Dearest classmates,
Please fill out this survey so that I might get information for my final project. If you don't answer, gamers everywhere will be misrepresented. You wouldn't want that on you heads now would you?
Please fill this out by December 2, 2009.
Survey 1 "Defining the Gamer"
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=G10WBWK1bvp3Jb3dpMWRkQ_3d_3d
Survey 2 "Survey for Gamers"
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=w1H8csku2hAt_2fk7C_2bhAhOA_3d_3d
P.S. If you fill this out please tell me and I will give you candy!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Final Games Project
In my final games project I want to address the stereotypes that the non-gaming community has concerning gamers. In order to do this I want to do a survey in which I ask an undetermined amount of people in various age groups what their view of gamers are. I’m sure most gamers know of at least one negative stereotype against them. So I want to see what other people's thoughts or images are when they hear “videogames” or “gamers”. Some questions I wish to address are: if they consider themselves gamers, how videogames have, if at all, affected their lives, what they believe a typical gamer looks like (e.g. sitting in their parents’ basement playing D&D”), so on and so forth. I then want to take these information put them into figures and critical analyze them. I will be comparing my results to typical stereotypes and seeing which if any are true, and if so how they reflect on the gaming community.
Dynasty Warriors 3
How can a game that has the same plot as its two prequels still be worthwhile purchase? To find the answer, I decided to take on Dynasty Warriors 3 for the PlayStation 2. Taken from Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this game, which is part of a series, rehashes the same story, but still somehow has quite a large following.
I was first introduced to this game by a friend who was obsessed with Dynasty Warriors and felt that she had to share it with me. Being the first Dynasty Warriors game to have a multi-player mode, she thought it best for us to play together, so I could get a chance to fight, and she could help me if need be. Since she had already chosen her strongest character, Sun Shang Xiang, I was left to choose from weaker characters who only had their first level weapon. Needless to say I died… a lot. With this experience I couldn’t see what was so great about the game; I actually found it a bit annoying.
It wasn’t until my brother lent me Dynasty Warriors 4 that I broke down and bought the 3rd game. Enlisting my sister as the second player, I took another go at the game. It was at this point that I found what was so appealing about the game. While I had previously played only in Free Mode, my sister and I now played in Musou Mode (the actual story). Since the game is taken from the era in China called The Three Kingdoms, it is not surprising that when one starts, he/she gets to choose characters form one of the three warring kingdoms: Shu, Wei, or Wu. The first step is to decide which of these kingdoms to fight in. After a few moments the winner ending up being Wu, since it was the only one with a female, and it had the prettiest people. That’s right, Wu had pretty boys.
The controls weren’t as hard as I thought they were when I had first played. The main problem was remembering what the trigger buttons do. A note to all who plan on playing this game: you have to hit the L2 button in order to see the enemies’ health bars. Without these bars floating above their heads the regular foot soldiers will look just like yours, and you won’t know who is an ally and who is not.
The game had some standard fare for a fighting game. Weapons, items, and characters all had the ability to level up…you even got more bodyguards. While not unique to this game, these features did increase the game’s re-playability.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the game sometimes makes it so the enemies are invisible. Your character could be running through a deserted area when he suddenly finds himself in the midst of 20 enemies. This doesn’t mean you were ambushed, rather more like they decloaked around you… and they can hit you, but you can’t hit them. Since there is no “cloak” or “decloak” function in the game, I have to wonder if this is perhaps a glitch.
While the attacks, characters, and overall graphics are of high quality, the same cannot be said for the voice acting. I can best sum it up by saying that it is atrociously bad in a strangely humorous way. For example, during the Nanman Campaign’s opening cut scene, a peon appears before Nanman King. His message, “Meng Huo there’s a problem” is delivered in such a sniveling, whiny voice that my sister and I missed the rest of the message because we were laughing so hard. While bad voice acting usually makes a game unbearable, here it somehow gives it better replay value. Seeing Sniveling Dude before the level makes the rampaging elephants and characters that have to be killed repeatedly during the mission, almost bearable.
