This is where you will post your ideas and responses to class activities. On Tuesday, Sept 30, Wanda gave a lecture (Second Lecture) that provided an overview of the industry. On Thursday, you were "studying games" and thinking about the experience and the intended audience.
You may post your thoughts and/or respond to others. See you soon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
50 comments:
Today in class i was on Neopets.com and playtopia.com. Neopets is a vertual world where you are a pet owner and the pets run the world. They have games and were you win neopoints and spend the points at other gamers shops or the other shops that are run buy the website. This is a popular website because all of the games are spin off's of other popular games that everybody knows about and the target age group would have to be 8-12 year-olds. Playtopia is just a list of games that you can play and win tokens which you can use to buy raffle tickets and, like the lottery, there is a drawing every few days and can win cash. While you are playing the games you can chat with other gamers playing the same game like you would in IM. The games here were also just twists of other popluar games that everybody plays and seems to be really popular for every generation.
I was surprised to find that addictinggames.com was owned by MTV. A company called Atom Entertainment which owned Atom Films, Shockwave.com, AddictingGames.com, and AtomUploads.com sold itself to MTV for 20 million.
I still don't understand how addictinggames.com could have accumulated over 3000 games.
I know for sure that some of these games were user submitted.
Do these users get paid? What's their motivation?
the games on addictinggames.com were cheap thriller games. The target audience could have gone anywhere from little girls to middle aged men.
They have fuzzy little girl games as well as flash based shooter games.
A good site to kill some time on.
Sara,
I agree. The games seem to be aimed at 8 to 12 year olds BUT the top winners seem to be older - at least their pics look old. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?
Jaylan,
MTV owns addicting games? Share this in class!!! What do you think that means?
Neopets- returning to the starving pet.
We become captivated in this pet obsession, playing games making money and buying things. False consumerism that saves is money. Then we leave it, forget it, forget those neopets who depend on us to feed them. Is it more horrible for a person to loose a pet to starbasion or is it worse to never loose a pet but always have it starve? This pet sits and doesnt eat ever.
The games on neopets are simple, and do not need the detailed instructions that ruin a game for those of us who just want to play. The games also have a level of intelectual challenge, which facilitates higher education in the mind of young kids, and tests the knowledge of the older children. This is what makes the game fun. You have to work (play games) to make money, to "buy" items that seem interesting.
Its fun to pretend that we can first become rich by playing game, and secone make that money far faster than in the real world.
hey what's up...home slice? Anyways, in thislecture I was really questioning why I got into some games like looking in my perspective and what kept me going on some series' like the Megaman series or the devil may cry series. In these games not only do they challenge you greatly they keep you going to the end of the game and getting all the quests done and challenges. My audience that I got when I was at my old electronics job I would see the audiences that would buy the games that came out such as adults and 8year old buying halo so they play it and for those young kids to feel cool for playing it and just an overall smugness that I would see also little kids tend to play the ds and psp games because they aren't as lucky to buy a larger system. So it would be like 3 to 7 would be ds normally, and psp more like teenagers and then women and kids playing wii and ps3 and x box getting more like young adults to older adults to college kids. Ehh but some adults play on the ds and psp too so it all depends on lifestyle, because they normally can like play on the go or people who can sit Down at a time in the day and play on a console... Yelp blog #1 there you go!
Alright well here is my review on a game that came out in 1997 called Total Annihilation (TA). TA is a strategy game based in the future where there are two opposing fractions, the Arm and the Core. The Core consists of humans that copied their conciousness into machines so that the most brilliant minds could be duplicated millions of times over. The Arm, believeing that the process would remove what makes them alive, opposed the process. Unfortinatly the Arm was forced into cloning its citizens inorder to keep up with the massive number of troops created by the Core.
Total Annihilation was the first strategy game of its time to successfully have fully 3d buildings and units. The game had amazing orchestral music that was synced to whatever was taking placein the game (i.e. if you went from a battle to peacful lul the music would do the same) Gameplay usually involves creating massive numbers of units and attacking the enemy in one fatal swoop rather then using strategy. In fact the game supported so many units (1000) that it would slow down the newest computers of that time. Another downfall of the game was due in part to its use of fully 3d units. Forcing the computer to render so many 3d models ment that the visual quality of the game seemed dwarfed by other games around at that time; like Starcraft. The popularity of Starcraft brought TA's doom by consuming its fanbase. Despite hard times the game went on and had two relativly successful expansions (Total Annihilation: The Core Contingency & Total Annihilation Battle Tactics) both of which added to the impressive storyline and unit base of the game.
For all you WoW players I have a little review for your beloved game. I started playing it about a week ago and I might be hooked. I have played at my friends house once but that was when Halo 3 came out which is more my game so I was not very interested. The fact is that WoW is an addictive game; look at like the 10 million players or what not this game is huge. The great things about WoW are the huge worlds, the massive variety, and the ability to become immersed in your character. Playing it proves it. I have become what I thought was crazy but a WoW fan. The game play is what I am most surprised about, I had concluded before I even played the game that it is really repetitive and would eventually become boring, but as I played all the missions I have so far, it is nothing of the sort. It is repetitive, but it connects me and keeps me wanting to play. There are bad things or con about the game. I hated how addictive it is. For blizzard this is great, their target audience is almost everyone, it ranged from like nine to ten years old all the way up to thirty, forty even. This marketing style of moving out from the same target group to almost everyone is genius. This is the most interesting part of WoW and blizzard, I am writing this review thing because of this very fact. Overall this game is great; I know some of you don’t think so, but taking a step back and looking at a game not only for the game but other things like there marketing campaign and social structure it creates ect. It really shows how the online experience has changed or evolved over the years.
