New Games Journalism

This week we looked at New Games Journalism and how it differs from Old Games Journalism. New Games Journalism (here out referred to as NCJ) is essentially reviews and opinion based conclusion upon games, in my opinion this segregation if flawed as it is nigh impossible to keep all personal thoughts on a game locked up in any type of review (saying the world is beautifully made IS an opinion, not a fact (it's subjective)).

One article that especially stood out from the rest was Ian Shanahan's 'Bow, Nigger'. This article delved into the players emotional and immersive journey through a game of JK2: Jedi Outcast. He starts off in a more 'professional' old games journalism type role, but quickly descends into the depths of feelings and the experience. The problem with this story is that he contradicts himself; he starts off saying he won't stoop to the level of the other player but quickly descends into the common profanity and abuse that he has sworn to 'rise above'. He speaks of some common courtesy and refers to it like its law. He forgets that it is a players choice to how they act, and while he may choose to be an honorable Jedi, some people only wish to watch the world burn as a dishonorable Sith. I also found that what started as his epic journey, soon became his quest for a lust of greater acknowledgement; to become unto a Jedi, to be a hero. The problem I have with this is he is prior to this quite opposing in his views; he points out that it is just a game, that he doesn't really care and that while it's important to some, it is not to him. Then we reach the point where he refers to himself in all the manners of the Jedi, personally I found him to contradictive to enjoy.

Following on from this we began to look at Old Games Journalism, we observed reviewing sites and their approach to referring to things more technically; summing things up in short technical points and giving a rather standard specification for a review. However I found the attitude these methods used to be flawed; they're still opinionated just like NGJ, whether we like it or not; 'professional' reviewers in the end are still simply giving their opinions.

I personally prefer NGJ; because it tells you a lot more. Finding technical specs and details on a game can be interesting, but its rather easy, the real challenge is finding a good opinionated review that takes you on a journey. A review that defines an experience that you can understand and enjoy is much better than finding out a game has a 'great UI'

Remediation

In New Digital Media, remediation is a identified as a key defining characteristic. New and old media is categorised and identified by a spectrum ranging from Hypermediacy, to Immediacy.

Hypermediacy can be defined as the awareness of the audience to the medium. These are forms that are obvious and overt; they do not try to mask what they really are, instead they aim to remind the audience of what they really are.

A perfect example of this is HUD's; we know that the game is a game with them constantly there, in most cases they're an essentially crucial component of the game. But at the same time they really do a lot to remind us it is just a game.

Immediacy is quite the opposite; it tries to make itself less obvious to the consumer, the aim of immediacy is to immerse the consumer. However, many forms of media fail to achieve this and media does not make itself, and humans are always present in the creation.

A perfect example of immediacy's use within the games industry is 'Myst'. There are many games now that focus on a graphical journey, aiming to immerse you in the beautiful and seamless world that surrounds you.

Remediation on the other hand refers to the combination of different medias to create new and different forms of media. A perfect example of this can be Television shows and how they tapped into key components of plays, films and radio.

Remediation is more important in the world and occurs more than we give it credit for; widescreen TV's inspired by wide painting canvas's, the wheel as a use of mobility where it originated as a potters tool.

Narrative and Games

Important Story Elements:

Protagonists - The leading character or a major character in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text

Why is a protagonist important? Well it is quite simply in the definition; it's the lead character! No matter how vaguely a game focuses around a character, or how many characters it focuses around, it will always have one main character that is the primary force behind pushing the story forward.

Conflict - An incompatibility between two or more opinions, principles, or interests

This description of conflict is quite vague, it's quite a hard word to sum up. But in simplistic terms it is the situation that arises when two opposing forces/variables meet. It's crucial in a story because every story requires one, because anything in a story will be a conflict; 'Jim had to walk to the kitchen to get his potato chips'. The conflict there was probably getting up off his arse and walking to the kitchen.

In short; Every story has conflict, sometimes direct, and sometimes indirect.

Direct conflict is between obvious "enemies" such as Batman and The Joker, or France and Germany.

Indirect conflict is harder to see just by scratching the surface. A perfect example that we see a lot now'a days is the conflict between man and machine (technology).

Resolution of the Conflict - The ending of the conflict that results in the victory of one force over the other.

This is required, it basically has to happen for the story to work. If this doesn't occur; the story never progresses. How boring would it be if Jim Raynor in Starcraft never encountered the Zerg and just sat in his office all day doing nothing? Without pushing the story towards a resolution of some sort of conflict, you can never hope to achieve any sense of immersion or dramatic build.

