Ancient Game Iterations

For our assignment we had to iterate and try to improve one of the ancient games that we have been studying. I chose to do Tablut; here are my iterations:

• Movement system based on dice roll

• Removed limitation of being able to do the same attack only twice

• Increased board size (I didn't keep this iteration as I found that it only made the game longer and much harder to take pieces)

With these changes I found that it was much easier for people who are new to the game to still be able to win as it added a layer of luck to the game.

Ur & Senet

We were given the opportunity to play the games known as the Royal Game of Ur and Senet.

After reading up on the mechanics of the games, I decided that I would play Ur first; it seemed much more enjoyable and a lot less complex. It was quite a simple game; the games were fast, so you didn't spend half an hour being miserable if you were behind, because a new game would have already started by then. The game was extremely simple and actually quite enjoyable.

The other game we played was Senet. I personally didn't like this game that much. There were a few more mechanics that you had to learn (though still not many). Unfortunately, the game could get frustrating if your opponent managed to stack all of their pieces near to one another as that would mean you could not pass them. I wasn't a bad game however, just not as enjoyable as Ur.

Games Journalism

There are two kinds of games journalism; new (NGJ) and old (OGJ). Journalists can use either or a combination of both when writing about games.

Old Games Journalism usually sticks to hard facts about the game such as technical aspects of it and will go into great detail analysing this aspect. I've never really found this type of journalism that useful; it doesn't give you an opinion on the game and it doesn't offer you any reason to buy the game either.

On the other hand though, new games journalism often refers to someone's specific experience with the game. They will give their own opinion on the game and talk about the things they liked and that they didn't like about the game. They often compared the game to other games that have been recently released or games that are related to the one that they are reviewing. I personally find that this type of journalism is much more useful to read, as you get someone's opinion on the game. It's like asking a friend what they thought of a game; it often will lead you to or away from a game.

This doesn't mean that OGJ is useless though; I find that it can be really useful to be included within a typical NGJ review. Although it isn't game changing, it is useful to know the technicalities of the game; if the graphics were horrible, the whole game could potentially be spoilt.

Remediation

Remediation is when something from one form of media is recreated and pushed into another. The biggest and most obvious example of this is when the internet started to gain popularity; newspaper companies started to post news online as well as in newspapers. This meant that the information was much more readily available and can be updated instantly, rather than once per day. This means that news companies became much more connected to their readers.

There are many reasons for remediation; the one explained above is to capitalise on the advancements in technology and to keep up with the competition. It also allows companies to use something well known and already advertised to make profits in other forms of media. This can be seen in movies; most popular movies, especially kids' movies, have a game counterpart.

Joystick Generation

The third and final instalment of the series 'Games Britannia' is called 'Joystick Generation'. Once again we follow Woolley as he explores how digital games such as Pacman, evolved into some of the much more complex games that we play today, such as Grand Theft Auto.

Starting from the popular arcade games of the 1980's, we see how some of these games are still clearly visible roots in the games that we play today. Some are even based completely on them. We then see the first 3D games being commercially available, such as Lara Croft, in the 90s. This game was then compared to some of the more recent Tomb Raider games; here we see just how much games really have advanced over such a short period of time.

Having much more visible and distinguishable characters means that not only do we become addicted to the games, we become attached to the characters inside the game and are able to relate to them.

We start to see how games such as World Of Warcraft came about and just how incredible it is that we are able to play, communicate and make friends with people from the other side of the world from within games.

La Decima Vittima

The film "La Decima Vittima" also known as "the Tenth Victim" was released in 1965. The film sparked a new game which was played by many students on university campuses, and to this date there are even societies that have been made to preserve this game.

The film was based in a future society where hitmen were legal and considered to be a real profession. It was so popular that the best of the hitmen were considered famous. Anyone who wanted to take up this profession would be given a new and picture and would have to assassinate that person, however, their own picture and name would be given to someone else.

The type of games that sparked from this are assassination based games, one of the more popular ones is called 'Killer'. Everyone is a hunter but also prey. Obviously, people aren't actually killed playing this game and only fall victim to something relatively safe such as a nerf gun dart.

