With the VGAs that just recently happened, there’s a lot going on in the gaming news today with lots of new footage from all the big players. To keep this simple though, I’ll just link you guys to a bit of news that I found refreshing. Uncharted 4 is planning to be 1080p 60fps! Now it’s starting to feel like next-gen. Also, remember to watch the gameplay video as well if you haven’t. It’s definitely impressive.
Extra Credits
Hey guys, instead of an article for you to read this time around, I thought I would want to bring some attention to a Youtube series that has done a great job analyzing game concepts like gamification, perfect imbalance, the skinner box, the uncanny valley, and more. The title of the series is called “Extra Credits” and if you enjoy this video, they have dozens of other videos exploring game ideas and concepts.
Gaming and Supernodes
The gaming community as a whole is large, diverse, and continuing to grow. As a result, it can be quite a challenge to connect with and find a group of players that you connect or relate with well and enjoy. This brings me to the topic of “supernodes”. For those unfamiliar with the term, a “node” in this context is anyone who is a part of a community or system. In this instance, we as gamers would be nodes within the gaming community. A supernode would be someone who has many connections with the people within the community and is able to contact or get a message out to many people quite easily if need be. For my examples, I am going to be using users from Youtube.
While it would be simple and easy to use Youtubers with a large subscriber base like TotalBiscuit, The Cynical Brit, as an example, I am sure many of you reading this are already familiar with him and my goal with this post is to help spread the word of other supernodes that might not be as well known as TotalBiscuit or similar users. Instead, I would like to be a sort of “bridge” to help connect you with other Youtube users who I believe deserve more recognition or at the very least a chance.
The first user I would like to introduce is a user named vash12349, usually just Vash to his followers. Vash is one of many Youtubers who mostly do “Let’s Plays”. Let’s Plays are basically just a series of videos of someone playing through a game, and there are many out there. However, what differentiates Vash from other players is that he honestly does it as a hobby. From my experiences, many Youtubers try to get into Let’s Plays not as a hobby or for fun, but to try and gain followers. This results in many over-reactions or users trying to play only the most popular games out right now. To paraphrase Vash’s own words, he likes to play what he wants, when he wants. As such, there are many times when Vash will play games from generations ago while at the same time playing games that were just recently released. This way of thinking also permeates throughout his videos, as he is a very relaxed guy and you can tell he enjoys playing games, which makes me enjoy watching his videos. Vash is an entertaining and funny guy, and I recommend giving him a shot.
(Warning: Naughty words)
Another user that I would like you guys to know about, and slightly more prominent than Vash, is TheWarOwl. TheWarOwl is another Youtuber who uploads videos of games, but instead of Let’s Plays, he focuses his channel solely on one game: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. By limiting his channel to only one game, he is able to go much more in depth into the game and its workings and if you have an interest in Counter-Strike, you should definitely check him out if you haven’t already. Since his focus is solely on Counter-Strike:GO as well, he is heavily involved with the Counter-Strike community as well. TheWarOwl uploads a multitude of things from tutorials to commentary over professional e-sports matches between some of the best teams in the world, so even if you don’t know much about Counter-Strike or have a limited interest in the game, it’s still worth checking out.
Wikipedia and Gaming
In an attempt to broaden my involvement with the gaming community, I decided to try joining the Wikipedia community. While there are a lot of more focused wiki’s on gaming, Wikipedia is the original and is still most often the first result on a Google search, so that’s where I decided to start and I want to tell you guys my experience. During my time browsing various pages related to games and other gaming topics, I actually found it a bit refreshing. I’m sure that some of you reading will understand when I say that the gaming community can be quite toxic at times. Or maybe all the time. Especially on some of the more popular gaming websites and their forums. However, because of how Wikipedia is set up and how it works, generally only facts get posted on to each Wikipedia page and these facts are most often backed up with a source. This elimination of opinion and theories and posting of mainly facts helps keep each individual page of a topic clean and informative without bringing a whole lot of unnecessary controversy.
Unfortunately, this lack of opinion on Wikipedia has honestly left me without much to input when I tried to join in and contribute. Of course I could try scouring the internet for missed facts or to try creating a page for something just immediately announced, but I felt like my time would be better spent elsewhere. Especially since I get the feeling that some people like to update Wikis as soon as they hear about something and I don’t want to make updating Wiki pages a competition of who can submit the fastest.
So basically I chose the article for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, a remake of a game I enjoyed that was recently released, and edited the article to have more internal links which was quite easy once you learn the basics of the code behind it. The source code for the article may look daunting on some of the more well established articles, but for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth page, it was quite simple and easy to read.
