Strange Weirdness

The Good And The Bad

2008-04-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

I don’t think I could have left this much closer to the last minute.

What makes art good or bad…?

It’s hard to determine an exact set of rules to govern the judgement of any type of art due to how subjective art is. What one person says is bad another considers good.

However it can be easier to determine what is good and bad when you look at what the aim of the piece or pieces in question. For example if the aim is to produce a picture or 3D model that is as close to an exact replica of a real physical object, person or scene then you’ve instantly got some criteria to make comparisons with and the closer to the real thing the picture or model is the better it is. You can check the shape, colour, perspective and scale and tell where a lot of the good and bad points lie. There are still problems, the chosen composition may appear good or bad depending on who is viewing the work for example but it does make things easier.

Once you start deviating from or modifying reality the potential for contradicting views increase as it’s harder to say whether or not the piece in question looks the way it should as it’s harder to find things to compare the subject matter to.

Then there’s the issue of stylisation where you can take even real life things and although you may still know what subject matter they represent they are more than likely not made to be a 100% accurate representation. This can still potentially look good but it’s more subjective than it would be otherwise. Even if there was a set style that the piece had to be made in at the end of the day the viewer may or may not like the style.

In the end the biggest factor that determines whether a picture or model is good or bad is the artist’s skill. Their ability to convey there idea in a manner that represents their subject matter in a way that is as close to what the artist is trying show as possible while being pleasing to the eye in terms of subject, composition and rendering.

As game artists it should be easier to grade most of our art as opposed to a fine artist as the majority of our work is at least based on real life objects and forms so objectivity is by no means out of reach if not necessarily easy to achieve. However I’d think we are also being marked on originality which throws in a few potential hazards with our experiences being different to our tutors (something original to me may be a near exact copy of something I’ve never seen but my tutors have).

And now I’ve run out of words (not that I’m entirely sure the ones I’ve written so far even make sense) and I’ve barely written 400 of them….

How can you grade good and bad art…?

Is the composition good?
Is it rendered well?
Is the method of creation good/appropriate?
Is the perspective correct?
How long did it take? (appropriate length of time being determined by complexity and method of creation)
Does it look feasible? (in the world/environment/reality that the subject is intended)
Is the subject’s construction suitable? (3D models)
Has the artist got his/her vision across well?
Are the proportions correct?
Is it original enough?

I’d imagine there are probably other criteria on which things should be marked but I can’t think of them at the moment. I’d also imagine that some of the ones I’ve mentioned would be far more difficult to grade than others.

I think that’s it, for now at least (not that I have much time to do more). I’m not sure I’m really literate enough to get my points across but hopefully I’ve succeeded if only partially.

Bye. See you at the grading.

Creative Armour Design

2007-12-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

I can’t remember what it was that sparked my memory but I recently remembered a video I saw of this guy talking about his new “Trojan” battle suit ages ago and I never wrote a blog about it so now I’m going to get it blogged and its even reasonably on topic (creativity). Already famous for his bear suit and I believe he has also made a heat proof suit, he started work on a new body armour suit to be used by soldiers in the field.

Here is a video of his bear suit and how he tests it (that’s him in the suit by the way).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3CzYw5-qdA

And here is the video of the Trojan. You’ll never guess what things he had been looking at for inspiration. The watch is in an odd place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPS2l5fQ55A

TED Is A Very Creative Guy

2007-12-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Time to get blogging! Way to far behind with things though to be honest I’ve technically been working on this blog for....however long it’s been since my last one. But yes I have been trawling the TED website for good videos on creative subjects. Here are some links to some of what I deem the best ones. They’ve each got descriptions on their relevant pages but I’ve tried to give them some brief descriptions here. I need to hit my word quota some how.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/108

Sheer coolness. I think I understand it yet can’t explain it so just watch it.

Okay I watched it again just when I was getting ready to post this and as the on site description says it is better watched after you’ve seen a number of other videos from that year. Don’t feel that you need to to appreciate it but I certainly picked up on one or two references to other videos I've seen and at least one of them is on this list.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/172

A guy explaining why we’re attracted to simplicity and complexity.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/176

I found this one fairly boring till they got to the videos and demonstrations towards the end where they showed some impressive gliders and…we’ll say flying machines.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/148

Incidentally…I first watched this video at around 4am lol.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/146

This one has an actual direct link to our course. It’s about the game “Spore” and what the creator was aiming for the game to be.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/117

An excellent fiddler. I was going to put a bad joke about how I fiddle with things but it just sounded rude. The best bit is towards the end and if you follow links in her profile to her website you can find some clips of her music to listen too.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/109

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/110

She has an amazing voice. Not sure what she’s doing with her hands most of the time though. Actually she might be doing it to affect her voice. You might see why I’m thinking that when you watch it.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/103

A world famous and almost completely deaf percussionist explains her interactions with music.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/40

A nature photographer details the history of the Earth.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/87

Damn it why can’t I think of anything to say about this other than it’s funny. Oh and I tried the Google thing, it doesn’t work.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/60

An actress plays out some interviews she’d had with various people she had met travelling across America.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/26

This is the third link I’ve posted of this guy’s poetry. If he doesn’t class as creative I don’t know who is. I need to find out if he rehearses all of his stuff of whether he adlibs some of his performances…

Had a look at some of the information on him and it seems he does.

His name is Rives. Despite my extensive attempts…ok 10 minutes on Google I saw no indication of him having a last name (or first if “Rives” is the last).

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/179

His dancing puts even Michael Jackson to shame.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/82

I knew people had managed to link the human nerve system to a robotic arm and make it move. I had no idea that with today’s technology it was possible to achieve this, at least not within that size and weight limit.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/45

This girl was mentioned in the Ken Robinson talk, ((2:50 minutes in) “I mean Sirena last night was a marvel, wasn’t she, just seeing what she could do?”) and referenced in the talk by Rives at the top of this list.

She was 11 years old at the time of filming and already an extremely gifted violinist who has played with world famous orchestras.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/43

This guy makes some excellent points on designing things. (A bit of a vague description but meh)

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/81

A cool song.

