Father of the Video Game Industry

Blog post 1

        Nolan Bushnell is known as the "Father of the Video Game Industry". Bushnell founded Atari in 1972 and subsequently launched the video-game revolution with Pong. He sold Atari in 1976 for $28 million, and the following year opened the first Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant, which combines fast food and electronic games and amusements. He sold that, too, and since has been involved in several projects.

Bushnell didn't make the first videogame, nor was he the first to design and sell a home videogames console. But with Computer Space, he introduced videogames to the arcades, and the company he founded, Atari, was the first to turn games into big business on the back of Pong and then with the Atari 2600, the first console to achieve any measure of success. What I'm really impressed with is what inspired Bushnell to think that video games could be a big deal. Back in the 1960's, a video game, Spacewar! could be played on a mainframe at a cost of $120,000, and Bushnell was one of students who were lucky to have access to university computer centres to play the game. "The only question, he remembers was how to bring them to everyone, not just those of us who could sneak into a computer lab late at night."

Bushnell sold the company for $28 million earlier than the "North American game crash" of 1977 and 1983. After his swift departure, the game market crashed and prices dropped, hitting profits hard. Bushnell then founded the Chuck E Cheese restaurant chain (more than 500 locations), but is involved with games again now, with a restaurant-gaming business. According to the way he comes up with big ideas that meld entertainment, information, and technology in new ways, it is probably one of the reasons that Bushnell is so accomplished.

Source: http://techland.time.com/2012/06/27/atari-at-40-catching-up-with-founder-nolan-bushnell/

by Shin Park

Dante's New Look
 
http://www.qj.net/qjnet/news/capcom-dantes-new-look-was-meant-to-incite-fan-reaction.html
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/6765-DMC-Devil-May-Cry

Die hard DMC fan's are whining everywhere, about what? Oh just how their beloved Dante now looks. Why is this an issue? Does it affect how the game plays at its core?
Nope, not one bit so its not really an issue. There have been SO many games that altered the characters in some way but no one complained then like this,
but aside for the character in this being younger and more inexperienced, what the hell is the issue? There are other elements in this game or I don't know maybe...look at the OTHER visuals in this game.
 
Now that I've dealt with that maybe we can move to maybe GAMEPLAY? Which the fanboys havent seemed to mention. Maybe because they did the one thing we were told not to do, judge a game by its cover, is that close enough...
oh well their loss. The gameplay looks AWESOME, The combat is FLUID and not clunky, the story makes sense at least to someone who has half a brain.The boss battles are sadly simple enough to get so you wont rage after being stuck on it for freaking hours like some games *cough* Dark Souls *cough* Regardless the combo system makes you want to be a try hard, and not get hit at all, you want to be perfect, and you are disappointed if you get smacked by an enemy
and lose your great A and get a D like a newb.
 
Now the story is something you'd just expected to swallow, and the main character seems to do so easily. He just seems to accept it all right away, Oh im an angel and demons son? and I am one of the few people to kill the evil boss guy?
Cool good to know, or I just remembered my mum and now im pissed she was killed? Well now i have reason to be mad so the story works?.
Ok? Um...that was easy to convince you honestly, but here lets give you more flash backs and stuff to drive home the point, ok cool oh yeah um have fun in Limbo...again...
Storyline's make the game here I just wish they had been handled better, maybe the fanboys were onto something with getting mad, or maybe the later game stuff was good.
Who knows anyway this seems like a good game a worth a shot but i wont go around shoving the game down my friends throats.
Regardless, play it decide if the changes are good, hopefully enjoy. Goodbye for now.
 
~Tyler Reed

 

Blog post 1 Guardians of Middle Earth

The Guardians of middle earth, MOBA? BlogSpost 1

Source: http://www.gamesradar.com/guardians-of-middle-earth-review/

MOBAs (Multi Online Battle Arenas) have been notorious to PC players in the past 5 years but, will that change? MOBAs have always been played on a computer with a mouse and a keyboard but, The Guardians of Middle Earth is available only on select consoles such as: Xbox 360 and the PS3 which makes  the controls for the game very limited.

Some other problems with making GoME only accessible to console players is that the matchmaking will be slowed and elongated; also players who are more attracted to the MOBA genre are PC players. It's just a matter of what audience is more attracted to, all of those whom I know that play console games are more attracted to a casual play style.

If GoME was available to both PC and Console gamers this game would most likely flourish in the two fields of players and play style. Although, from the looks of all the reviews the game it seems to be getting a really positive outlook on the game as a whole. The Controls are flexible and have a nice flow to them.

GoME while staying true to the MOBA genre also holds a stand for their obvious RPG themed gameplay (Lord of the Rings), you character you select is still completely customizable. You can buy new armor, weapons, and upgrade your characters abilities.

The game is very "noob-friendly" because of the AI bots you are able to face, players can either team up and go head to head and vs each other in a team vs team mode, or you can face bots and hone your skills with a certain character and type.