Today, I was on smallworlds. I didn't really look around. I got hooked on the 80 days around the world game. It was similar to bejeweled, except that there were objects, like to get certain objects to the bottom level to move to the next level. I didn't know this until I ran out of time my first run through. It was pretty cool that they played music throughout the games, it was a playlist of about 8 songs that kept repeating. I really like it though because normally I will play music anyway but that saves the computer from running itunes as well. I will continue to play this to see how to get coins etc and have my own space/business. I was kinda confused why the game I played was in the RPG section of games.
I remember playing games like this when I was in junior high school. But I think that the site is targeted for an under 10 crowd up to adults.
This site is also based out of New Zealand.
I came upon a realization during our "studying" of games in class today, that my interest in games definitely differs from the mainstream. That realization came when everyone else was playing I was trying to download and install games that myself and friends had uploaded to an FTP. I still enjoy and have enjoyed mainstream games such as Halo, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. But my true joy when it comes to gaming is oddball and community based games such as Face of Mankind now I don't think I'll get to in depth with the description of FoM right now but it was a free to play MMO with an amazing (but relatively small when compared to games like WoW) community of steady players from around the world, everyone had their own personality and the environment created by that community was very unique. Sadly the game turned into a pay to play game after a massive milestone patch which changed the game everyone knew and loved. Eventually the game was dropped by its developers when the veterans of the community who actually stayed after the milestone decided they didn't want to pay to play. I just feel that gaming to me is a social thing, it's hard to play a singleplayer game for very long when your not interacting with other people. But games like FoM and my current addiction now GTA: San Andreas Multiplayer (Which is a mod of the popular GTA franchise) are always changing because of the community leading to those games having the best replay value around at least in my opinion. The weird part though is admitting that I play games with people that I have never met and consider them "friends" to a certain degree, but the main reason I got involved with FoM and GTA in the first place was to keep in touch with a childhood friend who moved to California. Now I don't want to ramble on for to long, because I think I've already gone off topic. But what makes a game fun for me is to have an interesting community who can modify a game with endless replay possibilities.
Today in class, i was on Miniclips.com playing a whole bunch of random games. I found 2 that i really like. One was China 2008, which is based on the Beijing Olympics this past summer. It has more of a track and field theme to it since its like the 100M dash etc. I believe that this game was aimed towards the people in the young teens area because i don't think that younger kids really know to much about how the sport works and such. The second game i played was Bloxorz. Its more of a brain / strategy game. This game seemed like its more for the older folks with more patience since it does get pretty hard. I can see younger ones get frustrated really fast. All the games on miniclip are completely free and it seems like anyone can created a game and submit it for approval. Its a not paying "job" and if you like making games.....sounds like it would be fun to submit a game. Miniclips has been around for a long time so it seems pretty popular.....you can definitely find a game you like with hundreds to chose from.
Hey guys, I just created a new Gaia Account (I can't remember my old account) But if you're interested in playing let me know so I can get the benefits of inviting you =]. Reply with your email address so I can send you an invite. If you already have an account add me: Mookse
Also I'm just starting up Silent Hill: Homecoming, if any of you guys are interested in the Silent Hill series stick around and I'll post my thoughts of the newest installment later tonight.
- Chris
XBL- Mookse
PSN- Esoom
Steam- Esooom
Back in the day when I was in sixth grade I played Rune Scape with couple of my friends, but never got into it because I didn't like the graphics and the game play was pretty horrible. Now, about six years later, the game has evolved so much and obviously the graphics and game play have improved dramatically. Not only has the level of interaction risen, but the sheer scale of the worlds compared to when I was playing it baffles me. I love this game because it is like WoW but I don't have to shell out cash monthly just to play a game that I already payed for. I think that is a major factor that has played into the fact that so many people play this game. Although, I will probably buy WoW next week anyway...
I have found that Rune Scape along with WoW somehow have addictive qualities that may inhibit me from doing my other homework. I may do some research on the addictive qualities of these games and post later.
I have to say, gaia online was a bit confusing to navigate. I had a account but its been so long that today was just another episode of me figuring out the UI again. Anyhow the whole concept of gaia feels like its aim is towards younger teens and anime fans. I respect the fact that fans out there are dedicated in their passion such as submitting their artwork and avatar designs to the gaia community which could be both positive and negative. I do find it strange that you have to use real money to purchase items in the game which i can see from the developers stand point as a money making front. And so, i don't think i can sit down and invest time to gaia since its not my cup of tea.
