Brendan Downey

#50190372

DMS 448

Week 10

In week 10 of class, our discussion was centered around the readings, “Angry Birds: Mobile Gaming” and “Ball-and-Paddle Games: Domesticity” as well as our game session, “Pokemon Go.”

Throughout our readings this week, the topic of mobile gaming continued to arise. Mobile gaming, once thought of as childish and insignificant, now carries weight in the gaming industry. Are the days of the “casual gamer” long gone? Or was there never a casual gamer? In Lina Eklund’s, “Who are the casual gamers? Gender tropes and tokenism in game culture,” Eklund defines a casual games and casual gamers. Then, she draws conclusions about this genre, namely the growth of casual games. In my opinion, the explanation for the growth of casual games is simple: today, games are accessed easier than ever and can be played anywhere at any time. For most of us, we have multiple games downloaded and stored in our pocket for easy access.

This week, we were assigned to explore the real world and go outside to play Pokemon Go (quarantine rules version). Luckily, I live a few blocks from a large park which offered me the opportunity to go outside and try Pokemon Go for the first time. For starters, let me add that I am a huge Pokemon fan, both the show and games, however have simply never tried Pokemon Go. When it rose to popularity, I was hesitant to follow the crowd and sign up (I have still never played Fortnite).

As I played Pokemon Go, the significance of it popped out to me immediately. Opposed to other Pokemon games where you explore the “region” of the digital space, “GO” offers you an opportunity to combine your physical world with the digital Pokemon one. For example, when I found a Pokemon at my local park, I began to think about myself as a child, when I would have done anything for the same experience. As for gameplay, I have a hard time picturing Pokemon Go as a casual game. Based on my minimal play, it seems like it would take a significant amount of time and travel to progress in the game. Comparing it to other games we have played, I think Pokemon Go stands alone because it is mobile.

Mobile games are a unique place in the gaming world. To most people, mobile games are likely Doodle-Jump, Paper Toss and whatever other popular games were released at the time of the iTouch. However, there are massive markets of people and money who are extremely passionate about mobile games such as Clash Royale or Clash of Clans. In my opinion, the future will be full of mobile game tournaments and even careers.

This is my re-copy and paste from comments into posts. Prior to week 9, I am unsure if my blogs were comments or posts. For the remaining weeks, I will copy and paste them into posts. Sorry for the confusion + thanks for the heads up email !

Brendan Downey

#50190372

DMS 448

Week 9

In week 9 of class, we were assigned to read Merritt Kopas’ “On Gone Home.” In the reading, Kopas discusses our gameplay session from last week; “Gone Home.” In this, we were given a deep story on an individual who feels connected with the “Gone Home.” Likely due to the nostalgia within the game, the author is drawn to its characters and landscape. In many ways, I relate to Kopas and her desire to become like Sam. Everyone loves a punk.

This week, we did not have class on Thursday in order to have more time to work on our final projects. Using this much needed time, I made a lot of progress on both my game and research projects.

For the research project, I have decided to do a Twitch.tv / multimedia project. For this project, my topic will be female roles in popular sports video games. Over this broad topic, I will be able to accomplish a number of ideas. For example, I will study trends in female representation through the years and how they relate to gender, race, sexuality or other identities. Also, this project will touch on how games are marketing to particular audiences. It does not take much research to find out that women are generally portrayed as attractive objects in sports video games. Based on what is posted on UBLearns, I will likely use XSplit

Broadcaster (Windows only) to stream one or more games on my PC. I know that I have NBA2k and Tony Hawk as examples, but would likely need to purchase other games or stream them online.

For the creative project, making your own game, I have decided to try Ren’Py because I was impressed with Joan’s examples she posted on the class Discord. After searching through their character presets, I found a lot of stereotypical female characters; young female students, large breasted females, blonde females with large hair, generally large eyes, “babyface” characters. This week, I am going to iron out a script. This is definitely my most daunting task, as I do not exactly know what kind of game I want to play. Due to Ren’Py’s limitations, it will likely be a narrative about female roles in sports video games. However, I do not see anything sports related in Ren’Py’s presets so will have to work around it. Once I have my script completed, I will be more confident and able to start working in Ren’Py from there. In a worst case scenario where Ren’Py does not work, my backup plan is to use my script to create a Twine game. I feel like I have done a lot of research for this project and have a great topic. Now, I need to translate that into an original quality game.

