Retro games (Attempt 2)

Before halo reach gave access to multi combat, Before wars were fought on call of duty and even before the Nintendo 64 roamed the earth. A genre of games existed, A world of video-games where players would see the game mechanics for what they were and great games were created with graphics equivalent to paint splats because people were not "eye candy" obsessed like they are today.

A prime example of a retro game that works in this concept is Namco and Midway's brain child, "Pac-man". In pac-man the player controls a yellow sphere which when moved turns into a repeatedly opening and shutting mouth with a seemingly endless appetite for stale marshmallows who has in some way offended 4 disembodied spirits who now follow him around endlessly.


The main objective of Pac-man is to move around the maze endlessly eating the items and gathering points whilst avoiding the four ghosts. The points are worked out as shown below, For each small marshmallow eaten the player is rewarded 10 points, The larger marshmallows award 50 points and gives Pac-man a small invincibility, speed boost and the ability to eat ghosts for bonus points. It is the players choice when to play these items in order to give them a better advantage.

The enemies located in the game have been given nicknames throughout the series, The most common are Blinky, Pinky, Inky and a seeming outcast, Clyde. The ghosts chase, patrol and charge after pac-man in the maze and create a sense of challenge to the game in order to keep the player thinking.The ghosts also give off a sense of intelligence, For example the cyan ghost (Inky) has a habit of breaking off from the pack to seemingly head pac-man off across the map when inside all the ghost is doing is alternating paths depending on which buttons the player presses.


"A game is a system in which players engage in artificial conflict defined by rules, That results in a quantifiable outcome." (K. Salen and E. Zimmerman, 2004) This statement when applied to pac-man loosely translates to the points outcome or lives used at the end of the round. The outcomes can be determined to how the player reacts to the choices given to them in the game, For example. When the player gets the giant pellet which allows them to eat ghosts and move faster, Do they use the speed boost and temporary invincibility to devour more points? Or do they chase after the ghosts and receive bonus points at the cost of a few small pellets. As does the fruit spawn, Do bonus points sound more alluring? Or is the bonus a distraction to get the ghosts closer.
Within each game the choices made will alter the outcome in the best way suited to the player. For example the overall points score may be lower when compared to the games where collecting bonus fruit  could have given them a better score at the cost of a few extra credits.

Pac-man is also one of the base crossovers of Paideau and Ludus, A game that has basic rules that can be interpreted by the player differently than originally intended, When one player decides that the ghosts are chasing them another may decide that they simply got lucky and on a patrol found where they were hiding, As i mentioned before, The fruit may be an alluring bunch of points but the area they are created in seems to be pretty close to the ghosts initial spawning point.

Paideau as a term means to simply play for pleasure, The player simply picks up at will and leaves for whatever reason to continue with other activities whereas Ludus is the opposite. The outcome is clear and the only reason to play is fulfillment related to the outcome, Ludus is also strained by rules that enforce the player to the games path which also gives the player a set moment to join or leave. This may include being penalised for dropping out or the inability to join a team before the end of the round to keep the game balanced. Rules do however exist in Paideau games, For example when a child colors in a drawing they know that they can very well draw all over the picture with colors yet they feel a sense of achievement if they keep within the lines, This is a sense of Paideau that takes place in common life. Pac-man's Paideau element is the main map of the level, The player can essentially go any way possible to achieve their goal but will still have to make choices referring to the walls and ghosts chasing after Pac-man.


An easy way to explain how Pac-man works as a game is to look at a tank of snakes or a fish tank with carnivorous fish in. Pac-man is represented as a food item, For this example we will use a mouse. The mouse is dropped into a tank of 4 snakes, The snakes are faster and know the tank better than the mouse but will conflict about the eating of said mouse. The mouse can use this unfortunate property as a tool for its prolonged stay in life. The smaller mouse can hide behind and duck under objects that the snakes are to big or unable to get to. However, When the mouse enters a tunnel of some sorts (cardboard for example) and 2 different snakes have been pursuing it then the mouse will be trapped and it will be game over. This is the same in Pac-man when the player is in the heat of gaming and with their pulse racing they make a wrong turn and land themselves in the middle of 2 oncoming ghosts resulting in a game over.


Throughout concentrating the level layouts and the idea of the game, I define the genre as a action based maze game that creates elements of "fun" with challenging options and multiple objectives that differ for each player. The action setting comes from the players constant look for survival and empty paths whereas the maze is simply derived from the walls that create a seeming maze when in retrospect the paths are virtually free.


The game does however have one serious problem. Arcade games created in this era mostly have no end, The player simply plays until they've deposited their bank balance into the machine or the game ceases to become enjoyable. Pac-man is shown to this element as the levels differ mildly from the previous and the ghosts differ barely from their previous natures in that they occasionally will react wildly and speed up or out of the blue pull an unknown act and seemingly run away from the player only to quickly change their mind thus trapping gullible players in corners or otherwise hinder their progress. This idea however is also Pac-mans downfall, When the player reaches the 255th level the game tries to alter the amount of fruit or other bonus items that appear past the cabinets limit. When the level is progressed a "ticker" (like the kind used in nightclubs) ticks to the desired amount of fruit necessary to the level. The ticker attempts to add 1 to the previous number but rolls over to the blank setting which creates a similar effect to the predicted events of the Millennium Bug creating a wall of text, objects and numerous cabinet based symbols to swamp half of the screen rendering the level unplayable and impossible to complete. This is infamously known as the "256 Kill Screen" and known to many veteran players as Pac-mans final level. The player can still collect the other pellets located on the working side but will inevitably end the game in rage or through choice.