British Museum Trip

Unfortunately, my work hours clashed with the hours that we were supposed to be going on the trip and I was unable to get time off work to go to the museum.

However, I did speak to a few second year students that attended the trip last year; they told me that the trip was good fun and very informative. Maybe next time that I'm in London, I will take a trip to the British Museum to see what they have on display about ancient games and hopefully make up for not going on the trip with the University.

Going Cardboard

Going Cardboard was quite in interesting documentary about board games, mainly following people that still play them. It was quite revitalising to see that even though the digital games industry in booming; board games are still being made and played.

We were shown just how popular board games are by seeing an extremely large convention in Germany; dedicated to board games. It was amusing to see so many people in a short period of time claim that Monopoly was such a bad game.

Monopolies & Mergers

In part 2, we see Woolley look at popular games in Britain from the last 200 years and how much of an impact board games have had over this period of time. We saw games that gave path to the best-selling game, Monopoly. Woolley also investigates many of today's family favourites and explores how they changed from games made in Britain after the war. We also see Woolley explore more recent games such as 'Dungeons and Dragons'.

Bibliography Task

Brathwaite, B. and Schreiber, I. (2008) Challenges for Game Designers. Boston: Charles River Media/Cengage Technology.

Caillois, R. (1994). 'The Definition of Play, The Classification of Games'. The Game Design Reader: A rules of Play Anthology. 1, Pp 120 - 155.

Costikyan, G. (1994). 'I Have No Words & I Must Design'. The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. 1, Pp 192 - 212.

Parsons, S. (2010). Board Games In: Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT.

Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT.

Schell, J. (2008). Worlds Contain Characters In: Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Amsterdam; London: Morgan Kaufmann. Pp 309 - 328.

Dicing with Destiny

Dicing with Destiny is the first part of a three-part documentary that we have recently been watching. The series; presented by Benjamin Woolley; teaches us about the history of games and how they have helped shape the games that we play today.

The first game Woolley talks about is the 'Stanway Game'. It was found in a spiritual leader's grave; this made Woolley speculate that it could have been used in a way to interact with spirits back in ancient Briton.

Another game Woolley talked about was 'Hazard', a simple game where you bet money on the outcome of a dice roll. Hazard was condemned by the church at the time, because dice were seen to be 'the work of the devil' because it was all down to luck.

Woolley also looked into the Hindi game of knowledge or enlightenment; this game is essentially what shaped 'Snakes and Ladders'. You could be favoured and travel up the board, or the opposite and fall down the board. you could even get stuck in the eternal loop of limbo.

It was an interesting watch; I've started to shape an understanding of where some of the games available nowadays came from.

Caillois' terminology

Ludus and Paidia

 

Ludus and Paidia are the two larger categories that Caillois talks about; Ludus are games with rules to govern what the player can do; a good example of this is the multiplayer first-person shooter 'Halo', players must best each other to score points; there are clear guidelines as to what the player can and can't do. However, Paidia refers to games without rules; a much more spontaneous way of playing, much like how most children's games work; they make up their own games and make up the rules as they go along. A good example of this would be 'Guild Wars 2', an open world mmorpg where players can level up by doing almost anything; finding a high up spot in the world with a nice view often gives the player xp, as does completing quests and killing monsters.

 



Alea

Alea refers to games that fall to chance, much like in poker where the cards are handed out from a shuffled deck, or like in Dungeons and Dragons, where the player's ability to do any action is governed by whether they roll a number on a die high enough to pass the 'check'.

 



Ilinx

Ilinx is a kind of play that temporarily creates a disruption of perception, a good example of this can be seen in racing simulators, such as Gran Turismo; the player will be focusing so much on where his opponents are, how to take each corner and when to change gears, that he forgets that he's playing a game, when and if he crashes, he will be filled with panic just before he does, because he was so immersed.

 

 

Agon

Agon is essentially competition; this can be seen in a large majority of games; most sports contain it (Football, tennis, snowboarding, curling, etc.), as do a large amount of digital and board games, such as: Monopoly, Mastermind, Call of Duty and Halo.

 

 

Mimesis

Mimesis is essentially mimicry; playing a game that mimics a situation. A brilliant example of this is when children play 'house', they mimic everyday life around the house and pretend that they are a family.