Reading 11: Addiction and Violence

Addiction is a tricky issue. Psychiatrists and physiologists have varying opinions on what constitutes an addiction. The article from Psychology Today had nine different parameters for what constituted an addiction: preoccupation, withdrawal, tolerance, reduce, giving up other activities, continues despite problems, deceit, escape mood, and risk. It's easy to see with these modifiers how the line between passion and addiction can be blurred. If you are passionate about skateboarding you might think about it numerous times a day, might want to try new tricks and increase your skill, might neglect other opportunities for entertainment, and might even keep up the activity despite breaking your arm last year. These could all be symbols of passion rather than addiction. It needs more nuanced context. It would probably move over to addiction when you started to neglect your job or schoolwork, and minimized contact with friends and family. When we covered Esports last week, there were plenty of examples where it would be considered an addiction. Players who devote 15+ hours a day to a game would be addicts in my book. Factoring in a few hours for sleep and eating they would only have minutes for any other activity. This is no way to live.

Gaming can also have gambling aspect with items like loot boxes which are basically slot machines for virtual toys. Many countries are banning these features in game because they have buried a minority of players in a mountain of debt. US courts have given them a pass because many judges do not understand the value that players afford these items. You can look at the resale market on steam to appreciate that these virtual cosmetic accoutrements actually do possess value. Players are putting up four, five, and the extremely rare six figure amounts for these virtual accessories. This is an instance where the ESRB rating system does not provide enough protection for users because in game gambling effects people of all ages.

Another social issue facing the gaming world is violence. Violence can be critical part of games. Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Fortnite all have violent elements to different degrees. The goal mainly is to kill other players or NPCs. Concerned parents and even Congress cite video games as a cause in violence among kids, young adults, and even adult players. In my opinion this is bologna and the certifiably credible studies back me up. There is plenty of faux science stirring up the masses getting them to think that games like Doom and Call of Duty caused the atrocities of Columbine and Stoneham Douglas. Even the President echoes this sentiment and has called in leaders from the industry to discuss it. In my opinion violence stems from nature and nurture issues that go far deeper than if you play a first person shooter. My opinion is that the way we cut down on gun violence particularly is to make it harder for people to acquire guns for malevolent purposes. This could be tougher background checks or limit the sale of certain types of guns. We cannot use video games as a cop out for the real issues.

Reading 10: Esports

I think Esports are a great competitive or entertaining outlet for millions of people. It's not the medium where I choose to exercises either of these faculties, but I understand it's value in the world of sports and the global marketplace. I was amazed reading these articles how widespread the fandom for these Esports competitions were. When they are putting up numbers like the BCS Championship or the NBA finals you have to take them seriously.

A current debate is whether Esports should be added to the Olympics. Some say it doesn't have the physical nature of Olympic sports. I would argue with examples like shotgun shooting or triathlon the level of physicality is on a spectrum. These Esports professionals are executing hundreds of moves a minute moving their fingers, arms, and head with extreme precision.  I think the Olympics have a storied history and their events need to include this next chapter of history. There has been some criticism from IOC heads that video games are too violent in nature, but how can you reconcile statements like that with boxing, wrestling, and biathlon where actual guns are used.

My only concern about Esports is the life balance of it's players. The Guardian article writes about how many youth in South Korea have faced adverse health side effects from gaming for an absurd amount of hours. A doctor reported of a case where a south Korean youth died from exhaustion and starvation playing the game. I think what prevents this phenomenon in most sports is that the body would become too exhausted after playing or practicing even four hours. Football has it's health issues, but the players do not come anywhere near the number of hours these professional gamers put in. The highest level gamer teams have nutritionists and physical therapists, but few other professional gamers enjoy these benefits. I understand that these competitors are motivated to be the best in their craft, but there are other things in life that need to be enjoyed like family and friends. I think for Esports to sustain a pool of professional athletes they need to encourage healthier lifestyles.

Reading 08: Mobile Games and Fortnite Mobile

Game Review: Fortnite Mobile is a pretty great game. It is exactly like the console variant and has pretty great controls despite being entirely touch screen. You can also play with players on their consoles or other friends on their mobile devices in squad mode. What I like the most is the level of detail and intricacy there is in the map. The map is also incredibly large and has areas on it that would alone be the size of a large Call of Duty map. My favorite part of the game is not even killing the other players but building and destroying structures on the map. It feels Like Minecraft with better combat. The one life concept also makes the game frustratingly fun. While dying in Call of Duty was annoying it wasn't the end of your match. The stakes are higher and it makes being the last survivor much more satisfying. Overall, I would highly recommend Fortnite Mobile to any friend who likes combat strategy games.



