The announcement of the iPhone 6 showcased a phenomenon in our culture today. Millions of people paid in advance so that they could leave what they already knew and instead struggle to learn unfamiliar features and software*. Trying to learn new software can be frustrating, but it also reminds us that we are not idly remaining stagnant as the rest of the world flows by us. That's why we describe these periods of ignorance optimistically as "being on the cutting edge of technology". The "cutting edge" is whatever is new, innovative, different...the things we don't yet understand. Apparently that thrill of being a pioneer outweighs the ignorance that inevitably comes with it, as evidenced by the iPhone 6's immediate success. No wonder the technology industry has flourished, given how constantly it is able to evolve and make us all be ignorant again.
*http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2468504,00.asp
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Technology = Humanity?
Advances in technology are often seen as implying that all other aspects of humanity and civilization will improve as a result. But this idea is unfounded, as technology could have the
unintended and opposite effect of diminishing our quality of life. Many powers in life have
to be earned or trained for, be they political position, wealth, devoted
followers, or command of a nuclear power plant. Modern technology is also a
power, but one which we rabble are given access to without having had any
preparations to wield it. There are few things as destructive as power in
the hands of the unready. How would things have been different if
before nuclear physics was discovered we had already learned as a people to not
try to destroy human life? Power is a force for good only when in good hands. And in regards to technology, unspeakable power is
already in the hands of a rising generation before they have education, experience, or wisdom. Time will show how that arrangement pans out.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Why Video Games?
So right now I am at the start of Fall Semester, and the class I am most excited about is the Game Development program that is held each year. Essentially I and 20-30 other students are setting out to make a simple, yet complete, video game.
In our second class meeting we all introduced ourselves to one another, and had to state why we had chosen to work with video games. I thought that was a good topic for me to address here. I've stated in my "About me" that I want to enter the video game industry, so now here is the "why".
MY PASSIONS
I figure the first and most important thing to get across is that I love telling stories. This is the foundation for everything that follows in this post, as all the things I am pursuing in computers and video game design now are ultimately in the service of that pinnacle goal. Stories have always been a way for me to both escape to another world and to express my ideas and feelings. I see stories in general as a powerful force for good, as I know that I've been personally affected by them for the positive in many different ways. I'm not yet sure how skilled I ought to consider my story-telling, but I want to hone my talents and consider that a fascinating and worthy pursuit. My ultimate dream would be to take these stories out of my head and be able to share them in some way with others. I used to try to do that with writing books.
My first "book" was about 5 pages long and I did it for a school assignment. Despite its short length, I remember thinking I couldn't make it any longer because I had simply already said all that there was to say. I enjoyed the experience though and started writing more. The books got progressively more ambitious in scope, longer in length, and deeper in detail. I would sit down to my characters, unsure myself of how things were going to pan out exactly, thus I would just write and see where things took me. I was as much along for the ride as my imaginary adventurers. The last "book" I wrote was when I was somewhere between 16 and 18, and it turned out to be 300+ handwritten pages, detailing a medieval epic.
I can talk more about my experiences writing with another post. My point here, though, is that I very much fell in love with telling stories. Ideas for stories and how to tell them have ever since been on my mind.
About the same time I was discovering the fascinating world of computers. We had a little programming platform on our Windows 3.1 called Ladybug Logo. It came with lessons to perform certain programs and I would take those and edit them around to create games, such as racing a car (that was a blue triangle) around a track (that was a red oval). I don't think I even knew that what I was trying to do was program. I certainly wasn't very efficient at it and I never really grasped the concept of things like objects and functions, I just tweaked already-defined methods. Later I started recording macros in Excel and tweaking those too. I put together murder-mystery games where some evidence would be hidden to implicate the culprit.
Again, I can talk more about programming with another post, but understand that I had a natural interest in the technical. It was no wonder, then, that when I got to college and started taking Computer Science classes I immediately fell in love with it.
So now that I had two great creative passions, it seemed natural to combine the two. Fortunately there are already two ways established to do just that: animated films and video games. So that brings us to passion number three: I love games.
Why? Gee, I'm glad you asked.
WHY GAMES ARE AMAZING
First off, let me make clear that I have a lot of criticisms of games today. Actually, I could probably do some blog posts about that, too. But those criticisms are really more with the industry than with the medium itself. I actually think the medium on its own is genius, particularly in regards to telling stories, the single occupation in life that I am most excited about.
