Today we learnt about a number of new games, each of these games had the same basic structure and a similar rule set however they where each a different name, there was Tablut a game played on a 9x9 board using 8 white pieces and 16 black pieces, this had been seen in Lapland by a botanist named Linnaeus, there was the Welsh variation known as Tawl Bwrdd (translates to throw board) which was played on a larger board of 11x11 and was played with 12 white pieces and 24 black pieces, and then there was the Anglo Saxon Alea Evangelii or the game of the gospels which I have mentioned in a previous blog, this variation was played on a much larger 18x18 board and using 24 white pieces and 48 black pieces.
The overall objective of these games are the same, the players using the white pieces have a king piece, they must keep this piece protected at all times and have to move him to either a corner space on the board or to any of the edges of the board (this depends on which rule set you are playing), whereas if you are playing with the black pieces your objective is to capture the white king and to stop him from reaching the corners (or edge). It is possible to capture your opponents pieces to do this you need to have two of your pieces on either side of the opponent that you are trying to capture, for the blacks to capture the whites king you need to have the king blocked in with four of your pieces on either side of the king.
I will look through some of the notes that I have from this session and read through anything that may be able to give me anymore information about the game of Tablut and its other variations as this is one of the games that has grabbed my interest as something that I would like to look at further.
Thursday 20 November 2014
Wednesday 12 November 2014
Games Britannia: Dicing With Destiny or How I Learned to Appreciate Ancient Games.
We watched the first episode of a BBC 4 show called Games Britannia this episode was called Dicing with Destiny and was about the history of games from games played with there boards carved into the stone of church chairs, to the games that we play today.
We find that may of the ancient games weren't just played for fun but that they are fundamental, some games offering some sort of prophetic meaning, whether they are used not only through life but through death, or if they are used to help kings determine whether they would be successful if they where to go into battle.
However games started to lose these prophetic and religious meanings and instead started to be more and more associated with gambling. By the time of the Victorians there where a number of dice and card games which resulted in a moral backlash associating these games with loss and hardship, games where being used as moral teaching materials, with a number of the aspects of gambling being associated with evil, people started to refer to dice as instruments of the Devil meaning most children where not allowed to play any games that may of used dice. During these times most games that involved gambling where often a 50/50 chance to win, unlike Todays gambling where most machines are rigged to pay out only at certain points. One of the most notable gamblers was a noted Whig statesman Charles James Fox, who was the second son of Lord Holland, one of the last acts of Lord Holland was to settle a massive £140,000 of his son's debt, but Fox continued to win and lose huge amounts of money in single sittings. It is said that he would gamble for days only taking breaks to fulfil his political obligations.
It is around this time that Britain established one of the first gaming industries, with the mass production of games, like Snakes and Ladders, although this is also an iteration of an ancient Hindu game of knowledge know as Gyan Chauper. But this beautiful game that was designed to show the journey to enlightenment was now tainted by commercialisation so that the game could be fun and suitable for the market of Today the journey that it once represented was removed and the religious meaning was completely forgotten.
As a game designer I feel that it is important to remember the ancient games as without them we wouldn't have the games that we have today, not only that but I feel we need to keep the original meanings of these ancient games alive and not only enjoy the modern versions for the fun, but remember the ancient versions of these games so that we can feel what the people who would play these games felt and be able to learn from that experience.
One of the games that I found truly interesting was the game Alea Evangelii which played in a simplified way is a game of strategy and movement as you have to try to escort your king piece to any of the corners of the board being outnumbered by your opponent you have to really think and take a strategic approach to the game. I would like to look more into the game Alea Evangelii and maybe even try to play the game at it's simplified state.
We find that may of the ancient games weren't just played for fun but that they are fundamental, some games offering some sort of prophetic meaning, whether they are used not only through life but through death, or if they are used to help kings determine whether they would be successful if they where to go into battle.
However games started to lose these prophetic and religious meanings and instead started to be more and more associated with gambling. By the time of the Victorians there where a number of dice and card games which resulted in a moral backlash associating these games with loss and hardship, games where being used as moral teaching materials, with a number of the aspects of gambling being associated with evil, people started to refer to dice as instruments of the Devil meaning most children where not allowed to play any games that may of used dice. During these times most games that involved gambling where often a 50/50 chance to win, unlike Todays gambling where most machines are rigged to pay out only at certain points. One of the most notable gamblers was a noted Whig statesman Charles James Fox, who was the second son of Lord Holland, one of the last acts of Lord Holland was to settle a massive £140,000 of his son's debt, but Fox continued to win and lose huge amounts of money in single sittings. It is said that he would gamble for days only taking breaks to fulfil his political obligations.
It is around this time that Britain established one of the first gaming industries, with the mass production of games, like Snakes and Ladders, although this is also an iteration of an ancient Hindu game of knowledge know as Gyan Chauper. But this beautiful game that was designed to show the journey to enlightenment was now tainted by commercialisation so that the game could be fun and suitable for the market of Today the journey that it once represented was removed and the religious meaning was completely forgotten.
