ART211W - Entry 10

I figured, hey, for my last blog, why not do something that really expresses how I feel about corporations in the game industry.

In The Groove is a game that was developed by Roxor games and released in arcades in late August, 2004. Becoming a hit with hardcore Dance Dance Revolution players, ITG gained steam and a squeal was released in June of the next year. Unfortunately, Konami, the creators of Dance Dance Revolution, took action, and a lawsuit in October of 2006 brought production and work on a third game to a halt.

This brings up a very interesting point. ITG is based on a free, open-source program called Stepmania which has been around for a few years prior to development of the arcade adaptation. Konami has long been aware of this freeware clone and was unable to take action against it, due to it being open source and free. Unfortunately, when the first iteration of ITG was released for arcades, it required a preexisting DDR cabinet to be installed in. Thus, the intellectual property battle began, with arcade owners unwilling to strip off existing decals from their machines, players could easily misinterpret the Roxor product as being a Konami one, and Konami took action with this. Why they waited so long was probably due to their arrogance for owing a monopoly in the industry. From their point of view, it was just another wanna-be dance game.

What they didn't expect, however, was the cult following the game created, with more and more players switching to ITG over DDR due to unique innovations that the DDR series lacked. Songs requiring players to use their hands, perform "rolls" on extended notes, and dodging mines added to the growing stale gameplay of the existing games. This, along with the added expert difficulties, kept players interested enough for the squeal. Konami, seeing a real threat, took action. Players who knew the game well enough knew that these features had existed in the PC ports of Stepmania for years, and were confused as to why Konami was -just now- taking action.

Needless to say, it's the classic "large corporation taking out the smaller guys" scenario. Konami won the suit and immediately halted the series. There have been no games with the In the Groove name since the lawsuit and the acquisition of the rights to the series. Players were horribly upset with the killing of a great alternative and Konami's DDR series continued the stale, boring path it had before. Even with players begging for innovation, they refused to listen.

With the latest release of DDRX, however, elements from the ITG series seem to be making an appearance. "Shock Arrows" are now introduced in some expert difficulties, these are arrows that are not meant to be stepped on. Sounding familiar? Mines from ITG have made an appearance, although a much less visually appearing, and stupidly dumbed down version (they only appeared 4 at a time, never individually or able to be placed creatively enough.) Even with this, though, it seems that the series is still a dull as before, with lacking creativity and promoting the same-old-same-old.

This pulls another key topic. When the rights to something are acquired and content is reused (although rehashed), does the company who now own the rights deserve the credit for this innovation? What is it that makes the existing creators of these techniques be pushed to the side and shoved out of the way by major corporations? Why is it that Konami refuses to have ANY sort of competition in their "music game" industry, wouldn't that help them to make a better product by seeing the competition and how the public responds?

Apparently, Konami's marketing and research department has a LOT to learn.

Associated links:
http://www.konami.co.jp/en/news/topics/050511/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Groove_(series)#Lawsuit

ART211W - Entry 9

Edit: ADFGSDFGSDFG I HATE YOU BLOGSPOT. STOP DELETING MY POSTS.

Edit 2:

Associated Link: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/08/22/

Ah, the good old web comic scene. Here is a priceless Penny Arcade comic depicting another one of life's little indulgences. With gaming becoming more and more competitive, it seems that normal talents appear to be overshadowed. PA takes a fun jab at this by presenting Photoshop Hero.

While this comic takes a fun jab at all the "Hero" styled games, it also presents another fun question about what "talent" truly is. It seems that with these stylized games comes apparent bragging rights. Talent is, already, hard enough to try to pinpoint, but with the added fact that any video game is pushing competition and being able to have bragging rights it's becoming harder and harder to separate the useful skills from the completely pointless, mainly due to whoever is playing seems to take pride in what they're doing. Human nature is, unfortunately, liable to fall to this flaw, taking a simple task of playing a game and pushing that skill, mentally, to the point of being able to call it a "skill"

This is, sadly, the downfall of most modern games. Instead of focusing on gameplay and character-based storylines, we have giant "band simulators" and a plethora of games that are plagued by the requirement of plastic peripherals and only promote bragging rights. Even on the boxes for games, the fact that "learn to rock out for fame, glory, and bragging!" is written right there immediately points out the true intention of playing.

So what exactly is considered a skill, or better yet, true talent?

ART211W - Entry 8

Associated Link

YouTube has, since it's formation, been a social site where anyone can post videos of whatever they desire. From cats jumping around, to seeing your friend dive headfirst into a pile of bananas, YouTube has become the hot-spot for people to become noticed. However, with any forms of creative expression, some people will take their "creativity" to the extremes.

