Pentad for Paper #4

For the first half of this post, see this post, and this post.

A pentad for Mytopia (Drum Roll Please): 

Who? A group of developers looking to unite the gaming and social networking scene!

What? Mytopia is a casual gaming website where you can also chat with friends!

When? Right now!  It’s still in development, but you can go over and test out what they have ready so far.

Where? www.Mytopia.com, or you can add it as a facebook application or a myspace application!  Coming soon to a social networking site near you!

Why? Mytopia’s a killer app because of its potential.  It’s really nothing too big right now, but if they go to the right places with it, I think Mytopia can become a pretty baller place to play (and chat!)

What people have written about my Paper #3 topic so far

I’m fairly happy to say that I’ve been surprised by the amount of material that I’ve discovered regarding my paper topic so far.

While looking around for a good history of the Industry I stumbled upon The First Quarter followed up by The Ultimate History of Video Games both authored by Steven L. Kent. The former is a more in-depth approach to the history of gaming, talking about industry trends, business models and approaches, and overall addressing video game history from the non-pop culture perspective; the latter is very much involved in the popular culture of the industry, dealing less with the movers and shakers themselves and more with the public’s interest and involvement in the medium (it still deals with all the players involved, to be sure, but it’s tone and point are directed more to the public’s tastes, whereas The First Quarter is more geared towards gamers who have already expressed an interest in the topic).

Both of these works are a goldmine of information, not the least of which because they actually detail the history that I, despite being a gamer of wide breadth and experience, only know one side of, that of the consumer. Information regarding the producers, designers, programmers, business acquisitions, executive decisions – all of this is information that I only knew either in passing or to a middling degree, and these books have helped me explore and illuminate this subject even further.

An understanding of the video games culture, however, is more than just a retelling of its history, and its with that said that I thank my Writing 340 professor Mark Marino for lending me his book Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. Whereas the previous two books touched on the history of the medium as it progressed from the arcade and the atari to the present day, Second Person is a much more academic approach to the subject material, analyzing and discussion the various perceptions and understandings that make up the industry. There are articles, for example, on “the early years of Dungeons and Dragons” and how that game influenced early gaming and the PRG market, or on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and how Storytelling is an integral – and difficult – part of the game’s making process.

Second Person really helped me flesh out my argument in that i was able to expand the scope of my paper beyond simply a retelling of what has happened but to contextualize that “what-has-been” within the framework of our understandings of it. How can we discuss the subject of gaming as a storytelling art form if we do not first trace both where it has come from and how people now perceive it? Second Person allows me that privilege, to detail in further accounts how the games industry has evolved and where it is going, both in terms of culture and how we perceive it.

Our perceptions of the industry form half the battle of understanding it, the other half being records and accounts of where it has been, what it has gone through, and where it is going. Combined, The First Quarter, The Ultimate History of Video Games, and Second Person will allow me further insights into the topic of the industry as a culture and will thus better equip me to tackle the matter head on in the form of my paper.

How to use Mytopia in the context of the Video Game Industry

Hey again! Zhuge here. Today I’m going to go over a little site I found – Mytopia, a gaming/chat website.

Mytopia’s interface is fairly simple – you long onto the site and you’re presented with a cartoon-ish landscape full of buildings. Each building represents either a separate theme of games (e.g. the casino is all gambling games, the clubhouse is all table games like dominoes, backgammon, and so on), a chat area, or your own house that you can add on to.

Each of the separate games tracks your skill level, noted by your level in that particular game, and it keeps track of your progress both to rate you against opponents and highlight you in the high scores listing. In games you can wager either silver or gold, this currency of which you use to buy into games and purchase upgrades for your avatar and your house. Unfortunately the shop for buying stuff isn’t functional right now, but by the looks of the registration process (which has you create an avatar) it looks and feels very much like the mii from nintendo’s Wii, except with an ever-increasing array of user choices.

