New vs Old Games Journalism

 

New vs Old Games Journalism

 

 

This was a great discussion in lecture today as it opened my eyes to the difference between new and old games journalism. In the following blog I will starts by explaining my own opinions on the differences between the two, I will then lead on to post two different article locations (one of each) to show the difference. Finally I will summarise by giving a conclusion on which I believe is the best form of games journalism.

 

 

Old Games Journalism:

 

This form of journalism is the type I expected to find regarding games, this method focuses and analyses the separate parts that form the video game such as graphics, gameplay, interface and control. This would be seen as a more factual style article. You would normally see this type of article written as a 'pro's and con's list' or in paragraphs of text in an overview.

 

 

New Games Journalism:

 

I was mostly unaware that this type of article existed until today's lecture (I previously always used IGN for reviews and previews etc.). This would be best described as an article written by the writer/player responding to the experiences presented to them in the game world including interacting with other players online. This is a more personal form of article as it is based off that particular writer/player's opinion while playing the game. You would normally associate this type article written as though reading from a story book.

 

 

Example Journals:

 

NGJ http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/game_culture/2005/03/ten_unmissable_examples_of_new_games_journalism.html

From this page I read Possessing Barbie which is about age notifications for players in an avatar based MUD.


OGJ
http://uk.ign.com/games/world-of-warcraft/pc-16985

This article is a summary of the game World of Warcraft.


Conclusion:

After reading the two above articles, you will see the difference straight away. However, which type of journal article is superior?

My answer is that neither is superior, they both have good points and bad points as follows:

A NGJ is much easier to read, you can be absorbed into reading the article with great interest much like reading a story book, it can set a clear picture in your head of the scenario that the player is in. The downside is that these articles can miss out on key game information. If you are looking to buy a game but want information on it before buying then this type of article could prove less informative as it is based on a single persons playing experience. What could make one person interested could cause another person to be bored.

An OGJ will provide you with key game information if you are looking for facts about a game before purchasing. However, to make it to the end of the article may prove difficult as they can be long and tedious . Again this type of article is based on the writer/players opinion, but this time it is opinions of game rather than the personal experience while playing.

I believe to create a great computer game journal, you would need to merge ideas from both NGJ and OGJ. You could have a pro's and con's list at the start of an article with bullet pointed information  (could include fact and opinion), it could then lead on to give you an idea of the game from the writers personal point of view while playing the game. This could include the writer/players feelings felt and experiences gained while playing.

Gender & Games

 

Gender and Games

 

Triple-A Games:

 

(http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/171567/the_designers_notebook_triplea_.php?page=1)

 

In an article on Gamasutra, there was a discussion about triple-A games for women. Ernest Adams says that while women may play small or free games, not many women will not pay out for triple-A console games for themselves.

 

He then goes on to question Brandii Grace about her founding a company to make triple-A games for women. From this interview, I have pulled the following key pieces of information:

• Current triple-A games on the market are custom maid to suit men more than women. The themes and executions of these games don't support the needs or attitudes of female audiences, (Difference between Twilight and Underworld in films).
 
• A successful big title game that did attract a lot of female players was 'The Sims' due to interpersonal conflicts between AI characters in the game. These types of mechanics would include deception and alliance manipulation.
 
• Men obtain fun from overcoming challenges within games, however in many cases women can be deterred by challenges as they are so averse to the risk of failure. Only 10% of women play for the challenge.
 
• Comparisons are made between games released on the Nintendo Wii & Xbox Kinect and core games released on the same consoles. This indicates that women head more towards the family friendly and socially interactive games and consoles, however the example given in the interview for the Xbox Kinect game 'Kinect Adventures' lead to a biased result statistic as the game is included for free when the Kinect is bought.
 
• Allowance for local multiplayer games where players can join and drop out as and when they please. Not currently many games on the market that permit this.
 
• Advertising and distribution to be related to the product / game theme. The examples given are to advertise women's games in women's magazines or cooking games in cooking magazines, and to distribute games including PoS (point of sale) in related areas such as cooking games being sold next to recipe books etc.

 

 

 
 
 

Story in Games

Story in Games

 

For today's lecture we covered 'The Nature of Stories' written by Chris Crawford (2005) On Interactive Storytelling.

 

Story Structure:

 

All stories required strict structural requirements to be classified as a story. The example given by Chris Crawford is the children's nursery rhyme 'Itsy Bitsy Spider', this four line rhyme contains a clear simple story. It has a protagonist (spider), conflict (rain), struggle (being washed out), resolution (crawled back up) and even a moral (the value of perseverance).

 

The key areas that are usually used to structure a story are as follows:

• People (characters) - All stories are based around a character. What a story needs to do is focus on the role of those people within the story and less upon items/objects/things. Stories such as Lord of the Rings and The Legend of King Arthur could be argued with this point as they contain key objects which seem to be central to the story, however they do not actually play the main piece of the story. In LotR the story is based on Frodo's struggle during the adventure, if the ring was replaced with a magic sock, the story would not have changed by much whereas if Frodo was swapped out for Han Solo then the story would change considerably.

