this weeks blog task, as ita about the job title art directors is to get us up to date on what they do, well before reading the links given i would have just said they direct art, and in this case, direct the game art along the course of its production.
but now after reading what its really about i realise how much wourk thay actually have too do, as even if its not direct responsibility, they are responsible for every single little model and texture that goes into the games.
thay must know exactly how the character is supposed to look, and must be able to visualise the levels with all the plants, trees, and vegitation, even if its not their yet.
the art directors in a sense are responsible for how the game will turn out, and are fully in charge to make sure it turns out perfect how they want it.
acording to what iv'e read the term art director is'nt used majourly in video games, and is more PPrent in japanese games.
some famous directors would be hideo kojima, who directed the metal hear series,
Shigeru Miyamoto, who is credited as the creator of mario and donkey kong,
tetsuya nomura, director of some of the more recent final fantasies and kingdom hearts.
art directors are at the top end of the artists working on a game, which im sure is where most of us on the game art course wish to end up, although they aren't directly at the top, they still hold an immense amount of responsibility.
they could even be branded as the most visual and artistic in the game production process, which is probably why they are ther doing that job, because it is their job to over look the game as its being made, as in, if a scene isn't dark and gloomy enought, they'll tell people below them how to make it dark and gloomy enough, so they are constantly making decisions about whats best for that gamme.
week six, gameplay
Gameplay, simply put it can be decribed as your expeirience of the game, but it seams that over the years from the days of sonic the hedgehog, and even older games such as pac man, and asteroids, to todays standards of gears of war, and call of duty, the gameplay has, and hasn't changed that much at all.
what im trying to say is that if you take away the fancy graphics and inovative controll systems and such, resistance fall of man for the ps3 can be seen as just a hyperextended version of pacman, by this i mean your chasing something around trying to kill it, and collecting items along the way, as in cherries for pacman, and healt and guns in fall of man.
but while i can say that alot has changed in the way the games are played, as i remember in pacman, you could memerise a route that if you followed it perfectly you'd dodge the path that the ghosts took everysingle time and eat them all, while now in next generation games, a certain level of ai is involved, and rather than just pressing up down left or right thers alot more control and interaction with the game, you can get more imersed into the game becouse you have what seems to be full control (even though you dont) in a lavish almost photo realistic looking environment.
and while the principles of it might be the same as pacman, you won't get a kid pretending to be a pacman going around eating pacdots, and biting things, but you will get them pretending to shoot gung, and kill aliens, and play army and such, which to a certain extent gives these kids what they want, guns, not pacdots.
also it takes alot more to make games now days, design wise, i personally, and a child of 7, could model a pacman level in 2 seconds flat, noway days, its a one man job to make something so simple, but on new next generation games, more than one man might be needed to make one building, or character for a game, ther is now alot more man hours goin into games than ther ever has been.
so in a sense, the main aspects of gaming are practically the same as some of the first games, but at the same time the level of detail, interaction, and quility of gamepley are far higher nowadays.
although just recently, which i think might be because it takes so much time and hard work to make these games, is that games seem quite short, i just got call of duty 4, and the single player campaign can be completed in under a day.
while older games i played such as final fantasy 7, or the metal gear series there was weeks worth of gaming in there. so even though games nowdays can have gameplay far exceeding older games theres a lot of time a hard work involved in making it this good.
what im trying to say is that if you take away the fancy graphics and inovative controll systems and such, resistance fall of man for the ps3 can be seen as just a hyperextended version of pacman, by this i mean your chasing something around trying to kill it, and collecting items along the way, as in cherries for pacman, and healt and guns in fall of man.
but while i can say that alot has changed in the way the games are played, as i remember in pacman, you could memerise a route that if you followed it perfectly you'd dodge the path that the ghosts took everysingle time and eat them all, while now in next generation games, a certain level of ai is involved, and rather than just pressing up down left or right thers alot more control and interaction with the game, you can get more imersed into the game becouse you have what seems to be full control (even though you dont) in a lavish almost photo realistic looking environment.
and while the principles of it might be the same as pacman, you won't get a kid pretending to be a pacman going around eating pacdots, and biting things, but you will get them pretending to shoot gung, and kill aliens, and play army and such, which to a certain extent gives these kids what they want, guns, not pacdots.
