Remediation is argued as a defining characteristic of the new digital media.
The spectrum of ways new media remediates old media is characterized by a spectrum ranging from Immediacy to Hypermediacy.
Immediacy: Media that aspires to a condition of transparency. The aim is to make the viewer forget that they are watching a film/cinematic using means of photo-realistic images and immersive virtual reality as an example.
Hypermediacy: Artefacts that are aware of and wish to display their own constructed nature. They call attention to their own constructed nature all the time using means of the world wide web and computer game user interfaces as an example.
Remediation can refer to a range of conventions, we can find examples of aesthetic conventions being traded between different media. Photorealism as an example of immediacy is not used to preserve to medium of photography. The same can be said of Hypermediacy, it's not the aesthetic preserve of the world wide web, but picked up by television and news stories.
Remediation takes place when it may take time for a new medium to develop unique content, such as games and video and other media.
Thursday 29 March 2012
Task: Narrative & Games.
Chris Crawford on Storytelling
Stories must have a strong structure, they must satisfy tight structural requirements to be acceptable. A good example of this is described below, with the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
- Protagonist is the Spider.
- Conflict is the Rain.
- Struggle is being Washed down the Drain.
- Resolution is Crawling back up the Drain.
- Moral is Perseverance.
Crawford goes on to give six lessons in storytelling.
Lesson #1: Stories are complex structures that must meet many hard-to-specify requirements.
- Stories are about People, not Things.
- Sometimes the reference to people is Indirect or Symbolic. An example of this is the Lord of the Rings, the story is not about the ring, but Frodo's struggle.
- Games fail at storytelling because games are about Things and not People.
Lesson #2: Stories are about the most fascinating thing in the universe, People.
- All stories have conflict.
- Sometimes conflict is direct and violent, or social and symbolic.
- There's ALWAYS conflict.
- Games have many types of conflict, like violence, but lack other forms, like social conflict.
- Stories are not Puzzles, Puzzles can often form a part of stories.
- Stories always contain problems or challenges, how is the protagonist to resolve the conflict of the story.
Lesson #3: Puzzles are not a necessary component of stories.
- Stories contain choices that characters have to make.
- Stories build up to revolve around a key decision.
- Stories contain spectacle, and provide a novel experience.
- Spectacle is not a necessary component of story.
Lesson #4: Spectacle does not make stories.
- Visual thinking.
- Culture is increasing dominated by the visual image.
- Does a visual representation describe more than the writing itself?
Lesson #5: Visual thinking should not dominate storytelling.
- Spatial thinking.
- Spatial reasoning is one of the brain's greatest achievements.
- Spatial factors are not included in literature, but can it be?
- Within a story, spatial relationships can seem unimportant.
Lesson #6: Stories take place on stages, not maps.
- Temporal Discontinuity.
- Actors are shown to embark on a journey and reach the destination, the time the journey itself takes is skipped over.
- Dramatic time doesn't behave like physical time; it follows whatever course the story requires.
This article greatly helped me in my creative writing, and has spurred and intent to write more than I may have in the past.
Stories must have a strong structure, they must satisfy tight structural requirements to be acceptable. A good example of this is described below, with the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
- Protagonist is the Spider.
- Conflict is the Rain.
- Struggle is being Washed down the Drain.
- Resolution is Crawling back up the Drain.
- Moral is Perseverance.
Crawford goes on to give six lessons in storytelling.
Lesson #1: Stories are complex structures that must meet many hard-to-specify requirements.
- Stories are about People, not Things.
- Sometimes the reference to people is Indirect or Symbolic. An example of this is the Lord of the Rings, the story is not about the ring, but Frodo's struggle.
- Games fail at storytelling because games are about Things and not People.
Lesson #2: Stories are about the most fascinating thing in the universe, People.
- All stories have conflict.
- Sometimes conflict is direct and violent, or social and symbolic.
- There's ALWAYS conflict.
