Thursday, September 23, 2010

Week 8: Second generation computer games. The handheld device

Activities

Activity 1

Explore wikipedia's History of computer and video games here. What were your favourites? What were a complete waste of time and money, not to mention an insult to your finer sense of gaming?

~~~~~~

Favourites
Pacman
Dungeons & Dragons
Super Mario
Sonic the Hedgehog
Phantasy Star Online
World of Warcraft
Final Fantasy

Waste of time?
Myst - Holy hell this game was so ridiculously hard! There's no way you could play that shit without a walkthrough.

Activity 2

Let's talk about convergence and portability (or mobility) in the discussion forum, and try to discern whether all the additional functions on our mobile phone (as just one example) is what we really want, or whether we are being duped by the 'bells and whistles' marketers.
Post your comments to the forums and if possible, add links to some of the great material you have researched.
Chat with you online.

~~~~~


It feels like many devices and products are trying to be too many things at once. I feel that it's relevant for some and not so much for others.

For example, I don't use much of the features on my mobile phone. I feel they are irrelevant. I don't want to do anything on it that's going to flatten the battery quicker because I want it to be ready for it's primary importance, making/recieving phone calls and SMS. If I want to play a game, I'll play something designed for gaming. I usually carry around my DS or PSP when I know I'll need something to kill time while I'm out and about!

Low tech examples of convergence? Hmmm...I suppose that many print publications have website counterparts to further engage their readers. Many of the competitions from magazines require the reader to head to the website to enter for example. Many products require you to go onto the internet for further information about them, regardless of whether it is an electronic device or not.

I definitely feel that most, if not all electronic devices are heading towards internet connectivity & general PC connectivity for transferring of data.

Perhaps one day even furniture and other products that need assembly at home will require the purchaser to visit a website for an online guide.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

gaming generations, control systems, communication

History of Interactive Entertainment - Week 7 Discussion

I think the generations of games are defined by the hardware capabilities. So my belief is that there are more than 3 generations of video games. We are currently in the 7th generation according to Wikipedia.

As an 80's kid, I grew up with video games and have never known a life without a game console in the house. My earliest memories are of the Mattel Intellivision (a 2nd generation console) where games like Donkey Kong, Frogger, Tron, Dungeons & Dragons and other famous franchises have their roots. This era of graphics was very simple but I strongly believe that it's the quality and enjoyability of the actual game play that makes or breaks it.  There are current generation games that are visually stunning but boring to play. The controllers on the Mattel Intellivision were rectangle in shape, it had a keypad at the top and a disc at the bottom. It really wasn't a great design. There were also different plastic inserts for the keypad that would outline the buttons for each game, these were easily lost or damaged. The controllers themselves weren't that durable either as the electronics inside became worn and needed replacing.

The next generation was the 8bit systems such as the Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), despite my incessant nagging I did not own any consoles from that era as a kid. Followed by the 16 bit generation of Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in other countries) and Super Nintendo (Super Famicon in other countries). I had a Sega Megadrive that was imported from Asia. Sega and Nintendo were really heavy competitors in the 80's and 90's and I find it rather amusing that with Sega's retraction from the console market in the present time means that their mascot Sonic the Hedgehog now appears in titles alongside Nintendo's mascot Mario. Such a game was only pipe dream back then. More ergonomic controller designs began to come out with the 16 bit generation. The rectangle shapes were done away with and rounded edges became the norm.

Cartridges were phased out in the next generation of 64 bit with the release of the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn that used CD ROMs. However Nintendo still stood by the game cartridge system and released the Nintendo 64. They switched to GD ROMs ( a type of mini CD ) with the introduction of the Gamecube.

The current generation of games is the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 which are geared towards HD TV. Even though Nintendo released the Wii in this era, it's hardware is not designed for display in HD and more geared like the previous generation of Gamecube, Dreamcast, Xbox and Playstation 2.

The Wii's use of motion controllers that made it so popular had already been around on the Sega Dreamcast with special controllers such as a Fishing Rod for Sega Bass Fishing and Maraccas for Samba Di Amigo. Games like Guitar Hero were not the first to have giant plastic instruments for controllers. Sega have always had great innovative ideas for games and ways to play them, but never seemed to gain the mainstream attention outside of Japan. (Can you tell I'm a Sega fangirl yet?). Sega was also the first to have a console with internet connectivity, you could play games online with friends and even browse the web without a computer as the Dreamcast had an inbuilt dial up modem. Phantasy Star Online (for Dreamcast) had innovative ways to communicate with people that spoke other languages with the use of Symbol Chat (emoticons), Word Select (it would translate a phrase into the viewers chose language) and it also had the support of a keyboard. The Gamecube version of Phantasy Star Online saw the release of a regular controller and keyboard combined in one, it was only sold in Japan but I do have one in my possession. It meant that you only needed the one controller to play and chat, which was quite convenient.

