Directions My Paper Can Go

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.

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.