On evaluation, Pac-man is a classic example of simplicity is the best key, It sticks to the principles of creating a game that anyone can play but leaving room for mastery whilst still maintaining a professional level of competitiveness between players old and new. My personal favorite aspect of Pac-man is the fact that no 2 players will take the same route, This is incredibly necessary towards the creation of a enjoyable game in my opinion because it creates a game that no matter how much it has been played you will always discover a new way. This is lackluster in modern games like Halo where players will often find preferred routes to take that miss out marksmen and heavily armed troops to save time and effort when replayed on harder difficulties. Pac-man evades this repetition with the way that the ghosts give chase. The player can take the same route each time but the ghosts will never follow a straight path towards the player. For this reason I would pick a quick game of Pac-man on an old cabinet instead of a glorified HD shooting game that gives the player feelings of fear and adrenaline whilst in a safe environment, I feel that Pac-man where lackluster in aesthetics still gives the same rush as modern games whilst retaining its vintage feel and its simple nature and objectives.

DND - Rise of the necromancer, Fall of the party.

When life gets you down, Make lemonade. When life gives you lemons...you kill someone. Wait what? Oh yeah my blog, *coughs*

On a dark and dreary night...somewhere in Ipswich. A bored student arose from his rest.....Then he got the dungeons and dragons box out and texted for his party to come try another roleplay.

The scene was set, Our brave heroes (minus tom and kelly and replaced with adam) ventured into an arcane tower where reputation had it that a powerful necromancer lived. The only objective set was to kill the necromancer and get out alive, Easy enough? HA wait and see....

The game started with many rooms guarded by the odd skeleton and zombie with the occasional spider and dire wolf kicking around. Easy setting for 3 brave heroes, As soon as the portal had closed the dwarf ventured into the gloomy corridor to find treasure. The elf pursued a quest of knowledge and once again the human bumbled behind in look for his quest. Mistake made, The dwarf stood on an arcane symbol summoning a demon to the realm, The demon offered the short being a modest choice. Give half of his health in exchange for his party hitting twice as hard in combat, Or take half of anothers health in exchange for twice the power of his weapon. The dwarf grew weary and attempted to slice the demons hand, as the demon retreated into the portal he muttered, For each undead risen you shall have another accompany it! The dwarf shrugged and pursued his party. The wizard sprung a trap and was ambushed by a giant spider, with poison cursing through his veins the human pulled him to an altar and helped him to heal. They stood by eachother casting curses and shooting the oncoming horde back to back.

The dwarf had a plan and ordered the wizard and human to follow him, they wittled down the bare outskirts of the horde of undead with bullet and spell, and the occasional axe to the head before they retreated into a puzzle room in a hope to obtain better equipment. The wizard at first proved to be unlucky as his mind was ravaged by a demon and forgot one of his most useful spells. In return for his misfortune the demon offered a truce, Give half of your health in exchange for a staff so powerful its imbued with blood itself or take the staff but let one of the demons spawn into the dungeon to reek havoc. The wizard in a noble deed allowed the demon to remove his blood. The new staff was formed and the wizard banished the demon once and for all, The dwarf looked upon the ashes to see a golden scroll embodied with the head of a dragon to seal. It felt warm and without warning burst into flames. He looked to his axe to see the same dragons head now sat neatly above it, Illuminating the axe in a blazing burnished fury. Once again they charged forward, The wizard used all his might and set fire to a large section of the cave, destroying most of the undead in seconds, The human picked off stragglers with his rifle before the dwarf ran into the fray and began slashing and spinning through the undead. The necromancer spun his staff and the horde that had previously perished stood to their feet and began to pile into the dwarf. The human and wizard began to fire again, The struggle was in vain, For each undead that fell they were replaced in double, the dwarf cursed the demon. The horde kept coming with the dwarf moving barely a square every 2 turns.

The human had a plan, the undead had not moved from the room for the love of fresh meat. He quickly began to run to the opposite chamber in order to shoot the necromancer. The wizard galiantly began to hold the horde off himself whilst the dwarf raked through the undead. The necromancer sensed the human as he ran past into a good vantage point. He sent a few zombies after him and a few more to surround him, it was in vain. The dwarf had managed to get close to him and caused a savage 20 points of damage reducing the necromancer to a near undead state. They struck blows against eachother when the human took aim and with a smooth click, Landed a killing blow on the necromancer. The wizard watched in amazement as his pursuers fell into dust. The battle was won.

Bibliography how are you necessary?

Using what I was taught last week, I attempted to use Zotero (a source program) to write a basic bibliography to help with notes and quotes. After firefox disagreeing with my customised operating system, and nuking it at least 20 times we decided that it was best off doing it the old fashioned way.


