As video game players have risen from a small subsect of people into a large swath dominating the country and planet, how has this effected how we humans interact with one another. The Tetris Effect is when a repeated activity shapes the way your brain functions, as the repetitive action causes the brain to assign importance to said action. Given the prevalance of gaming today, how may be the Tetris Effect be changing society, and how may this look in our future as gaming becomes further mainstream.
Interesting topic! It may be making a few leaps to go from talking about local changes in the brain function of an individual to talking about behavioral changes in that same individual to talking about behavioral changes throughout society. I'd encourage someone to take this topic on (I'd like to read the result!) but would also encourage the writer to think about the difficulty of establishing cause and effect. – JamesBKelley7 years ago
Interesting, since gaming is so prevalent in modern culture. However, that since the Tetris effect is more of an analogy than a specifically gaming culture related idea, if you just want to talk about that, you should try to extrapolate the Tetris effect to other places (i.e. doing math problems causes dreams about numbers, playing basketball nonstop causes one to throw everything into containers like a field goal, etc). If you're looking to talk about gaming's prevalence in modern culture, you could also talk about other gaming-related terms that have become accepted in modern vernacular (i.e. politicians referencing video games, Let's Play celebrities, video game movies and tv shows, internet memes about video games, and events related to video games (like Pikachu Festival, E3, etc). Hope this helps. – tedytak7 years ago
Interesting, would love to know more on your thoughts about this – galalhassan7 years ago
Approached from the perspective of being an interactive story, what is unique to games like MMORPGs (esp. sandboxes), metroidvania, war games or survival games, as stories? What are some of the ways that gaming has innovated new ways of telling stories (think non-linear, interactive etc). Games can pull together disparate storytelling techniques like visual, auditory and interactive in a way that books, comics or film alone can't. Has the gaming industry harnessed this potential?
If you want to narrow it down to a specific category i'd recommend visual novels and RPGs, as they feel a lot closer to the question.
It would be very helpful to mention Final Fantasy XV, which one could argue spread itself too thin with the multimedia storytelling. It was a double-edged sword: People could access the series through the anime, the feature length movie or even the retro style gaming experience of A King's Tale. For someone like me, who was heavily invested in the series already, it was wonderful and got me excited for the game in the lead up; but for a casual gamer who just wanted to play the game, or a movie-goer just wanting to watch the film, it would make it difficult for them to grasp the entire story without turning to the internet to fill in the blanks. – AGMacdonald7 years ago
You could also look at the different ways games try to pull a story. For instance The Last of Us is an excellent example of envrionmental storytelling and how you won't get the full plot without actually interacting with the space around it. If you're mentioning comics, the Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us (anything Telltale, really) are great examples of how the universe expanded beyond the game (or how the game expanded beyong the comic) to create a larger universe – Mela7 years ago
I think a good recent example of non traditional story telling is the game Nier Automota. In order to play the game to completion, you have to complete three different storylines, each of which that follows the more or less same story, but each is from a different character's perspective. Depending on which character you are playing as, different information about the story is available to you. For example, one of the characters cannot read or understand the language of the primary antagonists, so when you are playing as that character, the language and writing of the antagonists look and sound like gibberish to you. However, when playing as another character who does understand their language, you are able to read and understand the speech of the enemies. There are also multiple endings that differ substantially depending on which storyline you are playing, The game also breaks the 4th wall a lot. The way that the game represents your character's status is seamlessly integrated into the gameplay. As another example, since your player character is an android, some enemies can hit you with a computer virus that will mess up your vision. The game does not just make it harder for you to move, or harder to attack though; the game actually screws up your visual display so its like your own vision is messed up. Other attacks may cause 'glitches' where your screen jumps in and out. Overall, I thought the integrated HUD did a great job of immersing you in the world and it was probably one of my favorite narrative elements in the game. – alexbolano927 years ago
Does the success of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy speak more about the power of nostalgia or the appetite for platformers in a market dominated by sports games, shooters and RPGs?
Definitely a mix of both. While platformers are interesting and fun when done well, the ultimate rise in technology has left the market thirsty for far more wild, innovative games, with exceptions like Cuphead and Celeste appealing to the old ones who grew up with those type of games. – TokyoExpress7 years ago
Platformers have seen a recent revival with Super Mario Odyssey, A Hat in Time, and many others. And the success of those games shows that there is still room for platformers in the industry. – ankit86977 years ago
I believe a revival may have already begun, but a lot of my knowledge comes from the indie game market. Someone else mentioned the success of Cuphead, I would add Shovel Knight to that, as games that appeal to nostalgia but in very different ways. On the other hand, both INSIDE and LIMBO by PlayDead are wildly acclaimed puzzle platformers that don't necessarily appeal to nostalgia in the same way. Ori and the Blind Forest behaves in a similar vein. For 3D platformers, someone mentioned a Hat in Time, though I'd also mention Yooka-Laylee, though it had a rocky launch. It can also be mentioned from both consumer AND developer point-of-view; nostalgia appeals to those who grew up with these kind of games, but a lot of people that grew up with these kind of games are now making them. From the indie standpoint, developers are reimagining the styles of games that they grew up with and rejuvenating dying forms. Maybe there's a point to be said about the motivations behind releasing platformers for indie developers versus massive franchises. – caffeine7 years ago
You know you've done it, we all have, who hasn't? What I'm talking about is the act of "grinding" in games, meaning the repetition of crafting, farming, playing level one fights for bonuses – the simple act of repeating a step over and over and over again for seemingly inconsequential gains. Now in real life none of us would often willingly engage in this (generalisation I know), but really people seem to go out of their way to engage in innovative, unique, interesting jobs – no one wants to do the same task ad nauseam. So why do we choose to do this in our down time when gaming? What really is the appeal of grinding?