- Games have many types of conflict, like violence, but lack other forms, like social conflict.
- Stories are not Puzzles, Puzzles can often form a part of stories.
- Stories always contain problems or challenges, how is the protagonist to resolve the conflict of the story.
Lesson #3: Puzzles are not a necessary component of stories.
- Stories contain choices that characters have to make.
- Stories build up to revolve around a key decision.
- Stories contain spectacle, and provide a novel experience.
- Spectacle is not a necessary component of story.
Lesson #4: Spectacle does not make stories.
- Visual thinking.
- Culture is increasing dominated by the visual image.
- Does a visual representation describe more than the writing itself?
Lesson #5: Visual thinking should not dominate storytelling.
- Spatial thinking.
- Spatial reasoning is one of the brain's greatest achievements.
- Spatial factors are not included in literature, but can it be?
- Within a story, spatial relationships can seem unimportant.
Lesson #6: Stories take place on stages, not maps.
- Temporal Discontinuity.
- Actors are shown to embark on a journey and reach the destination, the time the journey itself takes is skipped over.
- Dramatic time doesn't behave like physical time; it follows whatever course the story requires.
This article greatly helped me in my creative writing, and has spurred and intent to write more than I may have in the past.
Task: Gender & Games.
Segregation in the Games Industry
The games industry is made up of many different specialities including development, production, design, level design, audio design, art, etc. I has been reported that the UK games industry has over 9000 employee's and the percentage of women in core senior roles is just 6.9%. It has become apparent that over the years, the industry is losing it's appeal to a more diverse workforce.
The games industry is made up of many different specialities including development, production, design, level design, audio design, art, etc. I has been reported that the UK games industry has over 9000 employee's and the percentage of women in core senior roles is just 6.9%. It has become apparent that over the years, the industry is losing it's appeal to a more diverse workforce.
Horizontal and Vertical gender segregation is said to exist within the games industry. Vertical segregation represents the difference between the numbers of men and women in a senior roles within the industry.
It has been said that women are more likely to be represented at the senior levels in some areas due to the increasing number of women in those areas. This suggests that there is both Horizontal and Vertical segregation within the industry.
- Table: The percentage of men and women in each job description within the gaming industry.
The majority of women in the games industry seem to work in managerial, administrative, marketing and public relation roles. Due to the lack of women in other roles, women have little voice in the content and production of games.
Task: Games Britannia - Monopolies & Mergers.
In this episode, historian Benjamin Woolley goes on to trace the cultural and political impact games have had on britain over the past 200 years. It was the British that developed the idea of a board game as a way of moral instruction and exported it to America, where it was adapted to promote the dream of free enterprise and economic success.
Woolley explores many of the classic games which formed part of teaching, before turning into games of entertainment and social prowess.
He starts by looking at a game called The Mansion of Bliss, which was used to entice children to attend schooling. This was later imitated by a game called Mansion of Happiness (from the USA), in the 1890's which was a game of chance.
I'll list a few others that were described briefly:
- Chequered Game of Life, in which your moves may be relevant, or echo those made in real life.
- Pank-A-Squith, a game in which the aim is to get a suffragette woman into parliament.
- Brer Fox & Brer Rabbit, a game created in 1913 about land tax which created political discussion between the players, aimed at families.
- The Landlords Game, the american version of Brer Fox, which later transformed into a basic form of Monopoly by Elizabeth McGee Philips.
Carrying on with Monopoly subject, here's a fun fact... Monopoly sets were sent to prisoners of Colditz, containing hidden maps, files and compasses to aid escape during the war.
- Cluedo, developed during the Blitz and devised by solicitors, was originally called Murder. Later taken to the USA, a dislike was taken to the character Reverend Green, so was renamed Mister Green.
Woolley went on to trace the development of board games, some of which, like Monopoly and Cluedo are still today's family favourites. Board games have evolved to include fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons, however most mainstream games designers have joined the digital games revolution.
