Week 11 - Virtual Reality is the Next Big Thing in Video Gaming

Virtual Reality has a lot of potential in the future for gaming
Virtual Reality for people who may not know, is a way to almost be in the video game itself trying to place you into the world of a video game for a great gaming experience. The potential for virtual gaming is massive and could end up being the next best thing, but there is still a lot that should be done for it to really be the next best thing. 

To begin with there are a few issues that should be sorted out first. These issues are dealing with the safety of a person when using the virtual reality headset. They need to try and find a way to eliminate the motion sickness feeling and have some sort of sensor that tells the player if they are getting too close to objects around them whilst playing the game. These issues will help unleash the potential of VR Gaming as this will help eliminate any safety issues that may we stopping from having an immense success. The sensor will be handy otherwise people may get hurt whilst playing and being fully immersed into the world of the video game they are playing and this can lead to all sorts of different accidents to occur in the safety of people’s home. Then the motion sickness issue, may be a problem because if people cannot play the video game to long without getting dizzy or throwing up, then this may be a problem for the future of the technology as it won't grow in popularity if you are only able to play a game for 20 minutes and feel sick. 

Another issue that may prevent this from taking over the gaming industry is Competitive Gaming. This may not be able to be used in competitions since it is too much to have on your head all day long practising for tournaments. In the competitive scene of "League of Legends" the training for most competitors is to "practice for a minimum of 50 hours per week and most play the game far more". Now to be competitive in a gaming scene, you must spend most of your week playing that video game. If there was a competitive gaming scene in VR, this would be extremely painful and properly unsafe as this headset may cause severe problems for the human body. These range from heck issues to do the weight of the headset and possible balance or headache problems from the headset itself. Now the only way I can see Virtual Reality being the next massive thing, is if the headset can be used a lot so a competitive scene for VR games can grow and help flourish the headset. 

Overall, Virtual Reality has a lot of untapped potential to be the next important thing in video gaming history, but they should first help make the headset user friendly and prevent it from causing people pain whilst using it. The other way is to be able to create a competitive scene for games using Virtual Reality and if this can be accomplished, then there is no reason for this technology to not be the next massive thing. 

Reference:

Harrison Jacobs, 2015. "Here's the crazy schedule of young guys who make a huge salary playing video games, viewed 30 April 2017, <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/pro-gamers-explain-the-insane-training-regimen-they-use-to-stay-on-top-2015-5>.

Week 10 - Is Australia’s ‘Refused Classification (RC)’ category treating Adults like kids?

The RC category for Australia is treating Adults Unfairly

Refused Classification is classed as "Films, computer games and publications that are classified RC cannot be sold, hired, advertised or legally imported in Australia." The Refused Classification in Australia is used for pretty much no reason as they are treating adults like kids. They believe that they are helping our country by banning content from our national audience. The option should be up to the consumers whether they want to invest their time and money into a game or not. Instead the RC is controlling what people can consume in their video games which there is no need for this and this can be considered treating adults like kids. 

By controlling the consumers, this just leads to illegal actions such as pirating the game since it is not available in Australia. There should not be a constraint on what can and cannot be consumed in a country video games wise since, it doesn't affect the physical world like drugs as an example, they are illegal due to the dangers it can put live into. Now on the other hand, we have games being banned from our country for being too violent and gore. One of the most recent games to get banned from Australia was Mortal Kombat (2011), which was banned due to its violent game play and brutal finishes. Now this game may be different to most games when it comes to gore, but it should be up to the user whether or not they chose to buy and play the game. Most gamers know what they are getting themselves into when they buy a Mortal Kombat game and this should have been no different to another Triple AAA game. 

The Refused Classification does treat adults like kids as they restrict the content from them like parents may from their children. There should not be a restriction on the content people in Australia 

as it should be up to them to decide whether they buy a game or not. There is no need to ban a virtual game that people use as an escape, no matter how vulgar or violent it may be. Otherwise this can lead to illegal actions to obtain a simple game. Therefore, the Refused Classification on games it is treating adult like kids and they should not be allowed to choose what people consume for entertainment. 

Reference: 

Australian Government, na, Refused Classification (RC), viewed 24 April 2017, <http://www.classification.gov.au/guidelines/pages/rc.aspx>. 

