Spore: If Done Well Enough, Perhaps the Best Game Ever

As the title suggests, I was extremely impressed with the videos and commentaries on Spore. The several reasons are listed below.

Perspective. I've always enjoyed simulation games, but Spore seems to take the cake. The idea that you can advance a species from the molecular level to space age is incredible. The inspiration video serves as a great depiction of this perspective, apply a concrete medium to understand something like evolution that for most people exists in only abstract thoughts.

Assortment of Several Games. While the game is created by the simulation master, it does appear to have many types of games built into it. The first molecular stage does look like Pac-man. The civilization stage looks more like an action/adventure game with possible algorithmic stategies built in. The space age appears, on the grander stage, like space strategy game where you have to make sure your resources and "assimilate" different places. It's not to say that the game designer will implement all these genres completely, but it at the very least pays homage to them.

Endless Gameplay. From the looks of it, I believe I could play Spore for the rest of my life and still find things new and interesting about it. Especially considering how the game is called "massively single play," incorporating data from other users' files, the possibilities of interaction are endless. This may be the greatest part of all: the user's strong impact on his or her experience. Instead of following a fine line toward a certain goal, as in most other games, Spore offers the game more freedom to manipulate the game and its code in broader, more desirable ways. Everyone has a unique experience.

I'm not sure this game can meet my expections, because if it did, I might not have a social life anymore.

Novels and Games: Peas and Carrots?

So at the beginning of another one my English classes, I have been having discussions with the professor about the validity of studying games. The basic argument against video games, as I see it, is that video games as a visual experience has so much going on that it can miss the subtleties that the novel's language can achieve.

We live in an increasingly visual society. With the emergence of movies, television, and now video games -- all staples of popular society -- looking at things has been considerably more "important" than reading things.

I, however, would like to suggest that while things have become more visual, reading is still a part of the art.

Visual Art. Like interpretting a painting, video games have scenes that merit examination. Take Okami for example. The beautiful cell shading reflects the mystical and spiritual elements. If the game were built like any other game, it would not leave the same impact on the gamer. It would not have the same quality.

Interface. There are always signs in a game when you are supposed to hit a button. Some games let you have a choice when you want to hit the button (Mario jumping over the chasm). Other times the moment comes so quickly that if you mistime it, you have to start over again. This addition to the narrative, making the gamer physically feel a part of the experience, allows the gamer to feel like a part of the experience.

In my final project I want to explore these and other issues and compare them to how a novel works. I believe our discussion on agency and how the text of the media introduces ideas is helpful.

Game or Not a Game?

This is the what I came up with in class inductively to with the "gameness" of Facade:

Myst is similar to Façade in the way you manipulate the environment and progresses through non-linear puzzles. Myst is a puzzle game. Since Myst is a game, and Façade is similar, Façade is mostly likely a game.

Let me expand on this with some support:

Games--computer games in particular--appeal because they are configurative, offering the chance to manipulate complex systems within continuous loops of intervention, observation, and response. (Moulthrop FP 63)

Any game consists of three aspects: (1) rules, (2) a material/semiotic system (a gameworld), and (3) gameplay (the events resulting from application of the rules to the gameworld). Of these three, the semiotic system is the most coincidental to the game. (Aarseth FP 47-48)

Moulthrop's quote concerning "intervention, observation, and response" works well with the principles present in Myst and Facade. In both games the gamer finds themselves intervening, in the sense that their is an artificial, algorithmic pattern occuring and the game tries to manipulate that to progress. In Myst this is largely present in the skilled use of switches, pulleys, etc. Facade has this element in the quick text entries given to the AI. Observation is self-explanatory; both games encourage the player to use his or her surroundings to progress the game. Response comes after the player's maniplulations, leading to the advancement to another world (Myst) or the mending of a relationship (Facade).

Aaseth also has a three part elemented observation to describe the content of a game. All games have rules. Myst, though much more non-linear that other games, does have rules built into the game. A cardinal rule would appear to be the limited ways you can move; you can only walk into the frame the game will allow you. Facade has a similar rule of restriction, allowing only certain entered text to cause a response. Aarseth's use of the word "coincidental" for the material world strikes me as appropriate. Both games use graphical architecture to create worlds (however fanciful in Myst's case) altogether unique. Just as the egg comes before the chicken, so the gameworld comes before the game, giving birth to the ruled experience gamers enjoy.

I'm not convinced to this argument, but I try to engage some critics to support such a way of thinking. It's on that fine border line between game/no game.

Self-Experimentation: Final Project

So I've been looking around on the internet for a while (on and off), and it was just a matter of time before I thought of the correct sequence of words to find some interesting ideas for my final project.

As I've told a few of you, I'd like to do a formal "self-experiment" on myself involving the effects of video game violence. I have a couple of ideas:

First, in a general sense, I found stuff on the scientific method. I figure for anything I would do to be taken remotely seriously, I would have to adhere to the scientific method. So first would be the research phase, which I am beginning to enter right here and as I begin to play the game (not to mention all the other violent games I've played). Research has also been a large part of the class, since we had the presentation on Resistance: Fall of Man and Zelda/Okami, all of which involve some degree of violence.

The next step would be the formulation of a hypothesis. I believe in the "keep it simple" dogma (i.e., Ockham's Razor). There are several possible hypotheses I could choose, but when it comes down to it, the one with the fewest complexities will be the easiest to work with and prove/disprove.