The tittle may be a bit confusing, but let me explain. In the abstract of Chapter 31 of “How to play Video games” a platform is defined as followed:

“The platform is the particular configuration of hardware and software that underlies a computer program like a video game.”[1]

What I am trying to convey is how a platform (the software and hardware) allows the player to interact with the elements of the game.(say a platformer) Games in all their simplicity is nothing more than a bunch of pixels flashing different colors in such a way as to give us an experience. Yet we feel for these pixels, we engage with them, want to see them succeed (or fail), we want to interact with them and their world. But why is that?

The basis of any game begins with the code, a bunch of 1s and 0s used to tell a computer or game counsel what to do and when to do it. Inputs by the player are used to make certain things happen within the code and make the game work. And that’s it! That’s all to it. But of course that isn’t the real answer to why we are so engaged with the video game media we consume. The answer is creating reliability to those 1s and 0s. We play as Mario, not as some ominous blob of data that crudely looks like a man. Some part of us relate to the struggles and plights that Mario faces on his journey and want him to succeed.

That is the reason why we can’t be completely objective to the games we play. There is always an idea, a representation of something within those pixels. Such is the reason why representation overall in games is important. The creators is putting a bit of themselves and their ideals into the game they produce. If there are element that are being misrepresented, it could lead to a negative connotation within that media and crate a unneeded roadblocks between gamer and creater.

[1] Huntemann, Nina B. How to Play Video Games (User’s Guides to Popular Culture) (p. 261). NYU Press. Kindle Edition.

Esports is my primary area of focus in gaming as it stands. It is something that is very interesting to me, as I love the competition aspect to it, and I would love to try and make a career out of it one day.

An interesting thing brought up in “Player power: Networked careers in esports” by Emma Witkowski and James Manning is the idea of coaches in esports. Early on in esports, there was very little coaching (if any at all). As time has gone on and coaching has become more of a recognized thing, however, it is increasingly clear just how important they are. If left alone, the machinations of a group of teenagers with impaired social skills can be disastrous. Most of the coaches that are around now were former players at one point. It must also be noted, however, that a lot of esports players were (especially in North America) incredibly resistant to coaches. “This guy is just some washed up pro. Why do I have to listen to him?” Is an overriding sentiment, the spectre of which looms over the entire topic of coaching in esports.

It was not that Valve ruled no coaches are allowed, just that they weren’t allowed to talk in-game anymore. Instead, there was a number of timeouts for both teams added, and the coaches were relegated to only talking in these 4 30 second intervals per map. In some cases, as referenced in the article, a player from the team would get kicked and the coach would jump in as an in-game leader. Some teams designed themselves entirely around coaches being able to talk mid-round, and when that was taken away, certain teams were screwed over badly.

This also ties rather deep into one of the core issues facing many esports today, which is the fact that the games get patched and change heavily. In a MOBA, a champion that you fall in love with can become completely invalidated and unviable just from a few lines of code changing a number or two. This is one of the factors that lead to esports players having rather short career lengths, especially compared to that of traditional sports.  The example they use in CS:GO, such as small changes to bomb sites, can dramatically affect a players career. If you are an amazing sniper and then the sniper gets nerfed to to the point it is unviable; you could be screwed out of a job.

On one hand, I can see how its important to keep updating the game as it keeps it fresh for the more casual players, which brings in revenue and, supposedly, viewership. On the other hand, it can also be incredibly awkward to come back to a game after a few years of not playing it. I recently came back to Dota 2 for the first time since 2016, and the game has been terraformed into something that barely resembles the game I remember, and I’ve had to spend time learning a lot of it all over again.

