Final Fantasy X - Graphics faults

Charizard Joey uses Flamethrower to allow her to indulge in burninating Square Enix.
Final Fantasy X is an amzing game storyline wise, I love it, I always have and I always will.

But playing the game over the weekend while I was waiting for my laptop to come back with all my new dyslexia software on I couldn't help but notice the faults in the graphics of the game.

Tidus's design is almost perfect, not quite, there is some stretching but not as much as most of the charcaters, however...

The mapping is streched in levels and on charaters clothes, especally Rikku's, there are a couple of places where there are too many ploys in a scene and the renderer in the games system cannot keep up, there is anti-aliasing on swords, and worst of all you can see the anti-aliasing on charcaters!!!!

Square Enix have released Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 and I love them for that but for Ra's sake, if you are going to release a game will they bloody well make sure they have all the faults worked out before they bloody release it.

What is worse, most of the gamers who play it won't realise, because I didn't notice until I started Game Art Design, and the faults leapt out at me demanding retribution.

So, Charizard Joey has flown to Japan and is burninating Square Enix.

I wonder who will be next to face my Flamethrower.

Joey

"Just one more thing, those we have lost, and the dreams that have faded...

Never forget them." (Yuna, Final Fantasy X)

Week 11 - The elements of Game Design - Gameplay

Landing on top of the Fletcher Buliding.

"Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems, especially formal games. Proper use is coupled with reference to "what the player does". Arising alongside the development of game designers in the 1980s, gameplay was used solely within the context of video or computer games, though now its popularity has begun to see use in the description of other, more traditional, game forms. Generally, the term "gameplay" in video game terminology is used to describe the overall experience of playing the game excluding the factors of graphics, sound, and the storyline. The term "Game mechanics" refers to sub-elements of the gameplay, but particularly the primary control and movement features of the game (thus excluding things like level design or AI).

Many current game design theorists from the background of art theory argue that gameplay is a largely meaningless or empty term, superseded by other concepts established in the repertoire of perception, anthropology, and general iversified psychology. Others see the very term as an indication that current game design theories remain primitive and underdeveloped noting that, for example, cinema does not require "movie-watch" nor novels "book-read" in order that these (non-interactive) media be described formally. Current academic discussions tend to favor more practical terms such as "game mechanics".

Despite these criticisms, the term gameplay has gained acceptance in popular gaming nomenclature, as it succinctly indicates a domain of perceptual concepts not readily accessible by other phrases. Some gaming reviews give a specific score for gameplay, along with graphics, sound, and longevity. Many consider "gameplay" to be the most important indicator of the quality of a game. Many game critics feel that gameplay in games is analogous with narrative in fiction, and serves as the foundation to which other elements (for example, story) are added. Those who counter the art theory of game point out that games are essentially playing. Playing is as old as or even older than art in the history of humanity. Therefore, it may not be appropriate to define or evaluate games in the same context as art. In fact, a few Japanese gamemakers have their origins in toy making, the most famous being Nintendo. A notable contemporary play theorist is Jesper Juul who works on both pure play theory and the application of this theory to Computer game studies. The theory of play and its relationship with rules and game design is also extensively discussed by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman in their book: Rules of Play : Game Design Fundamentals."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gameplay

English please. No seriously, some of this would be easier explained in English that anyone can understand, not technobable.

What I think it is saying is that Gameplay is the term for the experiance of playing a game and this doesn't include the sound, graphics or storyline. I think it is also saying that experts belive that the term is an empty one and that it proves the gaming industry is still primative because films and books don't need a similar term.

I think that is complete and utter bollocks.

Gameplay is an important feature in games, to me it implys how much a game emerses you in the world and character of the game, films and books don't need these terms becuase you are not interacting with the book or film you are reading or watching it, that is something completely different, obviously these experts don't understand that differences between books and film to games, they come from a background of art theory, not a games design background, otherwise they would understand the subtle differences.

Many games mags give marks to a game for gameplay, and it is a term which covers a whole range of things in a game, and to a gamer gameplay is important because a game with crap gameplay will not be anywhere near as good as a game with good or excellent gameplay. A game doesn't need good graphics or music, though that helps, after all, the difference between movies and games and real life is that real life doesn't have a sound track. However both the graphics and the music help to improve the game as it helps the player basically mentally enter the world they are watching and interacting with.

It is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, etc, important in games to have good gameplay as it will attract people and they will pass the word onto thier friends and the chain will continue. Gameplay is not something that can be designed into a game, it's something that is created when a games factors join together to create somethng that totally emerses the player into a world and life of someone completely different and causes the player to forget about the outside world.

That's my opinion, I bet that the rest of the class will have thier own,

And now I'm up to date,

And I know my wings are strong enough to allow me to fly again,

So I will take off from the Fletcher Builidng and look forward to Christmas with my family.

Joey

Week 10 - The elements of games design - story and character

Further up in the sky now, using the thermals to glide : )

Week 10 ->

Characters in games have to have personality to appeal to gamers.

Special effects will no longer sell games...

