As a fan of fighting games and someone who has been described as "overly competitive," I would like to see someone's take on the idea that allowing people to essentially fight out their problems virtually is as rewarding as any physical confrontation. I have friends within the FGC (fighting game community) who work out all their aggression for the people they hate by playing them at a round of Street Fighter or going a set in Marvel Vs. Capcom. While they never throw a punch, they claim to feel all the satisfaction and their opponent all the humility as their chosen character beats the other. I have felt this feeling before, but I would like to challenge someone to put it better in words, or at the very least comment on this phenomenon.
I believe this was discussed in part in the book hasn't theft childhood. The authors were studying 8-14 year olds though and the effects of violence on their minds. – fchery10 years ago
I guarantee that any game with truly competitive combat can act as a genuine stress relief mechanism. That is a two way street, however. While it can and does alleviate some tension, it can also (especially in the case of MUDs, which are something of a specialty for me) make it far worse due to the emotional investment one tends to (almost subconsciously) throw into games of this nature. I've seen in my 8 years playing Avalon for instance, a LOT of rage - and I'm talking the shouting screaming "I'm going to kill your mother" type fury. An interesting phenomenon for sure. – Elsalvador10 years ago
Kirby is one of the cutest characters in all of gaming, but he is also one of the most funnest characters because of his wide range of powers. The interesting thing is that he is pink, the color automatically associated with girls. Yet, boys and girls love this character equally, and young boys usually stay away form anything pink, because it is too girly. How does Kirby not fall into this stereotype?
Picks connection in Japan is different than the American system of gender identification. They pick cold soley based I how did it fit into a color scheme. This is why in anime darker skinned characters tend to have light unsaturated colors for hair. One reason is that blue and punk used to be more associated with eye color than sex this switch happened in the 1940s. Before then many labels for pink and blue as baby and toddler fashions were in vogue in fact for a tone those colors were reversed. Pink also tend to be a great color on dark skins but is not used because of the modern idea. So of a designer made pink clothes to compliment dark features and used darker skinned models, they could be accused of trying to effeminate then. – fchery10 years ago
Former Professional Wrestler Bret Hart was famous for wearing Pink and Black. It is interesting to note that he was one of the biggest stars in Pro Wrestling and his Hitman persona was the children's hero during his WWF-run. I think the important thing is to make sure the character's actions are not bound to the color stereotype. While Kirby is in pink, he gets to perform cool actions throughout the game, so the boys can feel the appeal even if they think the color pink is unappealing. Similarly, Bret Hart fought big goons and emerged victorious, and no one could make any negative comment about him wearing pink. So I believe the appeal of character's action can reduce the resistance to some of his/her traits, and Kirby is the good example of this. – idleric10 years ago
The rise of video gaming as a spectator sport is very interesting. Platforms like Twitch have become enormous in their popularity. While some might think this is simply a matter of gamers watching other gamers, there is a demographic of non gamers who enjoy watching as well. It would be interesting to better examine the demographics of spectators for gaming and compare it to demographics for watching sports. For instance, are there more non gamers watching adventure based games or racing games? Do females gravitate to a particular genre of gaming over others? etc
For a lot of lets players it's not about the games at all (at least in my opinion). That's shown in the incredible popularity of Let's Play channels like Game Grumps or Achievement Hunters who change what game they play daily, but still bring in lots of incredibly dedicated fans. Sure there will always be people who only want to look at a game they're interested in, but for many its the people playing the games they like. They like the comedy, the way that certain groups interact with one another or the knowledge that someone has about something they're passionate about, and the gameplay is just something that gives those people a topic to be knowledgeable/funny about.
A good example of this is Two Best Friends Play, where 2 guys play a different game each time and argue back and forth in comedic ways about the game they're playing. Its funny, its fun and its entertaining, but its not a specific game that makes it so. Its the 2 guys laughing and being entertaining that keeps hundreds of thousands of fans coming back no matter what game it is. – Cojo10 years ago
Throughout the game Dark Souls there are nods and mentions to Nordic Mythology. Provide a look into how Nordic Mythology plays into the lore of Dark Souls
This is definitely something I would look into. As a Celt from Ireland with Nordic ancestry as well, the topic of Nordic mythology is an important one especially since it is misunderstood. – CemeteryLikeAStage10 years ago
Just a heads up to anyone that wants to look into this, the Dark Souls lore is very... thick. It'll help if the person who wrote this has played the game and spent time exploring its lore already. – Sunbro10 years ago
Developer of the critically acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Red, recently made headlines for its stance on downloadable content. The studio has been praised for its pro-consumer approach to a business practice that is usually surrounded with a negative stigma. They feel that small content – such as extra weapons, outfits, small quests and in-game items – should be offered for free, rather than at a premium. Projekt Red says that as gamers themselves, they understand that people are paying a lot of money for their product and want to reward the consumer as a result. Therefore, they're offering 16 pieces of DLC for free to anyone who purchases the game.
This raises a larger question about the state of DLC in modern gaming. Is it really such a bad thing?
Usually, gamers seem to feel that DLC is a cheap method of monetizing a game and gouging players for additional money on top of the large amount they already paid for the base game.
