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....based on a true story

Game designers often have utopian visions while designing, however, they are often faced with technical or organization issues that severely limit their dreams of promoting diversity and game values. Organizational limitations include the loophole where one team member of a small team will make impactful decisions on their own. Ideally, a team of game designers should divide up the work according to their strengths while still making core game decisions collectively. Taylor gave an example of a designer creating busty-looking female characters that the rest of the team disagreed with, and yet they were left to use them. Other organizational problems are small teams working under the pressure of time. Teams that lack proper communication and feedback interaction concerning important game concepts are often too small a team with launching deadlines. Taylor stresses that this pressure makes ideal game designing worse. Technical factors of poor game design include financial, program and real time limitations. Often times, companies are faced with the issue of changing fundamental code when they see the game concept is poorly done. Taylor states that companies are even less so motivated to change the costly code when the reason to change it "does not seem to have a direct and immediate bearing on the revenue of the product." Real time issues apply to online games, especially ones with paid subscriptions. The chances of shutting down a real time game are almost zero.

Posted by Joni Cheng at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Designers play a huge role in determining who actually plays their game. They set different restrictions and enable options depending on their target audience. Taylor wrote about a lot of different qualities that a game can have: its impact on the players and the social environment that arises from them. Giving players the ability to create certain parts of the environment and using it in the game can increase player involvement. It seems as though designers can determine the amount of emergence they would also like their game to have. Of course the designer cannot perfectly predict what some players might do with the given tools, but the designer has a say in whether he or she wants innovative ideas from players to arise from his/ her game. The designer can also determine what kinds of themes to have in the game to instill some values within the game. I never thought about some of these things, but it was interesting to find that limiting the number of times someone can change a name can create a sense of responsibility within the game. At the same time, to create a more realistic feel to the game, a designer should create some freedom for the player. Taylor’s article definitely gave me more ideas on designing multiplayer games. As a designer I would be able to determine what kind of audience I want and what abilities I want them to have. Carefully analyzing this would give me some insight as to what kind of game is best for the target audience. Second Life designers took all these factors into consideration when making the game.

When I read this article I almost thought immediately of Second Life. Second Life offers so much freedom. Players can create a variety of items and objects using modeling and scripting tools. The game makes sure that if a player does not know how to do any of this, he or she can search the internet and find the exact answer. This makes emergence within the game a very common occurrence, with a variety of new and innovative ideas appearing often within the game. As a player in Second Life it is great to see that I can do exactly what the title of the game says: live a Second Life. I can create and use any item I would like and live out dreams. The designer furthered this experience by giving the players hundreds of possibilities with character customization. Putting all these qualities together makes Second Life a social experience that mimics that of the real world while allowing players to fulfill dreams that may have seemed impossible in real life.

Posted by Andrew Tio at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm still not quite sure what the purpose of second life is. There is no one single goal. Granted, SimCity proudly claims there is no "goal" of SimCity: however, there is an inherent need of survival which is making a prosperous city. In second life there isn't even survival. There is no time limit. There is no need to eat. There's no need to drink. There's no need to procreate. There is no need for shelter. Second life characters are not, Tamagachi. Perhaps, there is a need second life exploits that make us different from most animals: we need social interaction. Second life takes care of these most basic of Maslow's needs, including the private needs that our neighbor’s lingerie shop offers.

Emergent behavior is that which comes about without the purposeful intent of the game's creator. I'm not sure exactly what the creators of Second Life wanted people to do. The program came with the tools to build art forms, the ability to chat, the ability to fly, gravity, scripting, ownership of land, and the ability to change one's appearance.

What struck me as being odd were the things in real life that were re-created even though they had no use because the needs are met. For example, I went to a lollipop shop. This was actually a front for a first life charity, but it seems strange to sell food items when we don't need to eat. Maybe carrying a lollipop around is a social enhancer as a conversation starter.

Another strange copy of the real world was a real estate brokerage. I thought this was strange because popular places are well documented in search functions and its well-known as well as what properties are for sale. Also, the enjoyment of second life is exploring new territory's and new worlds, you don’t usually need someone's advice and normally it’s free. Also the Internet brings enough information about good locations in second life as well as ways to filter the information.

