Paul Bellezza

I read this article on Gamasutra this morning entitled the "Bill of Player's Rights" by Ernest Adams. Of course, he is specifically referring to electronic gaming. It makes for an interesting read on some design decisions that should be thought over when creating a video game.

In particular, I gave a hearty "hear hear" after reading this section:

"The Right to Make Decisions. There's a carnival game called “Whack-a-Mole.” You stand in front of a table with a lot of round holes in it, and at irregular intervals a mechanical mole pops up at random from one of the holes. You have to hit it with a big rubber mallet before it disappears again. You get points for every mole you hit, and the game ends when you have missed a certain number of them. There's no decision-making at all. That might be OK as a three-minute, one-dollar game for little kids, but as a video game, it won't do.

The right to make decisions is related to Sid Meier's definition of gameplay as “a series of interesting choices.” Personally I think his definition is a bit too vague, but if a game is nothing but a series of physical challenges with no decision-making, it's lame. It takes almost no design effort to incorporate some decision-making into a game. With “Whack-a-Mole,” all you have to do is make some moles worth more points than others; then the player has to decide whether the optimal strategy is to wait for the high-value moles to be sure of getting one, or whack away at everything and risk missing the valuable ones. "

How many games are designed with the mantra: And if they collect 'x' number of items, they can unlock a game art gallery? *Cough, cough- Robots for Console/PC" Interesting decisions and rewards are essential to games.

The Bill of Player's Rights is also a more refined musing on game design than the Gamer's Manifesto. Still, the Gamer's Manifesto has some decent points regardless of its crudeness. Its funny too, in a juvenile sorta way..

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ken, Matt and I were assigned the task of creating a game using words we cut out from various magazines and newspapers.

What we came up with, after various incantations, was a game called Titles!!!

Basically, it boils down to putting down a word card and naming a Movie, Book, or Television show using that word.

So if a card reads: Black, the user can say "Black Hawk Down".

Our first iteration of the game, involved two players and a moderator. The moderator would put down TWO word cards and the players would take 10-seconds turn using the words to make a title. Bonus points were awarded if the user could use both the words simulataneously.

The problem that arose was that often a volley between the two players could not get started. For example, Dark and Orthodox were both played. The first player named "Dark Side of the Moon" as their choice. The second player could not come up with a title with Orthodox in it. And so this problem kept arising throughout the game forcing it to a stop.

We then tried a second iteration whereby we played six cards and the players would volley by quickly naming a Title from the cards. This game worked well with each team quickly grabbing a card and naming a title. Whenever a team doubted the authenticity of their opponent's answer, a "challenge" decry would be uttered. Naturally, trash talking ensued. Although we didn't have time to test this situation out, we imagine using the Internent Movie Database and Wikipedia as resources would aid in quickly dissolving the "challenge" move.

Tracy mused that this could be an interesting digital project whereby the word cards are fed by a database. The Titles could therefore be validated and over time updated via sites like the IMD. Movie titles, for example, that are new now could be worth more points in the future as time passes and they leave the immediate cultural collective memory.

All in all, although shaky, the game was fun. However, it hella needs tweaking especially in finding out what words are the most common in movie, book and television titles.

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Myself.

Here's the story of this 5'3 dude in your department.

I'm a native Los Angeleno.

I graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Psychology and emphasis on its Social and Cultural divisions.

Immediately after graduating I became a teacher at Bishop Montogomery High School in Torrance, CA. My students were a joy and teaching was exciting but I yearned for something else.

I had something of a catharsis while studying chemistry in prep for applying to graduate school in Genetic Counseling. I decided to enter the video games industry.

I took a job in retail only to be mocked by my former students. One day, thankfully not too long after I started, I obtained a job as a QA tester for a major video game publisher where I worked on several PC and console titles. Including the soon to be the 2005 Game of the Year: Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus.

Thankfully, the Interactive Media Deparment at USC rescued me from what could have been major career burnout. And I couldn't be happier.

I enjoy NPR, cooking, surfing, Batman, Medical Anthropology journals, Biology, camping, writing progressive video game reviews sarcastically reeming people under my breath and of course: interactive entertainment software!

I look forward to working with all of you for the next three years!

Posted by Paul Bellezza at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)