Other problems that occurred during the game were either the inability to remember everyone’s names, or not being able to remember how to pronounce them. Keeping with military tradition, we gave many characters nicknames. Most of them were based on a distinctive feature of the character. For example, Hat Boy is the only person who wears a hat, the Fan Girls are two sisters who fight with giant fans, and Pipe Cleaner Man has what looks like a large pipe cleaner on top of his helmet. These names are far from manly but when you’re trying to tell your partner who you are fighting or who you’re supposed to be following these nicknames are rather efficient.
http://kongming.net/dw3/portraits/
Overall this game is very entertaining and enjoyable to play. The replay value is increased by the ability to unlock new characters, weapons and items. When you finish a character’s story make sure to watch the ending, especially if you and a friend play as the Fan Girl Sisters… it’s awesomely hilarious.
I was first introduced to this game by a friend who was obsessed with Dynasty Warriors and felt that she had to share it with me. Being the first Dynasty Warriors game to have a multi-player mode, she thought it best for us to play together, so I could get a chance to fight, and she could help me if need be. Since she had already chosen her strongest character, Sun Shang Xiang, I was left to choose from weaker characters who only had their first level weapon. Needless to say I died… a lot. With this experience I couldn’t see what was so great about the game; I actually found it a bit annoying.
It wasn’t until my brother lent me Dynasty Warriors 4 that I broke down and bought the 3rd game. Enlisting my sister as the second player, I took another go at the game. It was at this point that I found what was so appealing about the game. While I had previously played only in Free Mode, my sister and I now played in Musou Mode (the actual story). Since the game is taken from the era in China called The Three Kingdoms, it is not surprising that when one starts, he/she gets to choose characters form one of the three warring kingdoms: Shu, Wei, or Wu. The first step is to decide which of these kingdoms to fight in. After a few moments the winner ending up being Wu, since it was the only one with a female, and it had the prettiest people. That’s right, Wu had pretty boys.
The controls weren’t as hard as I thought they were when I had first played. The main problem was remembering what the trigger buttons do. A note to all who plan on playing this game: you have to hit the L2 button in order to see the enemies’ health bars. Without these bars floating above their heads the regular foot soldiers will look just like yours, and you won’t know who is an ally and who is not.
The game had some standard fare for a fighting game. Weapons, items, and characters all had the ability to level up…you even got more bodyguards. While not unique to this game, these features did increase the game’s re-playability.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the game sometimes makes it so the enemies are invisible. Your character could be running through a deserted area when he suddenly finds himself in the midst of 20 enemies. This doesn’t mean you were ambushed, rather more like they decloaked around you… and they can hit you, but you can’t hit them. Since there is no “cloak” or “decloak” function in the game, I have to wonder if this is perhaps a glitch.
While the attacks, characters, and overall graphics are of high quality, the same cannot be said for the voice acting. I can best sum it up by saying that it is atrociously bad in a strangely humorous way. For example, during the Nanman Campaign’s opening cut scene, a peon appears before Nanman King. His message, “Meng Huo there’s a problem” is delivered in such a sniveling, whiny voice that my sister and I missed the rest of the message because we were laughing so hard. While bad voice acting usually makes a game unbearable, here it somehow gives it better replay value. Seeing Sniveling Dude before the level makes the rampaging elephants and characters that have to be killed repeatedly during the mission, almost bearable.
Other problems that occurred during the game were either the inability to remember everyone’s names, or not being able to remember how to pronounce them. Keeping with military tradition, we gave many characters nicknames. Most of them were based on a distinctive feature of the character. For example, Hat Boy is the only person who wears a hat, the Fan Girls are two sisters who fight with giant fans, and Pipe Cleaner Man has what looks like a large pipe cleaner on top of his helmet. These names are far from manly but when you’re trying to tell your partner who you are fighting or who you’re supposed to be following these nicknames are rather efficient.
http://kongming.net/dw3/portraits/
Overall this game is very entertaining and enjoyable to play. The replay value is increased by the ability to unlock new characters, weapons and items. When you finish a character’s story make sure to watch the ending, especially if you and a friend play as the Fan Girl Sisters… it’s awesomely hilarious.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Final Chapter
Hmm so yeah, I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to be writing about this week. So in an attempt to do this blog I will more than likely just be rambling for about 400 words, maybe even less. I shall therefore apologize in advance for wasting your time.
