Personal Enquiry - Rough Draft

For my personal enquiry, I have explored a few options to narrow down what I want to research and write about thoroughly.

My first idea was; have video games got easier and why?

Looking at how the history of video games being a niche market where companies actually had the confidence to make video games challenging, to present day where video games have become a part of everyday home life to most of the population, resulting in companies throwing out easy-peasy games to make as much money as possible. For an avid video game fan, it has been near torturous to see how some of my favourite series have gone down the pan in terms of quality game play.

Example of hard games when I was younger: Donkey Kong Country on SNES was difficult, I had to team up with my dad to beat it at the end. Tomb Raider, finding all the artifacts and puzzles were hard. Even the 2008 Tomb raider still had difficulty. Heart racing games when close to dieing.

New versions of these games, Donkey Kong Country Returns is hard just like the classic however  Tomb Raider released n 2013, every tomb was optional, reboot yes but not a Tomb Raider game and was left disappointed, entire genre of game changed and become very easy.

Review of Tomb Raider I agree with:

When exactly did this happen, what game are still hard? Demon Souls: has the mechanics of an old game, you die, you go back to the start of the level.

How are games made difficult today? Most games make enemies bullet sponges by giving them more health, not really much of a challenge.
Why have games become easier, to make sure they sell games and people give up to easily.

http://whatculture.com/gaming/10-modern-trends-make-gaming-easy.php

http://www.gengame.net/2013/07/if-you-think-video-games-are-getting-too-easy-miyamoto-says-japan-is-to-blame/
http://www.screwattack.com/news/bs-are-video-games-too-easy-now
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/why-video-games-are-becoming-too-easy-20120621-20psc.html
http://masonicgamer.com/are-video-games-too-easy-these-days/
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/ttocs/blog/are-video-games-becomming-too-easy/34061/
http://whatculture.com/gaming/are-games-getting-too-easy.php
http://www.examiner.com/article/are-games-too-easy-now

Second Idea: Age ratings with games and how they enforced.

If your parents were naive or laid back then at some point you must have persuaded them to buy you game you were not old enough to buy or play.

Kids rely on their parents naivety of what content is actually in games.

My experience of working in GAME in 2011, with if I knew that an 18 game was being bought for a child I was legally obliged to tell the parent what was in the game. Customer got angry when I didn't accept the money from her child.

Examples of 5 year olds playing GTA, their parents thing it was a driving game.

Night trap caused American age rating system to be implemented. However this gave developers full rein to develop games targeted at adults ie carmageddon.

More education is needed for parents about games, but do games affect children negatively if they play under age? Does it depend on them game?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/03/09/should-gaming-age-ratings-be-enforced/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2013/03/26/ftc-video-game-age-ratings/2020719/
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/faq.jsp
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/08/15/poll-should-video-game-ratings-be-legally-enforced-retail#.UptKyOLd5pM
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/UK-PEGI-Video-Game-Ratings-Law,16586.html
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/287

Third Idea - Are women over sexualised and stereotyped in games?

Women in games are very much sexualised but to what extreme? Either a damsel in distress or has to use how sexy she is to empower her to beat her enemies,

Damsels - Princess Peach, Dinosaur planet -Crystal turned into a damsel for starfox adventures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q&list=FLESlQLUsi5fJEri835i2h1w&index=5

Over sexualised - Ivy soul calibur, Bayonetta, Felicia from darkstalkers etc.

Contradictions to theses stereo types: Tomb raider 2013, Elena and Cloe from Uncharted, Skyrim able to create a female warrior, Portal.

Why does this happen, sex sells. In games , films, TV, all media sex sells. All women involved though aren't sexualised against their will, they do it because they want to. You can either choose to be offended by how women are sexualised in games and think about how it could affect men growing up and their ideas of women, or you can just see that it is what sells and games are made to make money.

