Using The Stanley Parable, look into the tropes used and satirized by the Narrator and game designers to give a unique user experience. How did breaking the fourth wall, the illusion of choice, and the use of comedy challenge the notion of traditional gaming narratives?
Pokemon Go! is a revolutionary gaming app that has taken the world by storm. Many say the app is a positive influence on our lazy society; the app gets people outside and active, as well as encourages conversation and interaction between strangers. However, some say the craze is having a negative effect on communities with obsessed Pokemon Goers trespassing on property, getting hit by cars and even causing accidents while playing behind the wheel. Is this app truly a benefit to the gaming world or is it too much of a hindrance on everyone else?
^^^ummm, maybe I should learn how to "world," ( which should be word) my comments more concisely :-) – danielle5778 years ago
Interesting topic! You might want to mention the new update, which makes it impossible to play the game while in the car (or even running, to an extent). If you go faster than a moderately paced walk the game now freezes and says "You're going too fast! Are you a passenger?" and restarts. – Lauren Mead8 years ago
There's great concern about video games influencing today's youth in becoming worse people. My questions are, what are the good games, and how do they teach good behavior and compassion?
A few notes. "The Good Ones" is far too vague of a topic sentence as it doesn't really say what this topic is about. "Good" is also far too subjective since the concept of good changes from person to person. It might be a good idea to focus the topic on say... games that encourage good behaviour and compassion (or don't) through active choices (Life is Strange, Bioshock, ect.). Maybe look at the percentages of what people pick which options? Also, as a more personal and less professional side note, it is sort of offensive to gamers to make a sweeping statement that games are making people bad and there are such thing as morally "good" and "bad" games. You might step on a few toes with that. Games don't need to be morally good to be a mechanically fun game. – LondonFog8 years ago
Maybe a good idea would be to pose your question from the viewpoint of a bystander that would like to do an assessment comparing the "good," versus the "bad," games and see if there really is a difference on gamer's behavior? In doing so, it is NOT you stating what is good and what is bad, but doing a bit of research in the composing a list of the most often mentioned good/bad games; and then devising research on the supposed effect these games, whether positive or negative, these games have on individuals. When conducing research such as this, you are not the one stating the "hypothesis,"therefore you have nothing to gain, nor lose, and you cannot be blamed for posing such questions. You are basically just highlighting conceptions and misconceptions that are continuously disseminated. – danielle5778 years ago
Munjeera, that's exactly why I posed the question. If my changes aren't adequate, please let me know. I appreciate your help. – Tigey8 years ago
Somehow my new title disappeared. It's supposed to be "The Games of Life: How Binary Code and Pixellation Makes Me More Humane." I will email misagh regarding my error. Also, the thanks was for more than just Munjeera. – Tigey8 years ago
Hi Tigey,
uw : )
Quick turnaround for the revision. Kudos! Looks really good now.
Could you also list 3-5 games with the age appropriate target audience that in your opinion are the "good ones?" – Munjeera8 years ago
Munjeera, no I cannot list target games since I know nothing about video games. As I said, I'd like to know for my offspring. I'd also like to know more about the topic since I've heard such good things about "Undertale." – Tigey8 years ago
Wow, you've really reworked this topic significantly. I at first thought I was reading someone else's post. I feel mixed about this reworded question..I guess it does force one to get right to the point in expressing the positive aspects of gaming and describing what exactly these facets are and how they contribute in building up a person's character. I guess with this revision, you are placing whom ever takes on this topic to write with "more at stake." There is not much wiggle room for b.s. I like that. – danielle5778 years ago
I have hope that the topic can be written as it now appears, but I think as a recovering vidiot, my initial bias was showing. I'm hoping video games can improve one's psyche - specifically my kids - but for me they did little more than help store calories along my midsection. Perhaps I'm the exception rather than the rule. – Tigey8 years ago
So many games lately have been focusing on releasing hoards of extra content after the base game's release. Sometimes, there is the season pass system, which doesn't even offer you access to all of the content that will be released (look at Borderlands and Fall Out for two quick examples), or sometimes, the content just really isn't that impressive and makes you wonder why it wasn't included in the base game (look at the new Lego Games and Batman).
But then there's games like the new The Witcher – where the add-on content adds almost a whole new game onto what has already been released.
Why is there such a huge range in terms of what game development companies are doing? Are some truly just attempts to get more cash out of consumers for their products? Is content like The Witcher's expansions a sign of more dedicated developers? Why are so many games seeming to cost more and more, with less value being added?
Definitely a topic worth writing about. As you stated, there's such a wide margin for what qualifies as DLC and what qualifies as a completed game. I think the mentality for developers has become "Well, if we don't finish this before release, we'll just make fans buy a Season Pass for content that should've been in the main game!" Speaking personally, I think the quality of games has gone downhill a lot in the recent decade. You used to be able to count on that you were getting what you paid for, and I understand development is a time consuming process but...at least give me a game that's not in pieces at the end of it all. – Nayr12309 years ago
I'd like a layer of real-world research in this piece, exploring rate of production/speed of release and number of costly DLC's. To better explain: are companies forcing games into the public's hands before they're fully complete, knowing that the skeleton structure of a game will demand a DLC? Or are they flushing out fully realized games, taking their time in creation, writing and production, and then providing additional outlets for further exploration. – Piper CJ9 years ago
Check out the game Evolve, and how it's undergone a complete resdesign in its philosophy concerning DLC. Also, talk about "On-Disc DLC," where content is already in the game, just gated behind a paywall to unlock it at a later date (like the latest Street Fighter installment). – Tarben8 years ago
Don't get me started on Starwars Battlefront and how it changed the way we play video games; for the worst that is – Riccio8 years ago
Riccio, I think you just came up with a great topic. – Tigey8 years ago
On a deeper level than selling an important item or getting the wrong upgrade, what about actions in gameplay that cause regret and or shame in the player? How can developers use this to further the emotional connection between the player and the game? When is it effective and when is it frustrating?