Whammm! A blast from the past! Today, after being exiled to the second lab, I started searching for a game to play. I started off trying the popular MMORPGs like WoW, LotR: Shadows of Angmar, but none of the would load on the computer because no one had administrative rights. I decided to play the games I love in my childhood, mainly games on the Nintendo 64 that would work for my emulator. I started up Super Smash Bros. It is a game where the most popular Nintendo characters brawl with each other until someone is dubbed champion. This game has a target audience all over the spectrum, ranging from young children to teens and even adults. I think that is most pleasing about the game is that you can be your favorite character from a video game and you no long have to wish what it was like to kick the crap out that one you hate. Now you can actually do it. After getting frustrated with Smash Bros. (could get the button scheme done) I loaded 007: The World Is Not Enough. Another fail. That last about 30 seconds when I realized that without an analog stick aim is fricken impossible. Real quick... I don't think 007 games have a real big audience. Mainly those who like FPS shooters and who enjoyed the movies who thought that maybe the games would be decent. (Goldeneye was the only good Bond game on N64) The last game I played before we switched classes was SimCity 3000 Unlimited. A simulation game which some will argue is not a game. They are wrong and SimCity is an awesome GAME. It is the type of game for those who like to assume the role of God, like me. I like being in control of my surroundings and every aspect of life in a game and SimCity allows you to do so. Plus, who would want to create an economic superpower that has catastrophic influence. Like I said, the general audience of SimCity are those who enjoy simulation about economics, problem solving, and creating. I think the game can be enjoyed younger children, but for maximum fun, play when your 16+.
Ugh, fingers hurt and no more fishies... :sadface:
Oh yeah, my gamer tag is...
ABigRedRocket3 for the Xbox 360 and steam
I like to play Guitar Hero and Halo online. Send me an invite, but with a text saying your from class so I dont delete your invite.
Since the tech department decided to not allow students to play Club Penguin I decided to play it on my own time, and thats what i did. Just the fact that Disney owns Club Penguin it is a fair and obvious conclusion that the targeted demographic would have to be from 8-12. This might be a turn off for some people, and thats how i was too before i played. I wanted to not like it because it was too "kiddy" and that i was older, but its surprisingly fun.
There is just something about a bunch of vibrantly colored penguins, all jumbled up in one bunch on the screen that makes you laugh. At first it wasn't clear as what to do but that was quickly overcome with the simple user interface, with 8 functions its pretty easy to get familiarized with the whole situation. Within seconds i was chatting with other people, i mean penguins. And i was invited to play the memory card game and it was pretty fun.
As corny as this may seem for the older gamers, i think that Club Penguin is a good place to start online interactions/gaming. You learn a lot of skills, like communication, commerce and relations..
And I wouldnt be surprised if i was on soon and playing.
Man oh man...talk about bringing back some pretty fond memories...
I had initially wanted to try something different so after all this talk of SecondLife, I decided to check it out. Unfortunately, you can also blame the security of UW's network to block it without administration permisson. So my mind started naturally wandering back to the good ol' days...the good ol' days of Neopets. Without hesitation I typed in those words and BAM! There it was; my fond memories with an equally impressive upgrade. Like everyone says it has fantasy-like animals (sort of a rip on Pokemon) that you can adopt as pets/personas and take them through this Neopet World filled with different places such as Faerieland and Krawk Island(sp?). You can earn neopoints (very original) from playing various games which only three of them that you can actually submit for Neopoints. You do the typical deed and feed/take care of your pets as well as make your pets stronger with higher levels through battling.
Now for the upgrades...you can now register and adopt noepets with the comfort of layman terms and eye-busting colors. There is also a bazillion more games and another bazillion more features which include and do not limit to Neohomes and more places you can visit.
Although this game is intended for younger kids (i.e. 9-12), it brings back lots of memories for the older generation that grew up playing this game as well.
Good times.
Today, I checked out Gaia Online. In the past, my friends have told me to check it out. For class, I just logged on and set up a new profile. Afterwards, I just decided to check if any of my friends had an account. I was pleased to see that I found four of them. As I kept dabbling with checking out the "World" and "Forum," it reminded me a little of Maple Story and a little bit of Adventure Quest.
From further observations, I have concluded that Gaia Online is an alright MMO, but I'm still somewhat lacking in reliability of its features. For instance, I went to play the games and most of their game servers failed.
So during the class activities today, I managed to check out a few sites and games which eventually led me down a path on memory lane. At first I gave Club Penguin a shot because it seemed to be probably one of the few I haven’t actually seen first hand on the list. Sadly, it didn’t work. I had already come up with the master plan of ‘raiding’ a specific penguin server with a few friends. You know, everyone with similar names and colors. Imagine people’s reaction when they see a mob of 10-15 ‘chaos’ penguins running around together. I personally enjoy thinking about the potential of organized cooperative play like this, especially since I heard of www.improveverywhere.com . I guess it’s also related to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHJVolaC8pw which sparked my interest in WoW back in January.
Anyways, getting back on track, my next stop was Runescape. That game continues to upgrade its contents but it is definitely unappealing to me compared to as it once was back in junior high. Oh and of course, now there are even more elaborate adverts placed throughout the ‘free login’ pages. Not only have they added all these cool new features and skills but it is mandatory to have a member’s account to enjoy this game now. Sure the graphics were not as advanced back when it was still ‘classic’ Runescape but I can recall my best memories in that game came from the last week of classic’s existence. Since the PK system was way different in classic, I remember using my well-built PK character to get something over 40 kills in its last week.
