There are a couple of directions I think my paper could cover. I'll see if I can think of any more as I'm writing this.
1. The first direction I thought of was to judge the ethics of the cast of characters in the game. In Silent Hill 2, a few different people are called to this haunted town looking for answers and atone for their sins. I could judge the actions the lead them to the town and judge their actions once they get there.
2. The second direction I'm considering is looking at the role of the player of this game. The ending of the game relies on the player's actions within the game. The general approach to gameplay affects the game's ending, which I think is pretty interesting. There are a few concrete choices that influence the ending as well though. The player can get one of 3 endings upon first playthrough so I'd study each ending and the choices that lead to them. And maybe judge which would be the most ethical outcome for the main character
3. This is related to my first idea, but could use some fleshing out. The main character, is called to the town by a letter from his believed to be dead wife. The truth, as the player comes to find out at the end of the game, is that his wife was terminally ill and he got fed up with taking care of her and disgusted by what her disease had done to her body and mind. She often lashed out in her last days as well. So he can't take it anymore and smothers her to death. His actions are too much for him to bear so he blocks out the memories and comes under the delusion that his wife might be alive somewhere in the town of silent hill. In looking for her, he is confronted by his guilt every step of the way. He encounters monsters that remind him of what he did and the feelings that led to the murder. These monsters represent such things as the sexuality he was missing while taking care of his sick wife. His guilt about having such feelings is also manifested in Maria, a complete double fo his wife, but everything he wishes she was. She's basically a slut when his wife was a timid mouse. It would be interesting to explore the hidden thoughts and feelings that go on within relationships, but aren't often talked about; and how the game presents them to the player.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Video Game Articles
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081008/ennew_afp/usitvideogameseducationcompanymicrosoft
Microsoft is basically putting up money to research games as educational tools which sounds like a great idea to get kids to learn something while they play games if all they want to do is play games. I've always thought games could be a great teaching method. However, when the article mentioned the main aim of this research is to improve math knowledge, I thought, "Well, why don't we just look at programs that are successful at teaching math for help." Maybe it's easier to tailor education to our kids' ,in the US, lack of attention and motivation rather than look at outside cultures for assistance.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/07/counting-rupees-feeling-used/
This article is about video game developers generally not liking GameStop's used game business model. Since GameStop buys its used games off of its customers., the developers see no money from the the used game sales. Maybe it's just my personal bias against Gamestop for the generally poor service I've received in the past and that fact that they'll buy games for $10-15 and sell them at $45 (about $5 under the average new retail price), but I'd much prefer if my money when to the developers themselves rather than a middleman. That said, Developers don't have a leg to stand on in this argument. If they want to make more money, they could sell games cheaper in the hopes of having more people buy their games new or they could start up their own personal used game store to compete with GameStop.
Microsoft is basically putting up money to research games as educational tools which sounds like a great idea to get kids to learn something while they play games if all they want to do is play games. I've always thought games could be a great teaching method. However, when the article mentioned the main aim of this research is to improve math knowledge, I thought, "Well, why don't we just look at programs that are successful at teaching math for help." Maybe it's easier to tailor education to our kids' ,in the US, lack of attention and motivation rather than look at outside cultures for assistance.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/07/counting-rupees-feeling-used/
This article is about video game developers generally not liking GameStop's used game business model. Since GameStop buys its used games off of its customers., the developers see no money from the the used game sales. Maybe it's just my personal bias against Gamestop for the generally poor service I've received in the past and that fact that they'll buy games for $10-15 and sell them at $45 (about $5 under the average new retail price), but I'd much prefer if my money when to the developers themselves rather than a middleman. That said, Developers don't have a leg to stand on in this argument. If they want to make more money, they could sell games cheaper in the hopes of having more people buy their games new or they could start up their own personal used game store to compete with GameStop.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thesis and Outline
Thesis:
Click For Obama and Catch the Sperm are both games that attempt to educate players, but Click For Obama is more effective in doing so because of its simple and concrete presentation.