Reason number one is because games are interactive. I guess I should make clear I am defining a video game as any digitally interactive adventure. Why does interactivity matter? Well in regards to the story, a player is much more likely to become personally and emotionally invested in the outcome of the experience when they are putting in their own effort towards reaching that outcome. In books and movies an all-important challenge is to get the audience to connect and self-identify with the protagonist. In a video game you naturally already feel that connection by being the one who is in control of the protagonist (unless they utterly botch it and make you hate your own character). When the main character fails to achieve a goal that you personally invested hours of effort into helping them achieve, the tragedy hits much closer to home. Conversely, their successes are all the sweeter. As such, some of the most beautiful experiences I've had in stories have been in games. Take "To the Moon". That is one of my most favorite games of all time. The "gameplay" isn't really challenging, but I feel that the story was able to make a deeper impact just by its being interactive.
Reason number two is that games are challenging. Most video games follow a pattern of teaching you skills that you will need to incorporate with increasing precision and/or complexity to reach a high standard by the end. A lot of the fun of games is tied up with this learning experience and being able to actually feel yourself getting better, in being able to look back on earlier levels and recognize personal growth since that point. In addition to being ridiculously fun, this design can also serve the story by creating a player-arc next to the protagonist-arc. While the main character is becoming empowered and developing, the player will be too.
These elements of interactivity and personal challenge combine to form reason number three: video games encourage the player to insert him/herself into the experience. Notice that most players don't talk about the game-character beating the final boss, they talk about how they beat the final boss. It's personal and it's all the more exciting because of that. This connection with the main character goes both ways. When an NPC speaks to the character, it is perceived as being directed at the player themselves as much as to their in-game avatar. Thus this allows a way for a developer to speak to the audience in a way that is unique from other story-telling mediums. Notice how video game developers have recognized and capitalized on this unique blend of character and player. In what other medium do you have an entire story where the protagonist might possibly never say a single word? Where his/her motivations, feelings, and reasoning are all expected to be provided by the player alone. Ultimately, games have the opportunity to be the player's own story.
CONCLUSION
There are other reasons why video games are awesome. There is the degree of power and control they give to the developers to create the wildest, most amazing things possible. There is how accepting the gaming community is of new developers, giving the most humble of creators an opportunity to create a household name (Minecraft, anyone?). There is also the excitement of the video game industry still being in its infancy and in need of pioneers to forge its evolution.
To keep this post shorter and more focused, though, I think I should stop here. To summarize, video games are awesome to me because I want to spend my occupation in life telling stories, and games bring a deeper, richer environment for that than any other medium. I suppose that might seem like an odd claim to make, seeing as video games are notorious for consistently sharing some of the worst stories in entertainment. But the potential is definitely still there, and the failings are those of the developers. Storytelling in games needs to be recognized as its own art form, and given as high a precedence as any of the other factors-primarily visuals and gameplay.
Now I know my experience is not the same as every other person's. Also, while I feel the most influential stories can be communicated with games, I understand that some stories require different mediums. Some tales need to be told as movies, and some as books, and some as songs. Also, I know that not all people have the same tastes, and therefore may not appreciate the finer qualities of games. That's okay...I feel the same about opera.
Because, though, I have been entertained by games, felt them stimulate my creativity, and even push me to emotional places, I know that they can do the same for others. And that's what I want to do: make stories that matter, that touch people, that have real purpose and meaning. So that's why video games.
In our second class meeting we all introduced ourselves to one another, and had to state why we had chosen to work with video games. I thought that was a good topic for me to address here. I've stated in my "About me" that I want to enter the video game industry, so now here is the "why".
MY PASSIONS
I figure the first and most important thing to get across is that I love telling stories. This is the foundation for everything that follows in this post, as all the things I am pursuing in computers and video game design now are ultimately in the service of that pinnacle goal. Stories have always been a way for me to both escape to another world and to express my ideas and feelings. I see stories in general as a powerful force for good, as I know that I've been personally affected by them for the positive in many different ways. I'm not yet sure how skilled I ought to consider my story-telling, but I want to hone my talents and consider that a fascinating and worthy pursuit. My ultimate dream would be to take these stories out of my head and be able to share them in some way with others. I used to try to do that with writing books.
My first "book" was about 5 pages long and I did it for a school assignment. Despite its short length, I remember thinking I couldn't make it any longer because I had simply already said all that there was to say. I enjoyed the experience though and started writing more. The books got progressively more ambitious in scope, longer in length, and deeper in detail. I would sit down to my characters, unsure myself of how things were going to pan out exactly, thus I would just write and see where things took me. I was as much along for the ride as my imaginary adventurers. The last "book" I wrote was when I was somewhere between 16 and 18, and it turned out to be 300+ handwritten pages, detailing a medieval epic.
I can talk more about my experiences writing with another post. My point here, though, is that I very much fell in love with telling stories. Ideas for stories and how to tell them have ever since been on my mind.