I’m going to continue looking through the vids, which are steadily increasing in number (167 last I checked). I’d like to encourage other people to look as well if you aren’t already. I'll keep posting links to all the videos that I like on my blog. If you find any that you think are good please post a comment with a link.

More Creativity

2007-11-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things i forgot to put in my last post. These are videos on the TED talks website that i really liked.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/162

http://www.wefeelfine.org/

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/144

This is one of the things mentioned in the above talk.

http://www.wefeelfine.org/

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/165

If i remember to I'l post more of these cool videos as i find them.

Back To Blogging (Creativity Again)

2007-11-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

Another year, another attempt at producing something resembling a half decent blog. To all my regular readers (if I have any lol) sorry it’s been so long since my last post.

Now on with the task at hand.

Creativity

What is it? How do you get it? What do you do with it? Why am I asking these questions when there’s no clear answer to any of them?

“The process of having original ideas that have value”

Ken Robinson

“The quality or ability to create or invent something; originality”

Wiktionary Definition

I tried googling the word “creativity” to see what I got despite the fact that I imagine pretty much everyone else doing the task will have had the same idea. I first looked at Google images and to be honest the images it came up with were pretty unremarkable and disappointing.

I then went onto the normal search. There were improve your business and/or workforce websites, a few others detailing ways to help improve your own creativity or encourage your child’s. I did find a website that was mildly interesting:

http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_creativity.html

creativity-online.com at first glance looked like it would provide some nice material on the subject but wouldn’t you know it most of what I found in it seemed to be adverts. All the things that looked like they’d be a bit more on topic required me to subscribe and most articles were going to cost money to view (they charge you if a post is more than 7 days old) so frankly I couldn’t be bothered.

For the past few weeks iv been watching bits and pieces from the TED talks (http://www.ted.com/index.php/) which is where the Ken Robinson Talk we saw a little while ago came from (here it is for anyone that might want to see it http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66).

When I first found this website and the Ken Robinson talk for our week 20 task of last year the website wasn’t nearly as well structured. They have now revamped it and it’s much easier to find things of interest so I highly recommend just browsing through the videos for something of interest (I think there are somewhere near 200 videos so there should be something for everyone and they seem to update it with new ones relatively often).

What is my definition of creativity?.....

I don’t know…to put it simply. My definition is constantly changing as I read other peoples definitions and look at things that are considered creative. At the moment it might be something along the lines of “An individual’s ability to achieve, attain or create something original from anything or nothing”.

Damn it I need to learn how to produce a decent blog (among other things).

Sorry its so late Mr P. I wrote this a while ago and forgot to post it.

Week 24 Task

2007-04-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the course so far and although there have been things I haven’t enjoyed, on the whole think I definitely chose the right course.

The things I’ve enjoyed the most have been the modelling and character design and I’m actually beginning to enjoy 3-D modelling with max despite a fairly rough start learning and getting used to the 3DS Max software. I think the only thing I have to add to the things for next year that haven’t already been mentioned is some form teaching on how to use Photoshop to digitally enhance 2-D work and textures for 3-D models. I’m not sure about everyone else but I’m still very shaky when it comes to producing texture and as far as enhancing 2-D work I barely know where to begin.

I can’t think of anything else that hasn’t already been suggested so I think I’ll finish there.

Week 22 Task

2007-04-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

This particular blog as well as my last two are more than a bit late but this one is supposed to be about the GDC and what particular bits interest me before it occurs (or at least that’s how I interpreted the task) and since the GDC has been and gone all the information on the lead up to it has been mixed together with the results of what actually happened there so I'm going to add some on what happened as well because 1) I want to 2) I want to make sure I’ve cover the task if I misinterpreted what we needed to do.

In general the serious games talks look quite interesting. We had a lecture on serious games or something similar a while ago and I really didn’t think much of but I spotted a session titled “Labyrinth: Keeping the Play in Learning Games”.

“LABYRINTH is currently being developed collaboratively by MIT’s Education Arcade, Fablevision, Maryland Public Television (MPT) and Johns Hopkins University. LABYRINTH is a multi-player puzzle adventure game, promoting math and literacy skills, and targeting middle-school students. The game will explore new approaches to storytelling, player collaboration, and pedagogy. Delivered both online and on handheld devices, it will also represent a new distribution model. Unlike many learning games that attempt to recycle classroom activities in interactive form, Labyrinth seeks to engage students in authentic play, and to help them build intellectual scaffolding that will benefit their formal academic learning.”

My preferred type of game is one I can play with friends and a multiplayer serious game is an idea that’s never actually occurred to me before. The setting of a labyrinth also interests me because of the potential variety of gameplay that could be included.

When I was at school although there were educational games I found only a few of them that were actually educational and fun. I think this game idea has great potential and I’d like to find out more about it.

I’ve now spent a good amount of time looking through a load of websites and so far all the extra info I’ve been able to gather on “Labyrinth” is that it’s played online. So I'm going to talk about something else from the GDC instead, the Maverick award winner Greg Costikyan.

Greg Costikyan founded Manifesto Games in late 2005 with Johnny Wilson. Manifesto games, an online PC game retailer founded to enable small developers to publish and distribute their own independent and experimental games. Costikyan envisions a world where game design is a recognised art form in a similar way to film and novels have been and that vision is not going to come true if the games industry continues as it is.

The GDC Awards. Some of the videos don’t completely work and there do seem to be bits missing. Greg Costikyan is in the Maverick chapter.

http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/video/2007/

These are volumes one and two of “Death To The Games Industry”, an article Costikyan wrote in Escapist Magazine outlining some of his thoughts on the industry and how it needs to change.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/8/3

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/9/4

Week 21 Task

2007-04-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

To be completely honest I hardly did any reflection on any of my work before I started at uni. Even my main art projects received very little reflection and what generally happened was I’d come up with an idea that I really liked but then I was told I need to do more development work and come up with more possible ideas. In the end I would always end up reverting back to the original idea because the others just didn’t seem nearly as good and were sometimes just there to fill pages in my sketch book.

Since I’ve come to uni I have begun reflecting and improving my work and the result is that what I do reflect on does seem to be improving. However I do have trouble when it comes to reflecting on work that I wasn’t that enthusiastic about to begin with as my lack of interest leaves me impatient and I end up not spending as much time as I should on certain aspects of the work.