After checking out Runescape, I hit up Addicting Games. They really weren’t joking with that title. I saw someone playing this game called ‘Divine Intervention’ which got me hooked within the first few seconds of watching it. It was just absolutely ridiculous, gory, and very fast paced. It was a side scrolling shooter about you being a priest with three different weapons with infinite ammo and no reloading (pistol, shotgun, uzi) and getting through a few levels to a final boss. There were a few enemy types to look out for but it was just insane. You really have to play this game to see what I’m talking about because until I beat it, I could not stop playing it.
Once I finally beat ‘Divine Intervention’, I remembered other flash games I used to enjoy which all fell under the ‘Yeti Sports’ series. They have plenty of replayability because it’s about 50% skill and 50% luck to get a high score. Just google these games to find out just how awesome they are.
So yeah, now that you’ve probably read through my comment, I might as well mention things as a side note. Go check out gethundos.com, represent UW, and help take on the WSU guys who currently dominate the site. Seriously, no one likes the Cougs so do your part.
With that, if you have Xbox Live, throw a friend request to AlCapwneXT. I’ve been burning time on some Halo 3 recently since I found out Legendary with 9 skulls enabled is actually mildly difficult and very entertaining while playing Solo. Furthermore, I’d be so down for that Second Life island. (Reposted for spacing reasons)
So today I played Runescape again for the first time in 5 years. Most of you probably already know about Runescape, but I'll describe it anyway. Runescape is a MMORPG that deals with just about every type of skill you would ever want in a game. You can be a lvl 1 or a lvl 20 and be successful in that game. Some skills are building fires and cutting down trees as well as gathering, smelting, and smithing various ores. My character was only an overall lvl 3. However, I had an exceptionally high skill in mining, smelting, and smithing. This game is targeted mostly at young teens as well as pre-teens. The gameplay is just entertaining enough to hold you attention, but not good enough to make you immerse yourself into the game. Runescape has evolved since I last played. The character models are much better and pretty much everything was improved. Although, more stuff was members only which I found extremely annoying. Overall, Runescape is an alright MMORPG for the money, and I suppose it appeals to its target audience.
So today in class I first attempted to play Club Penguin but of course the school wouldn't let me get on to the site. After Club Penguin I started to play Neopets, which I thought I wouldn't really like because my younger sister always played Neopets when she was about eight and now she still plays it even though she is 14, so I just thought she was immature for still playing the game. Once I started playing Neopets I was actually entertained by it. After Neopets I started to play on Smallworlds. I liked it more then Neopets because it was apparent that it was aimed towards an older audience. Even though I enjoyed Smallworlds it was a bit overwhelming with how much you could do. I did get a little confused on where to go and what to but overall it was fun. After talking to other people about what sites they went on I think I want to try Second Life because I heard its like Smallworlds but better
So today i basically played Warcraft III The Frozen Throne during class. This game is a RTS or (Real Time Strategy) which means you build the buildings to make units and fight others online. This requires a lot of "micro'ing" which means that you have to do many things inside the game at once (ex. building units/buildings while fighting your opponent). The target audience is the teens all the way to middle aged men. Blizzard did not just try to target the "hard-core" gamers with this game but also just the "casual" gamers. There are games which are ranked and those which are not. So the hardcore gamers can compete to have the top rank and the casual gamers can just play to kill time. Warcraft III will most likely last a long time with hundreds of thousands people subscribed to it... At least untill number 4 comes out..
A Cascadia College student, Jimmy Gambier, has been watching this class and has left this comment on "Mass Effect" on his new blog:
http://jimmygambier.tumblr.com/post/52870168/why-i-love-mass-effect
Jimmy also works as a developer at Live Mocha in Bellevue.
http://corp.livemocha.com/index.html
Yesterday in class I played many different games, and also didn't get to play some of the ones that I set up an account for because they would not work on the school computers. The first game I played was on shockwave.com. The name of the game is called bubble trouble and it was not my first time playing this game. I really enjoy playing this game because I still have not been able to beat it so it is still very exciting to me. Next I stayed on the same website and played text twist. I really like this game but after a while it does seem to get kind of boring. So then I created an account for the Barbie World but once I tryed to log on and actually play it, it would not let me. So then I went back on to shockwave and played a new game that I had never played before called Bubble O Mania. This game was another one that got boring very quickly. So then I went on to Dizzywood and created an account, and it did let me log on. But once I was on there was no instructions or anything and I tryed many different ways to get the characters to move but they would not. So that game really made no sense to me and I gave up pretty quickly. Overall, I had a fun experiance trying out some new games that I have not played before.
It's here, the newest installment to the Silent Hill Series, Silent Hill: Homecoming. How does it stack up next to the previous installments? Read on to find out!
The Silent Hill Series has been around since the PSone era and has since then gathered a cult following, this following includes myself. Since it's initial release Silent Hill has built a story spanning over 6 games created by Team Silent and Double Helix for the latest two installments. The stories all revolve around a deeply disturbed character whom have had a traumatizing story in one form or another whether it be a lost daughter, a dead wife, or even a occult reincarnation. As dark as the stories and characters are, players cannot help but feel the need to help their character cleanse their past. Each game holds multiple endings in which the player must complete different objectives in different ways or make different choices for the characters.
