Week VII - Source Analysis IV

Players in Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning demonstrate distances in MMORPGs.

During Week 7 I borrowed E. Hall's 'The Silent Language' from the University library. I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

"E. Hall's 'The Silent Language’ is an interesting source describing the myriad aspects of culture. While the book is probably required reading for anthropologists, I at first struggled to find meaning within it as relating to games design. Nonetheless riveting, it was only as I approached chapter ten, ‘Space Speaks’, which discusses from a Western point of view how distance affects communication. Within a three-dimensional space such as our level, this is integral."

Week III - Source Analysis III

Dragon Age: Origins [Bioware, 2010]'s Alistair and Morrigan.

During Week 3 I borrowed C. Crawford's 'Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling' from the University library. I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

"C. Crawford’s 'Chris Crawford On Interactive Storytelling’ is an intriguing book. On the one hand, it provides deep and detailed information regarding any way that plot and characters can be used in videogames, but on the other hand, is presented in such a confrontational and condescending way it’s hard to take the man seriously. This stems from the fact that while Crawford practically invented his field, other writers were published dealing with it prior to him, and there seems a kind of resentment present. Struggling through this, however, I found the book to be an excellent source for our project, as it presents further development in the ‘Personality Modelling’ I’ve been working on. While the entire book is useful from a narrative perspective, we are only concerned with Chapter 11, which deals with character-driven storytelling and believable NPCs."

Week III - Source Analysis II

Street Fighter II [Capcom, 1991]'s Chun Li battles Blanka on the game's US Box Art.

During Week 2 I borrowed S. Graner Ray's 'Gender-Inclusive Games Design" from the University library. I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

”S. Graner Ray’s 'Gender-Inclusive Games Design’ is an unlikely source to draw upon for our project, but ultimately it proved at least a little rewarding. The book’s basic premise is that with Games Design being a male-orientated field, more should be done to make games accessible to females- after all, half the planet is female, and that’s a massive untapped market. Appealing directly to our project, however, are elements of chapters two and seven, ‘Evolution Of Female Characters In Computer Games’ and ‘Avatar Selection’ respectively. These were the titles that originally drew me to read the book, and they have proved quite interesting."

Week II - Source Analysis

Mass Effect 2 [Bioware, 2010]'s Miranda Lawson, one of my example characters.

During Week 1 I borrowed M. Krawczyk & J. Novak's 'Game Story & Character Development" from the University library. I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

"M. Krawczyk & J. Novak's 'Game Story & Character Development' is an important source for use with our project because its fifth, sixth and seventh chapters deal specifically with the traits our characters require to be believable. [...] This book has been a very useful source to study from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. It has given rise to theoretical considerations such as to what extent a character is made from their design and their dialogue, and which traits are necessary and easy to replicate. From a practical standpoint it has enlightened us with regards to the danger of unsuited animations and voice acting, as well as providing a series of exercises that will help us create very well-rounded characters for use within our test."

I found this book especially useful, as I had not previously considered visual and auditory design of characters, only the personality traits they exhibited. This will make my forthcoming Character Study on Dragon Age [Bioware, 2009]'s Loghain Mac Tir deeper and more interesting.