Right, so a game studies project is just like any other research paper and/or topic, just with videogames as the topic. This chapter in An Introduction to Game Studies, while kind of boring and pretty much stating the obvious, told its readers how to do a research paper. If I had never written a research paper before, than this chapter would still be a little boring, but at least it would have been a great help. I am glad that this chapter was put into this book, because it is rare that one actually is given step by step directions on how to write this kind of paper. However, since I’m in my fourth year here at the University of Michigan Flint and am majoring in English, this whole chapter was pretty much just a review for me.
Overall if you don’t know how to do a research paper I think you should check this chapter out I’ll probably help you out quite a bit.
Right, so a game studies project is just like any other research paper and/or topic, just with videogames as the topic. This chapter in An Introduction to Game Studies, while kind of boring and pretty much stating the obvious, told its readers how to do a research paper. If I had never written a research paper before, than this chapter would still be a little boring, but at least it would have been a great help. I am glad that this chapter was put into this book, because it is rare that one actually is given step by step directions on how to write this kind of paper. However, since I’m in my fourth year here at the University of Michigan Flint and am majoring in English, this whole chapter was pretty much just a review for me.
Overall if you don’t know how to do a research paper I think you should check this chapter out I’ll probably help you out quite a bit.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
crack, alcohol and MMORPGs
My cat is attacking my shoelaces and my sister is helping her... wait that's not what this blog is about. That's right it’s about Massively-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) and people's addiction to them.
MMORPG is a needlessly long acronym that is just as difficult to say as saying the phrase itself. Ironically the game play also is needlessly long and complex. A coincidence? I think not.
I recently played the game "Dragonica." It was free (with cash options, which I am avoiding). I am wise to the trap and will not take the bait! Never will this game see even a penny of my hard-earned cash!
Anway to the point. The game is about.... well it tried to tell me the story at the beginning with a cutscene, but my computer was having...issues. I therefore missed large parts of the explanation, so I'm still not sure exactly what dragons have to do with the game. The game itself was fun that is once I got the hang of it. Your character can be from the warrior, magician, archer or thief class. Each has its own pros and cons. As I started the game found that I had a guide that was supposed to, well, guide me. I am sad to say that he failed at this task, epically. Not only did he not explain some of the basics to me, but when he would start talking they were at random times and the scroll bar was sooooo slow.
As with most MMORPGs, it is better to play with friends and form a party with them. However I fear for mine. I believe that they are becoming addicted to the game, and I don’t know if it is too late to save them or not. I started "Dragonica" with my friend whom I shall call Melilot (since I don't have permission to use her real name, her avatar's name shall suffice). She is currently a higher level then me, as is her boyfriend Stormbear (avatar name obviously). Normally this wouldn't bother me, but Stormbear started playing a week or so after Melilot and I did and his main archer is about the same level as Melilot. The second avatar he created while his warrior character is stronger than my thief (my only avatar). I admit that I try not to play that often, lest I fall into the trap that is MMORPG. The same cannot be said about my friends though.
I believe that MMORPGs are fun and are fine to play, IF you don’t allow them to consume your every waking moment. So if you’re reading this Melilot and Stormbear please step away from the computer and go outside and enjoy the fresh air and human interaction before its to late.
MMORPG is a needlessly long acronym that is just as difficult to say as saying the phrase itself. Ironically the game play also is needlessly long and complex. A coincidence? I think not.
I recently played the game "Dragonica." It was free (with cash options, which I am avoiding). I am wise to the trap and will not take the bait! Never will this game see even a penny of my hard-earned cash!