YouTube "poops", as they've come to be known, are basically created by taking any video that can be found, and either spoofing it, or applying every single effect and distortion possible. Usually, these videos make little to no sense. The video above, however, is a twisted spoof of this random piece, which still makes...almost no sense. More common 'poops' are mashups of footage from, basically, anything. More common, though, are the spoofs of other, seemingly useless videos. A spoof of Vince's ShamWow! commercial has quickly become one of the most popular videos that have spread around the internet.

This brings up an interesting topic, though. With the whole idea of "cultural remixing", when is too much, too much? Is the remixed video property of the person who mashed together the footage, or is it still the original author's work?

ART211W - Entry 7

Associated link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz0PaPpmGa8&fmt=18

The YouTube video above links to an amazing modification of the SNES classic Super Mario world. If you were to read this before linking to the video, you would probably assume someone simply took the game and either hacked sprites in, perhaps some swapping of music, or maybe just modifying the levels slightly. fortunately, the video above is an extreme of all of these traits of any game modification.

Adaptly titled "Automatic Mario", this video has spread vastly since the original posting on the Japanese site "Nico Nico Douga". The audio heard in the background is an original to the site, the "Nico Nico Medly", which is composed of a vast quantity of video game and anime music. Thankfully, to some, one individual took months out of his life to make a modification of Super Mario World to produce tones matching the original video's pitches. In a site that interviewed the creator, he said approx. 7 months went into creating this, and that was putting in about 5 hours per day of work on this, along with other daily work, and school. This brings us to a very interesting topic.

When do games become purely art?

Within the last few topics we have reviewed, gaming has become a persistant topic. We have often mentioned about games blending art and gameplay. The game modification presented has completely removed the gameplay aspect of the original, and replaced it with a purely artistic piece that is watched, rather than played. This takes the whole aspect of modding a game for visual and auditorial enjoyance, rather than physical interraction.

ART211W - Entry 6

Associated link

Edit: Okay, Blogspot just wiped my post... let's try this again...

What is seen above is the result of a very creative and brilliant college student. Mr. Lee has taken the simple concept of having an IR sensor in the Wii-remote and applied to what, hopefully, can be utilized in a new generation of games.

The exact specifications and requirements to set up a similar setup as shown are explained in the video, the basic gist, etc. By wearing a special set of glasses with two, small, IR LED's attached to them, it is possible to track the player's position in 3d space by using cheaply manufactured, and widely available, hardware. This allows for complete motion control by not only the controllers, but player-driven responses as well. Another amazing, and the primary reason for attempting such an interface, is the visual effect of creating a true three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Games can take advantage of this, as a simple example, creating a duck-and-cover system for shooters. Instead of having to press a button, the player simply ducks. If there is a window in the game, the player has the ability to approach the screen and "look over" the ledge to peer below.

This kind of interaction between game and player will, no doubt, become the next "big thing" in gaming. Taking a look at Mr. Lee's other videos reveals other potentially inventive ways to interact with games, including virtual multi-touch interfaces (think Minority Report) and creating virtual whiteboards by, of course, using a simple Wii-remote.

ART211W - Entry 5

(click the face to watch the video this entry is about)

Adventure Time was a one-time short animation for the Nicktoon show "Random Cartoons". In this mini show, we are shown what appears to be random nonsense that a crazy, whacked out writer came up with. Originally planned to be shown on television, the episode leaked out onto the internet over two years before it was originally planned to be aired. Normally, such an act would destroy the show's credibility and uniqueness.

However, the exact opposite happened thanks to the widespread, almost viral, showings of this 7 minute cartoon. Hype for the actual showing was staggering, and thanks to most teens having a crude sense of, shall we say, humor (see, anything on CollegeHumor.com), the show became one of the top viewed shorts during it's runtime. So much, so, that Cartoon Network actually picked up Adventure Time, and it's set for a late 2009 airing (13 episodes, each running 22 minutes).

This shows the power of how the internet and social sites, such as Youtube, can boost the popularity and fame of a seemingly unnoticed show. So much, infact, that it's now a "cult classic", being spread all over the internet, colleges and via friends.

ART211W - Entry 4

( link: http://awards.sf.akqa.com/creative/2007/halo3/iris/shell.html )

Iris was an ARG (alternate reality game) designed to promote Halo 3 pre-launch of the game.

With any giant media launch come hype, and as if the Halo franchise hadn't enough steam behind it, Iris had planned on topping the bar. As another alternate way of, perhaps subliminally, promoting the game, Iris took followers from the digital world, to the street, back online, and to the street again with countless mysteries to solve, hidden messages, and a massively confusing "storyline".

