As I said in class, I would like to do something involving video games. Now I wasn't quite sure about what to do with the project but after reading another project from a previous class, I think I have a good idea. What I would like to do is compare and contrast the effects of video games from the Nintendo era to now with the X-Box 360 to playing Zork. By effects I mean the narrative of the game, game play, reactions and interactivity of these games. Also I would to examine the effect of being able to see what a player is doing say on Halo 3 or Assassin's Creed as compared to just reading text like while playing Zork. I think that I still have some very rough edges here and any comments or ideas would be helpful.
Now my thesis is something along the lines of this: Modern day video games give the player more of a choice in what they do while still using the predetermined narrative and story lines. Also, interactivity while playing such games is higher then playing games such as Zork due to the fact that we can see what we are choosing to do. a counter argument to this would be: Video games today do not give the player a choice. They force the player to follow the prompts and go and do what they have already predetermined.
3 comments:
In class, during our group session, Sam and Max had looked at my project and they both pretty much had said the same thing. They both brought up the question of X-Box Live, the online component of X-Box. With Live, you can play people all over the world. The big question they had was: Is there really a narrative in games like Halo when playing Live?
To answer the question, the answer is no. There is no narrative while playing Halo online. There is, however, a total domination of interactivity. With online gaming, interactivity reaches a max potential of world wide play. When playing Halo online, it turns into a free-for-all battle ground. Every man for themselves or team games. Those are your only options but you're playing with people that maybe you've never met or people you've known for years.
Now there are some slight changes and add-ons to my original proposal, so it's going to look almost the same. My revisions to my final project are this:
I would like to do something involving video games. Now I wasn't quite sure about what to do with the project but after reading another project from a previous class, I think I have a good idea. What I would like to do is compare and contrast the effects of video games from the Nintendo era to now with the X-Box 360 to playing Zork. By effects I mean the narrative of the game, game play, reactions,interactivity and online game play of these games. Also I would to examine the effect of being able to see what a player is doing say on Halo 3 or Assassin's Creed as compared to just reading text like while playing Zork.
Modern day video games give the player more of a choice in what they do while still using the predetermined narrative and story lines. Also, interactivity while playing such games is higher then playing games such as Zork due to the fact that we can see what we are choosing to do. Also, online gaming has reached new heights with X-Box Live, allowing people from across the world to play against each other. This causes a great leap in interactivity which could lead to a future video game system that is completely online and causes total interactivity. A counter argument to this would be: Video games today do not give the player a choice. They force the player to follow the prompts and go and do what they have already predetermined.
Sam and Max's questions about online games are smart, and seem to have been effective for you. I might have asked similar questions, but since I don't actually play online (despite the urgings of a couple friends), I might not have done as well with it.
My only concern with this project is that you're trying to do an awful lot at the same time, and I suspect you're taking a project which *also* tried to do too much as a model. It's better to do something focused well than try to cover the whole history of video games *and* say something about interactivity *and* say something about online games.
So, what do you want to *say*, in particular, about interactivity over the history of gaming -- something that you can explore through a very small set of examples - say, 2 or 3 focused ones? Or do you want to focus on the gulf/difference opened up in the move to online (and highly interactive but non-narrative) games?
I think you have some worthwhile ideas, I just want to make sure that you focus on a manageable subset of them.
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