August 19th (Gaming Questions) Sonic 2

How were the game mechanics used to immerse the player into your chosen game's narrative?

The game mechanics in Sonic 2 that were immersive for the player's narrative and game's narrative were the obstacles and urgency.

  The obstacles for the player that created immersion were the enemies and platforming.
  Defeating enemies linked up with Sonic's goals of stopping Eggman with the player's goal of beating the game as the enemies contained the animals that Sonic was trying to free ,as well as giving the player score and removing obstacles in their way.This common goal between player and avatar, incentive to defeat Eggman and the game, and conforming to the game world's logic, enemies further immersed the player into the game world narrative.
  The platforming changed the player's approach to the game,as they would have to conform the the game's worlds logic further causing the connection between the avatar and the player through their goals and actions.

  The urgency for the player that created immersion were the speed,time limit,and real time attacks by the enemies forcing the player to make quick real time decisions as Sonic would.The speed made the player focusing more intensively on the game. The time limit linked competitive aspects such as having a good score with the urgency of the narrative,Eggman's capture of Sonic's friends.

   Sonic 2's game mechanics linked the players goals,thinking,and motivation to that of the avatar's narrative goals,thinking,and motivations which in turn connected the narrative,and avatar to the player.



(Removed)
  The distractions for the player that created immersion were the rings collected during the levels.These rings had use through collecting them for extra lives,allowing the player to continue later on if they killed Sonic.These rings took some of the focus of the player as they had incentive to collect them but they were not needed to pass the level.This contributed to the hectic game play making the player more engaged and focused on whats happening.This immersed the player into the game world rules of Sonic's life as we had to think how Sonic could get through the levels/world.

August 19th (Gaming Notes) Sonic 2,Hotline Miami

Sonic 2

I feel like i get into a focus as i am so distracted by everything rushing past and looking out for things that would hurt sonic

focusing on the platforming while also looking ahead to the next parts kept me quite busy.theres alot of urgency in the gameplay aswell as getting prepared for further levels with rings.
got halfway through the game before moving on.Didn't want to start from scratch


Hotline Miami:

August 18th (Reading Notes) Bizzochi

two approaches

visual sound

UI hud cursor showed the characters narrative option



interface connect narrative in gameplay

interface being narrativised:

look and feel

narrativised perspective

behavioural mimicking behaviour metaphors briding and mixed reality interfaces
"ubin's scroll"


helmet showing health and being ingame and out of game


story into interface,making a connection between ludic and narrative pleasure.


look and feel:

audio visual in interface that reinforces narrative idea

showing results in narrative and gameplay through interface.

embedding narrative into the interface

reinforcing race and culture of character through interface
audio interface
interface reflects ideas or theme.

interface placed through the gameworld.

player is always present so interface is,eg helmet

game metrics is health etc



spyro's fly showing health

armour damage

crashs mask








Questions:
bizoo
that interface can cross the border and connect the ludic and narrative parts.
interface can be shown inside the game

''Ubin's scroll"  in banner saga becuase saving is like writing history,which ties the scroll to gameplay and narrative

cellphone in GTA give quests and narrative info aswell as gameplay elements.broken down interface

interface within gameworld showing narrative and ludic elements (ie health bars on isaacs back)

August 14th (Gaming Questions) Gone Home -Edited-

Was the use of Micro narrative objects in your chosen game engaging? Explain your answer.

   Some of the micro narrative objects were engaging in Gone Home,others detracted from the whole experience as they stopped the player's exploration for too long.

  The objects that I found engaging were the objects that Katie (the player) had an opinion of or named differently.Objects such as the "Good ol Christmas duck" and "Gosh dad" had different names pop up suggesting what Katie first thought of and gave us indication on the relationship between Katie,that object,and who it belonged to as well as what she thought of said person.
   The objects I didn't find engaging were the ones that went off on a tangent and were long pages of text.Objects such as the pirate stories took a long time to get through and I found them boring to read, Katie seemed to have little opinion of it, and they stopped the game play exploration element dead in its tracks.Because of this those micro narrative objects were not engaging.
   Although these pirate stories added towards Katie's sister as a character,they failed to engage the player and there were many simpler examples which gave more narrative information on her sister.The dialogue after finding objects,the student objects around the sister's room,and the notes sent to and from her new friend all portrayed her personality as a student and how she acted as a friend.
   
   The use of short and simple objects showing character relationships and personalities were more engaging than complex,large amount of information that pause the interactions/exploration of the player.




(Removed)
Other objects that made the game engaging were some of the little objects that reaffirmed my ideas on what the story was or what the characters were like.Objects like highlighters,erasers,notes from her mother/father and such around Sam's room and in other locations reaffirmed the idea that she was a student studying and was trying to make friends at her new school.

August 12th (Gaming Notes) Gone Home

Was the use of Micro narrative objects in your chosen game engaging? Explain your answer.