By: Gabriel Mirahmadi

Pc Gaming will never be the same.
http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/8/3852852/gabe-newell-interview-steam-box
In the upcoming year the living room console will be drastically changed forever. In recent news, valve, the company known for the digital store steam will be making their way to the living room with the "Steam Box". This box will be running linux but owners will be able to install windows or other operating systems. The idea behind this box is to bring pc gaming into the living room and into a broader market as many people would rather relax on the couch then sit in a desk chair. Another factor for the box is the fact that valve wants it to have high performance but also be at an affordable price range.
I think a really cool function of the device would be the biometric controls; the company wants to make it as realistic to player movement as possible, think of it as an upgraded and workable Wii.
Now the real question is if it a realistic and worthwhile endeavor. In my opinion I believe it will be as it will move pc gaming to the forefront of people's minds and make it more accessible to the average gamer. A big con of pc gaming is the fact that a good computer will run the user into the thousands of dollars, and even then it cannot always run the top games. The major selling point of the living room console is that they need no upgrades and can play any of the released games at maximum settings, while with the pc every few years it needs upgrades.
Consoles like the playstation are relatively cheap at only a couple hundred and this allows them to sell many units to basically any class of gamers, unlike good computers which are narrowed down to people who can pony up a fair amount of cash. Another factor of computer gaming is the fact that you have to use a mouse and keyboard, which to me feels much less relaxed then a controller. With the steam box, if valve can keep the price fairly low while creating an extremely powerful piece of hardware that brings in the casual console gamers and adds new features, they will take the gaming world by storm.
Coll Regan

                                                                               Pc Gaming will never be the same.
http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/8/3852852/gabe-newell-interview-steam-box
    
     In the upcoming year the living room console will be drastically changed forever. In recent news, valve, the company known for the digital store steam will be making their way to the living room with the "Steam Box". This box will be running linux but owners will be able to install windows or other operating systems. The idea behind this box is to bring pc gaming into the living room and into a broader market as many people would rather relax on the couch then sit in a desk chair. Another factor for the box is the fact that valve wants it to have high performance but also be at an affordable price range.
    
     I think a really cool function of the device would be the biometric controls; the company wants to make it as realistic to player movement as possible, think of it as an upgraded and workable Wii.
Now the real question is if it a realistic and worthwhile endeavor. In my opinion I believe it will be as it will move pc gaming to the forefront of people's minds and make it more accessible to the average gamer. A big con of pc gaming is the fact that a good computer will run the user into the thousands of dollars, and even then it cannot always run the top games.  The major selling point of the living room console is that they need no upgrades and can play any of the released games at maximum settings, while with the pc every few years it needs upgrades.
    
     Consoles like the playstation are relatively cheap at only a couple hundred and this allows them to sell many units to basically any class of gamers, unlike good computers which are narrowed down to people who can pony up a fair amount of cash.  Another factor of computer gaming is the fact that you have to use a mouse and keyboard, which to me feels much less relaxed then a controller. With the steam box, if valve can keep the price fairly low while creating an extremely powerful piece of hardware that brings in the casual console gamers and adds new features, they will take the gaming world by storm.
Coll Regan

Single Player Mode Should Stay Private

By Cameron Hills

Source Article:  Face Off: Should single-player games always be playable offline? by Logan Decker and Evan Lahti, January 31, 2013.

                Game companies have discovered the simple method of Digital Rights Management (DRM) by requiring an active internet connection.  Decker and Lahti discuss the issues and benefits, respectively, of this issue.  To my mind, Logan is right.  Look at the name.  Single.  Player.  But, to fully evaluate the issue, let us look at the benefits of this method of DRM, the failures of other DRM schemes, and why single player mode should stay private and off-line.

                Proponents of Online DRM say it has a variety of benefits.  Mr. Lahti points to horrific examples of previous schemes such as SecurROM and the benefits of game data reporting to hasten game fixes and tweaks.  Sebastian Anthony in Why Diablo 3’s always-online DRM is a good thing points to three benefits.  The backup of character data, security from save game hacks ruining the play experience, and monetization of real-money auction house are the benefits of the DRM scheme for Diablo 3.

                Other methods have been tried.  One of the more recent failures was the SecuRom debacle in Far Cry 2.  Other methods have ranged from game CD’s that do not conform to the Redbook standard (unable to read on all CD/DVD players,) words entered from manual pages (lost manuals) and dongles attached to the serial ports on computer.  All of these methods have failed due to either hardware/software incompatibility or the ingenuity of hackers cracking these methods.

                As players, we should demand game companies provide a method that is secure, private, and works when we can’t go online.  The method of linking a manual code to an account, check online once and then play happily from that point worked great.  I’m sure there were security holes, (crack of where the acknowledgement was stored,) but this was secure, minimally invasive and up front to the player.  We still have power outages, service interruptions, and game release rushes to block the use of online DRM.

                So far there has not been a perfect Digital Rights Management scheme.  We should not let that stop developers from working to create a better system.  I want my fix of Diablo 3 even when my power goes out.  You have to love having battery backup on your pc.

EA struggles to keep up with declining console game sales

Source: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/185767/EA_struggles_to_keep_up_with_declining_console_game_sales.php#.UQrt-nfNkyk
http://www.ea.com/past-year

EA's digital and hard copy game sales have dropped, rather
sharply, the last quarter of the year. Their sales didn't anywhere
come close to their sales from last year quarter, December 31 2011.
There was a $170 million difference between the two years, and their
not happy about it.

CEO John Riccitiello speculates that the reason for the
significant drop in sales is due to Sony and Microsoft. Both, Sony and
Microsoft, are preparing to release the details of their new systems,
thus consumers are now saving up for the next new home system. With
consumers locking down on their spending and preparing for the new
systems, it's going to be hard for anyone to sell games.