Halo 2 had, previously, used a familiar technique with their infamous "ilovebees.com" site (where the xbox.com url switched to ilovebees.com in the original theatrical trailer), so running an ARG was nothing new to Bungie. With the fact the conclusion of the trilogy was Halo 3, though, they decided to go far beyond what almost any ARG had previously done. With months of preperation, Iris finally took form and was released to the public, bit by bit. I remember attempting to follow the events as they progressed, becomming massively confused and springing to fan site to look for clues. Needless to say, I was aleady interested in the Halo series as well, but this ARG had spiked an almost personal need to try to figure out this mystery.

And as saying, I continued to fail.

The site above lists all the steps of this "game" and how they were carried out. It's interesting to see the complexity behind organizing such a complex "social experiment" such as this. The success of this project continued onward promoting the game's storyline, pushing the hype, and depthening the plot of this epic sequal to one of the most anticipated trilogies ever created.

Art 211W - Entry 3

http://stimulant.io/wp/index.php/2009/01/from-the-labs-xray-integrates-apple-iphone-and-microsoft-surface/

Woah! An Apple and Microsoft product working together!

This video/article discusses a homebrew application for the iPhone that interacts with the Microsoft Surface "table computer". The basis for creating such an application was the inspiration from the “SecondLight” technology shown at last year’s Professional Developers Conference. This was an expansion of their original Surface technology to allow a second, “hidden” image to be viewable by simply placing tracing paper over top.

For the owners of the first generation device, though, another alternative was required. Enter XRay. This project takes advantage of a secondary display that can be placed over top of the device, and then having screen images “sent” to it to reflect whatever was underneath.

The possibilities for technology like this are completely endless. The “hidden image” concept can be taken to a completely different level. Imagine seeing an image and being able to see an expanded description by simply holding your phone over it. Another fun concept would be the digital map idea we completed last week. Having a slur of names on a Surface, only being able to hold another device on top to see details for each individual.

These “hidden” displays are a completely new way to provide information, and should be seen more and more often as time progresses.

Art 211 - Entry 2

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme

Internet memes have been a constant part of anyone’s life, be it knowing or unknowing. With the birth of one of the first memes, the “hamster dance”, it was common practice to send links of the sites hosing these to everyone you knew. Much like chain letters were common with the traditional snail-mail, meme’s are constantly spread, instantaneously, over emails, IM’s, or posts on blogs and social networking sites.
Traditionally, memes are simple inside jokes spread from one person to another via word of mouth or story telling. Internet memes, however, can become as unexpected as ever. The classic example would be “Rickrolling” someone. This classic “made you look” concept has been taken to a new level, with someone sending a hyperlink with a title such as,

“HOT NEW AMAZING GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE FOR HALO 3 RECON!!!111”

Clicking that above link will take you to a YouTube video of Rick Astley’s song, “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Congratulations, you’ve be rickrolled. This meme, among others, was started through an online message board, namely a site called 4chan. As others will, I’m sure, correct me on this, rickrolling is the most common form of a publicly-known meme. While others have been spread willingly, such as the “Star Wars Kid”, and the newer “Don’t tase me, Bro!”, the most common way of introducing a meme is by tricking someone into it, such as above. These inside jokes could only be spread through digital mediums, and thanks to the popularity of social networking and video hosting, they will continue to be spread across the vast tubes of the internet for over nine thousand years to come.


Oh, and by the way, you just lost the game.

Art 211 - Entry 1

User Interface: Criticism and Complaints
(Viewing URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_lY0yVYjoI&fmt=22 )

Seen here is an interface currently in design for the game "In The Groove". Being a work in progress, many people have commented on it's "fresh new look" from the original, dull, red theme. However, with change also comes massive amounts of criticism of both constructing, and non-constructive.

During the last few months of development, videos and still images of this new theme have been posted on various forums where other players and interface-designers can comment on the work done. While the overall reaction has been positive, there have been many complaints about "moving away from the original", "overuse of bevel", and, of course, the traditional "OMG THIS SUCKS LEARN 2 PHOTOSHOP". While at times these can seem belittling of the work that has been done, all types of complaints about the current design (sans the last one) can be used to improve the overall final project.

Criticism involving the "originality" of the project has both it's positives and flaws. While the goal of the project was to create an entirely new new interface, the design was becoming so outlandish and unfitting that the general "feel" of the game just didn't seem to fit everything the game originally had, so elements were redesigned to have more of the classic style the original had. The other, almost completely obvious, flaw with beveling seen in the video involved a complete redesign of most elements seen. Now, the over-beveled elements feature a slick, gray style that blends well with the other style seen in the"gameplay" screen, without having the overuse of horrible sharp edges.

About "LEARNING 2 PHOTOSHOP", I think that's been covered already.

Overall, the constant user feedback by posting public viewable content has led the project to become the best it can. Without this, it would have been in the same state, receiving the same criticism upon release. Unfortunately, were that to happen, the design changes would be impossible to implement, and the final product would be far, far from spectacular.

:O

OH SNAP