Then there's the predicition aspect. This is fairly self-explanatory. I expect little to no change in behavior.

Then comes the actual experiment. I found this Roberts and Neuringer article on self-experimentation, where one of the discussions revolves around behavioral studies. They even offer a numerical scale for quantifying behavior changes. So I wanted to use ideas these guys presented and have sketched out ways of planning the experiment:

The constant would be the game and setting. The game would be God of War II and the setting would be my room, at a fixed distance from the television sceen in the same chair (to eliminate any accident variables).

Possible variables:
Time playing the game, e.g., half hour compared to two hours.
Toggling the settings (difficulty, blood animation, etc.)
Presence/Absence of Sound

I've also got two other ideas floating around in my head:
The inclusion of another, non-violent game (like Tetris) as means of comparison.
The inclusion of randomization. Let's say, after I play for an hour, I write down the first dozen words that immediately come to my head.

Finally, there is the conclusion, which at this point I can obviously say little.

Please send any comments you have or articles you might have come across. I'm trying to base this in the scientific method, but I'm the first to admit I'm no scientist. I really think little actual attempts (besides mindless correlations made by politicians) have been made in this area that has such a prominent place in adolescent (and yes, adult) culture. I'd like to have some sort of video presentation for the exerpiment as well, but obviously a lot of that has yet to be worked out.


References:

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~roberts/self/#Mood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ockham%27s_razor
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/scientific_method.html

God of War II: First Impressions

So after having seen 300, God of War II is the perfect next step to the violence study I plan to do for my final project. I've played through the first hour of the game, and the gratuitous violence and nudity doesn't stop. I would like this opportunity, however, to argue that the gratuity does not limit the games capacity to reach its audience on a meaningful level. In fact, I think it has much to offer the thoughtful gamer.

Moreso in this game (so I am told) than in its predecessor, mythology has a greater role at the story's center. More is more, but it has a purposeful place. Yesterday I was reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, and I found a place where the narrator, Jake, references one of the characters as Circe, a goddess from Homer's Odyssey. God of War II takes that sort of metaphor to ancient culture and extends it to its fullest capacity. Already in the game's first hour I see the manipulative relationship gods have with humans. That point does not stray at all far from depictions gathered in Homer's epic poetry. Regardless if the game's authors depict the mythological facts correctly, they have a core theme in place that is central to mythology of antiquity.

However, as I type I notice a potential counterargument. From my perspective, someone could say the FPS persona Duke Nukem is a satiric, pointing to modern decedence and excess. Duke Nukem, a lewd, foul-mouthed gunslinger, would be far removed from many thoughtful gamers' minds. However, just like there is no "reading too much into" Hemingway, as long as you have the support of the text, you as a reader and gamer can make any argument valid. There very well may be elements in Duke Nukem that could support this argument (admitedly, I have not play the game in a long time). But certainly the argument could be made above for God of War II.

This is my jumping point into my research. Please provide any insights you all might have that you think would be helpful.

Games and Music

We saw before the the break the extensive detail given to sound effects in Resistance: Fall of Man. The shrapnel grenade had an individually programmed sound for each shrapnel's hit of a particular surface. But the musical soundtrack -- varying in composition from game to game -- plays second violinist to graphics and gameply, somewhat unjustly.

A band by the name Select Start performs their own rock renditions of many popular video game anthems (e.g., Castlevania, Metroid). Bands like these cover their favorite video game tracks and play them in front of crowds. Nobuo Uematsu, composer of most of the Final Fantasy game soundtracks, tours performing some of his game music around the world. People find video game music entertaining outside the games which they normally inhabit.

Much effort goes into composing a video game soundtrack. A game for PS2 called Xenosaga even uses the talents of the London Philharmonic Orchestra to compose a soundtrack that enhances the game while standing on its own merits. The same could be said for movie soundtracks, and video games use music in a similar way.

Now that I've briefly established that video game music is popular and important to the game, it is important to note again that video game music is a clique-ish by default, even though its increasingly becoming a valued part of the gaming experience. Some electronica music, taking inspiration from jazz, also finds material from even the 8-bit Nintendo games. As video games become a greater part of our cultural experience, the music they present, especially that which is well-composed, becomes a part of our musical cultural history.

Looking to the Shadows for Guidance

After thinking more about the Wark interview and what he said about looking more at the shadows in Plato's Allegory of the Cave than for the shadows' sources (the Ideal), I tried to think of way I could concretely justify this with elements I saw in the presentation of Resistance: Fall of Man yesterday. FPS does provide an interesting way for attempting to create an authentic illusion of reality.

The game does capture elements of war that would otherwise be absent from many people's experiences. The interface suggest that the gamer holds the weapon and responds to the sounds and movement presented by the speakers (even more intensified by surround sound) and the TV. The feeling of urgency that often comes out in a battle is mimicked in a game. In that sense this "shadow" of a real experience aid in understanding.

However, there are plenty of elements in the game that do not refeclt anything. Many of the weapon do not exist (alien), and the enemies, though humanoid, have transformed feature that dehumanizes them. The gamer kills a cartoon rather than an actual representation of a person. Most importantly, the type of fiction the narrative presents is escapist, not really engaging the gamer into any introspection.

Overall, like books, FPS provides insights into what might be an Ideal, but ultimately just presents one of the chained person's perspectives.