morality in the legend of zelda presentation

to start the presentation off with a slight joke about the video we were using to explain to the class about the history of zelda being a dead LINK, this joke got mixed results from the class due to the different levels of humor. after that little detraction we began the presentation, the first few slides are on the triforce and how they reflect both in link in the legend of zelda and in the real world. the tri force  is made of three different elements (strength, wisdom and courage) on there own they are powerful but you cant overcome all your challenges with only one you need all three.

strength:

link shows extreme feats of strength though out the zelda games for one he is a child who has been given the huge task of saving all of hyrule from the evil ganon. not only does link have to fight ganon but also the army of monsters that try and stop you at every turn. this shows the player that no matter how big the obstacle if you try hard enough you can over come it.

wisdom:

at its core the legend of zelda is a puzzle game this reflects in links character as he moves through the land of hyrule and being faced with challenges as he goes, as link gets closer to his goal the challenges become harder showing the player that its not always easy but you will get there in the end.

courage:

what can you say about link and his courage, he is a child who one day is told that he has to save the world and yet he does not complain about it he just gets on with the job at hand. he is also silent even when the odds are stacked against him and he never gives up.

the killing of kids on video games:

in the legend of zelda there is a type of creature called a skull kid, these skull kids use to be children that became lost in the forest, the skull kids look tortured and warped in appearance and yet still have childish traits such as being mischievous which makes them all the more creepy. 

my argument was that the harming of children in video games is still taboo and should be avoided as much as possible however on the other hand what is the difference between killing a innocent adult and killing a innocent child as the out come in both cases is still the same (someone dies). 

after a lengthy debate we agreed that it is not the killing of children in video games that is bad it is the way it is portrayed to the audience (the gamer) for example getting a achievement for killing children is different to having to kill them to defend your self.

another example of this is the scene at the moonland ranch where a child is drugged with alcohol while the moon crushes the town, giving alcohol to children in video games is also frowned apon however it could be argued this could be to ease her passing.

at the end of the presentation i told the class about the things that are implied in the early zelda games for example in the second legend of zelda you are healed by a woman who is dressed like a lady of the night and she heals you by taking link into her house.

comments about the other groups:
my most Favorite group was the sexuality in video games for the reason they gave clear information and used many examples to get there points across however all of the groups did a good job, one thing i think could be improved with most of the groups was the way they put across information as in allot of cases it felt like they were just reading from a sheet of paper.

Posting on the move

I was playing around with my phone and had a thought a machine can play a game but I cannot take part in play. This strengthen my thought that play is an emotional thing rather than a physical.  however with advances in technology will we come to the point where machines can understand play.
machine can now learn will come to the point where machine can feel and understand what play is.
This blog was written by a voice command only this is to show the capabilities of modern technology.

theory of play a few of my own thoughts

in last term we studied the theory of play in which we heard may different arguments from across the board about what play is and what makes it different from a game, here are just some of my thoughts about the subject but i am not trying to challenge any of the theory's that we studied in class for the reason i believe allot of them have a strong element of fact just in different ways.

my idea of play is something that you enjoy unconditionally, when i was a child i remember clearly when i was having fun playing time flew by as if time was being pushed forwards, this feeling is what i believe indicates if you are playing or not. a good example of this would be if you have ever had to preform a task that you found extremely tedious and boring it appears to take for ever, being the complete opposite of playing and fun it has the reverse effect.
so my idea is that play is not a physical thing bound by rules of reality and physics, play is more of a feeling like a emotion, as we covered in class chimps have a play face to show other chimps that they are playing and not really fighting, again to pull that face for long periods of time would be torture if that chimp did not have a sense of enjoyment from it.

this concludes my thoughts on this topic for today i will update this theory more after ive had more time to think it over.

narratives space

embedded:
the definition of embedded narrative is a story within a story, this could refer to a sub or side story with in the main story. an example of this would be the GTA series where there are many side stories that are linked into the main story.


enacted:
the definition of enacted narrative is a story that is based around a character or the character adventure, a good example of this kind of narrative would be the legend of zelda series where the how story is based around link and his mission.

emergent:
emergent narrative is narrative with much potential, a good examples of this is twitter where users are encouraged to use the tools at there disposal to create there own stories between other users of the website. 


evoked:
evoked narrative is a narrative that is created on the works of fiction so the player already has some connection to the story already, for example the harry potter games that are based mainly on the story however add more content as they are stretching a 2 hour film into a 15 hour game. 

game space presentation

snow-tal recall:

snow tal recall was the game based on text space and even though there are huge limitations with text based space this group were able to come up with interesting concept such a being able to customize your character on screen instead of just using your imagination however after your done the game reminds you that its only text so ull never get to see your character.
another idea they came up with was hd text which is apparently better than regular text which is a attempt to bring text games back into the 21st centery.
even though they had good ideas the text based group were unable to produce any prototypes however they did create a few slides of images that were drawn to show possible locations in the game (they were drawn in a 8 bit pallet which suited the game entirely) in conclusion i believe this was a well engineered game however i would have liked to seen a few screen shots of game play.

