Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Changing Landscape of Game Development

To avoid the content intertwining of this week's reading with my upcoming presentation, I would like to write about one of the finer points that was examined in the Aoyama writing: the evolution of video game production teams.  Over the course of time, the development of video games for consoles has transformed from a one man production, to a team of hundred of talented multidisciplinary workers.  From the one man team behind the Atari 2600's Adventure, to the 250 person team who created GTA V, the landscape for creating games has forever changed, but so have the tools for creating games.  For further reading, I must suggest Racing the Beam by Montfort and Bogost chapter 3, which outlines the 1 man design process behind Adventure for the Atari 2600.  If you're looking for a great read on  the whole, I suggest the book in its entirety to everyone.

Aoyama discusses 2 distinct paradigm shifts that occur in gaming history which had a great effect on the makeup of a game development team.  Those changes were: the introduction of game narrative and identifiable characters in games like Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros, and the transfer of console games from cartridges to CDs.  Both of these changes altered the game development team by requiring more artistic chops to model more believable characters and animate them, write compelling stories, and render beautiful in game cutscenes, etc.  The expectation  for triple A games to contain all of these features listed above ripped large scale game development out of the sole programmers hands.  However, a more recent trend in game design has given the power back to the small groups, and allowed for a greater breadth of practices to be involved in game design.

The creation of the licensable and open source videogame development kits has radically changed the way that games are developed, and who can develop them.  These kits provide game developers with most, if not all of the tools they will require to model textures, animate, build lighting, create objects, program AI, etc. with relative ease.  All of these things which would have been propriety before, can be licensed from a game engine, such as the Unreal Development Kit, or Unity.  Many of these kits and toolsets are readily available, and free, allowing developers to create their own game without fees.  Once the games begin to sell, then the kit developers will take a percentage or a fee.  Because there are so many pre-programed tools available to artists, this allows much more broad array of disciplines in videogame development with minimal programming experience required.  These kits are also monumental in allowing smaller companies to develop their own games without having to invest the huge amount of time and resources required for building a custom game engines.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Characters and the Creation of content

Characters in entertainment mediums can vary massively in their importance to narrative.  They can be present for comedic relief, the primary protagonist for the viewer to identify with, or they can drive the narrative in its entirety.  While I believe characters are almost vital for a narrative to occur, I don't believe that characters are inseparable from their stories, or monogatari.

As discussed in the Condry reading, characters can be incredibly important to the stories that they're in, and in many ways, their interactions can drive the story.  The introduction of a new character can be important for the plot of an episode, or an entire series or story can be constructed around single characters.  For example: Zenmai Zamurai, an unimplemented cast member of the Japanese shorts "Dekoboko Friends", had an entire series crafted around his existence.  While not as extreme as the Zamurai example, the characters of Dragon Ball Z exemplify the importance that characters can have to the narrative of both anime and manga.  More so than the premise and the setting, the Dragon Ball Z television show's events are almost entirely character driven.  Seasons, and multi-season events are often based off the introduction of new characters, who are often antagonists.  As can be seen in this article nearly every season of the Dragon Ball Z series is named after the characters or antagonists that are introduced during the season, and the story is most definitely driven by the existence and actions of the antagonists.  The seasons/ story lines begin with the introduction of a villain, and end with the defeat of the villain.  When consumers engage with these characters in a medium outside of the original manga or TV series, they're engaging with characters that are not just a part of a grand narrative, they are the grand narrative.  Freiza, Cell, Buu, all purchasable action figures, and all embodiment of extended story arcs, not just glimpses of the Dragon Ball Z storyline.  While the characters of DragonBall Z are entirely vital to the narrative of the show, if donjinshi creators so please, the characters can absolutely exist outside of the story that they're created in.  No characters are safe from transmedia, even if the medium is not cannon.

While I believe that there are no monogatari characters that do exist, due to the existence of parody manga and individual narrative developments, there are characters which are awfully close to being unable to exist outside of their story.  Super Mario, for example, is a cannibal of game titles.  Mario's existence within a game, especially when he is a playable character, almost guarantees that he will not only be a marquee part of the game, but will have his name in the title. See this list of titles Mario is featured in.  After 1986, nearly every game that features Mario as a playable character, has his name in the title.  Mario's existence within a game bends the narrative around him, and designates the game as a part of Mario's story.  In games like Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, and Mario Party, where Mario's presence as a playable character is no more important than any of the others available, his existence will induce Nintendo to brand the game under his name, and potentially utilize him as the game's narrator.  While this is done to increase sales and interest in the game title, it is an unfair individualization of game narratives by one character.  The utilization of popular characters in exotic medium is exactly what separates them from their story.  Super Mario's appearance on a lunchbox hardly corresponds and reflects his battles with Bowser.


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Otaku etc.