Gone Home Notes:

Tutorial,wasd and mouse

cassette loading screen

Audio black screen narration intro.Audio answerphone recording.

says the time and date in text at start



Bags at the door showing you just got home

blue cup outside on the porch

note on door saying not to look around from sam.

found key under duck,and christmas decorations 6$ duck

note with instructions on directions to work

found a 17th birthday card behind shelf
to sam from uncle harvey?

will someone notice different lights on?
boxes showing recently moved in/moving out?

receipt from movers

I can grab things and flush toilets and turn on sinks? why?

an old friend of daniels wants to come over,but sam doesnt like him.

a daughter in military?

oscar doc masan died in newspaper

heard weird talking in the background

principle with note on stationary

note from student asked whether or not being psycho runs in the family or if its just your uncle.

conspiracy notes on wall about a book someone was reading

some story notes in trash,space story
note from oscar masan to terrence about his new wife

electrical fault form,explaining the spooky light flickers

Terrence almost getting fired from reviews?
Father write about JFK alot
being told to review things

xfiles and jfk
lots of conspiracy theories
tent out of couch?

story about pirate?

was fired by publisher,found this by alot of drinks.

sam telling to katie sorry about the missing stuff

sam invited lonnie over

crumpled note,whatever you've found dont tell mom and dad

having lonnie over,daniel wants his game back

August 9th (Reading Notes) Narration of Things

dark souls is renowned for being hard

narrative renowned games dont always live up to standard gameplay wise

 hard games are fun when fair

cutscenes are an easy way to put narration in therefore popular

gaming can imitate other forms of media narrative wise

npcs can be too stoic or desperate to give info

space showed progression

items can give story info

items described their character

past tense is traditional

to know something and dissect it destroys it

items as speculation,not factual description by the narrator

item description might be false or not give the whole picture

even if an item has no function for you,it can have story elements of value.

hard gameplay,hard to get narrative too?

items can give rough picture of lore

dark souls challenging story and gameplay although narrative is minor

August 9th (Reading Notes) Sim Sin City

fear mongering in every form of media ,not just games.

not really anyone has been killed because I videogames.

religious books have killed more people

any form of text has an effect.

important games are games that change our idea of what they are.

open world granted alot of freedom

open world is a playground

games that a repetitive turn into a job

play made work bearable

gta wasnt repetitive and shemue was therefore gta sold better.
must have reason for freedom

quest fetching is not fun
space is key in games

get from point a to B in whatever fun way possible.

transportation in gta is fun


gta turned spatial travel into fun/car simulation

NPC's are repetitive due to technology

NPCs should be good actors

specific behavior rules limit characters to stereotypes

lack of interactivity or narrative made them moving targets.

the world made dialogue pointless as its violent

certain kinds of characters do not need dialogue

action heroes can get away with anything.

shenmue had bad communication skills with its npcs

gta can no no communication and still work

shenmue reminded you npcs were bots

lack of communication allowed to focus on action

gta dehumanized npcs

ludology and narrratology were never a debate ,just disinformation

story is based into settings with rules to allow the player to assume a genre without instructions

teleology =goal orientated.

goals make it easier to understand into a plot/walkthrough

gta simulated crime instead of story

everything builds on older things

flight sims had similar freedom to gta

freedom to experiment

freedom can have bad experiences due to no guidance

games are more worlds with rules than narrative sequences

August 6th (Gaming Questions) GTA IV -Edited-

2. Does your chosen game's design of the avatar character help to immerse you in the story?

   Niko from GTAIV helped to immerse the player through putting the avatar in a similar situation to the player 'narrative wise' beginning a new game through the stereotype of being new to the area and being introduced to the unknown/uncertainty.

   Through interactions with Niko's cousin and random NPC's you bump into mentioning things to you  saying how different you look,the state of Romain's apartment, and other game world elements you realize that Niko's cousin lied to him showing he had no idea what was in store for him which matched up with the general player expectation.
   The dialogue said by Niko when Romain showed him his apartment such as "What about the mansion? Huh?" showed Niko as a character felt a range of things from being confused and angry about not knowing things which relates back to the players feeling of this unknown world and slowly being introduced to it.This also linked up to the players gameplay experience as they didn't know controls,the area,how the people around him normally act which created empathy for Niko's situation of new experiences ,learning new things and how this part of the world works. Niko's dialogue such as "What do you do for fun around here?" and slow confused reactions to the parts of the game world showed that he was not sure what to think of the place and that it was not like home.

  This stereotype/generalization of being in a new environment created empathy for the avatar as it could relate back to real life experiences of the player like:Moving home,first day of school/work,finding your way around a new place.This simple idea of being new allows the player to experience liberty city alongside or even as Niko making you feel immersed.

August 5th (Gaming Notes) GTA IV

GTA 4 had quite a long intro cutscene introducing the character

interactive cutscene used to look out for loan sharks from the stationary car

driving from point a to b

Feels alot like fetch quests and tutorials pop up every now and again.

