Game of the week: Bomb Jack

The game I picked for this week is Bomb Jack. It’s an old school video game from 1984 where Jack is rewarded with points for finding and deactivating bombs from his opponents.  It’s simple, but a lot of fun. And let’s be honest, mostly everything that came from 1980s is awesome.

Players:  You play against the computer who presents obstacles.

Outcome: If all of the bombs are collected within a certain amount a time everyone is saved from the explosion. If Jack does not accomplish the amount of bombs he needs to acquire everyone blows up.  The pressure in on.

Procedures: Jumps by pushing when Jack is on the floor Stops when pushing in the air. Stay where you are by tapping the space bar fast.

Using a joystick has the same sort of commands. You can jump ultra high by pushing the joystick upwards. Push the joystick in a downward motion to come down fast.

Rules/Resources: You can only grab on bomb at a time.

Conflict: The number of bombs increases and the amount of time decreases.

Objectives: You need to jump and crawl to locate and deactivate bombs.

Boundaries: There is not a predetermined fate for the gamer.

Give it a go:

http://www.1980-games.com/us/old-games/java-games/bombJack.php

 

Augmented reality, 3D style

The concept of a 3D augmented reality compared to traditional organization is a gigantic step. Watching Kelichi Matsuda’s video clips was a mix between amazing and disturbing.  There are those who fear new things, fear the change and transition because they might be the ones who are left behind and can’t pick it up.  I am weary for another reason.

Our sense of reality, what is tangible, what is touchable and true will blur with digital. With 3D we can carry everything we possibly could ever want at our fingers. This will completely redefine our world. A 3D augmented reality isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It has great potential to enhance our real world experiences. It has the ability find those who are kidnapped or injured more quickly. It also has the ability to create strong social networks because we are literally impressive in the digital world. What I am afraid of it that we will be robots, so dependent on the 3D technology because we can carry it everywhere.  I’m all for giving a 3D augmented reality a try. I just don’t want our society to become consumed and turn into drones, unable to do anything for ourselves.

Plus if I had to listen to that beep, beep every time I touched a button or someone else did, I wouldn’t be a happy camper.

 

Blog eight: FMX Team II

FMX TEAM II

You have to select a team: Joey Dirt’s speed freak team, or Maikel Maniac’s freestyle track. You get experience points for playing for either team and mastering tricks.  You get two minutes to unlock . This was a fun game that made me want to try FMX racing.

Players: You can compete against two other people when you get to the more advance levels.

Objective: You need to unlock tricks to move through the track, earn points and be the first to cross the finish line.

Procedure:   To perform a back flip press the left arrow key and to do a front flip press the right arrow key. To perform a number of random tricks you can select number one through six. To perform a wheely you have to hold the up and down arrows.

Conflict: The time presents an obstacle for the racer. In order to make it to the next level, you need to move your fingers fast enough to accomplish the asked trick before the time runs out.

Rules: You have to stay on the track and follow the ramps in order to get to the end. You are not allowed to pump riders off the track either.

Outcome: If you perform tricks the fastest and cross the line before everyone else, you win the race.

Boundaries: There is a predetermined outcome. You either make it to the end of the race or you don’t because time runs out or you can’t perform the trick.

 

Give it a go:

http://www.gamenode.com/sports-games/fmx-team-2/

 

Assignment

Why aren’t women interested in video gaming? It is probably because we aren’t factored into the equation as a player but rather as an object. Maybe that’s not completely fair to say though. I mean, look at Bayonetta on Xbox 360 for instance for a strong female character. This is a girl who is powerful. Her clothes are made out of her hair and when attacking someone she exposes herself. I am sorry if that image right there does not make me what race to find the nearest controller. I can see why people say video gaming is a boys only club.

No, I doubt that guys exposing themselves in correlation with their super power would attract more women to gaming, but I do think women being portrayed in this manner repels female gamers.

What is a cause for concern is the sleeper effect. It occurs when a persons’ experiences something and unintentionally allows the experience to effect their way of thinking. How will the world view women if this portrayal continues?

I get it. You have to have a niche audience to market to and sell your company’s product. You can’t include everyone. When designers try to develop games based on gender things tend to get ugly. Girls end up with Super Princess Peach. Her super powers? Her emotions change and she can cry and create a river to get across obstacles.  Mood swings as powers, really?  That is almost a slap in the face. But could they tone down the cleavage and skimpy clothing? It has been done. It’s a cope out for creating female characters. There is no thinking involved, not attempt to branch out and try something new.  It lacks creativity and is just plain lazy on the designers’ end.

I think gaming designers should market their female players differently. Create strong and powerful leading ladies. Then they need to focus on their capabilities rather than their appearance.

 

Game seven: Cheat Death

The game I selected this week is called Cheat Death. The game shares similarities with the popular game Tetris.  With the pressure of a ticking watch, the user has to arrange blocks in a certain fashion to create a bridge. There is a pit that needs to be filled with blocks in order for the user to successfully cross the pit If the blocks are not arranged in the correct order, the character cannot cross the bridge.  While the user is busy trying to properly organize the blocks, a man begins to age as the time winds down. If the bridge is built before the time runs out, he can cross the pit and drink to elixir to become youthful. As the user completes each level the Tetris portion gets harder to solve.

Player: There is only one player needed to play the game.

Outcome: If you fix the block in the correct order before time runs out, drink the elixir then you will cheat death.

Procedures: All of the blocks are given to you before hand. You need to figure out how the pieces fit in the pit.

Rules: There is only one way to solve the puzzle. There cannot be gaps between the pieces.

Conflict: You need to be able to solve the puzzle before the time runs out. The time decreases with each level.