Well it will but they will not sell well because some gamers will buy them because they look good and return them when they realise what a pile of shit they are. They will then buy a game that isn't as astetically pleasing but the storyline and and characters are much more appealing and keep you hooked until the very end.

http://gamasutra.com/features/20060324/cifaldi_01.html

Gives you the differences between the two main characters of the XBox 360 game, Ninety-Nine Nights. One is cold and almost cruel while the other is more caring and empathic. This is importants as it effects the storyline of the game as while you are the more empathic character, you can choose to go another route and this in turn would change the events unfolding.

This sort of character development and story develo9pemnt appeals much more to gamers then that which is liniar and boring, and for a player to really become a character and fully emerse themselves in the game, they have to be able to understand the emotions of that character, and thier personality and traits, what they say and do, and thier body language displays a whole range of feelings and attracts people.

For example, in Final Fantasy X, which I will rant about later, the main charcater, Tidus, is telling the story of how they get to the point that they are at when the game begins, which is in fact somewhere near the end.

To start off with you really can not like Tidus, because he is a arogant stuck up git, but as the story develops we find out why he's like he is and he changes as the story goes on, acting less like an idiot and more like a person. This Character development is important to the storyline, as when he fades away at the end, when the dreams of the Fayth end, we really care, and we feel sorry for Yuna, who doesn't understand and doesn't want Tidus, who is in fact a dream of the Fayth made real by the power of Sin, to leave.

I find fantasy completely irriesitable because 1. I write it, and 2. I get lost in a good fanatsy, learning about the ways and customs and lives and magic and monsters and... lol, I'm going off on one again.

But the story isn't important if we're not drawn into it by an engaging main character.

That's what I would have said had I not got distracted.

Week 9 - Introduction to Games Technology

Ok, I am really, really behind for more then one reason so I won't list them here.

This Charizard's wings have been injured for a while, but now she's ready to fly again.

So no witty starts, just the task at hand.

Games Technology is completly different now to how it was back in 1967, I have a feeling that if you'd told people then what games today would be like they'd have called you a liar and disbelieved you. The first video game console to work on a TV was called a Brown Box and was invented by Ralph Baer, originally only released with a 'chase' game which showed two squares chasing each other across the screen.

Now if we want a chase scene we have to think about what the two characters look like, and where they are running and what it looks like and if there are any spectators...

See the difference?

This was controled by a box with knobs that you twisted and the squares changed direction.

Nowadays if you want a dude to change direction on screen you just move a joystick.

I think it's very funny that the gaming industry has come full circle, since some of the earliest games systems (The Atari) were controlled using a joystick.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050523/console_timeline/

Gives a time line of consoles and I have been rather suprised to find that the Playstation, which became a stable part of my gaming diet, came out over ten years ago... very scary. I was seven years old when it came out, SEVEN!!!!! Gah!

It was funny though to see that buttons are begining to fade out, replaced by joysticks and movement sensors. Games now are completly different from back then, after nearly 40 years games have reached the point where the games look practically real.

A long way from the brick of the Brown Box and it's squares.

Ergonomics have been important in attracting new gamers, the PS One, the little white PS attracted more crowds then the huge grey brick that was the original Playstation, the Gamecube's simple looks attracted more then the black PS2 brick that has recently become the PS2 Slimline.

The weird PS3 controller, is not half as attractive as the nuchucks of the Nintendo Wii, how I want one of those.

As regards to which controller was the easiest to use, while I am a big fan of the Gamecube, I have to say that it's controller wasn't the easiest to use, I do love the controller of the PS2, which is simple and really really easy to use, you just havr to love it really.

In looks for consoles, the Nintendo DS wins. The little handheld looks amazing, and all it's features are brillient, touch screen anyone?

I own a pink one, muahahaha.

And a Slimline PS2, and a Black Gamecube, and a PSP (not as good as my DS) and my pink DS.

A joypad isn't a dying breed I don't think, until they can develop reasonable technology that allows for total emersion in the game. I think the joypad has a long life ahead of it.

Quotes of the week -

I see now that the circumstances of ones birth are irrelevent and it's what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are. (Mewtwo, Pokemon The Movie)

Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, it's never easy when so much is on the line. (Power of One, Pokemon 2000)

Outside the battles maybe tough, but the friends are real. (Misty, Pokemon The Movie 3)

Yes, I do still like Pokemon, :p

And this like has recently been reignited by Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, in whish you get turned into a Pokemon after taking a personality quiz.

The scary thing is though, I didn't get the same questions each time I took the test and yet I ended up as a Charmander on BOTH my versions of the game, and even when I tried to restart my Red Advance Version, I still ended up as one, lol, brave and couragous, I can deal with that... if I'd been a Psyduck however...

But on my Blue DS Version I've completed the storyline, and it's summed up quite nicly in a one shot on my ff.net account, and now I'm no longer just a Charmander. I am Charmeleon and soon I'll be a Charizard.

Then people better watch out, cause this Fire/Flying type will let nothing stand in her way.

Fairlight Studios

These are is just two of the photos taken when I went to Fairlight Studios in London for my complimentary photoshoot organised by Miss England, that took place in London last friday.