The chat functionality of Mytopia is multi-layered. First off you can just join in on a game and chat with whoever’s in there, but for those of us who aren’t always playing games (or who just want to talk) we are provided with the Bar area to go and talk in. Unfortunately, the Bar section of Mytopia isn’t live either, but in theory its to be like a general lobby where anyone can go to chat. Aside from straight chatting there’s also a mail service and a forum you can post to – in other words, there are multiple ways to chat aside from live person-to-person.

This is all well and good – and still under construction – and by this alone it isn’t much of a unique or surprising website. What gets me excited about it, though, is its multi-portal entry.

You see, you don’t have to log onto Mytopia just through the listed website. Mytopia can be added on as a facebook application, part of a Myspace page, or any number of other social networking sites (currently only four, but it looks to expand that in the future). And while normally such separate instances of the game truncate the interface or generally just feel like a separate entity with the brand name slapped on, Mytopia applications on the other social networking sites actually provides user interface with the rest of the Mytopia gaming community.

In other words, you can be logged onto Mytopia through the main site, your friend can be surfing Facebook, and you can both hit up one of the games in there and talk to one another.

Is that crazy or what? That just gets my mind going on the possibilities. Take the game Crysis, for instance. Right now its only released on the PC but if memory serves its also looking to release on the PS3. Could you imagine turning on your PS3 and jumping into a multiplayer game with your friend using his computer? Such multi-gatewayed interface doesn’t exist right now (outside of the game boy advance/gamecube technology that Nintendo experimented with last generation) but it very well could be.

Even more, we could take it one step further and address the gameplay issues – or rather, possibilities – that open up with this discovery. What if the mechanics changed depending on which platform you were playing the game with? Take a WWII game, for example. The PC Gamer could be the gunner on a ship, the Xbox or PS3 player could be sailing the ship itself, and any DS or PSP players could be directing radar.  Wouldn’t that be so exciting?

That’s what gets me about Mytopia and how it works – it’s still in its formative stages right now, but its mechanics and interface, if adapted by the greater video games community, could change the face of gaming forever.

Well? What are you waiting for, Sony? Get a move on, Konami! Let’s Get these mechanics out there!

-Z

A Strong Slideshare Presentation

I have to say that I liked this slideshare presentation on the video game series “Dragon Quest” and how Square Enix was looking to expand the series’ market awareness by looking to its existent fan base for support, advice, and research.

What really got to me was the slide comparing its sales figures with FFXII.when i saw that, i was like “HOLY CRAP!” I knew that Dragon Quest wasn’t that popular here in the US (and even less so compared to its popularity in Japan), so when i saw that A) It had actually sold more than the original Dragon Warrior (Which I must say i still own and even today still plug away for countless hours on it) and B) It sold more than freaking FINAL FANTASY, i was floored. Simply floored. Freaking awesome, guys! Way to reach out to the consumer base! I love it.

| View | Upload your own

Paper #3: What will I focus on?

For Paper #3 I will be focusing on video gaming’s place in mainstream society.  Part of it will be chronicling gaming’s evolution from its early days as an entertainment wonder to its current incarnation as an entertainment medium that reaches far beyond the bounds of simple entertainment.  I already said a little something on the topic – the blurb of which served as my inspiration for choosing this topic – but that post was really little more than me just railing at what i perceived to be a feigned interest and a general ignorance of our medium on the part of the meida.  Another part will be devoted to analyzing gaming’s place in the mainstream culture during & throughout this evolution.