Discussion: I'm perfectly fine with mobile gaming becoming a larger segment of the gaming industry. I think the nice part of mobile gaming is that there is a lower barrier to entry than console gaming. I've only spent a few dollars total on all the games I've played on my mobile device. I think this is democratizing gaming and not debasing it because there are many high quality games that come for the mobile device. The Fortnite Mobile game I wrote about is free to play with micro transactions to customize character aesthetics. A lot of people give mobile games grief about micro transactions, but I would argue that there are equally good and bad examples of their use in the game. I think the pay to win strategy of micro transactions is not very fun because players that pay less have a strategic disadvantage in gameplay. I think transactions for aesthetic reasons are fine. I don't care if I am the only one rocking the newb default attire. Here is the link to my presentation this week on micro transactions for reference https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kaJpVQ91vLJsuIVFKhRJR5OleedSvsSveUGEWlvieC0/edit#slide=id.p

Reading 06: Indiana Jones and Graphics

Review of the movie: I thought the movie was fantastic. It was an action packed thriller with a little bit of mystery. The search for the Holy Grail is a tale almost as old as time, but Steven Spielberg brought it to life with a daring Indiana Jones racing the Nazis to find it. The graphics work in the movie was also flawless. I had to research the movie to notice the places it was used. Once scene that used it heavily was the hot air balloon/dog fight scene. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) built an eight-foot foam model of the Zeppelin to use as Indiana and his dad take over the biplane. A biplane model with a two-foot wingspan was used when the biplane separated from the blimp (Wikipedia). Stop motion animation was used for the shot of the German fighter's wings breaking off as it crashes through the tunnel. The tunnel was a 210 feet model that occupied 14 of ILM's parking spaces for two months (Wikipedia). It was built in eight-foot sections, with hinges allowing each section to be opened to film through. Graphics were also used for the three challenges scene at the end when Indiana gets the grail. The one that was most impressive to me was the leap of faith where Indiana appears to step out over a void but he actually takes a step onto bridge drawn to look like the abyss. Indiana was also represented with a puppet (Wikipedia). Another challenging scene in a similar part of the movie is when the character Donovan dies from drinking the wrong grail. He rapidly ages and becomes a corpse in moments. ILM had to morph both physical machines (facial swelling and hair growth) with the graphics that changed the color of his skin and turned it into a skull (Wikipedia). I was pretty impressed with the level of graphics given this movie was filmed in 1989. 

Graphics Discussion: The goal of the medium is to be immersive. In many pieces of art graphics aide the ability of the material to capture the audience in a separate world for a while. Like all things there is a happy medium for the amount of graphics used. The amount your imagination is taxed when watching a movie can be draining. If Star Wars was a low budget play you would not fall in love with the intense battle scenes. On the other hand when every object is touched by computer aided design it can remove a sense of reality from the subject. I think for the most part 3D graphics are preferred to 2D sprites because the world we live in is 3D and it promotes a higher level of realism. However, if the material is a cartoon and the artistic objective is to make the content simplified then 2D sprites would be preferred for that rhetoric. Graphics have pushed Computer Science forward. A movie like Avatar needs a complex motion capture algorithm to track the movements of the actors to create the appearance of fluidity of motion. It has also pushed computing companies to work on faster processing so that rendering speed can be increased to an imperceptible speed to the human eye. 

Reading 05: VR and Physical Interaction is a big plus

I can remember feeling like I was transported to the future when I first played the Wii. It was so different than the joy sticks and controllers I had used to play games on numerous other platforms. The motion detection and the infrared pointer created a realistic feel for games like tennis, bowling, or shooting cans with a gun. My favorite Wii Sports game was Wii Tennis. Tennis is the recreational sport of choice for my family and I thought the gameplay for Wii Tennis did a superb job of mimicking the mechanics of the sport. The groundstrokes seemed to time perfectly with your swing and you could create a significant amount of angle that I didn't expect. Side node, I was also a big fan that you could play on different surface types (grass and hard court). On Wii Play my favorite game was Tanks. This was game beautifully used the pointer to move the turret on the tank and the trigger was ergonomical and conducive to rapid fire. The level progression was gradual and the enemy tank AI was fairly sophisticated making eliminating all enemies decently difficult. Overall I thought the Wii was a great first step into a more interactive console and paved the way for future products like Playstation VR and the Xbox Kinect.

My next endeavor into the interactive game world came courtesy of my former roommate and video game connoisseur Nick Carroll. He and I waited outside of Game Stop for multiple hours eagerly anticipating the release of the Playstation VR. When we brought it back to our room and started playing I thought I reached Nirvana. This is what I had thought video games would finally get to. The first game I played on it was basically a VR upgrade for the tank game aforementioned. This time I was inside the tank instead of looking at it from the top down. I moved the turret by moving my head and eyes and not with a pointer. Not only could I shoot other tanks but I could shoot down enemy aircraft by looking up to the "sky". Other games like Job Simulator or Resident Evil combined more tactile aspects by picking up office supplies or weapons and using more of the imaginary arm appendage. Needless to say I was blown away by VR gaming and hope that more and more games are developed for that environment. 

While I still love games that are created for a classic user interaction environment I think the future lies in virtual reality and augmented reality. These platforms break the bonds that the physical controller was limited to. Now our digital personal can move with the same fluidity that a human being can have. Interactive games for me are more fun because I like the blend of the two worlds: one physical and one digital. I'd love to see a VR Call of Duty come out or a VR Madden game in the future. I look forward to see where game companies expand into these environments. 

