III A man-flu’s best friend

I haven’t blogged in a while, using a cliché excuse of a man flu which, to the utter enjoyment of my peers has had me coughing and snivelling in class since last Friday. I have not let it keep me away from my studies, or my classes, meaning my notebook is full of exciting information and new methods of thinking that I will stretch over a couple of blog entries;



Paidea Vs Ludus – Who reigns supreme?


In one of our classes a while ago now, we were introduced to; “Videogames” by James Newman. Newman tries to define what a digital game is, with talk about how scholars of media and film would evaluate a game as an ‘interactive narrative’ and how those who study videogames would describe them much differently – showing how they are unique and separate from these other forms of media, even though they do indeed borrow heavily from those media types.

There is also a lot of discussion on what can be called a computer game, furby for example. It is computer controlled and you do indeed interact with it, fitting a lot of the criteria’s required for what would be classified as a computer game. It is more of a computer toy as it is controlled by pre-set information to respond based on your interactions, in the same fashion a game would, it is limited to those actions. You can only do what it wants.

However this is also different from a game, as you have the option of how to go about your tasks, the option to play the game how you like and do things the way you see best. Unlike with a furby, the only option you have is to allow it to do its thing, leaving you to watch it perform for you – which is a different type of interaction.

It continues to talk about developer stamps, how a game can look unique to that designer, how the role of videogames has evolved and grown from arcades and penny pushing gameplay, the sole goal of being the best, to the home consoles, with a much grander range of win conditions and more. However the topic of paidea and ludus stand above it all.

Ludus is an obvious element in any form of game. A structured method of how you can achieve the win state, rules that define how the game is played - how the player acts and reacts to situations. Ludus is obvious in any game imaginable;

• Tag – One person is the chaser and has to catch everyone else. The only way to lose is to forfeit, but it’s the opponents you play with that will entice you to play harder, they will goad you into chasing them, getting closer to you and taking the risk of getting caught.

• Chess – You have a game board and units that each have their own rules. You cannot deviate from these rules, they must be followed or else the game breaks. One simple goal – take their leader and nothing else matters.

• Sonic – You have 4 controls; left, right, jump and spin. You’re on a set track and the only goal is to get to the end.

• Supreme Commander – You have a leader unit, capable of building everything else. Your goal is to use whatever resources are available to you to destroy the enemy utterly. There’s no option to go off on your own and make sand castles, no choice to call it a draw or move off the game field.

All these games are great examples of Ludus, and there are many more. Paidea may seem like it has no place in games. In a sense, it’s like free play in primary school, the choice to do anything that pleases, make up your own game with any system of rules, do what you want to do whether you have a foreseeable outcome or not – All for fun / pleasure.

That way of thinking about paidea, makes it seem like it can have no place in a game. When can you make up your own rules, or play a game without a goal? In recent times, games have certainly evolved to allow the player free will. It’s a highly sought after goal for games developers – adding immense replay value.
Newman uses SimCity as a good example, but it has been called more of a software toy than a game and personally I think there are far better examples, although they were made with a sandbox setting in mind. Games are now being created with a large, living and persistent world. Real world politics and economics are being developed into these games and are having an effect on how the AI reacts to the player. It makes it seem like paidea, free choice to do as you please.

A great example would be the X series of games, X3: Terran Conflict being the latest and most advanced instalment. Like SimCity, there is debate about whether or not this is a game; it could be a software toy or just a simple simulation with the player thrown into the middle. But no, it’s a game, following rules with a full universe or mythology build around it.

There is a main storyline or quest to the game and once that’s completed the game is finished. Although you are free to continue your exploration of the universe, that’s the game over, the goal you set out to complete has been finished. That’s the ludus side of the game. However they haven’t stopped their, theirs the inclusion of hundreds of mini quests each with a background storyline to it that have nothing to do with the games main quest and you won’t find them if you don’t deviate from the games set paths and rules.