Mortal Kombat, 2011, Video Game, NetherRealm Studios

Week 9 - Video Game Addiction

Video Games should not be the blame of an addiction

Addiction is considered to be "a condition that results when a person ingests a substance or engages in an activity that can be pleasurable but the continuation of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary responsibilities and concerns". This is a definition of addiction and gaming can come underneath this category but I think that it should not be the blame itself if it causes interference in the lives of normal people. 

There have been some interesting scenarios when it comes to video game addiction, but this should not be a problem to people unless they have other disorders themselves. The video games themselves should not cause any harm, towards people. Some people may see it as an escape from the real world but if these people take it too seriously they most likely have some sort of other issue interfering with their interests. Video games should not be a scapegoat for people to blame as if someone does not want to face the world, they more than likely have mental instability to be the blame for not keeping up with day to day activities. This has nothing to do with video games, the only reason it is used as an excuse it because it is a source of entertainment that the person is drawn to. 

If people are playing video games a lot, the game itself is doing the job its meant to do since you are meant to be enveloped into the world and atmosphere it creates. However, you must be able to distinguish the different between the importance of a game and the importance of keeping up with the simple things in life. If you cannot separate the two, then issues arise from this and can cause some instability in some lives, but this is not caused by video games rather issues that people have of their own.

Overall, video game addiction can be considered as an addiction but is only enforced when that person has other issues with themselves and go to video games as a release. This should not put the blame onto gaming itself rather that persons’ mental issues and instability. 

Reference:
Psychology Today, n.a, 'Addiction', viewed 16 April 2017,  <https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/addiction>.

Week 7 - Violence in Video Games

Violent Video Games do not cause Gamers to be violent

The main point I am going to make in this post, is that video games have no correlation to making people more violent than they would be without video games. Video games are set in a fantasy world, some may try to re-enact realism such as the 'Grand Theft Auto' Series, but this does not mean that it will enable people to have violent out bursts within our community. There have been many other traumatic events that have occurred throughout history including the more recent World Wars that have a multitude of violence and death involved and could not be pinned on video games since they didn't exist then.

Violent video games should not be a negative in the community, rather they should be seen as an outlet for people to let out whatever they are feeling in a game instead of real life. This should reduce violence and it does correlate to the crime rate over time has been decreasing as the consumption of games increases. This unveils that more people spend their time playing games in the safety of their home, rather than exploring the world and committing crimes whilst doing it for reasons such as simply boredom. The charts below show that there is somewhat of a correlation between when the increase of video games and the decrease in crime rate is which can be considered relevant to each other. This however, rather proves the opposite of violence in games influencing people in a positive manner.

The logical reason for violence in video games is that it can be a release from the real world and since it is a fictional world, you can do anything without consequence so the violence is fine. The world is better off with violence within video games as it does not result in negatively on people rather gives them a way to release stress by relaxing and see what can happen. 

References:
Rachel Barkley, 2014, 'Do Video Game Make Kids Saints or Psychopaths (and Why is it so Hard to Find Out?), viewed 4 April 2017, <http://www.healthline.com/health-news/video-games-saints-or-psychopaths-082814#6>.

Week 5 - Plots within Games

Why Open World Story are more popular than Linear plots

The gaming landscape has a large range of story, but how that story is developed over the journey of a game is dependent on the type of gameplay elements in the game. Open world games have been on the rise for quite some time now and have started to show how great a world can be when you can explore. Whereas the streamlined stories can still have great story telling capabilities, but may not be able to capture the world that the game is set in. 

There has been a multitude of open world games released, whether it is one created by Bethesda with their well-known Elder Scrolls and Fallout series or by the goliath that is Nintendo with it’s recent release of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", there are many different companies going for the Open World genre over the linear plot line. A great example of how the story can be expressed in an open world game is CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This single player game, has won the hearts of many gamers out there, with its main story, which is outstanding and then the ability to be able to explore the world of Witcher as the main character Geralt, to see the different stories around the region. This open world story also had multiple ending which is a great way to help immerse players into the world by allowing their actions to have an impact in the story with the choices they decided and made Geralt the man he is at the end. 