Reading 04: Console Gaming

I did not have a lot of background in console gaming when I was researching this topic. My family was a little late to the console gaming party so our one and only console that we own is an Xbox 360. But rooming with Nick Carroll for a couple of years opened my eyes to the fact that console gaming is a passion for many gamers and that owning multiple types of consoles provides breadth in the type of games you can play. In the early days of console gaming there were cartridges that could be ported to fit on different systems. Now the disks and downloads for current consoles are restricted for specific make and model. This forces consumers to make a choice of which console they invest the $250+ dollars in. Googling around I found an article on Polygon that broke down the top five reasons owners of different consoles purchased them. Between Playstation, Xbox, and WiiU there was no answer in the top five that was the same across the board. Condensing the lists into three main criteria the reasons consumers purchase certain consoles are their innovative features, exclusive game content, and their Fun-Factor.

Buyers in the Xbox category listed innovative features as the number two reason. This is no surprise when the Xbox boasts 4k streaming and 6 teraflops of graphical processing power. Gaming consoles have always competed on specs. The SEGA line "Genesis does what Nintendon't!" comes to mind when these specification battles occur. It's reasonable for the consumer to want a product that performs better than the competition. No one wants to buy a saw with less teeth on the blade. The only caveat here is when does the increase in capability go outside the scope of experience. Would I be able to notice the performance difference between a console that can do 5 teraflops versus 6 teraflops? The consumer normally has to rely on reviews from third party sources like IGN, Reddit, and Game Informer.

Exclusive game content is also a comparative advantage in the economy of the video game industry. PlayStation has a higher calibre set of exclusive game content coming out this year than its main competitor Xbox. The President of Gaming for Microsoft said in a press conference that they need to acquire more compelling exclusive content to stay relevant in the gaming industry. A simple example is the MLB video game franchise. It is exclusively developed for Playstation. If you're favorite games are baseball oriented you are not going to purchase an Xbox because it is not available on that platform. Exclusive server networks also play a factor. My friends were always torn between Xbox and Playstation when it came to deciding what network to play Call of Duty on. If only there was a way to pay to play against players on different servers.

The one factor you don't see listed in the top five that interested me was cost, but shopping around you realize that most consoles are within a fifty dollar range of each other and when the prices are already 200 plus that seems to be less significant in the grand scheme of things. The competitiveness of the environment makes it good for the consumer.

Game reviews:

This game was a fun memory puzzle where you had to put bits of clues gathered at various locale around the world. It had a consistent set of actions for each location and a nice piece of information to build the story wherever you stopped off. I lost my mission because I got in a rut by traveling to far off places and getting no information. I think this is a pretty clever text based game similar to Oregon Trail.

Reading 03: PC Games

Early PC games had a lot of similarities to arcade games. The joystick was replaced with either the arrow keys or w,a,s,d. The other buttons that a remote would have would be replaced by the space bar or various other keys on the keyboard. The article from The Atlantic illustrated how PC games encouraged more consumers to place their fear of these strange machines aside and learn how to interact with them. I remember first interacting with computers by playing Pinball or Frogger on our old Dell PC. The cardinal difference between PC and consoles is that you can toggle back and forth between business and pleasure. PCs offered word processors, spreadsheets, and electronic mail that could be used to accomplish every day activities. I think the early games that needed more complex movement dynamics than cardinal directions were better on consoles with tangible joysticks. For games like Pac Man and text based games it was probably better to invest in a PC because it could be used for other purposes.

Reviews of games:

Oregon Trail

This game brought back a significant amount of nostalgia. I remember playing this game in the library at my elementary school. Oregon Trail is a clever text based adventure game. You have to optimize inputs and tolerate the random mishaps to get your crew from Independence to Oregon. I'm not sure how historically accurate the game is but the difficulty at least mirrors the challenges faced by our nation's early settlers. It was especially sad when my virtual teammate Nick Carroll died of tuberculosis. I would say this is one of the best text based games that I've ever played. It is in the league of Zork but a little more accessible to the plebeians.


Pac-Man

This game is another classic brought to PC. I played this with the DosBox emulator but I felt like I was in an arcade again. The gameplay is simple: avoid the ghosts and eat all the dots you can before you die three times. I was only able to make it to the second level because I'm a newb. The pace of the game coupled with the nerve wracking music make it addictive. You instinctively think that you should be able to outsmart the AI but it's pretty clever and hones in on your position very quickly. The recording of high scores keeps the game competitive between sessions. With games like this I probably would not have bought an Atari back in the day.

 Donkey Kong

This was the most fun and challenging of the games I played for this assignment. I had not played it before so the first few times I attempted it were pretty disastrous. I only figured out on the third attempt that you could jump over the barrels. I liked the numerous surfaces and items and objects that were interacting with you. There was also a decent storyline in this game. You are trying to save a princess from a malevolent gorilla. The game requires a lot more situational awareness then the two aforementioned. This game launched an incredible franchise and was a pleasure to play the PC version of it.