Anway to the point. The game is about.... well it tried to tell me the story at the beginning with a cutscene, but my computer was having...issues. I therefore missed large parts of the explanation, so I'm still not sure exactly what dragons have to do with the game. The game itself was fun that is once I got the hang of it. Your character can be from the warrior, magician, archer or thief class. Each has its own pros and cons. As I started the game found that I had a guide that was supposed to, well, guide me. I am sad to say that he failed at this task, epically. Not only did he not explain some of the basics to me, but when he would start talking they were at random times and the scroll bar was sooooo slow.
As with most MMORPGs, it is better to play with friends and form a party with them. However I fear for mine. I believe that they are becoming addicted to the game, and I don’t know if it is too late to save them or not. I started "Dragonica" with my friend whom I shall call Melilot (since I don't have permission to use her real name, her avatar's name shall suffice). She is currently a higher level then me, as is her boyfriend Stormbear (avatar name obviously). Normally this wouldn't bother me, but Stormbear started playing a week or so after Melilot and I did and his main archer is about the same level as Melilot. The second avatar he created while his warrior character is stronger than my thief (my only avatar). I admit that I try not to play that often, lest I fall into the trap that is MMORPG. The same cannot be said about my friends though.
I believe that MMORPGs are fun and are fine to play, IF you don’t allow them to consume your every waking moment. So if you’re reading this Melilot and Stormbear please step away from the computer and go outside and enjoy the fresh air and human interaction before its to late.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Game Review: Dragonic Online
So what kind of game genre(s) do you like? Perhaps it’s a good first person shooter, or post apocalyptic, or maybe even racing. Personally I have always been a fan of role playing games (RPGs), but it was not until just a few days ago that I finally entered the world of massively-multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). I’m still not sure if this was a good thing to do since this type of game tends to consume its players, but I still have faith that I won’t get to addicted to it. We’ll see how that long that confidence lasts.
A friend of mine was looking at new released games when we came across Dragonica Online. Thinking that it met the requirements for my assignment, and that the graphics looked kind of cute, I decided that I was going to play it. In the game you make your character so he or she can be one of four classes; warrior, magician, archer, or thief. Each class has its own; town, armor, weapons, skills, and a choice of two different career pathways. Once you have selected your class you are able to customize your character and name it, and now the story begins.
You start your journey on a lone road heading toward the town of your class, since I chose thief I was heading toward Back Alley, when suddenly you hear something calling you. The voice belongs to a small, cute (?) blue creature that is flying toward you. This little guy is going to be your own personal guide around Dragonica. Yay! right? No not really. He speaks incredibly slowly and you just want to keep hitting the space bar, since it’s an online game keyboard and mouse are used, so you can read what he’s trying to say. Furthermore he has the worse timing you can imagine. The guy is usually quite and just floats around behind you, but when he does talk it is during a conversation with a non player character (NPC), or worse when in battle. So you end either missing what the person you’re trying to talk to is saying or are getting attacked. The most annoying thing is that it doesn’t tell you half the things you need to know. It tells you that the “z” key allows you to use the portals but it doesn’t tell you that, if for example you’re a thief, that holding down “z” allows you to use a charge attack. You get this tidbit of information by pressing the “esc” key that bring up your controls. He also doesn’t tell you how to equip items for a good 3-4 hours into the game, which by this time you’ve probably figured it out yourself. So anyway once he has introduced himself and what not, you hear people screaming. Apparently the town is being attacked by wolves. The guard who you are now talking to decides to allow you to take on the job. I don’t know why he does or thinks he can trust me considering he simply refers to me as “Thief”, maybe he’s bit hit on the head one to many times. Taking up the job the action portion of the game finally begins.
The actual game play is pretty fun once you get the hang of the controls, or you change them to your liking. You get a variety of attacks, spells if you’re a magician, which can be chained to create a sweet little combo. Being an MMORPG you can play alone or you can team up with friends to take on bosses or accompany each other on quests. If you have friends you can create a four person team, another thing you’re not told how to do, by clicking on an icon on the lower right hand of the screen. This is a great asset for quests that require you to defeat a level, numerous times occasionally, where the boss has about 10 or more minions surrounding him. Having one person running around distracting the boss and the other(s) fighting helps prevent the death of all the players.
