BA2a: Year 2: CS: Various Coherent Worlds

This post will cover all the various different coherent worlds I learnt about in the CS lectures:

Amusement Theme Parks

The website: http://web.themeparkincorporated.co.uk/2015/04/11/the-evolution-of-theme-parks/ goes on to talk about how theme parks have evolved from when they first started to today's theme parks. It talks about how theme parks evolved from three traditions, the first was the middle ages which was more of a circus than a theme park, with acts, juggling, magic and freak shows, later on they added the first mechanical rides that are steam-powered carousels. This relates to how games evolved from boards and playing card games to become the platform console games we know and play today.

The second influence was the pleasure garden. One of the earliest gardens was the Vauxhall Gardens, founded in 1661 in London, it had many attractions for all ages, at first it was only available to the elites of London, but eventually became open too all the public to use. This can be related to a number of games due to prices and age limits, some people may have to wait to play the game they want because they can't afford it, and need the price to go down.

(Incoming Blog Glitch)

On the website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/nfa/researchandarticles/pleasuregardensamusementparks in the American theme parks section it talks about how when Disneyland first opened up in 1955 it was unlike any other theme park in the world, removing the old style of theme parks and creating "five distinct themed areas, providing "guests" with the fantasy of travel to different lands and times". This was also when amusement parks decided to start charging at the entrance, rather than on the rides. The success of the park has grown into the Disneyland we know today, along with a number of resorts and theme parks around the world.

Mazes & Labyrinths

In one of the lectures, we where asked to choose from a list of forms of entertainment and find a book and a quote about demonstrating history and context and how it links to video game culture. I choose to do Mazes & Labyrinths.

While similar in many ways mazes and labyrinths are different in meaning and significant ways, A maze is a confusing pathway with many branches, that lead to dead ends, and the significance of mazes are used in experiments to study spatial awareness. Labyrinths on the other hand is a single through-route with twists and turns without branches, and it's significance is spiritual, in some people believe it is a way of meeting God.

The game Labyrinth (released by Ravensburger in 1990) has now been app made, and it's movie (btw love it) making 13 million copies sold worldwide.

The quote I choose was from the book 'Star Wars The Magic of Myth', the quote reads "the heroes find themselves in a labyrinth, a maze of passages and rooms, dead ends, and bottomless trenches... Each has a different goal.... In classical Mythology, the labyrinth has always represented a difficult journey into the unknown".

Mazes and Labyrinths are used in a number of various media, a few examples of these are: In the Harry Potter Movie, 'The Golbet of Fire' one of the challenges in a maze with spells and traps designed to stop you from winning. The old and classical game Snake has a simple idea of creating a maze to to get the dot successfully, The movie Inception gets the characters creating mazes inside of mazes in their own subconsciousness. The movie Labyrinth (which is more like a maze with it's various branches) focuses on the main character rescuing her baby brother from the goblin king by completing the massive labyrinth set in front of her.

Essay Plans:

How do video games effect the player’s emotions?

Talk about games and how they’ve become what they are today from what they were, talk about what I’m going to be addressing, as well as what coherent game worlds are.

What coherent game worlds are: based on historical setting, fictional and non-fictional, comes from imagination (easier for children than adults), daydreaming to create imaginary and unique worlds, then media and art to bring them to life.

Look at the emotions of the player: How do they react when they first play it, how will they react by the end of the game, link to flow, did they struggle, was it easy, what was there experience with this game world compared to others (link to what coherent worlds are) did they empathise with the characters (How did it affect them emotionally?) (e.g. Spec ops the line)

Looking at the artwork of the worlds: look at different types of game artwork, AAA, indie, mmorpg’s, how it brings the story to life. Looking at how different forms of entertainment from the past, how they created the games, characters, setting, colour, music and stories we play today.

Look into the story behind these worlds: the settings, (example company telltale games: it’s games have multiple endings depending on your choice), who are the characters in this world, what’s their story, link to can they empathise with the characters (How did it affect them emotionally) (roleplay)

Do video games connect with the player’s emotion?

Intro: talk about what is going to be addressed in this essay, what coherent game worlds are.

Gonna consider the theme of books in this essay, look into books and comics that developed into games, now that characters have life, do we connect more emotionally with them? Give my own personal experience with how books, films and games gave me strength to go out and make friends. Look into meaningful design; give examples of games which emotionally tug on player’s hearts, using notes from previous lecture, looking into emotional attachment to games, objects in games (companion cube from portal), and the characters how we interact with them (NPC’s too), using game examples like spec ops: the line, brothers, the last of us. Look at games that the choices we make depend on the outcome of the game.

Conclusion: sum up what I have covered.