A key area that is the reason open world games are popular is due to the expansive environments that have been created with the large range of people and creatures threaded throughout a game. The landscape that you can explore is very important when creating an open world game, as it all should fit the genre and the story. But, when it does, the games that can be created are amazing and show how much story there is in a world, whether it is helping a poor npc with a quest or just the interaction with the environment itself. These aspects of being able to explore and meet people in a world, help cement the story in place and see the different stories in the area. Were as, linear story games can have a great plot, but it’s not the same as an open world as you only see the world on the path you take and cannot explore the areas around to get the feeling for the game.

Open world games are largely popular now due to the amazing ability to capture a fantasy world and make it seem real when exploring the landscape as it encapsulates you into its world and gives you more than one story to play through. Therefore, more game developers are stepping away from the linear story games where you can play through it once and be done with it. Instead they are creating games that can have multiple endings with a lot more story components and content to be explored in an open world environment to give people endless hours of gameplay into a world that they enjoy.

Reference:

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, 2015, Video Game, CD Projekt RED

Week 4 - Realistic Graphics vs Stylised Graphics

Why realistic graphics shouldn't determine the quality of a game

The new generation of gaming, has unloaded a large quantity of games being released with high quality graphics to make it look realistic. This influx of high graphical games means that there have been a lot of low quality games that have been created due to too much focus on the graphical looks of a game rather than the game-play itself. The gaming industry should first aim to have the game-play aspect of a game in place before thinking about which style of graphics the game should aim for. Rather than choosing the realistic style before knowing any of the elements of the game first. 

A recent high graphical game to be released is "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare". This game is renowned for its strong graphics, but the game-play aspect has not been strong enough for the game to work. The overall reviews of this game on steam (as of 12/03/17) is a low 39% positive reviews and within the last 30 days, only 19% are positive reviews about the game. For a AAA game, this is not a game that is worth all the time that has been spent into the game. The graphics for this game do look amazing, but the game-play has completely let down the game. Therefore, the main area that should be focused on first is the game-play, just because a game has high quality realistic graphics, does not mean that it is a good game. 

Game developers should not jump straight to realistic graphics, they should first see the game-play, story and genre of the game they are developing and then decide on the style that would best suite their game.  Whilst realistic graphics is a great aim and is changing the gaming industry by making it a must for AAA games, but it should not be a must. The style of the game should fit the game-play and even have some unique styles, such as the style of the "Borderlands" franchise. This game is a AAA game that creates its own chiselled style and embeds this style into the over the top game-play amazingly well and  has created a high-quality game with a hint of the creator’s own style. Thus, the graphics of a game, do not determine the quality of game-play. 

References:
Borderlands, 2009, Video Game, Gearbox Software.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, 2017, Video Game, Infinity Ward.
Steam, 2016, Call of Duty:Infinite Warfare, viewed 12 March 2017, <http://store.steampowered.com/app/292730/>.

Week 3 - 2D Gaming vs 3D Gaming

How 2D games are still relevant in a 3D gaming industry

The gaming industry in our current time, is mostly built off people assuming that 3D games are the go to for making a game as many people can associate 3D to contributing to greater graphics therefore they are superior so 2D gaming, but this is not always the case. There are other contributing factors that make up 2D games as well, with the variety in game play, story and visuals.

2D games have recently seen a resurgence within the gaming community with the capability of mobile devices increasing in power and allowing the potential of games to be played on that software. This has allowed 2D games to come back into the gaming cycle with their unique design styles and ability to be able to run increasingly better on some devices rather than a 3D game, which requires more power and resources to be able to be played. This allows 2D games to be made rather quickly compared to most 3D games, but can still deliver high quality game play.

An example of this high-quality game play is a game released on the 25th of February 2017, called "Hollow Knight". This a 2D indie, metroidvania, plat-former with stunning visuals and challenging game play that can show that 2D games a still alive and well. With a steam review of 9 out of 10 and currently 91% of reviews (as of 06/03/17) on steam are positive about the game, this shows that 2D games are not dying out, this is just the life of 2D gaming living on and still strong.

In a 3D gaming world, 2D gaming is still relevant with great games coming out just as often as there are great 3D games and with a large variety of genres and art styles to complement the game. This can be seen as the rise in 2D gaming on mobile devices that spurred on more recent 2D classics and let’s hope that there are still plenty of well-made 2D games to come.

References

Hollow Knight, 2017, Video Game, Team Cherry.
Steam, 2017, Hollow Knight, viewed 6 March 2017, <http://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/>.