I’m steadily getting used to reflecting on my work and the class critiques do seem to be helping as well. I’m hoping to get my reflection and critiquing skills up to a suitable standard by the time I finish the course and lets face it if I don’t I probably won’t manage to finish the course or at least not with the grade I would like

Week 20 Task

2007-04-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

What is creativity?

It is new, old, simple, complex, strange, bizarre, normal, big, small, genius, obvious……creativity is everything.

Creativity is essential for progress in any thing you can think of and can manifest itself in a solution to a problem, a random idea or anything that would get someone thinking.

Creativity can be both helped and hindered by technical constraints. If the constraints are introduced mid way through the creative process the thought gone into the idea up to that point may need to be altered to fit the constraints in the event that the idea doesn’t already fit to them. This can result in the idea becoming completely unreasonable. On the other hand the addition of constraints both before and during the creative process can cause an even more creative idea to occur.

Everyone is capable of being creative but it’s easier for those who have nurtured their creativity to come up with creative ideas on a regular basis rather than just every now and again when the right inspiration happens to pop up at the right time.

“Creativity without craft is like fuel without an engine - it burns wildly but accomplishes little...”

I believe this statement to be one hundred percent correct. Being creative without being able to express that creativity will only result in frustration.

There is a video of an excellent speech on creativity and how it needs to be focused on more in education here (http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=ken_robinson&flashEnabled=1)

In games creativity can manifest in any aspect of the game be it programming, art or gameplay related. It could be something so small that you barely notice it unless you know what to look for or it could be so big that the game is marketed on the idea itself.

Everyone working on the game can “do” creativity if given the opportunity although I suspect that the higher up the chain of command you are the more opportunity you have to be creative.

Creativity can look like anything and doesn’t even have to be visible although in that case its effects will be. In games it could be a new way of making something look or behave, it could be a something completely original that’s never been seen before or it could be a new way to interact with the game or something in the game.

In my opinion high levels of creativity can be found in games like the Final Fantasies, Doom, Halo, Black and White and practically any best selling game franchise although not just limited to them.

The bottom line is that creativity is a big part of games design and production. Without it all the games being produced would all be mediocre and similar and the games industry would grind to a halt or at least slow to a crawl as opposed to its current behaviour which is to advance with leaps and bounds.

Week 19 Task

2007-02-14T16:26:00.000-08:00

“Some game companies want highly trained graduate artists and programmers. Some claim they really prefer creative individuals with a good Liberal Arts background. They can’t both be right can they?

How can education meet these opposing views and yet provide a valid and fulfilling experience to students?”

I’ve never really thought of creativity as something that can be taught in the first place. You can teach people how to tap into their creativity but at the end of the day if you’re not creative you’re not creative. If that is the case then an educational course would simply need to include a number of exercises that teach the student to keep an open mind and look at things from as many different perspectives as possible. Basically anything that will change a persons interpretations from “it’s a tree” to “it’s a tree, a climbing frame, a lookout, a hiding place, looks like it has a face, shaped like an out stretched hand ,etc.”. If those exercises are added to a course that teaches how to use a decent sized variety of materials and techniques or develop whatever skills are necessary for a good programmer and improve the skill of the student to a point where they are producing industry standard work then the course should succeed in producing graduates that are what the employers are looking for (assuming they admit capable and willing students on to the course).

As far as which is right well trained or good creative minds who are capable of producing good work I’m not entirely sure there is an argument. Of all the advertisements I’ve looked at they all seem to say either “we want skilled applicants” or “we want skilled applicants who can come up with good creative ideas”. I’m yet to see anything saying “we want applicants who have gone to university and got X grade or higher”. All the employers seem to be looking for is skill in a relevant area and not level of training with creativity seeming to only be necessary for the slightly more advanced jobs. As long as you can produce work that is of the calibre the employer desires, work as part of a team, be able to communicate well, keep to work deadlines and at least have some idea of what your doing they don’t seem to care much about how you came to possess those skills. There probably are exceptions or I may have just been looking at the wrong websites but that’s my interpretation of what employers are looking for judging from job advertisements.

Week 18 Task

2007-02-06T18:04:00.001-08:00

Sound and music ranges from being there for the sake of not leaving silence in some games to being essential to the whole gameing experience in the best games. When used to its full potential the music and sound can give feelings of suspense, excitement, urgency, calmness and pretty much set an appropriate mood for whatever the situation happens to be at the time.

As far as game music is concerned some of my favourite music comes from most Final Fantasy games (Particularly 7 and its movie. The boss battle theme and the Jenova fight theme being my favourites and in my opinion the best boss music I’ve ever heard. (Nobuo Uematsu)), Beyond Good And Evil (Christophe Heral) and Zone Of The Enders: Fist Of Mars (can’t find anywhere that says who did the sound and I don’t have a save anywhere near the credits on the game).

“Is it true that the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards composition 'Good Times' is the most influential recording made in the 20th Century?”

Never heard of them and I had to go on yahoo music to find out if I knew the song. I do know the song and I think it’s fairly famous but I’m not so sure about it being influential.

Week 18 Task

2007-02-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

“Is it true that the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards composition 'Good Times' is the most influential recording made in the 20th Century?”

Never heard of them and I had to go on yahoo music to find out if I knew the song. I do know the song and I think it’s fairly famous but I’m not so sure about it being influential.

SNOW!!!!!!!!

2007-02-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

Its been two years since I last saw snow, three since I last saw snow that actually settled and four or five years since I saw enough snow to actually do something fun with. So when I noticed everything outside was white at around 12:30am on Wednesday 24th of January (I wanted to post this with pictures and I'v only just found the cable to enable me to do so) I was somewhat excited. I then proceded to alert everyone I knew was still awake and text a few people I thought might be interested (the plan being to alert them to the snow but not wake them up if they were asleep) and then head on out into the snow.