What I took from my experience in trying to join into the gaming community of Wikipedia was that if you want to contribute actually content, you’ll need to be quick and back up all of your claims with sources. Otherwise it’ll most likely get deleted and replaced by someone who does update with sources. But thankfully this results in pages with facts and all excess nonsense to go away, and considering that Wikipedia is most often one of the top results of a Google search, this is a good thing and I’m grateful for it.
Horror in Video Games
Authors: Ben Williams and Elliott Juhng
During the last console generation, survival horror games and horror games in general have waned to the point of no longer existing. While we could discuss why horror had such a poor showing during the last console generation, Ben and I would like to discuss what aspects of horror in video games have been done well and what we would like to see more out of horror games. From increasing realism to the uncanny valley, there are a wide variety of examples and games out there that showcase how interactive horror can and will scare even the most fearless person.
The first aspect of horror in video games we would like to discuss is one that is visually obvious: realism. With constantly improving technology comes improved graphical capabilities with the new consoles. One horror game that saw an exclusive demo for the Playstation 4 is a return of the long running survival horror series Silent Hills. Known simply as P.T., or playable teaser, on the Playstation Network, P.T. had an element that immediately separated it from other horror games and that was its photorealism. Through the use of photorealism, P.T. somehow is able to practically eliminate the suspension of disbelief.
By being visually realistic in almost every way, any tricks used to convince yourself you are only playing a game is practically moot and most importantly, you might convince yourself that what you are seeing is real. Even if for only a moment, the tension and terror one would feel while believing what you are seeing in a game as real as P.T. must be palpable and we would love for more horror games to go for a more realistic route.
Speaking of realism and how photorealism hasn’t really been possible until today, the uncanny valley has to be discussed as well. For those unaware, the uncanny valley is a theory in which when something becomes more human-like, they gradually become more appealing until just before actual human imitation where instead of appealing the thing or object becomes very unnerving and uncomfortable to be around. An example would be modern androids and robotics made to look like humans. While the uncanny valley and other technical issues may have been the cause of the lack of horror games the past generation, a recent gaming example in which the uncanny valley and androids are used to invoke discomfort in the player is the game Alien: Isolation.
In the game based off the movie series of the same name, you are alone on a ship with the alien and many of these androids. This feeling of loneliness, combined with the discomfort felt through the stalking alien and the human-like but emotionless androids creates an atmosphere full of tension that I’m sure all horror fans would appreciate.
Storify: The Legend of Korra Game
So I created a Storify account and gave it a go. I decided to talk about the recently released The Legend of Korra video game and how a game based on the series could be so much more. Tell me what you think about it!
Giving the Vita a Chance
The Playstation Vita, the PSP’s successor and Sony’s handheld console this generation, has gotten quite a bad reputation these days. Most gamer’s probably even see it as more of a dust collector than anything else, especially considering that it’s rival, the 3DS, has been outselling the Vita by more than a few million units. However, I would like to say despite the sales numbers that the Vita is the best handheld console released so far. I’m not saying that the Vita has better games, or that the 3DS has better games, but as a device itself the Vita is an incredibly impressive machine.
Source: Sony Playstation
For those unfamiliar with the device, the Vita has a 5 inch LED display, with 4 face buttons, a d-pad, and 2 shoulder buttons. What makes the Vita’s control system stand out immediately however is its inclusion of two analog sticks. With it, 3D games are much more feasible on the system. Not only that, the Vita also includes a front touch screen and a back touch-pad. Now this is just the device itself. What makes the system special in my eyes is what the system can do and how Sony has made the Vita into quite a versatile machine.
Besides just playing Vita games, Sony has made a variety of original Playstation One games downloadable and playable on the system. So if you’ve never had a Playstation system before, or have been wanting to play some of the older classics but couldn’t be bothered to pick up a console that’s nearly 20 years old, the Vita is a perfect system to play those older games on. Granted, I will concede to the fact that not all PSOne games are available on the system, almost all of the big name titles are available.
Playing older games isn’t the only thing the Vita can do, as the Vita can also play games that the system isn’t even powerful enough to run on its own. How does it do that? By using a system that Sony refers to as Remote Play. Remote Play allows the user to stream video output from their Playstation 4 to the Vita either directly or through the internet and allows the user to play PS4 games from their Vita, and unlike the PSOne games where you are limited to those that are compatible, every single PS4 game is capable of Remote Play. So if you happen to have a PS4, the value of a Vita just increased dramatically for you.
Oh, and this might seem obvious at this point but consider that you can do all of the above while on the go. Have a break at work or in between school classes? Play a little bit and pause at any time during the game! Going on a long trip by car, plane, or boat? Bring your Vita along and satisfy your gaming itch. A game on PS4 you wanted to desperately play but you have to go on a trip and can’t take the PS4 with you? Take your Vita instead and play the game through your Vita! The Vita can do some great things, including things I haven’t really touched upon like its growing list of multiplayer games.
