Who Touched Sasha?

Since the tute, I have spent the last week mulling over anti-drug games, and played Addicsjon and Insomnia.

Sad to say, neither of them are very fun or give me more awareness about drugs such as Dafur is dying game me awareness about Sudan/Dafur’s situation.

To really make a difference here, I think helping drug addiction should be approached in 2 ways:

1. Serious method – advise the government to put in more efforts to combating drug smuggling and related crimes. Games will have limited success in this.

2. Other temporary method – create a game which is so addictive that drug addicts will stop drugs just to play it, and potential drug addicts end up stuck on it. Well, nobody knows about what happens to people that play your game, but at least they don’t pay too much and take too much damage to their health.

Creating a game about a guy who likes pills could only fuel one of the reasons for drug addiction, which is curiousity. I don’t think that’s the right way to go about it.

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Some game designers think they possess enough clout to make a serious game that people would play and spread a serious message such as that of drug use, global warming, nuclear war, gun use etc.

I played Oiligarchy, quite a fun building game where you play as a bad oil tycoon wanting to make more and more money that you have to start wars and displace indiginous people. This one actually worked – there is no way to win without drilling in a place you shouldn’t be, because you would lose political power and get sacked. Not only that, but the game was interesting enough that I wanted to play it and so had to engage in such bad activities.

Another game that comes to mind is DEFCON (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defcon_%28video_game%29), a game about nuclear warfare and the fear of being bombed. I think this game captured the fear well, as it took a while for missiles to get from yoru country to the other, bringing in the fear of “kill or be killed” as the situation became dire and left you with no choice. The ambience of that game made it sickening to play as the world exploded into a wasteland.

In Dafur is dying, you play as sad kids trying to get water, only to be captured and raped instead. Really, the challenge is there and it makes me want to play it again just to beat the game (I wonder if you can beat it), but other than that, it doesn’t make me want to donate right away (call me hard hearted). The gameplay does make you feel a day in the life of the sad folk there though, which will make me pay more attention to the next charity for these guys if I walk past a donation booth on the street.

In all, I’d say that serious games have some limited success in generating awareness in the serious issues they hope to. However, it is more marketing and awareness of these issues that are being brought up here, which could maybe be better done by a marketer through viral video or other social media. I say – let game designers do what they do best – design games, and leave the serious messages behind to a scenario writer or marketing department.

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In Week 10, we covered improvisational games. The main purpose of improvisation over non-improvisation, i would say, is to allow players to “just act” instead of deliberating first, thus generating more ideas, similar to a brainstorming session where the rule is “anything goes” etc. This could be fun in situations such as story telling where the idea you originally had in mind did not come to fruit due to other player’s modifications, and you have to adapt and deal with it in an interesting / challenging way.

While this may be fun and create some new dynamics in the games, in my opinion that is all it is, a “sandbox” in itself. To translate into real-world gaming, one close example to improvisation comes in the area of online RPGs. In the rare case that players are actually playing in their roles, the “improvisation” aspect comes in when players of different classes / guilds interact. However, it can be argued that this is not “true” improvisation because of the time given to the players to think about their role and the limitations of the situation (they cannot simply say / do whatever they like, the mechanics of the RPG will limit them).

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I think that any artistic fun is meant to be open, more like a toy than a game.

One good example of this would be the warcraft/starcraft map editor. with very little know how or experience, it is possible to make a huge variety of scenarios, landscapes, stories etc. This came to my mind as I was designing levels for Mummification (our group game), that it does seem alot like art.

So, how to make it a game? Add a maps scoreboard which is similar to reddit/twitter on map development which integrates with the game. Award scores for good maps designed based on player ratings and popularity of the map. And also give players the ability to join maps together and such. That should be fun.

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In response to http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/readings-story-structure/, I think that almost every games studio developing a visual novel or RPG should have a scenario / story writer or outsource this to a great storyteller. This is a very basic division of labour and it really helps to have soembody specializing in the story instead of a geeky programmer trying to do it. That would be similar to the programmer trying to draw art, etc. After all, we want good heartwrenchign stories, and tihs plays a huge part in entertaining the player and keeping them focused.

This is a common issue in many games (bad storyline) which needs to be solved. And yet another problem I notice in some games is how the programmer / game designer converts the scenario-writer’s story to the actual game. For example, in Kanon, a japanese visual novel ( which arguably many like), there are glaring mistakes such as: “I wake up. It is 6 o clock. ” which really does not need to be said since there is also an image of a clock on the wall at the same time. More effort has to be put by both game companies and the community as a whole to study this.

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Firstly, let me note that fiction differs not alot from visual-based role playing games.

Both have a story and in both, you interact with characters and so on.

So I don’t see why those games are so special just because they use text. Or rather, is it because they use text that they are “different”?

On text – I think that in several cases text can be more robust and effective than graphics. Using the power of the human imagination, not only can the game designer get away with not worry about graphics, but they can also convey more emotion and thoughts through the use of mere words. Plus, the imagination of the player could prove better than the graphics, which will be expensive to procure and require the search of a artist (ahem).

Unfortunately I did not finish playing any of the games due to the lack of time, but it is not like different endings is a “new” concept in gaming either. Like most games, there are several pathways to different endings, but often common repeated used paths. This makes more sense for the game designer. Ultimately whether or not the player will replay the game is if they enjoy the characters and do not mind some repeated areas because it is the characters which they like.