Most EA's primary titles seem to be selling quite well, in lieu of
current event. There was one game that didn't meet their standers nor
did it sell well, that game was "Medal of Honor Warfighter". The game
was a flop, sales wise and it did not deliver. This affected EA quite
hard, and after a conference call they decided to no longer keep the
"Medal of Honor" franchise as one of their ongoing titles.

Though there was another reason that might have contributed to their
lack of sales, though it wasn't stated, was their focus in the mobile
market. EA erupted into the mobile market this last year, pumping out
many games, ports, and add-ons for these mobile games.
At the end of the day, EA has had a rough year. They estimated that
they would earn about $1.29 billion by the end of the year, but they
came $45 million short. Hopefully they get things in gear, and maybe
try coming out with something new and innovative.

by Ian Florez

Blog Post - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Blog Post

http://www.volny.cz/havlikjosef/historyenglish.htm

 

     In 1976, Microsoft Flight Simulator began as an article written by Bruice Artwick about a 3D computer graphics program.
He created an incomporated company called subLOGIC Corporation in 1977 when subscribers wanted to buy the program.
Then subLOGIC began selling flight simulators for some computer platforms, 8080, Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080.

 

     SubLOGIC released FS1 Flight Simulator for Apple II in 1979.A version for TRS-80 released by subLOGIC in 1980,
and in 1982  subLOGIC licensed an IBM PC version with CGA graphics released as Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00 toMicrosoft.
New PC clone models were tested with Flight Simulator and Lotus 1-2-3 as unofficial compatibility test software, and
it was in the early days of less-than-100% IBM PC compatible systems.

In 1983, Flight Simulator II were ported to the Apple II by subLOGIC to continue develop for other platforms, the Commodore 64,
MSX and Atari 800 in 1984, and to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1986.

 

     Meanwhile Bruice Artwick founded The Bruice Artwick Organization after he left subLOGIC
to continue his work on subsequent Microsoft releases, begining with Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 in 1988.
After they has reached commercial maturity with version 3.1, they went on to encompass the use of 3D graphics hardware acceleration.

     Microsoft keep producing and upgrading to newer versions of flight simulator software, adding new features like aircraft types and new types of scenery.
The standard and professional editions were available for the 2000 and 2002 versions, where later included more aircraft, tools and scenery options.
The version 9 were released called 2004, for the celebration for 100 years of powered flight and had only one edition.

 

 

Brian Ganadhianto

Chess =/= Random Acts of Violence

The absurd thought that a strategic video game could cause such a horror. How could one possibly assume that the actions one has commited, is based off of a game equivalent to chess. The Sandy Hook School Shooting was a terrible
tragedy that has no relevance to the PC game Starcraft II

Stracraft II is a game in which a a player selects his or her race they wish to control. Once a race is chosen, they battle online in a match to see who has strategy reigned superior.

Starcraft II can be compared to chess in many ways, chess and Starcraft are both mental games where you must be one step ahead of your opponent in order to complete a fashionable victory. Starcraft and chess all have a ton of different ways you can play the game, there isn't just that one way to play the game.

America is investing almost 10 million dollars to research and see if violent video games, and violence in real life actually co-exist. The USA will fund these research groups to obtain hopefully, a solidified answer, on whether or not it is in fact the video games that create violent acts such as the Sandy Hook Shooting.

In Korea, Starcraft II, along with other e-sports games, are basically a religion, and you don't really see any kind of shootings of violence linked with video games over there. I think the sandy hook shooting was nothing more than a heartless attack on the society, in my personal opinion, crippling the elders by taking away the future generation of the world much too early.

http://mabination.com/threads/64853-CNN-Blames-Starcraft-2-for-Sandy-Hook-Shooting

Vishal Sharma

Blog 2 - Goodbye founders of BioWare

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/177892/BioWares_founding_doctors_leave_video_games_behind.php#.UQrul3ck4fM
By Frank Cifaldi September 18, 2012

BioWare founders Doctor Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk recently announced their departure from the video game world. They have both said that for now they will not return anytime soon, if at all. Being the founders of one of the greatest RPG studios in the world it is sad to see them leave. They were creators of well-respected titles including Mass Effect and Dragon Age, two games which have become top sellers across the world.

The two met at the University of Alberta while studying to be medical doctors. They soon found out that they both had a passion for computer gaming. Along with Augustine Yip the three created BioWare in the mid 90's. The first game that they published was called Shattered Steel which was shipped out in 1996. Shattered Steel was based off of MechWarrior and had the player pilot giant robots. The company set the stage with their next release. In 1998, Baldur's Gate was released to the public and was praised for its narrative and mature themes. This game was based in the Dungeons & Dragons world which attracted many different gamers. Having played Baldur's Gate and being a huge fan, I was always excited to see what the team at BioWare would come up with next. They did not disappoint when they released Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

"The experience of following a dream, achieving it and along the way working with the most talented, passionate and engaging people imaginable isn't something I'm likely going to repeat again", written by Zeschuk in his farewell blog post. It is not every day that you hear someone say something like that about where they work. This is why I want to go into this profession, because I am extremely passionate about video games. Ever since I was young I was always interested in how all games were created, be it video or analog. Muzyka says, "I've largely personally achieved what I wanted in video games" which I would have to agree with.

