Aesthetics and Spacecraft

Sequential Disappointment

There are a slew of games coming out in the upcoming months that literally make me salivate. One interesting thing that ties my target games together: Not a single one of them is a new franchise. They’re all continuations of existing franchises. That’s good in a sense. It means that there are solid core series to play that have long standing support and robust communities. I feel like that’s a good sign that gaming is thriving. There are things that people want and developers are making it. And once they make it, people want more. It’s a good time to be involved in gaming on both ends.

But with products come problems. It’s important for a company to take what they learned from a game they’ve made and apply the successes to their next game while trying to iron out the failures. Sometimes a character or game play mechanic simply doesn’t fit in thematically, isn’t well balanced, or isn’t fun. And the void those things leave when removed needs to be, at the very least, filled. Better yet, they should put in more stuff than they removed. It only makes sense, right? New game, new stuff.

This is a natural progression we’ve come to expect from game developers. And those of us observant (read: awake) have also noticed the other natural progression. The one from the players.

Posted 1 year ago

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gaming, game design, diablo,

OPEN ENDED GAMING - DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND: PART 2

I’m going to admit this up front. I love Minecraft. I love the way it looks, the sound effects, the music, the stuff you can make, the way it feels to tunnel through the deepest parts of the darkest mountains, and even Creepers.

More importantly, I love that when I load up Minecraft and start on a new world, I have but one thing to do: whatever I want. While future updates to the game, which officially comes out 11/11/2011 by the way, may include some objective based things to do, in its current incarnation Minecraft is a sandbox. You are presented with a game world and left to your own devices.

This openness, this freedom to do that which pleases me is what makes open ended gaming special. Almost all of the gameplay is emergent. The only thing you have to adhere to is the need to keep your character alive so that you can continue playing. And you know what? You don’t even really need to do that either. You could play in a way that would promote creating situations in which your character dies in heroic fashion. It’s really all up to you. I’ve seen rollercoasters, space ships, castles that have water flowing upwards, and boat races. But the most interesting bit of emergent gameplay I’ve seen so far from Minecraft has been this: The Minecraft Teacher. This guy uses Minecraft in his elementary school computers class to promote computer literacy, group work, problem solving, and internet discipline. He details a lot of his experiences on his blog and offers up options to people looking to recreate his success.

gaming, game design, philosophy,

Microtransactions are a big business.

In my previous post we took a look at Steam: a service produced by Valve to make it easier for gamers to get their hands on the games they want without needing to leave their computer. While we looked at it through an environmentalism lens in that article, I’d like to look at it, and a Bag of Holding of other things, in a more monetary light this time around.

If you like games and use a computer you probably know that online gaming is the thing to do. Just as personality types between people differ, so do the types of games available to play online. And, while some of these games are free (to play online, or entirely), the most successful games are not. Typically you’ll have to either purchase a license to play or cough up some monthly subscription fee. Both of these models are competitive and offer a lot to both the producers and consumers. But recently, and increasingly so, we are seeing a rise in games that offer a few simple microtransaction models.

Gaming, Philosophy, Ethics, Economics,

An introduction to Aesthetics and Spacecraft with a look at some ethics issues that have arisen from economic rage directed towards Steam!

Welcome to the first installment of my blog, tentatively named Aesthetics and Spacecraft. Herein I intend to discuss a lot of things but with some heavy focus on gaming, philosophy, and community. Pretty broad, right? Maybe.

My interest in these subjects stems from a life filled with the corner stones of my discussion focus: playing a lot of games (often with others), and constant intellectual curiosity pertaining to the world around me. I have a BA in Philosophy and Religion where my specialization fell in the Philosophy side of things and I spent a lot of time working in the ethics field. I’m currently working but intend to return to school for a master’s degree in Business Administration. Hopefully my interests and educational background will lend themselves to some thought provoking articles!

Aesthetics and Spacecraft

Posts tagged with "Gaming"

Sequential Disappointment

OPEN ENDED GAMING - DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND: PART 2

Microtransactions are a big business.

An introduction to Aesthetics and Spacecraft with a look at some ethics issues that have arisen from economic rage directed towards Steam!