car mageden:
car mageden was the game designed with the limitation of being a wrap around based game simular to asteroids or pac man, the idea for the game was very simple all you have to do is get as many points as you can by destroying and damaging other cars in a death match arena style of environment. in the arena there are power up and boosters which both help and hider you ( eg if you go over a booster while you are shooting at a enemy car you will be thrown off course and miss)
as the game is so simple there isnt much i can say to improve it however i would have liked to have seen some mock up game play images as all we got show where images of games that inspired them, even though these images gave me some idea what the game was like the image i came up with in my head might be completely different to there idea. in conclusion this game has much potential as a fun multiplier ether online or split screen.

bread orim maze:
this game is based on 2D contained space, the basic concept for this game is get your character from one side of the screen to the other using platforms while objects on the screen try to kill you such as spikes and fireballs, as the levels go on the amount of objects trying to kill your character increases and the speed of the assault rapidly rises. this style of game play is similar to platformers such as donkey kong and the more modern super meat boy. one problem i found with there design is they wanted to have the levels randomly generated, this concept is fine in a game like minecraft however in a plat former there is no guarantee that the platforms will spawn spaces excess-able by the player. in conclusion i think this idea could go far however it is only in the concept stage as we were not given a finalized idea.

side scrolling Frankenstein:
(side scrolling limitation) the story behind this groups game is the Frankenstein monster and his wife were going for a meal for there anniversy when one of them gets blown up, the parts of your other halves body are scattered threw out the levels your goal is to get threw all the levels while being chased by a angry mob to collect all of there body parts. i think this game has a very interesting design and i like how they used the mob to explain why the left side of the screen is coming towards you pushing the player to advance threw the level at a constant speed. the only problem i personally had with the game is the ending is already revealed so maybe there could be a second unlock able ending if you collect certain objects during the levels.

street cleaning kung fu:
(2 axes limitation) the story behind this game is that you are a street cleaner picking up the trash when you get into a fight with enemies on the screen, so now you have to fight your way threw the levels picking up trash as you go. the one thing that really stood out about this game design is how you use the environment to get to hidden areas in the level in a similar way that mario does in the later mario games. (eg the player can climb the environment to get to a high location then use his falling momentum to break man hole covers to get to under ground areas) i would say i think this game could improve by having move things to collect other than trash.

geoscape: 
(isometric limitation) i personally think that the design of this game is unique as instead of controlling a civilization like in most isometric games such as civilization or settlers in this games design you control the environment instead and only the environment, in this way the results of your actions dont always follow the same path but on the other hand like in the sims you can remove certain nessecitys such as air which will plunge the civilization on your planet into chaos.
being able only to control the environment gives this game design a high replay value like spore as the result you get each time will be different. the only problem i can find with this game is the high level of programming required to make this game possible.

collision:  
limited 3d space limitation) the idea behind this game is to use the limited 3d space to give a spinning effect ( the story behind this game is quite inventive, you play as two blades of grass spinning out of control through space being chased by evil cow aliens, the object is to crash into a nearby planet to save your self.  given limited 3d space is a very constricting restraint i believe that this game has strong potential as more of a mini game as there only seems to be one objective through out the whole game.

haunted house point and click game:
(ajasent spaces) sadly because of one of the members of this group being away i wasnt able to see any of there designs however from what i hear this game has the potential to be a very scary game using the limited space to cause a claustrophobic effect.

theory of play

what is play?
play is innocent and has no rules but at the same time has unspoken rules and a structure, however play that has structure isnt play at all. for example puppys play fighting seems to not have any rules in it however to avoid injury the puppys do not bite hard or use there claws. even though seeing two puppys play fighting seems harmless they are in fact practising skills they will need to show dominance in their adulthood.

even though the example of puppys playing shows a more innocent form of play with very little structure on the hand a game of chest is very structured and has many rules in place that cant be broken or bent, if the rules of play are broken it is no longer considered play and becomes a more serious matter.

so what is play is it something we learn or is it something that is just natural to use, as ive described play is not just limited to humans in fact some animals such as chimps have developed faces to show that they are play fighting instead of being serious, this is because chimps even when they are small still have enough strength to cause allot of damage. though out history even to this day some conflicts are started because of miss understanding is someone is playing or just being serious
( a example of this in the animal world would be two adult dogs play fighting as even though they are play fighting there size and new found strength makes you feel uneasy compared to puppys play fighting where the level of force being thrown around is much less)

the debate about what play is has been going on for hundreds of years, at first most considered play to be something only children do however it has been discovered over many years that some activates that adults do are also part of play. this all depends on how you look at play and understand its its core elements such as being free and innocent but even to this day the question has not fully been answered and probably wont yet for many years to come.

