Realism

Realism. Can games truly become realistic? I’m not sure. If you look back to Final Fantasy 7 [1997,directed by Yoshinori Kitase,Square], one of the first ever 3D games, people thought that was so realistic they couldn’t believe it. If we were to play it now, the characters look like low poly blobs. Then you if were to compare that to battlefield 3[ 2011, EA Digital Illusions CE, Electronic Arts] , generally the opinion would be that, that game is very realistic (graphics wise) and future games will be even more so. But what if there not being more realistic, maybe there just adapting and evolving with humans and what they perceive. I watched a very interesting program called “Horizon ~ Do you see what I see?” [2011, BBC]. It was mainly to too do colour. A Native tribe was shown a few pieces of paper, all blue and one with a very slight tint on it, barely noticeable for an average person. The tribes men could instantly tell which one was different. They were then shown more coloured papers, all of which were blue accept one green one. The tribes men couldn't figure out for a while which paper was the different colour even though to us they look completely different. So people from different background see things slightly differently to a western person. So how could something be truly realistic if everyone sees if differently?
Games to try and add aspects of reality to them for example~ Second life [2003,Linden Research, Inc] An online game that simulates real life to the max. In this game you can have a real job, have kids get married, go to the pub make friends, anything you would want to do in real life. People actually prefer it to there real life sometimes and immerse themselves completely in the game.
Another way game designers try and create a realistic environment for the gamer is by getting rid of the onscreen interface. For example in Dead Space [2008, EA Redwood Shores, Electronic Arts], the only way you can indicate your HP is by the light on your back pack.
First person games are also ment to make you feel like you’re the character by putting the camera in the eyes of a character.
Some RPGs make you feel like your  one with the game by giving you decisions (sometimes personal ones) or survival where you have to eat.
In my opinion though I don’t think a game could truly be realistic unless you felt the consequences of your actions not just see them. Like when you play Call Of Duty [2003, Ben Chichoski, Infinity Ward, Activision], you run out there, your all happy and smiling because you know your not going to die. In reality, if your running out on the battlefield your terrified.
But the reason people play games is because (90% of the time) its something you cant do in real life, not only that but if a game is too realistic people might not want to play it/ it will be rated 18 and make less money. I think at the end of the day its all down to if the person “wants” the game itself to be realistic, but the game can never truly be realistic.

Narrative

We talked about narrative this week (a set of events). There are 2 parts to narrative; the plot (series of events/setting, characters etc) and the story (putting the plot together). For example the beginning of Final Fantasy 13 [2010,Motomu Toriyama,Square Enix], Plot~ A train is speeding into a tunnel, in the train are many people with hoods. A armed solider is guarding the people. One of the people take off there hood and attack the solider. The story~ Lightening and her friend have infiltrated Cocoon to find her sister who is turning into a l'Cie.
We also talked about Todorov’s theory of equilibrium, where a story has a Equilibrium, disruption and a resolve. In Groundhog day [1993,directed by Harold Ramis,Columbia Pictures] a man and his new team do the same story on the ground hog every year resulting in the same way (equilibrium), He grown tired and irritated at this, he goes to bed and wakes up to find that its February 2nd again…the day has looped (Disruption). He continues to relive the same day everyday, he does things like suicide, rob banks, sleep with women etc etc to try and break the loop. He finally tries to help the people of the city and give an amazing report on Groundhog day, this, works and the loop is broken (resolve).
When There is no completion of the Equilibrium (also known as a cliff hanger) it makes the viewer curious and wanting to see the resolve. This method is typically used in soup operas and television series to make the viewer watch the next episode.
Another way to show the process of narrative is Freytag’s triangle. It starts with the “risky action” moves up to the “climax and crisis” and then slowly moves down to the “unwinding”. Soap Operas end halfway through this triangle. Some films such as Memento [2000, directed by Christopher Nolan,Newmarket Capital Group] and Pulp Fiction [1994, directed by Quentin Tarantino, Miramax Films] start at different points of the triangle. These films have a mixed up plot which makes you have to think about the story more.
Propps morphology is the common characters in fairy tales. Typical characters you would find are; Villain, donor, helper, princess/father, dispatcher, hero/victim, and the false hero. If you look at most stories you will find at least one of these characters within it. Example in Zelda Ocarina of time [1998,Shigeru Miyamoto,Nintendo] ; the hero is link, the princess is Zelda, the help is navi, the dispatcher is probably the Duka tree,  and the Villain is Gannon.
The last thing we discussed was Ergodic, which is working along a story and making choices. There are 3 parts to this term;
Agency -This is when you make choices and see the results of them example of this type of game is Fall Out New Vegas [2010,Obsidian Entertainment,Bethesda Game Studios]. This game gives you many choices and decisions you have to make that effects the outcome of the story. There are usually 3 different outcomes to each quest and also many ways you can go about completing them. A main decision in this game is deciding which group of people you will fight for. Choosing say “the Legion” will completely change the story, you will  follow the Legion and kill many people brutally, where as, if you were to join the NCR group the story and missions would change and you would be fighting against the Legion. Making all these decision will effect the end to your story in game. Something else that might effect the story is the morality system. In Red Dead Redemption [2010 Rockstar Games], Though out the game you get choices that don’t really effect the story, but effect your reputation, and there for effect the way people will react to you. His though, does not change the main story or the ending.
Aporia /epiphany- This is when you come to a road block, something you don’t understand that prevents you from continuing the story. When epiphany comes into play, it’s the realisation of overcoming the problem and the satisfaction of finally being able to continue. This only happens in games not film.
Tmesis- This is when you skip a problem because its not understood, and choose a way around the problem. This leaves you with the lingering thought of what you might have missed. This sort of thing mainly happens with games that contain side quests. For example in Oblivion [2006,Bethesda Game Studios,2K Games], there are side quests that ask you to search the Oblivion gates, if you complete the main quest, these  Oblivion gates disappear and prevent you from continuing that part of the story. This means you may miss out on items that can be found in that part of the game.