Through using bibliographies, students can take notes on specific pages, areas and paragraphs with ease. The traditional method of writing something down to remember it has now become a computerised masterpiece as examiners alike have now been able to see where the students have taken notes and quotes from without trekking through the books for specific parts. A few examples and descriptions are explained below.


Paper based research


Books - When citing from a book it should be explained as follows.
1. The surname of the Author/Editor.
2. The Initial of said creator.
3. The year in which it was published.
4. The full title of the book. (Underlined or in italics to show its the title)
5. Finally, The publisher and city of where it was published.


Magazine or journal entry
1. The surname of whoever created the entry.
2. The initial of said creator.
3. Any other authors necessary to the publication.
4. The year of publication.
5. The full title of said article.
6. The season of printing necessary to the articles release date.


Contribution to a book
1 - 4 the same as ever
5 - The In editors surname
6 - In editors initial
7 - Full title of containing work. (Italics)
8 - City of publication.
9 - Publisher.
10 - The scan of the extract.


Video related material


TV Programmes
1. Episode title
2. Name of the series
3. Year
4. Channel
5. Date


Alternatively if the episode is online, A citation could be made the same way with a link and the 00:00 of where it is.


Now comes the tricky part, I'll be adding up to 6 references into the next part from mixed media.


Books
Busby J, 2010, Mastering unreal technology: Volume II: Advanced level design concepts with unreal engine 3, Sams Publishing, Indianapolis.
Van der Spuy R, 2009, Foundation games design with Flash, Friends of ED, Berkeley.


Article
Dickey M, 2007, Game design and learning: a conjectural analysis of how massively multiple online role-playing games (MMORPGs) foster intrinsic motivation, Educational technology research and development, Volume 55, Issue 3, Page 253-273.
Gros B, 2007, Digital Games in Education: The Design of Games-Based Learning Environments, Journal of research on technology in education, Volume 40, Issue 1, Page 23 - 38.

Contribution

Caillois R, 1962, The Definition of Play: The Classification of games, Salen, K, The game design reader: A rules of play anthology, Cambridge, MIT Press, pp 122-155.

Folmer E, 2007, Component based games development - A solution to escalating costs and expanding deadlines, G, Schmidt, H, Component-based software engineering: 10th international symposium, Medford, MA, page 66 - 73.

So there you have it, A bibliography that doubles as a trophy of my remaining sanity.

Till next time,

Jack

Silent hill? Start taking notes. Your so out of depth its unreal.......

Ok so its not about bibliographies or retro games, Sorry.


Well, In a group viewing of triangle and mixed drinks we came across the possibility of a film that was so twisted that we had spent longer working out the film than where we had seen the actors from before or what was going on at the present storyline of the film. The films name is triangle, Basically silent hill without the zombies, mutants, nurses and psychotic mind warping effects (Though some could answer that the story line alone was enough to do that)


In the film a woman goes through numerous repeated trips around an abandoned boat that involve her saving or running from a unknown gun toting maniac. Eventually she repeats the storyline until she becomes said maniac herself and washes up ashore and returns to her house to (what she thinks) continue her life with her son. When she returns it goes back to a psychotic nature as she sees herself beating her son and berating him. She proceeds to set a trap for herself by killing the irate version of herself in the past causing a semi paradox where she has killed herself in front of her son who she then cuddles and assures him it will be ok. She takes the body to dump and makes an escape with her son for a unknown territory, A distraction causes a upset which shows that the storyline had already been played before and many times and that the audience knows she is still in the middle of it all before she traps herself into the triangle again. She eventually goes to the start of the movies location in order to save her child from a death caused by her and leads the audience into creating their own interpretation of the true nature of the film.


You may read this and think, Wow hes butchered it thank gosh he hasnt entered a film critic competition, Believe me. Ive simplified it if anything.


The film can be interpreted in many ways but the one that we evaluated upon (For an entire hour after the film in anguish) was that her lifestyle of abuse towards her child and her poor parent status in his life caused her to be cast to hell where she had to relive the moments of insanity in her life as though she was alive in a third universe of some sort where she could go back and stop it, Each time learning more than she had learnt before about the previous line using the knowledge she had acquired from the time before that. This is comparable to the Sixth Sense where the dead do not realise they are in fact dead, They continue what they wished to do in life but to whatever reason could not continue to do because of issues relating to their death.


Now onto a relevant subject, How could these interpretations be broken down into game creation terms? Well imagine it as the film takes place in a fish tank. The walls are the rules, They determine that whatever the character does in the tank will be confined to that space and will not interfere with the outside section of the tank. The dynamics could be interpreted in the way the characters motives and mind works that constantly restarts and disrupts the objective of the player with a multi path circle that resolves in the character coming to the start with the same knowledge as moments ago but with no memory of how to stop the issues. At the same time the aesthetics could be applied to this as they control the elements of interactivity and the surreal nature that seems to keep the character tricked into their false sense of objective and to gage their interaction with an intent to trick with malice.