Although it is sad to see two very well-known figures in the video game world leave, I am excited to see what will come next.
It will be interesting to see who comes up with the next big thing. My generation is full of talented people and with technology increasing at the rate it is there is no limit to what can happen next.

Written by,

Adam Zacharias

blog1 Christian Zannetti

By Christian Zannetti
Source: Most Ludicrously Impractical weapons

http://www.gamesradar.com/most-ludicrously-impractical-rpg-weapons/ By David Houghton 1/31/13

Quick you're under attack! You grab the closest object to you and begin fighting, what did you grab? Probably your game controller since that would be closest thing to you, or maybe a hot pocket... The weapons that games give to the players are becoming more and more absurd these days. It's almost as if they design the weapons by looking around the room and just grabbing random objects slapping them on a sword or a bow in some aesthetically pleasing way and calling it "THE REALLY POWERFUL DESTROYER WEAPON" and BAM! Ya got yourself a high level weapon. Next you'll probably get a brief backstory on the previous holder who happened to be a giant god that could crush cities in his hands, and now you a tiny wood elf get to wield it, YAY? Now I know it's all make believe and fairy tale and the weapons probably look cool, but do you think wielding a flaming sword could actually work to your advantage rather than harm you? What happens when you sheath it? Do your pants go up in a raging inferno of magic and shame?

Maybe you have mastered the powers of your fire augmented weapons and can extinguish the fire when your weapons are sheathed. I don't know but I do know that a small character walking around with a giant sword that is double his size isn't going to last long in the dangerous Mines of Moria. So are designers just not caring any more about the structure of weapon design? Absolutely not, the complete opposite in fact, I believe that they are spending too much time on designing cool and interesting weapons for the players rather than focusing on the actually physics of the weapon design. The design of weapons conflicts the physics of reality in almost every aspect in some instances, usually by conjoining two separate weapons into one, or just attaching a weapon to a humans limbs. The Gun Blade in final fantasy is a perfect example, these were an actually design in real life but the physics behind them could work. A gun hilt for a handle on a blade just wouldn't work, it's way too hard to grip and swing. The weapons that are being designed in games are becoming more and more intricate and stylish and they should be, no one wants a revolver in a space aged shooter. Weapons should be intricate and aesthetically pleasing to the gamer, we all love the over –sized- space-aged-probably-never-going-to-happen style of weapon, but where do we draw the line?

HoN-Friendly

HoN 3.0

Source: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01/21/a-newbie-in-heroes-of-newerth-how-patch-3-0-improves-the-moba-e/

Heroes of Newerth the new MOBA for new players in its genre. HoN has been around since 2010, and has been known for its harsh learning curve and abusive community. The creators of HoN has taken note and are going to add better, and more in-depth tutorials, bot matches, and other various other aids to help new players transition into the game and perhaps increase the competitive community. 

S2 Games have been preparing to globally launch HoN 3.0 on January 31st, 2013. The graphics have been greatly increased to take advantage of todays technology with a whole array of new 3D model remake that looks fantastic. It also released bots with customizable AI, which allows newer players learn without costing other players their ranking.

S2 Games have been focusing on improving new player experience , by adding the bot matches for casual players to learn. It will help new players develop basic skills to play against others. Bot matches have been a huge hit for a featured game League of Legends, as playing against bots is the easiest and least stressful way to learn the basics. 

Ryan McDaniel, Lead Content Manager for S2 Games suggests that they have made a new player's experience easier by not only adding bots but by remaking the whole walkthrough system, so that it teaches them how to play the game by matching them against these bots. It flattens out the learning curve substantially and it does not take as long for new players to learn the ropes of the game.

The HeroDex has been removed and recreated into the new Learnitorium that players gain access to let players read into hero skills and information, as well as watching videos and tutorials of the specific hero.

Director of operations Nathan Garcia explains that some of their balance designers have worked on a new video series to teach basics of MOBA gameplay, and eventually they expect to expand into more advanced strategies that competitive players use.

The customizable bots isn't specifically towards new players, S2 hopes in finding modders as the code is there for anyone to play with. This is in hopes that the growing HoN mod community will expand and modders will be able to create something for everyone in the community, be it new challenges or even design new helpful tools.

The textures of the map has been completely remade, which looks really HD and it creates a better environmental vibe, changing from spring on the Legion side and slowly progressing to a barren wasteland. The towers and building have been remade, as their health lowers the more destroyed they look. The HD retouch and remake to the sprites of HoN is a nice addition to all of the other amazing things implemented into this 3.0 patch.

In hopes of detering many bad mannered players and creating a better community S2 has removed the vote to kick option, and replaced it with a Report-a-Player function. The system is suppose to punish bad mannered players, and abusers will lose the use of the system. The punishments could be the ability to revoke all voice chat options, which should cut down on mic yellers.

If HoN 3.0 is what HoN 1.0 should have had in the first place,  then perhaps Heroes of Newerth would be a more played and more enjoyed game than it is today. This patch has added many things to make the game more playable and more noob-friendly. 

Anthony Chen

Blog Post 2

Blog Post 2

Julio Liu

http://gamingbolt.com/15-modders-who-changed-pc-gaming

                Video game mods are one of main reasons why many video games have grown. Many games began as a mod such as Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike, Defense of the Ancients (DotA) and Garry's Mod. Without of these important games, we will not have unique ideas to make other games from its precursor.