also it takes alot more to make games now days, design wise, i personally, and a child of 7, could model a pacman level in 2 seconds flat, noway days, its a one man job to make something so simple, but on new next generation games, more than one man might be needed to make one building, or character for a game, ther is now alot more man hours goin into games than ther ever has been.
so in a sense, the main aspects of gaming are practically the same as some of the first games, but at the same time the level of detail, interaction, and quility of gamepley are far higher nowadays.
although just recently, which i think might be because it takes so much time and hard work to make these games, is that games seem quite short, i just got call of duty 4, and the single player campaign can be completed in under a day.
while older games i played such as final fantasy 7, or the metal gear series there was weeks worth of gaming in there. so even though games nowdays can have gameplay far exceeding older games theres a lot of time a hard work involved in making it this good.
week five; games journalism
this weeks blogging task has us reviewing some game reviews and journalism, and write back about it, after reading most of the links provided i found that some writing about games can be really in depth and longwinded, but interesting non-the less.
one thing we've been asked too look at is NGJ, which is new games journalism, which started in 2004 by journalist Kieron Gillen, and is a form of new journalism, implied into video game journalism. this type of review includes personal anecdotes, referenced to other media and creative analysis to explore games, rather than the older style which iv'e seen alot of where a reviewer lists the so called pro's and cons of a game, and then gives them a score? like 5 out of 5, or 95%? but what i don't get is that if a game scores 100% which some do, they should be the perfect game if this system works, but i know of games that have been given 100% that i hate, but shouldn't a so called perfect game appeal to just about everyone?.
how i see it the numbers don't mean anything, its how the reviewer puts it across to the gamer that the game is worth buying, and i think with the added personal level of ngj people are more than likely to buy games that they like, rather than just buying a game with a good number, and hate it.
also from this reading i have found out that game reviewers are actually under alot of preassure to get these reviews out on time, whereas i thought it was just people sitting playing games all day in there underwear and then write a little bit, it turns out they are really pushed, because new games, such as rpgs and such, have literally hundreds of hours of gameplay that could add to a review, and the reviewers don't have that time.
a case of this arose in 2006 where a reviewer majorly underplayed a game, the game was the ps3 title enchanted arms, i have this game and i know that 3 hours into the game i was nower into it, and this is apparently as far as the reviewer got into it, before publishing his review.
i think i where to be the game reviewer (and if i had enough time to get a decent play in) id try the ngj aproach to writing, because so far i have found these reviews far more helpful in buying games than other reviews.
one reviewer who i beleive is ngj, is ben Yahtzee, who doues the zero puntuation reviews on the escapist magazine website.
although sometimes i disagree with whats said, every point made is true, and all the bad, and good points are made, in a way that isnt listing them but connecting with the reader through jokes and humour.
one thing we've been asked too look at is NGJ, which is new games journalism, which started in 2004 by journalist Kieron Gillen, and is a form of new journalism, implied into video game journalism. this type of review includes personal anecdotes, referenced to other media and creative analysis to explore games, rather than the older style which iv'e seen alot of where a reviewer lists the so called pro's and cons of a game, and then gives them a score? like 5 out of 5, or 95%? but what i don't get is that if a game scores 100% which some do, they should be the perfect game if this system works, but i know of games that have been given 100% that i hate, but shouldn't a so called perfect game appeal to just about everyone?.
how i see it the numbers don't mean anything, its how the reviewer puts it across to the gamer that the game is worth buying, and i think with the added personal level of ngj people are more than likely to buy games that they like, rather than just buying a game with a good number, and hate it.
also from this reading i have found out that game reviewers are actually under alot of preassure to get these reviews out on time, whereas i thought it was just people sitting playing games all day in there underwear and then write a little bit, it turns out they are really pushed, because new games, such as rpgs and such, have literally hundreds of hours of gameplay that could add to a review, and the reviewers don't have that time.
a case of this arose in 2006 where a reviewer majorly underplayed a game, the game was the ps3 title enchanted arms, i have this game and i know that 3 hours into the game i was nower into it, and this is apparently as far as the reviewer got into it, before publishing his review.
i think i where to be the game reviewer (and if i had enough time to get a decent play in) id try the ngj aproach to writing, because so far i have found these reviews far more helpful in buying games than other reviews.