leading theorists:

Katie Salen 

 Eric Zimmerman

game space

text space: text space is a type of game space created in the imagination as the only interaction you get on the screen is scrollable text (black screen with white or green text) to play this game you really have to be in the same mind set as the person who created it to guess the outcomes he or she might have programmed in.

contained 2D space: a good example of contained 2D space is space invaders,  contained 2d space is then the played is limited to the space on the screen which he or she can not leave (the 4 walls of the space are solid stopping the player from going off screen) the way game designers make games like this appealing is by adding suspense (eg in space invaders the space ships moving down towards you)

raparound space: raparound space is when the play may go off screen and appear on the opersite side with a small delay, a good example of this would be pac man or asteroids where allot of the gameplay revolves around the player using the raparound space to avoid obsticals. this effect also gives the space a bigger feel due to its appearance of infinite space.

scrolling space: side scrolling space is space that only scrolls in one direction ether in the X or Y axes, one of the most famous games of all time the super mario brothers was based in this style. the only limitation of this type of space is the fact you can only proceed in once axes however this is also one of its strengths as it makes the game less confusing.

scrolling along two axes: similar to scrolling space however using both X ad Y axes to give a greater depth to the space and giving the gameplay a more 3d feel. even though adding another dimention makes the space feel more open this does not guarantee a good gameplay feel however again games like the mario series take advantage of this feature and effective use it to increase the size of the game space.

adjacent space one room at a time: this type of space only lets the player move from one area to another one room at a time. one of the advantages of this are the amount of stuff being rendered on screen is reduced.

scrolling with multiple backgrounds: scrolling with multiple background layers was very revolutionary at the time of its first appearance,  the way it gives the illusion of depth is having multiple layers moving at different rates (this may also include objects in the distance being animated and small than objects in the fore ground)

limited 3D space: limited 3d space is when the 3d space is limited to one view (prep) because of this early arcade versions had stickers on the screen instead of spites in the game.

volumetric 3D space:  gives the illusion of 3D by showing more of the environment that in reality wouldnt be in your standard vision (showing the ceiling and floor) the reason this gives a 3d effect is because your mind is seeing more than one dimension even though it is a illusion.

window to the outdoors:  this style of creating space gives the feel that you are look out into the space from a fixed point (the most famous game that used this style was duck hunt, this game also used the incorpation of the light gun or zapper to give the player the feeling of interacting with the space)

split screen: split screen allows two players to play in the space at the same time ether on a team or against each other.

3D space: 3d space is space that the player can move 360  degrees in all directions (no matter how good 3d graphics become we are not yet at the point where models look 100% real)

concept for split screen

spit screen game 

concept for the game:
the idea behind this game is you get rewarded for looking a the other persons screen, the way this works is very simple and easy to understand. each player can see a certain amount of platforms each the way you win is by continuing to jump from platform to platform and shooting your opponent before he shoots you, the bottom of the screen continues to scroll up like the lava level in the new super mario game if you fall off the platform and hit the lava you lose.
to win you have to look at the opponents screen and your own so that you can see all the platforms and where the other player is as he is also invisible, as this is also a wrap around screen players can go threw one side and appear on the other side of the screen, using this tactic to out flank the other player can be useful however you may end up missing the platform.
there is no time limit the only way you win is by killing the other players character or they die.

once you have defeated the other player you go onto stage 2 where the way the game works is the same however instead of plat forming both players are on a chest board and the idea is to find the other player and jump on his character before he finds yours and jumps on you.

analysis signs

• the graves in this seen are a sign of death and remembrance of there passing, on top off this the fact that all of the graves are of similar style except some newer than others shows that this could be a military graveyard.
• the man character is wearing a suit which shows that he is paying his respects to the dead
• the character is saluting the grave this could be because he has a military background or the one he is paying his respect died in battle/ combat.
• the way the flowers are randomly spread around the graves could show that the area is not maintained and has become over grown, which simbulises that the people in these graves have become forgotten and unnoticed.
• the dark rainy sky shows that this is not a nice place to be, a place of sadness and with the limited grey color pallet gives off a almost lonely effect.

play bulletpoints

• ·         The main point I believe katie salen and eric Zimmerman were trying to get across is that there are so many theories about what play is and yet we are so far away from working out all the answers.
• ·         Play is free and voluntary and cannot be forced any play that is forced is not play
• ·         Play is the universal language of learning and it is how our ancestors learned to communicate with each other and through play we develop and grow both as individuals and as a species.
• ·          Play does not just apply to humans animals also experience play when they are young however as we get older play becomes less and less or changes form.
• ·         Play is fundamental for our survival
• ·         Play has rules but at the same time doesn’t have rules for example young dogs play fight but the rules are the dogs don’t hurt each other, on the other hand to play a game of chess there are strict rules in place so it is fair.
• ·         Play is innocent and at the point play isn’t innocent it isn’t play anymore

game analysis

Analysing games

The image I have chosen to analyse is the graveyard scene from metal gear solid 4 guns of the patriots, this scene is one of the most moving scenes in the entire game as it shows the main character solid snake (a cloned soldier created during the cold war) saluting the man his DNA was taken from (big boss also known as snake).

