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/>.