After wrapping up my final projects, I thought it would be a good idea to type up my last blog. My final projects consisted of a twine game and a multimedia recording diving into a certain game close to myself.

To start, twine. This is a very cool way to make an interactive game but without the headaches and troubleshooting needed when making a game in a more intense environment such as unity. Twine is definitely something that all students should check out if they used something else for their project, it is interactive and I found a lot of helpful resources online.

I have some programming experience and was thinking about diving deep into a software such as unity but was pleasantly surprised with how interesting a twine game could be. I have fun with the whole process of making a mystery story game. Having said that, in a future class such as game design, I might take the plunge.

As far as my multimedia project goes, I spent a lot of time coming up with the ideas that meant the most to me. I really enjoy what brings people together in video games so I thought I would focus on community. Having said that, community is a broad term. This can mean a lot of different things for a lot of different games. In researching about this topic, I learned a lot more than I thought was possible after knowing so much about the game already. It is so interesting to me that there are almost limitless possibilities on what one person can focus in on if they have a passion for it. In certain games such as “Call of Duty” there seems to be one goal and that is to win. I focused on a more robust game type, an MMO. For those who are not well verse in MMO’s, it stands for “massively multiplayer online game”. One of the most famous MMO’s is world of warcraft, but I have chosen a more niche one, Old School RuneScape. A lot of people may have heard about this game but not so many have actually been around it all that much. I have been around the game since the mid 2000’s and over the years it has gone through numerous cycles of being great, and unfortunately not so great. What this game has that others do not is a dedicated fan base, a real community. This is what makes it so much fun for me because everyone is involved in making the game thrive.

Having said all of that, I would like to wrap up my final blog with a thank you to all of my classmates, although this was not a normal semester by any means, it was a memorable one. The discord class time was definitely my favorite out of any “distance” learning activities. I wish everyone the best of luck and hope everyone stays in good health.

This week, we focused on games such as Call of Duty. Call of Duty is almost exactly what the name is, it is a game about war, military, and everything else that comes with it. For those of us who aren’t on the real life battlefield, they can get a glimpse into a semi-realistic version of it. I almost think these games should be made to not contain real history in them due to their graphic nature, new games with less gruesome portrayal seem to be the move. However, they prove to be popular every year but that seems to be due to a somewhat stale time in the FPS ecosystem. It is true that every year one can count on call of duty to come out with a new title, however it may be a copy of the year before, people still run for the shelves. Moreover games are leading to be on steam. This week during discussion we spoke mainly about steam as a platform and how several large companies are cutting their own margins just to be on steam and gain more traction. Having said that, steam is becoming more diverse. In a year where the majority of the world is locked inside, steam has come out to shine. Steam is having sales just about every day to take advantage of this very strange time in history. Within this marketplace, there are rising genres such as female fighters. This is definitely a stride in a different direction than before, female fighters seem out of place in the current ecosystem. I think change in the area may be warranted. For too long have fighting games revolved around the masculine identity. Female fighters bring in a new crowd, females. This is definitely a time where the marketplace is expanding ever so fast, just about anyone can hop on their laptop, launch steam, and try one of these games. Also, in class, we discussed other fighting games including super smash. Games such as super smash have been extremely popular. This might be in part of their simplicity along with how long Nintendo has been out and evolved. Super smash is one of the games that can oftentimes be seen in the esports world. Having said that, I think it may be time to shift the space and head towards something mixed. Instead of Mario always being a main character in the game, we can try to have a character like Peach be the leader, maybe even a mix of both.

This is definitely a shifting time in the world, why can we not shift the tides in the gaming industry too. In my opinion, the more the merrier. Certainly, there will be people lining up to beckon if something is changed and not to their liking, yet, this should not stop the new innovation from happening. I think change is good and warranted in this landscape, we have seen Mario for several decades leading the tides in the Nintendo franchise, maybe it’s time for Peach.