                Team Fortress 2 came from a long way of development. The original Team Fortress 1 started as a Quake mod which evolves to a Gold Source Mod. When Valve hired the mod team, they announced Team Fortress 2 in 1998, a sequel to their game. The development for the game took more than 9 years until it was finally released. Team Fortress 2 became one of the game one of the biggest games to date. The game is still updated till this day with big patches coming every few months. A story is ongoing as well and the community is still big. Team Fortress 1 was a huge factor to the game industry. Not only it spawned Team Fortress 2, it was one of the killer apps that bought many users to the steam platform.

                Counter Strike is the most popular mod that is still being played to this date. It is recognized as one of the greatest mods in all time. Counter Strike boomed with its competitive gameplay and fast pace action. Counter Strike started as a tactical first person shooter then which to fast pace gameplay. The game was one of the huge reasons Valve is huge right now. It created huge sales to Half Life because it was the game which used to make Counter Strike. The game spawned Competitive Competitions around the world especially in Sweden where they host the biggest LAN festival for Counter Strike, Dreamhack.

                DotA also known as Defense of the Ancients is most famous and important Multiplayer Online Battle Area (MOBA) ever. Without this game, many other games wouldn't have followed up such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth and DotA 2. DotA spawned a competitive scene as well. It hosted tournaments around the world, even a Blizzard sponsored tournament because the game was made in the Warcraft 3 engine. IceFrog, current designer of DotA has been hired by Valve to which he made DotA 2. Both games are right now are run by IceFrog. Guinsoo and Pendragon, former designers and community of DotA were hired by Riot Games. Riot Games made League of Legends, the most played PC game in the world.

                Garry's Mod was a small and free game in the beginning. Word of mouth spread about the game increasing its popularity. Garry's Mod defined the game as a sandbox build upon game where the player of the game can do anything they want with the models used in the game. The game spawned Minecraft, the most popular sandbox survival game to date. Minecraft sold more than 20 million copies in both Xbox360 and PC.

                PC mods are very important in the game industry. These mods continue to help develop many games we have today with fresh ideas.

Lindsay Comeau, Blog Entry 2

http://www.rampantgames.com/blog/?p=5257

A look at Dungeons and Dragons, the not so scary pen and paper RPG

In a world filled with all sorts of dangerous ways to 'escape' the overwhelming complexities of our daily lives, games, are the lesser of many evils. Fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons, have been considered as harmful as drugs. To some people  they are the causes for serious human tragedies. In simple fact, they are a useful forms  of escape for both children and adults.

These games allow people to forget the things that are bringing them down in their real life and step into a role more enjoyable. In games like Dungeons and Dragons they get to 'escape' with their friends, and in a cooperative environment. Some people like to come home and watch hours of mind-numbing television, while others look forward to hours of stimulation creativity and cooperative fun.

Video games, the modern version of those original pen and paper RPG's are also a mind-exercising form of escape, and just as effective at de-stressing. In regards to the "harmful" affects of violent video games on kids, my response is this: There are rating on games, same as movies and television that tell parents what games are appropriate for each stage of maturity. Pay attention to what kind of entertainment your children are immersing themselves in. If your child has bought a game that is rated too high for his/her age, you need to take that issue up with the retailer who sold that game to your child. In regards to pen and paper games, I argue that they are far, far more helpful to childhood development then they are harmful. Parents worried about their children being inducted into a cult, or losing their sense of reality, seem to have no problem subjecting their children's minds to reality-altering programs on TV.

I could go on and on about this topic and argue back and forth about the different types of harmful entertainment our society is exposed too. As well as the forms of entertainment that aren't as harmful as they have been made out to appear. Long story short, role playing games are good skill building tools and an excellent way to unwind at the end of the day. 

Posted By: Shane Waylon Mitchell
Second Blog
January 23/2013

 http://www.commandandconquer.com/en/games/bygameid/cnc3
"The official Command & Conquer news Website"

If you like an awesome story line Command & Conquer 3 Kane Edition of EA™, Electronic Arts will rock your world with stupendous action packed story line. 

Welcome Back Commander, C&C3 is considered the Sport of online RTS - Battlecast™ - You Observe, broadcast on voIP communicates, Kane the Dark Messiah as Boss is dead or is he. He might resurrect himself To Lead the Brotherhood of Nod. Play the three different fractions GDI, NOD or the Scrin .  No matter who you play the game is very quick and entertaining. I am still trying to discover what NOD stands for If anyone knows, send an email to swmitchell7@hotmail.com  ; my best guess is "No Other Defense". GDI stands for Global Defense Initiative and Scrin is an alien life form. This is an out of this world foe, adding to the story line as to where the terbium originated.

New weapons and units are introduced are introduced for GDI Mammoth Tanks are best friend, Ion Cannons are very powerful. Beam Cannons are Nods favorite ground Unit, Nuclear Missile Silo is Nod's Super Weapon, and Scrin I will save as surprise. To play Either Fractions is equally challenging and easy to learn.

You Can Play Solo or Multiplayer Scenarios – peer to peer or online –The story line leads you to next missions in the Campaign Game and allows you to gain experience with doing battle against your foes. This prepares you for the next mission and teaches you strategies tips. C&C3 is very well planned out and very well written, The games does not slow down when you have  a lot of units on the board, even when there are more two players. 

And even when you have won the game is just as much if not more exciting to play over and over again.      

Logging off SWM………..