Look at my Extended project.

http://rizeupgaming.com/objectification-sexualized-avatars-video-games
http://www.verylemonade.com/2012/05/07/why-females-are-oversexualized-in-video-games-an-original-perspective-from-a-dude/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_representation_in_video_games
http://www.trredskies.com/sexualization-in-video-games/
http://n4g.com/user/blogpost/zerocrossing/523577
http://healthland.time.com/2013/10/14/how-using-sexy-female-avatars-in-video-games-changes-women/

The History of Computer Games - Into the 2000s... My Gaming History.

For the history of computer games from the 2000's until present, I decided to do something a little different form the last two posts. I'm going to look at my gaming history!

In 2000 I was at the age of 7 and had just got past the 'I'm just wandering around aimlessly and have no conscious knowledge of what I'm doing because I'm a kid' phase whilst playing games.

My first game was OddBallz, the virtual pet game that was the alternative to 'Catz' and 'Dogz' which I also played the hell out of. In Oddballz you hatched strange alien creatures that you could, turn into farmyard animals with a ray gun, paint them with a special lollipop they ate among other things, and then hoover then up when finished. I think the idea was to learn to look after your alien pets by feeding them and playing with them but I'm pretty sure I spent most of my time seeing how much I could change them.

 I tended to stick to the PC a lot as a kid, which led me to play Toonstruck, one of my all time favourite games. A point and click side scrolling puzzle adventure game starring Christopher Lloyd, who's been transported to the world of the fluffy fluffy bun bun show with his drawn side kick flux wildly. It's a bit inappropriate for a 7 year old now I think a bout it with bondage cows and psychopathic clown screaming 'LUNG SANDWICH'  that would give most people nightmares. I didn't play normal games a child.

But I loved it to pieces, I really liked how there was real video mixed with computer hand rendered images then scanned into the game. It took me many months to finish it due to how hard I found it, occasionally hollering for my dad to help me but its crazy, difficult and I haven't seen anything like it since, so it sticks with me. Watch the trailer, no actually watch it, don't just scroll past, its insane.

 
I moved onto console games soon after, becoming a Nintendo child from inheriting a SNES and a Nintendo 64. I played Super Mario 64 and Diddy Kong racing until I passed out in my bed almost every night ensuring Wizpig and Bowser would haunt my dreams.

The moment of throwing Bowser off the  into the final bomb of the final level gave me a sense of achievement. I had completed my first game all by myself no help from dad needed. A mini power trip.

Those two games had so much to do in that I never got bored, it would take me weeks to get through them. This is something I miss about games that I rarely find in games today, a decent play through length. They were also hard to fully complete, I feel that the games I have played have definitely become easier over time, that or I must be getting better?

My PlayStation 2 phase was ruled by one game series particular, Jak and Daxter. All three main games were great, they had the right amount of difficulty, adventure and humour for my 12 year old self. I was pretty satisfied.

But on a serious note it had a really good storyline for Jak II and Jak 3, I was gripped from start to finish and it has lots of FUN mini games. And the cheats are hilarious, well I found them amazing when I was younger anyway.

*FLASHBACK*

One of my first gaming experiences was watching my dad play 'Heart of Darkness' on the PC, a side scrolling adventure puzzle game when I was 5. So a couple of years ago I bought a PS1 copy and sat down to give it a go.... it is the most rage quit initiating  game I have ever played, there are 8 HUGE levels and if you die once, you get taken back to the start of that level.

 I got to the 5th level before this.

I gave up.

*BACK TO THE GAMES*

My taste in games varied a lot from then onwards, dabbling in the Sims, Zelda, Uncharted but the one that stands out most to me is Monster Hunter. I love everything about it from the diversity of the ways you can play, to the design of the monsters and armours. Monster hunter Tri in particular.