We (myself and two of my flat mates) weren't the first people to notice the snow and had to leave my flat in a relatively coutious way in order to avoid getting hit with a number of snowballs. Soon after we were all armed with snowballs and awaiting some friends who were on their way out of their flats. A merry time was had by all as we dodged and ducked low flying snowballs comming from every direction.

girlfriends showed up. Fortunately the girlfriends deceided to join us after awhile but they soonBefore we knew it we wer getting pelted from the other end of the car park we were in by a load of guys from another flat and a war began. We were outnumbered five to seven and then their decided they didn't need us and we found ourselves surrounded. The snow had been starting to get slightly slushy and we were rappidly running out of ammunition when the night staff of our halls of residence came and ordered us out of the car park before any damage was caused to the cars.

I found myself alone as my flat mates and friends headed in to get warm but I wasn't as willing to give up on the snow so soon. I leaft the confines of the car park to find a new patch of snow to begin construction of a snow man. Unfortunately the balls of snow I was slowly building up did contain a reasonable amount of grit, mud and pebbles but beggers can't be choosers. I used some stones and what I think was part of a wing mirror to give him some features (I forgot to give him a mouth!) and a couple of very thin sticks for arms.

I had only just finished him when a group of guys showed up looking to smash him to pieces but I convinced them to leave him be until I had some photoes of him, they even offered to take a photo of me with him (they gave me a rather expensive looking phone to hold while the photo was taken so they couldn't run off with my rather cheap looking camera).

When I woke up the next day practicly all the snow had vanished and there was a van parked where my snowman used to be. All in all it was good night despite the fact I ended up getting to bed around 5am when I needed to get up at 9am for an art lesson/assesment.

Week 16 Task

2007-01-29T17:05:00.000-08:00

Games culture is as varied as any other kind of media. I personally am a member of several types of game culture including basically any kind of multiplayer gaming culture with my favourite type of games being cooperative ones. Before I came to uni I played Final Fantasy XI (a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG)) on a more than regular basis. It was the closest thing I had to a social life as my home is a village on the boarder of Wiltshire and Oxfordshire with closest town being Swindon and my nearest friend being a decent drive away. If I wasn’t doing work or helping out around the house (or even on the odd occasion spending time with a friend/friends) I was playing FFXI. I made a good number of friends online who I’ve never met, most of which live in America and many I was introduced to by some of my real life friends who live in various places around England (most of which live several hours away by whatever form of transport you use).

What little social life I had that didn’t consist of FFXI involved me going over a friend’s house for a day or so or vice versa. The occasional small LAN party also occurred on the rare occasions when I could get more than one friend with a computer in the same place at once and would involve long FPS(first person shooter) or RTS(real time strategy) games. Failing having enough computers wed play Xbox and Gamecube games till the sun came up or enough people felt the need to pass out.

Since I’ve come to uni I’ve hardly played FFXI, partly because I somehow never seem to have time and partly because I’ve discovered what a real social life is like and I simply prioritise spending time with real people rather than their virtual avatars. I still keep in touch with friends from FFXI by means of MSN messenger while I’m doing work or something but these days I do most of my gaming where I can see the other players.

Week 15 Task

2007-01-17T12:06:00.000-08:00

The games industry continues to grow as it has done since the industry started and will most likely keep growing for a long time to come although the speed at which it continues to grow will most likely vary. The increasing game production costs are making it more and more necessary for companies to out source certain aspects of their games. I think this increasing cost will eventually either slow the growth of the industry or hinder the advancement of computer games in general.

One of the biggest challenges the games industry seems to have at the moment is originality in the kinds of games that are produced. This is due primarily to the fact that the vast numbers of titles that have been out on the market have covered a hell of a lot of things. Some time last term I remember having a conversation with someone about how tough it is to come up with an original game idea now, the person in question then responded with a wacky game idea involving the world being taken over by mutant vegetables. It was then that I informed him he almost exactly described the game “Tonic Trouble”.

An opportunity to make more original titles has come about thanks to the introduction of movement sensitive controllers but ultimately it will only really alter the way in which games are played rather than generate truly original titles. Developers also seem to be afraid of trying to create original game ideas and opt more for tried and tested ideas that will guarantee at least a small profit rather than take a risk on something new.

Employees in the game industry need to be prepared to work long hours and even longer hours as the product deadline gets closer and closer to the point where the entire team is working sixteen hour days. This has lead to a number of disputes between employees and the company they work for but that’s how things work at the moment and will most likely continue to work.

Week 11 Task

2006-12-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

“Gameplay”. Not one of the default words in the Microsoft spelling checker and yet one of the most widely used terms in computer games. Gameplay is the term used to describe the way in which a person interacts with a game. Without gameplay computer games would just be set stories with no interactivity or would not be very much at all as the lack of gameplay would mean tat the game could not progress thereby causing the game to get stuck.

In my opinion gameplay is the single most important aspect of a game as without gameplay it isn’t a computer game. Admittedly almost any game that is purely gameplay will be simple or boring which is part of why storyline and graphics have become such a big part of modern computer games. However defining gameplay is somewhat difficult due to the shear amount of variety in how games can be played. The only definable rule for gameplay that I can think of is that it requires some kind of input from the player, aside from that the gameplay can be as varied as computer games and peripherals can.

These days it’s becoming harder and harder to think of original gameplay styles using the traditional input devices so new peripherals such as the Eye Toy and motion sensitive controllers are being developed. These enable the gameplay to be new and different in games that would otherwise have almost identical gameplay to most other games in their relevant genre.

Week 10 Task

2006-12-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Damn it this is a tough task!

“Think of the characters you’ve encountered in books, TV and in films. What are your feelings towards them?”

I’m not sure I’ve ever really given it much thought. It’s certainly difficult to describe my feelings towards “them” as there are a potentially infinite number of different and varied characters to talk about.

I personally like characters who are quirky and somewhat unique (Edward from the Cowboy Bebop series for example) or just plain cool in my opinion (I really like Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7. You can’t go wrong with stupidly large swords.)

The script, acting and appearance that go into producing a character are all very important in creating a believable and likeable (hateable or whatever the desired response) character with the emphasis shifting from each depending on the media (for example appearance isn’t quite as important if your reading a book because the image of the character is generally generated from a brief description of the character when they are introduced into the story and as such is mostly up to the readers imagination).