A good example of a game with this theme would be "Spec Ops:The Line", where the horror of the game comes from forcing the player to endure uncompromising and increasingly meaningless combat, difficult and no-win choice scenarios, and the violent shift in tone in the characters.
One challenge is making gamers regret choices they actually made; not actions they took as part of the plot. I don't know if a gamer can really regret, for example, killing Andrew Ryan in Bioshock and trusting Atlas. The player had no choice in the matter. RPGs, due to their emphasis on player choice, are much better at eliciting regret than a linear shooter in my opinion. Take Mass Effect. The player must choose either Tali or Legion, and unless the player has high enough karma to defuse the situation, must watch as one of these colorful fan-favorites die. Suddenly, the player regrets not trying harder to make Tali see Legion as an ally, or Legion see Tali as a refugee. Sometimes these regrets are smaller too. For example, should you really have spent money on Oblivion's horse armor? So, my point is: the author should show a difference between scripted "choices" and if the resulting regret should be considered lesser in some way than regret elicited from a real choice the player made earlier on. – Hunter9 years ago
Also using Bioshock as an example, I've heard that of the people who chose to harvest the Little Sisters, some felt intense shame and regret later on in the game. When Jack is in Tenenbaum's sanctuary, those who harvested the Little Sisters would be treated with fear and caution; the girls in the sanctuary are clearly afraid of him. Some players felt so ashamed at this point that they quit the game in order to start over from the very beginning. – DankileLin9 years ago
Games like "Heavy Rain," "Until Dawn," and "Indigo Prophecy" rely on this sense of making the "right" choice as well. – Tarben8 years ago
There has been some controversy about how video game companies will make the players pay extra for content in a game. DLCs (downloadable content) are good because the company can add more to a game after it comes out. Sometimes it is a fair amount of extra content and it's more reasonable to buy it, like in Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC where the player gets a huge bundle of extra features to interact with which results in a lot more game time. In other cases the companies take away parts of the game that were in previous versions and charges the player extra for it, like characters in Super Smash bros. 4. There is also less content to be earned or unlocked in some games because it is turned into DLC. How is this making an impact on the way games are made? How is the video game audience reacting? What companies are using DLCs wrong/right? What could these companies do to be more fair to the players? How is the way DLCs are used evolving?
Is how DLC is being released (at the same time) now affecting games' longevity? DLC used to come out months after the game release, once designers had time to improve the game thanks to profits from the original sale. It kept things fresh and gave players a reason to come back to a game long after completion. – Slaidey9 years ago
Analyze the diverse spectrum of female characters in video games. First, how exactly do we define femininity? What makes these female characters and their femininity unique? How is their femininity addressed or portrayed? How has femininity in video games evolved over time? Can certain characters fall into more than one "type" of femininity (for example, Lara Croft, who has been both sexualized and emasculated on different occasions and through different games in the series)? It might be helpful for the writer to condense his/her list into a "top five" of female characters that best represent this varying spectrum of femininity in gaming.
It would also be a good idea to touch on the BioWare games (Mass Effect and Dragon Age) to show how the female NPCs are treated, and talk about the fact that the protagonist can be either male or female, and how that affects each story.
– Tarben8 years ago
A very big problem with a lot of older/classic games is the treatment of female characters in them. More often than not you'll find a character like Princess Peach, whose only defining characteristic is that she is female. I've always found it particularly interesting that Zelda plays a minor role in the Legend of Zelda games despite the entire franchise being named after her -- especially when you consider that one of the key times that she gets to play a major role, she is disguised as a man (Sheik). – tbarker8 years ago
Analyze the game of Dark Souls and discuss how the difficulty of the game can teach to us failure is something to be embraced. How we can learn from past failures and improve.
In addition discuss how failure can come easily despite being successful (or highly leveled) in the game, and reflect upon this metaphorically in life.
Not simply the failure in terms of game play, but also the failure in grasping any formation of plot: specifically the first time around. Looking at our first play-through versus our next; it's safe to say that the failure was the intention of the writers and developers . – CoryMacRae9 years ago
In the intro level of Dark Souls, the game makes you fail to progress. – TGoutos9 years ago
Think also of the deaths that come at the hands of other players invading your world. I am one of those who enjoys that side of the game most, relishing in the stress I put on other players as I assault them while they try to complete a level, and the intriguing feeling of success that comes from bringing about another player's failure.
– jeffevancook9 years ago
I'm not so sure that the Dark Souls series presents failure as something to be embraced. Specifically because I do not think that there is such a thing as "failure" in the Souls universe. A notable feature of the Souls games is that there is nothing like a "Mission/Quest/etc. Failed" message anywhere in the game. To my mind the message "You died" is very deliberate in its ambiguity as related to a success/failure. Within the mythos of the Souls universe, the death of any one player cannot be immediately characterized as a failure, but seems rather more fittingly described as yet another incremental step towards the completion of the cycle. Indeed, even in the extreme case where the character is confronted with an "insurmountable" obstacle in the form of an overpowering enemy, say, it is not immediately clear that s/he has failed. For in such a case, s/he will succumb to the accursed dark sign, which will in turn transform him/her into an enemy and a potential source of power for the next Undead. This is, of course, premised on taking the perspective of the character controlled by the player, and no so much the player him or herself. – HeavyMentalGamer9 years ago
Dark souls is definitely a game about learning through one's mistakes. I'd love to see this article get done, it's along the lines of something I myself have been thinking of writing about Dark Souls. – MrMuffin8 years ago