Violence And Video Games

http://kotaku.com/5976733/do-video-games-make-you-violent-an-in+depth-look-at-everything-we-know-today

Take a shot of whatever may be nearby, could be bleach for all I care, when I say something about Video Games and Violence. I guarantee you won't make it HALF WAY through this blog post!

Oh boy, here we go again with Violent video games and causing violent actions, this however is the research done on the subject, rather than entirely blaming the video game developer. Now this might incite the thought of "But didn't you make a blog last week fighting against the violent games?" Yes godammit, I did, now LETS DELVE DEEPER INTO THE SUBJECT!

So the French across the lake have been doing some research on the subject matter of, "Do Violent games cause Violence?" My short answer would be "No." The long answer is "No, but maybe if people weren't ignorant and use video games as a scapegoat to justify the fact they can't bring themselves to say, 'Okay, I snapped because of certain emotional problems.'"

Excuse me while I take a drink of Rum before I start again.

MOVING ON, So the test they did was that they had one group of players play a violent game, while the other half played non-violent games. They were then asked to write an ending to a randomized story, After that they would compete in a game where they had to respond to a visual cue faster than the other player, the loser recieved a horrible noise that, "Sounded like a combonation of fingernails on a chalkboard, dentist drills, and ambulance sirens.The student could determine the intensity and duration of the noise their opponent would have to suffer through." SCIENCE! Anyways, those who played violent games wrote more aggressive stories and  dished out a higher, more unpleasant noise. Concluding it affects aggression.

Now if I was the one of those who played the non-violent game, after a while they'd probably go, "Screw you, here's an ear-wrenching noise for you for 30 minutes straight with variable intensities!" Wonder where that half of the testing is. Now officially I will say this begrudgingly, but yes it does cause aggression, But it's only one factor that plays into violent acts. While there are people that lose their sense of reality every once in a while, theres a vast majority that says "There's no and/or minimal affect on me." And those are the ones less likely to go "GRAAAGGHL!" and spaz out with their internal 'Sprint' button while mashing X and Y to bludgeon and slash anything that gets in the way. Violent games may cause aggression but their entirety can't be blamed for making people go completely bonkers and go "GRAAAGGHL!" and spaz out with their internal 'Sprint' button while mashing X and Y to bludgeon everything. The human mind is STILL a strange and vast land of things that we know nothing about, but we know enough that the cause would be some form of emotional problem. They might be bullied a lot at school and they do noting about it, or someone's mother who rarely sees their son and spends more time at a school and becoming jealous. NOT because of Video games and their brainswashing scheme of pretty and exaggerated violence.

Now, think of it this way, what would happen if there were no video games whatsoever, would people be more likely to snap? Probably, why? They don't have any kind of release to some fantasy realm where they can do anything at all, thus having no stress releif. (this is my theory of the matter, not fact.)

Now I counted 18 times I mentioned violence and games here, If you made it this far Congradulations! You are either Irish or Scottish! If not, well, you wouldn't be reading this now would you?

Andrew Biskupski

Educational Games: Are They Worthwhile to Produce?

[ Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/education/atari-founder-plans-to-make-education-as-addictive-as-video-games ]

Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari, is working on a really interesting project right now. He wants to make educational games that are fun for kids. He wants to make learning accessible, and not feel so much like work. Learning can absolutely be fun. I used to play games in elementary school, which are mostly lost in time, on the Macintosh computers in the computer lab; games like Number Maze, a game where you have to solve math problems and go through mazes, Oregon Trail, which teaches us a bit of history, and Mr. Fix-It-Up, a game all about grammar and sentence structure.

Did I enjoy those games despite the fact that they were educational? Of course I did. They were stupidly fun, and had all sorts of amusing quirks to them, like Mr. Fix-It-Up would say "Yes-yes-yes, I get it now" when you got the right answer. Those things stuck with me, because frankly, they're weird. I'd argue it also helps to be playing these sorts of education games at an educational institution, because at school we tend to resign ourselves to the fact we're going to end up learning something. If I were to play those games now, I would love it for nostalgic reasons, but would I find it challenging? Not in a million years. Those games are for children, so I'd be solving terribly complex math problems like 3+7, and it would probably be somewhat unpleasant.

To combat this, Nolan Bushnell wants to essentially make educational games which get progressively more difficult as the player gets smarter, or better at the game. This is an obvious characteristic of many video games already. It's implemented in tons of games, with difficulty levels ramping up as the player gets more skillful at the game, but I'm sure he wants to take it even further. As you learn and excel at one thing, the game takes note, and starts throwing harder challenges at you. Makes sense.

Nolan Bushnell wants to make learning more fun, and try to inspire more creativity. I support that notion entirely. Creative projects, such as getting students to write fantasy stories, (or whatever stories they like) are an absolute necessity. Children need to use their imagination; in adult life our imaginations are all but crushed by the real world, in its infinite bleakness.

If educational games are sold commercially, I suspect it might only be parents who are buying them for their kids. Kids don't want educational games. Kids want entertainment. The tricky part is making their entertainment educational, and their education entertaining.

