Adding to my previous blog post about Pervasive Games I would like to talk about the film La Decima Vittima or to you and me The 10th Victim.
Now this film is probably the inspiration for the game that I was talking about in the blog that I have mentioned and that game is Killer/Assassin. The reason I say that this could possibly be the inspiration is because the film is essentially a game of Killer/Assassin that is used to avoid big wars as it allows players to kill legally in the "Big Hunt" which is considered a form of entertainment in the film, the aim of the game in the film is to survive ten round of the big hunt, these rounds consist of five rounds of being a hunter and five rounds of being the victim, whoever survives all ten rounds is the winner and receive a large sum of money and can retire.
There are rules that are to be followed in the film just like the game that people play today, like there are certain areas where players are not allowed to kill unless they have permission from the owner of the establishment.
The film follows Caroline Meredith a huntress looking for her tenth victim, who happens to be Marcello Poletti, Caroline knows who she has to hunt and knows what he looks like and where to find him, she gets this information because of her sponsors who are using her in an advert for their product, Marcello however has no idea what his hunter looks like or if they are even male or female, all he knows is that he is being hunted.
In the film things get complicated because Marcello figures out that Caroline is more than likely there to kill him however he can't bring himself to kill her before she can him because he starts to fall in love with her. Well in the end it turns out that the feeling is mutual, she helps him fake his death and just as you think everything is going to be good, he shoots her, she comes back surviving the shot due to a really good bullet proof vest, just as you think it's all over the make an escape together from Marcello's crazy ex wife (who I completely forgot about).
I guess I strayed from the point of this blog a little, I was going to use it to make the connection between the game played today Killer/Assassin and the film, but the film was just that bad that it was actually rather good, not that I recommend you go and buy it but if you see it on Netflix then give it at watch you might be surprised.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Pervasive Games.
We had a lecture on pervasive games these are games that are played often by large groups of people in the real world.
One of the most well known pervasive games is a game called "Killer/Assassin " this is a game that allows players to eliminate each other from the game using mock weapons, ranging from wooden spoons to nerf guns, the aim is to be the last surviving player. These games are very popular among university campuses who have their own dedicated "Assassins' Guild", I know this because the university that I am studying at had their own "Assassins' Guild" unfortunately I missed the opportunity to be apart of the game in the first semesters but hopefully I'll be able to in my second year of study.
Anyway back to the game, there are a number of different rule sets depending on where the game is being played, in most games that are played on university campuses there are a number of safe zones where players cannot be killed, these are areas such as the lecture halls or the computer labs. Often times players must submit a photo of themselves so that the people who are hunting them know who they are and what they look like so that bystanders are not shot with a nerf gun as some people might not be too happy about that. In some cases the game actually has a police force that is often comprised of eliminated players, the job of the police force is to track down rule breakers, or if the game you are playing has a time limit on kills it is to penalise players who are behind in their scheduled killings.
Now although these games can be extremely fun for the people who are playing them and the people that know about them, they can cause some problems if members of the public get the wrong impression if they see two players of the game and witness the "assassination". However this is often not the case as the weapons that are used cannot really be mistaken as actual weapons and it cannot be mistaken for a genuine act of violence.
Although I have not been able to participate in any pervasive games as of yet I am hoping to start playing assassin once the new game starts and maybe even create a guild of my own to go against the assassins guild, like a permanent police force to co exist with the players.
One of the most well known pervasive games is a game called "Killer/Assassin " this is a game that allows players to eliminate each other from the game using mock weapons, ranging from wooden spoons to nerf guns, the aim is to be the last surviving player. These games are very popular among university campuses who have their own dedicated "Assassins' Guild", I know this because the university that I am studying at had their own "Assassins' Guild" unfortunately I missed the opportunity to be apart of the game in the first semesters but hopefully I'll be able to in my second year of study.
Anyway back to the game, there are a number of different rule sets depending on where the game is being played, in most games that are played on university campuses there are a number of safe zones where players cannot be killed, these are areas such as the lecture halls or the computer labs. Often times players must submit a photo of themselves so that the people who are hunting them know who they are and what they look like so that bystanders are not shot with a nerf gun as some people might not be too happy about that. In some cases the game actually has a police force that is often comprised of eliminated players, the job of the police force is to track down rule breakers, or if the game you are playing has a time limit on kills it is to penalise players who are behind in their scheduled killings.
Now although these games can be extremely fun for the people who are playing them and the people that know about them, they can cause some problems if members of the public get the wrong impression if they see two players of the game and witness the "assassination". However this is often not the case as the weapons that are used cannot really be mistaken as actual weapons and it cannot be mistaken for a genuine act of violence.
Although I have not been able to participate in any pervasive games as of yet I am hoping to start playing assassin once the new game starts and maybe even create a guild of my own to go against the assassins guild, like a permanent police force to co exist with the players.
Saturday, 7 March 2015
Games Britannia 3: The Joystick Generation
We had watched the last part of the Games Britannia documentary and in this episode the main focus was on computer games.
One of the main games that was being talked about in this episode was the Grand Theft Auto series, mainly Grand Theft Auto IV, they used this game to raise some points about morality in video games as in the Grand Theft Auto series players are allowed to roam around a virtual city and cause havoc and chaos, players are allowed to do what they want, when they want and this is why the game brings up some points of morality as players are not really limited to what they do so it is up to them to decide if what they are doing is morally correct or not. Although there is also a story that players are allowed to play through which develops the characters and gives them some back story, most players will instead spend most of their time roaming around the city doing what they want.
Another game that was mentioned in this episode is the Little Big Planet series, this game is a lot different to the Grand Theft Auto series as Little Big Planet is aimed more towards children and players who like to be creative. It allows players to create what they like with a number of tools, it also allows other players to the play these levels that players make.
One of the main games that was being talked about in this episode was the Grand Theft Auto series, mainly Grand Theft Auto IV, they used this game to raise some points about morality in video games as in the Grand Theft Auto series players are allowed to roam around a virtual city and cause havoc and chaos, players are allowed to do what they want, when they want and this is why the game brings up some points of morality as players are not really limited to what they do so it is up to them to decide if what they are doing is morally correct or not. Although there is also a story that players are allowed to play through which develops the characters and gives them some back story, most players will instead spend most of their time roaming around the city doing what they want.
Another game that was mentioned in this episode is the Little Big Planet series, this game is a lot different to the Grand Theft Auto series as Little Big Planet is aimed more towards children and players who like to be creative. It allows players to create what they like with a number of tools, it also allows other players to the play these levels that players make.
Thursday, 20 November 2014
Tablut and Other Tafl Games
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.
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.
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..
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