Intertextuality

This week we discussed “Intertxetuality”, which is basically referring to another event. There are many ways you can do this, maybe through film, music, models, books, plays and probably many more. An example of conscious Intertextuality is the “Scary Movie” [Scary Movie, 2000-present day,Directed by; Keenen Ivory Wayans and David Zucker, Dimension Films, USA] series. In this series the whole films are based on other films (mostly horror films), events or people and use Intertexuality to poke fun at them and make there films into a comedy. You could say the whole series is a massive parody. Scary Movie 1 [2000] was mainly based off of the films Scream [1996, directed by; Wes Craven, Woods Entertainment, USA] and "I know what you did last summer" [1997, directed by; Jim Gillespie,Mandalay Entertainment, USA]. Scary Movie 2 [2001]was mainly focused on The Exorcist [1973,directed by;William Friedkin, Warner Bros.USA], Scary Movie 3 [2003] was a parody of Signs [2002,directed by;M. Night Shyamalan, Touchstone Pictures, USA] and The Ring [2002,directed by;Gore Verbinski, DreamWorks Pictures, USA and Japan]. Scary movie 4 [2006] probably had the most intertexuality including influences from The Grudge [2004,directed by;Takashi Shimizu, Ghost House Pictures, USA], War of the Worlds [2005,directed by;Steven Spielberg, Amblin Entertainment,USA], Saw [2004,directed by;James Wan, Evolution Entertainment and Twisted Pictures, USA], The Village [2004,directed by;M. Night Shyamalan, Blinding Edge Pictures, USA], Million Dollar Baby [2004, directed by;Clint Eastwood, Lakeshore Entertainment, USA] and Brokeback Mountain [2005,directed by;Ang Lee, River Road Entertainment,Canada and USA]. They also used people like Michael Jackson, who was used in the 3rd and 4th movie where they made fun of his love for children, dancing, and unreal face.
A film like Scott Pilgrim V The World [2010,directed by;Edgar Wright, Big Talk Films,USA] uses references from super heroes and games to reflect the characters personality and imagination. For example, In the last fight scene, Every time Scott kills someone they disappear and coins appear, like in most games. Also you see text flash on your screen like KO or FIGHT, and comic book style sound effects such as “KABOOM”, Even the last evil ex has a HP bar. Some of the sound effects you can tell are taken from games such as Mario [1981,Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo] and Sonic[1991,Yuji Naka,Nintendo]. I think this movie in a way is a tribute to all video games and comics.
A few references in games are like “Grand Theft Auto”[1997,created by David Jones - Dan Houser - Sam Houser, Rockstar Games],  where the radio has cheesy adverts like on the real radio the only difference is that the radio in GTA actually mocks itself. Also in Assassins Creed [2007, created by Patrice Desilets,Ubisoft], you find the odd reference here and there like uncle Mario (“it’s a me, Mario!”) or having Leonardo Da Vinci as your weapons designer.
Music wise, If we were to look at “Jaws“ [1975, directed by;Steven Spielberg, Universal Pictures, USA]. The music as that is world renowned, and if heard you would think instantly “shark”. So many other films have used the Jaws theme music or slightly similar. Also a phrase in jaws “were gona need a bigger boat” is used in countless films and programs such as Shanghai Knights [2003,directed by;David Dobkin, Spyglass Entertainment,USA] : “were gona need a bigger gun”  Batman & Robin [1997,directed by;Joel Schumacher,Warner Bros] : “were going to need a bigger cave” and so many more.
Another phase that has been used a lot in other movies is the phrase “Here’s Jhonny” from The Shining [1980,directed by;Stanley Kubrick,Perrigrine Productions,Warner Bros. USA], movies like “Finding Nemo”[2003,directed by;Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich, Pixar, USA] have used it and slightly changed it e.g: “Here’s Brucey” also programs such as the latest X Factor [2004,created by;Simon Cowell, ITV,UK] use it almost every week to refer to a contestant.
Unconscious intextuality is when you create something and the audience refers it to something else, even though this wasn’t the makers intent. The best example of this is an animation I made myself for a college project [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnuOl0zd7Io]. The story was of a hamster who sees paradise out of his window and set on an adventure to reach it through the snow, jungles, and desert. At the end of the animation you find out the hamster was actually day dreaming~ he’s in a cage in his running wheel staring at a poster of the Bahamas on the wall opposite him. I finally showed this to a friend “the audience” thinking this was a completely unique idea. The first thing they said was “it reminds me of that scene from Madagascar [2005,directed by;Eric Darnell,DreamWorks Animation,USA] opening scene. I had not seen Madagascar at the time so this was a shock to me, it also proves the theory that the viewer is the person that determines if something is truly unique which also depends on there knowledge.

