Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Darkfall - Video Game



Most video games have some core concept: save the princess, get the best time, blow up the most space monsters etc. In this way most games have an A to Z linear progression and each experience is the same for each user. The online element greatly changed that dynamic when players could interact together and create unique experiences. Fast forward this idea and we launch ourselves in to the exciting and somewhat creepy world of the MMORPG. MMORPG's known as massive-multiplayer-online-role-playing-games offer users the ability to interact as heroes or villains in an interactive world. Fair play and teamwork are usually stressed in these games, and many people have enjoyed slaying a dragon with a group of friends who's nationalities can span the globe.

Than there is Darkfall.




Darkfall is the same idea, you run around a digital fantasy world complete with dragons, unicorns and goblins. Yet there is one major difference. You are what everyone else is hunting. Brutal Darkfall pits player against player in an epic battle royale with little room for mercy. All those special weapons and pieces of armor you spent last week questing for? Guess what? Someone just jumped up behind you and took all of it after sending you to your grave with a fireball spell.

Is Darkfall fun? I am not sure, I have to mix my elation over a successful battle with my disappointment from losing all my cools stuff to someone who has been hunting me for the last thirty minutes.

Still, it is different and new, and in this industry that is something to be considered precious.

The Dangers of Technology

Take a ride on a bus, or take a walk in a city park. What do you see? People sitting around, some milling about..At least half are stuck in their cell phones. More so than ever, and increasing every day, is our communities reliance and obsession with technology. It isn't just the 'I-phone' crowd. Laptops, TV's tablets, video game consoles and more have begun to be so commonplace that new debates must arise to address the potential dangers.



We live in a society of instant gratification to a style of want that changes on a daily basis. Many of us have been to family functions only too see the younger generation totally absorbed in their cellphones. Many times these individuals are simply refreshing their Facebook pages or looking at random things off Google. That is to say, there isn't even a serious reason to be on them, many of us are just stuck in that digital world.

As future designers it is only ethical to take into consideration what abuses exist and what potential abuses could be exploited by future companies and NOT involve ourselves with them. A great example is the Zynga Texas Holdem Game on poker that uses a rigged poker system to draw players into using real world money to buy fake chips for games that are rigged against them yet scripted to be exciting. These abuses are unethical and it is our responsibility to not involve ourselves in these kind of projects. Technology must have some balance with nature otherwise it will consume us!

Here is a good link on possible dangers of our abuse of technology



The future of video games. A Cry for Help

When video games came into the world they were of the most simple type. Even the classic game 'Pong' was a pretty bold breakout considering that many games before that didn't even have a graphical output. As technology increased so did out ability to map the functions of the human mind (through the use of inputs such as the keyboard, mouse and game pad) into a game and make it more reactive. The original Mario was astounding mostly because the character had a tremendous ability to jump when we pressed the B button.

As the tech became greater so did our ability to move our digital avatars. This super responsive style of gaming followed a steady trail with milestones such as Street Fighter 2, Mario 64 and Descent. 

We finally reached a point where our intentions for movement were reflected back in our ability to make game choices. The new genre of the FPS allowed the mouse to become the head, and the keyboard to become the feet. It seemed like our new digital appendages where about to break into a whole new level of input.....

Than Assasin's Creed came out.

While many other games are to blame, I find AC to be the prime example of taking one step forwards and three steps backward. Now, instead of having full control of a character, the use simple guides their digital avatar into the right location and hits the corresponding colored button. Suddenly the avatar is running up walls, doing back flips and all sorts of rather impressive acrobatics but you may put the controller down while he does them, you certainly have little to do with it. 

When did games become so focused on graphics as the core element? Gameplay was supposed to be the point of a game, not watching a digital movie...that is what movies are for. Is it true that a reflex based game with a high degree of user input ensures that not everyone can be great at the game? Yes it does. But it is those hard to reach goals that make us all work harder for them, and the work is much more enjoyable.

I fear the future of gaming, I see what amounts to no more than digital movies where there are pauses so someone 'playing' can look down and hit a button on a controller than has only one button...

Try watching Die Hard and pretend you are Bruce Willis. Pause the movie before the action than hit play and you are now playing the new Die Hard Video game of 2015...I am sure everyone will love it...

To those of us who are entering the field of gaming, let's save our industry!

Fox's top 5 games before 1999

It has been many years since I was playing 1986's Ikari warriors on my family's old Tandy1000 pc. Games like Kings Quest and out Outnumbered held a special magic for the gaming pioneers of the new generation. With over 20 years of multiple platform gaming I would like to point out my favorites. They may not all be industry game changers, but each has unique character and were extremely well made for their time. Enjoy!

Starting out at number ten.

5 - SIM CITY 1986 by Maxis





Back in 1986 Maxis was doing something special. They brought the idea of computer based simulation to a whole new level with breakout game Sim City. Users where able to make entire digital cities using advanced urban construction design concepts and watch their creations grow in a digital world. The subsequent line of 'Sim' games wound their way into an impressive market dominance still held to this day.

4 - Starcontrol 2


Starcontrol 2 was two games in one! In the adventure mode, the user could explore an impossibly vast galaxy interacting with various alien species while on a quest to discover a way to free Earth from a mysterious shield that had locked the citizens of humanity from the greater world of space. As one traveled they could make allies with new races and do battle with evil ones through a clever top down ship fighting game. This game mode could also be engaged for skirmishes apart from the adventure game. 

3 - Warcraft


The game that put RTS (real time strategy) on the map. Warcraft allowed the user to construct a village in real time and raise an army to attack the opposing commander. Gold and lumber were harvested and those resources were than funneled into the commanders war funds. This game is the first in a long series of games that today have resulted in the insanely popular 'World of Warcraft'.

2 - Daggerfall


Daggerfall was pure ambition. This was the second game in a series that is called the Elder Scrolls series. Daggerfall was one of the first few games that had no instructions. It broke off from traditional ideas of linear gaming and allowed to user to to what ever he wanted. Be a good guy, be the bad guy if you wanted; Daggerfall was a MASSIVE 3d fantasy world that lived and breathed. You could roam the game as you wished, fighting monsters or saving the princess. The open ended nature of Daggerfalls concept were astounding for it's time. This game is an early in a series that has ended today in the critically acclaimed Skyrim.

1 - Counter Strike


Counter strike was a free modification to the engine originally created for the award winning game 'Half Life'. Counter Strike was a counter terrorist simulation where the Counter Terrorists had to prevent a bomb from being set by t he opposing team of terrorists in a window of about 3 minutes. This game was played online only and was noted for being brutally fast. A single bullet could take someone down and if you died in the game, you had to wait for the whole round to be finished to start again. While many keyboards and computer monitors can claim themselves as being victims of the early days of CS, that rubble of expensive equipment just goes to show that CS was the ultimate EDGE of online competitive gaming for it's time.