Games

The gaming community, from twitch streamers to youtube let’s players, is synonymous with video games at large.
This has had a number of effects, both on the way that games are made (with features like ‘streamer mode’ which substitute copyrighted songs so that streamers don’t get copyright strikes) and the way games are marketed (with big streamers becoming just as important to get good reviews from as critics).
This article would discuss these effects, and more, that streaming has had on the video game industry. Both in terms of the positive and negative sides – and perhaps what this may mean for the future of video games.

The RPG controversy of the year was Wizards of the Coast, a Hasbro subsidiary, draft Open Game License changes sent fans and game developers into an uproar. The OGL was a default license established in 2000 that allowed fans to use portions of the Dungeons and Dragons property in their own work. This was framed in similar ways to open software licensing in that it could be used as a foundation to create independent works as long as it was using the specific System Reference Document in doing so. This allowed gamers to develop their own works and even to sell them. The most commercialised version of this was the work of Kobold Press and Green Ronin that developed independent games using the SRD as a base. This has always been a successful space for creative engagement with a beloved property.

On January 4th 2023 a new OGL 1.1 was to be released but an early leak of this content exploded into the zeitgeist with very concerning changes including WOTC ability to claim royalties from sold works and complete control over the content produced. The backlash was huge and fans and content creators both began to rally online and establish a response to the changes. This response included unsubscribing from WOTC’s digital toolset and protesting in social media. Further, the largest third party users (whose income was most threatened by the change) announced plans to step away and redevelop their own games.

WOTC has retracted its plans but the damage is done. But a number of key questions have begun to be raised: Was this a failure to listen to its fandom? Was this merely a cash grab? Has this action doomed WOTC and its aligned products into the future? Has this been the initiative needed to get more producers developing independent game engines? What does fully open sourced mean financially for game developers? How will this shape the next twenty years of gaming? And, significantly, does this mean D&D is dead?

Brecht has implemented in his theatre the "Verfremdungseffekt", which can be translated to the "alienation effect" or "distancing effect." Essentially, by creating interruptions or fissures within the illusion on stage, the audience can achieve a certain distance to the characters and events, allowing for evaluation and critique. During his performances, the audience is presented to some cues that indicates that what they are seeing is an ilusion, that what they are seing is actually an actor playing a scene. This cues can be strange objects, non-connected actions or actors speaking directly to the audience for example. Different of the Theatre of Pleasure, when the audience is emotionally connected to the play, Brecht seeks to create a critical discussion about what is being showed. He redefine it as Epic Theatre.

Is it possible to have the same effect in Video Games where you, as a player, is somehow intensively connected to the gameplay and the character?

In general, the mod (modification) of the game means the process of code editing and changing to add extra flavour on the original game. Usually, the mod makers are game players with sufficient coding or programming knowledge. Each mod can give different experiences to the gameplay and form specific player community. To analyse, how does the mod benefits both game and players? what motivates a player or players to make a mod? Who has the rights on the mod, maker of game company? What is your own opinion towards mod? The article will give insight into creative consumer and new cultural online society. Note: You can focus on specific game or company to give more detail on a specific group of community.

Bioshock is a video game franchise centering around the player entering a strange supposedly utopian city falling into disarray as its society breaks apart (Rapture, an underwater city isolated from the rest of the world free from governmental, religious and ethical control, and Columbia, a flying city theocracy embodying and literally worshipping late 18th century American ideals) run by a megalomaniacal idealist with twisted morals (Andrew Ryan, an ultra-individualist, and Zachary Comstock, an ultra-nationalist). Write about the political backdrops of the Bioshock franchise, analyzing what ideology each game is criticizing through narrative and gameplay mechanics and what is being said about them. Analyze the political messages implied by the cities and their inhabitants. What is being said about the political ideologies presented? What caused the downfall of the societies and how is it affected by their political systems?

Gaming in many ways is another medium that requires writers, and yet the approach to story telling in writing is unique and quite different as opposed to traditional storytelling via books. I propose an article that might entertain looking into the deeper facets of story and writing in the gaming industry and the unique approach that is taken in completing a script as opposed to traditional writing. Focus could be placed particularly on discussing the need for adaptability in characters, characterizing empathy and emotion within a character as we follow them while also playing as them, the duality of the protagonist and the gamer etc. which while coming naturally in traditional writing, have to be balanced against what is possible within the given game dynamics

Outer Worlds, made by Obsidian of Fallout New Vegas acclaim, is a open world RPG where you exist in an alternative universe where capitalism is even more unregulated than it is today.

Within the world of OW however there is little to be said in response to capitalism. In a future where "science" is good on it’s face, marauders commit crimes because crime, and the world itself is limited by the imagination of the writers, what is displayed is a critique of the world not for ideological reasons but for practical and efficiency reasons. That is to say, Outer Worlds can lead the player to see some damning indictments of capitalism, but it will never allow for anything in game aside from a moderate reformism.

And that is a curious line to draw. What indeed can be said about advancement for advancement’s sake when the human cost both in universe and out is seen as only worthwhile if it’s apolitical. Where revolution is on its face dismissed for it’s idealism, but "progress" is revered for making the future better.

I did a bit of research on ‘The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt’ last year while preparing to write a piece on the Video Game industry and its treatment of minority groups. The Witcher, of course, is written by Andrzej Sapkowski who is very obvious about what types of groups are being discussed, even if allegorically. I picked on the Witcher because it is among many of the power fantasy narratives that come with the genre.

There are currently several iterations of Geralt of Rivia, and similarly, this trend can be seen in The Last of Us and God of War. Our protagonists are fathers first, and the plot follows this innate connection between parent and child.

I’m interested to see where this came from? To what extent is it really a trend, or just a few notable additions to the AAA RPGs?