Body 1
Describe Click For Obama - presentation, gameplay, how it conveys information, purpose
Body 2
Describe Catch the Sperm - presentation, gameplay, how it conveys information, purpose, art style
Body 3 - Qualitatively compare both games, show how and why Click For Obama is more effective at its intended purpose
Conclusion - restate thesis
Click For Obama and Catch the Sperm are both games that attempt to educate players, but Click For Obama is more effective in doing so because of its simple and concrete presentation.
Body 1
Describe Click For Obama - presentation, gameplay, how it conveys information, purpose
Body 2
Describe Catch the Sperm - presentation, gameplay, how it conveys information, purpose, art style
Body 3 - Qualitatively compare both games, show how and why Click For Obama is more effective at its intended purpose
Conclusion - restate thesis
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Videogames For Homework
Click for Obama: http://www.click4obama.com/
This is a simple trivia game. It makes for a good political game because tests your knowledge of politics and US history. I quickly found myself addicted to it because of ranking system that rates your knowledge from mere resident to political scholar. Your ranking goes up with each question answered correctly but comes down with every wrong answer. Apparently, you help the Obama campaign through ad revenue on the site, but I could couldn't care less as I just wanted to reach the rank of political scholar.
Catch the Sperm: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Home-Education/Catch-the-Sperm.shtml
Honestly, I only decided to play this because of the title. The game certainly lives up to the title in that the idea is to catch sperm (and STDs). They come flying out from the left side of the screen and you have use your condom cannon on the right side to fire condoms at every single one. It's a pretty challenging game because if you let one sperm through, it's game over, or as the game calls it, FUN'S OVER. Other than that, it's not very representative of sex. I left the game thankful that safe sex isn't as hard as this game.
Passage: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/
Passage is an interesting game I came across a while back. It uses very simple, I'm talking atari-like, graphics and gameplay to get across it's ideas about life. Your character starts out on the far left side of the screen as a young man, being able to see far in front of you, but not much real estate above or below you. Soon as you make your way foward, you come across a young female character that attaches at your hip so to speak if you get close enough. From there you can explore a scrolling map looking for treasure or just sit there, either way, the game ends in five minutes. As those minutes tick away your characters start looking older and older and they shift from left to right on the screen, no longer being able to see very far foward. There's no points far as I can tell. The game is mainly about showing the passage of time and does so in creative way.
This is a simple trivia game. It makes for a good political game because tests your knowledge of politics and US history. I quickly found myself addicted to it because of ranking system that rates your knowledge from mere resident to political scholar. Your ranking goes up with each question answered correctly but comes down with every wrong answer. Apparently, you help the Obama campaign through ad revenue on the site, but I could couldn't care less as I just wanted to reach the rank of political scholar.
Catch the Sperm: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Home-Education/Catch-the-Sperm.shtml
Honestly, I only decided to play this because of the title. The game certainly lives up to the title in that the idea is to catch sperm (and STDs). They come flying out from the left side of the screen and you have use your condom cannon on the right side to fire condoms at every single one. It's a pretty challenging game because if you let one sperm through, it's game over, or as the game calls it, FUN'S OVER. Other than that, it's not very representative of sex. I left the game thankful that safe sex isn't as hard as this game.
Passage: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/
Passage is an interesting game I came across a while back. It uses very simple, I'm talking atari-like, graphics and gameplay to get across it's ideas about life. Your character starts out on the far left side of the screen as a young man, being able to see far in front of you, but not much real estate above or below you. Soon as you make your way foward, you come across a young female character that attaches at your hip so to speak if you get close enough. From there you can explore a scrolling map looking for treasure or just sit there, either way, the game ends in five minutes. As those minutes tick away your characters start looking older and older and they shift from left to right on the screen, no longer being able to see very far foward. There's no points far as I can tell. The game is mainly about showing the passage of time and does so in creative way.
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