So for those of you considering a handheld gaming device, give the Vita a shot, I’m sure you’ll be impressed with its features. And for those who already have a Vita, tell me what you like most about it and most importantly, spread the word of how great it is! The Vita could definitely use some more publicity.
The “Cinematic” Experience
The “cinematic” experience has been the topic of much debate recently with the release of the next-generation of consoles last year, and with a slew of next-gen games nearing their release dates, some of these games have raised some controversial issues. Specifically, the FPS problem. FPS, which stands for Frames Per Second, is the term used when describing how many “frames”, or images, are drawn onto the screen every second. The higher the number, the more images are displayed per second, and the smoother the experience. At least in theory. Ubisoft, the publisher and developer for the upcoming game Assassin’s Creed Unity, disagrees and argues that not only should we drop the 60 fps standards but the reason given being:
you don’t gain that much from 60 fps and it doesn’t look like the real thing… and its not really that great in terms of rendering quality of the picture and the image. – Nicolas Guérin (Level Design Director for Unity)
Excuse me? And before I even begin criticizing Ubisoft over the absurdity of that statement, they aren’t even the first to say something like this. Studio Ready-at-Dawn, the developers for the upcoming game The Order 1886, have also come out and stated the reason for their game being 30 fps was for a more “filmic” experience.
Why such poor reasons? Why not come out and simply say that they simply couldn’t achieve 60 fps with the hardware given? Because frankly, the claim that 30 fps looks better than 60 fps for games is a hunk of baloney. Quick disclaimer though: I am not arguing that 30 fps is bad. 30 fps is an acceptable frame-rate that allows games to still be very much playable. However, claiming 30 fps to be better than 60 fps is what is in question.
First, the notion that the eye cannot see much more than 30 fps is false and just as foolish as the belief that we only use 10% of our brains. Our brains are more than capable of seeing faster than 30 fps. According to the article, the brain is capable of processing images seen for only as little as 13 milliseconds. If you assume 1 frame for every 13 milliseconds and do the math, the brain can process about 77 “frames” every second. More than double 30 fps. And why was 13 milliseconds chosen? Because the computer monitors used for this experiment could not display images any faster than that, so it is quite possible that the brain can still process images faster than 13 milliseconds. So yes, humans are more than capable of telling the difference from faster frame-rates.
Now moving away from technicalities, I would like to argue that games are not films. Thank you captain obvious some of you might say, but it’s obviously not enough according to the folks over at Ready-at-Dawn. Films are very much a passive experience. You sit and watch. That is your experience. Games, however, are a highly interactive medium and when a person is in control of the experience, you don’t want to hinder their control or experience of the game. You want the player to be their own biggest obstacle to overcoming your game, not the player having to overcome the problems of the game in order to have the best experience.
Another thing to consider is image quality. More frames allows for a smoother image and not only that, more frames means more information given to you at a faster rate. What does this mean for the player? Well for slower paced games such as turn-based games, it probably won’t amount to much and is where the choice of 30 fps becomes acceptable. However, for fast-paced or competitive games, more frames is undoubtedly better. Why? Because if a player has a computer that is capable of processing and displaying an image faster than their opponent, then they have the advantage in that they are able to see them first, and when things get hectic the player playing at 60 fps is getting twice the amount of visual data than the 30 fps player is.
Are you able to tell the difference between frame-rates? Here’s a site where you can see the difference between 15, 30, and 60 fps: http://boallen.com/fps-compare.html (Warning: You must use a device with at least a 60 Hz refresh rate in order to see 60 fps)
Audience Participation
What makes gaming different from all other forms of media is the amount of energy that the fans pour into their hobby. So much so that the developers of some games are relying on the input provided by their fans. One such notable event that happened just recently is the Elder Scrolls Online Guild Summit where the leaders of the top 20 guilds or so were invited by the developers to discuss the future of the game.
Another game where the players dictate the direction of the game is one many of you have probably already heard of: Minecraft. This time though, players have built interesting rollercoaster rides for others to enjoy and view.
What makes these two games and the gaming industry in general so great is the fact that once the product is released, the game is basically in the hands of the players. Almost no other form of media is influenced so much by its users, and I love it.
Gaming Isn’t Expensive
http://www.keenandgraev.com/2014/10/01/hobby-cheap
For many people, the high upfront costs of getting into gaming can be quite a turn off. The cost of new games is also relatively more expensive than other hobbies. However, Keen from the blog Keen and Graev explains why gaming is actually a cheap, money-saving hobby to have in the long run.
The Player's Lounge 