GE 4102 Video Game: History, Industry, Society, and Creativity. Introduction to games research

Transcription

1 GE 4102 Video Game: History, Industry, Society, and Creativity Introduction to games research

2 The birth of video games on a DEC PDP-1 computer Steve Russell, who developed Spacewar! at the MIT, with the DEC PDP-1 computer

3 Spacewar! cewar/ The game was sold by an MIT graduate, Larry Rosenthal, to the company Cinematronics to become an arcade game

4 You can t say that video games grew out of pinball, but you can assume that video games wouldn t have happened without it. It s like bicycles and automobiles. One industry leads to the other and then they exist side by side. But you had to have bicycles to one day have motor cards, Steven Baxter

5 Pong

6 In 1972, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari Pong was one of the first game they had developed using transistor logic, which simply an exercise for their newly hired staff, Al Alcorn After three months, they have a working prototype, which could be displayed on black and white TV They installed it at a local bar, but it was broken after two weeks Al, this is the weirdest thing. When I opened the bar this morning, there were two or three people at the door waiting to get in. They walked in and played that machine. They didn t buy anything. I ve never seen anything like this before, The bar manager to Al.

7 Video games are peer-driven products Peer: a person of the same age, status, or ability as another specified person Peer-driven: directed by someone of your own status (i.e., nonhierarchical) At MIT, Spacewar! was developed out of the students own free time At Atari, Pong was developed out of concepts of pinball, but was an accidental innovation But developing games out of electrical devices and simple transistor logic is hard Many early video games were simple games

8 Donkey Kong, 1981, by Nintendo Pac man, 1980, by Namco Space Invaders, 1980, by Atari

9 1983, Sega releases home console, SG-1000 Other manufacturers followed suit Family Computer by Nintendo, 1984 SG-1000 by Sega 7800 by Atari, 1986

10 Legend of Zelda, Atari (1987) Final Fantasy, Square Soft (1987)

11 In parallel with rise of console gaming, PC gaming was also on the rise Commodore 64, 1982 Steve Job and Apple II Computer, 1979

12 Ultima I, 1981, designed by Richard Garriott Heroes of the Lance, 1988 The Hobbit, 1982 Sentinel Worlds: Future Magic, 1989

13 Before Richard Garriott developed Ultima, he was a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) player In 1977, using a very primitive programming language, Teletype, he developed the first D&D game on a computer Richard had been using teletype to perform calculation task, but his father challenged him to build a game. And if he could do so, he would pay for half of the cost of an Apple computer

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16 Richard Garriott was also an avid D&D player He created a continent, characters, and stories, which became Ultima the starting of his gaming career

17 Garriott s latest: Shroud of the Avatar

18 Dungeons and Dragons (1973) is a fantasy table top role playing game imagined after JRR Tokkien s Lord of the Rings, and designed by Gary Gygax Equipment needs: Dice the following different kinds of dice are available from TSR 1 pair 4-sided dice 1 pair 20-sided dice 1 pair 8-sided dice 1 pair 12-sided dice 4 to 20 pairs 6-sided dice Chainmail miniature rules, latest edition (available from your hobby dealer or directly from TSR Hobbies, POB 756, Lake Geneva, Wi ) 1 3-Ring Notebook (referee and each player) Graph Paper (6 lines per inch is best) Sheet Protectors (heaviest possible) 3-Ring Lined Paper Drafting Equipment and Colored Pencils Scratch Paper and Pencils Imagination 1 Patient Referee Players

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20 Each player will first choose a race: Man Dwarf Elf Halfing Others Three main character classes: Fighters Mage Clerics Each player can choose to be of any class within limit of her race

21 Each player will also have abilities randomized based on dice rolls Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma Each class, race, and ability has different uses A game master will be in charge of storytelling and refereeing the game rules Other players can be whoever you want to be!

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23 Game mechanics Modeling and art Lore and map making

24 Storytelling None of you have found any sign of true clerics through all your travels. The bushes to your left rustle. Suddenly, dark shapes scurry from the woods on both sides of the road. Their yellowgreen skin pales against their heavy black armor; their twisted faces glare from the evening darkness. They crouch in a large circle about you, well beyond sword range. A stout pony struggles up onto the road, sagging beneath a flabby figure much the same, although larger, than those who surround you. The pony rider suddenly turns his head toward you and yells,.onyx demands the blue crystal staff! Forfeit the staff now or die!. Dragons of Despair (1984) by Tracy Hickman

25 Designers of fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons first modeled an approach to game design that took into account a game s relationship to outside elements player attitudes, play styles, social reputations, social contexts, and so forth A game does not go until a player makes a move in it they lend themselves naturally to intents and purposes of their users It s interesting, because games do seem to be this form even when you start playing them as a little kid you understand that you can change the game, it s in your power. But it s not true with other media I don t think there s the same instinct when you see a film to say, Oh, it s not exactly right, I d like to change it or an animation or TV show it s just not like that.... But with games you do feel like you can, Song, Starcraft II developer It s a game that encouraged the player to become part of the creative process, Justin Browder, StarCraft II Lead Developer on Dungeons and Dragons

26 Video games were at the cutting edge of computing In the 80s, software interface design is marked by a progressive adoption of the concept of Direct Manipulation: As I talked with these enthusiasts and examined the systems they used, I began to develop a model of the features that produced such delight. The central ideas seemed to be visibility of the object of interest; rapid, reversible, incremental actions; and replacement of complex command language syntax by direct manipulation of the object of interesthence the term "direct manipulation. Ben Schneiderman, 1983 Line-oriented editors vs. display editors

27 But computer games already applied direct manipulation since the beginning Before Windows and other software adopt direct manipulation, early games had already done so Pong, 1971 Donkey Kong, 1981

28 Direct manipulation in today s touchscreen devices

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30 Incidentally, computer games also allow hacking, or the player alteration of computer games

31 Decimal to Hexadecimal conversion

32 Modding the practice of end user alteration of commercial hardware and software can be traced back to at least to Spacewar! Computer games are about players exercising their creative over machines In 1992, players altering Wolfenstein 3-D (1992), a first person shooter game made by id Software, overwrote the graphics and sounds by editing the game files id Software released Doom in 1993 with isolated media files and open source code for players to develop custom maps, images, sounds, and other utilities By 1996, with the release of Quake, end user modifications had come to be known as mods, and modding was an accepted part of the gaming community Hacking is often illegal alteration; modding is mostly legal alteration

33 Examples of PC Games Supporting User Modifications

34 World of Warcraft mods Addon scripted programming files that specify user interface elements. Players download the files into the AddOns folder in the game directory where they are read when the game starts WoW modders could alter WoW s user interface but they could not change game terrain, character design, quests, or class character abilities Modified UI attention to the entire group Modified UI attention to personal stats Default User Interface

35 End Users Modding Community Actor Mods Texts and Scripts Recognition Actor Actor Actor Modding taking place in a community environment to enhance creativity

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37 Electronic sports: organized set of leagues that compete through networked games and related activities APM demonstration

38 Modding in esports Ohana, by IronManSC, 22, California

39 Gold farming and virtual trading

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41 Can we bring video games principles into learning?