Video games and education

As technology develops and electronic entertainment software becomes more and more a part of modern culture, young people and students are in contact with video games on a massive scale. It’s only natural that the educational establishments would pick up on this and try and alter teaching methods to fit the changing of the times. Games are no longer just aimed at playing but teaching, allowing students to learn many different skills in an interactive way rather than reading from textbooks and having to memorise information. Dr. James Paul Gee expressed that games mix instruction and visual demonstration that has proven more affective than regular classroom techniques. This way of teaching is a good way to keep students engaged with there classes.

Certain games have been proven to have a positive impact on behaviour and learning such as Dr. Kowashima’s brain training games, as well as Sims. Creating your own game from scratch has proven to improve puzzle solving and analytical skills. Games are now being developed specifically with teaching in mind for both young and older students. Subjects like cellular biology and molecular sciences in this example; students have to save a patient from a bacterial infection. Other games like quick fire games for maths and historical games have also been developed with the same principles. 

Interactivity

There are many different aspects to the subject of interactivity, but in itself it is not easily defined and is a vague term, many problems and questions come up when thinking about interactivity. The main one being what is it and what do you do, and are all media interactive; everyone has different ideas about what they believe interactivity to mean.

The basic break down or description of interactivity is the active relationship between to things; this could be the reading of a text or simply knocking over a glass of water, or the ability to affect and outcome.

There are two different types of interactivity, these are just plain interaction, like knocking over a glass, and the other is designed interaction. Designed interaction is when possible outcomes are already designed, like the rolling of a dice, the interaction of rolling can only have one of six, depending on the type of dice, possible outcomes. The connection between the player and the game is governed by a set of rules, limiting the outcome. 

Inspiration

Within any game there has to have been an initial idea behind it, and this idea must have been generated from something. Inspiration is behind any ideas, even if it is something completely original, something that has never been done before, there would have been something that influenced or inspired the designer. Inspiration can come from absolutely anything, anything that happens to catch the eye or attention of the designer, the tiniest thing could manifest into something massive and overwhelming.

I watched a DVD of behind the scenes for the video game Siren, a horror game that is known for its disturbing and strange zombie like creatures called Shibito. These range from regular looking human like creatures to deformed gruesome creatures that no longer resemble the people they used to be. The team who designed the game went out of their way to research and find inspiration and referencing material to make the game the best it could be.

They wanted the game to run like a TV series would or a Hollywood presentation of sorts the game is heavily influenced by this. This structures the game into shorter segments each one following a different character in the story. The characters themselves were created from photos of real people then made into 3D CGI models, this made the characters more believable and reinforced the theme and structure of a TV series like approach to the presentation of the game. To add to this face capture was used, again to make it more believable, as facial expression is crucial to horror based stories, actors where also hired to act out scenes in the game for animators to work from. The motion capture was also used for the Shibito, they move very differently from humans, very laboured and often dragging themselves around. However there are many different types of Shibito some move more like animals or insects.

The designers studied many different insects and used them in their designs for the Shibito, a lot of people are afraid of insects and they played on this fear to make the creatures believably scary. One of the insects that they talked about in the DVD were the Silk worms these were the inspiration for what I believe to be one of the most disturbing Shibito in the entire game, the maggot Shibito. Its neck is swollen up and looks like a giant maggot and it has the face of a human on top.

For the look of the game and environments in the game, like the characters they wanted it to feel real. They went to various different parts of Japan to mountain towns that are cut of and very secluded, some even abandoned. An average of 50,000 photographs were taken for reference material. They also looked at old horror movies and used some affects that the camera made that would usually be unwanted in films and be filtered out, but in this case they used them to add to the atmosphere of the game. New technology in the games industry allowed them to do some amazing things with the lighting and texturing. The overall look of the game is very dark and grungy but without the new computer software none of the shadow affects or the atmospheric lighting would have been possible, this would have been a completely different game and not a vary convincing one.

When designing my own ideas I use a lot of magazines and books, for visual referencing and mainly for anatomy practise. I am heavily influenced by films and novels and enjoy anything with an in depth story line, the main reason behind my choice in games. I have been exposed to a lot of different styles of design through my study of animation and fine art, as well as my countless days watching cartoons when I was younger and till this day. I enjoy looking at the designs and art of films and games, a lot of the time more than I enjoy the experience of playing or watching. 