The graphics as I stated earlier are rather cute, but not in a its so cute it make you ill sort of way. The background is 3 dimensional, so you can jump on to crates or other structures including buildings. This is nice if you’re trying to get away from an enemy and heal. The characters and monsters look 2 dimensional and rather cartoonish. The different dimensional aspects of the game surprisingly complement one another rather well. The monsters have a comic effect when they die, as do you for that matter. When your character dies it falls to the ground mouth open and tongue sticking out. The game itself is well lit, except when you’re in towns then its night, and has a good balance of color and depth.
I would have to say that people should give this game a chance and play it. Just keep in mind that while the game does have some flaws, that as I write this review the game hasn’t been out for half a month yet. So the creators will more than likely fix the game’s problems as time goes on and a great game will emerge.
Interested in playing? Here’s the website! http://dragonica.thqice.com/index.html
A friend of mine was looking at new released games when we came across Dragonica Online. Thinking that it met the requirements for my assignment, and that the graphics looked kind of cute, I decided that I was going to play it. In the game you make your character so he or she can be one of four classes; warrior, magician, archer, or thief. Each class has its own; town, armor, weapons, skills, and a choice of two different career pathways. Once you have selected your class you are able to customize your character and name it, and now the story begins.
You start your journey on a lone road heading toward the town of your class, since I chose thief I was heading toward Back Alley, when suddenly you hear something calling you. The voice belongs to a small, cute (?) blue creature that is flying toward you. This little guy is going to be your own personal guide around Dragonica. Yay! right? No not really. He speaks incredibly slowly and you just want to keep hitting the space bar, since it’s an online game keyboard and mouse are used, so you can read what he’s trying to say. Furthermore he has the worse timing you can imagine. The guy is usually quite and just floats around behind you, but when he does talk it is during a conversation with a non player character (NPC), or worse when in battle. So you end either missing what the person you’re trying to talk to is saying or are getting attacked. The most annoying thing is that it doesn’t tell you half the things you need to know. It tells you that the “z” key allows you to use the portals but it doesn’t tell you that, if for example you’re a thief, that holding down “z” allows you to use a charge attack. You get this tidbit of information by pressing the “esc” key that bring up your controls. He also doesn’t tell you how to equip items for a good 3-4 hours into the game, which by this time you’ve probably figured it out yourself. So anyway once he has introduced himself and what not, you hear people screaming. Apparently the town is being attacked by wolves. The guard who you are now talking to decides to allow you to take on the job. I don’t know why he does or thinks he can trust me considering he simply refers to me as “Thief”, maybe he’s bit hit on the head one to many times. Taking up the job the action portion of the game finally begins.
The actual game play is pretty fun once you get the hang of the controls, or you change them to your liking. You get a variety of attacks, spells if you’re a magician, which can be chained to create a sweet little combo. Being an MMORPG you can play alone or you can team up with friends to take on bosses or accompany each other on quests. If you have friends you can create a four person team, another thing you’re not told how to do, by clicking on an icon on the lower right hand of the screen. This is a great asset for quests that require you to defeat a level, numerous times occasionally, where the boss has about 10 or more minions surrounding him. Having one person running around distracting the boss and the other(s) fighting helps prevent the death of all the players.
The graphics as I stated earlier are rather cute, but not in a its so cute it make you ill sort of way. The background is 3 dimensional, so you can jump on to crates or other structures including buildings. This is nice if you’re trying to get away from an enemy and heal. The characters and monsters look 2 dimensional and rather cartoonish. The different dimensional aspects of the game surprisingly complement one another rather well. The monsters have a comic effect when they die, as do you for that matter. When your character dies it falls to the ground mouth open and tongue sticking out. The game itself is well lit, except when you’re in towns then its night, and has a good balance of color and depth.
I would have to say that people should give this game a chance and play it. Just keep in mind that while the game does have some flaws, that as I write this review the game hasn’t been out for half a month yet. So the creators will more than likely fix the game’s problems as time goes on and a great game will emerge.