About the same time I was discovering the fascinating world of computers. We had a little programming platform on our Windows 3.1 called Ladybug Logo. It came with lessons to perform certain programs and I would take those and edit them around to create games, such as racing a car (that was a blue triangle) around a track (that was a red oval). I don't think I even knew that what I was trying to do was program. I certainly wasn't very efficient at it and I never really grasped the concept of things like objects and functions, I just tweaked already-defined methods. Later I started recording macros in Excel and tweaking those too. I put together murder-mystery games where some evidence would be hidden to implicate the culprit.
Again, I can talk more about programming with another post, but understand that I had a natural interest in the technical. It was no wonder, then, that when I got to college and started taking Computer Science classes I immediately fell in love with it.
So now that I had two great creative passions, it seemed natural to combine the two. Fortunately there are already two ways established to do just that: animated films and video games. So that brings us to passion number three: I love games.
Why? Gee, I'm glad you asked.
WHY GAMES ARE AMAZING
First off, let me make clear that I have a lot of criticisms of games today. Actually, I could probably do some blog posts about that, too. But those criticisms are really more with the industry than with the medium itself. I actually think the medium on its own is genius, particularly in regards to telling stories, the single occupation in life that I am most excited about.
Reason number one is because games are interactive. I guess I should make clear I am defining a video game as any digitally interactive adventure. Why does interactivity matter? Well in regards to the story, a player is much more likely to become personally and emotionally invested in the outcome of the experience when they are putting in their own effort towards reaching that outcome. In books and movies an all-important challenge is to get the audience to connect and self-identify with the protagonist. In a video game you naturally already feel that connection by being the one who is in control of the protagonist (unless they utterly botch it and make you hate your own character). When the main character fails to achieve a goal that you personally invested hours of effort into helping them achieve, the tragedy hits much closer to home. Conversely, their successes are all the sweeter. As such, some of the most beautiful experiences I've had in stories have been in games. Take "To the Moon". That is one of my most favorite games of all time. The "gameplay" isn't really challenging, but I feel that the story was able to make a deeper impact just by its being interactive.
Reason number two is that games are challenging. Most video games follow a pattern of teaching you skills that you will need to incorporate with increasing precision and/or complexity to reach a high standard by the end. A lot of the fun of games is tied up with this learning experience and being able to actually feel yourself getting better, in being able to look back on earlier levels and recognize personal growth since that point. In addition to being ridiculously fun, this design can also serve the story by creating a player-arc next to the protagonist-arc. While the main character is becoming empowered and developing, the player will be too.
These elements of interactivity and personal challenge combine to form reason number three: video games encourage the player to insert him/herself into the experience. Notice that most players don't talk about the game-character beating the final boss, they talk about how they beat the final boss. It's personal and it's all the more exciting because of that. This connection with the main character goes both ways. When an NPC speaks to the character, it is perceived as being directed at the player themselves as much as to their in-game avatar. Thus this allows a way for a developer to speak to the audience in a way that is unique from other story-telling mediums. Notice how video game developers have recognized and capitalized on this unique blend of character and player. In what other medium do you have an entire story where the protagonist might possibly never say a single word? Where his/her motivations, feelings, and reasoning are all expected to be provided by the player alone. Ultimately, games have the opportunity to be the player's own story.
CONCLUSION
There are other reasons why video games are awesome. There is the degree of power and control they give to the developers to create the wildest, most amazing things possible. There is how accepting the gaming community is of new developers, giving the most humble of creators an opportunity to create a household name (Minecraft, anyone?). There is also the excitement of the video game industry still being in its infancy and in need of pioneers to forge its evolution.
To keep this post shorter and more focused, though, I think I should stop here. To summarize, video games are awesome to me because I want to spend my occupation in life telling stories, and games bring a deeper, richer environment for that than any other medium. I suppose that might seem like an odd claim to make, seeing as video games are notorious for consistently sharing some of the worst stories in entertainment. But the potential is definitely still there, and the failings are those of the developers. Storytelling in games needs to be recognized as its own art form, and given as high a precedence as any of the other factors-primarily visuals and gameplay.
Now I know my experience is not the same as every other person's. Also, while I feel the most influential stories can be communicated with games, I understand that some stories require different mediums. Some tales need to be told as movies, and some as books, and some as songs. Also, I know that not all people have the same tastes, and therefore may not appreciate the finer qualities of games. That's okay...I feel the same about opera.
Because, though, I have been entertained by games, felt them stimulate my creativity, and even push me to emotional places, I know that they can do the same for others. And that's what I want to do: make stories that matter, that touch people, that have real purpose and meaning. So that's why video games.
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