To start off, I'd like to show some slides from our Contextual Studies Lecture on whether games can persuade. In particular, our tutor Sharon looked at the term rhetoric, and whether games can be a form of rhetoric - in order for this it needs to;
The task is to Analyse 3 Games; LA Noire, Spore and Dear Esther.
"Separate something into its constituent parts; examine it methodically and in detail for the purposes of explanation and interpretation."
What are these separate parts?
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How do the rules and conditions of the game create conflict?
& Are players struggling against each other or the game or both?
LA Noire:
The game places you in 1940s Los Angeles as a Police Officer; the narrative of the game often calls into question the morality and application of law when it come to trying to solve the murders. You seem to be surrounded by jaded, apathetic or down right corrupt members of the force, which find your 'by the book' beliefs to policing laughable. Therefore the rules of game-play are at conflict with the game's plot, and the character's within the game as a whole. Here, players are struggling against the game.
Spore:
Conflict is created within Spore by gradually restricting the amount of control a player has over their 'creation' as the game progresses through stages. Because the player is so involved in the design of their creature at the start of the game, there is conflict between their instinct to control the sequence of events, and what the game is trying to achieve. Here, players are struggling against the game also.
Dear Esther:
Dear Esther is a game which characteristically has no formal rules or conditions to its game-play - player control is very restricted to the player. As Dan Pinchbeck explains in his interview, this was a intentional conflict. The player wants to have control over the game, yet the game cannot realise its full artistic potential if the player is allowed control. Here, players are also struggling against the game.
What are the interactive experiences provided for players in the game? & Does interaction create meaningful play?
LA Noire:
The whole game-world of LA Noire is interactive. Every action you perform in the open world has a reaction, and a result because of it. Therefore the interactive experience creates meaningful game-play in that the player feels in control, and responsible for their actions - how can the game-play not be meaningful when you have direct control?
Spore:
As I mentioned before, the player interacts with the game on many levels at the start, though as the game progresses the player takes on more of an over-seeing role, and your game-play becomes more passive. The game offers forth meaningful elements to the game design, such as you following your creature from birth to full levels of evolution on beyond; however for the game to have more meaningful play, the design should have a more deep and rich narrative/process.
Dear Esther:
Dear Esther uses the narrative of the game as the interactive element of the game-play - yet not all players find this true inter-activity. The lack of game play or mechanics to the game creates a gaming experience unlike others and this has been seen to be as both refreshing change, and an unpopular experiment. Therefore the meaningful element to the game-play in Dear Esther is subjective to who is playing it at the time, though it certainly has the potential to be.
What does the game look like? & What are the possible visual influences?
LA Noire:
Obviously, the game was heavily influenced by the culture and fashion of the 1940s, and many outfits can be linked directly through research to LA fashion specific to the time. Every element of the game from the cut scenes, to the music, to the title typeface is inspired by the Film Noire movement, and other conventions in 1940s America at the time. As for character design - the actors which performed the roles of the characters in the game (motion capture) formed the design/inspiration are from the actual actors involved.
Spore:
The inventive and cartoon-like style of Spore shows influence from children's ideas and drawings of monsters. This playful style can be linked to how the game seeks to allow the player's imagination run wild, with seemingly infinite combinations of creative options.
Dear Esther:
The look of Dear Esther directly translates the mood and feel of the game when you play it - you are transported to the remote Scottish Isle, and truly feel you are there. Visual influences obviously from the highlands and islands of Scotland, and that of great novels - I pictured Heathcliffe strutting over the horizon of the island when playing the game.
Consider the game in terms of context;
Origin, Year of Manufacture, Company (house style), Target Audiences.
LA Noire:
The context of LA Noire's development is a one shadowed by the over-working of employees at Team Bondi and a disregard of individual's health versus a finished product. The development team were accused of lengthy crunch time and 12 hour work days; 'Owen put it best when he said "Crunch is not a virtue. It's poor management coupled with abusive labor practice." (Plunkett, 2011)
http://kotaku.com/5815615/inside-the-seven+year-labor-pains-of-la-noire
http://www.develop-online.net/news/38125/Industry-outrage-at-brutal-Team-Bondi-crunch
http://kotaku.com/5818019/report-la-noires-development-was-hell-rockstar-no-longer-working-with-team-bondi
Further LA Noire Research;
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/717444/la-noire-rockstar-tells-us-the-story-behind-the-game/
http://www.develop-online.net/features/1166/The-art-of-lying-LA-Noire
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2011/06/24/why-did-la-noire-take-seven-years-to-make
http://livegeekordie.com/article/making-the-most-of-the-la-noire/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-09-night-and-the-city
The task is to Analyse 3 Games; LA Noire, Spore and Dear Esther.