Alongside these generations, the hand held systems have usually had the tech of a previous generation of consoles and never quite as powerful as their console counterparts of the time. Nintendo still sticks with the use of cartridges for handhelds such as the Gameboy Advance and DS. While the Sony PSP has a UMD (a sort of mini CD) and the PSP Go relies entirely on downloading games to internal memory. Mobile phone games also rely on downloading and internal memory for the most part. The newest versions of the Nintendo DS; the DSi and DSi XL also have internal memory to support download games from Nintendos online store. The DS was also the first to introduce touch screen technology into the mainstream for video games, allowing you to use the bottom screen with the included stylus or your fingers to play. Touchscreen technology is becoming more standard on mobile phones after the popularity of the Apple iPhone.

Touchscreens, motion controllers and instrument controllers seem to be the gimmick that is converting people who previously didn't play games, into gamers. While this is good for the industry overall and creating a more positive attitude towards gaming....those of us that fall into the hardcore gamer category are being forgotten in the frenzy. The new ways to play games are fun but when it comes to a game you are going to sink 100 hours into, I want to curl up on the couch in a blanket and use a 'normal' controller, I don't want to jump all around the lounge room flailing madly to beat a monster.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Monday, August 9, 2010

ACN108 History of Interactive Entertainment - Assignment 1

WIKI


Wiki sites have become a great resource for researching topics online. They have a few pro's and con's but overall I find my experience with them to be a positive one.

There are many topics found on wiki sites that are just not covered in published books. Unlike a printed book, a wiki article is much more dynamic in it's ability to be updated quickly when the information changes. A set of Encyclopedia books is very expensive yet websites like Wikipedia are completely free and far more up to date. While libraries have closing times, the internet is available 24/7/365 and accessible from the comfort and convenience of your home. There is no need for an expansive bookshelf to hold a large collection of research books when the information can all be stored compactly at data on a computer.

The downside of Wiki's is that with multiple contributors from all walks of life, the information could be less reliable. Wiki sites are also prone to attacks of cyber vandalism, as just about anyone is allowed to register with a website and gain the ability to edit wiki entries. Moderators need to keep a watch on changes made to the site in order to maintain it as a reputable source of information. A lot of Wiki websites resource their information from Wikipedia, however if the information on Wikipedia is incorrect, then false information is being duplicated throughout the internet. There’s a saying that goes “Just because you read it on the internet, doesn’t mean it’s true”.

Personally I use websites like wowwiki.com and wowhead.com for sourcing information for World of Warcraft. There is no way you want to flip through a book to find information about a digital item when you can search quickly with keywords on a website. I also love to browse Wikipedia for information on various video games, anime, manga and bands that simply do not have any printed material available on them. In these genres, I trust the opinions of my internet peers rather than the producers of newspapers and tv shows. News writiers are forever getting their facts wrong when reporting anything to do with geek culture.


SOCIAL NETWORKING

Social networking began with the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies. The basic idea is that rather than create all the website content yourself, you create applications where others can register with the site and create their own content that they can share with others. Online communities sprung up in many different ways. Blogging, social networking, online gaming and art websites are probably the most prominent models for Web 2.0 communities. Many sites have become a hybrid of all these things in an effort to offer something for everyone and keep users feeling like they don’t need to leave the site to use a different service.

Examples of various Web 2.0 community websites:
Blogging sites: Livejournal, Wordpress, Blogger
Microblogging: Twitter, Tumblr
Social Profiles: Myspace, Facebook, Hi5
Art: Deviantart, Flickr
Games: Gaia, Neopets


While I absolutely adore blogging and update my Livejournal frequently, it saddens me to see that many people have jumped ship for websites like Facebook and Twitter. Neither of which have the same sort of insightfulness that users post in their Livejournal. Twitter is full of throwaway comments and meaningless updates as the posts are limited to only 140 characters. Facebook is much the same on an even greater level. Because Facebook encourages users to use their real name and connect with every single person they know in life, what one announces publicly to the world becomes much more of a considered matter. While announcing silly statements under the guise of an internet alias is something I think nothing of on most websites, when it comes to Facebook I feel a strangling on my freedom of speech. Knowing that relatives and work colleagues can read what you post on Facebook makes you think twice about what you are going to write, and so posts become the monotonous sea of “Oh the weather is nice today and I just ate toast”. In comparison, a personal blog locked to friends only may contain far more interesting posts such as detailed stories about a persons inner feelings, their daily frustrations at work or their great experience at a special event such as a live band.

Many sites are now trying to do and be everything in order to be the one stop shop that people visit on the internet. Facebook in particular is guilty of this and as a result the site is bloated and confusing. I’m really tech savvy and work as webdesigner and I still find Facebook very poorly organised. I’m flooded with updates from other users applications I don’t care about, so that I’ve given up on trying to keep up with the information updates from Facebook. However I feel like there is this pressure to stay updated and available in todays “online” society. If you turn off the chat features, don’t answer private messages & invites in a timely manner, some people get upset with you. I feel stressed by these expectations as I’m not a largely social person and find my energy to face the world in my own solitude. When something like using the internet becomes another extension of social time it becomes quite draining on my sanity.