Personally I have been guilty of this when it comes to RPGs, especially in the Final Fantasy series. There is always the main objective of completing the story itself, but knowing that there are other potential sidequests, bonuses and easter eggs often leads to an uncontrollable urge to spend time grinding to levelling up characters. Another element that has added to this addiction is the use of achievements and trophies, and the need to have that sense of completion. On a side note I have also experienced this with some mobile games, only to delete them after months with the question "what was actually achieved by this?" – midado7 years ago
I've done more than my share of grinding, too, and sometimes hate myself while I'm doing it! It can be so boring. (In multiplayer games, I've often griped along with other players about just how boring it can be.) I'm wondering if the appeal has a lot to do with the significance of the gains. You wrote that the gains are "seemingly inconsequential," but I'm thinking that they have to be consequential on at least some level in order for us to pursue them. As midado writes, maybe it's the completionist in us? Or maybe we grind for a purpose and then stop once we get what we were going for (or at least close enough)? – JamesBKelley7 years ago
I've been playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 a lot recently and it made me realise what I really love about RPG's; the way that they let you really create a character. But this doesn't end at their appearance or race. Games like Original Sin 2 fulfill the promise of character creation by rewarding absolutely everything your character can attempt. Giving the player so many options based upon the character they built and how they play makes the world feel alive and causes the player to feel as though their character is charting a course based on who they are. So many RPG's provide options but often you reach quests or situations where there is no alternative (due to narrative restrictions) or there is are blatant good, bad and worse options. There are so many other RPG's that allow for this deep character creation and they always seem to become instant classics. I also think this approach is incredibly interesting as it's rare that players notice just how much this level of reactivity influences their style of play.
I don't know the particular game you name, but I definitely share your interest in these sorts of games that allow for character development and player investment in the character. What you've written looks like a general topic. How could it be made more specific, for someone wanting to write an essay on the topic? Here are some related questions that come up for me: Does a legal/bounty system (in Skyrim, for example) or a karma system (in some of the Fallout games, for example) or a reputation system (in Baldur's Gate, for example) help with development and connection, or are those systems too mechanical? Are open world games better suited for development and connection? – JamesBKelley7 years ago
Persona 5 takes realistic antagonists and uses an unorthodox means to force them…to change them. Heck, early in the game, it was said that this method risks killing the antagonist.
It is a topic that isn't questioned too much deep in game and I thought it would be nice to get that discussion going. Do note the game just came out so the discussion of Persona 5 is limited if anyone wants to add spoilers…which I do think it isn't necessary. In addition, I feel like this discussion could extend any other actions which ultimately is a means to 'force change'.
The general reason the Phantom Thieves are generally accepted as a force of good is because they are mainly fighting back abusers. I would also mention Death Note and how it also had a similar tale of Light, his sense of Justice and his god complex. A bad end in Persona 5 suggests a similar god complex as well.
There's a lot going on here, I'd simplify the actual prompt (is it whether or not such an act is moral? justified?) and probably take out the Death Note comparison unless it's the major focus of the entire topic ("Compare Persona 5 and Death Note"); otherwise, it just feels like a semi-unrelated side note. – m-cubed8 years ago
I feel like such a topic can lead into 'whether forceful acts are moral' using Persona 5 and Death Note (and other stories) an overarching theme for discussion. – plumbunnies8 years ago
Visiting foreign countries can truly change peoples lives. Whether its rural folk seeing thriving metropolises or hot climate citizens witnessing snow for the first time, being in a new environment can take your breath away. The use of graphics in gaming has skyrocketed. From the revolution of Pong 40 years ago, blades of grass and drops of rain have become routine for triple AAA titles. If we can imagine the difference in graphics rendering in 40 years, will a $100-$200 VR headset rival the thousands we spend on flights and accomodation overseas? If we could graphically render a building twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower, why go see the Eiffel Tower? Could virtual reality be a substitute, or threat, to global tourism?
Hasn't this been happening since the mid-2000s? – T. Palomino11 months ago
Modern console's use of the internet in gaming has allowed some games to only be allowed to be played online. One example, is the incredibly popular For Honor, a hack and slash phenomenom. As popular as this game is, what is to stop Ubisoft from shutting off the servers if a sequel is announced, to force gamers to purchase the sequel? Many classic games suffer from eventual server closing, EA's underrated Lord of the Rings: Conquest is an example. Are gaming developers giving themselves too much power over consumers by forcing games to be mandatorily online?
This is definitely worth exploring. I, for one, do not play multiplayer games (at all), so I never have to worry about the always-online nonsense. I can simply pop in my disc of Uncharted 4 and go for it without a care in the world. It certainly seems like a bully move for a company to require a constant internet connection to play their game, even the single-player campaign (as is the case with "For Honor"). It also runs the risk of alienating fans who don't want, or even can't have, a constant online connection to their console. There's also the chance of servers going down and internet connections timing out. I guess you just can't play your SP campaign in the meantime while you wait for the Ubisoft servers or Comcast to get their stuff together, which is highly frustrating. – Christina Legler7 years ago