It was great fun, and me, Dave and one of my flatmates were able to go sightseeing afterwards before I came back early and they went to a show in the West End, the Producers I think it was. I have about 29 other photos that were sent to me as a photo portfolio and these are two of my favourates.

There on the day, was a stylist, a professional make up artist and professional photgrapher, all of whom did thier best to make sure that I looked good for the photos that could get me my place in the Miss England line up.

Lol, like my luck is that good.

Ah well, good things come to those who wait.

Joey.

Week 8 - Storytelling in games

After meeting the real life Game Art Director, I think I will follow his helpful advise and work in the games industry for a while before I statr my own comapny to get the contacts and make friends in the industry, he was helpful and answered all my questions and it really helped mme with planning for the future as I now know what I need to do.

It also gave me a plan for when I do get my own companmy as to what the sort of timelines we would have for games art design per game.

It was an awesome expericance and I look forward to the next guest lecture.

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Now to week 8's task -

Stories are often the part that holds me at ransom in a game.

David Freeman was once quoted as saying;

""Emotioneering"™ is the term I created to describe a body of over 1000 techniques for making game emotionally immersive. That is, they evoke, in a player, a wide breadth and depth of emotions. I believe that all techniques to make games emotionally engaging fall into 34 categories. These categories include:
* Techniques to get a player to identify with the character he plays;
* Techniques to get a player to bond with an NPC (a Non-Player Character)
* Techniques to give an NPC a quality of emotional depth, even if the NPC speaks just one line of dialogue.
* Techniques to take the player on an emotional journey
and many others. Those are just a few categories of Emotioneering techniques. There are 30 others."

This is true, a good story in a game will capture a player, forcing them to play on and lose themselves in the game, forgetting concepts like time and food as they're drawn ever deeping into an emotional rollercoster that only ends when the story is over, and the THE END screen is sat starting at you and you're left thinking, now were did the last seven hours go?

And to achieve this you have to hire a writer that knows the genre and can write a good story, and works well with your creative team, if they don't then problems can arise.

As an author I know all to well that to engage an audiance you need characters that seem real and alive, as opposed to flat and lifeless, and no MARY SUES, characters have to seem human, to have human flaws and weaknesses instead of seeming invincble, a fighter will lose sometimes, a mage will drain themselves... etc.

In some games the storyline is quite liniar, and in others things you do in the game change events in the future and it is these games that draw the bigger crowds because everyone gets different endings and so everyone borrows/lends/steals it from th eothers and discusses it leading to others buying it and the cycle goes on and on.

Storylines play a big part in most games, though no one really cares why the hell you're racing arouond the tracks in a racing game, and as such they are really important.

Week 7 - An introduction to Art Direction for Games

"Art Direction -

In professional game art departments, the art director is the captain of the ship. Art directors are generally responsible for setting the visual tone, quality, and style for the game. They are at least indirectly responsible for every object, texture, level, character, and effect that appears in a game. This is a profound responsibility.

A good art director must consider how each character, prop, set, and location will look from any possible place in any level of the game. Even things like plants, trees, paving stones, cracks in the walls, and graffiti must be carefully designed to support the story, feel, and illusion of the game. Sometimes, the individual props and furnishings can be as crucial to the story as many of the characters the player encounters."

Wow, short and sweet, but conveys a lot about the duties a Game Art Director has to his team, and to the game. An Art Director is responcible for the style and atmosphere in the game, for if he does his job right, the backgrounds and items within the game can support itself, providing the feeling and atmosphere that you want to fit in with the genre of the game, for example making sure the graphics are right to provide a creepy, slightly gross background within a horror game. He or she makes sure that the artists keep everything to the Art Style Guide and that everything is as it should be for positions and colours and effects and it sounds like a huge job...

I'd say that drirection in that respect is very similar to film directing, where a bad director will not make a good film, not matter how many highly paid actors he has, like them, an Art Director has to be prepared for anything and able to keep things running and looking smooth and prefect... poor guy...

And yet saying that, I either want to get a job in a games company, or start a Game Art Company all of my own, of course not on my own, I have my eyes out for people to recruit if/when I do start my own company. The question would be, would I be an Art Director, and if so what skills would I have to develop?

The obvious ones would be drawing and modelling...

No, not the Miss England type modeling...

Skills like 3D modelling in engines like 3DMax, and perfecting my skills in Photoshop.

Also I would need good people skills, something I never used to possess, (Thank you Robin), and be able to handle eveything at once, managing people and time and money and companies that want our work... Now I'm getting ahead of myself... it's got to be better then getting behind...

Anyway, I'm getting distracted, the thing will be to listen to the guest speaker, later on today, since it's now 1 am, and work out where to go from there, maybe he can give me a few clues.

See ya later,

Joey

Week Six - An introduction to Game Design

Wow, I'm behind...

Alright then, week six :)

First of all, english is appreciated Mr Crawford.