Recently Blizzard Entertainment added a feature called "Real ID" which lets you keep friends list across World of Warcraft and other Battle.net games like Starcraft 2. It uses your real name and tells people what character/server/game you are playing. Especially in the case of WoW it's handy for keeping track of friends that have a lot of characters they play. However it can be a bit of a joykill for people that play on the Roleplay servers and really want to immerse themselves in fantasy. At this point in time there is no invisible mode for Real ID. So friends you've approved will always see what you're doing and be able to message you. Although I personally I find it annoying, this sort of thing is accepted by a lot of internet users as many already use chat programs like Steam to stay connected with their friends while in-game and use Facebook to interact with personal friends and family with their real name in a similar manner. However, Blizzard were going to force the implementation of Real ID into the forums for World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2, meaning users would only be able to post using their real name in an extremely public arena.. Privacy was a large concern for users, as once you have someones real name it is actually quite easy to track their phone number or where they live. Taking into consideration that people in online games can become quite aggressive or upset when another player kills them, you wouldn’t really want an online enemy knowing where you live. Reports of violence over video games are not unheard of. While the games themselves are not to blame, if a person with emotional or mental problems is aggravated while playing them, the results can lead to violence. Due to the large outcry from the Battle.net community, Blizzard withdrew their plans to force users to use their real names on the forums. The RealID online friends list still remains and while I feel it is a good feature it does need to be developed to ensure that users privacy is not compromised.

GAME-PLAY

Long before the internet and consoles, games have been interactive. In fact it’s probably video games that made single player games more prominent. In comparison board games moreso required you to have other people to play with in order to enjoy them. Playing with another person means you have to adhere to the rules in order to “play fair” but playing by yourself it’s pretty easy to cheat and win the game. I’ve cheated plenty of times while playing single card games like Solitaire, however playing Solitaires computerised counterpart keeps you honest as the program does not allow you to break the rules. It’s much more satisfying to win the game when you know you played it properly by the rules. A game should be fun but also a little challenging, so if you are cheating I suppose you aren’t really “playing the game” as such. If you are only wishing to pass the time and be entertained, it’s probably more likely someone will sit in front of the television rather than go to the effort of moving pieces around a board game. Perhaps entertainment and game-play can be separated on these grounds. Bringing us the essential core of “interactive entertainment” being some essence of game-play as it requires an effort on our part rather than just sitting back passively.

Online games are becoming more widespread as internet connectivity for game consoles is becoming a standard feature. As well as many social networking sites such as Facebook are incorporating games into their foray of applications. This expansion of gaming platforms as well as it’s ability to connect a user to all their friends/family is helping to shift the demographics of those who play video games. However it is strange that while there are many forms of games from such as gambling, board games and sports that are enjoyed by all ages, that still video games are viewed as something that only young people play.

With the proposals of the types of game-play by Roger Caillois, one could argue that we encounter games in our daily lives on a subconscious level. Games are not simply for children because we are always interacting with the world around us, facing challenges, taking chances, playing a part or losing ourselves in the thrill of something.

As I mentioned earlier, sites like Facebook make me feel very restricted, is perhaps that I am experiencing “Mimesis” and forcing myself to role play a well behaved version of myself? Or am I role playing someone I want to be when I post anonymously on sites like 4chan? Which is the real me? The one I present when attached to my real name or the one I present when behind an alias or complete anonymity. Either way, people interact with these different versions of myself and each will have different perceptions even if they encountered the same personality.

Is one experiencing “Agon” when they go for a job as they try to the beat the other applicants? Many people are competitive by nature and will find satisfaction in the smallest of triumphs over others. Something as simple as beating others over the crosswalk when crossing the road might be the motivator for some. Some even live vicariously through the victories of their sporting team over a friends. I feel that without Agon that some people would be stripped of a reason for living. It is impossible to live in our society without interacting and competing with others.

REFERENCES

Game Politics, BREAKING: Judge Rejects Video Game Murder Defense for Halo 3 Teen, Retrieved 9th August 2010,
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/01/12/breaking-judge-rejects-video-game-murder-defense-halo-3-teen

NineMSN, Police investigate 'World of Warcraft' murder, retrieved 9th August 2010,
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/975707/police-investigate-world-of-warcraft-murder

Youtube, Art & Technology 9.1 Caillois & Video Games, retrieved 9th August 2010,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWzxpbr8_-A

Turney, Drew, ‘Got Game?’, Desktop, no. 236, 2008, pp. 50-52.

The Economist, Serious Fun, retrieved 16 August 2009, http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13174355

Neoseeker, Blizzard responds to Real ID backlash, retrieved 9th August 2010,
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/14312-blizzard-responds-to-real-id-backlash/

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Why do people play games?

"By now you've all read Csikszentmihalyi's essay on 'flow, pleasure and enjoyment' (Home Page > Survival Kit > Initial Tasks...). We know people like to have fun and enjoy themselves. We can assume that there's a certain therapeutic element in the distraction of games, especially with demanding work, study, family, social and other busy schedules. We know that children learn valuable social skills through game play, and that adults like to relax in a number of structured ways through games.

In the very first (conjecturable) contexts in which games first emerged - think back to the earliest forms of human social organisation and communication, of simple village life, hunter-gatherers - daily life would have been just as demanding a mix of 'work-family balance', and possibly more stressful than we have to deal with today (think large carnivors and no chain link fencing).

Yet games emerged despite these circumstances. How? What for? With what implications into the future of civilisation and the human psyche?