Other than that, there is a full universe for you to interact with. Trading for example has a big effect on the game. You can decide to build your own empire, your own trading can change the prices of items, cause the casual npc to respond differently towards you or other npcs. You are given the free will to do almost literally whatever you want to the universe that they created. You can choose whether or not to follow the path the designers set, or veer off and do your own thing – randomly start shooting people, talking to people.

And yet, I cannot stop thinking how, it’s all an illusion. It is easy to say – I played SimCity and I made a city to look this way, or that way. But in the end, the game is made for you to follow X amount of rules to get to that destination. Its free play, but there is always an objective; otherwise there would be no moving forward. At all times you know what you’re aiming for, and you create your own structure, your own form of ludus to get that custom victory – and indeed you can fail against your own rules.

Quite likely I just over analysed the meanings, or missed the point entirely, but if ludus is the following of rules to get to a goal, and paidea is the free will to do whatever you want at any time, and then paidea will always create ludus. Looking at it that way, any game built with a rules in an environment where you can choose how to use those rules to play the game your way – has obvious paidea qualities. But will always remain a ludus game. You’re just following the rules a different set of rules that the developers left, hidden in the game for the player to discover.

Now it seems like I am just going in circles so I will leave it here and blog up the rest of my notes at a later date, as this blog is so much bigger than I had planned 

SM – iHK
‘;..;’

Second!

Read, Read and Read some more

During my first week of UCS Games design we were given a few small documents to read over to get us thinking like a games designer. To know what it is to be one, as well as what it takes to do it successfully.

Some key facts that we walked away with came from Jesse Schell and the book called ‘The Art of Game Design’, in which, Schell stresses the importance for having a passion for what you do. There is a lot of talk about, whether or not we are born talented, or if it is bred into us at an early age.

Personally – I believe it can be both. I think that some people are indeed born with immense talent, some of those people go on to use these skills and abilities to their fullest, while others wilt and don’t push themselves to their maximum potential. I also think that, anybody can grow into any role possible. There is a reason that the saying mothers are so fond of ‘You can be anything you want to be’ is so universally used and accepted.

The general idea being this, if you have no love for the work you do, you will not apply yourself with all the skills and abilities you have acquired, instead you will scrape by without showing that potential talent you have.

It’s made quite obvious, that the book is centred with a strong theme of being confident in your own abilities. It talks about how, as a novice games designer you will think things like, I have never done this before, people are so much more experienced than me. Also experienced games designers will be thinking along the same paths, perhaps I got lucky, maybe I just fluked my way through the past few years. It then moved on to even the most seasoned games designers and their doubts. How they may think the world has changed and they can’t get back into the way things run. But basically, it says that these things are normal, but as long as your enjoy what you do, they don’t matter.

Schell goes on to talk about many things, lack of ridicule, a deeper sense of listening, key skills that make a games designer, but it’s the confidence that stood out to me. I have never particular had a lack of confidence, or been overly confident in myself either, but the way that its said, anyone has the potential to be a games designer is a very positive thing to walk away with and fuels us on to strive to do our best. Proving to ourselves that we can do it, born with it or not!!

SM – iHK
‘;..;’

First!

My first Blog - Computer Games Design =)

I have been on the UCS Computer Games Design course for just over 2 weeks now and so far, so good. Although no actual work has started – we are getting the guided tour of what a games designer IS and what is expected of them before we jump into the technical lectures.

Sum up of my first few weeks of University

We have had a lot of great introductions from the team – who are very skilled and credited themselves which is a great boost to confidence and moral for the entire class. At the moment everything has a calm feel to it, we have all been sitting around in classes talking and whispering to each other as we get to know one another. As the classes have been progressing and the introductions are all over, it seems as though we are starting to form an atmosphere of  – Wow were starting to design games here and everyone is itching to get started on our training.