However, I do think he has a point, games have been a part of our culture since long before we can remember, and that a good game has many outcomes, not just one linar pathway, and that a good game needs conflict of some form in to keep the players interest as it keeps the player interacting with it at all times, for example, Call of Duty, if you look away from the screen for more then a second you will die, or Final Fantasy XI, again real time battles meaning real time deaths.

Games have been a part of everyones lives, to help them with work, play, learning, living, since the long, long before Ancient Egypt, and gameplay has played an important role in this too.

Chris Crawford says that "Game play is a crucial element in any skill-and-action game. This term has been used for some years, but no clear consensus has arisen as to its meaning. Everyone agrees that good game play is essential to the success of a game, and that game play has something to do with the quality of the player's interaction with the game. Beyond that, nuances of meaning are as numerous as users of the phrase. The term is losing descriptive value because of its ambiguity. I therefore present here a more precise, more limited, and (I hope) more useful meaning for the term "game play". I suggest that this elusive trait is derived from the combination of pace and cognitive effort required by the game. Games like TEMPEST have a demonic pace, while games like BATTLEZ0NE have a far more deliberate pace. Despite this difference, both games have good game play, for the pace is appropriate to the cognitive demands of the game. TEMPEST requires far less planning and conceptualization than BATTLEZONE; the demands on the player are simple and direct, albeit at a fast pace. BATTLEZONE requires considerably greater cognitive effort from the player, but at a slower pace. Thus, both games have roughly equivalent game play even though they have very different paces. Pace and cognitive effort combine to yield game play."

Apperently that talks about Game Play, however each individual gamer has thier own ideas, to me gameplay is the interaction between player and game, and how involved you are in the storyline, if the story grips you, making you play till the end credits roll and you think, "Let's do that again!" To me, that is good gameplay.

Games development isn't up to just one person anymore, people have to work together as a team to make a game that is playable and enjoyable, and differnt genres require different techniques and styles, after all, you wouldn't put the sort of graphics that go into say Devil May Cry, or a horror game, into something like Final Fanstay or games of that genre, the graphics would look out of place and disturbing, when the player doesn't need to be disturbed.

(I'd say half the gamers back home are plenty distrubed enough as it is, lol)

When I play a game, the graphics aren't half as important as a good storyline that has me hooked, like a good book that you can't put down, and easy to master, but absorbing interaction with the characters, and heroines and heros of the games, and if the game happens to look absolutly awesome at the same time then yeay!!!!!

So heres week six's thing, a little late but sorry.

Joey

Duellist Desperatly Seeking Challenge!!!!!!!!

HELP MEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

As a Duellist used to playing a game (or four) of the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game against my friends, every day, coming here and not duelling anyone for weeks is really really weird.

And now I need somebody to duel really badly, cause if I don't get a challenging game of Duel Monsters soon, I'm gunna go mental. I'm so desperate for a duel I will play semi-nicely (I never cheat), and I will take my Egyptain God Monsters out of my deck for the first three duels against a person.

Anyone at Demontfort University who's willing to duel me comment here, and I'll try to arrange a time and place for the duel.

Thanks,

Joey

Week 5 - Writing about games... Things that need thinking about...

Why is the games press often written as if it was written for idiots?

Seriously, unless you know the best places or magazines for reading games reviews and press, it isn't hard to find a review or critic written in 'games for infants' language.

However reading the links we were given and looking at the questions we've been set, I must admit that maybe my bias is wrong, and that maybe my worry should be the fact that money-men (I like that term) are thinking about dumping professional games writers for nOObs barely out of college. Then the quailty of the good mags and sites would go down the toilet as these nOObs would not have the experiance needed to write intelligently for thier audiance.

As regards to who pays thier wages, I would think that the money-men who do that, probably get quite a bit of the profit from the games mag buying public. After all I doubt that the people who back one mag would do so without edging thier bets, and to do so would be to 'sponcer' more then one mag, say like Nintendo Offical Magazine, and then to back one of it's unoffical counter parts.

An objective ranking system is impossible I feel, after all, all games reviewers have to play a game first and if it isn't thier normal choice of game genre, then they will be biased against the game unless they are very very very open minded, and still there will be a slight bias against the game.

Reading the NGJ reviews, I think they are great and show a lot of the writers personality and interest for games which isn't found in normal games reviews, my favourate being http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackout/zangband.html , which I can sympathise with in games, since I used to play quite a few games that worked in this fashion and grrrr. NGJs seem to be personal and go off the actual expericance, instead of giving a review of the game which seems as if you have only watched someone else play a game. It also talks about how the writer responded to the game. Other forms of writting reviews are normally objective and don't always make you feel interested in a game, it's information that was put on a page, and doesn't always sink in.

In my own writing, I don't like to write without having part of myself in the writing. I have having to write objectivly and perfer to talk about my opinions and write subjectivly. This is reflected in these blogs which blatently show quite a bit of me and my personality...

Okay, questions answered, now I have to go panic about the 17th and my photoshoot for Miss England. Just under two weeks to go, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Lol,

See ya later,

Joey

Week 4 - A history of computer games, part 3, 2000 - the future...

