NGJ/OGJ

New games journalism or old gamed journalism?

New games journalism is explained in the place of the player, the journalist will explain what he did, how he felt and what happened during his play through. 

Old games journalism is explaining the game piece by piece, feature by feature, for example they journalist will talk about the mechanics, the graphics, the gameplay, the bugs etc. 

I feel that both new and old games journalism are helpful, but to different audiences. New games journalism is more for the consumer, the person buying the game. They want to know what you will get out of the game. 

However old games journalism is more for games designers or people interested in certain aspects of the game.

Remediation: Games

Remediation is the representation of one medium in another, we argue that remediation is a defining characteristic of the new digital media.

The spectrum of ways new media 'remediates' old media.

Remediation can refer to a whole range of conventions, for example, we find examples of Aesthetic conventions constantly being used by different media.

Why does remediation take place?

It may take time for a new medium to develop unique forms of content.

Its not very surprising that successful conventions get traded between different media.

Games Britannia episode 3 "Joystick Generation"

In the third episode of Games Britannia we learn how Britain made the jump from board games to the digital universe we are more familiar with today. In the 1980's we explore the arcade era, were popular games like Pacman and Space Invaders were played by thousands of people. These are the games that really catapulted digital games into the spotlight. We then shift our focus over to the 90's where female protagonists start to appear in video games, such as Lara Croft, are they just sex objects? Or is this the start of strong independent courageous female leads.

The documentary comes to a close by looking at the present day, games that use the internet, MMO's, such as World of Warcraft and Runescape, and games that have been questioned by society itself, the Grand Theft Auto series being the most questionable, being able to go about your everyday "in-game" life and be able to do absolutely anything with the only repercussion being a small fine.

Screening notes: La Decima Vitimma (The Tenth Victim)

Killer games started to pop up in American University campuses after the film The Tenth Victim was released in the United States. Killer games are assassination style games where a player is given some information about a "target" and the player must then "kill" the target with some sort of non lethal weapon.

The film The Tenth Victim takes place in a future society where human hunts are staged, participants adopt parts of the hunter and the hunter, killing each other as part of the competition. The film follows 2 characters on that are both on their final kill, the tenth victim, whoever dies the other person will reap the reward, a jackpot prize. 

With that brief overview of The Tenth Victim you can now see how closely linked the movie and the game are. 

British Museum trip

I was not personally available for the British Museum trip however I heard from other class mates that it was a good experience and opened their eyes into the world of ancient games.

Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary

I was not available when this screening took place, however I have read up on it and based on the things I have read I got this idea of what the screening involved.

In 1978, the German press and board game makers created the Spiel des Jahres, also known as 'Game of the Year' award for excellence in board game design. The competition for this award contributed to an explosion in variety and sophistication of 'Euro-games.'

With the arrival of The Settlers of Catan in the US in the mid 90's, more people began to discover the new breed of board game that had been quietly evolving in Germany for the past 30+ years.

The documentary helps make newcomers aware aware of what they've been missing, while at the same time letting hobby enthusiasts hear from the actual designers responsible for some of their favourite games.

Games Britannia episode 1 "Dicing with Destiny"

Part one of Games Britannia introduces us to how the instinct to play games is as universal as language itself, from 1st century Britain to the Victorian era.

It tells us that Ancient and medieval games weren't just played for fun, they were fundamental in the lives of most people. They were often imbued with meaning and prophetic significance. However by the late Middle Ages that element in games began to be lost as gaming became increasingly associated with gambling.

When it came to the Victorian era games were transformed into moral education tools. This was also the era in which Britain established the worlds first commercial games industry, they produced classics such as the Staunton Chess Set, Ludo and Snakes and Ladders, these were all adaptations of original games from other countries.

Snakes and Ladders which was once represented as a Hindu journey to enlightenment was transformed into the popular family favourite we know today.

Harvard style referencing, as per University regulation.

To get accustomed to university regulations for submitting assignments we were asked to attend a lecture that took place in the University library,  this lecture taught us how to use the Universities online library and how to reference Books, articles and newspaper clips properly. 

Here are some examples;

Murray, H. J. R. (1952). A History of Board Games Other Than Chess. London: Oxford University Press. 12-18.

Robertson, J & Howells, C. 2008, "Computer Games Design: Opportunities for successful learning", Computer & Education, vol 50, no. 2, pp. 559-578.

Tweaking Ancient Games

Over the Christmas break I had assignments to complete, one of these assignments asked me to play one of the ancient games we had been playing, then iterate it.

I will share an iteration that I decided to try and I will explain how the game changed, and if it changed in a good way or a bad way.

So after playing Senet for the first time in a couple of weeks I wanted to make the game quicker because i felt it was too slow for my liking. So I decided to implement a rule that when you role a 6 you would role again and double the number and then you would get to move that many squares.

When playing the iteration it did speed up the game by a fair amount, which was pleasing that my iteration worked. Instead of the game taking around 6-7 mins to get one piece off of the board this time it would only take around 3-5 minutes to take a piece off of the board making the actual game a lot faster to play and complete a whole game.

I would love to share more of how I continued to tweak ancient games however that would start going into my assignment. But I hope you get an idea of how I was able to tweak the game to my liking without breaking the mechanics.