August 5th (Reading Notes) Understanding Videogames

Storytelling reception:

arguing translation of games to narrative and vice versa

are video games stories?

you cant just be an audience in games because nothing will happen

the characters have different motivations and agendas

adventure games are decendents of text adventures.

early gaming history didnt really dabble in narrative aside from text based adventures.

early games were too abstract

technology made game worlds more believable.

stories can just be an excuse to make a game.


games can draw from other media and focus on certain parts of the universe.


those games can happen differently than the movie because there are choices.

the point of age of empires is resource management

games have goals


sims = adult doll house

significant story role =narrative video games


narrative is succession of event


visual/verbal representation=text
act of telling=narration

order of events

linear narrative

book is the same text/experience each time.games arent

some games are nonfiction,retelling of life events

some texts you assume relationships as how we would normally

player can loosely connect their actions to the universe of the game they are playing.
player makes it a story

story can constrain player to try tell a better story.


Storytelling:

who,what,how,why of narrative

fictional world is the setting which includes setting actors

games have settings since the beggining

many parts of game world are for looks not use.

genre affects players motivation to explore

spatial representation is unique to videogames.

fairness rules over space in multiplay games.

criticism of cutscenes alot
taking agency for effect

introduce conflict,upcoming gameplay context.

move the narrative towards what the author wants the player to experience.

cutscenes can mark change of time ,time skips
taken to another location

people are used to time skips in games

control time for effect,slowmo matrixness

establishing cutscene surveilance information

games cant convey things properly with free will

cutscenes are authors voice

imagine world and view it as a player

interactive.

scale of interactivity with NPCS

shape language myths,common stereotypes,etc should be used more?

change character personality.

distinct personality can alienate players,but there are cases of distinct characters that like,laracroft

vague expressions that still fit with player,victory losing


filling in the blanks

August 3rd (Reading Notes) Gamasutra Hero's journey

Question he is hopefully going to answer"what pratical use is the heros jounrey to us as story tellers and game writers"


Myths are important.myths teach moral values and how we should be.

Myths affect us as a whole even now.

myths help identify ourselves


myths reinforces social aspects

he says myths are the core of morals

myths fill in gaps of knowledge .

he says myths are connected to us genetically.

hive mind=super society.

survival instinct

knowledge passed down,cautionary tales.

heros are role models.

self sacrifice is powerful and helps society

myth motifs are reflective of parts of the human psyche  /brain

okay so he says myths and religion are part of evolution.........

myths are a good foundation.

brain makes sense of experience through organizing and comparing to myths

he says you cant live without myths

myths create meaning for people

use structure of heroes journey to create new.

games are myth substitutes

games help people with a lack of control in their lives.

games cant reinforces myth unless they have story



-heros world
-inciting incident
-starting advetnure
-problems
-finding the antagonist
-success
-helping society in his return


-can you skip some archetypes.

heroes journey isnt instructions

heroes journey describes common themes

fiction is flexible.

just use archetypes you need.


Theme>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
step1
-pick theme, myth ,moral ,what do you want audience to get out of it etc
emotion through experiencing the problem.
Hero>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
make your hero show /embody that first step

hero has courage or finds it
clever and resourceful
has a special talent
is an outlaw
good at what they do.
protagonist,leads story
wounded disgraces grieving
motivated by idealism
sexually potent?

Villain>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

well written villain =well written story
memorable

hero= self sacrificing villain=self centred

-traits similar to hero?
-pride confidence
-outlaw
-wounded
-special talent
-sex appeal?
-non hero traits
-motivated by greed,lust for power,vanity,narcissism
-never acts out of idealism,believes evil cause. (what about misunderstanding
?)
-often cruel
-may win by luck,hero never does? (but its comedic as hell)
-is not forgiving
-might quit,but only at the end
-may whine and grovel which hero cant do. (why cant hero?) accepting journey
-may not be stoical like the hero stoic=can endure ,reserved
-may not be loyal
-usually not physical superior - though sidekick may be
-no special birthright or destiny,though he may falsely claim one

show heroes regular world.

once you have premise,hero,villain,you need to show regular world.

this is tricky
dont need to show it at the start
could start in middle of action
could show how the world was in flashback

trying to realize ideal outcome

show how they are flawed ad how they transformed by the end


disrupt the world:

inciting incident
something at stake to motivation them
newsbringer/herald
hero can refuse but not in a game apparently


enter mythlogical woods:
-each level should show growth in character (stumble forward or back?)
-struggle to find oneself and struggle to win
-hero changes throughout level


confront the evil one:
- "belly of the beast" fighting bad guy in their lair
-confronts evil and overcomes themselves in order to win

acquire the prize
-premise was the prize makes the journey worth while
-showing the moral
-let the player acquire it

heros return:
delivering prize to community
whether they survive or not to give it depends on what you are trying to tell.

character transformed personality goal,motivation by the end or achieved it

three act structure:

get player into situation
give him problems
get him out out the problems

three act structure doesnt help character growth but can be used alongside heroes journey

empathy,being in someone elses shoes
fusion of gamer and character
repetition is good and reaffirms "myth"

character archtypes go back in time,from detective to wild west ,to medieval,to greek etc


struggle wears them down to their core so they can change

premise can tell how the world is,or how it should be.

every level is a chapter/development not just gameplay

show player they can achieve the moral too

insecurities and fears you have are what you would be showing in the premise.