I've read the information on platforms of the future and I have to say that the future of games looks bright except for a couple of problems.

One thing that really caught my attention was the sharp rise in the cost of games development, I guess that with an increase in Game Quaility, comes an increase in Game Deevlopment Cost, but a rise as sharp as that has pushed the prices of games up as well, for example, a version of pac-man was released in 1982 by Atari, and cost $100,000 to develop and sold for $30 a piece. However when Halo 2 was released in 2004, it cost over $40 million to develop and though it's a record sales game, costs $50 a piece.

See where my worry lies?

The way things are going, it's going to cost people a rediculous amount of money to buy consoles and games, for example, the PS2, when released is going to cost £450 at least, a lot of the gaming population cannot afford it right off the mat, and will have to wait for the price to drop considerably.

However I am rather glad of the drop in sequals of games, since very few games sequals are as good as the original, for example, Final Fantasy X2 was one of the biggest mistakes ever made, and yet Final Fantasy X was quite a good game.

The idea of games that span over many platforms, is a really good idea, I feel. Because it is not always possible to own all the consoles, and if you like the look of a game, you are more likey to buy it if it's on a platform you like, for example, I like the look of some of the XBox games however because I do not own an XBox, I cannot buy these games, and it is pointless to buy a console to only play one or two games on it.

Looking at the HDR video webpage I have to agree that graphics shown in that format are about a zillion times better as my best friend back home has a HDR tv and things shown on it are amazing. And I also agree with Shin'ichi Okamoto, who is quoted on the webpage, http://news.com.com/2100-1040-866288.html, as saying "Moore's Law is too slow for us, we can't wait 20 years to achieve a 1,000-fold increase in PlayStation performance." If they did, gamers would get impatient and go to rival games companies for new games.

Games of the future should be original, and it is no good sacrificing game play for graphics, which is what has happened in quite a few games recently, in the furture I'd like to see more fanatasy/action games with decent storylines, and less of the lets see how many people we can run over/kill for no reason games. And what the hell is going on with a game I saw relaesed recently where you have to bully your way to the top at a school? That's not good games, that's people coming up with crap and trying to sell it.

It's a long way off in the future but I would love Virtual Reality games, that you could play 3D or like you see in Sci-Fi films and shows, with you plugged in so you hear, smell, taste ect the game you're playing that would be awesome.

However until VR is reality I vote for more fantasy and action and puzzle games with storylines to be played on any format and I really would like games I like for the Wii's really weird controllers!!! :)

And ouch I've just got my phone bill... £85.53 ow ow ow ow ow, note to self, do not use phone as much.... owey!!!!!!

So this is Joey signing off and thinking ouch!

The Fellowship...

It was rather odd at lunch time today, as some of my friends decided that we were a Fellowship and started giving each other nicknames from the books, 'The Lord of the Rings.'

However, at first we thought we only had seven people, so it was voted that Merry and Pippin would be dropped, but working it out there's actually eight of us, so Merry stayed.

There's me, Dave, Nicki, James, Alex, David, Joel and Caz.

Aragron, Frodo, Legolas, Gandalf the Grey (He says Gandlaf the white is boring), Borameer, and the list goes on, though if I remember rightly, David decided that since James went to his flat for dinner, not to the SU with us that he was Legolas.

See the random things uni students come up with?

Lol, so to add to my ever growing list of nicknames, which consists of Joey, Kari, Mai, Kairi, Yamita, Yami and Pikabitch (yes I will explain that one), I am also apparently Aragorn.

That's fun.

(To explain Pikabitch, when I play Smash Bros I always play as Pikachu, and one of my flatmates was playing too, about two weeks ago and when she managed to kill me, she yelled "Got you Pikabitch!" and it kinda stuck.)

Miss Leicestershire

This year I would like to win the above contest.

After competing in the Miss England regionals in my area for a couple of years, this year I have to enter Miss Leicestershire and hope I do well.

However this year I will have two bites of the apple, for I have been entered into the Miss Photographic round which, if I win, will give me auto entry into the Miss England finals next June, which I would love to have the chance to compete in, so if my picture goes up on the Miss England site I will soon be trying to raise publisity so people can vote for me by text, because I would love to make it to the finals just once.

The entry into Miss Photographic means that on the 17th of November, I am going into London for a photo shoot provided by one of the sponsers of Miss England, Fairlight Studios, and while I am looking forward to it I am also very nervous, because looking at what they want me to bring, I'm wondering if...

1. I have everything I need.

and...

2. If I can afford what I don't have.

I hope pay day comes soon.

FGPIP

Fat Gay Pink Italian Plumbers

Yes I am talking about the Luigis that vicously attacked me and my friends when I had everyone around playing Super Samsh Bros Melee.

I, and everyone else bar two people can beat three CPU opponantes at level 9, and yet two pink, yes pink, Luigis at level 9 beat us multiple times.

o.0

Fat Gay Pink Italian Plumbers wasn't the worst thing they were being called by the end of the night.

But please don't ever ever ever mention Luigi to me ever again.