Back in the Old School days when it was just the Atari, pinball, and the arcade Gaming was seen as an entertainment hot-spot where friends and family could sit down to play for a few hours and spend some time together.  People who took games seriously, which is to say viewed them as more than just some idle fun, were looked upon as weird, eccentric, or perhaps lacking a bit in some social skills.  The expansion of this market saw an expansion of the audience as well, and movies such as The Wizard and Wargames would recognize (and in some ways cement) gaming’s presence in the cultural zeitgeist.  (Note that Wargames isn’t necessarily about gaming, but only directly involves gaming inasmuch as war (and its presentation on screen) is viewed as a game.  The entire electronics industry – and the concept of the computer hacker/nerd in general – is/was often seen as corollary, if not overlapping, with the gaming industry, with its adherents falling into many of the same categories.  As such, i think its quite fair to say that movies such as this, which seek to relate on some level gaming and electronic proficiency, both highlight gaming’s presence in society and illuminate society’s perceptions and understandings of that niche).

Where its continued presence in society – if only off to some different side of the mainstream society – forced the acknowledgment of its existence as a culture, video gaming saw its transformation into a mainstream powerhouse with the rise of the internet.  Video games were among the first to capitalize on the capabilities of the internet, employing its world-wide connectivity to bring gamers together through multiplayer games (or even just online forums).  Gaming, I think, can be seen as almost prescient in regards to the now-prevalent socialization of the internet, and with this in mind I think it comes as no surprise that gaming was so quickly embraced.  Applications such as Xbox Live brought this online interaction closer to home – and indeed, made “online” gaming from the home as famous as it is now – but the internet itself was the reason gaming became so prevalent and accepted as it is today.  That cultural niche – and indeed, the simple entertainment – of video games was brought from the arcade and the store to your front door by means of the desktop, and with such easy access and ease of use available to the user it is no wonder that gaming has exploded onto the scene as one of the major forces of the internet.

Gaming + Internet + Ascendancy of Internet in our daily life = Presence of gaming in our daily life

It’s pretty much that simple.  Even if gaming has no real “presence” as described above – e.g. what if you work at a tool company all day? – how many pop-up ads have you seen that mimic simple games to attract your attention?  How many links have you seen on sidebars heading to casual games?

Think about it

-Z

Wikipedia contribution: Babylon 5’s Londo Mollari

I was reading the wikipedia page on the character Londo Mollari and noticed that, while informative, the page suffered from some bad grammar and wording.  I took the liberty of fixing it up a little, though its going to need a lot more work than simply a clean-up to bring it up to speed (some of the paragraphs jump between different tenses, clauses hang in various places, and the piece is in general just not written very well).  I hope to go back sometime later and clean it up, though with my relative ameteurish knowledge of wikipedia editing techniques that effort might take some time.

-Z

Paper #4!

Alright! Welcome to Mytopia, an online service wherein you can play games and chat with your friends and other users online! Not so unique in the online world, but there’s something about it that’s not quite like the others:

You can play with other people who aren’t even using the game from the same site you are!

You can log onto Mytopia through the main website, but you can also add it as an application, much like a widget, to a variety of social networking websites (such as facebook and myspace). Through these applications, you can log on and play with others on the service, much as if you had logged on to the main gateway itself!

This kind of multi-entryway service is really unique in the gaming world, as well – most every video game on the market makes you go through a certain portal, be it Xbox Live, the game’s own application (i.e. World of Warcraft) or even just the website itself. Everquest tried doing this years ago with a dual release on the PS2 and the PC, but it didn’t really pan out as there wasn’t much of a Console market for the MMO scene. This perspective has obviously changed, as the popularity of both World of Warcraft and Xbox Live show.

What excites me about Mytopia is the potential for its service. You could log onto your Xbox Live account and start playing with a friend using a different service! Could you imagine a friend of yours playing on the PC while you’re on the PS3? Crazy, I know! Or what if you both want to play your favorite PC game but neither of you are at a PC?

It gets even better if you consider the gameplay mechanics you could throw in there. What if you changed how the game works depending on what platform you’re playing on? So imagine, for example, if your friend on the PC plays as the theif working on a big heist, and if you’re playing on your Nintendo DS or the PSP you get to play his eyes and ears as lookout – two very different games working towards the same goal.

So much promise! So much potential! And all this from a simple gameplay and chat service named Mytopia. Check it out!

| View | Upload your own

Paper #1 Super-Post!