In Silent Hill: Homecoming you play the role of Alex Shepard, a man in his early twenties who returns home after being discharged from the army. The game starts out in a first person perspective of Alex, who is strapped down to a table, being rolled through a demented looking hospital (very much like the movie Jacob's Ladder). I don't want to get into the story anymore than I have already to avoid spoilers but the character's main focus is to find his missing brother.
The first enemy you encounter is a series favorite, the nurse. Combat has never played an enormous role in the series, it mainly consisted of tapping square, getting hit, and waiting for the enemy to fall over in order to perform a finishing move. Double Helix has taken this archaic combat system and has attempted to flesh it out. It first appeared in Silent Hill: Origins on this PSP but has evolved a bit for Homecoming. Instead of getting hit players are able to quickly dodge attacks and return them with a counter, it allows for the combat to flow much smoother and is less frustrating then the previous games. Although the combat is strong, I can only say it's strong from a Silent Hill perspective. It's not mind boggling good like action oriented games, but this is a survival horror, not a hack 'n slash dungeon crawler. Though the combat system is greatly upgraded, some of the enemies just feel straightup cheap, the Nurses at times will continue to slash you until your health is nearly depleted, and other enemies will hit you despite you being positioned behind them. This unfair advantage minimizes the amount of healing items one can use throughout the game and causes the player to avoid any combat(Which isn't anything new, but still it would be nice for a fix).
Double Helix has also upgraded the camera system, whereas it used to be purely game controlled for a more cinematic experience(despite its frustrating nature) it now allows the player to move the camera around freely with the right thumbstick. Some may feel this takes away from the atmosphere of the game, but it is hardly noticeable.
The story feels like a Silent Hill game despite it being developed by a western developer. Some of the scare tactics feel very western but is easily forgotten with the spot on atmosphere of the previous games. Borrowing ideas from the movie and previous Silent Hill games, Homecoming almost feels like a fan service than a true sequel, although this is easy to look past because of the strong character development.
Overall this is a Silent Hill Game. Fans don't fret this game is not a terrible spin off like the abysmal Silent Hill: Origins, it's a solid addition to the Silent Hill lore and offers enhancements that make the game feel fresh.
During class yesterday i was playing small worlds. I thought it was confusing becasue it didnt have a direct button to tell you where to enter. It took me like 3 mins to find it! After taking me like 20 mins to make a character (i thought the process took too long) i couldnt figure out how to move or what the point of this "game" "website" was. In the end i ended up getting kicked out because i was asking everyone how to play and they kept telling me to pay them and i got mad at them.
I have been noticing that flash or java based online games have been getting popular lateley. They are easy to access and get more people to play games. I am glad that more people are playing games now but I don't think that games should be played in a web browser. I prefer installable games because they are usually higher quality, are more complex, and offer more configuration options. The biggest difference though, is that mods cannot be made for flash or java games, they have no addons or extra content, and you can't do anything other than what the developer wants you to do with their games. I feel the same way about web based applications as well, I just hope that the trend of web based games and apps ends soon.
I took the time to ponder my video game experience yesterday, and I really enjoyed video games inspired from television shows. I played "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and "Deal or No Deal." I feel these games market mostly to fans of the shows, as well as, people who know random facts and have great money management ability. I feel the games appeal to audience form around 15 to adulthood because children don't generally enjoy facts, and aren't interested in money yet, but some are. In addition I played Tetris, and I like it because the game is very simple and strategic. Tetris applies to all ages and genders. I play Tetris mainly when I have no other game I am currently playing, the drawback is the game doesn't really change and there is no advancing levels, but none the less the standard game is a classic and is fun. I didn't get into games that involved a real story, like others around me because I just can't get into the game as others, and I am not very good at them. See you guys Tuesday!
Yesterday i played Neopets for the first time. It was so confusing that I even had someone help me navigate my way through the site. Now I am just wondering how a ten year old who is playing Neopets for the first time will be able to find thier way within the sight. This brings me to my next question, are game developers focusing more on game console games, or internet games for that perticular age group, considering how complex some of the websites are?
Thursday in class, I attempted to look at Club Penguin, YoVille, and MapleStory, none of which worked (loading, downloading, or installation issues). I did manage to get on my old Runescape account. At home, I have tried out MapleStory.
Logging into Runescape was a trip down memory lane: the little (almost cute) clinks of weapons as you hit squeaking creatures, the endless amounts of time spent mining coal and running back to the bank, the dream of smithing "runite" armor. I must say that the members' only "dragon" armor really dampened that goal.
Although the graphics of the game have been updated significantly since I last remember, I was surprised to find that the gameplay is virtually unchanged. A number of new "members only" features have been added. I do remember how enticed I used to be by these new additions for members. All of their glory would be displayed at full view on the home page as soon as I went to the site. The game is designed to keep people in the "free version" long enough to become addicted to the game, but to restrict them enough so that they feel the need to upgrade; however, I think that the designers may have made the free version almost too good for this to work as effectively as it could. I remember that the time when I was most interested in the members benefits occurred before I completed all of the free quests.
