SSC Media Studies: Ryan Banner

Showing posts with label Ryan Banner. Show all posts

"Games replay crucial episodes of WorldWarII, to explore consequences of alternative strategic approach" (FOOTNOTE 1 WHAT BALL TO PLAY - JANET SIMONS)

The Last of us allows us to position ourselves as though we are in a zombie apocalypse. The game developing a bond between you and the young girl you are with differs the way you approach situations in the narrative; if your supplies are scarse you tend to avoid fights and approach situations more stealth like; providing the 'strategic approach' towards the narrative in order to keep all you hold dear to you, safe. This point is further emphasised when Joel says "if i get in trouble down there, you make every shot count" ( footnote 2 - the last of us cutcene/gameplay) prior to his Joel was teaching Ellie how to shoot a Rifle - further showing the 'strategic' sense the game has and needs; one man is incapable of taking out high hostile numbers without assistance from high ground in this case Ellie. The last of us uses real life war tactics/strategies in the narrative to develop the story of the game. The main story being fixed the player Unintentionally building their own narrative; they decide how many people die and how many people live "characters are vehicles onto which they project their own goals, skills and experiences and understanding of the game" (FOOTNOTE 3 What Ball to play - Janet Simons) the narrative of the game allowing you to take multiple approaches allows it to best suit the gamers personality/play style best - Conservative and stealth like or Reckless and violent. The Last of us having a linear narrative can be argued that it can be shaped how you want it to be - Some ludologists argue that "a plot makes a story and rules make a game"(Footnote 4 WHAT BALL TO PLAY JANET SIMONS) , the Last of us supports this statement in its own way by allowing creation of various narratives which all lead to the same plot ending.

What Ball To Play - Jan Simons

C

1)

"players also know that whatever happens to their avatars in the game world, nothing nasty will happen too them. And more importantly to an external observer players often behave like characters in the story"

2

"As long as the player is experiencing a true sense of interactive freedom transformation as a variety is not an important design consideration"

3

"Narratives allow the exploration of what would or could of happened under even slightly different conditions"

4

"Games replay crucial episodes of WorldWarII, to explore consequences of alternative strategic approach"

5

"Narratlogists might agree that a narrative is a sequence of casually and chronologically linked events, but when it comes to filling in the details opinions differ"

6

"Narratives often play a significant part in role playing games"

7

" The difference between a narrative and a game is a matter of perspective"

8

"For game players. characters are vehicles onto which they project their own goals, skills experiences and understanding of the game"

9

"for ludologists Juul and Aarseth a plot makes a story and rules make a game"

10

Aarseth -
"What player would commit suicide, even virtually... Players crash cars, run over beat-up and shoot other players and happily voluntary run the risk of being virtually mugged"

Narrative in video games Patrick Holleman

A

1
"But the biggest difference between traditional games and video games is artificial intelligence which only video games have"

2
"But nearly all of them have an abundant use of discrete artificial intelligence"

For Number 2:

The scene where you remain dormant and Ellie begins to say random words or ask Joel questions as to why you are standing there doing nothing or the scene where you are walking through the snow as Ellie.

Also you can enter certain buildings (not demanded by the narrative but will trigger a response from the AI - For example the toy store or the store full of music records)

3
"Video games have a discrete game world, not created by or orientated by any player. This is the primary design failure that separates video games from their traditional counterparts"

4
"The player is presented with a world that can be accessed largely out their own discretion. video games that are too linear... are often deprecated by critics and gamers"

5
"It stands to reason, then that theme should be excellent video games which show how the narrative and gameplay can work together to create a unique artistic experience"

6
"Every Location that the player visit suggests another turn in the story"

For Number 6:

In the last of us the prime example would be when you are searching for the fireflies and you learn they are dead and Tess has been bitten; this changes the narrative as you are then expected to travel across country to their ‘base’. Also you have lost an ally - one who is capable of defending herself as well as Joel in certain situations. Upon arrival you learn it is abandoned and a tape is the only thing leading you to your next destination; the narrative is further twisted when Joel is injured during this; so you are then forced to play as Ellie – unusual as you have been playing a masculine male throughout the game and now you are positioned in the shoes of a 13/14 year old girl. (The game uses a vast number of enemy's in the first scene as this character - this further emphasises the point that she is fragile and more in risk of danger and becoming hurt.