one reviewer who i beleive is ngj, is ben Yahtzee, who doues the zero puntuation reviews on the escapist magazine website.
although sometimes i disagree with whats said, every point made is true, and all the bad, and good points are made, in a way that isnt listing them but connecting with the reader through jokes and humour.
week four, the 2000's
the 2000's, well actually i'm starting at 1998, whisch is when the 6th generation of gaming started.
this generation included consoles such as the ps2, xbox, and gamecube, and as far as things go now, nintendo sony and microsoft are pretty much the only console makes around now, no real new ones have been brought into the market.
the ps2 seamingly won this console war, yet the xbox wasn't far behind.
while the gamecube didn't turn out as well as the other two.
one of the reasons the ps2 dominated in this console war was not only had it established a strong foot hold with the psx, but it secured licencing for some major titles such as the final fantasy series, metal gear, kingdom hearts, and more.
this era also marked the move from cd and cartridge to dvd.
which in turn meant bigger games and longer games.
though i have noticed since i used to have my megadrive, and now my ps3, the megadrive never had any loading screens that i can remember, my ps3 does :S.
finally the 7th generation, which is now, the 3 consoles running in this day and age are the nintendo wii, ps3, and xbox 360.
and they're all very different consoles, (well exept the xbox which i think is kinda plain)
as in the ps3 now uses blu-ray disk technology, which can hold immense amounts of data, giving us high definition gaming, it also has the six axis contoller, for motion control in games,
also we have the wii, which instead of graphics and such went another way about the games wheras its completely interactive, as you move the controller, you move items such as a bat, or bowling ball on screen, and the xbox 360, i dont have much to say, its a fancy ps3, but just recently an xbox 360 eleite has been released with a hd dvd drive, bringing the graphics and gameplay closer to that of the ps3, oone thig the xbox does have in its favour is a good catalogue of games, whereas the ps3 is still waiting for games such as final fantasy 13 and mgs4 to be realeased.
this generation included consoles such as the ps2, xbox, and gamecube, and as far as things go now, nintendo sony and microsoft are pretty much the only console makes around now, no real new ones have been brought into the market.
the ps2 seamingly won this console war, yet the xbox wasn't far behind.
while the gamecube didn't turn out as well as the other two.
one of the reasons the ps2 dominated in this console war was not only had it established a strong foot hold with the psx, but it secured licencing for some major titles such as the final fantasy series, metal gear, kingdom hearts, and more.
this era also marked the move from cd and cartridge to dvd.
which in turn meant bigger games and longer games.
though i have noticed since i used to have my megadrive, and now my ps3, the megadrive never had any loading screens that i can remember, my ps3 does :S.
finally the 7th generation, which is now, the 3 consoles running in this day and age are the nintendo wii, ps3, and xbox 360.
and they're all very different consoles, (well exept the xbox which i think is kinda plain)
as in the ps3 now uses blu-ray disk technology, which can hold immense amounts of data, giving us high definition gaming, it also has the six axis contoller, for motion control in games,
also we have the wii, which instead of graphics and such went another way about the games wheras its completely interactive, as you move the controller, you move items such as a bat, or bowling ball on screen, and the xbox 360, i dont have much to say, its a fancy ps3, but just recently an xbox 360 eleite has been released with a hd dvd drive, bringing the graphics and gameplay closer to that of the ps3, oone thig the xbox does have in its favour is a good catalogue of games, whereas the ps3 is still waiting for games such as final fantasy 13 and mgs4 to be realeased.
week 3, game history, 80's and 90's
in gaming the 80's and 90's consisted of the 3'rd fourth and fifth generations of computer games.
the 80's
this era was also kind of the start of online games, which back then wer more text based than anything, as they started on discussion forums and such.
around this time in the 80's during the third generations was when some major games made they're first debut's, which includes zelda, and also metal gear, which marked the start of the stealth based genre.
one of the biggest events in gaminf in this era, was the game crash of 1983, whish from what i can see is because games such as pac man, and e.t, where more cartridges than actual games consoles where made.
so what do they do then, go to mexico.