I find any adventure story with a good hero/heroes and villain/villains to be my favourite kinds of stories. Ideally with a bit of a back story for each of the main characters and some kind of romantic sub plot if applicable (there’s nothing like the need to save a loved one to help spur on a hero). There are exceptions however, I wouldn’t exactly call “Shawshank Redemption” or “Patch Adams” adventure stories but they are two of my favourite films. I think a large reason for why I like them is because they provoked a certain emotional response in me when I see them (I shed a couple of tears in each when I first saw them and I cant help but smile at certain points in the films where something I think is really nice happens). That’s also part of why my two favourite anime series (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Cowboy Bebop) are my favourite anime series, because there are episodes in each that provoke emotional responses (I’m not saying anything about which episodes because I don’t want to spoil them for anyone that might read this blog but haven’t seen them yet). In conclusion I think basically any story that can make me cry (or smile when what’s currently happening isn’t funny) is a good story as is any story that keeps me reading/watching/listening just to find out what happens to a particular character or an action film that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

A list of favourite stories:

Film

Patch Adams

Shawshank Redemption

Bandits

Die Hard Series (particularly Die Hard 3)

Cowboy Bebop the Movie

Aliens Series

Anime/Manga

Cowboy Bebop

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Big O

Shaman King

Bleach

Trigun

Naruto

Outlaw Star

Zone of the Enders (entire story including the games)

Full Metal Alchemist

Books

(I don’t really read many books these days.)

The Hobbit

Lord of the Rings

Games

Final Fantasy Series (particularly FF7)

(I haven’t played anywhere near all of them but most have a good story and the only one iv played that didn’t was a very old game on the Gameboy called something slightly different like Final Fantasy Legends)

Zone of the Enders (as stated above)

Metal Gear Solid Series

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! I know there are more but I can’t think of them right now!)

A list of my favourite fictional characters:

(This is significantly shortened to my two favourite heroes and villains due to the sheer length a full list would be.)

Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop)

Yoh Asakura (Shaman King)

Hao (Zeek) (Shaman King)

Venom (Spider Man Marvel Comics)

Week 9 Task

2006-11-29T17:37:00.000-08:00

The most comfortable controllers I’ve used are probably the Mega Drive controller and the Gamecube controller. The Mega Drive controller was comfortable and simple so it was easy to learn (possibly the only reason my Dad ever played it).

The Gamecube controller I find to be the most comfortable of all the current generation consoles with the revised Xbox controller coming second, PS2 third and original Xbox controller dead last. As far as I’m concerned there is one problem with the controller which is the curvature at the back ends too soon so my finger tips cant quite fit comfortably if I want to use the middle of my fingers on the shoulder buttons rather than my finger tips. However this is an issue that won’t affect a lot of people as I have quite large hands. Aside from this small issue I find all the controls to be in comfortable, reachable places and the shape of the controller fits my hands almost perfectly.

As far as the actual look of consoles goes I like the look of a Black Gamecube best with the Dreamcast and PSone a close 2^nd and 3^rd however I think that the Nintendo Wii looks better than any other TV games console I’ve seen to date. I think the look of every handheld console has been excellent ever since the birth of the Gameboy Color, particularly the GBA SP.

The future of console control looks set to change with the next-gen consoles, all are wireless removing the awkwardness presented by having cables all over the floor. The Wii and PS3 controllers have a type of motion sensitive control allowing for new ways to actually play games. If the new style catches on I can see game play becoming less and less based around just control sticks, d-pads and buttons however I doubt they will go unused for a good while yet (at least until were at the point where we practically live the games anyway).

Week 8 Task And Late Night Conversation

2006-11-22T19:13:00.000-08:00

How a story line affects the game is partly down to the players tastes but in my opinion if the game is capable of having a good storyline (Lets face it what the hell could the story behind Tetris be? “Oh no! The Russian Tsar’s palace has collapsed! Quickly build as much of it as you can before the Tsar gets back!”) then a good storyline will significantly improve the game.

Does the story happen to you or do you make the story happen? A damn difficult question to answer in my opinion because yes you make the story happen by playing the game but the story is still happening to you and it can’t be avoided unless you stop playing the game. Is this a the chicken or the egg situation? Maybe its down to your philosophy on life (is it even a philosophy or is it something else that I can’t think of a name for). Some people believe all events are predetermined therefore the story is happening to you. On the other hand some people believe that events are affected by your actions therefore your making the story happen. I personally haven’t made up my mind as to which philosophy to adopt and probably never will but I think stories in games happen to you. Nothing can happen that hasn’t been included in the game by the production team therefore how can you make the story happen when there is nothing that can happen that some programmer hasn’t already prepared to happen.

After writing the above I started thinking about Tetris and Burnout and other similar games with little or no story and got myself a bit confused so I decided to have a chat with fellow class mate Megan on MSN messenger (I apologise for the spelling but it was 2:00 am ish and I got up early today):

Alex says:

now what will you fill your head with?

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

squiggles

Alex says:

lol

Alex says:

this does a story happen to you or do you make the story thing is awkward

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

i put

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

the story is alredy writtan, and cant be changed

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

but the player needs to live the story to make it

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

happen

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

the story is worthless without the player really

Alex says:

true. im having more trouble when i think about things like tetris and burnout

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

i think every game has a story line

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

it may be really basic, but its still there

Alex says:

basically those games have little or no story and in the absense of the story you make your own based on on your choice of block position or how well you do in a race

Alex says:

therefor the story must be made by the player but if thats the case then it must happen in any game where you have any level of choise in what you do

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

hmmmmm

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

good point

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

but there are limitations to a game, so the decisions are allways met by boundries

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

in that sense you cant just do whatever u want, its still guided by the game

Alex says:

but that doesnt change the fact that it is virtually impossible to completely recreate another players actions so every time you play you get a new story. its just the only difference between some storys is the player stpped right in one story and left in the other or something similar

Alex says:

only very basic games can be completely replayed in the exact same way and those games cant have any level of randomly occuring event

Alex says:

even then the player would still be getting a slightly different story unless everything was done at the same speed as the other player that played the stroy before

ACTION BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:

you make good...yet complex points

Alex says:

i know. im not even entirely sure what i said for half the time lol

Alex says:

MORE SUGAR!!!

Do all games have a story? No but it seems to me that each time you play a game a new story is generated but its not so much the game’s story as it is your story of how you played the game and are each unique if sometimes only in a small way.