(1)

Tycho’s posting style is a little more educated than what you’d expect out of a gaming blog.  When you think of “video games” you don’t think of a very wide vocabulary.  In fact, I bet you didn’t think of a vocabulary at all.  When you read the words “video games” you thought of a video game console, a tv, and people sitting around playing said console.  Where does talking factor into that?  I mean, if you did think of talking, it probably didn’t go farther than quick quips such as “pwned!” or “the ladder!  the LADDER!  HE’S ON THE FREAKING LADDER!” (followed by someone getting shot, dying, then yelling and complaining about it to their teammates and partners over the mic)  All in all, pretty generic and unsubstantial stuff.  Tycho, however, is quite a bit more wordy than that.  And articulate.

Take this post, for example.  It has to do with Devil May Cry 4’s insane load time on the 360 the first time you pop it in.  To quote Tycho:

We crafted a comic on the subject, more out of a sense of civic duty than of any genuine feelings of betrayal. This is precisely the sort of thing that gets hauled out to show the 360 in a bad light, but until I pick the game up at lunch I couldn’t say if pulling the game off the DVD is actually onerous. For me, the graphical tearing of the 360 version (put forward by this 1up preview) is more dire.  I’ll buy both versions when I head out later today.

His diction is precise.  Words like “crafted,” “civic duty,” and “onerous” paint a detailed and fluid picture.   I say fluid because his prose is very clear and followable.  Look at the first three paragraphs of the post, for example.  United by a common topic as they are, they still roll into one another.  His thought about how capcom thinks complainers “are dumb” jumps straight into his reference to the “black eye” it could leave the company.  In all honesty, it seems to me as if his posts are one long train of thought – a rant, almost – but that he’s taken his time to go back and make sure that its a rant that works. 

     His thoughts, sayings, and feelings, while perhaps separated by topic, are unified by the sense of cohesion his word choice gives it.  His tone reinforces this concept – while it jumps between casual and scholarly (the diction giving the scholarly angle, the subject material, background, and our own relation to the topic/blog giving the casual angle), his tone consistently treats the topic at hand with fitting grace (or lack thereof, when its deserved  – see his mockery of how “dumb” complainers are).  This consistency reinforces his comments and thus proves not only respectable but more appealing and advisory, insofar that as we find his words agreeable we view his thoughts and feelings as correct. 

     That said, the fluidity of form doesn’t always translate to consistency of ideas.  Tycho often titles his post one thing and then halfway through jumps to a completely different topic or subject.  His post about his love for the Druid class’ travel form only speaks to that topic in the first paragraph.  The entire rest of the posting revolves around a game he’s started playing and how it feels and plays exactly like another game he played a few years ago.  To be fair his website is a business and as such he has the right (and responsibility) to talk about the games he’s enjoying (read: semi-promoting) and the merchandise updates to his site.  Furthermore, his posts often shift focus - even his most on-topic posts deviate to something else often completely unrelated - so this variety (if not the relative disjunction) of content should be taken with a grain of salt when our discussion turns to consistency.  However, this does not entirely break the fluidity of his postings.  Often Tycho will find some humorous segue to the next issue-at-hand.  Other times the second topic will be tangentially relevant to the first.  Some posts even deal with/continue discussions from previous updates (in this case, the firing of game reviewers).  In short, Tycho’s mind will meander from one topic to another but his treatment of those topics ensures that we can follow his lead.