between 10 and 20 semi trailer truck loads, of e.t the extra terestrial cartridges where buried in a dump in new mexico,
they were all crushed, buried and a layer of concrete pured over the top, there reason for this being "There are dead animals down there. We wouldn't want any children to get hurt digging in the dump".
why they would make more games than consoles in beyond me but at a later date they're excuses for this was something like "We wanted people to have a second copy for their ski house"
the 90's
during the 90's we had the 4th and 5th generations of gaming.
the fourth generation, which was the one i was introduced to with my first ever console being my megadrive, was the one where alot of the most influencial games of today were made, these include, sonic the hedgehog, phantasy star, final fantasy, street fighter, and dragon quest.
newer versions of all these games are around today on the newest generation of console gaming.
this generation was also the start of the major handheld gaming system, the gameboy, whish still has newer variations of it around to this day.
in the fifth generation we had the sega saturn, and in this time sony joined the market of consoles with the playstaion and opened up the market to 3d gaming.
i'd played so-called 3d games in the past such as sonic 3d, but these were just isometric.
after this time sony was made famous by games such as metal gear solid, whish is still seen as one of the greatest games of all time. also in this time we had the n64 from nintendo, but playstation came out more succesful.
between the 80's and 90's i only owned 2 of these consoles being the megadrive and the playstaion, where i found myself kind of changing from loving the fast paced side scolling sonic games to the 3d, imense games such as metal gear solid, final fantasy 7, and other 3d titles.
and that brings us to the end to the 90's.
to be continued...........
the 80's
this era was also kind of the start of online games, which back then wer more text based than anything, as they started on discussion forums and such.
around this time in the 80's during the third generations was when some major games made they're first debut's, which includes zelda, and also metal gear, which marked the start of the stealth based genre.
one of the biggest events in gaminf in this era, was the game crash of 1983, whish from what i can see is because games such as pac man, and e.t, where more cartridges than actual games consoles where made.
so what do they do then, go to mexico.
between 10 and 20 semi trailer truck loads, of e.t the extra terestrial cartridges where buried in a dump in new mexico,
they were all crushed, buried and a layer of concrete pured over the top, there reason for this being "There are dead animals down there. We wouldn't want any children to get hurt digging in the dump".
why they would make more games than consoles in beyond me but at a later date they're excuses for this was something like "We wanted people to have a second copy for their ski house"
the 90's
during the 90's we had the 4th and 5th generations of gaming.
the fourth generation, which was the one i was introduced to with my first ever console being my megadrive, was the one where alot of the most influencial games of today were made, these include, sonic the hedgehog, phantasy star, final fantasy, street fighter, and dragon quest.
newer versions of all these games are around today on the newest generation of console gaming.
this generation was also the start of the major handheld gaming system, the gameboy, whish still has newer variations of it around to this day.
in the fifth generation we had the sega saturn, and in this time sony joined the market of consoles with the playstaion and opened up the market to 3d gaming.
i'd played so-called 3d games in the past such as sonic 3d, but these were just isometric.
after this time sony was made famous by games such as metal gear solid, whish is still seen as one of the greatest games of all time. also in this time we had the n64 from nintendo, but playstation came out more succesful.
between the 80's and 90's i only owned 2 of these consoles being the megadrive and the playstaion, where i found myself kind of changing from loving the fast paced side scolling sonic games to the 3d, imense games such as metal gear solid, final fantasy 7, and other 3d titles.
and that brings us to the end to the 90's.
to be continued...........
week two, (wheres week one?)
OK, week two, game history, right.
"Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for an important entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe. After a disastrous collapse of the industry in 1983 and a subsequent rebirth two years later, the video game industry has experienced sustained growth for over two decades to become a $10 billion industry rivaling the motion picture industry as the most profitable entertainment industry in the world"
Ok, enough quoting from wikipedia and on with my blog,
from what i read in my studies the first electronic computer games were made way back before anyone was even thinking of making me, in 1948 i believe? anyway games back then weren't quite like they are now days, shoot em up games that are so life like you can probably even sweat, no, they wernt on Cd's you can buy from the shop, and put in your ps3,
they were made from things like vacuum columns and cathode ray tubes and oscilloscopes, an example of this being a game made out of 8 vacuum tubes, to simulate a missile firing at a target, with Lil nob things to curve and speed up and stuff along them lines, you know like in that cool ass game where you fire the torpedo down towards bouts on the horizon?