This is your opportunity to relate your own game-play preferences to the bigger question of "why do we play?"

A nice easy discussion topic to start us off...."


For me personally, it's an escape. It is for a lot of people. I don't always want to be me, sometimes I want to be someone else.

Recently Blizzard Entertainment added a feature called "Real ID" which lets you keep friends list across World of Warcraft and other Battle.net games like Starcraft 2. It uses your real name and tells people what character/server/game you are playing. Especially in the case of WoW it's handy for keeping track of friends that have a lot of characters they play. However it can be a bit of a joykill for people that play on the Roleplay servers and really want to immerse themselves in fantasy. At this point in time there is no invisible mode for Real ID. So friends you've approved will always see what you're doing and be able to message you.

The same immersion joykill problem is occuring in a lot of games. Xbox Live, Playstation Network and Steam all connect you with friends and enable you to chat even when you're playing a single player game. With mobile phones and the internet, there's this pressure to always be available these days. I'm made to feel guilty for wanting to spend a whole day playing a game in peace and quiet. If you don't reply to messages via your computer, console or phone within a certain amount of time they get annoyed with you. Sometimes I just don't want to talk to anyone.


I think the "escape" is kind of being killed by social networking these days.

But in general, playing a game is something that keeps you occupied and can be exciting as you chase the thrill of winning. While you may take the game seriously it's still a "safe" way to challenge yourself or your mind.. if you "die" in game it's not going to cause you any real physical harm. 

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Fictional games?

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

Decide which genre/artform interests you most from the examples above, and compile a list to add to a relevant discussion thread. Do these artists represent the games in ways that are familiar, or totally unfamiliar? Is a particular fictional game unfamiliar because of the rules, the strategies used, the purpose, the design, the artifact, or what? Have any of these fictional games produced actual versions that you can now buy, and are these still in the same form (a board game) or have they been translated into digital format?
Post your findings to the discussions forum in your journals or in the weekly discussion forum where relevant.



Fictional games? (Brainstorm list)

"Jumanji" from Jumanji (book/movie)
"The World" in Hack//Sign (anime)
"Liar Game" in Liar Game (Japanese drama series)
"Blitzball" in Final Fantasy 10 (video game)

Area that interests me?

"The World"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.hack//Sign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.hack//fragment
Role playing games interest me the most, since I enjoy those sorts of video games. I particularly liked "The World" in .Hack//sign because it was familiar to me. The design of it reminded me a lot of my favourite game, Phantasy Star Online. There have been .hack games created but they aren't really like the game within the manga/anime. "The World" is presented as an MMORPG and the games based on the .hack franchise were far from this model of game. The games moreso simulated the idea of an MMORPG and the player journed through the story of the .hack series. One game for online play was created for the Playstation 2 but was only released in Japan and lasted for one year before the servers were closed.

"Hanufuda"
http://hanafubuki.org/
I saw it in an anime called "Summer Wars"

Pleasure Vs Enjoyment.

http://www.austega.com/education/articles/flow.htm

Please read the article "Flow" & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a review of a public lecture presented by Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Sydney on 17 March 1999, organised by the School of Leisure & Tourism Studies at the University of Technology Sydney. Post something about it in your online Journal.  In particular note the difference between pleasure and enjoyment. This article will serve as a starting point for you to approach this unit with a novel and innovative attitude.

Pleasure seems to be something that you can simply sit back and relax with and doesn't require a whole lot of effort on our part, but it does not offer us a sense of achievement. Wheras enjoyment is perhaps something you need to be more actively involved in, such as playing sports or a video game. You can win at a game but you can't win at a massage. I feel like pleasure is something you are made to feel guilty for spending your time/money on.

It's interesting to note that some people have no sense of self worth or happiness when they are not involved in doing something or have some sort of status like from a job. On some level I rather enjoy sitting around doing nothing and staring into nothing. Although I'm sure I'd become bored of it if that was all I was "doing" all day long. I think it's appealing to me because life is so busy and I like time to stop and have days on end where I have no commitments.

The observation of people sitting around watching television because it's something to do with no effort in initiation is true for me in the case of the internet. I don't watch television because the things I like aren't really shown very frequently. However I am addicted to the internet, where there are endless websites to browse on subjects I am interested in. I do become frustrated with myself for this addiction because when I waste hours on the internet I feel like I should have been playing a video game. Games give me more of a sense of an achievement but they also give me a sense of guilt because I like them so much and they seem to be associated more with "goofing off".

Monday, May 10, 2010

Digital Voices

In the last year I have come across a growing musical phenomenon called Vocaloids.

One of my favourite songs is "Love is War" sung by Hatsune Miku.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Dqb6uJ8WY

Upon listening, you will probably determine that some sort of computerized effect has been added to a singers voice. But in fact the entire song is sung by a computer program called "Hatsune Miku". Miku is as much a character as she is a voice. All of the Vocaloids have been marketed this way and it has been hugely successful among anime fans.

Musical composers are able to write songs and have Vocaloids provide the voice. They can then share the song online and collaborate with other people to create music videos. Most Vocaloid videos are distrubuted on a Japanese website called Nico Nico Douga. Many talented composers have released their created songs on CD and via iTunes with great reception.