 —————————————————————————————————————————

(2)

Penny Arcade

(note: When provided links to specific comic strips, please click the “news” tab underneath to view the associated blog postings)

Penny Arcade is a different kind of web log in that it has its origins as a comic strip.  While this still serves as the central focus of the site, it has incorporated over the years an awareness of gaming culture and a commentary thereof, much like how South Park’s storylines now relate to some event or persona in popular culture.  Reflecting this trend, certain updates began to be accompanied by blog postings from Tycho or Gabe (the main characters of the comic, representing site founders Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, respectively)  Whether they’re discussing Activision’s takeover of Blizzard or Gamespot’s firing of an employee due to a conflict of interest between honest game reviewing and advertiser’s interests, each and every comic and blog posting is relevant in some fashion to the happenings and goings-on in the video game industry.  One could very well argue that since this awakening the blog postings serve as the inspiration for the comics rather than the other way around (an argument i adhere to).  Chicken-and-egg aside, the point is that Penny Arcade possesses an awareness and a proficiency thereof that few other web sites or industry commentators wield.

Penny Arcade updates roughly three times a week (sometimes more, sometimes less depending on what’s happening in the industry, the author’s lives, or even if they feel like it).  Tycho and Gabe, while today commentators of arguable influence in the industry, have no formal ties to it aside from reviewing games so as to authentically advertise on their site (they will not promote a game they do not sincerely feel is worthwhile).  Their role in the industry, then, is both unique and hard to categorize – as far as “scholarship” in the gaming industry goes, they could be said to be both eminent and baseless;  Eminent in that as constant viewers of and commentators on the industry they are supremely poised to render insight and advice regarding it, and baseless in that all such commentary is in the realm of pure opinion.  If I had to categorize them, I would say they fall under a scholar-professional hybrid.  Their work is by no means academic as their research falls more under personal opinion and experience than under bookish learnings and they profess an insightful understanding of the gaming culture (all of their commentary, while opinion, is poignant).  It is interesting then that such a broad audience listens to them – everyone from casual web surfers to hardcore gamers and industry execs are fans, or at least readers, of the site.  Is it because the comics are amusing?  Is it because the tongue-in-cheek humor of the posts is relevant and on-topic?  I would say a bit of both, though surely the fact that the site commentary is wise regarding industry activity plays no small role in its popularity.

This blog will feed my work in that it will serve as one of the prime sources of my reflections.  Penny Arcade possesses a prime intelligence when it comes to video game culture and i would do well to listen to what it has to say.  PA has at many times served as the voice for what many have thought regarding various goings-on in the gaming world.  My site will differ in that while Penny Arcade addresses specific events and activities in the gaming community, I will be addressing the industry as a whole, and not just the industry but the self-awareness of the players in that industry (i.e. the actions and reactions of we gamers and consumers).

—————————————————————————————————————————

(3)

The video game community is something else entirely from the playbook of consumer response. In no other industry is it considered participation by taking a marketed product and completely modifying it to your own desires. You can mod entire franchises and its A-ok! Crazy, huh? Even crazier, people share it with each other all the time – 24/7, 365. The modding community is alive and well, a vast ocean of innovation and origination for new games and mechanics to flow from.

And to think, this is only a small fraction of the entire gaming community.

There’s the modding community. The online emulator people. We got Halo-whores (turn off your mic!), Street Fighter Fanatics, and don’t even get us started on DDR. Shooters are popular, Tetris still has thousands of addcits, and acrobatics like those in Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed still have the power to wow people.

In short, there’s a taste for everybody in the gaming community. Everyone can enjoy something, be alive within their culture, but just stop and think about it: their culture.

That’s right. Even before the popularity of the internet brought mass communication and social interaction on a global scale to your front door, the gaming community was already social and united in bringing that crazy fun game back home to show everyone. How many nights were spent going nuts on a Final Fantasy, or a Super Mario World, or a Mario Kart? Hell, think about it in terms of today – how many millions spend more hours on Xbox Live or AIM then they do outside? The gaming community is vibrant and active, my friends, and I’m here to help bring it to you.

Welcome to Gamer Response, a place where we’ll be talking about industry rumblings and tournament humblings. I’m not here just to talk about my favorite game of the week – there’s stuff going on out there, in the gaming community at large. PA’s got the witty commentary, and Kotaku’s got the general information to keep you on the head’s up, but where can we go to find the intersection of the two? Not only to comment about industry happenings and events, but to talk about the talking? To see where we are with the community? Right here, that’s where.