Having said this, I do have and still do enjoy visual novels. They appeal to the sappy side of me. But, like a good book, they require time and the effort of the reader to engage themselves in the story. I would only read if I had more time.

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Often human’s true mettle / character are tested in times of disaster or war. Desperation can bring out the best and worst in people. I’ve often wondered how life would be and how I would react in such a situation?

How do we accurately create a game to simulate this? Currently, people are seperated (anonymised) from the screen and virtual life has little relationship to real life.

In order to fix these 2 main problems, we first must create a virtual character which looks similar to the real person, perhaps by mapping a photo. Next, to create a stake / sense of worth of life, players will be made to pay a large sum of money (say, $2000 or 5% of their yearly income) to play. The money will be returned to them upon them completing the game alive. Players get 2 lives, but after 1 life they must be resuscitated to get the second life (somebody must save them).

The players will be placed in a environment such as:

1. Plane crash lost/survivor style

2. High damage Earthquake

3. War

with a limited amount of money. Similar to the game “the ship”, they will require rest, food, drink etc, which they have to buy, beg, steal etc. The objective is to get back to civilization and stay alive despite poor living conditions, lack of food, etc. A secondary and very important objective is to also find your friends in the virtual world and help them escape alive (if you dont bring friends from the real world, random ones will be assigned to you). A good physics engine will be needed to allow building of boats (to escape from the island) or shelters (in an earthquake) before players get rescued.

To reward greed, in-game money can be converted into real-game money at the end of the game, although at a lousy rate (this real money will be gotten from the people who die and forfeit their stake).

players would be expected to be doing things such as:

1. hoarding food
2. stealing money
3. rescuing people for reward
4. searching around for friends.
5. form a vigilante police force in the light of the lack of one

Each player is limited to playing each scenario once per stake.

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It is interesting to note here:

http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf-stats.html

That given the mafia play perfectly and do not give themselves away, then the “fair” number of mafia is 1 for 10 players and 2 for 21 players. Which isn’t really the case most of the time.

This means that the humans are actually doing a good job at finding the mafia (the simulation did not take police into account though).

As a villager, the only strategies you can use against mafia mostly involve picking up mistakes when they talk and argue. In fact, talking and argueing is what gets most people killed. Thus, a good strategy (I would say) is to take out the silent ones first. Another strategy is to see who is agreeing with each other on who to kill. For example, if 2 people both agree on killing a certain person every day, theres a high chance they could be in cahoots (in fact, if you kill one and he’s a mafia, i’d be very suspicious of the other). Also, something I realised not done in the game we played – discuss what the police should do. All the villagers can agree together that other than  lynching one person, another should be the one who the police checks for being a mafia or not. This could give more information.

As a mafia, you need to act like a villager. Pretend that you are weighing pros and cons and that finding the “culprit” means something to you. If your fellow mafia are likely to get killed, might as well pretend to be a villager and lynch them too, just to look like you wanted it (people would probably not kill you then).

The game would only work amongst close friends who know each other well, or if you can see people’s faces. So, it’s not easy to make it an online game. On the other hand, you could take advantage of existing places where people know each other, for example on a closely knit forum or in-game (WoW for instance in a clan) to hold the game since people will have background information on each other already, and know each other’s behaviour from before (and how they argue things out). To add additional challengers, mafia could be modified (say, on WoW) to require the mafia to meet in the evening (meeting location unknown) and the villagers to meet in the evenings as well (in groups of 3). This would add some hints and suspicion to the game.

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Given a pair of sensor gloves, the first thing that comes to mind for me is a conductor wearing white gloves with a baton. Of course, this could require a few more sensors like perhaps wii-mote like acceleratometer to pull off as sometimes a player can conduct a song by lifting their hands. But when conducting an orchestra, its often that precise movements will be done using the fingers and wrist, and it is just this kind of movement that the gloves will be able to record.

Conductor Hero will have 2 modes

- a “follow” mode which works similar to Guitar hero and you have to follow using conductor’s gestures.
- a sandbox mode which you can choose existing scores and conduct them out yourself, adjusting the timing.

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I don’t think you need to take HCI to know that if you are making something meant to be viewed by others, you should consider their wants and needs, putting them in the center of the design.

On the scale from art to product we have art, movies, books and games in that order. I think, the less “art” like and the more something is made for enjoyment, the more sense it makes the center the design on the viewer (in this case the player). As said by Ernest an Adams, we have a duty to entertain. Ultimately we are working to make the player happy and it is a necessity to put their needs and emotions before ours.

A good example of a game gone wrong (to me) is Braid. Sure, it is fun and novel at first, with beautiful artistic backdrops and the lot, but I can’t myself actually enjoy playing it. In fact, as the story progresses, it becomes a chore. What a waste! If only the designer had considered both the player and himself, I would finish the game and enjoy his art.

Another reason that games (and just about almost everything) should focus on the user is that it is easy to give excuses and pass off anything as art. It’s easy to give up on the original goal of pleasing the player and instead concentrate on some abstract images and weird dynamics as a way out when things aren’t looking good for your game. Once branding anything as art becomes accepted and the player put by the wayside, its a dangerous line to cross into.

If game designers want to make art then they should simply release the game to themselves only just like a diary. Or a blog. Maybe that’s why I don’t support this whole “player is not always right theory”, because I don’t blog unless I need to

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