The artificial storyline that plays for the audience's amusement can be interpreted by playing the game Left 4 Dead by Valve. In the game players must work together to fight through hordes of zombies whilst saving comrades from the attacks of mutated zombies known as special infected with different specialised abilities. The real beauty comes from the AI Director that controls the undead and that is where the game comparison comes in, The director evaluates the players progress and determines stress levels using a complicated system of statistics to do with on screen actions. For example if an aggressive player battles through the game with a shotgun and dual pistols with ease, The AI will remove the shotgun option from the next weapon point as an attempt to handicap the player into a fair game or as an act of malice on its behalf. The same could be said for players struggling where the game seemingly applies a pity program of dropping health and ammo at the next checkpoint. In reality its simply making the game more playable and not a product for breaking controllers or televisions in game related stress fits. The director will normally go back on its kindness shortly after when it spawns many more zombies in an effort to get the players to waste ammunition and supplies.


So the director could have well taken notes from the film? After all the final storyline in the film seemingly gives her what she wants until it cruelly shows that after all she is stuck. This is a similar effect to the MDA vs ADM aspects of games where 2 players who call themselves avid game fans will view the actual products in separate ways. For example, Player A who enjoys playing games for the luscious and avid colours used to portray the video and game aspects will view it as ADM. Only taking notes on how it is made after they have determined whether the graphics are up to their personal standards and if it is worth their time on that basis. Player B will do the opposite and see a well designed game for the masterpiece it is and will often deter from eye candy pieces that have a short lifespan because the production went all on animation, graphics and colours. The film shows how people will see products and break it down by being so confusing and disorientating.


Player A views of film.
What is the significance of the mask?
What is the significance of how bleak the boat is?
Why does the food turn rotten minutes after one crew member takes an apple?
Why doesn't she explain it to them instead of killing?


Player B views of film.
What is the purpose of hiding her identity of someone who knows her identity well?
By confining the film to a boat, Is the director creating a sense of helplessness by sealing them on the boat without escape until the next restart?
By attempting to stop the events, Does she accidentally create the same event but differently as shown in final destination? Or do her actions create a infinite amount of possibilities?


The back stab nature of the film to the woman trapped inside it is subject to parody by Player A and B. For example A will find the graphics side of games creation enthralling but may feel cheated that the concepts or level designs were simply taken from photos from a mobile phone that happened to be on view in the photographers journey. Player B will find that the level designing tools or scripting tools may be easy to use but to get the full result they will have to do more training than necessary to understand them to a level that will get them into that profession. By creating these paradoxes into game creation a truly amazing game could be accomplished by simply asking the question, "What if the player can get out of the level?" Will they be treated or punished? Could a easter egg placed specifically behind a wall be better for social interaction? Or could a death screen placed behind it in case of glitches be more effective in the deter of abuse?


The film could in fact be described as a game itself of sorts. The main character is played by the viewer in order to enthral and envelope them into the storyline where they are told to kill whoever is on board. The characters react with such hostility that it turns essentially into a custom level of unreal based upon a ship, The spawn points could be linked to the player constantly winning a game of last person standing where upon victory the rest of the players again spawn on the boat and the level plays again with one player knowing all the tricks that they had previously learnt, This explains the way the woman in the film reacts after realising she must kill everyone to escape and stop them going to the ship in the first place. A paradox is born but a storyline that wraps the player into a cocoon of concentration and interaction is made which grows into self interaction until a better understanding is achieved and the film is made enjoyable.


I highly recommend watching the film for the full effect as I feel once you have viewed it you can understand the terms used to describe the film's likeness to a videogame.


Fuzz <3

Sam-e The robot that only learns.

Some basic designs and ideas of what the robot could look like and how it could be implemented into the game.

 A basic plan of how the robot could be made using a level by level, Possibly a tutorial?

A few sketches of the professor. 

 Some basic concepts of sam-e. The top left reminded me of bomberman, The bottom left reminded me of the robot from lost in space. The one next to that reminded me of the daft punk member. The Right one was a cross between a grundo from neopets and robot CHO from rakuga kids. The top centre one was the base fro sam-e because it had a home made feel with the rivets.

 I took the design and made it as rustic and basement made as possible. I added rivets everywhere and toyed with the idea of futuristic legs. I also added various facial positions and expressions that could be used to designate a players progress.

 I drew a basic outline of what sam-e could look like in full, I then scanned it in and painted with highlights and shadows. The overall effect once again gave a home made rustic feel.

I also added a spray painted S onto the chest with white bolts or lights across it.

Thats all for now, Hope to update again soon.

Dungeons and Dragons....Many years later still as good.

So once again on an inspiration walk, I came across a treasured child hood dream that was always out of my grasp when interest came to me. Yes i'm talking about the glorious RPG known as Dungeons and Dragons, Immediately I bought the first box I found, The same box that so many years ago I could not afford or or actively find. Needless to say I smiled.


So once I got the grasp of the game rules and mechanics and added a few simplifiers to get the ball rolling and after almost an hour long character creation session for four characters we started our game. The scene was set a dwarven warrior played by Tom Weaver, an elven wizard played by Matt, a halfling wizard played by Tom Patterson and a human warrior played by Kelly had taken a carriage to the local town of Fallcrest to seek out quests and treasure. Barely a moment had passed before the carriage was set upon by vicious goblins seeking its treasures. The driver hit by a arrow drove the carriage into the undergrowth, The goblins set upon the overturned carriage before being blasted to ashes by the 2 mages and shredded by the warriors greataxes. Struck with a sudden fear the horde of goblins scattered and ran to the hills from hence they came. As the questers began to leave the carriage a groan came from the rubble where a injured dwarven driver now lay. In his pain filled breathes he gave them the quest they seeked.