This week’s blog I wanted to switch gears. Seeing as Covid-19 has started taking grasp of the world, campus has been essentially closed off. We will now be in a forever different world where we have to go from in class discussion to a “distance learning” format. As discussed by the professor, we will be using Discord as a means of communication for our distance learning efforts. Discords is a very cool tool in my opinion. It not only allows you to connect to anyone in the world with a single click of a button it allows you to really connect. Discord is built on community. This fact alone allows it to go above and beyond other forms of social media. For those of you who are not familiar, Discord has an unlimited amount of servers for just about anything, in this case, we are using it for a classroom. Within discord, there are a set of simple avenues of communication. To start off, there is a simple text chat. In combination with this text chat, there are voice channels. Right off the bat, this allows for multiple people to join a server and engage in a meaningful discussion. In our own regard, we can have a professor give a lecture while students type in the text chat, asking questions, seeking answers to anything they want. I personally have been using discord for a great while, at first I was a skeptic but this is simply miles ahead of other services such as skype or zoom.

In addition to these voice and text channels, Discord allows for users to “Go Live” another instant feature where hundreds of people can view your screen and watch you on your computer, live. In this week, this feature was demonstrated by a fellow classmate playing and streaming Life is Strange. This seemed almost too perfect of a game for this week, right as we settle into Covid-19 new normal, we play a game where life is anything but normal. I personally enjoy using discord for class discussion due to the ease of use and active participation it pushes for all sorts of students, mobile, desktop or even the one presenting.

Having said that, discord also allowed us to get into groups and perform small group talks like we have in class, but we can join anytime we want and not only during class hours like a service such as zoom. This is definitely a strange transition from the classroom, but I think the moral of the story is that discord is very helpful and is a great tool for groups that revolve around community. The times are changing and I hope we can get back to our normal class routine sometime soon, but in the meantime, discord is a great option and without it, this semester would be even more difficult.

Certainly, even several years ago this distance learning would have been unheard of, the semester would have been cancelled, but with the use of modern day tools and resources, we can have a somewhat normal class, online.

To contrast to the Esports discussion. I thought this week’s mention of casual gamers would fit nicely in comparison to the competitive esports world. Casual gamers are what make it all work. The majority of people cannot become a competitive esports celebrity due to the large sacrifices needed in terms of career stability. As the most popular game changes, so do people’s careers within esports. Having said that, the casual gamers make up the largest portion of the gaming industry and allow for growth in all sectors that branch off from itself. A casual gamer has been coined as not being a gamer by some. This notion is just not correct, casual gamers make the ecosystem thrive. A casual gamer is someone who is interested in the space but cannot devote the majority of their time to it. A casual gamer can appreciate all the work that goes into a game but might not know the high-level mechanics to speed run it daily. This has created an atmosphere that some might call toxic between casual gamers and those who are in the competitive esports industry. Having said that, they share commonalities, they might even be playing the same game. Casual gamers, Stardew valley, chess for girls, feminism and computer games.

A game that we explored this week perhaps fits into that more casual player base, Stardew Valley. Personally, I thought this game was exactly that, casual. Having seen it in action, I have been reminded to think twice if I haven’t played it myself. This game is really for anyone. Role players will be very attracted to this game due to its open word and infinite and feel. Starting out on a farm like plot, the rest is really up to you to find your path or journey. Certain players may take advantage of this freedom and explore while others may take a more goal-oriented approach and set out on progression-based tasks.

Back to the Esports scene. This is where these two gaming types mix together, with another week’s content, streaming. There seems to be some common ground amongst these gamers, competitive players may use “casual” games to cool down and still keep up to date on their mechanical skills with a keyboard and mouse or controller. Furthermore, some competitive players have a streaming career on twitch or YouTube gaming where the chat interacts and can vote on the game they play. This allows for a mix of the genres, a community effort. Bringing people together is what most games are all about and I think that streaming really ties the competitive Esports world and casual gamers together. Furthermore, someone considered casual can watch and improve by gaining insight from the best players in the world, in real time. It is definitely an exciting time to be a gamer, anything seems to be possible in this evolving landscape, definitely trending upwards like never before.