Konami the publishers and kojima the developers that created the metal gear solid series took around three years to produce metal gear solid 4, being announced in 2005 and finally being on sale on june 12 2008. Even with the massive leap in computer games graphics the game stays true to the original stealth concept of the rest of its predecessors.

As I stated in the previous paragraph the game is branded stealth tactical shooter which means it relays on the players cunning rather than fast reflexes and allot of fire power however you can play this game in this manner it will just be very difficult due to the fact you don’t have a regenerating health bar.  As the game lacks the addition of a regenerating health bar and is rated M for mature in every country in clueing the United Kingdom I would say this games target audience is between 20 and 35 but it’s also maybe aimed at diehard fans of the series.

Formal elements:

Main organisational features:

The main features of this scene are the graves without them the character would just be staring into the distance which in its self has emotional responses but the graves make this response stronger.  The second feature that stands out are the white flowers which play a similar role as red poppies in war cemeteries these give the scene a feeling or remembering and looking back on the past, finally there is the characters clothes that are old styled which gives the impression the character isn’t use to wearing a suit.

Focal point:

The focal point of the images I have chosen is off centre to the left, this is because the human eye is naturally drawn towards the left as we are taught as children to read from left to right. With the focal point off to the left you naturally scroll to the right after looking at the character saluting to see the graves of many fallen comrades and thoughs who were lost during operation greyfox, this sets the tone of the image.

Geometrical shapes:

The shapes used in this image are soft and very rounded there are very few straight lines in the entire scene giving it a very calm feel, all of the shapes in the scene other than the main character have been blurred around the edges giving the impression that this scene is ether a memory or a very sad event designed to cause emotion in the player.

Symmetry/ asymmetry:

Symmetry in this scene is very limited as the focus point is far on the left hand side however after looking over the images a few times I noticed that the graveyard its self is spit in half with newer styled graves on the right in front of the character and older looking graves behind him, this divides the old and the new.

Method used to lead eyes:

The way the images leads your eye in this image is very simple, its works on the principle that the human eye reads from left to right, in this image the character is on the far left drawing your eye in, the characters eyes are looking forward at something in front of making the player/ viewer curious what he is staring at which draws your eyes to the right to the graves.

Space and depth

The images doesn’t really create the illusion of a large amount of space in the scene in fact quite the opposite the graveyard is surrounded by high walls which gives the image a closed off look almost clostaphobic in a way, on the other hand objects in the foreground are less blurred than thoughs in the distance which does give some effect off distance.

Colour

Colours used in this image are dark and stick very strictly to a three colour pallet of green, greys and whites. The effect this very limited dark colour pallet gives off is a feeling of sadness and remembrance, even though the pallet is very small the image uses a large amount of different tones to create the depressing feeling.

Light

The light source in the scene is blocked by the dark rain clouds because of this the hole images has a very dim feel to it causing low emotions, due to the dark lighting the entire image is covered in shadows with very little contrast between them (there are very few if any instances of solid light on shadow contrast) it gives off a calming feel as if the calm after the battle has be fought.

Style

Begin a cinematic scene the image gives off a very realistic theme, it does this by giving the objects and character a sence of scale equal to that of real life.

Influences

This images is based in a game that is about the cold war and secrets hidden from the public eye, the scene I have chosen is very similar you scenes of soldiers remember there fallen comrades after a war or after a battle.  You can see the resemblance between the graveyard in the scene and thoughs of real war memorial grave sites.

Subject theme and meanings

The only subject that has been brought up in this image is the horrors of war and how no matter how strong you think you are you are still human inside, this also brings up the fact that people lose their lives in wars on both sides sometimes for courses they don’t believe in as shown by the enemies in this game being controlled remotely.

Context

Using research and have my self-watched the scene this image if from I can tell this image is taken after a huge battle was fought were many soldiers on both sides lost their lives because of one man’s selfish desire to take over the world.

The reason this gives the scene meaning is because even though the main character(snake) is a battle hardened soldier in this image it shows that he is still human and has emotions.

Personal response

My personal response to this image is a response of silence as this is a scene of morning and sorrow this in turn provokes feelings of sadness as the character is remembering lost friends in the same way we remember lost family members and loved ones. The main aspect of the image that makes me feel like this is the sky as it is grey and blocking out the sun as if all happiness there once was has vanished for the character.