Objectives: The goal is to beat death by building the bridge and reaching the exlixir.

Boundaries: There is an undetermined nature to the game. There is an element of uncertainty.

Give it a go

http://www.phyfun.com/Games/2-3300-Cheat-Death.aspx

Blog Assignment

This study was conducted to see if online users benefit more, less or equally in a virtual world.  The idea of cyber campuses is becoming a frequently discussed topic but Serious Games Insitute (SGI) wanted to see if there are advantages to this learning approach rather than just convenience.  The SGI researchers held classes in Second Life and after weeks of observation the study concluded that online experience and interaction enriched the online users’ learning processes by being multimodal. Multimodal allows the user to tap into different senses to better communicate among others to better solve problems.

It is a great environment to set up audio, video, e-mail, chat and all the while create a strong social network. However the study did say that much more research needs to be conducted in order to create guideline to make the virtual classrooms run as slowly as those in real life.

Give it a look:

Click to access seriousvirtualworldsv1.pdf

Game Six: Learn to Fly

The beginning of the Learn to Fly introduces an Emperor Penguin in her home in Antarctica. She is on a search engine to learn more about her type of penguin when she found out that Emperor Penguins are flightless birds. Mad beyond belief, she storms out of house to learn to fly.

Players: This is man v. self.  The penguin is challenged by the elements of the environment and himself to overcome them.

Outcome: If everything is executed correctly, you should make the “flightless bird” soar.

Procedure: By moving the arrow keys fast enough, you will be able to fly.  You have to approach the slope with enough speed to get a good bounce as well. You can also control the ramp height, acceleration and air resistance. The more slopes you conquer the more money you are awarded to explore high and larger slopes.

Rules: You need to move as fast as you can, as quickly as you can at the right angle to achieve a solid bounce on the water.

Conflict: By nature Emperor Penguins do not fly but this penguin is determined to prove that idea wrong.  The penguin has to work with the elements that generally work against them but you need lots of points to unlock different speeds, glides and slopes. The only way to earn points is to get the basics down.

Objectives: Wait until you reach the jump and adjust your angle become hitting the slope. The faster you hit the water, the better chance you have to bounce back up and fly.

Boundaries: The outcome of this game is not predetermined. The players are uncertain if they’ll be able to get their penguin to fly.

Give it a go:

http://freegames.org/learn-to-fly/

On a side note here is my gamer type:

Blog assignment

The TED video claims that my generation feels more through video games than through the real world.

Though I do not fully agree with this statement, sadly I have to acknowledge that he does have a point. There becomes this emotional investment the user develops as the game progresses. It starts as an escape until the user buys into it too much. Like the TED video stated, if the users plays the game enough they believe they can actually snowboard, ride a motorcycle or kill a man. The boundary between real and fantasy blurs.

An absolute shocking, disgusting and extreme example of this is when a South Korean couple was placed under arrest for starving their three-month-old baby because they were consumed with raising a child virtually on popular “role-playing game” Prius Online.

(Here is the article from BBC:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8551122.stm)

Even here the article says “…they ‘indulged themselves online’ to escape from reality.”

I understand we need a break from our problems. That is the same reason people read magazines and books. It still leaves me wondering though what makes reality so tough now that we need a mental vacation to this extreme?

Game five: Stone Age Blast

Stone Age Blast is a fun little game that can easily become addicting. The mindless entertainment of Stone Age Blast allows the user to be consumed with the simplicity of the game.

Players: There is one player in this game who rides the dragon. It’s computer vs. user.

Outcome: If the user can make it through all the levels the user is rewarded with getting back to his desired destination, his homeland.

Procedures: The users must fly on their dragon and dodge the spacecrafts. The user can do this by moving quickly to avoid the danger of the spacecrafts or by shooting fireballs at them.

Rules: The user is not allowed to touch the spacecrafts. In doing so, the users’ health begins to decline until they are eliminated from the game.

Conflict: The game challenges the user by throwing several fast moving objects in the users’ paths. It tests the users’ reaction time. The spacecrafts come from the bottom, top and side of the screen. The higher the level, the more spacecrafts there are that move more quickly.

Objectives: The users must press the arrows buttons as fast as they can into to avoid being hit by the spacecrafts.

Boundaries: There is no certainty that the user will successfully make it through the level without losing their health.

Give it a go:

http://www.addictinggames.com/stoneage-blast-game.html

Blog assignment

A dramatic arc is the structure of a play, film or video game that allows the story to follow in a logical order to tell a story.

The first part of the story is the exposition. This is the beginning of the story where there is a sense of normalcy in the world. The next part of the story is the rising action. This is where the character is called to step up and pulled outside of his or her comfort zone. The climax is where the character is confronted with the ultimate obstacle of the story. The character overcomes this and the declining action begins.  This is the part where all the lose ends of the story come together. The resolution is where the character comes back into a redefined sense of normalcy.

The Mac book package followed the dramatic arc. The exposition was just the box sitting on the table. The rising action was opening the box and removing the foam. The climax was seeing the computer and opening it. The declining action was  putting all of the foam back. The resolution was closing the box.

The dramatic arc of Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone begins with the exposition where Harry lives with aunt, uncle and cousin. He lives a normal life, attending school and helping out around the house. The rising action is where he receives a letter in the mail asking for his presence at Hogwarts school for wizards. He accepts and finds out the past of his family. His parents were murdered by a powerful wizard Voldemort. The climaz is where Harry meets Voldemort and they fight. Harry defeats him and the declining action starts. Harry transitions into the world of wizards. The resolution is Harry finding his place a a wizard and redefining normalcy.