One software developer went as far as to create a program called Miku Miku Dance, which allows the user to create dance moves for Miku and output a video to use with their music.

Currently the most well known Vocaloid characters are the Japanese ones, which have been all given personalities through the anime style characters to represent each voice. While some Vocaloid software has been released for the English speaking market, it did not include mascot characters and did not take off so well.

Some more Vocaloid songs I really like:

Imitation Black sung by Kaito, Len & Gakupo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2SgPM9ayAg

Paranoid Doll sung by Kamui Gakupo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oikw-VbQ8Y

Meltdown sung by Rin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ox5-fEH4Ww

I am always mindblown that these songs can be sung so beautifully by a computer program. The voices were created by sound sampling from voice actors rather than singers. The software was developed to create the vocal ranges. The Vocaloid software is said that it can sing notes unattainable by the human voice.

In addition to sales of music, the Vocaloids even have their own merchandise! Figurines and a wide range of other products have been produced.

References:
Hatsune Miku - The worlds first virtual diva (mini documentary)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBZOlipfjkQ&feature=fvw

Love is War minisite
http://supercell.sc/koisen/index.html

Tripshots (composer)
http://www.tripshots.net/

http://www.mikufan.com/

http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/Miku_Hatsune

Miku Miku Dance Software
http://www.geocities.jp/higuchuu4/index_e.htm

Online Games - PSO & WoW

As long as I can remember, I’ve always had a video game console. I grew up with games and still enjoy them as an adult. To watch the way that video games have advanced is simply amazing.

I especially enjoy online games that let you connect up with friends or even strangers. In my case that is quite ironic because almost my entire core group of friends were all originally online friends that I met via games. It sounds strange to but I think in the future, the concept of meeting people online will become much more accepted.

It’s really quite amazing that you can play a game with someone in your own country but also with people from overseas. Learning to communicate with people that don’t speak the same language is a challenge but well worth the effort. I used to play Phantasy Star Online on the Sega Dreamcast, which was a pioneer in online gaming for consoles. PSO had a list of phrases you could select that would be translated into the correct language for other players. It was limited of course but such a fantastic concept. I’ve yet to see it implemented in any other online games. Even Phantasy Star Universe, the successor to PSO, lacked the ability to connect to anyone worldwide. Separate servers were set up for Japanese and English speaking countries. Unfortunately too many people disliked playing with people they couldn’t speak with fluently in PSO.



In class we were introduced to Second Life. A world where you can create an avatar and home for your online personality. The “game” itself is free but some people spend real world money to buy items for their virtual character and house. I often wondered if it was possible for such a concept to take off.

I’ve noticed this trend of buying virtual items slowly creeping it’s way into other online games. Microsoft’s Xbox Live has an online store where you can buy clothing and accessories for your avatar. Users already pay a subscription fee for an Xbox Live Gold account in order to allow them to play games online. I quite often scoff at Microsoft charging for dashboard themes, icons and avatar clothing. But even I caved and bought an icon pack eventually.

Blizzards massively successful World of Warcraft is a MMORPG (Mass multiplayer online role playing game), the only way to play it is online and you must pay a subscription fee to play. Since the start of the game, people have been selling in game items and entire accounts to each other privately and via ebay. The sale of in game gold for real world money is frowned upon and can earn you a permanant ban from the game.

World of Warcraft has just recently introduced special items that can only be obtained by purchasing them with real world money. The “Celestial Steed” sells for $25 US and despite the hefty price tag being more than the cost of 1 month subscription to play World of Warcraft, it is reported that the Celestial Steed made US $2million in the first four hours of
its release for sale.

Sources:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178849
http://www.wow.com/2010/04/19/breakfast-topic-i-just-bought-a-25-imaginary-horse/

I play World of Warcraft and I have not purchased any virtual items as of yet. But it’s hard to resist! It’s a pretty glowing pegasus and honestly I am a complete sucker for cool items in games.

Last year I spent a week madly hunting virtual easter eggs during the Easter event, Noble Garden in order to obtain a pair of rabbit ears for my character to wear. The amount of time and effort people pour into online games is quite amazing.



The critisism of online games being too addictive can also be applied to todays new media, as it is all designed with endless options to keep us engaged and connected. Mobile phones, email and social networking sites encourage us be in a constant state of availability. I am personally beginning to find these expectations becoming stressful. All these messages and invitations I’m meant to sort through and reply to, waste the time that I could have spent playing video games!

Friday, May 7, 2010

2003 - 2009 improvement meme


UniKoRn 2003 - 2009 meme by ~unikorn on deviantART

I’ve always loved drawing. I’m good but not fantastic. I’ve had to be very critical of myself to start improving. Learning to accept criticism is really hard!

I find it really interesting that the problems of preserving artwork have been solved by the computer. A digital file can be replicated with ease, without loss of quality and will last forever with no deterioration.

I mentioned ‘memes’ in a previous entry. Another form of them is art memes. Someone creates a challenge and then other artists can follow it. In this case, someone on the website DeviantArt, created a blank template and asked people to compile pieces of artwork from 2003 to 2009 and observe their improvement over the years.