If you're not going to die, does religion matter? These people think so. In their defense, this church fits with the other northern European style buildings on their land. It also pays homage to the more mature content of second life with a naked woman as their religion's logo.

I thought that most people like the environment and would choose to have it instead of industry. Even though there is nothing to burn, this designer needed smoke and a road.

If the point of second life is visual and social experimentation, this emergent behavior meets those criteria. After all, what is someone to talk about? Here is a movie theater with live movies playing. It even charges admission to enter, even though this is probably illegal in first life.

Posted by Ezekial Slotsky at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought that Taylor’s reading was very interesting on many levels. Taylor discusses the fact that the final product of the virtual environment is ultimately determined by the programmer and designer. So although many online games appear to be heavily influenced and altered by the players, the players’ abilities are ultimately restricted by the parameters set by the programmer and designer. The programmer and designer determine how much freedom the players will have through their vision of the virtual world. For instance although a designer and programmer may create a virtual world that allows building additions and a broad range of identity, the creativity of the players is still limited by the overarching programming and limitations. Taylor also discusses that the game designers are very adamant about establishing values such as diversity, personal responsibility, or class that they wish to implement into the game. I also found it interesting that at times, decisions about the game are only semi-collaborative and somewhat impulsive. It somewhat relates to my team’s dynamic because at times we cannot all attend the meetings, so therefore the teammates present may develop or fine tune certain ideas. Before reading Taylor’s article, I always believed that final decisions were completely agreed upon. I also found it interesting that although a designer may not be satisfied with a finalized game decision, the game will not be altered due to financial restraints. Taylor also states that “while both designers and customers…acknowledge the limitations of…this …world, the product continued to generate revenue and so the concern did not fall into the make or break category”(27). Therefore, revenue becomes a priority over game quality and customer satisfaction, which surprised me. Taylor also discusses the introduction of change into a game and how although it may appear to be necessary, it disrupts the game mechanics for the players. Taylor states that players become emotionally involved in the virtual world as they would in real life. Although the players’ avatars exist virtually, they are not open to change because in real life people like consistency and stability. In regards to immersion, designers are very concerned on developing means for players to create a stimulating social environment. For instance in Second Life, an avatar can request another avatar as a friend. This allows each person to locate the other each time he or she signs on, which allows further interaction and allows people to develop lasting relationships in the virtual world. In addition, Second Life encourages social gatherings by creating places such as the orientation area, clubs, and stores. Although there is not an active governmental body of avatars within virtual environments, the game itself acts as a governing influence through the limitations set by the programmers and designers. In regards to identity, social responsibility, and legitimacy, these issues are crucial in real life as well as in virtual worlds. Personal identity is important because it represents the player as an avatar. Similarly to real life, avatars will first judge one another based on appearance. Therefore the amount of freedom given to players to design their avatars will heavily influence social interaction. For instance in puzzle pirates, players have very little freedom when choosing their physical appearance. On the contrary in Second Life, players have freedom to choose physical aspects such as eight, complexion, weight, hair color, apparel, etc. Although players have few limitations in avatar design, Second Life does not impose a sense of personal responsibility in regard to physical identity changes. A player can change his or her avatar’s appearance as much as he or she desires. I am not sure about name changes. I also thought is was very interesting that in some games people would have to pay to changer their names or personal identity to prevent reckless behavior and to promote personal responsibility. Although it seems fair, this “law” mimics reality in the sense that at times money gives certain people the power and opportunities that others may not have. A lot of times in life people can buy their way out of certain situations. In regards to diversity within a game, I believe that it is difficult to ensure diversity within a game because it most likely depends on the ethnicity of the players. For instance, many people may try and model their avatars after themselves, so the ethnic ratio may heavily depend on the players. This does not rule out the possibility that people may not design their avatars to be that of another race, but it is probably not common. In addition, Taylor speaks about the implementation of the Rastafarian character, which is supposed to represent the African-American male. Although it creates diversity, it also reinforces a stereotype and is extremely limiting. In real life, a Rastafarian is of Caribbean decent and lives a certain lifestyle, meaning that there is much more to being a Rastafarian than appearance. In Second Life, there is a category called “African-American hair”, which is an afro. Although afros are associated with African-Americans, we wear our hair in many styles and have various textures of hair. I do not wear my hair in afro, but Second Life has not created a hair type that looks like mine, so I have to use what I am given. In addition, Taylor says that she was told that, “our biggest problem with racial-oriented heads or racial-oriented partners…is getting across to them the fact that color makes men”(32). Taylor also states that some designers believe that facial characteristics would not have much influence. For instance, Christian identifies as Cuban and African-American. In Second Life, his avatar is light-skinned because he is light skinned in real life. In real life another person may be unsure of his racial identity, and in Second Life one may assume that he is white despite the fact that he has “African-American” hair, an afro. Therefore, complexion does not say it all in a virtual world because judging someone by his or her complexion in real life is not an accurate basis for determining ethnicity. Therefore, facial characteristics could make a difference. In regards to race and racial diversity, I understand that it is important to implement the aspect into virtual words, but the designers seem to meet so many complications. In my opinion race is a very complicated subject because I feel that although race is related to one’s culture and identity, many people are racially mixed whether we definitely know what races can be traced within our family lineage.