As a game designer I feel that it is important to remember the ancient games as without them we wouldn't have the games that we have today, not only that but I feel we need to keep the original meanings of these ancient games alive and not only enjoy the modern versions for the fun, but remember the ancient versions of these games so that we can feel what the people who would play these games felt and be able to learn from that experience.
One of the games that I found truly interesting was the game Alea Evangelii which played in a simplified way is a game of strategy and movement as you have to try to escort your king piece to any of the corners of the board being outnumbered by your opponent you have to really think and take a strategic approach to the game. I would like to look more into the game Alea Evangelii and maybe even try to play the game at it's simplified state.
Thursday 23 October 2014
Defining Video Games: Padia or Ludus?
In our lecture last week Thursday, 16th October we where discussing how to categories games e.g there genre such as horror or FPS (First Person Shooter).
We also went on to talk about the French sociologist Roger Caillois's notions of paidia and ludus which has made us able to separate games into two different categories based on these notions.
Games put into paidia are games that are played for pleasure and games that do not constrain you to rules.
However games that follow ludus are essentially the opposite of paidia games in that you are constrained by the rules and that there is a clear outcome to the game, e.g "winning".
After this we also spoke about different aspects of games, there where four terms that we used;
Agon - This is competition.
Alea - This refers to chance and randomness.
Ilinx - This is movement.
Mimicry - This is simulation, make-believe and role-play.
We where then asked to think about some games that we know well and try to think how these games can be defined as paidia and/or ludus and how they fit into the categories of agon/alea/ilinx/mimicry or if there are any combinations of the categories.
So I decided to pick one of my favourite game franchises and that is the Dark Souls franchise. I would put this game into the paidia category as a start this is because the game does not have a clear goal, there are no rules and you can tackle the game anyway that you want, although you do eventually reach an end you are not constrained by anything to make you reach that end, while playing the game you are not told where to go or which way is the right way so because of this i would say that it is a paidia game. In relation to the four aspects of games I would say that the Dark Souls franchise has a bit of all of them, it has agon in the fact that there is a PvP aspect to the games where you can summon over players to fight against them, there is Alea because of the randomness of the enemy movements, you don't know if an enemy is going to do a certain attack or if they are trying to confuse you into thinking they are by doing the start animation of a move and then changing to another, not only is there randomness in the enemies but there is also randomness and chance that the enemies will drop a piece of there armor or there weapon when they are killed, there is ilinx because you are constantly moving through a large world, you can find bonfires which act as checkpoints and that can be teleported to and there is mimicry as you can role-play, you can choose from a number of different classes, such as a mage, a warrior, a knight or a thief, not only that but there are some people that role-play within the game itself as some of the bosses as it is possible to get there armor and weapons.
I also looked at the Call of Duty Franchise which I feel is a ludus game as you are constrained by rules and that there is a set path in which you finish the level and there is often times a clear goal within the games and you are forced to play the game a certain way in that you can't really go and explore the levels and often times areas will be locked off so that you can't actually access them. I feel that the Call of Duty franchise can be placed into agon, ilinx and mimicry, i feel like it can be agon because of the online PvP that is available to the games, I feel that ilinx is in the game because there is a lot of movement within the games, the constant running and the driving sections that are in some of the games, and i chose mimicry because i feel that in someway Call of Duty can be classed as a military simulator as that is what you are doing so in this case it is also role-playing. I didn't add alea to the list of things that Call of Duty has as i do not think that there is an aspect of chance or randomness in the games.
We also went on to talk about the French sociologist Roger Caillois's notions of paidia and ludus which has made us able to separate games into two different categories based on these notions.
Games put into paidia are games that are played for pleasure and games that do not constrain you to rules.
However games that follow ludus are essentially the opposite of paidia games in that you are constrained by the rules and that there is a clear outcome to the game, e.g "winning".
After this we also spoke about different aspects of games, there where four terms that we used;
Agon - This is competition.
Alea - This refers to chance and randomness.
Ilinx - This is movement.
Mimicry - This is simulation, make-believe and role-play.
We where then asked to think about some games that we know well and try to think how these games can be defined as paidia and/or ludus and how they fit into the categories of agon/alea/ilinx/mimicry or if there are any combinations of the categories.
So I decided to pick one of my favourite game franchises and that is the Dark Souls franchise. I would put this game into the paidia category as a start this is because the game does not have a clear goal, there are no rules and you can tackle the game anyway that you want, although you do eventually reach an end you are not constrained by anything to make you reach that end, while playing the game you are not told where to go or which way is the right way so because of this i would say that it is a paidia game. In relation to the four aspects of games I would say that the Dark Souls franchise has a bit of all of them, it has agon in the fact that there is a PvP aspect to the games where you can summon over players to fight against them, there is Alea because of the randomness of the enemy movements, you don't know if an enemy is going to do a certain attack or if they are trying to confuse you into thinking they are by doing the start animation of a move and then changing to another, not only is there randomness in the enemies but there is also randomness and chance that the enemies will drop a piece of there armor or there weapon when they are killed, there is ilinx because you are constantly moving through a large world, you can find bonfires which act as checkpoints and that can be teleported to and there is mimicry as you can role-play, you can choose from a number of different classes, such as a mage, a warrior, a knight or a thief, not only that but there are some people that role-play within the game itself as some of the bosses as it is possible to get there armor and weapons.