My old artwork was a little awkward looking because I didn’t plan out the poses or facial features enough. I didn’t use references for anatomy very often either. In comparison, around 2007 I began to observe photo references more often and the anatomy looks much better. I’m far from perfect at it but I’m getting there. As when I am sketching without any references, things come together much better.

In 2003 - 2004 all my digital coloring had all the telltale tacky signs of a Photoshop newbie. I didn’t really understand much about choosing color pallettes that work and in fact I’m still learning. I think my choice of colors could have helped a lot of my older artwork to look better. Building up depth with different colors is something I need to explore more.

I also branched out to using different programs to create art. A few
times I’ve used Adobe Illustrator to make sharp clean outlines. I barely
understood how to use the pen tool and had no idea about the
pathfinder. It took me a long time to get the outlines right and often
I’d just delete the path and start again because I didn’t know how
to edit the nodes! Since starting Graphic Design at Deakin last year,
I’ve learn more about Illustrator and my future work in it should be
much more effecient!

Another program I tried is called Open Canvas. It has a really great
way of handling digital painting. You can achieve similiar results in
Photoshop but it takes a lot more effort to set up the paintbrush
settings. I only had a demo of Open Canvas a few years ago and
some unfinished work files don’t work even though I recently bought
the full version. If I had of known I’d lose those files, I would have
converted them to Photoshop .psd files while the demo still worked.

I love that digital art can achieve paint-like results without all the
mess that comes along with the real thing. Not everyone has the
appropriate space in their home for an art studio but just about
everyone owns a computer these days. You don’t even need to buy
expensive software like Photoshop. there are free websites where
you can draw such as Oekaki boards. I’ve even seen amazing
pictures that were created in MS Paint.

I’ve really learnt that it’s not all about owning the best or most
expensive tools. Something amazing can still be made with low
tech computers or software.

Part of the reason I wanted to attend university, is that I really
wished to improve my art skill. The irony is that while I am learning
all the techniques to make my work much better, I don’t have as
much leisure time to actually apply it to any large personal art
projects. But I look forward to being able to create much more
successful art pieces.

A large portion of my work is just fan-art. But I hope to have the
confidence & skill to create my own characters and comics on a
professional level one day.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Robot Unicorn Attack

http://games.adultswim.com/robot-unicorn-attack-twitchy-online-game.html

This funny game "Robot Unicorn Attack" seems entirely silly but it's actually quite a lot of fun to play.

Monday, May 3, 2010

What is Internet Art?

The following is an Essay I wrote last year (2009) for my Internet Arts class at Deakin University.


What is Internet Art?

Art has become anything and everything in the modern world. One of its newest forms is blossoming on World Wide Web. In a revolution of user created content, web 2.0 gives people many opportunities to share and create artwork online.

At the most basic level, one could create artwork by normal methods. A painting, photograph or drawing can easily be transferred into your computer and then uploaded to public websites such as Deviantart, Myspace or Facebook. On the internet, small time artists can get themselves a lot of exposure by creating their own portfolio website or uploading their art to a community website. Within these communities other users can see your work and give feedback. Sharing your art on the internet takes little time, effort and cost compared to the struggle one would have trying to get noticed and set up an exhibition in a local real life gallery and getting the advertising to inform people of it’s existence and coax them to come along. Yet with the internet, in the privacy of your own home you can search exactly for the subject matter you enjoy and be led directly to it, which is extremely convenient for both the user and the artist as their gallery is open 24 hours all year round.

However as these works can exist outside of your computer they are not purely internet art as they do not rely on the net to come into existence. So what art is purely a product of the internet? I feel this is the real question behind “What is internet art?”.

Websites themselves can be seen as a work of art in the hands of a skilled designer and programmer. In the early days of the internet, HTML pages were very basic and even the mighty Microsoft had a rather ugly website. These days if your website is an eyesore, you aren’t likely to attract customers, let alone a random web surfer just looking for entertainment. Design can really make or break your website, so it’s important for a creator to consider usability and aesthetics. Most of them do follow some basic layout and composition rules so the truly innovative and artistic sites are a few and far between. However in the realm of internet art, websites are only a minor component. Mostly they are created offline and uploaded to a webserver, much how a photograph or drawing could be shared online. Websites are moreso the facilitator of internet art, rather than the definition.

Online drawing programs have been gaining popularity in Japan and are slowly making their way into the hands of Western internet surfers as well. These programs use technologies such as Java and Flash to present the user with an array of drawing tools and a canvas that can be drawn on using the standard computer mouse or a drawing tablet consisting of a “pen” and a “board” that control the on-screen cursor. These sorts of programs are for creating internet art in the most literal sense as they can only be run online from a website, unlike popular software such as Photoshop that is directly installed to your computers hard drive.

Oekaki runs from a Java Applet in your browser and is like a Bulletin Board System (Also known as Message Boards and Forums). Although unlike the text based BBS, a new post is started by making a drawing, other users can then reply to your drawing offering praise or constructive criticism. Oekaki is quite diverse in the range of brushes and effects it can do and can almost rival some conventional offline drawing programs. Tegaki-E is similar to the Oekaki BBS idea, however it takes the ability to give comments on a drawing to the next level by also allowing you to draw your reply.