Interested in playing? Here’s the website! http://dragonica.thqice.com/index.html
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Just how much should society worry about videogames?
Videogames a harmless pastime? Or a plague that is taking over the world? For most gamers this is a rather stupid question that is answered by the prior. However, for non-gamers, especially parents, this question poses a very real concern. Both sides have different experiences with the item in question and therefore have different opinions of what the correct answer is. However, maybe the answer isn’t one of the options given; perhaps it in their own right they are both write.
People with hands on experience with videogames have more knowledge on the topic, and therefore should be able to form an educated opinion. However, this opinion is extremely biased favoring the game industry, and therefore are not going to see all the problems that games may contain. To them it is an experience of living as someone other than them self in a world that is not their own. Getting a chance to sniper the enemy in the head when they are being hunted down by a mob of monsters or the undead is very rewarding, it means you get to live longer. However, to the person who walks in the room to see the player sniping people may think that they’re happy about killing, and miss the point of what they’re really doing. As Stephen Totilo pointed out in this review on “Resident Evil 5”, “A lot of genuinely horrible actions depicted in video games don't seem horrible when viewed by the player of a game. They horrify only the onlookers watching you play -- or watching the trailer of someone else playing.”
Being unaware of what most videogames are about, many parents only see that their children spend hours a day on them. When they do happen to read the back of the case and they see that it says “mature content” they naturally assume the worst, but you know what they say about assuming. If they do watch their children play they may see the situation described above and fear that their child is planning the next Columbine shooting. What these viewers don’t seem to understand is that most gamers play these games because they either would never or could never do these things in real life. If parents are worried about which videogames their children play they should also be weary of what movies they watch. If, for example, parents allow their children to watch action movies where there is a lot of killing, then why, when they see those children play action videogames should they freak out? What is the difference between the two? Is it only due to being a spectator for the movie, and being the “in” the movie for a videogame? It seems like the parents should be happy that the children have enough sense to only be imitating the action where it is safe and fictional, and not out in the real world.
Both views are reasonable, because while a lot of games are harmless, there are those that go overboard. In the end if non-gamers really see videogames corrupting the youth then all they have to do is not buy them the game system, because without the system you can’t play the games. Besides, what kid can afford an over $300 game system?
People with hands on experience with videogames have more knowledge on the topic, and therefore should be able to form an educated opinion. However, this opinion is extremely biased favoring the game industry, and therefore are not going to see all the problems that games may contain. To them it is an experience of living as someone other than them self in a world that is not their own. Getting a chance to sniper the enemy in the head when they are being hunted down by a mob of monsters or the undead is very rewarding, it means you get to live longer. However, to the person who walks in the room to see the player sniping people may think that they’re happy about killing, and miss the point of what they’re really doing. As Stephen Totilo pointed out in this review on “Resident Evil 5”, “A lot of genuinely horrible actions depicted in video games don't seem horrible when viewed by the player of a game. They horrify only the onlookers watching you play -- or watching the trailer of someone else playing.”
Being unaware of what most videogames are about, many parents only see that their children spend hours a day on them. When they do happen to read the back of the case and they see that it says “mature content” they naturally assume the worst, but you know what they say about assuming. If they do watch their children play they may see the situation described above and fear that their child is planning the next Columbine shooting. What these viewers don’t seem to understand is that most gamers play these games because they either would never or could never do these things in real life. If parents are worried about which videogames their children play they should also be weary of what movies they watch. If, for example, parents allow their children to watch action movies where there is a lot of killing, then why, when they see those children play action videogames should they freak out? What is the difference between the two? Is it only due to being a spectator for the movie, and being the “in” the movie for a videogame? It seems like the parents should be happy that the children have enough sense to only be imitating the action where it is safe and fictional, and not out in the real world.
Both views are reasonable, because while a lot of games are harmless, there are those that go overboard. In the end if non-gamers really see videogames corrupting the youth then all they have to do is not buy them the game system, because without the system you can’t play the games. Besides, what kid can afford an over $300 game system?
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