Week 3 Semiotics

So apparently Semiotics is the study of meaning, maybe how we perceive things and how they lead on to other assumptions, EG: Alice: Madness Returns (Developer: Spicy Horse, 2011 [video game]), We see Alice ~ Little girl, brown hair, blue a dress with a white apron, wears long white socks, carries a knife (Clenotation). We can then say her dress implies she comes from a decent middle class family, she carries a knife so she probably likes to kill things or cook (Connotation). Finally, from the look on her face she's probably a troubled soul, maybe lost her parents at a young age hence why she's so angry, girl that's completely out of her mind, seeks revenge (myth).

We also discussed Iconic (close to realistic) and Arbitrary (more abstract and less realistic). An example of this is the Triforce emblem from Zelda (Devolpers: Nintendo, 1986 [video game]). When we see this we instantly think of Zelda therefore it is more iconic, whereas the word Zelda could be misinterpreted or could mean something else in a different language.

The last thing we discussed was Paradigm and Syntagm, which is basically the signs on offer and how we use them. Using the haunted house level in “Vampire The Maqsurade ~ Bloodlines” (Developer: Troika Games,2004 [video game]) as an example, there are A LOT of semiotics in this level which is why its considered one of the most scariest levels in a game of all time.

They made the colour scheme very dark and desturated which makes it hard to see and the whole place has a lot of corners and turns which subconsciously makes you afraid of what’s around the comer. Sound wise, there is very little background music and the effects music is a lot louder, making things like random glasses smashing or floors creaking a lot scarier. Sometimes ambiance is used but the dead silence makes the atmosphere a lot more tense.

You hear a ghostly voice 5times throughout the level which makes you jump , but, the accent instantly makes you shiver and they also play the sound from one direction to the other making you feel like the ghost is walking passed you.

They also used lighting as a sign, its set dim through most of the level but when you go into a room of importance or if something is about to be thrown at you, the lights randomly flicker on, this to me is semiotic because it startles you and instantly puts you into danger mode.

Finally the most semiotic thing about this level is the fact that there is references to The Shining (1980, Director: Stanley Kubrick, USA: Perrigrine Productions), one of the scariest movies of all time, throughout the level. E.G; the level is based in an abandoned hotel, you find an axes in one of the bed rooms, and finally in the children’s room you find a hand drawn picture of a family, mother, son, and father, but the father is portrayed as angry by the flames around him.

Week 2 of the lecture thingys

So. Dear Blog. I guess.

First time EVER writing a blog. So proud of myself.
So we talked about Semiotics and about communication. He talked about how the transmitter gives a message to the receiver and how sometimes that message can get lost in noise. Even though this is widely seen as a bad thing we were thinking about how games/films use it as a good thing.
We split the information the receiver gets into 2 groups,

Redundancy which is information that is predictable to the user or expected. It makes the receiver feel comfortable eg: Disney films tend to be redundant because they are aimed at a certain age group, like "High school musical". You will never find anything surprising or interesting for that matter about dancing singing people in a high school though it perfect for the target audience.
An example of a redundant game Sims. Even though it surprisingly addictive, it was very redundant because it simulates life, which can be very repetitive.
The other type of information is Entropy. This information is unpredictable, surprising and sometimes confusing. This type of information works well in games because it enables you to be able to play them multiples times and not find it repetitive. A game like Resident Evil is very entropic because its a horror game it has to have surprising unexpected stories, moments of fear and monsters that pop out. Also things exploding        
on there screen are counted as noise because it distracts you and makes the atmosphere chaotic and therefore entropic. Because of all them things resident evil 5 was fun to play over and over again because every level (even if it looked the same) was different. I would also think MMO's are counted as entropic because you meet different people everyday so you will never exactly repeat a part of the game.
I wish you could see how many words you've written on this thing zzzzzz too lazy to count.