It was simple, All they had to do was go into the cave and steal a small locket back from the goblins. So it began, The agile ran forward to eliminate the guard goblin from alerting the goblins in the cave whilst the dwarf struggled to keep pace. As the noble elf passed the forest he heard and saw a small child whimpering to herself, Her clothes torn to tatters  and shallow cuts on her arms. He slowly paced towards her to help her, That was until he sensed something was up. Casually he drew his staff and as her crimson eyes met his he cast his stone blood spell trapping her in her own body as a shallow tomb. He did not however realise his own body now hardening under his own magic she had channelled his powers into her body and was now using them against her.


Meanwhile the female warrior charged to the guard goblin and began exchanging blows, The goblin however had proved to nimble and swiftly avoided the greataxe, The halfling mage channelled his rage into his spell in order to hypnotise the goblin into running. Alas once again the goblin proved to nimble and moved the warrior into the spells path causing her to flee from combat. The dwarf had enough of this nonsense and charged into the guard killing it instantly. With this burst of bravery the elf managed to utter a counter curse and moved oncemore. With a burst of willpower he froze the demonised child in a block of ice before kicking it out of the forest allowing the halfling mage to deal a deadly blow. The ice cracked and just as the demon fell out of the ice the dwarf once again smashed through the demon causing it to drop an arcane amulet, with his new found treasure he ran to the exit of the cave to move the boulder for his team. The elf ran into the cave with the halfling and the human to conquer the goblins and steal the treasure back. Little did the halfling realise that the cave was also home to a hulking troll. With a casual flick he summoned a spectral Troll to scare the other off. With what little intelligence it had the real troll roared in anguish to scare the other troll off and swung for it causing it to disappear showing the wizard trembling behind a rock. The roar also alerted the goblins causing a great deal of confusion and anger. The human killed and engaged a few goblins whilst the elf snuck behind them and located the treasure chest. As he opened up and reached inside the box did not feel as he imagined, it felt warm almost muddy. A foul stench hit his nose as he realised it was troll dung. The goblins nearby began sniffing the air, The trap had worked they all knew where the treasure was and began charging up the cave. The elf began to run as a goblin grabbed his shoulder and winded him. The human found her attackers attempting to run from her as she valiantly destroyed them.


The halfling meanwhile had taken to a new foe, The troll roared as he charged and smashed his club into his skull. The weakened wizard managed to punch a goblin nearby as he pounced onto him. In a valiant effort he used his might to heal his wounds and killed the nearby goblins with a river of flames which also weakened the troll savagely and reduced his ability to regenerate, In the trolls confusion and weakened state he didn't see the halfling slipping away into the forest. The dwarf used a burst of strength to shift the boulder and ran into the cave stealing the treasure from his companion. The alliances were shown, The dwarf had been a mercenary and was hoping to get the most cash from the dwarven driver. The elf was not pleased, He kicked the goblin off him and hit it square in the chest with a bolt of lightning reducing it to ashes before chasing the dwarf and stealing his treasure back. The treasure dropped to the floor before the dwarf once again took treasure and ran into the river in an effort to get away. The halfling laughed at the pathetic attempts and stiff armed the dwarf as he passed with the treasure. The elf sprinted after the halfling before the dwarf once again took haste, Yet noone saw the human taking a run up before she landed a flat kick across the dwarfs back and attempted to make haste with the treasure, She fell shy of the forest line and as the halfling picked up the treasure and ran out of the forest they took chase to the dwarven driver for their share of the reward.


Basic terms, 4 friends roleplayed as a team until they found out what the treasure was worth, The dwarf paid the halfling the most and with a disgusted look on his face took his chest back once again.


I felt a sense of nostalgia and also comfort in that I finally own a copy of a great RPG and that my childhood wishes and dreams were not put to waste. Shame we didn't have any muffins this time though.


Dungeonmaster Fuzz signing out <3


Next rant coming soon....

Risking it for world domination rant....

"All images have been kindly donated by T. Weaver for the purposes of illustration. You can find all of them here for better reference and to see his side of the story. http://weaveswonderblog.blogspot.com/"

Some say inspiration can strike at the random moments in time when your brain is practically switched off. This is true, Yesterday when I was brainstorming character concepts with a movie and a jumbo bag of pretzls. Tom called me and asked for a 5 pound donation to the boardgame risk so we could see if the hype that Gamesmaster Rob created about it was true, Needless to say it was 100% true.

So the evening came and we each opened a drink, put some muffins in the oven and eagerly read through the rules, Mistake number 1. NEVER briskly read the instructions on risk. So anyway, We continued to decipher the rules of the game and began choosing areas of the world that we wanted to start in. Matt chose the Scandinavians, Tom (Weaver) chose the South Africans, Tom (Patterson) chose the South Americans, Kelly chose the Japanese and I took command of the good old Aussies. We chose our base location (A homebreed rule of ours) and began to set out for global conquest.

