Announcements
- report on LucasArts talk
- report on Grey Tuesday event
Apologies for confusion
NEW ASSIGNMENT 3 (announce & questions)
START PLAY
- My interests: not a computer gamer (brother beat me at pong) but recognize
this as a cultural force.
-Will be defined, developed to its true potential by those of you who
have grown up as gamers
US $10+ Billion /year industry - larger than film industry
Not counting Worldwide(!!!)
Hardware/Software is state of the art second only to military
in high-tech development
In some cases the two r&d environments are merged (USC)
*Games becoming part of cultural landscape for adults
Gaming culture Computer/networked games (PC stations) & Video games (console based)
I. What Are Games? What is Play?
Play = undirected activity done purely for the joy of it
GAME = voluntary control system where there is a contest between players,
confined by rules, in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome (WINNERS
& LOSERS)
Rules are limitations - limiting behavior - game is usually understood
as a closed system
play - creative bubbling over that happens after entering closed system
Constraints free creativity
"The Magic CIRCLE" Homo Ludens - Juizinga
Interactive culture of games predates computers by centuries
Roger Callois "Man Playing Games"
4 types of games
1) competition
2) chance
3) simulation (disguise/secrecy)
4) vertigo (physical sensation)
GAME THEORY
Games with perfect information (chess, checkers, go, etc.)
Games with imperfect information (poker)
II. HISTORY
JOYSTICK NATION: How Videogames ate our quarters, won our hearts and
rewired our minds
J.C. Herz 1998
Now Computer/Video Games
1) sports (FIFA soccer, NBA)
2) Role-Playing (Ultima Online, Diablo, Everquest)
3) Action/Shooters (DOOM, Dukem Nukem)
4) Strategy (Civilization)
5) Wargame (Close Combat, Combat Mission, America's Army)
6) Simulation use evolutionary algorithms (SimCity/Creatures)
First games
SPACEWAR (1962)
http://lcswww.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar
PONG (1972)
Arcade & terminalÖ
Nintendo founded to market DONKEY KONG (1979)
PACMAN 1980
ZORK 1982 (text-based adventure game)
HABITAT 1985 (first "3D" environment game)
SIMCITY 1987
SEGA GENESIS 1988
WING COMMANDER 1991
DOOM & MORTAL KOMBAT 1993
MYST 1994
DIABLO 1997 (resurrected role-playing games)
THE SIMS 2000 (The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip
K. Dick)
GRAND THEFT AUTO
V. TECHNOLOGY
95% of technology currently employed in videogames traces roots to
DARPA (U.S. military)
Military contractors moving into consumer entertainment:
Lockheed Martin has a game unit with SEGA - manufacturing boards for
arcade machines - Virtual Fighter Series, Time Crisis, desert strike, etc.
US Army & Navy have recruitment games
CIA hires screenplay writers to write virtual scenarios for training
state of the art
textures physics
lighting AI
shadows (real-time) animation
filtering photorealism
persistent worlds voice recognition
III. IMPACT OF GAMEPLAY
Along the way gameplay is transformedÖ
Learning Interface & Story
n don't know what rules are - part of game is figuring out how to play
it!
n TRUE IMPERFECT INFORMATION GAME
What happens? Model-making - make model in head - trial and error
-Explore new worlds
-what are laws and rules
-what are hidden secrets
POINT OF VIEW
3rd person/ many are 1st person
top (god) view//cinematic effects
Immersion + Agency == BELIEF
No longer just suspension of disbelief as in cinema
REWIRING OUR MINDS...
-fixtures of American childhood
-provide a new set of conventions about how we move through time &
space
-expectation of causal relationship between choices you make &
images which appear onscreen
- prepares for digital onslaught/multitasking (studies)
- hand-eye coordination
-PHYSICAL ADDICTION adrenaline rush
-Affects of Immersive Violence (media on Columbine High, etc.)
- don't need more ability to react - but capacity to reflect - READ
J.C. HERZ QUOTE
- no physical exercise (go outside & play)
(this is not simple cause & effect Henry Jenkins p.263
video games a response to domestic confinement, not the cause of it)
Online Gaming - MASSIVELY MULTI-PLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING
ULTIMA ONLINE//EVERQUEST/ASHERONís CALL
LARGE WORLDS - UO - 8hrs to walk across - laid out on 17inch monitors
it would fill several football fields
dream of modernism - monumental projects - no longer built in real-world,
but in cyberspace
- parallel economy - exploitation
STOP PLAY
BREAK************
IV. CREATIVITY UNLEASHED
a.VISUAL ARTS Miltos Manetas, Reineke Dijkstra
John Haddock (http://whitelead.com/jrh)
b.DANCE - LARA - Kristina de Chatel
premiered November 1998 - Amsterdam
Lara Croft - tombraider heroine
based on primitive gestures
games - angle/interface allows you to be both film director and cameraman
"Lead to a school of movement that might set new standards in contemporary dance."
computer gesture/human gesture
game player in control of dance - six dancers, giant screen
c.MOVIES MORTAL KOMBAT, Final Fantasy, Tombraider
Both ways Existenz (David Cronenberg)
d. WEB & Performance
popular collaborative creative outlet
- game patches (overlays)
- level editors
- now acknowledged creative content included in development
- player economies
ARTISTS GAME PATCHES - SWITCH
VELVET STRIKE - web
GAMING CULTURE = POPULAR CULTURE
ARTISTS works:
***INTRUDER - Web
SISSYFIGHT - Web
***KNOWMAD - CD
***DREAM KITCHEN - CD
***C-LEVEL - web
***SHEIK ATTACK - video
***ADAM KILLER - DVD
Major Shows on this engagement:
AEN Walker Art Center
SHIFT-CONTROL: Computers, Games & Art
Beall Center For Art & Technology 2000
ARTISTS ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY IMAGINING NEW FORMS/POSSIBILITIES FOR GAMES
(outside industry pressures to make $$$) and CRITIQUING POPULAR FORMS
If TimeÖ.
VI. GAMES AND GENDER
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat
Holy Grail female gaming market
Brenda Laurel - study - INTERVAL RESEARCH supported
4 yrs.
examined girl play patterns
-open-ended play - not goal based
-cooperative not competitive
-like to build and assemble
like games to have social purpose outside of just "using time"
critique of characters, stories - not interesting
past games for girls - too hard (make slower)
too violent (have them shoot marshmallows instead of projectiles)