When learning about Japanese culture, I do my best to try and draw parallels between social groups and cultural trends in Japan and North America.  Japanese Otaku could most likely be compared to North American nerd culture, or perhaps even the Wapanese (http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/12-types-of-otaku).  The Otaku's use of 2 channel could be easily paralleled to 4chan.  However it seems like Otaku culture is/has experienced much more flux in the realm of social acceptance and identity than that of North American nerd culture.  But what effects does the presence of Otaku culture have on the world's view of Japan?  Despite their prevalence and acceptance in Japan, the Otaku's tendecy to congregate in certain areas of the country may give the outside world a skewed view of Japanese culture as a whole.

When reading about the Akihabara, I decided to have a look at the particular area to try and visualize what I was reading about.  Upon finding pictures, I thought to myself "Hey! It's that street!".  When seeing the images I confused sections Akihabara with Shibuya Crossing.  Though my initial recognition of the street was off, my recognition of the bright lights of Japan made me ponder.  In one of the readings, it is stated that Akihabara is one of the top ten tourist attractions in Japan.  Seeing so many tourists a year, many of the visitors to the country who take a walk through Akihabara will likely imprint that street as part of Japanese culture, as its general appearance is consistent with other popular areas like Shibuya Crossing.  Will the interests and practices of the locals to Akihabara (Otaku) also be taken as a Japanese authentic and staple population?  The Akihabara is such a small portion of the country, but it is so recognized and well traveled that it, and the Otaku may have a deep impact on the world's view of Japan and the Japanese.  Canada, much like other areas of the world, tends to be seen by the world as big, geographically varied, and contain large metropolitan centers like Toronto.  Though the country has so much more to offer, is it ever really seen?  Or is a country's appearance to the world restricted to first hand accounts and general knowledge?

Credible or no, this article: http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/12-types-of-otaku complies with the Otaku Talk and shows the great potential variety that members of the Otaku culture can enjoy, while still being filed under the same subculture.  The subculture seems to be less about nerd culture, and more about holding a certain amount of passion for some aspect of culture.  Being overly passionate about something that may have a slight nerdy taste to it may land you as an Otaku in the eyes of some.  To me, it seems like the word Otaku itself has lost the majority of its meaning, and is being re-appropriated for a modern age, and rightfully so.  But is it really necessary to cling to subculture terms like Otaku, when the current use of the word is so distant from the original intent?

Monday, October 7, 2013

Oct 9, 2013

I love media mixes. I think that it is fantastic that content developers are giving the fans of intellectual properties multiple mediums to interact with their source material. The convergence of old and new forms of media have provided media participants with more material to engage with than ever before, with different platforms serving different niches. Love playing World of Warcraft, but need something to do on the bus? Read one of the many novels or comic book tie ins. Enjoy GTA V and need something to do while you're supposed to be studying at school? Download the GTA V phone app. There are two ways that come to mind which media mixes may effect the experience of a title's content: converging media can be used enhance the experience with peripheral narrative or experiences, or media mixes can be used to retell a story in a new medium.

For videogames in particular, it is not rare for large releases to be accompanied by, preceded by, or followed by the release of a complementing story, phone app, online forum, podcast, or other mode of engagement. These additional mediums allow for fans of a game to engage with the world of their favorite characters on multiple platforms.  These additional avenues of play and interaction grant additional opportunities for game creators to extend the content of their game well beyond the medium it was initiated in.  Star Wars The Old Republic is a prime example of a well executed media mix, with converging mediums surrounding a game release.  The game was the spiritual successor to the acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic series, granting it a rich lore base to build off of.  Prior to the release of the Old Republic, 3 comic miniseries were released (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Old_Republic_(comics)), 3 full novels were released (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Old_Republic_(novel_series)), and an online community was founded which released weekly content on the game.  The novels and comics were used to both augment the story of the upcoming game release, and tie the lore to the pre-existing story from Knights of the Old Republic, while the site was used to hand feed the gaming community weekly tidbits of information, boosting the game’s massive hype.  Media mixes are able to expand an original product into a deep universe with multiple mediums for content consumption.  The Star Wars franchise at large started as a movie and novel release, and has exploded into a IP with countless mediums for interaction.  See this list of Star Wars media release for an idea of the company’s yearly releases: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_media.  Media mixes give entertainment the opportunity to extend beyond the original intended medium, drawing in new potential consumers who may be a fan of the expanded medium (ie. comics), providing existing fans new mediums for participation, and ultimately offering a deeper expanded IP narrative.


In addition to enhancing narratives, media mixes may also include the same story being reinterpreted and retold in varying mediums.  There are several Japanese intellectual properties which have different interpretations of the same stories available in both manga and anime.  Some of the notable series include Dragon Ball Z, and Naruto.  While these intellectual properties likely do have narrative enhancing peripheral texts similar to those in the above paragraph, they also offer fans of a series more than 1 way to experience the same general story.  The stories that are transferred to the new medium are likely not direct mirrors of the original story's content, (see comparison of Dragon Ball Z manga and anime here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWxg99VkXLY, see comparison of Naruto anime and manga here: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Anime-Manga_Differences) but they do provide the developer the opportunity to adapt the story to the new medium. If necessary, the authors can conduct some rejigging of narrative elements so that they're more appropriate to the new platform of consumption, or to remove or edit features which may not have been successful.