Paint Chat uses an online chat room where you chat in real time with friends (or random people if you choose) and have the ability to draw on the same canvas together and collaborate. Can you imagine trying to draw on the same piece of paper with two people physically being there? It would be very awkward; you would bump into the other person and quite possible smudge each other’s work depending on the medium used. So in this instance, the ability to 2 people creating a picture together in real time is a unique experience that can only be possible through a computer hooked up to the internet. Generally the range of applications that come under the classification do not have the same power as their offline counterparts such as Photoshop but in comparison Paint Chat and Oekaki are both free to use. Most commonly Paint Chat can be run from a Java Applet in your web browser but even popular chat software MSN, which runs independently of the web browser, has a drawing component available.

Another internet phenomenon is called Viral Marketing, which basically relies on internet users to spread the word about a product. They can present themselves as video clips, flash games, blogs or ARG (Alternate Reality Games). Popular movies such as Cloverfield and A.I (Artificial Intelligence) had information that unfolded in on the internet as if they were the stories of real people or organizations to follow, save or defeat. Players could follow clues, solve puzzles and discover side stories not exposed in the actual movies. This massive level of interactivity has never been possible before with the nets media predecessors such as television and radio. There are large communities of people that collaborate to solve the intricate puzzles that will help all players progress in the game. ARG’s can sometimes be associated with marketing a product but some are just purely for the fun of the game and are run by individuals rather than big businesses. The way the players react to the in-game characters, stories and puzzles can actually affect the outcome of the game, creating a truly unique experience for each player. In comparison, most traditional video games only have one outcome when you complete the game – however there are a few with multiple endings, which is probably a large influence for creators of ARG’s.

While many web browser reliant software out there could be set up on a private intranet with a webserver on your network, it would still lack the sheer social numbers of people that the internet itself holds. So it is possible to run all these web browser reliant programs offline if you have the knowledge but I believe that it is the social interaction on the internet that really defines the experience of internet art. Your peers online can and will inspire the content that you create online.

Oekaki, Paintchat, Blogging, Social Networking and Viral Marketing are all forging their own paths for internet art in its most pure literal forms. Many of these technologies are still unknown to your average everyday internet surfer. But the concepts of viral marketing will pave the way to present these niche programs to the general public eventually. There is an enormous amount of potential for these technologies and the artists that use them. However there is also a danger in them becoming commercialized and censored, destroying freedom of speech and thought and limiting the growth of societies creativity. Internet art allows users a lot of freedom under the guise of an online alias and anyone wishing to set up an online art community must remember this.

Art is not only something to look at and enjoy but also reflects the thoughts and feelings of its creators, sometimes making bold statements that general society may criticise or find hard to accept. Internet art still acknowledges its predecessors in mimicking some of its techniques but in essence it is about interactivity and can go much further than a painting on the wall, as it can last indefinitely when saved and duplicated across websites and computers all over the world.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Turney, Drew, ‘Got Game?’, Desktop, no. 236, 2008, pp. 50-52.

Hines , Heatherly, All About Oekaki's, retrieved 17 August 2009, <http://www.squidoo.com/oekaki>.

Kronschnabl, Ana, Tomas Rawlings, Plug In Turn On A Guide to Internet Filmmaking, Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, London, 2004.

Greene , Rachel, Web Work: A HISTORY OF INTERNET ART, 2000, retrieved 10 August 2009,

Ippolito, Jon, Ten Myths of Internet Art, New York Digital Salon, retrieved 16 August 2009, <http://www.nydigitalsalon.org/10/essay.php?essay=6>.

The Economist, Serious Fun, retrieved 16 August 2009,

Monday, April 19, 2010

Rock & Rule

There's an old animated film from the 80's that I saw as a kid called Rock & Rule. The movie is rated PG and thus aimed at a slighty older audience rather than the usual 'kids' demographic that animation gets pigeon holed in. It's really good but very little people have seen it let alone heard of it. I used to dig out all sorts of old animated films from the local video store as a kid and found some real gemstones. A lot of reviewers have shit-canned this movie and even its original theatrical release did not do so well but there is some sort of charm about it that always stuck with me.

Rock & Rule, despite being made in the early 80's had a very small amount of computer animation in it and was used to generate the images such as the "Armageddon Key". Computer animation was in its extremely early stages in the 80's, so even been used for very short sequences it's pretty impressive that it was used at all. On the DVD the director explains how many of the scenes were made with various techniques. I've always been fascinated with animation and I still get surprised when I find out how things are made with a combination of techniques. There's no one definitive rule with what medium is used to create the film. Even real world objects such as scale models & lights, rather than hand drawn images are sometimes used to create a scene. For example, the cityscapes at night with cars travelling were actually models.

