Grand Theft Auto
The Grand Theft Auto series of games are extremely popular and have been subject to a number of articles both for its content and its innovative gameplay. One of the most interesting aspects of the gameplay is the ability to roam freely around the various cityscapes. An article on gamestudies, an online academic journal discusses representations and gameplay in GTA:3 Liberty City. This is perhaps the version of the game that allows the most 'free play'. It is worth reading especially if you have chosen to analyse one of the GTA series for your presentation.
Here is the intros to both GTA: San Andreas and GTA: Vice City. Both show the stereotypes for the era that the games are set in, and set the scene for the games in genre and location...
GTA: San Andreas
GTA: Vice City
Also have a look at these clips from 2 films, "Inside Man" shows a similar game being played and "Colors" shows a car chase that wouldn't look out of place in San Andreas!
Inside Man (2006)
Colors (1988)
posted by barney @ Wednesday, January 25, 2006,
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Political videogames
Videogames are not just about radomly conquering worlds, beating your best friend at Mario Kart or even being unbeatable at Pro Evolution Soccer. They can have another purpose and cover current affairs, one example of how this can be done is by using a game such as 'The Movies' where one user, Koulamata has created a movie about the French Riots that happened last summer.
Gonzalo Frasca is also involved with games that carry a political or social message and has been involved with a number of games that deal with current affairs. One September 12th looks at the American response to the events of September 11th 2001, another was for the Uruguayan Presidential Elections. The client was the Frente Amplio, a left-wing coalition. The game is called cambiemos.
posted by barney @ Monday, January 23, 2006,
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Party games
Some of the most innovative videogames of recent years have been ones that have tried to appeal to the mainstream game player, your Mum and your Nan. To appeal to such a broad audience developers have had to think outside of the box. It is highly unlikely that a 5 hour Halo gaming session is your family's ideal way to spend a Sunday afternoon, even if on Legendary setting. The games that have done most to broaden the appeal of gameplaying are the eyetoy andSingStar, both of these are PS2 games and it is interesting to see that Sony is keen to exploit this market.
Unlike Nintendo which has a rich tradition for unusal and innovative games and consoles Sony does not. However what cannot be disputed are how much fun these vidoegames can be, partly because they rely on the ability to sing or simply move as instructed.
Given the universal nature of these games it is worth thinking about the player expereince.
Nintendo have also produced games that appeal to a broader cross section of player including Donkey Konga and Nintendogs. They are also developing a newcontroller that could change the way that we play videogames... Enter the Wii...
posted by barney @ Thursday, January 19, 2006,
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Multiplayer games
Videogaming is often thought of as a solitary pursuit but in fact it is much more social than people think. A key feature of many games is the multiplayer aspect, in fact one of the biggest selling points of the Nintendo DS was its ability to play wirelessly against other people.
The same is true of the Sony PSP which also allows wireless and online play.
Online multiplayer games are also hugely popular with PC game players, games such as World of Warcraft have over 5 million subscribers. In todays Guardian Aleks Krotoski wrote a very interesting article about the community and players in the virtual world of Azeroth.
posted by barney @ Thursday, January 19, 2006,
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Videogames and ratings
Should you wish to find out more about how videogames are rated then check out the what ELSPA (Entertainment and Lesiure Software Publishers Association) have to say.ELSPA also have an interactive guide to ratings that features clips from different games in that catergory.
There is also a site for parents and people who want to know more about games, the site covers a range of issues and can be found here.
posted by barney @ Thursday, January 05, 2006,
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Videogame characters
Often when you play videogames you have a chance to choose the character that you play, I spent a large amount of time over Christmas being a green dinosaur in a go-kart chasing my friends and family around a range of tracks. To some people this may well sound very odd but others may recognise me describing Yoshi and Mario Kart, in this case played wirelessly on the DS.
What makes me choose to be Yoshi? Why not Mario or Bowser instead? In this case it is due to his ability in the game, the ease at which he can corner and that this makes the game easier for me to play. This selection of a character based on their abilities within a game is fairly common and one that you may well recognise, you may well choose the same character in games such as Teken or Dead or Alive.
In some types of videogames you can create your own player, often known as an avatar. This is often the case in MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) You will be presented with a range of choices about how to present yourself online in a virtual world. How people choose to represent themselves online is extremely interesting and is an area that photographer Robbie Cooper focused on and below are two images from his exhibition Alter Ego as well as a link to a BBC article on it.
The link is here:BBC article
Canon Lucy aka Virtual Lucy
Lucas aka Gaenank
posted by barney @ Wednesday, January 04, 2006,
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