-Mark Johnsen

Blog 1: Happy birthday home video games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/176677/Happy_40th_birthday_video_games.php#.UP4SsLReuat

It has been almost half a century now since video game consoles have been released to the general public. An actual take home system, you no longer needed to head down to your local arcade to get your gaming fill. The first home video game system was sold back in 1972. The Odyssey, manufactured by Magnavox, sold for just under $100 US dollars and included 12 different games and overlays; which you would attach to your television screen. Similar to consoles that would later come to market, each game was stored on a game cartridge/card. Some of the games even included came cards or dice. It seems like this was one of the first interactive board games, similar to DVD board games these days. The three different game categories being sports, family/adult and educational. This could have been one of the first versions of an educational video game, which are becoming more and more popular these days. The system also had the capabilities to support an add- on peripheral which used a joystick with a golf ball attached to it which a player would hit with a putter. This seems awfully similar to the controller used for the Wii gaming system. Ultimately, this game and its peripherals were never released to the public, however the original prototype can be found in a museum in New York. Being as the game system was battery powered, the amount of time that a player or players would be able to play a game would have been rather short. Which would more then likely scare some people away. 

In the video a tennis game is featured on a game show back in the 70's which looks extremely similar to Pong. Interestingly enough, Pong was released the same year as the Odyssey and was based off of the tennis game that was included in its release. This would later go on to become a law suit between Magnavox and Atari. 

Written by,

Adam Zacharias

Posted By: Shane Waylon Mitchell
January 16/2013

Well Atari did it again a remake of another awesome classic game, Warlord, on November 14/2012. Atari released it on the Atari 2600. This is now available on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® as well as the entertainment system from Microsoft. For those who don't Know Atari, Atari was founded in June 27/1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney start their own game company, Atari Incorporated.  Atari a term from the Japanese game Go aboard game like Chinese checkers.  Al Alcorn writes a video Ping-Pong game called Pong. Pong is play tested at a bar called Andy Capps; players love it so much that the coin box is jammed with quarters. Atari also made such games as Asteroids, Pac-Man and Space Invaders.

Warlord's arcade-action game is a multiplayer, up to three opponents' computer or human players, to protect your castle. The object is to defeat the other warlords by attacking the enemies' castle with missiles of fire, and defending the strongholds with magic. Warlords is very challenging and intense, it has minions that attack the enemies troops. Also you must capture power-ups and control points.  Watch out for the fiery dragons that cast fire balls upon your castles. The music and sound is very catchy and the visual aspect is colorful and appealing.

The original article that I found was written by John O'Leary, TriplePoint for Atari
joleary@triplepointpr.com
(212) 730-9744     
http://www.atari.com/news/atari-releases-warlords-xbox-live-arcade

And was posted on November 11, 2012 so I know the article to be ligament, because I have played Warlords, and love playing it and found it very addictive. A game you can play over and over again with different endings. I cannot wait for a sequel to warlords or even a Nintendo Wii- version to come out.  So Way to go Atari and do not forget to keep Gamming. Warlords is very swathe game game of the year.

 Blogging off for now……

Pro-Actively Researching Our Industry

By Cameron Hills

Source Article:  Opinion: Meeting with Biden is a mistake for the game industry by Kris Graft, January 9, 2013.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting Gamasutra Editor-In-Chief Kris Graft suggests just meeting with VP Biden creates the appearance the Video Game Industry is part of the violence problem.  Neither blanket denials nor playing ostrich head in the sand is going to solve the problem of violence or improve our perception with the public.  Only a balanced and measured response through funding new research, proper public relations (PR) and advertising work, and adult level conversations through lobbying and direct talking to political leaders will move this industry in the proper direction.

On January 16^th, President Obama announced a $10 million research program to probe the link between Violent Video Games and gun violence (Tassi, Forbes.)  While the Forbes article noted that VP Biden said “he didn’t believe an actual link between violent games and violent actions was there,” a January 16, 2013 article by Frank Cifaldi on Gamasutra used the ominous language “Obama asked Congress to fund research into determining a link between video game violence and real life violence.”  This sounds like the US Government will be using slanted research to hammer our industry’s image.  We (Graft) need to fund proper, double blind, studies from accredited and respected researchers in the psychology and sociology fields.  They must test the dual theses that games have causal links to violence and ways current and future games can act as pressure release valves on potentially homicidal individuals.  Simply throwing money at unqualified researchers or ad-hoc studies will not help.

So how can we improve our image?  In his editorial, Editor Graft starts out “If you're meeting with Joe Biden about gun control, you're stating that you are part of the problem, and therefore, you are part of the problem.”  While engaging in the popular PR past time of “Spin Doctoring” is as about as appealing as spackling makeup on a pig, we need to have a multi-faceted approach through education, facts from our research programs and advertising programs targeted to those individuals and groups who would paint our industry with the same brush as the National Rifle Association (NRA.) That education also extends to our politicians.

Like it or not, Politicians hold the keys to the legislative process and no amount of studies will sway their opinions once they get on their soap-box.  We need to engage leaders of both federal and state/provincial levels to both help inform opinion and give us warning of future misguided efforts to legislate our industry.

The video game industry is filled with creative people.  By working together with the proper professionals in these other fields we can keep a sane discussion about what video games can do to solve our problems.

Julio's First Blog Post.

Julio Liu History of Games Blog Post 1 Source: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/12/21/why-pc-gaming-ruled-in-2012

PC Gaming in the past few years haven't been growing. Back out two years ago, I remember PC games were slaughtered by bad service systems such as Games for Windows Live and UPlay by Ubisoft and lackluster console ports like the recent Battlefield game series. 2013 bought a lot of fresh new games that were released on the PC and it simply exploded in many fields on the PC such as the professional gaming scene and indie games.