I’ll be updating as I can regarding video game community. Developments and events in the industry proper will be covered, to be sure, but that’s only part of it, a place we can start. The meat and potatoes we’ll have going here will be dealing with the community itself. Xbox Live gone haywire and everyone’s raging about it? We’ll talk about that uproar here. Holiday season got everyone in a tizzy over the new releases? We’ll watch that buzz right here.

-Zhuge

Summary of a Zotero Source: Steven Kent’s “The First Quarter”

So history is a favorite subject of mine, almost personal to me (though i’m still not really sure why - it’s just always i’ve liked, i guess).  Anyway, combine that with video games and you have a whole mess of awesome.  Thus comes into play Steven L. Kent’s The First Quarter: A 25-year History of Video Games. 

    The name pretty much says it all.  Though he touches on the “pre-history” of video games, namely the time of the pinball, the mainstay of this book (written in 2000) is the early history of video games from the 1970’s to (what was then) today.  Starting with Space War and Pong, he moves along into the era of Atari, the crash of the early 80’s, the rise of Nintendo, the 16-bit wars, then into the Playstation era, and finally ending with what was then the upcoming “Next Gen.” 

What makes this an interesting read and not simply a linear dialogue is the inclusion of quotes and commentary from industry players – indeed, a full third (i’d say) of the book is devoted to these quotations (not to say that the first third or what not is simply block quoted text, but rather there’s so much of it).  This acts as both a blessing and a bane.  It’s cool to know what these people were thinking at the time or what they think about it now, but at the same time there’s a story to tell and it’s not always necessary for them to be in it.  In general I liked their presence in it (first-hand accounts really sold it for me), but overall this might not be a book for everyone.  If you’re really into cool little facts and details about gaming culture, this is your place.  If you’re looking for a more casual read, this probably isn’t the best place.

 Overall I liked the book and I’d reccomend it, but if you’re not interested in a sizeable read (its 400 pages) or a detailed account of gaming history i would go somewhere else.

So yeah, that’s my account of The First Quarter.  Catch you later!

 -Z

A common thread: The identity of social networking, gaming or otherwise

So I’ve been surfing – one could say perusing – my pageflake for awhile and i’ve noticed that over the last few weeks it’s been pinging more than a few links regarding the gaming community online.  One was about mytopia that I profiled in the previous post. Another was about world of warcraft – really nothing more than a treatment of its large community, but still interesting nonetheless in that it spoke to the idea as if something new.  Is it really that curious, that unknown – I almost want to say foreign – that gamers are so widespread and have banded together to form groups in the games they play? 

I can see it now – the main stream media looking at video games as just another statistic, something that 53% of Americans (and only 21% of Women) have done before, and so we have Diamond Phillips or whatever his name is from Dateline NBC come on to do an expose on the topic.

 Is that really accurate?  I don’t think so.  Sure gaming was considered outside the mainstream culture in the 90’s (and even then I would argue the early to mid 90’s, not the late 90s), but with the advent of the internet and applications like Xbox Live that clique has gotten quite the lot bigger.  So then, how can we say with such baited breath that perhaps gaming has hit the primetime, that its now come from the shadows and become something that we can recognize as “well, we all do it”?  I don’t think we can.  I think it’s just the mainstream media being its usual “public discourse/awareness” self and realizing “oh, hey – i don’t think we’ve done an article on this for quite some time.  Go, quick, write a little this-that-and-the-other-thing and give it to us in 15 minutes.”  Granted, that’s a bit facetious, but the point remains that such surprises, if not the overall hesitancy in the media to recognize the gaming culture as a standard issue and not something new, are absurd.  Give us our time in the light, if you so want, and move on.  There’s nothing to see here – except, of course, for a few hundred million users. 

Perhaps you want to do an expose about it?  I can give you my number.