7
"But it is not possible to venture into a secret area of a book or a movie to have the pleasure of finding something which never even flashed before the eyes of other viewers who are reading the same book or watching the same movie at the same time"

For Number 7:

In The Last of us there of numerous secrets you can undergo; for example when you are in the sewers looking for a way to the meeting point you can find numerous notes which have been left there by people who have died you learn the story of what happened to them prior there death and how they died (the man who killed the children so they didn’t starve to death) – and how your characters Joel and Ellie react to the story (not part of the main narrative of the game)

Another example within this game would be the ironic joke books that Joel finds for Ellie, throughout the main game in certain locations there is books you can pick up and give to Ellie; she will randomly start saying these jokes as you move throughout the story; During your play through as Ellie going into your inventory and hovering over items will trigger Ellie to respond to them and react – for example (some object of Riley) you learn about what happens to Ellie before the story had begun (Riley Being Ellies best friend before the narrative of the game takes place.)

8
"it is fairly obvious, and often argued, how video games have an advantage over other forms of narrative: the player often is the character whom the narrative is centred"

9
"games like 'Fallout, Bioshock, and Mass Effect all allow the player to choose the path of their character development. This obviously presents an enormous amount of narrative potential. If Characters - An indispensable part of any narrative - can be made by the player with creative freedom the player is in control of their artistic experience in a way nothing else can match"

The Video Game Theory Reader

"Failing to Reinvent the traditional narrative experience. They propose choices to the unfolding of the story that are often disappointing"

2
"The cultural, industrial and economic issues that surround gaming"

3
"failing to reinvent the traditional narrative experience, they propose choices to the unfolding of the story which are often disappointing"

4
"Within massively multiplayer online role-playing games... To the model of subjectivity relayed by the postmodernist discourse, in which the subject, fragmented into monads can reshape itself at leisure"

https://www.jesperjuul.net/thesis/AClashBetweenGameAndNarrative.pdf

"The basic problem of the narrative is that fact that the narrative as phenomenon can not be viewed independently, an sich, but only through another medium like oral storytelling, novels, and movies. The classical argument for the existence of the narrative is the fact that a story can be translated from one medium to another:" - Jesper Juul

"Diverging from a story's path is likely to make for a less satisfying story; Restricting a players freedom of action is likely to make for a less satisfying game"

Textual Analysis

15:30 - 24:15

The Final Gameplay moments from the last of us are seen to be iconic throughout video games and their narratives; the long hall that Joel has to go down, symbolises the last steps of a game, it shows you are near completion and that the story is nearing its conclusion. Being the last stretch this tends to be the make or break point of the game, although being typic of video game and their narrative so far, The Last of us breaks that convention as there is no 'final boss' allowing it to deviate from other video games.

The line "come on baby girl...i gotcha" gives the strong impression that Joel cares for Ellie, the word baby symbolises that he considers her and treats her like his daughter; Similar to the opening of the game where Joel is seen carrying his actual daughter from danger he is now carrying Ellie. The way Joel moves and carry's Ellie is exactly the same as the beginning of the game. This could further give of the impression that Ellie is now being treated like she is Joel's Daughter, a possible replacement for his biological daughter - Sarah who dies at the beginning. Potentially being a (reinstatement of the equilibrium) as what was at the start is now reinstated at the end.

The final Cutscene of the game is a conversation between Ellie and Joel; this cutscene is shot in shot/reverse shot, this allows you to see how the characters interact with each-other and how they react. Emphasising this point is the final words by each character is also framed from a medium close-up shot, this allows you to focus on the characters and their final words; this tends to be how many video games where the narrative is dominated by cutscenes end; it allows the raw emotion of the characters to be expressed via the use of the close-up.

During your play through as Joel whilst you're in the hospital the mise-en scene pushes the narrative of the story forward; playing the game Joel is trapped in the dark hallways of the hospital, one of the few and the brightest sources of light is the elevator you are being pursued towards; the elevator is lit up so the story can progress and you have some-sort of idea where to go and what happens next

http://gamestudies.org/1102/articles/deen ---> Interactivity, Inhabitation and Pragmatist Aesthetics

- by Phillip D. Deen

" Players are encouraged to create their own challenges or game-worlds and share them online for others to play within them. "

This quote refers to games renowned as 'sandbox' games or 'open world games' these games tend to have more of a dynamic narrative rather then a linear; you can add your personal touches to your character and shape how the story is constructed. This forces the user or 'player' to make their own choices and decisions rather then following a traditional linear narrative; an example of this would be the game 'minecraft' a game where you are given a open world and you can personally choose what to do with it; build or explore and shape the world how you personally feel like it should be designed.

