discourage) socialisers to play the MUD.
Killers V.
- ACHIEVERS: Killers regard achievers as their natural prey. Achievers are good fighters (because they’ve learned the necessary skills against mobiles), but they’re not quite as good as killers, who are more specialised. This gives the “thrill of the chase” which many killers enjoy – an achiever may actually be able to escape, but will usually succumb at some stage, assuming they don’t see sense and quit first.
- EXPLORERS: Killers tend to leave explorers alone. Not only can explorers be formidable fighters (with many obscure, unexpected tactics at their disposal), but they often don’t fret about being attacked – a fact which is very frustrating for killers. Sometimes, particularly annoying explorers will simply ignore a killer’s attack, and make no attempt whatsoever to defend against it; this is the ultimate in cruelty to killers.
- SOCIALISERS: Killers regard socialisers with undisguised glee. It’s not that socialisers are in any way a challenge, as usually they will be pushovers in combat; rather, socialisers feel a dreadful hurt when attacked (especially if it results in the loss of their persona), and it is this which killers enjoy about it.
- KILLERS: Killers try not to cross the paths of other killers, except in pre-organised challenge matches. Part of the psychology of killers seems to be that they wish to be viewed as somehow superior to other players; being killed by a killer in open play would undermine their reputation, and therefore they avoid risking it Killers will occasionally work in teams, but only as a short-term exercise; they will usually revert to stalking their victims solo in the next session they play. The only effect that killers have on other killers is in reducing the number of potential victims available. This, in theory, should keep the number of killers down, however in practice killers will simply attack less attractive victims instead. It takes a very drastic reduction in the number of players before established killers will decide to stop playing a MUD and move elsewhere, by which time it is usually too late to save the MUD concerned.
Equilibrium
Changing the balance
- Increasing the number of achievers will, over time, increase the number of killers in a typically Malthusian fashion.
- More explorers will lead to a quicker rise through the ranks for achievers, which will tend to encourage them (if not overdone).
Changing the number of socialisers in a MUD has no effect on the number of achievers. - Increasing the number of killers will reduce the number of achievers; reducing the killer population will increase the achiever population
- Explorers’ numbers aren’t affected by the presence of achievers.
- The explorer population is not directly affected by the size of the socialiser population.
- The affect of killers on the explorer population is fairly muted, because most explorers don’t particularly care if they get killed (or at least they profess not not). However, if it happens too often then they will become disgruntled, and play less frequently.
- Decreasing it has little effect unless the number of active achievers drops to near zero, in which case new socialisers might find it difficult to break into established conversational groups, and thus decide to take their play elsewhere.
- The number of explorers in a MUD has no effect on the number of socialisers.
- Increasing the number of killers will decrease the number of socialisers by a much greater degree. Decreasing the number of killers will likewise greatly encourage (or, rather, fail to discourage) socialisers to play the MUD.
- Increasing the number of explorers will slightly decrease the number of killers.
- Increasing the number of socialisers will increase the number of killers, although of course the number of socialisers wouldn’t remain increased for very long if that happened.
To sum everything up then we know the reading was about 4 different styles of player which were all released in way to a deck of cards.
Achiever - Diamond, always making goals to rewards themselves with.
Explorer - Spade, exploring the world and finding out new and interesting things
Socialiser - Heart, makes friends and talks to them a lot in game
Killer - Club, purposive causes grief on people to annoy them.
He mentions about balance with these 4 categories, if one of these gets too popular or not popular enough then a game would become unbalanced but lowering the population of one could make another thrive.
Conclusion
While reading this it was easy to see how based around an RPG this was. A lot of the idea's seemed similar to World of Warcraft and I could easily picture what he mean't. I do think though some aspects have not been covered enough and I think there are more than just these 4 categories.
Other than that I found this reading really useful and learn't much needed information.
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