• Conflict - Conflict always seems to play a part in stories in two different forms. Direct conflict which is the most common of the two as it is the easiest to implement in film and games, examples of this would include fights, wars, races etc. The other form would be indirect conflict, which is more commonly found in books as it is easier to portray with written words, examples of this would be more social or symbolic such as a characters personal dilemma or an argument/debate between people.

• Puzzles - Puzzles can play certain parts in stories and would even be a large part of story in a mystery story. However the puzzles used in stories are actually primarily about the people/characters. Puzzles are not a necessity to form a story.
 
• Choices - Choices are ultimately the decisions that people/characters make within the story. Important points in stories are usually revealed by key choices made by the protagonist.

• Spectacle - Spectacle is most commonly found in film and computer games as it is a visual form of 'pleasure from novelty' by providing exotic imagery as a form of entertainment. Films and games are continually striving to provide better graphics and spectacle for the audience. However, due to the increased amount of spectacle used within film and games, it tends to sacrifice story. A lot of younger audiences would associate spectacle with story, but spectacle is another element that is not a necessity for story.

 

 

Visual Thinking:

 

Observers have noted that in the modern day the use of imagery is rising and the use of written words is declining. This can be shown through amount of effort put into increasing the quality of images and CG (computer graphics) along with the amount of money consumed in doing so for research and development. Plus the size of images as data can be equated to megabytes whereas text would be kilobytes.

 

When you read a book, your understanding of the story is formed as an image in your head, however, it is written word that puts the image there. So without a book, if you think of the life of an item, the image provided in your head is from what you have read or seen previously - the more detailed the reading, the more vivid the image.

 

Spatial Thinking:

 

My understanding of spatial thinking is how the brain uses your imagination to fill in blanks within reasoning and stories. An example I would use is to describe a character/person in England in one chapter of a story and the next chapter they are in Spain. Different people would imagine different scenarios and images in their heads for how the character got from England to Spain, such as via multiple forms of transport or by flying there like superman. This spatial thinking is your brain making logic and order of things within a story and is only limited to your individual imagination.

 

Temporal Discontinuity:

 

Stories can be broken up into sections using stages or chapters etc. However, they can also play and make use of time - breaking up, jumping backwards and forwards, and skipping time altogether. Time in stories created drama as it treated completely different to normal physical time. Examples of this would be flashbacks, skipping years with "many years later..." and simultaneity shown via "meanwhile, back at.....". Storytelling using time, can be easily used by both visual and written forms of entertainment.

Remediation

Remediation: Games

 

In today's lecture we stared looking at remediation, looking at the definition and also the way it is used in today's society and finally looking at remediation in films and games.

Matteo Bittani, (2003), The Technoludic Cinema: Images of Video Games in Movies (1973-2001).
Jay Bolter & Richard Grusin (2000), Remediation: Understanding New Media, MIT Press.

 

To sum up the definition of remediation, it is to use one form of media for another purpose and that remediation is the defining characteristic created from that new purpose.

 

 

Forms of Remediation:

 

Immediacy - The aim to make a viewer be wholly drawn into the experience making them forget seeing or watching. Examples could be immersive virtual reality or photo realistic images.

 

Hypermediacy - Items/media that purposely calls attention to their own constructed nature all the time. Examples of this could be video game HUD's and the WWW.

 

 

Examples would include:

• Photo realistic paintings similar to photography.
• Forms of the WWW are commonly used on TV and TV advertising used on the Internet.
• 3D imaging on flat surfaces is now used on TV's and computer consoles but originated from a painting in 1430.
• Wide screens used in technology were originally used in landscape paintings.

Why Remediation is Used:

 

There are multiple reasons. It can take a long time for a new medium to develop new forms of content.

 

Another reason would be to improve upon an existing media, an example of which could again be computer games. They stared out as 2D pixels on a screen but have since become 3D and more photo realistic. Companies are still taking computer games further and further until the point in which a new form of media is created in which video games can be played.

 

If a form of media is successful it is more likely to be remediated, computer games had the intention to become 3D from the start. Also variety TV programmes took the successful idea from radio which in turn had originally started out from music halls.

 

 

Technoludic Films:

 

Technoludic films are a combination of Technology and Ludus (Latin for Play).

 

Technoludic Film as Commentary - Video games are subordinated to the film. Example movies would be 'The Lawnmower Man' (1991), 'Existenz' (1999), 'The Matrix Triology' (1999ff).

 

Technoludic Film as Quotation - Games appear in the film for illustrative purposes. They are not central to the theme of the film but form part of the fictional world the film is trying to create. Example movies would be 'Blade Runner' (1982), 'Clockers' (1997), 'Inception' (2010).

 

Technoludic Films as Remediation (1) Adaption - Films using a direct adaption of games as a source of text for the film. Example movies would be 'Super Mario Brothers' (1993), 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' (2001), 'Dead or Alive' (2006).

 

Technoludic Films as Remediation (2) Incorporation - Films that incorporate the narratives and/or style traditionally found within computer games. Example movies would be 'Groundhog Day' (1993), 'Toy Story' (1995), 'Run Lola Run' (1998).