id insert a video of it, but i don't actually know how to so ill have to get back to you on that.
anyway so-far that's what i can tell was the start of electronic gaming.
although games did go on like forever before computer gmaes, like board games n shit, people managed back then, i dont think i could go too long without my ps3 now tho.
i know when i was little it was the age of the sega megadrive, and n-64 and such, but before that there was various other gaming consoles, such as the atari, famicon, comasore-64, all of which I'm actually trying to play now though emulators, not the same i know but hey,
but i think something that has been there all along is the arcade machines, pinballs machines, all the old fun ones, as far as i know allot of them are still the same as the old ones too, like when i go on holiday, which is pretty much the only time i get to play them, aside from the newer racing shooters and simulator games and such you have the old fun ones, such as metal slug, puzzle bobble,
basically what I'm trying to say is even though games have advanced along way since the vacuum tubes and oscilloscopes they old games are still just as fun as the newer ones.
we are currently in the seventh generation of games i believe? or its somewhere around there
the first generation would be games such as the very first tennis simulator, later known as pong, allot of games ran on university mainframe computers at this stage. although in 1975 a home version of pong was released, which was a big stage for gaming, this generation lasted from 1972 till 1977
from 1976 till 1984 was the second generation, this was when cpu's where being built into consoles for home gaming, some of the first consoles were Atari5200, colecovision, Sega sg-1000
all of which i have never heard of until now.
the third generation is when only a few consoles wer around, this is still apparent today with only 3 main systems, back then there was the famicon, sega master system and the Atari, this is also the era where mario came into play, other famous titles of the era that are still going today are metal gear, final fantasy, mega-man bomber man, phantasy star, and more, this generation lasted from 1983 until 1992
the fourth generation, the one i was brought up in, the age of the Sega mega drive, super Nintendo, and the game boy, i remember being a kid, playing 2d side scrollers of sonic the hedge hog and Mario, all of which would drive parents crazy with little jingles that helped make the games famous. the mega drive would have been the first one i ever got, i still have it and i still play it now, i have a ps3 now, but theres still something i love about the old sonic and Mario games, as most games nowadays seem to be about gore, and violence, which is kind of sad in a sense, yet i still play them, but on the other hand i still get allot of joy out of playing Lil kid games that make me feel happy and warm inside.
well now, I've just read that this blog is only supposed to be 1950s, till 1970s, yet i started before 1950 and finished just after 1970, o well.
until next time when i carry on with his hideously boring and tedious blog, but I'm not changing it cuz i think its interesting and i think my fellow gamers will too, yet they wont really read it because they have all probably wrote the same stuff, though their supposed to read it, anyway until next time................
TO BE CONTINUED!
"Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for an important entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe. After a disastrous collapse of the industry in 1983 and a subsequent rebirth two years later, the video game industry has experienced sustained growth for over two decades to become a $10 billion industry rivaling the motion picture industry as the most profitable entertainment industry in the world"
Ok, enough quoting from wikipedia and on with my blog,
from what i read in my studies the first electronic computer games were made way back before anyone was even thinking of making me, in 1948 i believe? anyway games back then weren't quite like they are now days, shoot em up games that are so life like you can probably even sweat, no, they wernt on Cd's you can buy from the shop, and put in your ps3,
they were made from things like vacuum columns and cathode ray tubes and oscilloscopes, an example of this being a game made out of 8 vacuum tubes, to simulate a missile firing at a target, with Lil nob things to curve and speed up and stuff along them lines, you know like in that cool ass game where you fire the torpedo down towards bouts on the horizon?
id insert a video of it, but i don't actually know how to so ill have to get back to you on that.
anyway so-far that's what i can tell was the start of electronic gaming.
although games did go on like forever before computer gmaes, like board games n shit, people managed back then, i dont think i could go too long without my ps3 now tho.