When I logged in yesterday, I couldn't help noticing how little people were talking. It might have been the wrong time of day, but I really remember people being very talkative when I used to play. One other thing hit me: Runescape takes an extremely long time to get anywhere (my level 44 magic skills helped me teleport around = ). If it weren't for the addictive and immersive environment, I can't imagine any 8-10 year-old (the target audience) playing this game. They would lost interest way too fast.
My recent MapleStory experience was entertaining, comical, and surprisingly addicting. Even though it is on the low-end in terms of contemporary computer game graphics, I don't find that nearly as detracting as I thought I would. The 2D platform style made things simpler, easier to use, and fairly enjoyable. Albeit, 3D games tend to engage me more, this 2D game has a great level of complexity for that 6-12 year-old target audience.
I had two incidents where I talked with someone. First, a person asked me what profession my character was going to be. I had decided to make a warrior, the character class that they were looking for, since they already had the other types of characters: magician, thief, and bowman. I didn't feel like making any commitments, so I rejected the offer. One interesting note: I don't think they would have offered me a position had I not been making a warrior. In this respect, it's interesting how the game mechanics themselves can influence social interactions between people.
The second instance is rather humorous. I started attacking some snails (monsters) that someone else was attacking. They freaked out, accusing me of "KS" (kill stealing). Of course, I did, but this game doesn't feel like a game that I can "kill steal" in. DoTA, Counter Strike and the like.. sure, but MapleStory? Really? I had to laugh at this. The term seemed to have jumped game genres or something.
The other day I played Battlefield 2. I haven't played the game in a while cause i broke my right hand early in the summer. I was a little frustrated playing it because I didn't do so well. I only ever played one map, Wake Island, cause i like the air vehicles in that game. I thought it was interesting to find the same people still playing the game. The same relatively small group of people are likely the majority of all players of PC shooters. There are still lots of dumb hacks in this game, such as tons of cars dropping from the air, which often crashes the game. I doubt EA cares about fixing these hacks because there is no monthly fee to play therefore there is little motivaiton to maintain the enjoyment of the game. In fact, EA would rather have these gamers move on to newer, and far worse, expansions like Battlefield 2142.
In class I could not figure out how to log onto any good sites. I decided to just stick woth playing old games. something that I found out is the old sonic and mario games still are some of the best games around. Even with old graphics and controls that are not very good because the transfer to the computer, they are still fun. I was irritated that almost every game required memberships or credit cards to do anything.
Well yesterday we spent a fair amount of time in the computer lab with the "task" of playing some pc games and thinking about them from different aspects.
I briefly thought of Runescape when it was mentioned but immediately decided against it. I used to be one of the early Runescape players many years ago. It was pretty fun back then and totally free. After some time the creator Andrew Gower kept promising an amazing new update which was delayed many many times. Finally when this too good to be true update released it was a complete disappointment. It actually made the game looke worse and far more cartoonish and childish. That was one of the main reasons I quit the game and have never played since.
I'm not a pc gamer anymore so for me I actually had to think about what I as going to play. So I did what most people do on the computer when they don't know what to do - they go to addicting games. There I actually found a pc version of Risk. I'm a huge fan of Risk and absolutely love the game. Its a classic for sure and lots of fun to play with your friends. I'd recommend the board game more highly though because it has a much more personal feel with the dice rolling and all that. I won several games of that and by then it was time to go.
Later that night I got on Xbox Live to play some Halo 3 and helped one of my best friends Cam aka FS CamExam finally get his level 50(the highest level in the game) and the coveted General ranking!!!!
My gamertag is DarkOpsSpartan so if you wanna play hit me up or send me a message if my list is full.
According to Gaia Online, my 'Gaia Age' is 551 days old, though I'm pretty sure I've spent less than half those days actually visiting the site. However, I have noticed how much it's changed, especially in how real money is involved, since I joined.
At first, you could donate to the site each month and receive an envelope that gave you your choice of one of two items, each with several different 'poses' that you can accessorize your avatar with. Although I never donated, I thought this was fair.
Later down the line, the Cash Shop was implemented,which is like a regular Gaia shop except you pay for items with real money instead of the standard Gaia gold. It's often announced to have 'very limited' items, especially the more recent Evolving Items which gain new poses over time. I can understand this too, but something bothered me about this feature.
You can sell any of the items you get from donating or from the cash shop on the marketplace for substantial amounts of Gaia gold, and since accumulating gold on the site is a rather slow process, it's often encouraged to buy a bunch of items with cash to sell on the marketplace. This site is mostly aimed at tweens and teens who'd rather have things 'now than later', and who are willing to pay their (or their parent's) money on fancy looking pixels.
I'm afraid that this willingness to pay has inspired a turn for the greedy in Gaia, because now every new feature or event is now in some way connected to real world cash. It seemed to be doing fine on donations and the unique sponsor ads in the past that I felt were designed around fun for the players while simultaneously making money for the site. But now there are features, disguised as fun, built around getting player's money.
The two latest gimmicks are Celebrity Snare, a monthly collection of 'celebrity related' items, and the Gaia Aquarium.