I hope that satisfies this week’s task because I’m going to pass out now.

Week 7 Task

2006-11-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

What does an Art Director do?

An art director coordinates the efforts of all the game artists and cooperates with the animation director and chief programmer to produce a game to the specifications of the project director.

Who are they responsible to?

The project director, the owner of the company and anyone else with higher authority than the art director.

Do you think it’s a creative role?

Yes although the project guidelines will determine how creative. If there is a very strict specification to stick to the creativity will be significantly reduced as all the major creative decisions would have already been made by the project director and anyone else who had a hand in writing the specification. On the other hand if the specification is quite vague the art director has an opportunity to basically design his/her own game.

How is art direction in Games similar to or different from Film, for example?

When I first read this question I thought I’d be able to list a number of differences but no that I’v actually got round to answering it I realise that the two different types of media direction are pretty damn similar. Every time I think of a way they are different I think of a reason why that difference is invalid.

What qualities do you think you’d need to develop if you want to become an Art Director in the future?

Leadership skills, art skills (story boarding and concept art in particular to help describe the art directors ideas), multitasking, communication skills, computer skills (3D modelling, understanding of programming and programming limitations) and time management. There are probably other things aswell but I cant think what they are at the moment.

Week 6 Task

2006-11-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

What is meant by Gameplay?

Gameplay is a term used to describe the interaction between an individual and a game.

Who are the leading lights in Game Design?

I’d say the business analysts are probably the most responsible for whether or not a game is made rather than the people who actually work on the game as if the business analysts don’t think there’s a market for the game (whether there is or not) then the game wont get made.

Where does Game Design take place in the modern Developer?

In the “GWP” (“game waterfall process” http://www.gamedev.net/columns/gameengineering/gup/ ) the actual game design process seems to start at step three with the exception of the original conception of the game idea. I don’t know of any other kind of process that is in use by game developers but this process seems to fit what I already knew about the game development process.

Is it a single person's responsibility?

Depends on the complexity of the game. In early computer games it was possible for one person to make an entire game let alone handle every bit of design work but as games get more advanced a need for more man power is required (not that its impossible for one person to make an up to date advanced game it would just take a very very very very very long time). These days game design is split into different categories such as character design and level design with a number of different people working on each category. The only way it can possibly be narrowed down to being one person’s responsibility is if you pin the responsibility on the person in charge of orchestrating everyone working on the game design team.

Do different genres require different design principles?

The generally shouldn’t but I’d expect there are exceptions (though I can’t think of any at the moment).

What's important for you, when you play?

Depends on the type of game. Puzzle games for example just need to look okay and play well, FPS on the other hand also need some kind of story line and a good variation on how I can go about my business in the game (multiple weapon choices, different ways of achieving objectives etc). In general the game needs to play well, look good and have a good story where possible. Most important is it has to be fun and if it can be played cooperatively or have some kind of multiplayer then that’s a huge bonus as is general replayability and game life.

Week 5 Task

2006-11-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

I apologize for this week’s task. I had real trouble writing it.

What issues face reviewers?

At present gaming magazines are in something of a slump so reviewers writing for magazines may have to deal with job cutback issues but reviewers in general have to deal with issues involving the rising cost of games and how worth the money they are. Should a reviewer give a game high praise and then people who buy the game find it to be less than what they were expecting and there by not worth the money then the magazine or website that the reviewer works for may lose valuable readers as they no longer trust the reviews.

Who pays reviewers?

Magazine companies in the case of magazines and probably advertising popup agencies in the case of internet reviewers.

Is an objective ranking system for games necessary for sales, is it even feasible?

I wouldn’t say an objective ranking system is necessary but it can help/hinder how well a game sells. For example if I read a review in which a game scored 50% or less (or less than half in any ranking system you can think of) it would have to have something unique or something relevant to my taste in games for me to even consider buying it. On the other hand if a game that normally wouldn’t present much appeal to me scored something like 95% or 10/10 I may eventually buy that game because according to someone who rates games for a living that game is well worth the money.

What are your feelings about the NGJ?

When I first looked at a NGJ I was somewhat confused because the author seemed to be presenting a report of some kind of surreal dream. It went on to reveal that all these weird things had happened in an internet game. I think NGJs are interesting combinations of story telling, creative writing and actual reviewing

What are the particular qualities of NGJ?

It is not worded like a typical review, more like someone talking to a friend about there experience with the game or maybe a detailed diary entry. In some it even seems like a kind of formal report documenting everything that happened…..in fact they seem a lot like blogs (and a lot of them are).

What other forms of games writing can you find?

Nothing really. I’ve found reviews, NGJs and that’s pretty much it. I’m sure there are others (Would this question be suggested if there weren’t?) and maybe I’ve even seen some and just not recognised the differences but there’s no other forms of games writing I can put a name to short of discussion boards and maybe at a stretch some web comics.

How do you feel about your own writing, do you value objectivity or subjectivity?

I think I try to write objectively and fail rather badly.

Personal Gaming History

2006-10-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

My first memories of computer games were those of watching the son of some friends of the family playing Duck Hunt, Street Fighter and a game like (if it wasn’t) Cannon Fodder.

The first games I actually played were school ones that I played on the school computers in years one and two. I can’t really remember the names of any of the games (aside from Pod in which you told what looked like a tomato with a face what to do and if it was a valid command it would perform a relevant action) but I remember in my favorite game you went round a platformed dungeon as a wizard and could turn into a rabbit or a monkey.

When my parents got divorced and my Dad moved away (I was six at the time) he bought a Sega Mega Drive with Sonic 2 and Lemmings. As time went on he bought a number of other games including Cool Spot, James Pond 3 (my favorite Mega Drive game), James Pond: Aquatic Games, Corporation (horrible game), Cool Spot Goes to Hollywood and Mega Bomberman.

I moved house when I turned seven (two days after my birthday so that I could have a party when I actually had friends to invite) and made friends with my next door neighbor who had the largest collection of games I’ve ever seen (or at least he did last I saw him) and I would regularly go over and play computer games with him.