It was a hard game, this I cherished as it finally gave me challenge, it was based on your skill. You had to learn to tell what a particular monster would do, by trying to learn its move set. You had to create armour which was strong against certain monsters and use elements in weapons that weakened the monsters. It was not a simple hack and slash, you ACTUALLY had to block, doge, run away, sneak up and trap the monsters trying to out wit them. All within 50 minutes. Defeating a monster felt like a proper victory, however missing out on a kill by minutes was infuriating.

My favourite armour and weapon set is from the Barioth, a huge Saber Tooth Cat Wyvern. The 4 Armour designs, for both male and female are so diverse in just one monster set, imagine how diverse the rest of the game is, all of these ideas come from imagining utilising and skinning the monster the player slays. They are so unique.

I tend to play games online with people now instead of by myself, I could go on more but this is been a brief history of some of the more memorable games that I have played. Have a picture of a cute Barioth chasing a hunter:

The History of Computer Games 1980s - 1990s

The 1980's-90s was where gaming went from arcades to the home, the industry riding the back of the personal computer revolution and the first experience of the boom bust cycle which continues in the industry today.

At the start of the 1980's after Atari's pong and the success of its home consoles, many companies wanted a piece of the action and so a huge array of home consoles began to surface. To name a few there was:

     There was the Coleco Telstar ¹                          The Magnavox Odyssey ²

                 And the Atari 2600 ³


Over the course of these consoles being created, the market became a bit stale as there was little variety. The rise of personal computers and the oversupply consoles led to the end of Atari in 1983. A part of what led to this is the release of 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' video game, there were so millions of unsold copies returned to Atari due to word getting out how awful the game play was. This resulted in Atari burying millions of the cartridges in a land fill in New Mexico.⁴ This was the first video game crash and evidence of the boom bust cycle in the industry.⁵

It was the end of the US's dominance in the industry and Japan took over with the rise of Nintendo. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES, Famicon) was reaccessed in 1983 and quickly became the best selling console of its time⁶. Part for its success was a total off 18 launch titles including: 'Ice Climber⁷, 'Excitebike'⁸ and 'Super Mario Bros'⁹



Sega had a hit with the Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis) in 1988, with titles like 'Golden Axe II'¹⁰, 'Sonic the Hedgehog'¹¹ and 'Eco the Dolphin'¹².
 

However Nintendo stayed the strongest and were the big kids of the playground for the late 80s to early 90' with their next console the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990 with some strong memorable tittles like 'Donkey Kong Country'¹³ and 'Super Mario Kart'¹⁴

 

Then Sony came into the picture with the Play Station in 1994 and introduced not only the transition from cartridge to CD's in home consoles but also 2D to 3D games. Some popular titles were: 'Crash Bandicoot'¹⁵ and 'Spyro the Dragon'¹⁶

To round off the 90's Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in 1997. This console had one of the weirder controllers, but played some of the most memorable games of the 90's including: 'The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'¹⁷ and 'Super Mario 64'¹⁸.

 I felt like this kid when I opened my Nintendo 64¹⁹

 
To me this was on of the most important time of the games industry as I believe it showed the most progress in such a short space of time, and without the important achievements in technology reached in this era we wouldn't have a lot of the technology we have today.

