Or so the story goes...

As a gamer it is almost always the story-line that pulls me into the game and makes me want to play it a million times over even after I've completed it. It's the same as a book where you know exactly what will happen but you still get a thrill from reliving the excitement of discovering the plot and learning more about the characters.

The majority of games I play are RPGs/action games, which are pretty

much meaningless if there isn't a decent story to follow. I personally find the storyline for Zelda: Link's Awakening particularly compelling. It is a GBC game so the graphics are okay for a handheld but I guess this is what a game needs when other aspects are lacking. Saying this, looking at the graphics of the ps3 or xbox360, as breathtaking as the visuals are i'd rather play a nintendo console anyday just because the storylines tend to be more involved and make me actually want to play the game.

Another example of the importance of storylines in gaming is to maintain the players interest. Obviously not all games have a story though, arcade games such as the original mario series didn't have much of a story to go by (defeat bowser, save princess peach...) yet this didn't detract from the gameplay which was basically just plain addictive. I think I prefer games with more depth to them as it makes the experience more realistic.

I think the reason some games at the moment aren't so great is because the stories have lost originality and impact, there are a lot of games out there (3rd party games in particular) that just have no passion whatsoever and they're just boring to play.

In the Harvest Moon series you create your own story for your character, it is the choices you make that determine certain aspects of the game, with there being many variables in the game in how you decide to spend your time each day such as how long to spend on livestock, planting vegetables etc.

My favourite story line is in the Sword of Mana, there are a lot of characters and I found it interesting how they all turned out to be linked. You can tell a lot of thought went into the story, with there being a choice of which perspective you can follow- at the start of the game you can choose to be either the male or female character, but depending on which you choose takes you on a different route in the game and it's really interesting to discover how these two seemingly separate stories are actually entwined which is what captivated me about this game.

See ya ~Emi ^o^

Art Direction

The role of an art director is to co-ordinate the efforts of the various artists working on a project. Even if the game does not have a theme as such the designs still have to be consistent in order to fit into the game.

I suppose the managerial responsibility of the director limits their creative output as it is more of a overseeing and guiding of the other artists who produce the actual artwork. I would have thought the art direction in games would be similar to films with the evaluating of the same aspects for example characters or scenery.

An art director who I hugely admire is Hayao Miyazaki as his films are just breathtaking in terms of visuals and story line. I think all Studio Ghibli films are pretty damn good though my favourite has to be Spirited Away, where Miyazaki did such an awesome job as an art director expressing his feelings and life experiences within the movie. Also the way each scene has been hand-painted just gives so much more depth and truly shows the skills of the artists.

It seems that to become an art director you would start as an artist first and work your way up- as to help guide the artists in an effective way you would need to be able to relate and have the knowledge and experience to deal with the problems they encounter.

See ya ~Emi ^o^

Game Design

I've been reading Junichi Masuda's (director of gamefreak) blog for a while and it seems he always has a particularly interesting insight into the world of game design ==>http://www.gamefreak.co.jp/blog/dir_english/?p=15

You should check out his posts even if you're not so much a pokemon fan, I like the way he breaks down the mechanics of gameplay and questions the underlying structure of games in order to make the games they are developing even better.

Sooo about gameplay... In magazine reviews when a game is being rated the gameplay will be one of the aspects beings assessed but this is always separate from graphics or sound etc. Gameplay could be described as the interaction between the user and the game, how it progresses, the way the controls work...

At the moment gameplay is being pushed further than ever to create a new experience for gamers, the nintendo wii for example using the remote to produce a whole new genre challenging the concept of gameplay. Speaking of different genres, it seems that what you can expect from a game in terms of gameplay depends on what category it falls into.

Board games are traditionally intended to be played as a turn taking based multiplayer game, with 2-4 players being the average. The majority of computer games are single player and gameplay varies drastically between each genre whereas most board games tend to be the whole 'first one to finish wins' concept.

BTW, a pacman board game??? :O it's cuuute!

Oh and I thought this was just hilarious, but does make me think how far should we take gaming in terms of realism?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a14s1LcCUWs

See ya ~Emi ^o^

New year!!

A new year, a new start... eek it's 2009 already when did that happen?! I am hoping to be a bit more organised this year, I got about 4 diaries/2009 year planners for christmas so I'm all set haha :D

Happy new year everyone!

See ya ~Emi ^o^

Vampires

I do apologise for not updating my blog as often as I should... but I am getting into it now and should have the rest of the posts written up soon ^_^

One of the things that has been distracting me is that I recently got into reading the Twilight series, my friend bought the book as a christmas present after I went to go see the film with her last week and it's my new favourite book!!

I did really enjoy the film but it is NOTHING in comparison to the book (it never is, look at what they did to The Golden Compass...).

The film also has an awesome soundtrack so you should really check that out too!

It's been aages since I've gotten stuck into a good book so I'm just a bit obsessed haha XD

Watch out for the next game related post!

See ya ~Emi ^o^

Writing about games

Yeah... I have a whole collection of nintendo magazines...

(and there's plenty more where that came from...)

I like to see the previews on games that are coming out to get an idea if they're any good or not. It's so hard to tell what the game is like from just looking at the box, I tend to buy it if the screenshots look good as the visual representation of the game is very important to me.

Also comparing the views on games that I've played on and enjoyed is always interesting as you get to see other peoples perspective. Many aspects of the game would have to be considered when reviewing it: graphics, audio, gameplay, innovation... I guess each game would be judged on these categories whilst seeing if it matches the consoles intended capabilities.

I value the objective view on games when I'm reading the reviews, it is meant to be read by anyone interested in the game so in order to apply to that audience the review would have to be unbiased by simply ranking the game for what it is, not so much what they made of it.

I don't think a ranking system for games is exactly necessary for sales, you're still going to get people buying the crap games despite what reviewers say, however I do think influences whether gamers choose to buy the game or not.

What is NGJ?? New games journalism apparently... I suppose online reviews would have more of an impact than magazines due to them already being available for everyone to read and for free. They would be more subjective than magazines as it is more a persons opinion when they are blogging rather than an 'official' review which would probably have guidelines for them to stick to.

How do I feel about my own writing? I do actually love doing this just because gaming is something I'm passionate about (god how geeky does that sound...) but it does make me feel better about thinking that I did choose the right course because I always have plenty to say for these blogs once I actually get around to writing them ^^'

See ya ~Emi ^o^

The history of video games part 3

The most recent developments in the gaming world... the 2000s- the future!

So where are we at the moment? For handhelds, the DS and the PSP and for home consoles the PS3, XBOX360 and Wii dominate the market with the latest technology. These make up the seventh generation of gaming.

The main difference in how far these games have come in the past few decades is apparent in the visuals, where high power and resolution graphics result in breathtaking scenery and unthinkable amounts of detail.

However, the one console for me that is pushing the boundaries of the gaming industry is the Wii. The innovative concept of the Wii remote making the user rethink the gaming experience as interaction is taken to a whole new level. I think this is where the future for video games is headed, as there's only so far you can take graphics before people will start looking for something more in their gaming.

It is therefore inevitable that sooner or later the rival consoles will be forced to reanalyze their hardware designs in order to keep up with Nintendo.

It's hard to know what to expect from the future of gaming... I guess I hope for there to be a mix of both amazing graphics and the exploration for exciting new control schemes then everyone would be happy, right?

Don't know if any of you have ever read the manga series .Hack before- the plot basically revolves around the characters of a video game called 'The World', but the way they access the game is through a headset, so it's as if they're actually in the game which I thought was quite cool :)

See ya ~Emi ^o^