I was eight when my Mum remarried and I was presented with my first console, a Nintendo Gameboy with Kirby’s Dreamland. In 1995 we got a brand new PC on which my first game was Oddballz (brought to you by the makers of the Catz and Dogz series) in which you played with a pet……..critter. Not long after (can’t remember exactly but I don’t think I was any older than nine) I bought a Sega Master System with a number of games from my next-door neighbor.

When I was eleven I managed to get my hands on copies of Pokemon Red and Blue (bought a year before they were due for release over here from Game which had a single copy of each) which definitely rank quite highly in my favorite games of all time.

After about a year of playing other peoples I bought a N64 off my Dad’s friend and fell in love with Mario 64, Mario Kart and Golden Eye, later on I would also fall in love with Perfect Dark and Super Smash Bros.. Not long after getting my N64 my step brother gave me and my sister his SNES with Rock And Roll Racing, Super Mario All-stars and some football game that I never played, I also managed to buy Kirby’s Fun Pack.

After going to a friend’s leaving party (he was moving back to Hungary) and trying out Soul Caliber on his Dreamcast I decided to buy myself one (I really don’t understand why they did so badly) and my favorite games for it were Phantasy Star Online, Soul Caliber and Head Hunter.

I got a Gameboy Advance for my fourteenth birthday on which my favorite game was Zone Of The Enders: Fist Of Mars, a fairly easy game with an excellent storyline and some nice mech (Orbital Frame) ideas (picture below is of Testament which was the Orbital frame that belonged to the main character).

I bought a Gamecube shortly after it was released and I adored Super Smash Bros. which was one of the first games I got for it (as well as Burnout and Rogue Leader).

Two or three years later I bought an Xbox (I wanted a DVD player and I thought I may as well pay and extra £30-40 and get a DVD player that can play games) which I use primarily for DVD purposes but I have developed a small collection of Xbox games including the always popular Halo and Halo 2.

These days the game I play the most is Final Fantasy XI in which I play as Dragoon and dislike play most other jobs now due to me missing my little pet dragon (also shown below).

I have way too many computer games, 5 SNES games, 12 or so for the Master System, around 16 for the Mega Drive, 20ish for the Dreamcast, 30 odd for the N64, about 40 spread across various levels of Gameboy, at least 26 for the Xbox and over 60 for the Gamecube (I have no idea how many PC games I have) and also at one point I had a Playstation and about 9 games. I think that just about covers my gaming history, feel free to correct me if I got a year wrong or something.

Week 4 Task

2006-10-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the length of this post but I found this a lot easier to write about than previous topics and intended to do as much as I could (1,324 words). I also apologize for the severe case of Wall’o’text syndrome it seems to have contracted. I’m really bad with paragraphing. Oh and I apologize for the positioning of the images, I couldn’t get them in the right place for some reason.

At the start of the new millennium a new round in the consol wars began with the launches of the Playstation 2 (PS2), Xbox and Gamecube (GC). Each console brought something new to the table. PS2 and Xbox could play DVDs in addition to CDs (there was a 3^rd party version of the GC that could play DVDs and CDs but it was only on sale in Japan and cost two or three times the normal version), Xbox had a built in hard drive (PS2 can also have a hard drive but must be bought separately) and GC had the ability to link with the Game Boy Advance (GBA) which allowed for some interesting game play ideas in some games. The GC was also the first console (as far as I'm aware) to have the option of a wireless controller and the PS2 with the exception of the various Game Boy incarnations was the first console to be backwards compatible with previous consoles in its series. An interesting idea used on the GC was the format on which it released its games. It used CDs although not as big as the CDs that are used by most entertainment devices (any one whose never seen a GC disc open a PC disc drive and look at the smaller indentation in the tray and you’ll have a good idea how big they are) but in addition to this the GC spun its discs the opposite way to every other device with a CD drive up until that point. These two alterations to the traditional CD, DVD format severely hindered any attempts at piracy and to this day I’m yet to hear of any pirate GC games or emulators (although that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t exist). Although not really used in the case of the GC all three consoles in this generation have had the ability to connect to the internet and play games with people from all over the world.

Various other innovations have also popped up including the Eye-Toy for the PS2 that uses the players movements (namely the position of the arms and head) to play games specifically designed for use with the Eye-Toy. Microphones, headsets and other more specialized peripherals are also among these innovations.

An event worthy of note is Sony’s choice to enter the handheld market with the PSP (Playstation Portable), a market that has previously been dominated bye Nintendo with its series of Game Boys. At near enough the same time Nintendo released their new handheld the Nintendo DS (Duel Screen) which has two screens one of which is touch sensitive. The DS introduced a new way to play handheld games and has stood up well to its competition which has better graphics and the ability to play films.

Sony has won this round of the console war but neither Nintendo nor Microsoft show signs of giving up. Microsoft is the first of the three companies to get its next generation console (Xbox 360) on sale with Nintendo aiming to be next getting their console (Wii) on sale everywhere in time for Christmas and then Sony is releasing the PS3 this November in Japan and the U.S. but it wont be released till March 2007 for Europe and Australasia.

As with the virtually last generation consoles we will see (and are seeing in the case of the Xbox 360) an increase in the cost of games due to the increasing cost of producing them. This is most likely going to hinder the advancement of computer games if not in the generation after this new one then probably the one after that unless something is done to significantly reduce the cost of making computer games. Thus far if noticed one possible solution to this issue that being what Nintendo are doing with the Wii. The Wii is going to have a Wi-Fi connection (that will stay on as long as the Wii is turned on to allow for game updates, messages, presents and anything else u can think of) that allows for free access to the Nintendo network and allow the owner to download selected games and updates. The games available for download will mostly be retro games from Nintendo’s, Sega’s and some other companies old consoles and will cost a fraction of the price of games sold in the shops. In addition to retro games there will also be new games produced by companies that can’t afford to make games worthy of the £40-50 price tag that will most likely be attached to most games produced for the next generation consoles. This method could be used to sell more major games in the future but the bigger the game the more impractical this method would become and even so this will only cut the cost of producing the discs and packaging and not the game itself which is the bigger issue and the biggest pressure the gaming industry is under.