Week 2 - Gaming History after 2000 - Dark Souls

How the Dark Souls Franchise has changed the Gaming Industry

The game series created by FromSoftware, that was released in 2011 with the first game "Dark Souls". This game took the gaming community by storm with its challenging mechanics and the intense fights that occur throughout the game. The series is seen by the gaming community as one of the hardest, mechanically challenging games there are out there. All the different features this game has, allowed it to impact the gaming community and give game designers a new look on the possibilities with game creation.

The main goal of this game is to accomplish defeating multiple bosses that can be found littered throughout the vast landscape in the Souls series games. This may sound like a simple game with a standard story mechanic of progression being through defeating a tough enemy, but Dark Souls takes this to a whole other level that no other game had show before. This is due to all areas in the game out to get you and take you down, from the simplest enemy in a new area ranging to a almost impossible boss to defeat. The challenge in this game, had not been seen by the gaming industry before, as most games like to be able to keep the player base by making the game easy and normally have difficulty levels for people whom wish to play a harder game. Dark Souls differs from this difficulty slider as they want to make their game as hard as possible and have only the most determined players finish their game.

Another interesting aspect of this game is that there is no one guiding you throughout the areas, new players might accidentally stumble upon one of the harder bosses in the game if they take the road less travelled without realising and can really turn the pressure up on their skills. This series teaches patience to players, otherwise it is highly unlikely that they will succeed through this game. This requirement of patience can often put of aggressive players from the series as they find this game to be impossible, but it can also teach players and give them new skills. This game is different to most mainstream games as the game will try its best to make players no want to player their game. Due to this fact, it has created a massive gaming community of people who wish to take on the challenge of this game with highs and lots of lows everywhere you go. There was no game like a Souls game before the release of the first Dark Souls and a main reason is that one of the lead designers of the game, Hidetaka Miyazaki, believes that "genre is shackles" which from this game is true, as it may have created its own genre of Souls-like games. 

Essentially, the three games that make up this series, are like no other and has taken the gaming industry by storm with it creating its own genre of game play and now we are starting to see more games being created by other developers trying to recreate what makes Dark Souls so great and challenging. 

Reference

Miyazaki H, 2016, Hidetaka Miyazaki on Twitter, viewed 26 Feburary 2017, <https://twitter.com/HidetakaMiyazak/status/809856842272768000>.

Week 1 - The History of Games before 2000

How Tetris was a Success

In an industry that was not created until the complications of war arose and the advancement of technology was required, Tetris was born in 1984 during the cold war in Soviet Russia. This was created from the depressing times the people in Russia were experiencing and Alexey Pajitnov, whom was a computer programmer at Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, thought of the idea of Tetris and put that idea into action. Tetris is now a world-renowned puzzle game that is addicting and brings fun along with it, but how did this gaming hit, become so big and change the gaming industry forever?

Tetris became a successful game in 1984 and has been world renown ever since and has been able to create a line of games that are still being made now keeping up with technology and the demand of someone always wanting to play Tetris. At the time, Tetris was taking over the world with its simple puzzle mechanics and at the time Pajitnov was "wary of making it too complex" which was a good way to look at it and wouldn't be the franchise it is today, even admitting he "would not change anything" about it in today's world. The simple puzzle formula of Tetris made it great to start out as a beginner and allowed people to get better with the progression of levels making the blocks fall faster and giving people less time to react, making it competitive and the reason Tetris is still around today. 

Tetris also grew in popularity as it was one of the first games to be released on a handheld console being the original Game Boy console released by Nintendo. Tetris had so much success on handheld consoles that the popularity of it has been one of the main reasons that Nintendo has created more handheld devices. The great success of Tetris lead to further iterations of it but it still has the same focus on the simple elements of the game which are the greatest aspect of the game and it the main reason why it was so popular. A producer from the makers of Angry Birds described Tetris as “probably the first break out casual video game” which it was as the simple controls and aim kept it casual and fun.

Finally, Tetris has been a huge success in the gaming industry and due to its simple mechanics, which make it fun and addicting. Also, the timing of the game also helped people take their mind off the problems in the world and continued to help establish one of the long lasting handheld console brands from Nintendo.

Andrew Hudson

References:
Govorun K 2015, 'The history behind the success of Tetris' viewed 20 February 2017,<http://in.rbth.com/economics/2015/07/20/the_history_behind_the_success_of_tetris_44305>.