2013 had a massive library of great games on the PC. Great games that were critically acclaimed on release such as Guild Wars 2 with their tackle to player grinding and bring a fresh new ideas to the name of "Massive Multiplayer Online and Black Mesa: Source, an incredible modification of the original game Valve's "Half Life". Console games that were ported to the PC were a big hit as well. Competitive gaming on the PC exploded in giant numbers this year.

League of Legends a free MMO battle arena game erupted in the competitive game scene. The game made a huge breakout to the North American esports scene with breaking numbers of viewers of eight million viewers in their championship series. In Korea, a country where esports is a very big deal, hit a decline of professional players because they are switching to League of Legends. Riot Games, the company that developed League of Legends didn't create a free game that was fun, addictive and easy to catch for casual players on as well; but created a game that competitive heavy for expert and professional players that are familiar with the genre as well.

The indie game scene grew greatly this year. Last quarter at AI, students had a small chat with two developers from Gaslamp Games, creator of the indie game "Dungeon of Dredemor." The two developers discussed how indie games released this year were innovative but gave many game designers new ideas what could they put into their games. The indie scene is going great and I'm looking forward of how many games will be great on my favourite superior system, the PC.

Hello this is a repost to the other post because I accidentally submitted the assignment on Microsoft Word.

Lindsay Comeau, Blog Entry

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/29/atari-looks-to-reinvent-itself-as-a-mobile-games-company-hires-former-iwonmarvel-exec-as-evp/
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/16/tech/gaming-gadgets/atari-mobile-social-gaming/index.html

The Company that Started it all Jumps into the Modern Market Atari, the company that got the video game Industry churning back in the 1970s has taken the plunge into the mobile game market. No matter how you look at this new market, it seems to be the future of the game industry, and it's not just for the hardcore-gamers. For Atari (and other long standing companies), breaking into this new market is simply the most logical next step. A whole new generation of gamers are available to these companies, and this generation is a whole new kind of consumer. The dynamics of these classic games are perfect candidates for revamping in a new, mobile market. They were made for casual gaming, and arcade style games usually translate well into the mobile setting. Atari also has the power of their brand name to boost their games. Before mobile devices, the market for gaming was mostly young men, now it includes pretty much everyone. Young, old, male, female, they're all playing games, whether it be on their mobile devices, or social networks. People that have never played an Atari game before (or have never even heard of the founder of interactive entertainment) are now being introduced to these classic games. Atari has survived one of the fastest changing markets in human history, they've switched hands so many times, and their success has fluctuated from high to sub-zero continuously through-out their existence. The decision to break into this new market is definitely a game changer for the company and could potentially preserve them for many years to come.

By Lindsay Comeau

Blog post

http://kotaku.com/5976286/im-mentally-ill-i-love-violent-video-games-and-theyve-never-made-me-feel-like-killing-anyone?post=56265161

WARNING: Possibly offensive content, you're more than welcome to delete your System32 to prevent yourself from being
"Offended"

Violent Video games have always taken the blame for horrible incidents such as the Sandy Hook shooting, and they
completely overlook mental illnesses or what might have made a person snap. Now, why blame those said games for
causing such atrocities? All a video game is is a world of fantasy that allows players to do things they would not
normally do in the real world. Take Need for Speed for example (for the sake of having a non-violent game) In there,
I drive a McLaren MP4-12C down a highway at 300 km/h while being chased by a battalion of police officers, does that
make me want to do the same, running from the law in a failed attempt with a 97 Integra? Of course not.

Video games have been around for around 40 years now, and is not widely accepted as an art form. Almost exactly the
same thing back in the days of cinema and movies, when they were speculated as causing violence amongst people. but
once again, it's a fantasy realm that people use to escape from their dull and possibly boring lives.

You can't just pin the blame on an inanimate object that is used to play a video game, you have to get down to the root
of where the problem is, and thats with the person, not the latest Call of Duty game. Guns have been blamed for causing
shootings and murders and such. "WELL I just picked up this gun and it just willed a bullet into that person's right eye socket
over there!" NO! You picked up that gun with the intent of killing someone that day. Same with Violent games, "Oh well this game has
lots of killing and such in it that could possibly have brainwashed our kids into thinking it's okay to go around shooting
people." You shouldn't be able to do that! Because if thats the case, "This guy played the latest Need for Speed game and
he was driving erratically and ramming police off the road!" Think about that one for a second, the culprit is NOT a violent
Video game, its an almost run of the mill racing game, no blood, no flying through the windsheild ragdoll physics, just a lot
of rear-ends and ramming other racers off the road. That could be done with literally ANY Racing game.

What needed to be done was NOT automatically assume violent video games brainwash people to the point of causing horrible
things to happen, and ask Was anyone noticing something different about this person? Something that may have been emotionally
disturbing and may need some mental health care to help with this?

I may seem a bit insensitive to such things but its a rant, I'm angry at why things like this happen and why we don't look at
the person rather than some hardcore, exploding, blood, guts and gore video game that is within a safe fantasy realm. It makes me
flip a table and scream, "I don't want to live on this planet anymore!" Then go off to play Grand Theft Auto, spawn a car and attatch
exploding speed boosters, and go off to the moon. Because I can't do that in reality, and it's damn gravity and physics.

Andrew Biskupski