The music in the film is written especially for it and performed by well known 80's names such as Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Cheap Trick and Earth Wind & Fire. To make the performances of the bands in the movie and the dancing sequences look convincing, real live actors were recorded as a reference for the animators. Often I have the illusion that professionals know everything and don't need references, so it is encouraging to hear that techniques like this are not taboo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_&_Rule
http://animatedviews.com/2005/rock-rule-2-disc-collector%E2%80%99s-edition/

Voice actor comparisons for Omar. Omar's original voice actor was replaced for the U.S release of the film. The version I have seen is with the 2nd voice actor, Paul De Mat. After watching this short comparison clip on youtube, I still prefer the version I have seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flVrWWBSLos

Friday, April 9, 2010

Adventures on the internet


Kate Moss by Chuck Close
http://designyoutrust.com/wp-content/uploads6/KateMossChuckClose00.jpg

While watching a documentry, The Genius of Photography - Fixing the Shadows, I saw a photo of Kate Moss by Chuck Close. I thought it was interesting and decided to look it up. It's not often you see such bare naked photos of high profile celebrities in such a way. It's not a sex object style like the naked photoshoots in a lot of magazines, it's just simple, innocent and elegant. I like it.

While searching for the photos of Kate Moss, I came across an interesting wiki post about the history of "muses".

http://www.metapedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gbs23

In turn the article had a picture of a painting that I've been trying to remember the artist of. I even wrote an essay on the artist and this painting in highschool but for the life of me I just could not remember. But hey, it's been a long time since I was in highschool! So anyway, the painting is Olympia by Manet.


http://www.griseldaonline.it/foto/checcoli/1D%20-Edouard-Manet-Olympia-1863-parigi-museo-d'orsay.jpg
Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863 Parigi Museo d'Orsay

Monday, March 29, 2010

Galleries - NGG, ACMI. Afterthought: Viral Marketing

Visited ACMI and NGV a week ago. Had a look at the free stuff.

In NGV had a look at some ancient relics. Statues, pottery, idols, books. It's hard to imagine that some of these things are hundreds, even thousands of years old. If I found some of the vases in my backyard, I'd just think it was some junk from the 70's. I particularly like Aztec and Mayan things.

At ACMI I gravitated towards the sections relating to video games and the internet. There was a monitor with a few internet fads, known at Memes listed. I knew quite a few of them.

There was one meme that I looked up when I got home (which I hadn't heard of), which turned out to be a sort of ARG(Alternate reality game)/Viral Marketing thing. Not so much a game. But it was a series of videos posted on youtube by a user named "lonelygirl15" in the form of a video diary. Initially it seemed to be just a real life girl posting about her day to day stuff, until some people on a forum worked out that the girl was a New Zealand actress. It took them a long time to analyze all the videos to come to the conclusion that it was a staged piece of work. It then developed into a tv/web series with more than just diary posts.

I've become really interested in the concepts of viral marketing and ARG in the last few years after I saw the movie Cloverfield at the cinema. I loved the movie so much that I had to know more about it, on the internet I stumbled upon all the "easter eggs" in the movie, as well as web-only content that is seemingly posted by characters from the movie. The web only content can reveal more clues about the events that happened in the movie, even giving us more insight into characters that only play a small role.

http://cloverfieldclues.blogspot.com/

I vaguely followed an ARG called "Junko Junsui" late last year. It was really exciting to watch a game unfold over the internet in real time. Waiting for clues and then for people to unlock them to advance the story. The story seemed to have ended with it open for more but currently it is in limbo. The original "in game" websites seem to be gradually going offline. However many people have posted the videos from the websites on youtube.

The internet has given birth to this new style of Alternate Reality storytelling. With the global platform, users from all over the world can collaborate their ideas. Games such as Junko Junsui required some multi-lingual detective work as the related websites were in English, Russian or Japanese. It was necessary to work together with people from other countries to find the answers to the clues that each website presented.

http://junkojunsui.wikidot.com/

Currently I am following a series called "Marble Hornets" which is a mysterious video log from a boy named Jay, who is trying to figure out what happened to his friend Alex after viewing the footage from a film they were making. An urban myth character called "Slenderman" appears in the background of the videos and it gets really quite creepy! The series has been unfolding for the last year over Youtube and is still going.

http://marblehornets.wikidot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/MarbleHornets

Slick design styles

Design inspirations for our "free" magazine for Uni students.

Blank Fashion Magazine http://www.grupoblank.com
Kikki K Designer Stationary http://www.kikki-k.com/

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Steampunk and memes

I never realised that something I liked had its own genre known as Steampunk until recently.

Steampunk movies:
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Howls Moving Castle
League of Extraordinary Gentleman
Van Helsing
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
Sherlock Holmes

Steampunk games:
Skies of Arcadia
Wild Arms
FF6

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xquhunmuquc&feature=player_embedded
cool little steampunk contraption

http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00RfHTgerhWtuD/Motorcycle-Motorbike-YBR-125-.jpg

http://jaybill.com/2009/12/13/zombiepunk-its-the-new-steampunk/
~~~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQHPYelqr0E
Weezer - Pork & Beans (featuring various people & characters from internet memes)

Awesome Pokemon fight - animated GIF

http://img2.pict.com/e3/1b/12/3153496/0/1267721253949.gif



The program to make this looks very low tech and the style is rather sketchy but the animators skill is superb!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Clients from hell / more inspiration pics (emo flavour)

Clients from hell: http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com


 
  
 

Stuff I like

 
  
(from Bakemonogatari closing credits)

Cool artist

http://melissahaslam.com/index.shtml

Reminds me a little of the artwork from the Scarling / Jack Off Jill album covers