During this initial ‘Get to know your peers’ week; we completed a series of tasks and challenges to get to know everyone and their mind-sets. Things such as questionnaires, games which turned into tasks and small scale experiments that acted as a guide of what’s to come all fitted in and got us communicating among each other.

One of these little events was to get a questionnaire with some basic questions, and complete it about anyone else. Then get them to do the same for you and swap your answers. Although you could simply fill in your own answers – it was a great way to break the ice and get to know the people you’ve been in class with the past few days. Chris interviewed me and my answer sheet went a little bit like this . . . . .

The Stef Interview

-          Q1: What is the title of the book (fiction) you are currently reading?

o   A Song of Ice and Fire – Started to read it after I watched “A Game of Thrones”

-          Q2: What is the title/topic of the book (non-fiction) you are currently reading?

o   He looked at various books in disgust, lack of images

o   Although that’s the answer I gave at the time, the answer would likely be a gaming / media magazine I read on the plane over from Ireland.

-          Q3: What is the last live performance (music, drama or dance) you attended?

o   Ozzy Osbourne and BLS in Belfast, fantastic.

-          Q4: What is the title of the last film you saw at the cinema/online or watched on dvd?

o   At the time of writing, it was Jurassic park …. Again! But it was being re-released into the cinema and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

o   Now the last movie I watched is Bunraku – ace cast, an unexpectedly good movie.

-          Q5: How often do you read a newspaper?

o   As often as my girlfriend gives me one, which is seldom at that .

-          Q6: Which Art gallery/museum/exhibition did you last visit?

o   Well this answer is probably the same for everybody in my class, EuroGamer 2011!!! Which was amazing.

-          Q7: How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?

o   Well it varies, especially since I started Uni as I am now doing a lot more reading and tutorials online. But roughly it was 5~ hours a day. Now it’s whenever I have time – I imagine that that time is only going to dwindle as the week’s progress.

-          Q8: How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?

o   Generally I turn everything into a sort of small mini game. Whenever I am sitting alone waiting at a bus stop or for a friend to turn up, I sit and stare at my environment and things start to mesh in my mind and I take pieces and I imagine how they can be digitalised and made to what I think of as ‘cool’.

o   However I suppose that’s just a really cheap way of getting out of saying zero.

-          Custom Question: If you could be a Game Character, who would you be and why?

o   Duke Nukem!! He was such an iconic character that stood on his own. The comedy overshined everything else in the game that made it a treat to play. The difficulty made it so that it wasn’t too hard to get from one catch phrase to another.

o   I also like how – even if it takes 13 years to be released, it can still hold a fan boy community.

Another project we did a few days back was ‘You have 5 minutes to make a board game – GO’ which was an intense adrenaline rush. A lot of people went for the tried and tested follow the path games with obstacles to get through to complete the game – most of which were fun to play and completed in time. Some others went for a different style – with cards and the numbers needing to match.

I went off the deep end and took advantage of that full 5 minutes and tried to make the best game ever! I wanted it to have risk or warhammer elements – in the sense that you have pieces / units and a game board to work with. To simplify matters I made the rules as basic as possible. After the 5 minutes and the testing began my game started to show its cracks – at first bugs appearing and then game breaking situations.
After that I redesigned a couple of rules and replayed it and things went smoothly until I found a couple of loopholes which gave too much of an advantage to the first player to get to point X. By the end of the class I and I had got around to the other games I didn’t get to perfect my own and get it into a workable enjoyable state. With the positive feedback I have received I want make some time to try some solo work on it for future use – perhaps to digitalise the game. Thinking back, I realise I should managed my time better and designed a game that was a little bit simpler so that I could have had it finished within the initial 5 minutes, then I could use the rest of the time to add details and extra features.

Looking up through this post I can see I have yet again nattered on about every little detail that potters into my head. I’ll leave it off here and pick it up again next time something epically shockingly amazing happens worth noting.

SM – iHK

‘;..;’