Right off the bat, Juul makes a hard distinction about between hardcore games in which one needs to imagine being within the game world, and games that through the use of an appropriate controller or motion capture system allow the players to feel like they are more involved with the game itself; like they are a part of the world.
Afterwards, a discussion about how different types of controllers facilitate different experiences and how through the use of standardized controllers, many games have lost the sense of connection with the player. Juul ends the chapter with the discussion of the rise and the appeal of the minigames.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Mimetic Gaming
Mimetic games have been very huge in the past few years. They certainly change the way games are played. One way is that it makes the game a spectacle. People can more easily watch and understand without ever having seen the game before. Not only is what is going on screen of interest, but more interestingly, the players are fun to watch. This allows people to participate without ever even playing, if they wish not to.
Those people who typically sit out while playing games may join in in the case of mimetic games. By watching, they can learn how to play, and the magic crayon makes it possible for them to succeed. People who can not (or will not) understand the complex button configurations on traditional game controllers have no trouble playing Wii Tennis.
And lastly, the game console is not as much of a player as it used to be. The game is brought into the player space, making the on screen action not much more than a scoring device, while the real game is in the room with the players. This is the biggest breakthrough in mimetic games.
With the insane success of the Wii, Sony and Microsoft are jumping on the mimetic bandwagon with the Move and Kinect, their respective mimetic interfaces. Do you think their mimetic interfaces will be as successful as the Wii?
Those people who typically sit out while playing games may join in in the case of mimetic games. By watching, they can learn how to play, and the magic crayon makes it possible for them to succeed. People who can not (or will not) understand the complex button configurations on traditional game controllers have no trouble playing Wii Tennis.
And lastly, the game console is not as much of a player as it used to be. The game is brought into the player space, making the on screen action not much more than a scoring device, while the real game is in the room with the players. This is the biggest breakthrough in mimetic games.
With the insane success of the Wii, Sony and Microsoft are jumping on the mimetic bandwagon with the Move and Kinect, their respective mimetic interfaces. Do you think their mimetic interfaces will be as successful as the Wii?
Mimetic interface games-Juul Ch 5
In chapter 5 Juul talks about casual games and their mimetic interfaces. Juul talks about how games like Wii Sports and Guitar Hero use physical interfaces that have the players performing an action that is very similar to what their avatar on screen is doing. (Ex. Players swinging the remote like they really are playing tennis on Wii Sports tennis) With interfaces like these it makes games more easy and simpler for people to pick up and play without having to learn complex button controls. Juul even shows us how the controller has evolved from the simple 1 button and 1 stick Atari controller to the complicated 6 buttons and 2 sticks Xbox 360 controller.
Next Juul talks about how mimetic interface games work. What makes these games work so well is that they have a high degree of compatibility between the actions the player takes and the actions his or her character takes. So your strumming the guitar controller is a very similar action to the one your character is doing in Guitar Hero. You don’t need to have played the game before to know how to hold the controller or play because odds are you have seen your favorite music artist play guitar before or something similar in the media.
Juul also talks about the Magic Crayon, which is a term from game designer Chaim Gingold, that describes how taking away possibilities from the player will make it a more enjoyable experience. For example you could make the Guitar Hero games almost exactly like what playing a real guitar is with close to 100 buttons but that would only satisfy people who already are experts at the guitar. If you make it simpler by taking away possibilities you can make something that is enjoyable to many more people.
I really enjoyed the quote that “ Mimetic games are magic crayons, taking away possibilities from players in order to give a feeling of competence”. I think this really sums up why casual games like Guitar Hero and Wii Sports are so popular. They allow complex things, like playing an instrument, to be simplified and become something we all can enjoy and have fun playing. It is mimetic games like these that will bridge the gap between the casual and hardcore gamer because it is something that allows them to have a fun, level playing field to interact on.
With all video-game consoles now coming out with ways to have mimetic interfaces( PlayStation Move, Xbox Kinect) Do you think that games with mimetic interfaces will become the new standard for gaming or will it all just be a fad?
Casual Vs. Hardcore: depends on who plays the game
The line that defines and separates causal and hardcore gaems is blurring as most of recent games are hybrids. In the article, Juul uses five categories to separate causal and hardcore games; Fiction, usability, interruptibility, difficulty (punishment), and lastly juiciness. I agree that those elements discussed in the article do make some games more easy to approach for players, which is defined as casual games in the article. However, I don't really agree on dividing causal games and hardcore games because what determines the game to become either casual or hardcore really depends on who plays the game.
I have a female friend who keep refers herself as a non-gamer. Whenever I talk to her, I can sense that there are stereotypes exist regarding gamers. The notion of gamers changed postively over time, but there are still people out there who view people who play games with stereotypic images of nerdiness and a loner. However, last time when she vistited my place, I was able to notice an intersting sight. The female friend of mine was playing a "casual" game in her iphone for hours. Her response was interesting. She didn't think that playing game on her iphone makes her "game user" because it was a "causal" game that serves to kill time.
