“Let’s play hide and go seek!” Denver exclaims to his friends Dalys and Reno. “Ok cover your eyes, count to ten, and then come look for us. And no peeking.” says Dalys. Reno counts to ten and then begins to look for his friends. “I found you! You’re it!”shouts Reno as he pulls back a…
Month: July 2016
Skill trees: choosing a path to follow
We spend a lot of time planning out our future, dreaming up what we wish to become, to achieve, and what we’ll need to get there. What school we will go to, what our major will be, what industry we will work in, where we will live, what our hobbies will be? It can be…
Zelda: evolution of the open world
The Legend of Zelda is a franchise that has played a major role in defining the concept of open world gameplay. Open world or sandbox games utilize a large game world with a variety of spaces that can typically be accessed in any order the player chooses. Some areas may be locked for the purposes of…
Power fantasy: why we put guns in games
Understanding what purpose guns serve in video games can be difficult. In today’s world where hunting for food isn’t common place, modern guns are first and foremost instruments of war. However if we regress the concept of projectiles all the way back to their simplest form and imagine stones being thrown, we can see them…
Moral choice: does allowing immoral choices in games impact real world behavior?
Determining right and wrong is something we are taught from a very young age. Barring cultural relativism, it is an instinct that we are trained to follow in order to be part of a functioning and peaceful society. Share don’t steal, protect others and do no harm, be honest and don’t lie, etc. When an…
Traversal: an overlooked mechanic
The navigation of space is used in many games as a method of exploration, as means to an end. With repetitive and simplistic walking animations we have come to expect little from movement as a mechanic. Even in analog games traveling through space is typically simplified to a number generated by the roll of a…
Mobile games: a fractured market
When the mobile game market began, specifically the phone / tablet app market, it was a completely uninhibited creative space. Large companies were looking to make impressive large scale titles and small indie developers titles were making novel titles which resembled toys more than the games we were used to from the console age. The…
Team Games: roles and respect
From the earliest days of arcade machines players have banded together to fight their way through games cooperatively. When games transitioned into the home with video game consoles we saw an increase in player versus player models of multiplayer; where players would sit side by side and compete. Recently there has been a resurgence of…
Companions: choosing your friends
You are the company you keep, this old adage speaks to the nature of how the people around us shape who we are. In role playing games such as Fallout 4, planning out a path for your character, the powers they will attain and the narrative they will complete determines how you will interact with…
Factions: politics and purpose
Many games these days feature the ability to pick a side in a conflict, Imperials vs Stormcloaks, Intuition vs Mystic vs Valor, The Institute vs The Brotherhood of Steel, etc. The choice of what side you are on can be a reflection of your friends (tribalism), your personal beliefs (philosophy), or simply curiosity for the…
Exploration: curiosity in action
At a very young age it can be observed that children are curious about their surroundings, seeking out what’s behind every curtain and under every stone. At the root of this curiosity is the pursuit of understanding; we yearn to recognize the world around us with its variety of spaces. Some places are designated playgrounds,…
Experimentation: gaining freedom from failure
Experimentation is a core element of gameplay, it is what gets us from our skillset before a challenging level to what we are capable after completing it. Failure grants us freedom if we can learn to see failure as we do in games; not as the end but as a new beginning. Failure is an…
Play Professor 