Week 3 - A history of Games, part 2 - from 1980 - 1990

Time goes by so slowly, for those who wait, no time to hesitate. - Hung Up, Madonna

So here I am, sat in my room, thinking what to write, I feel that I should begin by answering the question posed by Mr P in his comment, a wiccan is a person who follows the religion, rules and restrictions of witchcraft, in all essance a Wiccan is a Witch by another name.

Right then, work time, that picture btw is a picture of the case of the Dizzy game for the Master System, or Mega Drive... can't remember which now.

And thank you to my flatmate, Sarah, who found Sanctuary, the Kingdom Hearts 2 intro song.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Sorry...

Right, will focus and not be distracted by the little bunny rabbit boucning up and down in my line of vision.

I hate plot bunnies.

Especally plot bunnies that have nothing to do with the thing you're trying to write at the moment.

Kingdom Hearts plot bunnies are taking over the world!

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Right games from 1980 - 1990...

The start of the 80s games companies sprang up, but not all of them were legit and some companys were formed that cheated developers. Some early 80's games were copies of arcade games, but later on in the century other 'genre defining games' www.wikipedia.com has this to say about the games described as such...

"Defender (1980) established the scrolling shooter and was the first to have events taking place outside the player's view, displayed by a radar view showing a map of the whole playfield. Battlezone (1980) used wireframe vector graphics to create the first true three-dimensional game world. 3D Monster Maze (1981) was the first 3D game for a home computer (meanwhile a 3D game for the PET computer was discovered, dating back to 1977), while Dungeons of Daggorath (1982) added various weapons and monsters, sophisticated sound effects, and a "heartbeat" health monitor. Pole Position (1982) used sprite-based, pseudo-3D graphics when it pioneered the "rear-view racer format" where the player's view is behind and above the vehicle, looking forward along the road with the horizon in sight. The style would remain in wide use even after true 3D graphics became standard for racing games. Pac-Man (1980) was the first game to achieve widespread popularity in mainstream culture and the first game character to be popular in his own right. Dragon's Lair (1983) was the first laserdisc game, and introduced full-motion video to video games."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_and_video_games#The_1980s)

What it says is true as the rear view racer format is used pretty much all the time in racing games, Pac-man has recently been reinvented for the Nintendo DS and remains popular to this day, Dungeons of Daggorath sounds a lot like a fore-runner for quite a few modern fantasy based rpgs nowadays.

1985 showed the development of 16 bit consoles, improving the quailty of games, but thier dominance was short lived as more and more developements occured over the course of the 1980s. Interactive games started to be played at the start of the 1980s but until 1987 they only used text.

Nintendo's Game and Watch console appeared in this age, something that reappeared in Super Smash Bros Melee recently as a playable Character and a battle level.

In 1987 Final Fantasy was born as an attempt to save Squaresoft from bankruptcy and has survived the course of time to be one of the most popular games series ever made and the most successful RPG franchise ever. Though the graphics are impossiblly

In the same year Metal Gear Solid came out, and was ported to the NES just two years later (1988). The birth of this game proved to be the the birth of the stealth based game genre, which nowadays includes things like Hitman and Splinter Cell.

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So that's what I understand about the 1980s - 1990s for games development, it was a time of great development for the industry and it has kept being improved since then.

Joey

Hey look what I can do!

I finally worked out how to get pictures to come up on my posts without crashing my computer... =)

So here is a pic of my favourate Keyblade in all of the Kingdom Hearts games just to make sure I got it right.

This is the Oathkeeper Keyblade, created when you attach Kairi's lucky charm to your Keyblade, I love it, it's really strong.

Please expect me to add pics to my other blogs now =)

So, with a smily face for cause I worked it out, here's Joey signing out.

Week 2 - A history of games - Part one 1950's - 1970's... Pong...

The idea of computer and video games orginally came from a young, male engineer, who wanted to introduce the idea of playing games on TV. I somehow doubt that he ever thought it would grow this big. :) This was back in 1951, however the first true vidoe game that was played on a screen wasn't created until the year 1952, when a man, who'd just finished his PhD created a game of tic tac toe to play agianst the computer, which the reading material says used "special algorithms to win whenever possible" (http://www.pong-story.com/) Could this have been the first example of a Computer cheating to win? Many games seem to do nowadays, no matter how much thier designers claim otherwise.

The men who started designing games were all smart and intelligent people, which to me proves that games designers must use thier brains, also they worked as enginners or computer experts, showing a knowledge of computers is nessessary.

However reading thier information I began to wonder if I was the only person to own an Atari?

There was a lot of talk about Pong, which I remember playing as my first computer game because my dad had this ancient machine that you plugged into the Tv and you could play games.

I was only about five and I was scared of computer/video games, weird huh? Now I'm not sure if I was scared of the games or dad's shouting when it cheated again.

But I started to love games when my parents bought an Atari. I wonder if anyone remembers Dizzy, the egg, that had all that trouble with the Wizard, Zacks, that had to be one of my favourates, escpecaly when it was relased for the Master System, or was it the Mega Drive? Not sure, but between it and Sonic the Hedgehog, I grew to love computer games, and most of them grew to love me, except Rainbow Island for the Atari which just grew more evil the better I got. When I bought it for my DS, after it was re-realsed I showed my dad, who ran upstairs yelling, "AHHHHH NOOOOOO!"