Game studies

The study of games is has only just began to appear in educational establishment, only a select few of institutes have courses that are dedicated to the study and designing of games. The study of games has appeared in correspondence to the rise in video games with our every day lives and becoming a part of our culture. As there are only a small proportion of people in the industry that have come from the route of game studies, most people in the industry come from other areas of study and specialism’s like communication technology, film and media, computer sciences and many others that could be relevant to the gaming industry.

Being such a large part of our culture and the most successful communication technology to become part of the home; millions of young people are exposed to the world of gaming, sparking an interest in some that drives them to learn about games and the theory and processes behind them. If this was not picked up on and educational institutes structuring courses dedicated to the subject the industry would be lacking in new and inventive input, it would eventually fall behind in its development.  

Socialising through games

When people think about playing video games they think about pale antisocial teenagers that lock themselves away in there rooms playing games all night and day. That is far from the truth; in my personal experience of games this has never been the case. Playing games with a group of people, whether its just one person playing and others watching, playing with multiple players or cooperative play when you team up with another person. Playing with a group of people in the room can be incredibly helpful, they might spot something that you failed to and point it out; such situations could include puzzle solving elements in a game. It is the same principle with cooperative play, but instead of outside help the other players is another character or element within the game to physically help. Some games need a second player to get through certain parts of a level. On the other hand multiplayer can also be a competition between two or more players, this could be anything such as fighting games like Tekken or racing games in a wide range of themes and genres. 

http://thenewgamer.com/content/archives/fatal_frame_3_ps2

One game that we decided to play was the horror game Project Zero on the Play Station 2. The player controls a character that is investigating a series of mysterious disappearances in an old Japanese mansion. The mansion is deserted and in bad condition, and there are a lot of stories about horrible and disturbing Shinto rituals that were performed in the house. It is haunted by a whole host of evil spirits linked too these rituals, usually the victims. The game has a very dark atmosphere, which is created by the way the developers have designed the mansion. The lighting, textures, and soundtrack used create a very tense and scary atmosphere, keeping the player constantly on edge through the whole game. It is very rare that you can feel safe and secure in this game. In our case it got to the point where we were terrified because there was a cut scene meaning something not very nice was about to pop up and try to kill you, usually the ghost of a women with her eyes gouged out which we have named ‘the blind lady’ when she appears it is usually followed by a series of screams and shouting “IT’S THE BLIND LADY!” playing the game in a group is incredibly fun seeing each others reactions to the game makes it funny even if the game I terrifying.

Created by Tecmo (c)

I thought it would be interesting to film the game as we played it so that we could hear our reactions back afterwards.


http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=138872422831028

click on link to view.

Other games we played in groups were multiplayer games such as Tekken, Blaz Blue, and Motor Storm, all of which are competitive games where players are put against each other. With the fighting games it is usually just the two fighting against each other, whereas in racing games there is usually some AI players as well to make up the numbers in a race and make it more of a challenge to win.  

Connecting with characters.

To be able to connect with characters within a game is, for me, one of the most important things in a game. In my personal history of games I have always stuck with games that have a deep story line, something that you can really get into. It’s the story that keeps you playing the game; you want to find out what happens to the characters that you have become so attached to.

The first game that I seriously got into and connected with was Final Fantasy VIII; I was drawn into the world that existed within the game. I have always had an overactive imagination; I always made up stories and scenarios in my head and spent most of my childhood in my own little fantasy worlds. My imagination grew as I started reading novels, something I loved doing and still do, like games a book pulls you into another world with new rules and restrictions, were the laws and reality of the real world do not apply. Instead the reality of the world inside the story becomes very real in your mind.

I feel that this is the reason for my choice of highly story driven games especially RPG style games. For me I have to really want to pick up a game and want to play on through the story, desperate to find out what happens to the characters that I have become so attached to. 

Games as a system

All games have a system, a way that all the different aspects work together. Every different part of a game is connected or related to the other parts of that game, take one away and it wouldn’t work.

The main things that make up a game are, the objects, the attributes, and the internal relationships.

The objects in the game are pretty simple to explain they are basically all the physical things that you can see in a game like the character, things in the environments like trees and rocks etc. the AI and the CPU also come under the objects within the game. Another important object is of course the players themselves.

The attributes of a game are the current state of it when you are playing, the qualities and properties of the game.

The internal relationships within a game are the relationship between the player and the character, or whatever they are controlling within the game.