Open world games tend to be full of 'side-missions' the player is allowed to move freely through the game and complete these in any order they feel necessary. 'sandbox' games tend to have a snowball effect; your previous actions will affect what happens later in the game/and or give you and your character new options each time you play depending on the actions you choose in certain places.
' The issue is then not whether the medium is interactive, but whether a particular interaction constitutes ‘an’ experience. '

http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1026-jul2013/EJ1026Exploring.pdf

Exploring the

Boundaries of Narrative:

Video Games in the

English Classroom

even the simplest of video games ie, angry birds and Candy Crush can be argued to have a narrative, in this case the narrative could be you launch a bird into a poorly built structure in an attempt to knock it down and destroy/kill its inhabitants; giving suggestions that the two have fallen out of camera that we haven't seen giving this simple game a narrative. "In other types of video games, the narrative arc plays much more integral role, as the genre of role playing games" these types of games tend to have more focus on the story and alot more dialogue and cutscenes then other games; for example angry birds, it is typical for games like this to undertake the approach of more time spent reading dialogue or watching cutscenes then you do performing the action part of the game

theres a conflict between interactivity and story telling: most people imagine theres a spectrum between conventional written stories on one side and total interactivity on the other but i believe that what you really have are two self havens separated by a pit of hell that can absorb endless amounts of time, skill and resources - Walter Freitag Game Designer (Platt 1995).

Rules of play / Salen and Zimmerman; https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UM-xyczrZuQC&pg=PT379&lpg=PT379&dq=conventional+game+narrative&source=bl&ots=2AFGwX7yYt&sig=naqPvuUEn5endQpZrPkaaSwa4cM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAGoVChMI-NTCzquUxgIVxtksCh3sIQAK#v=onepage&q=conventional%20game%20narrative&f=false

The article i am going to analyse is from a book called 'Rules Of Play.' The article explores the drastic difference between the narrative of the game and real life giving the game a 'video game feel' the article uses the example of 'colourful magic mushrooms' and the 'gigantic green pipes' this has been chosen so that our expectations of video games can explore creative, unrealistic things this giving a gigantic gap between the real world and transports the user to somewhere unique.

The article also approaches video games in the fact if we uses a "photorealistically rendered dog" the appeal of the platform game Mario, the appeal of the game would be destroyed, adding such a feature would be considered to destroy the game as all possible

Armani Advert

For homework; analyse the picture of Victoria and David Beckham; for the Armani advert.

The Emporio advert uses body language and the people they chose to help sell their product; they use body language; deliberately positioning the couple in a sexual manner; due to the aspects underwear associates with; sex etc. I think the designers of this advert chose the models because of their celebrity standings, as they are a superstar couple they always have the eyes of the public upon them. this advert shows the couple as they have probably never seen before; giving the consumers of this advert a insight of their private life (a intimate moment), the taboo nature of this (shouldn't be spoken of, prohibited) a burst of excitement as in the head they know they shouldn't be seeing this... if that makes sense xD

The Beckhams can appeal to the public as they recognise them from their status therefore making more of an appeal to the advert. David and Victoria are a couple. I think they were chosen for this fact because Armani; the underwear brand, tends to relate to the actions of a couple making them; one of the most renowned couples in the world a good choice for this appearance.

I think the advert is in black and white to add the effect of the sexual nature of the advert; also it is to set a mood; the fact they are a couple and the black and white gives a traditional romantic feel will help the viewer’s off the advert relate; as they will unintentionally think that owning the product will increase their level of happiness; increasing sales.

Armani Advert

for homework; analyse the picture of Victoria and David Beckham; for the Armani advert.

The Beckhams can appeal to the public as they recognise them from there status therefore making more of an appeal to the advert. David and Victoria are a couple. I think they where chosen for this fact because Armani; the underwear brand, tends to relate to the actions of a couple making them; one of the most renowned couples in the world a good choice for this appearance.

I think the advert is in black and white to add the effect of the sexual nature of the advert; also it is to set a mood; the fact they are a couple and the black and white gives a traditional romantic feel will help the viewers off the advert relate; as they will unintentionally think that owning the product will increase there level of happiness; increasing sails.