 

"The first steps of war"

At first things went smoothly, Scandinavia calmly expanded into its neighbouring Russia allowing Matt to get an extra troop per turn. Japan calmly moved into it's neighbouring areas quickly occupying a large section of Asia and allowing Kelly to expand her troops faster. South Africa began to conquer the entire of Africa with great speed, A move tom would later regret. I spread my forces throughout Australia allowing greater numbers and a bonus of 2 extra troops per turn. The yanks however, began to grow greedy and took over many of their own continents before rushing to Iceland (Leading to a casual remark from Tom about the Iceland volcano) and threatening to dominate Scandinavia fulfilling half of a mission objective. Soon things got bloody, My island grew populated with soldiers and my only exit was blocked by Kelly and her ruthless Japanese. This meant war....after she had taken the muffins out of the oven of course. With our bellies filled with sugary goodness and beer the combat phases began.

As with most boardgames the result of combat is down to dice rolls. In this case you took your attackers (to a max of 3) and the defenders (to a max of 2) and rolled off. The result would be pairing the dice up from the highest downwards and comparing who wins. This could take many turns if you did not win the previous fight and so on.

Australia continued to get stocked up on troops creating a never ending defence line that allowed me to hold my sanity against the ever expanding yanks and break through the line of Japanese Kelly had stocked up in a valiant effort to conquer me early. It even led to a pitiful alliance attempt by the cowardly South Africans, "Pretty big army you have there Jack." Little did he know that I had my jets overhead ready to drop my paratroopers into the heart of his country. I then realised why he had made this alliance attempt, The yanks had conquered his invading forces and had taken over his base thus decreasing Toms troop conscription per turn by 1 allowing for a faster takeover. In his cowardice he moved into Russia and began to defend himself from both the Japanese and the ever defensive Scandinavians who had now been cut off from their remaining troops and remained at their base in a effort to stop toms plans.

"Domination"

Russia was the main target of everyone now, It was next to a base and held a city, It was also the most accessible point which would prove a good troop spawning ground for global domination. The Aussie hoard had dominated through Asia leading to the Japanese retreating to Russia where they proceeded to defend it better than anyone previously had.

I had dropped my troops into Africa splitting Toms defence line up and causing him to retreat to his final plan of Madagascar. The Scandinavians dropped into Asia allowing them to hold the Yanks off. Tom also had a plan of dropping his troops into the heart of my base, Sadly the parachutes with the giant RAF logo on made good practice for my troops and shot them to ribbons before they smelled the salt of the sea. Good show old boys.

The final conquest came when Rambo landed in Madagascar and defended it valiantly until the yanks finally drove the blues out ending the game for Tom. Scandinavia fell also as Matt finally retreated after losing his troops around the globe creating a last stand for Japan in their home base where the Aussies and Yanks had seemingly made an alliance and destroyed them once and for all, The Aussies Left Russia and took over Asia as a final good will project, ending the game once and for all.

"Money well spent"

As basic as Risk seems, there are so many vital parts of it that no-one takes into consideration. For example, As Tom described in his entry of this. The most obvious choices are never the wise ones. Australia was the least enjoyed country when we picked where but it turned out to be a unstoppable line of defence when the game had gone through turns, Africa was central and the most sought after prize but it lead to constant wars so was not the smartest option in the long run.

I enjoyed risk more as a board game mainly because it lasted for so many many hours, 4 hours of monopoly would normally drive anyone insane but the time flew by when we were conquering the world. If it was a video game I think it would become tedious and straining for players and not create such a longevity.

Thanks for reading, Next blog will be about roleplay games once we have them started.

The test level of the pitch that went bad because the network hates exe files

Click to download!

So as many saw today, The network is a cruel item of electronically stimulated torture.


So in order to fulfil my pitch....The game is available for download.

 Introduction screen 1

 Instructions

The base layout 

 The result of hitting a ghost

 The result of the wrong answer

The winning result

Games that i know well explanation rant...Blog...thing

"Paidea - Effectively "play" for pleasure."
"Ludus - Games contrained by rules with a clear outcome"
These are here so I don't have to turn my pages back and forth. They are not for your leisure, I'm lazy like that.

So what games do I play that I think are Paidea styled in nature, Pretty much all of them. A few that I play have story modes where they return to the normal aspect of Ludus but the rest however are pure madness. I play all of the halo games with friends where most of the time we run around rolling vehicles and building maps that would otherwise enrage other players not used to our gaming styles. We play phantasy star universe where the only real objective is to level and level thus creating a sandbox MMORPG that allows customisation of our avatars and further allowing us to become more individual than the game had planned for. We also play endless MMORPG's like runescape for example, where again the only real objective enforced is enjoyment. On runescape a player can spend an entire day killing cows to obtain equipment to train crafting or they could just knuckle down and kick some dragon tail, the choices are endless as is the game.