---

1 http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/163/055/710/CTaF.jpg^↩
2 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBw83IdLQIUjSTpf-8EwPuIPJdDbI1JC8SWR58B-hBJPTD3-uDrto8-uvz92pzGugAnw-bJ4G_75ETJqudyjeKUGfREZO5OytLSqE8FFRtapUhNIhstO-cLKzhqoQy2iGh0pEs3eXjXcCv/s1600/magnavox-odyssey-system.png^↩
3 http://throwbackreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/atari-woody.jpg^↩
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_%28video_game%29^↩
5 http://www.8-bitcentral.com/images/reviews/atari2600/etLandfill.pn^↩
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System^↩
7 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/IceClimberboxartnes.jpg^↩
8 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f8/Excitebike_cover.jpg/250px-Excitebike_cover.jpg^↩
9 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/03/Super_Mario_Bros._box.png/250px-Super_Mario_Bros._box.png^↩
10 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6d/Golden_Axe_II_Coverart.png/220px-Golden_Axe_II_Coverart.png^↩
11 http://www.cvgm.net/static/media/screenshot/image/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Mega_Drive_cover.jpg^↩
12 http://www.deadgoodcomics.com/images/Megadrive%20Ecco%20the%20dolphin.jpg^↩
13 http://ocremix.org/files/images/games/snes/7/donkey-kong-country-snes-cover-front-eu-32727.jpg^↩
14 http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/9/93770/2364824-snes_supermariokart.jpg^↩
15 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Spyro_the_Dragon.jpg^↩
16 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/Crash_Bandicoot_Cover.png^↩
17 http://www.fabbl.de/Bilder/Nintendo/N64-Zelda-Ocarina-of-Time.jpg^↩
18 http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110703064718/nintendo/en/images/0/0f/Super_Mario_64_(NA).png^↩
19 https://24.media.tumblr.com/8c587624104c54f68cebe0a2f58a4c71/tumblr_my9urxOs3S1slogaso1_500.gif^↩

The History of Computer Games 1850s-1970's

Many of us can go no longer than 5 minutes without getting the next technology fix, whether it be checking emails on a smart phone, social networking or just plain procrastination on the internet.

Admittedly I procrastinate on tumblr a fair amount.

Computers play an essential part of our everyday lives. There are now over 1,966,514,816 connected to the internet¹, your computer reading this blog adding to that number, but where and when did this all begin?

The history of computer games starts with the history of the computers, depicting when these intricate machines were created to improve our lives and help the advance the human race; and how they opened a new door to escapism we see today.

Jacquard Loom

It all started long ago, in the land before electricity in 1801 Jacquard loom, which was a mechanical loom controlled by a chain of cards with holes punched through, multiple rows of holes were punched into the cards, then multiple cards were strung together in a certain order (representing the desired pattern) and then fed into he loom where a hook would be raised or stopped according to a hole or solid card. Much similar to binary, with its on and off 0 and 1.

This was seen as an important step in the direction of computers as being able to change the pattern the loom would make by changing cards was an important concept that influenced computer programming and data entry.²

What followed this was Charles Babbage's Difference Engine in 1849, which is an automatic mechanical calculator.³ It consists of a series of columns, representing decimal places and used to calculate equations other important works. However it was never actually built after being funded by the government for 20 years. It was an important step in computing, another foundation block.

Audio Oscillator

Nothing really progressed until World War II became the kick up the rear to computers as they were needed. This resulted in the audio oscillator in 1939.

The Zuse Z3 was the first working programmable, full digital automatic computer, made in 1941 by Germans for analyse of wing flutter.⁴

In 1943 the colossus computer operated by women was fundamental to cracking the enigma code, I had never heard of this before and that is sad as these women were not only detrimental to the war but to our survival and technology.

Another notable contribution to the development of computers was the Cathode Ray Amusement Device in 1947, I find this name funny but it was the first interactive electronic game. It was based on World War II radar displays, the players turned dials to adjust the trajectory of light beams in a attempt to hit targets printed on screen overlays.⁵ It was never released commercially.

In 1951 the LEO was the first computer to be used for commercial business applications. ⁶ It took up the space of a whole room, but made the admin jobs of business such as payroll and inventories a lot easier and less time consuming.

The special contribution to this time line of computing though is the 1960 DEC PDP-1, which was the first computer to have what could be recognised as a game. Pong. It was eventually developed and released by Atari for people to play in 1972 in arcades.

The Journey from the beginning to 1970 was a long and important road, but the rate of development increases dramatically from then onwards.

---

1 http://uk.ask.com/question/how-many-computers-are-there-in-the-world
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom^↩
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine^↩
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer)^↩
5 http://classicgames.about.com/od/classicvideogames101/p/CathodeDevice.htm^↩
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer)^↩