Week IV - Overview

During Week 4 I had an uncharacteristically-simple week, where all I needed to do was write up the results of both of my surveys, tie together all the elements of our Design/Pitch/Plan document and write a Character Study of Mass Effect 2's Miranda Lawson. I also assisted in creating a 'work index' page for the Team Blog based on the one I use here.

Week IV - Research Exercise II

From the start of our project I wanted to hit the ground running with a quick survey to ask what traits were especially pronounced among characters of the recently-released Dragon Age: Origins. I decided the quickest way to do this was to produce a survey asking respondents to rank the game’s eight characters in order of how much the characters appealed to them. I distributed the completed survey to two groups of people; a group of predominantly-female Bioware fans on a Bioware fansite, and a predominantly-male group of games students. The information provided by the characters Morrigan, Alistair, Loghain and Oghren will be the most important, for reasons I will explain upon analysing the data (should my theories hold true.) The survey I performed and its analysis can be found here.

Week IV - Research Exercise

During my analysis of C.Crawford’s ‘Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling’ I discovered the concept of ‘personality mapping’- creating an image of a character through a series of traits that make them up. Comparing this with what I learnt from M. Krawczyk regarding a list of traits to look out for in characters, I had the idea of mapping the positive and negative traits suggested by Krawczyk to a -5 to +5 axis representing the strength. I theorised that with a list of characteristics scored either positive or negative, we would be able to make a character that was plausible for a realistic setting, and could then modify that to easily fit new characters. The test I performed and its analysis can be found here.

Week IV - Character Study II

Mass Effect 2 [Bioware, 2010]'s sexy super-spy Miranda Lawson.

For my second character study I chose Mass Effect 2's Miranda Lawson, reasoning that as I'd used her as an example previously, and that we'd named one of our possible tests in her honour, I should explain her importance. The character study I wrote as a result can be found here.

"Mass Effect 2 is a strange game. On the one hand, it represents something of a technical step back from Dragon Age’s approval system, replacing a slow build of trust with a one-shot mission to prove your loyalty. On the other hand, the characterisation is as good if not better, and I feel this is typified by Miranda Lawson, Commander Shepard’s second in command. Ostensibly a spy working for the mysterious Illusive Man, and indeed the only person in the galaxy who ever meets him in person, Miranda is both the stereotypical femme fatale; a sexy, sassy character almost painted into her uniform, and something entirely different. That she fits the setting so well and breaks beyond her stereotype are both testament to the skill of Bioware’s writers."

Week IV - Personal Goals

During week 4 I have set myself a series of goals to achieve.
i. Continue work on our Design Document.
ii. Writeup results of my two research exercises [Dragon Age and Personality Modelling].
iii. Write a Character Study of Mass Effect 2's Miranda Lawson.

Despite the workload of other units, I'm optimistic I'll complete all these goals in time.