Posted by Devon Johnson at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Cause and Effect of Art and Scripting takes place in a magnificent .pdf. Also called a tentative schedule.
Download file

Posted by Ezekial Slotsky at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After reading the piece by Taylor, I came away with some important facts and situations of the roles of designer values in game design. The most important and profound statement made in Taylor’s piece was that there is “a fundamental way in which initial world designers and the architectures they implement will always have a deep, implicit connection to the artifacts that make up the environment.” Even if the initial designer values are miniscule to a certain extent, ultimately it is these values that have the final say in what can or cannot happen in the game we, the players, will play. Taylor points out that “code, graphics, systems architecture all arise from somewhere, from human agents.” The complexity and craziness of a game can only go so far before it reaches a limit of basic rules, regulations and constraints based on the values of the premier designers of the game. Worlds and environments in games are always designed with a structured goal in mind. As Taylor points out, the user only has so much control with what to do within the game environment. This s why the designer values are so important in game design because they shape what the players have control over as Taylor makes very clear in the reading.
If we go back to Halo and its online system specifically, Bungie had a clear goal and value in their overall design of the system. That is, they wanted a fair rank system of battles ranging from beginner, to mediocre, to expert. Within the game design, Bungie used the three prominent themes that Taylor discusses to base their online world in and make it as effective as possible for the players. Those themes are immersion, identity and social responsibility, and legitimacy. These themes had the aspects of their designer values and allowed the players to only do so much under their control and design. But as time went on, players found ways to manipulate these themes under the designer values. Through modding and cheating and various ways of tweaking their systems, many players found ways to disrupt the online community under the goals of the design by Bungie. The players were still under the environments that Bungie created, but ways were found how to alter the immersion, identity and social responsibility, and the legitimacy of the gaming experience. This type of experience under designer values can be found in many games where players find ways to implement “netsex”, alter egos, and more levels of freedom under the scheme of the designers (i.e. The Sims, World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, etc). Designers must always prepare for instances where players will manipulate their values to suit a different need other than simply doing well in the game. For example, as Taylor points out, in one game where players can change their identities very easily, designers can adjust their values to make the price of changing identity raise exponentially each time. This will slow the frequency of identify changing under the overall design and environment of the creators.
In Second Life, we too will look for ways to make our designer values important and functional in the overall system of our game. We will need to anticipate cheating, etc., and find ways to make sure our designer values stand tall among the freedom of our players. We want to give our players freedom, but ultimately, we will need to have design values that systematically give some structure to structure to the immersion, identity and social responsibility, and legitimacy of our Cultural Exchange game. In the end, design values are so important because they give the players the underlying structure of the virtual world. If in any case we notice something with our design values, we will need to revamp our values and environments to further apply to our original goals.

