New Games Journalism vs Old Games Journalism

Old Games Journalism:

Old games journalism usually contains a highly descriptive article that talks about all the different aspects of the games mechanics and the actual game.

An example of old games journalism would be a game review on a site such as Giantbomb.com.

vs.

New Games Journalism: 

New games journalism usually contains a gamer/persons views, thoughts and experiences of the actual gameplay rather than heavy talk about the games mechanics and components.

An example of new games journalism would be found on peoples personal blogs that contain their opinions and experiences of the actual gameplay and not the mechanics and other elements linked to the game.

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I use both forms of journalism but I would say that I use Old Games Journalism more in order to find out about games through previews before their release and through reviews after their release in order to help me get the right buy.

Semiotics

Notes

Signifier - CAT + Signified - Pet, Animal, Meow.

Physical Characteristics 

Whiskers

Strange Arching Shapes

Hunter

Lazy

Eyes

Stealthy

Agile

Associated with Cats

Cat scans

Fur Balls

Cat Burglars

Witches Cats

Characters

Garfield

Puss in Boots

Silvester

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Signifier - Arbitrarily/ Random, About Context

All Arbitrary?

Indexical, Iconic, Symbolic.

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Indexical Signs - Claim a casual relationship between signifier and signified.

Iconic Signs - Look or resemble the person.

Symbolic Signs - The relationship to the creature is established by convention.

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Constraint 

Highly Constrained - Realistic

Highly Unconstrained - Unrealistic

Convention |——————————-| Constraint

Remediation

 Remediation is the incorporation or representation of one medium in another medium.

Immediacy:

Media that aspire to a condition of transparency.

The aim is to make the viewer forget that they are watching a movies (getting drawn into the experience.

Immmersive Virtual Reality.

Photo Realistic Images.

Hypermediacy:

Artefacts that are aware of and wish to display their own constructed nature.

They call attention to their own constructed nature all the time.

WWW

Video Game Huds

An example of Remediation is taking Scrabble as a board game medium and converting/making it into a digital version of Scrabble.

Scrabble as a board game.

Digital version of Scrabble.

Narrative & Games

Narrative in Games can be used in different ways such as:

During a cutscene (through video and voice)

As you play the game.

Character interaction.

Narrative (Voice over)

Audio logs / Collectibles.

To introduce a Level, Character or Setting.

Affect gameplay in games with multiple choices/paths.

To further the games storyline.

A great example of narration is found in Bastion through the character Rucks. He is used extremely well to narrate as you go through the game. The pacing is spot on and well executed and contributes to the games charm. 

Another great use of narrative is in the Bioshock games through the use of audio logs. Every time you find an audio log it gives you information about certain characters linked to the story both past and present. As you collect more and more audio logs you learn more and more about the characters characteristics, traits and personal stories. 

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Narration is also used in multiplayer games such as:

Sports Games (the commentators)

Call of Duty (the announcer for the scores and killstreaks)

Max Payne (short announcement of the game mission objective)

Titanfall (Narrative that gets the single player and multiplayer knit together)

Gender & Games

Gender in video games, game studios, the games media and gamers is slowly but surely balancing out.

These days you have the Ladies more and more present when it comes to video games in:

Game Studios/ Jobs

Amy Hennig (Was creative director on the Uncharted Games)

Jade Raymond (Managing Director of Ubisofts Montreal Studio)

Carol Shaw ( First female video game designer)

Kellee Santiago ( Braid, Dear Esther, Gone Home to name a few.)

Julie Uhrman (CEO & Founder of Ouya)

Games Media

Carolyn Petit (Gamespot)

Andrea Rene (Escapist News)

Naomi Kyle (IGN)

Audrey Drake (IGN)

Zorine Te (Gamespot AU)

Games

Lara Croft ( Tomb Raider)

Princess Peach (Mario Games)

Samus Aran (Metroid Games)

Princess Zelda (Zelda Games)

Alyx Vance (Half Life Games)

Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark Games)

Jill Valentine (Resident Evil Games)

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Professional Gaming

More and more ladies are becoming professional gamers and competing for pro teams such as the fragdolls, its great to see that happening.

Games Britannia - “Joystick Generation”

In the final part of “Games Britannia” Benjamin Woolley talks about video games rather than board games that were talked about in the first and second parts of “Games Britannia”.

Benjamin Woolley talked about the evolutions of computer games.

Computer Games talked about:

Elite

Black & White

Tomb Raider

Wipeout

Grand Theft Auto

Little Big Planet

World of Warcraft

Multi User Dungeons (MUDS)

Benjamin Woolley also talked about the creation of Dungeons & Dragons (DnD) and The Games Workshop in the 1970s.

Pervasive Games Workshop

Pervasive Games Workshop

The first part of the lecture was a QR code treasure hunt organised by the module lecturer. The QR codes during this treasure hunt contained pictures, videos, sounds, and written riddles.

The second part of the lecture we were tasked to come up ways to use QR codes.

Here are my ideas that would be helpful on the University Campus.

• Trivia Quiz about the University and Ipswich.
• Map with important buildings/ locations on campus.
• Room Locater/ Map.
• QR Code for Course Handbook.
• List of Support Staff Locations.
• Arts Showcase.
• Link to Waterfront Games.
• Interviews of Graduates/ Alumni.
• Harvard Referencing Guide.
• Fire Alarm Locations/ Emergency Exit map.
• Emergency Service Numbers.
• Timetable QR Code.