Rainbow Island was the one game that ended up in the bin so many times I lost count, and yet we'd always fish it out, before anything that could damge it went in there, we were adicted even back then...

And I belive it went something more like this;

"Dad? Do you remember Rainbow Island for the Atari?"

"Yes?" I had to stop myself from laughing at the wary look he got.

"Look what I got."

"AHHHHHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! KEEP IT AWAY!"

Nowadays you wouldn't find me dead without the lastest Nintendo Console but when I first started playing games, the fat red plumber annoyed me so much I ignored Nintendo altogether, right up until about eight nine years ago when Pokemon Red and Blue came out. A fat Italian guy who yells muma mia and jumps around making weird noises, was no where near as cool as the super fast, blue hedgehog that I am still a complete fan of today. Sonic the Hedgehog could take Mario down before you could say Chilli Dog, run circles round Bowser and still have time to save the World from Dr Robotnik, (Now Dr Eggman, which if you read the comics like me, is understandable), and chill out with his best bro, Miles J Prowler, or Tails as everyone knows him.

Since being introduced to Nintendo, I have been introduced to the worlds of Ledgend of Zelda, Pokemon, and many more, though the fat red plumber still annoys me a lot. How does he fit down those tubes anyway? Surley he'd get stuck at some point...

Hmmm, I guess I was probably nine when I really started playing games, and from there I went from small games to very very large ones like Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider, you have to love both series, though I am a little worried about work in the future after I heard that the company that makes Tomb Raider, fired everyone who worked on Tomb Raider, Angel of Darkness after the game was a huge dissapointment to the fans and sparked a public outrage that ruined the company's rep for years until Tomb Raider, Ledgends was released, proving that they still can make good games.

Hmmm, what would I class as my favourate game at the moment, I think that's pretty easy, the Kingdom Hearts series, Kingdom Hearts (PS2), Kingdom Hearts; Chain of Memories (Gameboy Advance, but I played it on my Nintendo DS), and most recently, though Dave disagrees, Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2).

I love the storyline and the action and the adventure and the... I love it all really. I'm a person who likes her games to have plots as opposed to just going around running people over or beating the rubbish out of people (though I won't deny I do love Super Smash Bros Melee), you'll find only one or two racing games in my collection at Uni, and that would both be Crash Team Racing titles, the rest are probably almost all action/adventure/rpgs.

I guess that's all i wanna say right now, I have work soon and i don't want to sleep through my alarm, oh, other then I've had to put my real name in my profile name, but I still prefer Joey, it's just to make life easier for the tutor.

Oh, and I've posted two new fanfics, both one shots (meaning only one chapter) but if you haven't finished Kingdom Hearts 2, don't read them, the link is further down the page.

See ya soon,

Joey.

Complete... or is it...?

"Oh, come on Riku, you've been hanging out in darkness too long, try to think positive."

I do believe that after more then I think it's about 44 hours of playtime, I have finally completed Kingdom Hearts 2, and I have to say the final boss is a complete and utter DASTARD! No, I'm not giving names or giving advice, suffice to say that it was really hard and I probably made it harder by not leveling up as much as other people, but the ending is totally worth the pain and hardship involved in beating the boss.

I have just one thing lest to do in the game now, complete it in hard mode and get the secret ending... oh hell... if the boss was evil in standard, what's he gunna be like in hard mode?

And I want a copy of 'My Sancutary' the offical song for this game.

Hehe, I'm happy!!!!!!!!!

And slightly petrified about hard mode....

EEP!!!!

Wow, cool ending though, you have to watch the credits.

Totally worth it.

It came up with a battle report at the end,

Game Level - Standard Mode
Completion of Jiminy's Journal -87%
Completion of Gummi Routes -10%
Healed Party Members -48 times
Saved By Mickey -1 time
Most used Form -Valor Form 56 times
Used Anti-form -8 times
Most used Summon -Genie 1 time

That's not fair!!!!!!!!

100% on Jiminy's Journal would've meant I would've gotten the secret ending without playing it again...

Ah well, I'll do better next time :)

Joey

Sunday shift...

Tonight, I am the only sane person in my flat.

I belive this would be because I am the only one who is both awake and not drunk.

I had my first day of work, offically, if you don't count the 7 hours they had me working the counters on Thursday as "Training." 4 Hours of serving customers pretty much non stop, my feet hurt!

On a plus side, I have gotten things written and drawn today, and I will be going out to do some more drawing tomorrow. However I haven't written the next chapter, just a bit that will be used later on, towards the Finals of Quidditch, I like it though...

Oh, since I keep talking about my fanfiction writing... or lack of it... here's my Fanfiction.net account...