The Aquarium in particular is the biggest rip off in my opinion. Sure, they give you a free tank and starter fish, but these fish have an expiration date. From then on, any good 'long lasting' fish, the maximum so far is supposed to live 18 weeks, cost actual money. There's a clam called the overseer in everyone's tank that gives items depending on the fishs' happiness. So what's the best way to get these better items? Buy a long lasting fish from Phin Phang so you have maximum potential for happiness. What's more is that your fish are even happier with a full tank (8 fish).
I think it would be fine if the 'cooler' cash bought fish didn't die and you didn't get extra items for them, but for the target age group, little virtual fishies that expire is just another sure continual source of income. Maybe I don't understand the appeal since a lot of people have literally bought into it, but you can buy a real goldfish for around the same price that lasts years in comparison to virtual goldfish that last two weeks. In my opinion that's a big ripoff.
The other day my sister and i got in a small fight about who would get the car because we are twins we have to share a car between us. Pretty much the only way we solve our problems are to play some type of game. Usually it’s like Mario kart, something on the Wii, or guitar hero. This time we decided to play guitar hero because for now it’s our favorite game. It's one of our favorite games because it’s not hard to figure out of to play and once it becomes to easy for you, you can just up the level and make the speed go faster. Personally I like guitar hero for X-box better over the Wii because the graphics are way better but that’s just me.
I just wanted to let Wanda and Alan know that I sent my first game review blog to Alan's Gmail account because I couldn't figure out how to post comments on here! Anyways, the game that I chose to play on Thursday was Typer Shark on Popcap. Despite the arcade style graphics that aren't appealing to most kids, it had a good IP.
The designers did a good job incorporating a story line considering that it is supposed to be an educational typing game. I have realized that there are really two things that the consumer is looking for in a game. One is graphic quality and the other is a good IP and understandable story line. Today, when I play many of these new games that have been released for advanced systems like 360, I feel like designers are too focused on creating a game that draws the player in because of the life-like graphics and special effects. Many games like these fail to keep my attention because they lack a captivating story line. In games such as Typer Shark, the plot is straight forward, and it becomes addicting to the player because he or she wants to make it to a higher level, yet fails to do so because they are forced to go back to the very beginning. Though it seems that this may be a frustrating aspect to a game, it is what makes a game enjoyable and hard to stop playing because your goal is to try to advance.
Not only is this style of game addicting, but for many people, mainly the older generation, it is easier to use and not overwhelming. When I try to hand my dad a XBOX 360 controller, he is totally overwhelmed by the amount of buttons and switches and gives up after five minutes. Games with simple controls like Typer Shark and Mario are easier to use, and they are able to reach a wider demographic in the long run.
Well, that is about all the time I have for today because I have to go to work. See you all Tuesday.
On Thursday I logged back into my old Runescape account. It impressed me how Jagex is constantly changing and adding unique content to the game.
It seems like Runescape is directed towards a younger audience, age group 12-16. The game is easy to pick up and learn if you are a new gamer. I would consider it as a segway into more advanced mmorpgs like eve-online.
The downside to Runescape is that F2P seems very limited compared to the member only skills/items/missions added to the game. Buying, selling, and trading in the game used to be time consuming.
Runescape was great until I learned that time didn't grow on trees. So now I play casual games on the Wii.
Thanks Wanda and Alan for an incredible class time so far! I'm looking forward to Second Life. See you on Tuesday!
From playing the online games in class on Thursday(and most of my weekend) I have learned about the nefarious user interface that is being used in alot of online games. It seems that the company that creates the games would rather have you spend alot of time trying to figure it out or give up on it all together rather than make it an enjoyable learning curve. This is seemingly harmless, it shows weather you really want to play or not, but when you want to be a casual gamer it is hard because you dont understand the key configurations and you constantly get burned by people who play non-stop. This really showed up when i was trying to play runescape, even though my character was a high level, since i hadn't played in forever low level characters picked on me, but once i started to figure out the controles once again it came as second nature to me but on neopets i was hardly able to get around let alone figure out the controles and play it as an enjoyable game but rather an frustrating waste of time. So all in all as the internet becomes more advanced and our knowledge increases should it be that interface becomes more frustrating or should they allow a simpler interface for those of us that dont want to continuously play a game? In my honest opinion i beleive they should give a simpler interface to the user with the option to create a more advanced one or create your own interface once you become more proficiant and you know where you want to go.
oooh and on a side note the secret code things are really starting to make me angry is there any way to shut them off on your account so that you can just post?
On Thursday i played primarily played neopets. Definitely geared toward a much younger audience i didn't really get much out of neopets. I felt that the interface was not very intuitive and i was not really sure what i could do or where anything was.
With the cute animals that you can dress up with items i can see how many little kids would want to spend their allowance on buying the in-game items.
Also, on my own time, i started a trial account on WOW. Even during my little playtime with the game i can see how it is one of, if not the best MMORPG on the market right now. I am very tempted to give in and start a real account.
During class on Thursday I chose to play Second Life as I was able to play it on my laptop. Since I do play Second Life instead of doing the usual activities on there I decided to visit a lot of worlds sponsored by corporations from a variety of places like Best Buy, Dell, Microsoft, and more. It looks like to me that some big companies not only use Second Life to advertise their company but also embrace meetings and presentations within Second Life itself!
