The Games Industry

Today in Writing Games Analysis we had 2 guest speakers during our tutorial and lecture slots.

Gary was our first speaker who runs a game/toy shop in Limerick city. I've actually been in there before and it's quite a cool place! :)
He spoke to us about the Gaming Industry and how broad it is. He pointed out that there are many oppertunities out there which aren't just in mainstream games development; how there are many jobs out there in support, others which would appeal to your artistic side, modelling characters, objects and worlds for both movies and games. Marketing was another one mentioned. Before today I hadn't really thought of anything beyond just mainstream games development, It was nice to have my horizon broadened a tad! :)
Personally I'm unsure about what exactly I'd like to get into when I leave college, but I'm going to give myself a year of work and travelling to figure that out! :)

Our second speaker of the day was just about to start a PHD on games and learning which caught my interest!
One of his points was that he could forsee the death of the console and the further rise of online gaming soon. I'm not sure if I would agree or make the same judgement as I see consoles as part of almost every family household these days, and I can't see that changing for quite some time. I think consoles will continue to become more powerful with even more unimaginable capibilities and take up some space in our houses for quite some time. It was interesting to think that more and more things can be stored online now and I agree that this will probably lead to a huge leap in online gaming...but I don't think that this will lead to consoles dying out altogether in the near future.

I do think that there are a lot of "clone games" out there. What I mean by that is that there are so many games which are extremely similar to others which haven't added anything new to the genre, or type of game....

I'll come back to this...I'm being kicked out of the CSIS labs...

Presentations and Communities...

Phew. 

So I somehow managed to get through 2 presentations this week! The first was a presentation on the "State Of The Art" of the board game Hex for our AI and Machine learning module and the second was the dreaded FYP presentation. Dun Dun Duuuuunnn. 

Now anyone who was talking to me before both of them will know that I was a little bit of a nervous wreck. (And even if you weren't and only saw me I'm sure you would have seen my white as a ghost face!)

Both presentations, however, went just fine, and were all over before I even realised. :)

So now that they are done I feel I can focus on other things. Which is nice.

Communities: 

Sooooo.....we had an interesting lecture on Thursday which explored how MMO games encouraged the formation of communities of players online.

In particular we looked at the game "Everquest", which I must admit I have never played. But it sounds quite similar to WOW, in the way it works. 

It was quite interesting to look at how communities of players are formed, how they become part of your own little family. Instead of just being a part of some random group just for this one time you are playing online, you become part of a group with whom you can work together within the game - or "a friend of ours" rather than "a friend of mine" 

(I was planning on doing this whole blog with mafia-esque speak but that could have become very annoying very quickly...or would it?) 

How about I just write it as if I had an Italian accent? 

Well-a, I-a think-a that this could-a be-a fairly annoying-a too-a....

Sorry, I went off the point there...

Being part of a community in a game definitely adds an extra something to a game, you can make friends, try and compete against them to get a stronger character as well as working together, and it's always fun to play with others rather that just playing by yourself. 

After looking at Unit Operations last week, perhaps community could be a possible unit operation of games like Everquest?

Just a thought. 

 

War Games

What is the attraction with war games?

If we look back at some of the biggest selling games, it becomes apparent that a large portion of them are based on war:

Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

and you will see that war games make up a lot of this list.

Games like the Tom Clancy Series(Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon etc.) have sold over 55million copies. 55. Million. That's like the population of Ireland multiplied by 12 or something.

Add that to:

Medal Of Honour: 31million

Command and Conquer: 25million

Metal Gear Solid: Over 21million

Warcraft: 19million

....And we have a lot of war game sales....

And I'm not even taking the sequels to all of these games into account.

It's obvious that there is something about war games that players are attracted to. But what is it? Is it a number of different things?

Well, as someone who has played a lot of war games (my favourite game series of all time is Metal Gear Solid) I think I can pinpoint a few things which attracted me to these games. And what kept me playing them.

Numero Uno: Power:

I like power. Yes, I know a lot of you guy's have written in your blogs that power is a big thing for men in war games, which is probably why the majority of people who play war games are men. But I'm a lady... and I like to feel as much in control of things as guys do. Hence I'm attracted to the power offered in war/strategy games. In strategy games, you play God. You control armys- create them. Command them to build whatever you like, send them into battle and possibly to their death.

Numero Deux: Challenge

War games, particularly strategy war games, are generally quite challenging. As a player I like to be challenged. Where's the fun in playing a game if there isn't going to be something that tests your playing skills, makes you think? Playing Age Of Empires II I'd often find myself trying to work out how best to keep my enemies out of my base, should I build a wall? Perhaps a huge fortified wall? Should I just make a load of soldiers and have them guard the entrances?

Then I have to think of a strategy to attack the enemy...when is the right time to attack? what buildings should I attack first? Should I make a back-up army just incase someone else comes to attack my base while I'm attacking another base, or should I build another castle?

What is the best way to beat my enemy?

....Which brings me onto my next point:

Sense of achievement.

Ever played against a bunch of cocky guys who just throw abuse at you through your headset in Halo 3 Online and absolutely slaughtered them? You know that feeling you get? That "shut up you little *beep* I'm better than at this game than you are" feeling?

It's great.

And war games offer that feeling all the time. When you've spent an hour (or two) building an impenetrable base, and then set off to attack and after a lot of hard work commanding your army you win. Or when you're in a particularly difficult level in Medal Of Honour, and you finally manage to get past it, past all the constant shooting, grenade dodging and sneaking around.

They are the top 3 reasons why I think we are attracted to war games.

I have a little more to say on war games...but I think I've done a lot of typing for now so I'll come back to it. :)

What do we learn from games?

What do we learn from games which are commercially produced without claiming they teach you anything?

Games are engaging. They use technology to represent reality or encapsulate you in a virtual world, providing an escape. They provide a unique interactive virtual playing environment with which you can have fun and while doing so I believe you can learn too.
Through interaction with the virtual world around you in a game, you get instant visual feedback. Isn't this learning?
For example, if I'm playing one of my favourite games like Metal Gear Solid 2, and while I'm controlling the main character Snake (there will be no mention of Raiden here...) I decide to run out of my hiding place and end up being seen by the enemy. If you have played Metal Gear you will know that you then enter Alert Mode in which all the enemy sentries come after you, and depending on the level of difficulty setting, it can be a pain to get away from them all.
So, I learn here that I really should try and not be seen by the enemy, which will allow me to reach my goal faster.

Games can also be used to enhance your skills such as creativity, learning how to overcome puzzles in games or riddles.

Learning to work as a team is definitely key to success in many games. Especially multiplayer games.
In games such as Halo where you can go through the story mode with up to 4 other players, you need to learn to work together to get through the level, communicating to each other as you play.

So in conclusion I do believe that commercial games do offer learning capabilities even if they do not claim to.

What do you think?