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/911977/

Ok, I have to actually answer the qustions we were set now, so I'm Joey Lawrence... Anne Lawrence... It's really hard, when I've been going by my nickname for two weeks, to refer to myself by my real name... And I'm stubborn, impulsive and often hot tempered. If something seems like a good idea at the time I will often do it. I'm Wiccan, if you don't like it tough, it's part of who I am, so get used to it, and I'm also bisexual with preferance to women, so sorry men, you're out of luck with this girl.

I like blogging, I can put more of me into the page, essays are really hard for me so this is much better, I can write what I think instead of trying to keep it impersonal and boring. I will be writing in this blog as often as I have something to say, about anything I have to talk about. I see myself using this blog to express myself and my views on topics, instead of me just hiding behind minimal facts like I do for essays. I'm more comfortable writing about myself then talking about myself, but I love to talk about other things, like anime and games and books, and Fanfiction...And as an online author, writing for an invisable audiance doesn't faze me 'cause I never get to meet my reviewers in person either.

I've only just realised my favourate quotes from my writing changes every five seconds... currently it's...

“Do I wanna know what that does?” Yugi asked.

“Do you want credible deniability?” Fred replied, “It’s for us to know and the rest of the school to find out sooner or later.”

“Probably sooner.” George said with an evil smirk...

The Weasley Twins are some of my faves to write, even if it is hard to get the twin talk right. :)

Any way, I will leave you with all this information about me, and leave you to make your own opinions,

And see you in class on Tuesday,

Joey

Sephiroth...

Wow, I can offically say that was the fastest battle ever...

Two moves long...

And I got owned.

Kingdom Hearts 2, now up to 39:05 hours play time and it took Sephiroth all of TWO moves to beat me... I think I need to level up.

Gah...

On the plus side I had mytraining for work today, and it all went well, so I'll be starting on the deli at Sainsburys in Fosse Park on Sunday so incoming money will hopefully be nice and enough to keep the flow of games coming...

On a down side I didn't get any drawing done today, there isn't much you can do while serving customers meat and cheese, though it was still more fun then serving people on checkouts where I feel like a broken record.

EXAMPLE: -
"Hi, how are you, would you like a hand with your packing, do you have a Necter card? Have a good monring/day/evening, Hi, how are you?..."

However I will be going out and drawing on Fri/Sat/Mon so I will be getting the practise in, I've deliberatly taken less hours at the Sainsbury's up here so I can avoid doing what I was doing back home which is working at the store way too much and as such my coursework suffered.

*Sighs*

I'm a Fanfiction and Fantasy writer too, and I ahven't got any of that written since I got the game, my fanbase is going to be baying for blood soon, I must not forget to do that either...

Crossover series is way behind on updates, and my regular series has't had a new story in about half a year... or more... I can't remember when I started my Yu-Gi-Oh!/Harry Potter crossover, which has become quite popular and has taken over my account...

Right three reminders then...

GO OUT DRAWING TOMORROW

GET NEXT CHAPTER WRITTEN FOR CROSSOVER

FIND IDEA FOR NEXT NORMAL SERIES STORY

BEAT SEPHIROTH ON KINGDOM HEARTS 2...

Wait that's four reminders... oh well, and the last one will be hard until my level goers up substancally.




Ah well, the first three are do able...

Joey

Photoshop and Max

Oh, I completely forgot, the others were playing with Photoshop in the computer studio… I didn’t get a chance because there wasn’t enough computers this week, but it’s all good because I can use Photoshop easily, thank goodness, and I’ve been playing with Gmax, trying to do on it what Joel showed us on Tuesday… I think I’m getting there.

We shall see.

Week 1 - Blogging.... A girl gamer's first blog

Well, I've just finished the last lesson of my first week at DMU, if you don't count fresher's week, and I have to say, at this point of time I'd quite like to run away screaming. I've seen the level of work we're going to be expected to produce at the end of this course, and I've seen everyone else’s drawing skills and I have a horrible urge to run, run away... but come back before class next Tuesday, because I refuse to let this chance go to waste.

I think it's probably going to be a long three years, because we have a LOT to learn if we're to get to that standard, and I dare say most of us will, but I'm seriously going to have to work on my drawing to catch up with some of the others, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! However, no matter how much work I’ll have to do, I’m looking forward to it, because I’ve wanted to take a course like this for what seems like ever.

I wonder how much I should put about myself… One thing I will say is that while my name is Anne, I do prefer my nickname to my real name, so I’ve introduced myself to people by said nickname, so most of the class already know me as Joey.

I’m a complete game’s freak, I love RPGs and Action games, especially from the Fantasy genre, like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, though games like Tomb Raider are great too, and Sonic the Hedgehog rules over all. I’ve bought a few new games since I’ve been here and Kingdom Hearts 2 is amazing, I was talking about it with some classmates and decided that I play games way too much, I only got it Friday and already I have a playtime of 37 hours and 43 minutes, it’s because my internet went down over the weekend and I ended up playing it while my flatmates got internet withdrawal. Plus side, now that I’m getting work to do for my courses I should be able to resist the call of the game better…

Anyway that’s all I have to say at the moment… Next blog in, uhhhh, next time I have something to say, or there’s a task.