So I was reading the reading by Nicholas Yee under his "Time Investment" heading, and I noticed some data he presented. He writes "The significant amount of time that users are willing to invest in these environments is further highlighted by the finding that 60.9%of respondents (n=3445) had spent at least ten hours continuously in an MMORPG (Nickolas Yee)." this made me wonder how someone could spend that much time playing a MMORPG, and it made me think of all the people who don’t get enough exercise in their daily lives. I was just wondering if there might be a relationship between the increase in America’s obesity rates and the rising market of video games.
I was on Neopets, one of the few that UW actually aloud us to play. At first it was like, "What? It looks cute, but is this for eight years old?". One of the things that really bothered me is that there's so many options; neohome, neofriend, neoplaza, neowhatever. Not very newbie friendly, for an eight years old, which has an attention span in around ten minutes. Perhaps there should be an option of asking, "Is this your first neo experience?" and put a walkthrough if the response is afirmitive. Instead of bunch of options and tabs in the same page, perhaps organize into bigger catergories and more "layers".
I played some games over the weekend, actually I played to differetn types, board games and videogames. So I decided that I wanted to write about it so here it is:
Ah my old board games, or as I used to call them when I was five, “bored” games. My favorite board game is Monopoly and the reason for this is because I am good at it. Money management and investment comes easy to me, well at least in a game that is. Because when you think about it monopoly is about who ever lands on the right spaces at the right time, chance wins the game not strategy. I decided to play monopoly with my family, whose butts I kicked, for my board game and the new star wars game for my video game. As I play monopoly I don’t see spaces I see reality, a way to make tons of money off of other people. I do have a strange love for making an entire side of the board all hotels so it’s like the walk of hell. Every one of my family members hates me now, but I smile with glee and glare at them from time to time gloating enormously every chance I get. The thing about board games is that when playing with other people the win is humongous. When you play a board game it usually lasts for for several hours sometimes more, which makes the win long and ever so satisfying. In contrast in a video game the win over other people is usually short and sweet. You make friends with video games, and loose them with board games.
A video game is so much different than a board game. For the video game, I played the new stars wars game called The Force Unleashed. But I was actually dissatisfied with the game; I had more fun playing Monopoly than this game. I had very high hopes for this game probably because of the commercials the very long wait for it to come out and the massive sneak peeks that made it look great. But when I played it I played a game that was interesting as a story and that was it. That is the one problem with video games the game can get boring fast because if it is not so good there is usually no way for you to spice it up. This game had a great idea, and a great story, but it just was not fun enough, it needed to be bigger. Like in a board game you have so many options and choices that you can make it bigger you can give it spice and change it up to make it different. That is the difference with board games, when I play a board game for some reason I don’t lose interest, usually, but with videogames I tend to lose interest more often and quickly. Another great thing about board games, unlike videogames, is the fact that most of them everybody can play them. No matter what your age org ender is or how much money you have almost everybody can play them. In conclusion, videogames or board games I would choose board games some days and videogames other days, depending on if I want friends or not. They are very different but they all have one goal, fun!
This week I have been trying to play a variety of games other than the ones I usually play. One of the first games I played was need for speed pro street. It was not the first time that I had played this game but I have not played it many times. I have always enjoyed playing racing games since I was younger when I started playing Mario Kart. I had fun playing this game but there was definitely harder than mario kart. Two other games that i have been playing that I always play are bubble trouble and text twist. Those were both fun as usual. Another game I played was tetris on the game boy. I played this for a long time because it was basically the only form of entertainment that I brought with me for my three hour car ride to chelan this past weekend. I have always enjoyed to play tetris but it is a game that gets boring after a while. So overall, I had fun playing a variety of different games this past week.
This week i played some games with my brother. I played guitar hero and i am pretty good at meduim but when i try to go to hard i just cant do it! I dont like how it gives you and extra note to play and speeds it up. I think if they would slow it down to the medium speed and added an extra note i would be able to excell faster..
Today i got to talk to one of my old friend that i went to jr. high with. Back then Diablo 2 was 'the' game that most of my friends played, and it seems like a lot of people knows about that game in our class. Basically you level up by killing monsters, similar idea with wow (Even thogh i've never played wow).
Anyways, we were talking about and he told me he still play the game sometimes. I stopped playing it after someone stole my account. But after that i never wanted to play that game because people hacks or cheats somehow. Remember they somehow hack their items and sell it to other users, hack users account and either take their items or sell the account to people with real money, ect....
Well im sure it wasnt just Diablo2 that people cheat on. Hopefully in future there wont be any more problems about that. that was just my personal opinion
I've been going through all your comments. Sometimes, I wish I could respond to a specific comment. There are some interesting game reviews.
Kudos to Chris Riley (mookse) on his thorough run through of Silent Homecoming. Also to many many others who provided reviews.
So i have been sitting at a computer answering phones at work for about the past 2 hours. Basically i have been on addictinggames.com since i have been here. I wanted to comment on how all the games are so frustrating because you can never win. I am kind of guessing that is the point to make them addicting... but it makes me mad and i dont think that people should make these kinds of games!
Post a Comment