The point I want to make is that depending on who plays the game, the game can be either casual or hardcore. As Juul mentions on the article, games such as Chess, Guitar Hero, etc have both causal and hardcore elements in the game. Even a casual game such as Tetris can be considered as a hardcore game if a player shows the stereotypical images of hardcore gamers while playing the game such as playing a game for long time. On the other hand, games that are referred as hardcore games can be transform into a casual game depending on who plays the game.
I have a female friend who keep refers herself as a non-gamer. Whenever I talk to her, I can sense that there are stereotypes exist regarding gamers. The notion of gamers changed postively over time, but there are still people out there who view people who play games with stereotypic images of nerdiness and a loner. However, last time when she vistited my place, I was able to notice an intersting sight. The female friend of mine was playing a "casual" game in her iphone for hours. Her response was interesting. She didn't think that playing game on her iphone makes her "game user" because it was a "causal" game that serves to kill time.
The point I want to make is that depending on who plays the game, the game can be either casual or hardcore. As Juul mentions on the article, games such as Chess, Guitar Hero, etc have both causal and hardcore elements in the game. Even a casual game such as Tetris can be considered as a hardcore game if a player shows the stereotypical images of hardcore gamers while playing the game such as playing a game for long time. On the other hand, games that are referred as hardcore games can be transform into a casual game depending on who plays the game.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Pac-Man is People
http://kotaku.com/5635913/pac+man-played-with-111-human-pixels
Guillaume Reymond's video projects have become somewhat of a phenomenon across the internet. What he does is he has people sit in specific arrangements in an auditorium wearing certain colored clothing, such that they form a single frame of a videogame. He takes pictures of frame after frame of the games in this auditorium, then plays them back stop-motion-style to create the illusion of the game being played. He has recently released his latest video, a version of Pac-Man done in this auditorium style, with people representing pixels.
Looking at this interesting series of videos really helps to make it clear just how early video games were able to relay their information to the player. The game simply provided a series of snapshots (frames) of a single screen (auditorium), with pixels of light (people) arranged in formations that remained continuous throughout each frame. That a single person can direct a group of people to sit in an single auditorium to so closely replicate the exact image of the original game being played is an enlightening look at the brilliant simplicity of older gaming platforms. It's also a look at how far game systems have come - there's no way anybody could make a similar video replicating a title like Gears of War with out an impossibly large auditorium and an impossibly large directorial scope.
Guillaume Reymond's video projects have become somewhat of a phenomenon across the internet. What he does is he has people sit in specific arrangements in an auditorium wearing certain colored clothing, such that they form a single frame of a videogame. He takes pictures of frame after frame of the games in this auditorium, then plays them back stop-motion-style to create the illusion of the game being played. He has recently released his latest video, a version of Pac-Man done in this auditorium style, with people representing pixels.
Looking at this interesting series of videos really helps to make it clear just how early video games were able to relay their information to the player. The game simply provided a series of snapshots (frames) of a single screen (auditorium), with pixels of light (people) arranged in formations that remained continuous throughout each frame. That a single person can direct a group of people to sit in an single auditorium to so closely replicate the exact image of the original game being played is an enlightening look at the brilliant simplicity of older gaming platforms. It's also a look at how far game systems have come - there's no way anybody could make a similar video replicating a title like Gears of War with out an impossibly large auditorium and an impossibly large directorial scope.
Internet Harassement in WoW
I remember a little while ago we were talking about how the internet opened a lot of doors of communication and opportunity to play with people of different age, race, and gender, but along with that opportunity came harassment. This article from WoWInsider adresses the issue and tells players how they should handle these cases and how they can even the playing field by not sinking down to their level.
http://www.wow.com/2010/09/10/the-lawbringer-internet-harassment-and-you/#continued
http://www.wow.com/2010/09/10/the-lawbringer-internet-harassment-and-you/#continued
Casual Gaming are serious business!
Simple games. Casual games. Coffee-break games. Internet games. Addictinggames. You can call them whatever you like but one thing is certain - contrary to their name, they are a growing big business.
While 2008 was the year of the big outbreak of casual games, the market has grown significantly since then and is causing a lot of change in the industry. More and more companies are allowing ordinary people to make their games through tools like Microsoft's XNA Creators Studio or various phone apps. With releases of such incredible hits as World of Goo, Plants vs. Zombies, Braid and many others, more and more developers are concentrating on simple, addictive and innovative gameplay instead of multi-million productions.
At first, casual games were usually associated with simple flash based puzzle games that can be tackled during a 15minute coffee break at work, but that has changed dramatically with before-mentioned Plants vs. Zombies and others like it.
Naturally, as the time goes on, the similarities between the casual games and the mainstream productions are beginning to disappear as the gamers become more sophisticated and expect a lot more out of their casual games. Yes, there is still a huge difference between a 10-megabyte casual game and what hits the shelves for $60 a pop but the more content packed-casual games emerge, they might eventually compare to their big time cousins.
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