Video Games

Lab Exercise 15: Video Games

The purpose of this lab exercise was to observe the different features of video games. My teammates were Tim and Taylor. The class met at the video game lab and each of us was to play one game on each of the three gaming platforms: 1 console game, 1 PC game, and 1 mobile game. The following is a short report describing our experiences playing games on the different platforms.

PC Gaming

World of Warcraft
The first PC game that our group analyzed at any length was that of World of Warcraft (WoW). We were all encouraged to examine games that would push us outside of our comfort zones. Because of this Taylor volunteered to attempt to work through the gaming world of WoW. WoW is published by Blizzard Entertainment which is a subsidy of Activision Blizzard Inc. a leading software company in the United States. The game is an online game which requires an active network connection. WoW is what is referred to as a MMORPG, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. The game is at its core a PC game which works on a client server bases. Basically this means that the game needs to be connected to a server in order to function. Otherwise it won't work. The software installed on the individual PC's is basically thin client software which then registers and connects to the servers operated by Blizzard. The gameplay is fairly complex though at the same time intuitive. Three other titles published by Blizzard are Warcraft, Starcraft II, and Diablo II.

Cave StoryThe second PC game that we looked at is Cave Story. Cave Story is an action adventure game which was developed by Daisuke Amaya as freeware. The game is fairly simple in and of itself. It works on a screen crossing paradigm which most gamers are familiar with as it is the most common form of gameplay incredibly prevalent in the 1980's and 1990's, the heyday of stand alone arcade game machines. The game is freeware and was developed for cross platform portability. The game is available on Microsoft Windows, Macintosh OS X, Linux Operating Systems, PSP, Xbox, Amiga Operating System, GP2X, and the Wii. The game is freely available and was first released in 2004. It exhibits many of the characteristics of the nostalgic gaming community. Mr. Amaya also developed a game entitled Ikachan which is similar in design and gameplay.

Console Gaming

Wii Sports
I chose to play the Wii Sports game because I had never played it before and because I had heard so many good things about it. At first I didn't even know how to work the game at all but my classmates helped me. It was definitely not hard to learn. Wii is a sports video game developed and produced by Nintendo as a launch title for the Wii Video Game console. Wii Sports is part of the Touch! Generations brand. The Wii Sports game offered different options of what specific game to play. It offered five sports including tennis, golf, bowling, boxing and baseball. Because of time constraints I was only able to play the tennis and bowling games, but it was definitely a fun experience. While watching other classmates play different games on different platforms, it was apparent that the Wii Sports was one of the most technologically advanced video games. I used the Wii remote which was used to perform the action used in real life sports, such as swinging the tennis racket and using the bowling technique. Wii Sports is classified as action/sports. Wii also offers games such as Wii Fit and Wii Dance that are also classified in the action/sports genre.


Mobile Gaming

Fieldrunners
Fieldrunners is a tower defense game which is a sub-genre of the Real Time Strategy gaming sphere. The game was published by Subatomic Studios for the iPhone OS in 2008. We played the game on an iPod Touch. The gameplay was fairly simple, the player places defense fortifications in an attempt to stop enemies from traversing the length of the screen. This continued until the game was complete after 10 levels. Subatomic Studios is a very small company has not yet published any other titles. The company itself is incredibly small and only employs six people.


Spore
This game allows the user to try to survive as a multicellular organism in a tide pool with the opportunity to upgrade its features with the collection of new DNA from other organisms. This game is operated on the iPod Touch by moving the device in the direction that you'd like the character on the screen to go. With other devices, such as mobile phones that lack a touchscreen, the character is moved by pressing keys in ordinal directions of the desired movement. The player advances after their organism eats a certain amount of new DNA from other creatures. I found this game to be really complicated, probably because I never play any sort of video game. I'm also not extremely familiar with the iPod Touch device, so moving the device in order to control the screen was difficult for me to get used to. The graphics of the game were outstanding however, and once I became comfortable with the screen movements the game became more enjoyable. Games like this that are available for mobile music devices or mobile phones can provide entertainment to the user no matter where they are located. The program ran smoothly and efficiently and loaded immediately. Another positive aspect of this game is that it does not require an internet connection in order to run. This really makes the game accessible in any location. Overall, this is an entertaining game that operates well in any location.

Crayon Physics
I also got to experiment and use the Crayon Physics Game on the iPod Touch. Crayon Physics is a crayon game published by Petri Purho and released in 2009. It is classified under the genre of a video puzzle game. The objective of the game was to guide a ball from the start point so that it touches all the stars to reach the next level. Using the touch screen you draw your own path to reach the star (which is the points). The drawing techniques offered was interesting. However, I probably would not play this game again. It was entertaining but it seemed to be meant for a younger age group. It does come with over seventy levels and players can upload custom levels as well. This publisher also offers the games Pocket Physics and Crayon Physics Deluxe which is under the same genre of a video puzzle game.

Final Thoughts
Overall, this was a fun and interesting lab. It was interesting to observe the different technologies used to produce each game and how technology advances over the years produce much better gaming features. I am not a gamer myself but I loved having the opportunity to experience the various video games that I probably would not experienced on my own outside of class. I feel much more knowledgeable of video games and how to play video games. I can now understand how it is such a popular hobby. When I was little, the only games I ever played was SEGA. Now, years later, the video games are so advanced. Technology has definitely come into play and this lab exercise was a great experience. I am glad we got to fit this lab into our syllabus.