Woolley explores many of the classic games which formed part of teaching, before turning into games of entertainment and social prowess.
He starts by looking at a game called The Mansion of Bliss, which was used to entice children to attend schooling. This was later imitated by a game called Mansion of Happiness (from the USA), in the 1890's which was a game of chance.
I'll list a few others that were described briefly:
- Chequered Game of Life, in which your moves may be relevant, or echo those made in real life.
- Pank-A-Squith, a game in which the aim is to get a suffragette woman into parliament.
- Brer Fox & Brer Rabbit, a game created in 1913 about land tax which created political discussion between the players, aimed at families.
- The Landlords Game, the american version of Brer Fox, which later transformed into a basic form of Monopoly by Elizabeth McGee Philips.
Carrying on with Monopoly subject, here's a fun fact... Monopoly sets were sent to prisoners of Colditz, containing hidden maps, files and compasses to aid escape during the war.
- Cluedo, developed during the Blitz and devised by solicitors, was originally called Murder. Later taken to the USA, a dislike was taken to the character Reverend Green, so was renamed Mister Green.
Woolley went on to trace the development of board games, some of which, like Monopoly and Cluedo are still today's family favourites. Board games have evolved to include fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons, however most mainstream games designers have joined the digital games revolution.
Task: La Decima Vittima.
La Decima Vittima (The Tenth Victim) is an Italian film produced in 1965, in which wars/disagreements are generally avoided by allowing those with violent tendencies to partake in The Big Hunt. The Hunt is a global form of entertainment, which attracts those looking for fame and fortune. The Hunt includes ten rounds for each person, five as the Hunter and five as the Victim. The survivor of the ten rounds becomes extremely wealthy and can retire from the games.
The film revolves around a hunter and his/her victim, the romance and the mind games between, whilst the rules and justification for the games are being narrated.
The film follows a Caroline Meredith (Ursula Andress), a huntress, and her tenth victim-to-be, Marcello Poletti (Marcello Mastroianni). Poletti is relucatant to kill Meredith, as he is not sure whether she is a hunter or not. Later, a romance ensues between the two, but Meredith has just been out to get the perfect kill in-front of the cameras.
I quite enjoyed this film, it made me think about the current public assassin games, such as StreetWars where people are silently made targets by chosen attackers and squirted with water guns to mark their kill.
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Task: British Museum Trip.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this trip due to financial reasons.
Tutor's aware.
Tutor's aware.
Monday 21 November 2011
Reading: Players who suit MUDs.
For the Week 8 reading (Players who suit MUDs, by Richard Bartle) we we asked to describe how the different styles of player relate to themselves, others and the game world; and how they linked to our own gameplay experiences of online worlds.
Those reading this outside of the institution my take a look at the paper, available here http://tiny.cc/u3nns in an easy to read format.
So, what is a MUD? It is a Multi-User Domain (or Dungeon, depending on the source).
I'll start by mentioning that I liked this article, as much as others disliked it, the understanding of the initial concept was there; and why wouldn't it be, it was Bartle's. Though the article is now dated, and can be argued that it has little to no meaning by today's standards, the theory is sound and still shows in modern day online worlds.
Bartle goes on to describe his research of player types and the four things typically enjoyed by players. They are Achievements within the game context, Exploration of the game world, Socialising with others and Imposition upon players. In abstract, we get; Achievers, Explorers, Socialisers and Killers.
- Achievers like to set themselves game-related goals, and will set out to achieve them.
- Explorers like to find out as much as they can about the game world and it's mechanics, by means of mapping it's topology and/or experimenting with the world's physics).
- Socialisers like to use the game's communicative facilities, and employ role-playing in context with other players.
- Killers like to use tools within the game world to cause distress/griefing (by means of killing them continually or assaulting them verbally), or in very rare circumstances, help other players.
Players will often drift between all four styles of gameplay, however they will also tend to have a primary style and only switch to another to advance their main interest.