However, Some games that I play do have an objective to more than fun. Halo and the Left 4 Dead series all have campaign missions where the objectives are displayed on screen enforcing the player to do what the game wants. Though Left 4 Dead's objectives are more opaque compared to Halo as the brief is to get the survivors from A to B whilst killing as much of Z on the way. Dragonage is one of my favourite Ludus games as it gives the impression that it is in fact a Paidea based game. It offers the players plenty of choice and item combinations that the player feels as if the game will not end and that anything can happen at any time. The clever part is that the game is infact completely planned depending on which path the player takes to get to where, A bandit attack will always occur in the passing between Redcliff regardless of whether it is the first or last town the player saves. Selfishly ignoring the crys of the towns people will always occur with the game turning the town into a post apocolyptic nightmare because of the players choices. The game will always end after the last boss is defeated and the player can only kill a certain amount of enemies before they are labelled "maxed out" and the quest is the only option.

These games are all open to the tag of Ludus because they're objectives are made clear and the game will always finish. The player may well enjoy playing through the campaigns again and again but the game itself can't be picked up and put down at will without going through the game again etc. For the same reason though Halo could be described as a Paidea because of the campaign option where the player can customise they're equipment and play seperate levels for fun or for less time constraint.

Some games though (like Halo) can be open to both of the tags, personally I prefer these types of games with dedicated chill and relax or open a Red Bull and game your soul out options because they allow the player to control their level of interactivity with the game itself. Many a hour has been spent sipping energy drinks and promising myself that this was the last level before bed, It still takes a further 2 hours of negotiating to even put a movie on instead of the game let alone turn the cursed console off for the night and this is why the 2 work so well together! A beer and buds will always feel fun but a sugar high and a victory over the games hardest mission will always feel like a great relief to any dedicated gamer.

Once again i'm about to be lazy.
"Agon - Competition"
"Alea - Chance/Randomness"
"Ilinx - Movement"
"Mimicry - Simulation, Make-believe, Role-play"

As well as Paidea and Ludus other aspects create what the games objectives are and how well they interact with players. Agon is  a common factor in game as there is no true way to completely remove it from a game because no matter what score one person has another will try to beat it, and who can blame them? Noone wants to sit around hearing how Timmy and his friend blitzed the opposing team with a nerve shattering draw game, Imagine if every element of competition was taken out of the world. We would all be grey blobs with the same voice same speed same weight all consumed water and bread and shopped at one store. It would be insanity! The prime example of a game where competition is everything would be Halo, Players can frag their friend's, Fight off their reanimated corpse's or go through campaign as a team but there will always be an element of competition because one smart fellow will always make a break for the first kill or for the exit door and this is why the game works so well.

Alea is also an aspect of games that makes for a decent game. When a player kills a dragon after a ten minute long struggle they don't want to get the same amount of gold that they've recieved 4 trips ago, They want DIVERSITY. They want to get the fabled crown of kingship or bags of dosh to splash out on the town in bars with the tavern wenches. Randomness and chance are what make games less tedious and ever changing. Runescape drops are a common sign of this where Jagex add new items into the game to constantly get players to explore less favourited areas of the game.

Movement within gaming is a popular aspect that games induce into players. For example at a football game and your team scores, Do you sit there and smile? No! You jump up and hug the nearest person, You scream your favourite chant and recieve a migraine the next day from the deafening screams your father belts out in cheers. Its this element that gives the player the experience they want from a game with friends. A example of this is also on Halo where the player uses the energy sword, Many a time have I nearly headbutted someone when ive lunged with the sword and moved forward in such determination to kill the other players avatar with the sword, Its an unconcious feeling that moving the controller vigorously will help the player in the game.

Outside of video games (RPG Board games etc.) creating an image is important. This is where the simulation aspect has to come in and its also where the pressure of the game master comes in. When players sign up for a role play and end up sitting in a library with a bad story teller who doesnt know his orcs from his orks (Oh yes been there before) the game breaks down and the player enjoyment dies. A good roleplayer knows that the storyline and even the story teller is everything. An example is the story books provided for this reason by Dungeons and Dragons where they provide numerous elements of game play for any player.

Fuzz <3

My rant on why PVP is necessary to a good multi user game

Well its 1am and to take my mind off of sobering thoughts that would make for a depressing roleplay i've decided to rant about a hot topic of mine. Player killing.


Now I want you to all think back to a simple game made from simple RGB colours and all programmed in the magical platform of java. Yes i'm talking about Runescape Classic. The original UK made MMORPG that started from a anthill and grew to a mountain. When it came to fame many players had progressed into the game so well that they became "Famous" or well known. Not a hard achievement seeing as the game itself had little more than 10 servers at the time and fewer staff than each worlds log in capacity but yet some brave souls battled skeletons, goblins and even the fierce (well once were) Black Knights to rise to the ranks of fame and achieve rank 99 on a skill and claim the first tile on the highscore table. But for some, there were different ways of achieving cult status. I'm talking about player versus player interaction where one attempts to knock the others health down to 0. Many of you will sit there and think that the games age and simple combat system would make for a easy kill on whoever had better stats, But no. Runescape is a prime example of player killing as a skill in real time rather than a simple task of clicking and hoping. Players would often don monk robes for the hefty prayer bonus and use the games unique retreat system to get an easy kill and most players would often put alot of theme and ideas into the inclusion of player killing on their account. My favourite example is the pure option, A player trains there combat like normal but does not train defence. This way the players combat level (A summarised level of the combat skills combined) will be lower than someone with the same stats as well as defence. This allows the player to roam the arena in search of foes at their level and hitting harder than they can. It was just this theme idea that got me into the memory of an old roleplay game I had once where we each played a specific role, The archer would use his skill and speed to draw the dragon away from a chest where the mage would teleport in and steal from it before the mighty warrior would strike the killing blow into the great beast. No matter how well we worked there would always be weapons drawn to split the loot and that's why we kept playing! No matter how many times the warrior was restrained to the wall by unseen chains or the mage would be delivered a crippling blow as the archer lie unconcious under a table, We always came back for a new round because it was just that sense of competition which made the long journey worthwhile. We always got our TRUE share of loot because we earned it.