"Separate something into its constituent parts; examine it methodically and in detail for the purposes of explanation and interpretation."
What are these separate parts?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do the rules and conditions of the game create conflict?
& Are players struggling against each other or the game or both?
LA Noire:
The game places you in 1940s Los Angeles as a Police Officer; the narrative of the game often calls into question the morality and application of law when it come to trying to solve the murders. You seem to be surrounded by jaded, apathetic or down right corrupt members of the force, which find your 'by the book' beliefs to policing laughable. Therefore the rules of game-play are at conflict with the game's plot, and the character's within the game as a whole. Here, players are struggling against the game.
Spore:
Conflict is created within Spore by gradually restricting the amount of control a player has over their 'creation' as the game progresses through stages. Because the player is so involved in the design of their creature at the start of the game, there is conflict between their instinct to control the sequence of events, and what the game is trying to achieve. Here, players are struggling against the game also.
Dear Esther:
Dear Esther is a game which characteristically has no formal rules or conditions to its game-play - player control is very restricted to the player. As Dan Pinchbeck explains in his interview, this was a intentional conflict. The player wants to have control over the game, yet the game cannot realise its full artistic potential if the player is allowed control. Here, players are also struggling against the game.
What are the interactive experiences provided for players in the game? & Does interaction create meaningful play?
LA Noire:
The whole game-world of LA Noire is interactive. Every action you perform in the open world has a reaction, and a result because of it. Therefore the interactive experience creates meaningful game-play in that the player feels in control, and responsible for their actions - how can the game-play not be meaningful when you have direct control?
Spore:
As I mentioned before, the player interacts with the game on many levels at the start, though as the game progresses the player takes on more of an over-seeing role, and your game-play becomes more passive. The game offers forth meaningful elements to the game design, such as you following your creature from birth to full levels of evolution on beyond; however for the game to have more meaningful play, the design should have a more deep and rich narrative/process.
Dear Esther:
Dear Esther uses the narrative of the game as the interactive element of the game-play - yet not all players find this true inter-activity. The lack of game play or mechanics to the game creates a gaming experience unlike others and this has been seen to be as both refreshing change, and an unpopular experiment. Therefore the meaningful element to the game-play in Dear Esther is subjective to who is playing it at the time, though it certainly has the potential to be.
What does the game look like? & What are the possible visual influences?
LA Noire:
Obviously, the game was heavily influenced by the culture and fashion of the 1940s, and many outfits can be linked directly through research to LA fashion specific to the time. Every element of the game from the cut scenes, to the music, to the title typeface is inspired by the Film Noire movement, and other conventions in 1940s America at the time. As for character design - the actors which performed the roles of the characters in the game (motion capture) formed the design/inspiration are from the actual actors involved.
Spore:
The inventive and cartoon-like style of Spore shows influence from children's ideas and drawings of monsters. This playful style can be linked to how the game seeks to allow the player's imagination run wild, with seemingly infinite combinations of creative options.
Dear Esther:
The look of Dear Esther directly translates the mood and feel of the game when you play it - you are transported to the remote Scottish Isle, and truly feel you are there. Visual influences obviously from the highlands and islands of Scotland, and that of great novels - I pictured Heathcliffe strutting over the horizon of the island when playing the game.
Consider the game in terms of context;
Origin, Year of Manufacture, Company (house style), Target Audiences.
LA Noire:
The context of LA Noire's development is a one shadowed by the over-working of employees at Team Bondi and a disregard of individual's health versus a finished product. The development team were accused of lengthy crunch time and 12 hour work days; 'Owen put it best when he said "Crunch is not a virtue. It's poor management coupled with abusive labor practice." (Plunkett, 2011)
With this is mind, the quality of the work produced by the company and their publisher Rockstar is
amazing; their use of cutting-edge motion capture software gave the
game a whole new level of AI detail not seen before. Team Bondi is
http://kotaku.com/5815615/inside-the-seven+year-labor-pains-of-la-noire
http://www.develop-online.net/news/38125/Industry-outrage-at-brutal-Team-Bondi-crunch
http://kotaku.com/5818019/report-la-noires-development-was-hell-rockstar-no-longer-working-with-team-bondi
Further LA Noire Research;
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/717444/la-noire-rockstar-tells-us-the-story-behind-the-game/
http://www.develop-online.net/features/1166/The-art-of-lying-LA-Noire
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2011/06/24/why-did-la-noire-take-seven-years-to-make
http://livegeekordie.com/article/making-the-most-of-the-la-noire/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-09-night-and-the-city
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