Bibliography

Cameron Moore, (2016). 'Making Moral Choices in Video Games'   [online] Available at: http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/130954.pdf [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

This text is about the experience of good and evil in video games. It will help with the complex storytelling of games and how we choose a path. It also has a look on eucatastrophes and how they can change the view on events, choices and characters.

City, University of London. (2016). Video games can improve decision-making. [online] Available at: http://www.city.ac.uk/news/2016/march/video-games-improve-decision-making [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

It introduces a study on how making choices in video games change our behaviour in making real life decisions. How not we change but how we think about decisions and their influences.

Gamasutra.com. (2016). The Designer's Notebook: How Many Endings Does a Game Need? [online] Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2179/the_designers_notebook_how_many_.php [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

Talking about how many storylines and endings there should be to have enough choices. Also how to differ challenges and choices and what it means to the play experience. How to challenge players on a level they’re not overwhelmed but also not bored.

Google Books. (2016). Interactive Storytelling for Video Games. [online] Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QUrarEcvaO8C&pg=PA194&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

How much choice should you give to a player and what about completely player-driven stories? How do we keep our morals if all decisions are upon us.

MacGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is broken. 1st ed. London: Jonathan Cape.

Chapter 'Fun Failure and Odds of Succes'

How is failing in video games different to failing in real life. Video games make us enjoy failing and try again and again and again. It has a certain level of frustration which keeps us going. But how does that frustration change our ability to make choices inside the game and does it transfer into the real world?

Nowloading.co. (2016). Why Do You Make Certain Choices In Video Games?. [online] Available at: https://nowloading.co/p/video-games-choices/4082794 [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

Parker, L. (2016). Black or White: Making Moral Choices in Video Games. [online] GameSpot. Available at: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/black-or-white-making-moral-choices-in-video-games/1100-6240211/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

Wps.prenhall.com. (2016). Fundamentals of Game Design (Adams/Rollings). [online] Available at: http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_gamedev_1/54/14050/3596994.cw/index.html [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

Tertiary resources like blogs, forums etc.

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-9137/the-witcher-3-can-there-be-too-much-moral-dilemmas-1774489/

How to write an essay?

https://www.internationalstudent.com/essay_writing/essay_tips/

http://library.bcu.ac.uk/learner/writingguides/1.01%20Essays.htm

Character and Weapon

I designed the character and the story around her last semester at my home university HSRM.
The character model is inspired by Tim Burton's unique characters from his stop motion films, the 3D animated scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
I'm extremly proud of the hands. They weren't to easy to model and they turned out exactly how I imagined them. As last semester the focus was on hand motions I really put in the time.
Her head was remodeled a few times be cause I wasn't happy with her expression and looks.
After the 4th attemped I'm now quite happy with her. The only thing she misses now is a face rig for expressions. I very likely need to re-rig her completly anyway cause I made a few mistakes and experienced some issues while moving her.
I kept her and the weapon low poly, while smoothing her in Maya the weapon keeps it's hard edges.
The weapon was modeled in about 45mins and is still missing a chain, which is crutial for it's use as a weapon in game. So far it will not be implemented into my game as a weapon in a fight situation, it will just deal as a light source through out the prototype phase.

Seminar Task 3

Already the title 'Video Games are better without Characters' is such a bold statement from Ian Bogost it leaves me startled.
I played awesome, good and horrible characters in video games but it never made me wish to not play as a character. Characters, for me, give me the opportunity to become someone else, to have unreal powers, speak in another language or live in another century. So why should anyone have a problem with playing a character?
Progressing into the first paragraph makes it clear. It's not that characters themselves are a bad thing. It's more that they tie you to a certain thing. Bogost lists a few games and makes a point: we mostly play muscly, male characters with a grudge. It's the diversity he misses. The possibility to choose or change the character to the players liking. He likes the anonymity of Sim City and the aspect that the gameplay's focus is on the whole thing itself, and not depending on one character. If your economy is shit, something else will be working. The game will not be over cause one thing fails.
If you fail in Assassin's Creed, it's over. Start again. It all depends on your success as the character, no one else, no back up system.  Sim City enables you to explore systems without being one on one with reality. It allows you to fail in some areas with out starting over again. It can be fixed later on.
Another problem Bogost mentions is the character diversity in regards to players. He wants more minoritys represented, to give players more options and not to underestimate minor groups like female gamers. So if we have to produce games at all we should cherish our players and focus on the representation of the indivual rather than just the system an circumstances of the game itself.

Seminar Task 2

Henry Jenkins states in his essay 'Game Design as Narrative Architecture' that games are experience spaces. Game spaces are more important to him than the narrative itself. He thinks that creating the stage for the narrative is more important than the story that will be told. Many games tell their story through exploration of the game space which makes the environment itself indispensable.
According to Jenkins games need a well designed, thoughtful world environment to deliver the story.
Personally, I really like his statement, cause a well designed game world will help underline the story and how we experience it. Really many games, as already mentioned, are driven by exploring the world and by that discovering the storyline. It can make us take detours so we get more out of the narrative or take short cuts to discover faster, because we can't wait for the next thing to happen.
As a live rpg player I know I can imagine these game worlds in my head. They will only ever be as good as my imaginenation goes, and maybe never be as good as the author imagined. So having a graphical world I can explore will help me take in the story as it was imagined.
On another note a graphical world will never turn a horrible story into a grand one. It does only so much to help deliver it. If the story sucks, it sucks. So designing a world to help your story is great, depending on it to make the story isn't too great.
As everything in life, there has to be a balance between both.

Game Theory - Seminar - Task 1

In the extract of 'The Myth of the Ergodic Videogame' James Newman talks about videogames and how they are not just interactive. He states that video games don't just foster one experience but many by delivering experience not only through interaction but also through movie sequences, map or feedback screens. He focuses on the experience itself not on it's pure visual or interactive part. As a bold statement he also says that visuals are far and foremost not too important for the game experience itself. I can relate to this, because a good game can deliver a good experience with out great graphics. Think about text based RPGs, which Newman also mentions. If the story is grand and you make it accessible in a way the player wants to keep on exploring, hyper realistic graphics aren't needed. On the other hand I, and many others, might disagree. As visual driven creatures, we are more likely to trust something if we can see it. Humans subconsciously scan faces and depend their trust on certain characteristics. If we transfer this to game graphics it means: I look at the graphics and decide if I can trust this game in the sense of 'will it be appealing'. We search for eye pleasing arguments, we want to see and experience something new, something we've not seen yet. We strive for the unknown by sticking to characteristics we know and trust to get a pleasant experience.
Overall I think that visuals became really important to the players over the years. They don't have to be 4k hyper realistic but they need to bee good, appealing in a way and believable.