Bartle goes on to discuss in more detail, what dynamics or mechanics drive the different types of players in the game world.
Achievers
Primary Goal - Point gathering, Raising their level.
Secondary Goal - Exploring for treasures, Socialising for hints, Killing to eliminate rivals.
Explorers
Primary Goal - Exposing world mechanics, finding interesting artefacts, seeing how game related things work.
Secondary Goal - Point gathering, Killing to eliminate rivals, Socialising.
Socialisers
Primary Goal - Interested in people, Inter-player relationships, Empathizing/Joking/Entertaining.
Secondary Goal - Exploring to understand discussions, Point scoring for new chat subjects, Killing for futile conversations (very rare).
Killers
Primary Goal - Imposing upon others, Attacking players to kill personae, More distress = more gain.
Secondary Goal - Point scoring to become powerful, Socialising to taunt victims, Exploring to find hidden players.
When thinking (in the modern day) of balancing these players and their styles on a server; when too many players gravitate to one style, the effect can cause player of the other persuasion to leave or change style completely. Administrators need to maintain a balances relationship between different types of MUD to guarantee that players "feel".
To elaborate further; Achievevers want to ACT upon the world, Explorers want to INTERACT with the world, Socialisers want to INTERACT with players and Killers want to ACT upon the players. Keeping this balanced is difficult, and can be explained better with the interest graph show below (Please note that this is my interpretation of a poorly displayed graph in the original works).
- Figure (A) is the Point Of Interest and the Axes of the graph represent the source of player's interest in a MUD. A stable MUD is one in which the four principle styles of player are in equilibrium.
So, how can we change the player type balance, and how will they influence the gameplay. Making changes towards the PLAYER could be increasing the talk features, but his will reduce the MUD to a mere social chat box. Making a change to the WORLD could stop the players finding each other entirely, and will reduce Interaction. Making changes to the INTERACTION could reduce freedom of choice, making the gameplay linear or have a narrative. Finally, making changes to the ACTION within the game can make it monotonous, creating a 'doing-to' rather than 'doing-with' structure.
Ways to emphasize PLAYERS over the WORLD:
- Add more communication facilities.
- Add more Player-on-Player commands.
- Make Communication easier.
- Decrease the world size.
- Increase connectivity between rooms (Dungeons).
- Maximize the amount of simultaneous players available.
- Restrict building privileges to a select few.
- Reduce the number of Mobiles (Mobs, Enemies, NPC's).
Ways to emphasize the WORLD over PLAYERS:
- Reduce communication facilities to basic commands.
- Have fewer Player-on-Player interactions.
- Make building facilities easier and more intuitive.
- Maximize the size of the world.
- Use only rational room connections.
- Grant building facilities to many.
- Massively increase the amount of Mobiles.
Ways to emphasize the INTERACTING over ACTING:
- Have help facilities produce vague information.
- Produce cryptic hints for players that are stuck.
- Maximize the effects of commands available.
- Lower the rewards for achievements.
- Have a shallow Level/Class system.
- Create amusing responses for amusing commands.
- Edit room descriptions for a consistent atmosphere.
- Limit the number of commands available in an area.
- Have lots of small, easily solvable puzzles.
- Allow builders to add new commands.
Ways to emphasize ACTING over the INTERACTING:
- Provide a game manual.
- Include auto-map facilities.
- Include auto-log facilities.
- Raise the rewards for achievements.
- Have an extensive Level/Class system.
- Make commands available everywhere.
- Create large, time-consuming puzzles.
- Have many commands available relating to fights.
- Allow building only by top-quality builders.
These strategies can be combine to encourage or discourage different styles of play.
To conclude, this article is vastly outdated by today's standards, but Bartle was the first to explore the theory and balance of multi-player worlds. Do I agree with it? Yes, despite many of my fellow students criticisms of the article, this still relates to modern day multi-player worlds even if just the theory behind them.
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