Posted by Chris Gangitano at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rules and Play description for Impossible Gladiators.

Download file

Posted by Ezekial Slotsky at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the Bartle reading, “Players Who Suit MUDS”, he touches upon the fact that there are several types of gamers. There are the achievers, explorers, socialisers, and killers. Such gamer types can be applied to players of MMORPGs. The games I chose to describe are World of Warcraft and The Matrix Online. My experiences on both of these games were very different. Upon starting WoW, I opted to choose the warrior, because I felt warriors were a class that was less dependent on others for help. At this point, I would consider myself an achiever because my whole purpose of playing was to gain high levels with my character. I would always go on quests alone and basically play on my own time and leisure. If I wasn’t questing, I would usually be grinding, just so I could reach the next level. I would always catch myself looking at my stats way too much; constantly monitor the “next level up” numbers. However, I reached a point where achieving in this game was more accessible when done with a group of people. I remember joining someone’s party out of boredom one day and realizing that we go a lot more done than I would have on my own. Difficult enemies became easily manageable, and the experience division was curbed by fighting more enemies. WoW forced me to mix my achiever type with the socialiser type because it was needed in order to form effective groups.
The Matrix Online yielded a different experience for me. Unlike WoW, the Matrix didn’t really lend itself to the socialiser type, or even the explorer type. I felt the world was constructed in such a monotonous way that any interest in exploring would be ruled out. Solo play was the favorable choice for me and most people I knew who also played the game, simply because of the way the missions were set up. There was never a time when I played when I found myself saying “I can sure use some help completing this mission”. Constant deaths would just lead me to believe I needed to improve my level and stats. Usually in towns and other areas in WoW, you would find many players interacting with one another, many requesting a warrior, priest, etc, to add to their parties. I found no such interaction in the Matrix. People congregated in these hubs only to upgrade their stats and buy items. This game mainly made me an achiever; because that was the only way I could play the game and have a small amount of interest.

Posted by Hans Vancol at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Social metaphors of many types lie at the heart of most of the games we play today. Upon looking closer at games down to its basics, one can basically see the parallels to our social lives the game possesses. For example, if someone takes The Sims and breaks it down to its core gameplay, they might realize that it is a doll house with more features. Looking at some of the role-playing games I play, some of those games boil down to office “excel sheet” handling and organization. The game basically teaches me how to optimize and organize, just like an office setting would.
The game I chose to play was sissy fights. In this game, you are a kid in a school yard environment and you interact in groups of other kids, trying so kick people out of the group. This is done by insulting the other kids. One can defend themselves, attack someone individually, or choose the option of teaming up on someone. When you get hit to many times, you lose the game.
The social metaphor in this game basically is the schoolyard environment where bullies and mean girls used to run rampant. The way the game mechanics work, it is easy to relive the feelings associated in the schoolyard environment. Upon starting this game, I came into the Sissy Fights world on my own. It was clear to me from the moment I started playing that people like to run together in little cliques, much like I remember from elementary school. In some of the games I joined, it was pretty much a free-for-all, not many alliances were evident. Other games I joined had blatant alliances that basically would always team up on the new guy and make their initiation to this game a hard one. It was hard at first for me, but I convinced my brother to come on and play also. Since he was just a room away from me physically, we had a better chance going around and winning some games. The fact that I had to result to that shows how closely this game mirrors the school yard experience.

Posted by Hans Vancol at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the reading Flow, it discussed a state of gameplay by the same name. This can be described as the happy median between boredom and difficulty level. In other words, a game can bring a player into a state of flow if the game reaches the right difficulty level as well as keep the player entertained. In First person shooters, this can readily be seen, since the requirements for flow are always fluctuating.
The game I chose to describe is Counterstrike. Upon searching for my Counterstrike fix (when I was addicted), twenty-five percent of the work was finding the right server that suited my mood and play style. I would randomly select a server, maybe “Dust 24/7” or “Fragfest”. Upon entering, I would leave for one of two reasons: either the server was too easy and inept (i.e. a newbie server), or the server was way too difficult. The only time I would stay on a server was when I was truly enjoying myself, a feeling that only came to me when experiencing the perfect difficulty and challenge. I would always bookmark servers that provided this sensation, but even those servers had its bad days. Eventually, my reason for logging off would mainly be dependent on the status of the server. The people who frequented the server are the main reasons to play, so when there isn’t enough regulars playing, it may be time to log off.