I also looked at the Call of Duty Franchise which I feel is a ludus game as you are constrained by rules and that there is a set path in which you finish the level and there is often times a clear goal within the games and you are forced to play the game a certain way in that you can't really go and explore the levels and often times areas will be locked off so that you can't actually access them. I feel that the Call of Duty franchise can be placed into agon, ilinx and mimicry, i feel like it can be agon because of the online PvP that is available to the games, I feel that ilinx is in the game because there is a lot of movement within the games, the constant running and the driving sections that are in some of the games, and i chose mimicry because i feel that in someway Call of Duty can be classed as a military simulator as that is what you are doing so in this case it is also role-playing. I didn't add alea to the list of things that Call of Duty has as i do not think that there is an aspect of chance or randomness in the games.
Bibliographies.
Brathwaite, B and Schreiber, I (2009) Challenges for game designers non-digital exercises for video game designers. Boston Massachusetts, Course Technology.
Chick, T (2006) "Shoot Club: The Doom 3 Review" In Salen, K and Zimmerman, E (Eds) The game design reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. London, MIT Press, PP 156 -171.
Swacha, J; Skrzyszewski, A and Wojciech,A,S (2010) "Computer Game Design Classes: The Students' and Professionals' Perspectives". Informatics in Education. Volume 9 249-260..
Chick, T (2006) "Shoot Club: The Doom 3 Review" In Salen, K and Zimmerman, E (Eds) The game design reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. London, MIT Press, PP 156 -171.
Swacha, J; Skrzyszewski, A and Wojciech,A,S (2010) "Computer Game Design Classes: The Students' and Professionals' Perspectives". Informatics in Education. Volume 9 249-260..
Thursday 2 October 2014
A brief chat about me.
Shane
What is the title of the
book (Fiction) that you are currently reading, or what is the title of the last
fiction book that you read?
I am currently reading the book The
Call of Cthulu and other weird tales, which is written by H.P. Lovecraft. I
really enjoy reading horror fiction and after reading the short by H.P
Lovecraft which is titled The Call of Cthulu I wanted to read his other stories
as I knew that he was a horror fiction writer, so when I saw the book with Call
of Cthulu and other weird tales I picked it up and started to give it a
read.
What is the title/topic of the book
(non-fiction) that you are currently reading, or what is the last non-fiction
book that you read?
I don’t often read non-fiction books but at
the moment I am reading some material that is needed for my course at
University and the book that I am reading is Game Design a Book of Lenses by
Jesse Schell.
What is the last live performance
(music, drama or dance) that you attended?
Live performance –
The last and one of the only live performances that I have been to was the 2014
Kerrang Tour, it was in Brixton and it was some of the most fun I have had.
Kerrang are a magazine, radio station and T.V channel that play rock and metal
which are my favourite genres of music.
What is the title of the
last film that you saw at the cinema/online or watched on DVD?
The last film that I had seen at the
cinema was Guardians of The Galaxy which was a pretty good film that I enjoyed
a lot, I wish I had seen it in IMAX but it was just as good in 2D. I don’t
have a large collection of DVDs but the ones that I do have are watched
multiple times by me and my favourite film of all time is V for Vendetta which
is the most recent DVD I have watched.
How often do you read a
newspaper? (Which one? Online or physical)
Newspapers – I don’t really read newspapers but when
I do I tend to read them online instead of having physical copies, I only
really read local papers like the Ipswich star. There is a reason I don’t tend to read them and that is
because I get most of my news via the news channels like BBC news and Sky news.
What art gallery / museum
/ exhibition did you last visit?
The last museum that I visited was the Ipswich museum a couple of months ago, I didn't really go for any specific reason but
my most liked area of the whole museum is the Egyptian section I have always
had an interest in the Egyptians so whenever I get the chance to read more
about them I will take it.
How many hours a week do you spend playing
video games?
I try to only spend 5-6 hours on video games
if I can. I have been playing a lot of FTL: Faster Than Light over the last
couple of weeks, I have also been playing a lot of The Binding of Isaac I find
both of these games fun and challenging in their own ways, I have not yet been
able to complete FTL but i'm working on it.
How many hours a week do
you spend playing games other than video games?
I have only just started to play non
video games like board games, card games and text based adventure games, but
only yesterday did I start to play Dungeons and Dragons properly and I spent a
good 3 and a half hours playing Dungeons and Dragons with a group of other
players. So I hope to achieve at least the same amount of time on non-video
games every week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)