So Much Closer

Just recently I entered exam season and finished one of my exams. That exam was done last wednesday and by Saturday night I had my mark. I am very pleased to say that I’ve passed that course which is a big step towards finishing my education. Now that I’ve passed that 2000-level course, it opens up all the rest of the 3000-level courses that are required for my program. Barring that I pass the other exam (and subsequently the course) next week, I’ll only have four more courses until I can finally graduate.

This summer I plan to take a course which should speed up the journey to graduation. I’m excited and not at all bogged down for taking a school course during the summer because it will keep me focused and give me something to do. It will keep me in the right mindset and not lose my sights on finally finishing my education and getting a career going.

I haven’t given up and I’m just going to keep on going as I get so much closer to graduation. I’m looking forward to the end of this journey and the beginning of another.

The Rebirth of The Single Player

A few years ago the general consensus in game design and the industry is that multiplayer was the way of the future. The be all, end all cash cow would be the investment in multiplayer. That is true for obvious reasons (reasons being Call of Duty) but there is still an emphasis on single player games.

I’d like to argue that the notion of a single player game is coming back and becoming popular again albeit in a different light. The bottom line to a purchase of a video game is “is this worth the $60 initial investment?”. Most players look at the longevity of multiplayer to justify their pre-order or purchase of a video game because single player campaigns tend to be very short. Most campaigns with a few exceptions are only between 8 t0 10 hours. So the types of video games that are only single player pale in overall sales in comparison with the multiplayer behemoths.

Make Life when Creating Worlds

It’s not just enough to create a game and make sure the gameplay mechanics work. When creating a video game and building a new world with characters and a story, it is important and vital to focus on attention to detail. I’ve been playing Dishonored recently and I am enjoying the game but the world itself is boring because it lacks detail. The studio that developed Dishonored (Arkane Studios) created Dunwall as the city the story takes place in. They have managed to make some wonderful buildings and visually pleasing set pieces but it feels like a wooden movie set.

The basis for the storyline is that something happens to an Empress, there is a plague in the city and you have to right the wrongs. I get the idea of a plague keeping people quarantined or killing off some of the population but the city itself is lifeless with rarely a bystander or any signs of life besides rats crawling along the floor. It leaves me unimpressed and totally distant and disengaged from my role inside this world that was created. I could care less about the characters because there is little to no emotional involvement, expanded backstory or just genuine human interaction.

Versus The World

Why is it human nature to side with something and then blindly and loyally defend your choice? I wonder often why we as a species always have to pick one side of something and with furious debate and vitrol defend our decision to our dying breath. Politics, sports teams, entertainment choices, cars, meals, movies. We always seem to have a choice for everything when there are more than two options and then we go to great lengths to defend our choice.

I don’t understand this mentality. It prevents humanity as a species from completing cooperating in most aspects because we constantly have to compete to make one choice better than the other. Granted I understand that there are reasons for certain topics or issues where one is clearly the better choice and that is all fine with me. But the fury of which one then goes beyond their choice and continually justifies it, confuses me.

Mission to Civilize

I’m not a big fan of conflict. Throughout my life I try to maintain a belief that everything can either be worked out or cut off. It seems somewhat counter intuitive to state that but I try to approach every situation and try to fix the problem at hand or cut my losses and get out. I can’t avoid conflict completely but I’ve done so far so good in my life to approach it and defuse the situation as soon as I possibly can. It’s unfortunate that sometimes conflict arises whether you like it or not and some times people revel in conflict and purposely spread it around.

My advice is if you can, stay out of it unless you’re asked for help. That may not seem like the nice thing to do but things get worse if you involve yourself because then you become a target from one or both sides. Offer help if asked but keep yourself out of friend’s conflicts, stranger’s conflict and especially family’s conflict. But family will complain “Well you’re family! You should get involved! Stand up for your family! Where do you stand? With us or with them?”.

To Whom It May Concern

For the longest time I’ve been staring at my blog wondering what I should write about. Usually I just check in and write a short piece on what has been going on in my life or express my opinion on the video game industry. But I didn’t want to do that because it had become so redundant.

So I simply did not write anything for a while. Then a few days ago I thought about how I’m going to die one day. Silly isn’t it? I mean everyone knows that eventually their time on this planet is going to come to an end. But has anyone really thought about it? Not philosophically or anything like the deep meaning of death but rather what are they going to leave behind when they die?

FPS games are games for the ‘masses’

In relation to console gaming, there isn’t a really easy way to say this but I propose the idea that in today’s video game industry and market, FPS (First Person Shooters) games (and to a lesser extent First Person games) are seen as games for the masses. They, similar to Mcdonalds, pop music, jersey shore, 50 shades of grey and Twilight have become the consumed entertainment form of choice for the majority of gamers (both new and experienced). They are consumed by the masses because they are easy to play, short games, but with addictive qualities that always have you coming back. Guilty pleasures so to speak.

Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 is a prime example of a console that has a lot of first person shooters. In Major Nelson‘s recent XBL Activity Chart out of the top 20 games played on XBL, 9 of them are FPS games and two of them are FP games. I think that FPS games are easily accessible to new gamers, and highly marketable as “Action 24/7″ which is why gamers consume them steadily over a long period of time. However I don’t believe this makes them necessarily “good” games or even games at all.