Friday, 28 December 2012

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.

Thursday, 27 December 2012

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.

Tuesday, 25 December 2012

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.