Posted by Hans Vancol at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

impossible gladiators
design document

Posted by Roy Sher at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This blog entry contains the powerpoint presentation and design document for Triple Rally, the game project by Andrew, Joni, Nathan, and Ross.

Here is the link to where I uploaded the powerpoint presentation. Right click and save as to download.
http://kadeno.quarkfactor.com/TripleRally.ppt
Here is the link to the design document:
http://kadeno.quarkfactor.com/Triple%20Rally%20Design.doc

Posted by Nathan McNamara at 2:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Exchanging Cultures (EC) Game
EC is a diplomatic game within Second life with both short term and long term goals.
Short term: Interact with and complete the games within EC
Long term: Create virtual communities and relationships based on the exchange of cultural items such as dances, art, recipes, clothing, and images of other places for travelers/explorers.
Each player becomes a diplomat who must attempt to understand the cultures of the people that he/she is building relationships with, as well as share elements of his/her own culture
Game Play
Each player starts at the “World Exchange Cultural Center” or WECC, which is the headquarters of the EC game.
WECC is represented by a geographic globe which will be floating and rotating in the air
This globe is a “gate” for accessing continents, regions, and cultures that the player will interact with by touch the part of the globe that he/she wishes to experience
When a player enters the WECC they receive a number of cultural items that they will need to complete the challenges
Next, the player chooses a region on the globe and touches it, the avatar is then transported to the corresponding culturally-themed room
Game Play cont.
Once in a room the player will face a challenge before he/she can return to the main room
The player will need the items they received at the beginning in order to complete these challenges
If the challenge is properly completed then the player receives a reward, another cultural item from the room
The player may then return to the main room and choose his next destination/challenge
Players may track their progress
The Globe
Click on a continent, and then your avatar will be transported to the corresponding room with five cultural objects.
Example of objects:

“Continental” Rooms
Rooms will feature riddles, quiz questions, descriptions, and games for the players:
The player may be asked a question about an object in his or her avatar’s possession.
The questions and riddles will help the player figure out
what object to leave in the room before departing.

For example:
They are made from the fruit of the higuera tree, which are
common throughout Puerto Rico. After taking out the pulp
of the fruit through two holes that are bored through the
dried shell, small pebbles are introduced into them. What instrument
should you leave in this room?

EXCHANGING CULTURES (EC) GAME

Conceptual Idea of EC GAME: Description of the Public space of the EC game and why EC promotes Public Diplomacy

Exchanging Cultures (EC) is a diplomatic game built inside “Second Life”, a Massive Multiplayer On Line Game (MMOG). The main purpose of EC is creating virtual communities and relationships based in the exchange of cultural items like: dances, art crafts, food receipts, architectural models, dresses, cultural routes and images of real original places for travelers and explorers. The best diplomat is the one who understand the culture of the people that is building relationships with. The diplomat has to become a kind of anthropologist who invests time and interest in understanding the details of a culture and then starts to share his own with respect.

The idea of exchanging cultural items and having a specific virtual space and a game available 24 hours makes of the EC game a compatible game that can be played for people from all the world time zones. The fact of having a cultural game where people could exchange unique and original objects and actions for free will make of EC one of the biggest resources for experimenting new features in the Second Life virtual world. The “World Exchange Cultural Center” (WECC) is the headquarters of the EC game. WECC will be represented by a Geographic Globe, which will be floating and rotating in the air. The WECC floating globe will be a gate for accessing the different continents, regions and cultures that the player will interact with, through touching and selecting one of the them in the globe. This will be a similar idea of the tv series and film “Startgate”, where a circular metallic ring becomes a tele-transporter to another universe. In the EC case it will be the different interacted parts of the globe the ones that will open another spaces, rooms and game levels, in the planet Earth and the culture that habits in there.