The next generation consoles are going to be significantly more advanced than the last each console being more advanced in different ways. All the consoles will boast improved graphics with the PS3 and 360 focusing on this aspect, the Nintendo however have aimed more at improving the game play. Many people have put off of playing modern computer games due to the steadily increasing number of buttons and complexity of game play, this is something Nintendo have tried to remedy. The new controller for the Wii resembles a TV remote and has only four buttons (I believe they only perform two different functions and the reason for there being four of them is because for different games you need to hold the controller in different ways) and a D-pad to use when playing games. The other buttons are a power button, controller volume controls (I think they’re volume buttons but I can’t make out what it says on the controller in the pictures I’ve seen. At any rate I’ll get back to that) and a home button. The controller itself is motion sensitive and depending on how you move it depends on what happens in the game, it is also a kind of light gun and can be used as such or as a pointer depending on the game. The controller has a built in speaker (that’s what the volume buttons are for if they are volume buttons) to help make the gaming experience that little bit more immersive. For example in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess if you firing you bow the “Twang” of the bow would be heard through the controller while the sound of the arrow would be heard on the TV. The controller also has ports built into it that allow you to connect different attachments like the “nunchuck” attachment which adds two more buttons and an analogue stick and is also movement sensitive. The Wii itself has slots for four Gamecube controllers (or the alternative Wii controller that’s designed for use with non Wii games) and two memory cards, is backwards compatible with GC games and has a constant Wi-Fi connection as long as the Wii has power (as I mentioned earlier). The Wii does not turn off but rather gets placed on standby (designed to use minimal power and make no noise or produce light) so that if a new update or something is issued the Wii will be able to receive it. All in all I’d say the Wii fits its codename (Revolution) as it is fairly revolutionary.

Week 3 Task

2006-10-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

I really hadn’t intended for this to get so delayed (started it Wednesday last week) but things just kept popping up and I kept getting distracted (damn ninja and pirate party) but in the end its entirely my fault its this late. Anyway heres my attempt at the task.

The 1980’s saw the “Golden Age” of arcade machines, the birth of the home console and the introduction of new game genres.

The golden age of arcade machines started just before the 80’s and had two games that played a major role in the era becoming known as the golden age, those games wer Space Invaders and Pac-Man. Space Invaders had been released in 1978 and caused a coin shortage in Japan due to people spending every available coin on the game. In 1980 the exact same thing occurred when Pac-Man was released (originally Puckman but the name was changed to prevent vandles replacing the “P” with an “F”) and the success of the game combined with the sales of Pac-Man merchandise resulted in Pac-Man being the most successful arcade game ever made.

In 1981 a game called “Space Panic” was made and is the first platform game to be made. The adventure genre was renamed as interactive fiction in the early 80s to better suit the way adventure games of the time played (a lot like a book except the actions are dictated by the player rather than being fixed). “Defender” was the progenitor of the scrolling shooter genre in 1980 and various other innovations wer also developed such as the “rear-veiw racer format” (Pole Position), the first true 3D game world (Battlezone) and the first laserdisc game (Dragon’s Lair).

Previously it had been possible to play computer games at home but only on computers. In the 80s the first games consoles appeared allowing people to play games on their TV with controllers designed for playing the games rather than a keyboard.

In conclusion the 80s saw computer games move forward in leaps and bounds setting the floor for further innovation and development that continues to this day and will continue for as long as people keep playing computer and video games.

AHOY THERE MATY!!

2006-10-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

I finally found my camera's USB cable and wanted to post something I saw last week when I was out drawing the canal for the self directed study. Personally I'd opt for a slightly sturdier boat with all those swans around (28 or so).

Week 2 Task

2006-10-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

Despite some argument it seems to me that Willy Higinbotham was the first person to think of using a computer for playing games. There was a guy who made a computer version of noughts and crosses in 1952 before Higinbotham made his game but there doesn’t seem to be much information on him anyway. There was also missile game made in 1947 but it didn’t involve a computer and so was not classed as a computer game.

In 1958 Higinbotham was head of the Brookhaven Nation Laboratory's Instrumentation Division which was a nuclear research facility in New York that was sponsored by the government. In an attempt to demonstrate how safe the facility was (nuclear radiation being very scary at the time) Higinbotham decided to go on tours but he didn’t want to bore people to death with diagrams and talks and so decided to do something slightly different. After three or so weeks with some help from Rovert Dvorak “Tennis for Two” was invented (not quite the same as pong but nearly).

I think this would have been a significant event in gaming history had Higinbotham patented it and tried to sell it but he didn’t and so it wasn’t even widely known about until much later. David Ahl who had played the game as a child brought the game to the attention of the general public in 1983 in order to give Higinbotham the recognition he deserved.

Week 1 Task

2006-10-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

For this task I chose http://ohdearmybrainisleaking.blogspot.com/ after reading a bit of each of the suggested blogs.

Who's writing, and how do you perceive them to be?

The writer is John. A (doesn’t say his full surname). He seems to be a student in the 2^nd or 3^rd year of study (I think probably 2^nd due to a comment he makes about 3^rd years) at De’Montfort University on the Game Art course.

Does blogging strike you as objective or more personal?

From what I've read it seems to be able to be both and which it is depends on the writer and what they’re writing about.

How often do they write, what do they write about?

He writes relatively often (up until the summer holidays where he stopped writing as much due to a lack of weekly blogging task) primarily because he needs to do the weekly blogging task however he does make a number of un-course related posts.

Most of what he writes about is the weekly blogging task for the Game Art course. When he’s not writing for the course he’s writing about his personal experiences and opinions.

How do you see yourself using a blog?

I see myself trying to write more than is needed for each weekly Game Art blogging task but falling short of that aim. I will most likely try to include as many jokes and witticisms (I think that’s what they’re called) as I can without doing to many but chances are I'l be the only person who finds them funny.

Do you feel comfortable writing for an invisible audience for example?

Depends entirely on what the subject is but I don’t see me being uncomfortable writing about things related to this course.

Hello World!!!!

2006-10-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

The following announcment was braught to you by a very tired person.

After a very long time spent trying to get my internet to work and filling in forms and trying to think of a half way decent name this thing........IT WORKS!!!!

Thats all I can think to say at the moment. Give me time and I'l try and make this thing worthy of its name but for now I need to go pass out.