On the other hand, proponents of such premium content might argue that if done in a meaty, substantial way, DLC can be a meaningful incentive to prolong your enjoyment of a game you might otherwise stop playing. It also can give the developer ways to improve upon or expand what they did in the core, taking player feedback into account. It can also be used to experiment with new and creative ideas that may end up being used in future titles.
You could look at perceived "cash-grab" DLCs such as character skins, extra weapons, etc that are common in several genres such as FPS games.
In contrast, larger DLC content – additional story missions, characters, expansions, etc – are usually more positively received by the gaming masses.
You should talk about instances – like in The Witcher 3 – where DLC is done "right," and others where it is not.
On a broader more, it might also be good to compare the practices between many large gaming publishers – EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., Square-Enix, Bethesda and more.
I think most gamers agree with you. There is more incentive to purchase something if the consumer believes that the creator put their heart and soul into it. CD Projekt Red has shown that they aren't just in it for the big bucks, but the quality of their content as well. I recently finished the game and I can say that the game was absolutely fantastic. You could appreciate the effort that was put into every little detail and that made the experience so much better.
Then you look in comparison to games like Call of Duty where they re-skin different weapons and charge two dollars each, then rehash popular modes in different settings and charge fifteen, you kind of get the feeling that the immersion of the gamer is not the priority.
Recently, DLC has been abused by AAA titles to make a quick buck but 2015 seems to be the year of quality games and Witcher 3 might have marked the beginning of that. – CameronEaton10 years ago
One may draw attention to a distinction between content relevant and aesthetically relevant DLC. The latter is generally smaller, consisting of weapon/character skins and largely superfluous elements. The case can be made quite convincingly that this is the least grievous form of DLC, as it is beholden to and limited by personal preference. Content such as areas, missions, and even characters or fighting moves are somewhat more insidious as they bear greater potential for abuse. The developer is capable of designing a section of their game to be more difficult, lax with content, or perhaps in its more serious form completely impossible, without the purchase of content driven DLC. This is particularly more important to multiplayer or competitively focussed games by which the winning side may be determined less by skill, and more by their wallets. Thank you for reading,
-Jake. – JakeTomosLewis10 years ago
CD Projekt Red purposely designed the economy in Witcher 3 so that Geralt can never get stinking rich. For a game built for a paltry 15 million, what does a poor protagonist mean in a multi-billion dollar industry?
Recently, we've seen a large influx of hero-brawler games from all corners of the industry, from Ironclad Games' Sins of a Dark Age to Valve's/Blizzard's/The Modding Community's/whoever's Defense of The Ancients, to Blizzard's poorly-named Heroes of the Storm (c'mon, guys, you just released an expansion pack with exactly the same acronym!). It has gotten to the point where many people within the industry have become absolutely sick of everything to do with them. What is it about wizard murdering simulators that makes them so popular with developers, and why can't anyone come up with a name for the genre that actually makes sense?
Treatment of women in movies has received a lot of attention in the past 40 years. The treatment of women video games however has not received the same critical attention. What is the effect on the player who victimizes women for entertainment? How has a game like GTA moved with the mainstream with its potential for zealous and unmitigated aggression towards women?
This is an article which is begging to be written. I think video games have a more potent impact because the player is invested in the actions of the character, that seems slightly different that watching the 'other' in a movie. – Jeff MacLeod10 years ago
I think to an extent GTA acts somewhat as a parody to this subject. The depictions of women are highly exaggerated in terms of appearance, personalities and actions. That's not to say that misogyny and objectification of women isn't true in the game series, but it should at least be mentioned that the games act as parodies and social commentaries as much as anything. – Jamie10 years ago
It would be interesting to look at the culture that has developed around the game itself - like Jamie said, a lot of the misogyny in the games is intended to be satire of American culture. A lot of players of the game LOVE to talk about killing sex workers (and the media then criticizes this) but the presence of that ability is far from being a focal point of the games. It's essentially a case of the GTA community inviting these criticisms through their actions, and perhaps proving the satire's point. – Grace Maich10 years ago
I had a friend talk to me about lucid dreaming lately. He was going on about consequence-free aggression. "You can do anything you want," he tried to tell me. I started thinking that rather than start to keep a dream journal and develop my lucid dream-scape, I could just play GTA if I wanted to do something without consequences. Ultimately, isn't that what we want from GTA? Freedom? But then, isn't there something terrifying about how easily we shrug off the mantel of morality? Ever show GTA to someone who has never played it before? What is the first thing they do? In my experience, the newbie will invariably punch the nearest person in the face. Then they want a gun. What does that say about us? Or is it more about the power of infrastructure and societal expectation to keep us from tearing each other apart? #randomthoughts – 12jm910 years ago
When I play GTA, I just drive around! I haven't played GTA properly, but the b-freind played GTA 5 in the background. With that one, there seemed to be more emphasis on the POV character saving women from crazy exes etc. In fact, I don't think you had to kill any women as part of the story - lots of men though. The main thing now seems to be that, unless you make your own avatar online, there are no female POV characters in GTA. I mean, true equality is accepting that women can be as equally violent and messed up as men, am i right? – Francesca Turauskis10 years ago