But i'm not here to advertise the marvellous and addictive world of Runescape no, i'm here to talk about why I think that a player killing scenario is necessary to a good game. In the world of gaming, competitions exist to give the players a sense of achievement and struggle. Noone wants to loot a dragon and everyone gets given the same amount of gold. Thats for children's games where tea is served in polished cups and the economy isnt constantly screwing you over, No this is a true game of skill and after all, Times are tough! Have you ever tried to buy a new horse because your armour weighs so much you cripple your old ones, Its like being a dentist and trying to afford a Bugatti! This is where PVP situations do their deed.


PVP allows players to show that they are the greatest warrior, Sort arguments or just to have a good old fight. The possibilities for using such a situation are endless to the extent that players may end up holding tournaments just to decide who picks the next reason for a PVP match. It creates such a level of involvement that many a war within a clan has taken effect to the stage of splitting it asunder and causing a war within the clan because of one victory over another.


Well, Heres the fun part. Suggest a new rant for me below ^_^ I'll try get back to the comments left.


Fuzz <3

Key stage 1 games......Interesting.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/numeracy/shapes/index.shtml

Well, What can I say its been a while since I played a key stage 1 game.

The game in question is a shape based identification game that requires the player to identify shapes as asked to advance a level. After 5 levels the player is treated to a small scene where we see the creation of a robot (cute isnt it?) and a thumbs up is given to the player. The game comes in 3 levels of difficulty ranging from medium to very hard, No prize for guessing which difficulty im stuck on.

Player interactivity is simple yet effective. It lets the player pick from 3 shapes a turn and even the wrong answer has a small cutscene. The game however returns to its previous state so until you get bored and click the [x] button or get the right answer it stays on the same level.

The main aim of the game is to endure the mind numbing sound effects and warnings from the players character till the end to see the professors creation from the shapes. The goal was also simple and clear so it required little instructions to play. The structure could be tied into this, Mainly because the objective is repeatedly enforced upon the player with every move.

The endogenous meaning of the game is little more than a sense of victory and the new knowledge handed to the player. The game could be improved by adding a minigame at the end to do with the robot being created by the professor or alternatively a poster or background that the player can download as a reward to show that they have revised.

The game has elements of struggle because of the difficulty settings provided and also the nature of the game itself challenges the player. One thing that could be activated as a unlock feature would be to play through medium to unlock the hard difficulty then once played on the hard difficulty the player can play the extra hard. This stops people going for very hard first and playing medium last.

Overall I felt the game was suitable for the age group though I think the animation for getting it wrong could lead to repeated wrong answers in children because of its comedic nature when compared to the right answer's animation. The reward of seeing what the professor was making could also be changed by doing a minigame of controlling the creation around a mario style platform level.

Introduction...About meeee

1. What is the title of the book (fiction) you are currently reading (or the last fiction book you read)?
 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The final part to the seemingly never ending barrage of side plots and stories where a young wizard is constantly plagued with peril and danger. Overall I found the book interesting as it kept me wanting to read more but it still felt like a let down towards the end because it seemed to stop so suddenly with a rather anti climax of a ending.


2. What is the title/topic of the book (non-fiction) you are currently reading (or the last non-fiction book you read)?
Ah, Well the last fiction based book that I read was the True Stories of Piracy. The book was both factual and entertaining and even documented a story about a ship of peaceful Quakers who managed to stop pirates from attacking their ship by subduing them into a false sense of peace.


3. What is the last live performance (Music, Drama or Dance) you attended?
Battle of the Bands. It was at a local metal pub where I used to live and they were all local boys. The music was all their own stuff as well and the entire gig was a sight to behold.


4. What is the title of the last film you saw at the cinema/online or watched on dvd?
This is a easy one. My favourite film of all time, The Big Lebowski. A film about a simple man known as the dude who gets dragged into a conflict of none of his business.


5. How often do you read a newspaper? (Which one?)
I rarely read newspapers. About once a fortnight if i'm lucky and even then its usually the sun.


6. Which art gallery/museum/exhibition did you last visit?
Arts based, It would be the Tate in London. A general exhibition though, Would be Runefest. I enjoyed both thoroughly as they showed sides of artists and games developers that were previously unseen.


7. how many hours a week do you spend playing video games?
About 4 hours a day so around 30/32 a week including weekends. I often kill time by playing games in an act of stress relief.


8. How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?
Usually under ten. Its rare that I will play games like this though I do role play from time to time thanks to the invention of the internet.


Thanks for reading.