After discussing the readings this week, the one that stood out to me the most was the “Code is Political” source. Having been involved in coding for several years now, I have never really thought about this. After reading through this source, I have gained a deeper knowledge and understanding for those who are not native English speakers. In the coding world, everything seems to be in English, all tutorials, examples, and guidelines, English. This begs the question why. I think that since the largest technology companies have been founded in the United States of America.

To tie in with another week’s blog about esports, I think the coding world is also heavily male dominated and some of the backlash that the VICE article spoke about can be solved by having an “even” playing field. In the coming years, I think that the coding world will even out due to its popularity and knowing that anyone can do it after a little bit of hard work. Code being political also stems from the fact that each country’s government will oftentimes keep their code base for large systems locked away. This creates a gap among certain countries infrastructure which makes it political.

There is a question of whether or not coding should bridge the gap and switch into other languages. For me this would be very difficult but I can see it as an avenue for other leading countries to gain a clear advantage if they were able to code in their native tongue. Having said that, I definitely have a biased answer and would rather it stay in English due to personal gain.

I think a true fix for this would be to have a more inclusive language to type in. This could be thought of as a spoken language, but instead of that, a coding language, something similar to math where it is able to be seen and understood across the globe without any barriers to those who do not understand a certain dialect.

For a lighter tone, the code developed by a satirical group called trump script seems to be light hearted in nature depending on what political party you are in. This revolved around poking fun at some of our current president’s rhetoric and was definitely politely motivated albeit satirical for those who took part in it.

This really drives home the idea that no matter the topic, it is worth researching due to the unforeseen consequences and or parties involved in an ever-evolving field, what helps us stay connected, coding. Another interesting topic is whether or not there should be feminism within coding, this seems like an ever more important question. The answer to me is quite simple, the more people that are involved in coding, the more work gets done and the more things progress along in the world. Certainly, coding has a lot more behind it than whether or not your Facebook page loads in the blink of an eye.

This week we spoke about the esports industry. The esports industry is something I am very familiar with and have followed for quite some time. To start off, there are organizations within each genre of game that typically gather a large amount of talent and form some type of team. In doing so, they gather a large following from the fans. These organizations can then form leagues with others and create an NFL type atmosphere for each up and coming game that the community enjoys.

There are only a few games that can outlast the competition such as CSGO and League of Legends being very popular in the recent years. I think part of the reason for these games being so popular is their ease of access. Certain games need a beefy computer but these seem to be playable on all types of machines. Furthermore, these games are free for the base game and allow new players to try it out without any risk or upfront cost aside from a computer that they most likely already owned.

The esports industry has opened a lot of new career paths for those interested in gaming. To start off, there are more games than ever, as each one becomes more popular, more money is invested into the scene. This has a great effect on the industry and it has been growing at a steady rate ever since the internet has become widely available.

I think the appeal of esports is that just about anyone can participate. There is a barrier of having a computer but in today’s world, they have become widely available and are cheaper every year. Esports is simply more than just playing games, it is highly competitive.

Over the course of my gaming history, I have seen FPS grow wildly popular due to their competitive team environment attracting new players due to their vocal and engaging fanbase. Some of these games have been criticized for being violent and having too much gore which opens up the space for games like FortNite to shine due to their cartoony graphics and more playful vibe. Having said that, there has not been enough research to see the lasting effects playing these games will have on everyone which will be interesting in the long run to see what happens.

Esports is an ever evolving field that will continue to change in the near future. Having said that, I think there needs to be a focus on inclusion within Esports. Due to their lack of female involvement it begs the question of why. I think a good start would be to have females represented throughout all teams and have a fair chance to play. Having said that, many people believe that there are not many females on these professional teams due to the lack of female involvement in gaming at all. I find this hard to believe and am pushing for change. In this class alone, I have seen the female involvement and think that in the near future it will even out and Esports can take the lead and have more equality than sports in the “non-gaming” world. Certainly, this is an evolving space and has much more room to grow, I am definitely interested in this field.