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.