DESIGN NOTE: I think could be nice to have here and IMAGE OF THE FLOATING GLOBE with some people with different dresses and skin colors around it and someone touching one of the continent. The continent would be with a zoom in or some kind of special effect that will look as a opened gate or a teletransporter. THE GLOBE SHOULD BE GEOGRAPHIC NO DEFINING ANY POLITICAL BORDERS BUT GEOGRAPHIC LIKE MOUNTAINS OCEANS, ETC.
PLEASE INCLUDE AS MUCH IMAGES AS YOU CAN IMAGINE BASED IN THE DESCRIPTION AS POSSIBLE SO PEOPLE COULD HAVE A FIRST VISUALIZATION.

The WECC serves for two purposes. The first one will be as a tutorial where people will learn how to drag on their library new cultural features like animations that make you dance, traditional dresses that you could wear, pictures of traditional plates or original aliments from one place, music, pictures, art crafts that you could wear, use for building or use as decoration, etc. The second purpose will be for using WECC as a cultural learning center where each player would be able of playing several mini games.

The mini games will serve for learning and understanding cultures. They will be trivial games that ask cultural questions or constructive games where you would have to build an specific dress or art craft or perform a dance or do a questionnaire to a person from that culture. The WECC will serve also as a place for the encounter of people from different cultures to exchange language classes or practicing different language, to ask to a cultural native about a place that someone is going to visit or just to share their travel experiences, photos and videos. The idea is to provide a basic architectural infrastructure based in the 6 continents where the people could build new rooms for their own culture and for different cultural exchanges purposes, for example projecting small video clips of a real place or event or even create the Second Life EC International Film Festival.
The players will be able of learning about geographical, demographical and cultural information of different continents in a virtual space where the mistakes are allowed and recommended for learning something new about a culture.

EC will be respect all the people who would like to share, exchange and build cultural items and experiences in an environment of respect and creativity. For that reason the globe would be based in the cultural inputs of the people and in geographical representations where different cultures could be sharing the same space. The main purpose of EC is the representation and the motivation of the Cultural Exchange beside any political, religion of business interests.

The exchange of cultures will be based in certain rules that will provide the principles of discovery, experimenting, justice in the barter process, respect of the other likes through inviting to the exchange but no forcing it, renewing cultural information and items, replay ability through updating the cultural items and the games developed in the WECC.

There will be scores and special recognition and abilities for the different players who will create more cultural items for the different categories: food, dress, dance, art craft, dance, architecture, etc. Hopefully with the collaboration of cultural institutions we could even provide free flight tickets or housing around the world so the best players, the ones who play to increase the exchange of cultures (ECs) in their different aspects, could meet each other.

Game Background & Motivations.

It is based in the idea of creating entertainment games related with the function that a multicultural international organization like the Unesco could develop. The discovery and the player skills development are some of the most important motivation for creating a flow during the game experience. Also, the exchange of cultural items and habits it is a very rich full resource for inviting the players to discover new and original aspects of different cultures.

Through this game project, we seek to explore questions such as how are different culture’s created, integrated or/and maintained in a digital world, what type of emotional investment would player’s have to a game if they have a greater sense of agency in the game’s purpose? People can connect with people from different cultural and artistic skills backgrounds so they can learn while playing. We develop a cultural context where you can play while learning different aspect of different cultures: dresses, foods, dances, artcrafts, etc. The game also provides a place for the sharing of media- photos, video, and stories. Users can attend the virtual theatre and watch media submitted by other users. Since the game’s scope is international, it will provide an international inter-cultural bridge between people. Using media as universal way to communicate with each other. We seek to evolve the ways humans communicate through the use of shared media in the context of a game.

The Prototype: Describing the Player Experience, Game Design & Specific Rules.

I think it could be great if you could describe here :
1) The Player Experience: Narrate with words and the draws and design the
Prototype or Short Film giving a tour of the space( just create some artcraft and exchange between each other)

2) The Game Aesthetic.
3) Game Mechanics & Rules.

Posted by Chris Gangitano at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)