i know when i was little it was the age of the sega megadrive, and n-64 and such, but before that there was various other gaming consoles, such as the atari, famicon, comasore-64, all of which I'm actually trying to play now though emulators, not the same i know but hey,
but i think something that has been there all along is the arcade machines, pinballs machines, all the old fun ones, as far as i know allot of them are still the same as the old ones too, like when i go on holiday, which is pretty much the only time i get to play them, aside from the newer racing shooters and simulator games and such you have the old fun ones, such as metal slug, puzzle bobble,
basically what I'm trying to say is even though games have advanced along way since the vacuum tubes and oscilloscopes they old games are still just as fun as the newer ones.
we are currently in the seventh generation of games i believe? or its somewhere around there
the first generation would be games such as the very first tennis simulator, later known as pong, allot of games ran on university mainframe computers at this stage. although in 1975 a home version of pong was released, which was a big stage for gaming, this generation lasted from 1972 till 1977
from 1976 till 1984 was the second generation, this was when cpu's where being built into consoles for home gaming, some of the first consoles were Atari5200, colecovision, Sega sg-1000
all of which i have never heard of until now.
the third generation is when only a few consoles wer around, this is still apparent today with only 3 main systems, back then there was the famicon, sega master system and the Atari, this is also the era where mario came into play, other famous titles of the era that are still going today are metal gear, final fantasy, mega-man bomber man, phantasy star, and more, this generation lasted from 1983 until 1992
the fourth generation, the one i was brought up in, the age of the Sega mega drive, super Nintendo, and the game boy, i remember being a kid, playing 2d side scrollers of sonic the hedge hog and Mario, all of which would drive parents crazy with little jingles that helped make the games famous. the mega drive would have been the first one i ever got, i still have it and i still play it now, i have a ps3 now, but theres still something i love about the old sonic and Mario games, as most games nowadays seem to be about gore, and violence, which is kind of sad in a sense, yet i still play them, but on the other hand i still get allot of joy out of playing Lil kid games that make me feel happy and warm inside.
well now, I've just read that this blog is only supposed to be 1950s, till 1970s, yet i started before 1950 and finished just after 1970, o well.
until next time when i carry on with his hideously boring and tedious blog, but I'm not changing it cuz i think its interesting and i think my fellow gamers will too, yet they wont really read it because they have all probably wrote the same stuff, though their supposed to read it, anyway until next time................
TO BE CONTINUED!
hello
well now, my first blog
what to put, well, my name, is Dan.
and after hearing about this blogging thing on my course i thought hmm, what a great idea, this is going to make it easy, not having to write essays, and a Lil thing to write online each week, holy shit was i wrong.
upon opening it for the first time i was faced with the question of a name for my blog spot, where so-far all of the good, respectful sounding names have been taken, which didn't help.
so after about I'd say 20 minutes of trying a name, clicking check, and waiting god Noe's how long for my so called 8 meg connection to tell me it was OK i settled for cosmic-poop i believe it is, thinking "it'll be taken" but now I'm stuck with it, and to be honest i like it, even tho it may sound a little immature.
directly after that traumatic episode i set about writing my first blog, totally unprepared, i sat their looked at it, got writers block, and thought fuck this.
its taken me about 2 weeks to try and face writing this blog so here it is, hope your happy.
hopefully soon ill have something fun to talk about, like Ive played a cool game of some sort, and ill post an amazing review.
anyway thats it from me for now, im sure ill have all sorts of kick ass things to tell you all soon, bye!!!!!
what to put, well, my name, is Dan.
and after hearing about this blogging thing on my course i thought hmm, what a great idea, this is going to make it easy, not having to write essays, and a Lil thing to write online each week, holy shit was i wrong.
upon opening it for the first time i was faced with the question of a name for my blog spot, where so-far all of the good, respectful sounding names have been taken, which didn't help.
so after about I'd say 20 minutes of trying a name, clicking check, and waiting god Noe's how long for my so called 8 meg connection to tell me it was OK i settled for cosmic-poop i believe it is, thinking "it'll be taken" but now I'm stuck with it, and to be honest i like it, even tho it may sound a little immature.
directly after that traumatic episode i set about writing my first blog, totally unprepared, i sat their looked at it, got writers block, and thought fuck this.
its taken me about 2 weeks to try and face writing this blog so here it is, hope your happy.
hopefully soon ill have something fun to talk about, like Ive played a cool game of some sort, and ill post an amazing review.
anyway thats it from me for now, im sure ill have all sorts of kick ass things to tell you all soon, bye!!!!!
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