Realism, and why we don't need it... or do we? (Reality and perception)

Realism in games has always been a controversial
subject, people constantly arguing about whether what we need in games is more graphical fidelity or if they should lean towards a more stylised aesthetic. Personally, I'm not taking a side and this is due to two factors. The first being that I am curious to see
how technology like this develops, and enjoy game companies testing the boundaries of that they may acheive on current generation hardware. The second is that it purely depends on what the team is aiming for, if they are creating a realistic modern combat simulator (for example: Battlefield 3), then perhaps the exagerrated cartoon style of a game such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker:

 

 Isn't quite fitting. But what I think game developers should take into account is that video games can be much more than just a simulation, they can be an art form. (Games as art is an entirely different suject that I won't cover) What was also discussed in this lecture was the idea of reality and perception, the fascinating and seemingly endless topic that philosophers and scientists have been discussing for centuries. So instead of trying to pathetically sum up the entire subject I shall just give a few personal observations on the matter based on some research. I beleive that - up to a certain extent - reality is based on that which science may prove with logic and reason, and philosophy opens interesting pathways to the way we understand and perceive these "facts". Though, science is a man made concept and what we see, hear and feel are merely just signals in our brain reacting to stimuli in our surroundings and what philosophy provides is a broad interesting contrast to the cold, hard facts we are told, such as if we all experience the world in completely different ways. Notable philosophers include Heraclitus, Plato and Socrates, who all sought to understand the world beyond the physical realm that we know, or don't.

Narratives And Why Games Need Them

A narrative is essentially a story, without it neither films nor literature would exist, unfortunately the mainstream games industry is only just realising the importance of narrative, and that is what I would like to talk about. In recent years, game developers have started to try and stray from the classic run-and-gun sort of games with a complete lack of story to ones with exciting innovative ideas and real depth. Let's take the Mass Effect games by Bioware, these Sci-fi games are all about the narrative, and the ability to create your own. You take on the role of Commander Shepard, and instantly you are able to decide their gender and cultural background, instantly changing how the game will be played and how characters react to you, and throughout the story you will have to make genuinely difficult decisions that alter other events further along in the game and the sequel games after that, ultimately changing the fate of the galaxy and the races that populate it (it's all very epic like that). But most importantly they are able to do this all whilst having an engaging and fun shooting mechanic, the story gives a genuine reason for the violence, it's quite symbiotic. I think it's that game developers beleive that if they focus on the narrative the gameplay will suffer, but with Mass Effect 2 winning numerous gaming awards this clearly isn't the case.

Semiotics and Superman

Semiotics is a very broad subject matter that would take more than a few blog posts for me to explain, so instead I shall talk about how certain aspects of semiotics can applied to the way one might veiw either a comic book or video game character. Dennotation, connotation and myth are three major points in semiotics, denotation is - in a rather shallow definition - what may be seen on the surface or a literal meaning, such as a characters appearance (what sort of clothes they are wearing etc.). Connotation is the meaning behind what we are able to see and the associations we make with what we see, due to the way our culture presents them to us (In a comic, dark clothing may represent someone evil or they may have a large scar on there face etc.). Myth is something that I dont think I can truly definine yet in terms of semiotics. The line, I feel, is very thin between connotation and myth and often I am unable to tell the difference, it is, in some sense, the overarching meaning of a subject if you will. For example, let's take the well established character of Superman. The obvious - denotation - that we see is the bright, bold primary colours of his suit and his impossibly large muscles which he uses to fight evil. The connotaion of the suit would be that the vibrant, primary colours represent someone that is good (They are also the colours of the Ameican flag) and the muscles and large stature represent a great sense of strength and power. The myth i beleive is the fact that he is also Clarke Kent, a man with real human problems and that every person has the power inside of them to do good and be just, like Superman. This may be shallow and in certain points incorrect, but ibeleive i have much to learn on the subject of semiotics.

Intertextuality! It's everywhere!

Being well versed in all things video games and the internet, intertextuality is a daily part of life for me, with references to comical or interesting events being thrown around constantly. Intertetuality is simply just a form of refencing and it can be found everywhere, particularly in films and games. Recently I watched the film Paul (featuring and co-written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) which is a film built off geeky refrences. It references such films as Star Wars (in the form of a joke where Nick Frost's character jokes about having sex with a girl who looked like a wookie) and Alien (Spoiler: the general woman at the end is Sigourney Weaver) and other such things like that. This film is a perfect example of how intertextuality may be used in cinema to engage an audiece in another way outside of the plot. Pixar films are also great examples of how intertextuality may be used. Pixar understands that although their films are designed for children, adults will be watching these films with their kids and so they add in certain refences that they would understand. At the begininning of Toy Story 2, The Evil Emporer Zerg and Buzz Lightyear have a very Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader face-off, in which Zerg says the words "I am you father" the actual line from Star Wars episode VI: Return of the Jedi, this is not something the 5-10 year old target audience would understand as a reference, but the adult watching very well may (or at least they should!).

Dark Souls- Too much noise (A less formal blog post)

I recently purchased a game called Dark Souls made by japanese developer From Software, it is the spiritual successor to a famously/infamously difficult game called Demon's Souls. Having played Demon's Souls I knew what sort of epically frustrating quest I was getting myself into, with the developer saying on numerous occasions that this game would be as/ more difficult as its predecessor. I didn't quite realise how difficult this would be. That's the thing though, I really enjoyed Demon's Soul's, the feeling of progression and utter brutality seemed even, as though it's my fault when I'm killed in one hit by some iron colossus. But Dark Souls... I didnt quite anticipate how far they would take this difficulty, some people love this sort of thing... sadists... Nihlists... those types of people, but even for a toughened, veteran gamer this is just brutal. But for some reason I cant stop playing... I suppose what I was going to link this to was the idea that - when implenting this game into the Shannon and Weaver model - you might see that the difficulty in this game has gone to the level where it is just noise, hindering the experience that the developer wanted you to have. But, with that said the developer did make the game, and who am I to question its creator... well I suppose that was somewhat pointless...

Well... Shannon, meet Weaver.

Our first lecture introduced the idea of semiotics and the Shannon and Weaver model of communication. The lecture as a whole was quite interesting, but the I found the formula that Shannon and weaver had devised for a general rule of communication - although perhaps slightly simplified - fairly exact. It gave me ideas on how films, games and any other form of on screen narratives are created. The media is the transmitter, the story and/ or gameplay is the message, I receive the information and the way I respond to whatever it is that is being portrayed is the feedback, and so the cycle repeats itself. Anything that disrupts the signal, whether is is poor design choices or a dull story is noise that brings me out of the experience. I know this may seem like a quick and shallow response to the model but it I think it's adequate to quickly summarise how what I learnt relates to what I am studying and not just saying that I didnt care and that it was a complete waste of time. We were also taught about entropy and redndancy, and how changing the levels of what we expect to what we we don't can quite drastically alter the pacing of a story and how the audience reacts to what we see, too much redundancy and the audience becomes bored, too much entropy and we becomed numbed to the constant flow of suprises. It's important to have a mix. Anyway, done now, bed time.

First Post- Blog aims

This is the first post in a blog that shall hopefully attribute to me writing an essay for the media histories module in my 3d games art degree. Each week I will will need to make at least one entry onto this blog summarising what the lecture taught me and how i may apply it to what I do as an artist.