Moral - A lesson, esp. one concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience

No matter what your story is, no matter what it does it will always have a moral. A moral to a story will basically create itself once everything else is in place. Most moral's are planned and for good reason; it gives you something to shape the story around. the moral in Jim and his journey to the kitchen would be 'if you get off your ass; you get to eat those tasty potato chips'.

Another important thing to note about stories is that people are the crucial factor, objects have no relevance. Objects are simply an excuse to involve characters, the characters themselves are what make the story interesting. Take for example Lord of the Rings; they could have been chasing after/protecting a golden cabbage that needed to be destroyed for all we know, the stories impact wouldn't have been affected much due to the strong and impressionable characters that breathed life into the adventure.

Puzzles in Story
Puzzles aren't a requirement within a story but can be a useful tool; as long as they press the story forward, a dead end puzzle that does nothing to push the story forward is likely to frustrate players and achieve nothing else.

Spacial Thinking
No one wants to see every single part of the adventure, you need to zoom in and focus on the important aspects of the story. You should always avoid including things that the audience can simply assume themselves. It would have been pointless to have shown every toilet break of every main character in Star wars, or to show us every piece of the walking in Lord of the Rings. While players can indeed be stupid, at least give them some credit!

Gender and games

For this weeks lesson we were presented with information regarding gender and its effects in the game design industry, a fair amount of this was demographical and thus factual (it was more about the way we perceived the statistics). To be successful as a games designer it is important to understand the needs, wants and desires of your target audience. For example; releasing a game in which you dress your barbie doll up in various clothing is unlikely to succeed if your marketing targets the over 30's audience. With insight into your target audience you can begin to understand what they really want in a game.

The first text we received was Segregation in a Male-Dominated industry: Women Working in the Computer Games Industry. This was based on how gender can effect the games design industry and the products from them. We are shown thought that a game which is developed with the audience of equal gender, both male and female, that the game will predominantly played by the male gender.

Segregation in a Male-Dominated industry: Women Working in the Computer Games Industry 
This first text focused mainly on the segregation of occupations in respect to gender internally to the Game industry. It was helpless to try to stay impartial on the reasoning for these segregation's as in our minds we knowingly realise the likely reasons for these segregation's in job roles

Now obviously it is well known that the games industry isn't the only sector that has clear bias and gender split workforces. But at the same time it could be one for concern. It could also be argued that due to the age of this industry and the way it began means it's simply to be expected for the industry to lie in this very uneven balance at its current age.

Women in the games industry (like many other industries) tend to suffer more taxing situations such as; less pay for the same load, fewer opportunities and less authority. Women also tend to encounter many more 'glass ceilings' than men do. Glass celings are basically the high point of reach for someone on the career ladder, and the reasons behind this can be many, but in most cases they come down to gender, class or ethnicity. More than most though it tends to be gender.

The games design industry is built up of a number of different specialties including development, production, design, level design, audio design, art and testing. Developmental roles with the industry are those roles that are involved in the creative and developmental aspect of game development. These roles create everything within the games from the content, the style of play, the reward systems and ultimately influence who the target audience of the game will be, and most of these roles are controlled by men (see the chart below)

Table Above: The percentage of men and women in each job description within the gaming industry.

As can clearly be seen from the table; women have little strength of numbers in the core elements of the games industry. Many theories can be suggested for the reasoning behind this. Personally I find the recent changes in trends and stigma to gaming to be a massively crucial factor; video games are a fairly recent aspect of gaming and play, and it wasn't so long ago that it was frowned upon by most and viewed as a geeky, anti-social aspect of deviants of society day to day life. In more recent times the market has become more glorified; popular kids and the general everyday person plays games. Another large factor could be tied into this; due to the short life of the video game industry, most veteran and experienced developers originate from the time of video games birth. Back in the early days of its creation most games were hard coded by the players themselves which in turn led to a thriving potential workforce in more recent days, a workforce that started off as the fan base which originally was comprised of primarily males.

The last things we looked at showed us different age groups and their genders and how they reflected upon each other. Most people wouldn't expect it but male and females were fairly similar in numbers in most areas. However this data is deceiving; it doesn't explain the type of playing that is done, (this explained why minors under the age of 10 made up such a high % of the population) once you get into the specifics and look a the different forms of media/games that are being engaged with, it becomes apparent where these figures differentiated.