Many RPGs tend to be a stagnant pile of generic regurgitation (like most military FPS titles today). In truth, a limited amount of RPG titles have innovated and offer something new. Apparently, developers such as Bioware and Bethesda have re-invigorated the genre, however this is highly debatable. Although by the same token, RPGs can’t seem to claw away from the tropes that generally plague the genre. RPGs try to present themselves as god-like entities, ubiquitous in nature, wrought by what the developers deem an original concept. Few titles are original, and thus this is the sad state of affairs for RPGs. Arguably, Magicka isn’t a wholly original concept, but what has been lacking from titles such as Dragon Age, Fallout New Vegas and Mass Effect is a definitive co-op experience that is fun, engaging and addictive (as well as extremely witty). Magicka embraces all the clichés of RPGs, and is not afraid of its heritage. The game ardently positions itself as a parody, with its ludicrous storyline and somewhat squeaky ‘Swedish’ dialogue. Even as a parody, by simplifying the core elements of the typical isometric RPG (a.k.a Diablo) Magicka becomes an exercise in chaotic tomfoolery. The game was developed by Indie dev team Paradox Interactive who hawker the goods in a nostalgic, yet incredibly satisfying release. The developer consummate the marriage of a “shoot em’ up” with the versatility of an RPG game. Born from this unholy union is a full-fledged multiplayer blood bath, involving hooded midgets in bath robes and magical beam battles that would rival even Dragonball. Magicka’s setting is familiar to most fantasy buffs and draws on this heritage with a perturbed hysterical grin. The game follows the scenario of a magical kingdom und... ... middle of paper ... ...g other mages, someone could be on the offense utilising an amalgamation of arcane, fire and lightning spells, with another in a defensive position utilising water and ice spells, simultaneously casting area affect spells. The options are endless and players can play Magicka however they see fit as there is true no class structure imposed on the player. At the other end of the spectrum, the experience in the single player campaign is lacking, as consequently Magicka is truly a multiplayer game. I still feel that Magicka should be able to stand on its own two feet as a single player experience, as it seems Paradox Interactive were only concerned about its multiplayer component. As a single player game, Magicka becomes unwieldy at times with later boss battles requiring loads of effort, unattainable for the average player without the help of friend on-screen or online.
Imagine for a moment, a world of death. For 200 years your family has been sealed away with a thousand other people, to protect you from the dangers outside. Now your father has disappeared, and it’s up to you to find him. After a harrowing escape from your subterranean home, you walk through a tunnel to the outside world, past dead bodies, stretched out in front of the door, as if to say “don’t leave us out here to die!” As you walk through the gate to the outside, and as your eyes slowly adjust to the sun you have never seen, a wasteland emerges before you. The world is devastated, destroyed and annihilated. Broken twisted hunks of metal lie next to a sign on the side of the mountain saying “scenic overlook” on your right, the broken remains of the interstate bridge stand as a monument to a destroyed culture. Petrified trees are all that remains of the local fauna. Off in the distance, all that remains is destruction. While you may think of this stunning visualization of a wonderful novel, this is actually one of the opening scenes from Todd Howard and Bethesda Game Studios’ “Fallout 3.”
For many, the world of Runescape is an unfamiliar world. Runescape involves many players in a medieval world of ghosts, goblins, and dangerous dragons. By fighting these monsters, characters can level up and get stronger. Each combat level that a player acquires increases his or her character’s strength by one point. People outside this discourse community would have a difficult time trying to understand everything that is going on in this internet game. Even people playing for years might not know everything there is to know about the game. It takes about two weeks to understand and incorporate Runescape’s terms and ways to trade, but that two weeks goes by plenty fast. Breaking things down to its simplest parts is a tough thing to do, but it puts the world of Runescape into view for others that have not heard about the game. Interacting with the other players of Runescape and understanding what the other people are trying to say are key survival techniques that must be used in order to last in this game.
The future is a mystery that human beings can’t figure out because the mindset ideal of the future. A step to get close to the future has been the revolution of technology. It has changed society individually and mentally for the reality for the future. However, technology has change entertainment in the manner of video games. Development to create games has been a phenomenal. Making beautiful digital graphics, wonderful story-lines, and human graphic characters that can talk to an individual through certain scenarios. Although video games are a great revolution for the future it has brought negative influence upon people of all ages in high problems leading into transition behaviors like addiction, violence, and signs of aggression.
Oh no, the princess has been kidnaped by the evil dragon for the fifth time this week. We must call on the help from the guy who has no experience dealing with an army of creatures who have no weapons on them but slowly crawl and cause massive damage. He will jump from one platform on to the next, platform and until he finally rescues the princess, only to find out that she has been kidnaped once again the next day and repeat the same process again. Will this same exact plot ever change, find out next time in the next installment of the never changing genre. When comparing video game genres, mature fans of video games should pick up the far superior Role Playing Genre over the measly oversaturated platformers genres; for the far superior RPG’s
Trybus, Jessica. (November 20, 2014). Game-Based Learning: What It Is, Why It Works, and Where It’s Going. New Media Institute. Retrieved from: - http://www.newmedia.org/game-based-learning–what-it-is-why-it-works-and-where-its-going.html
This review is an experimental study on the way playing video games, against watching violent video games, effects children’s aggressive behavior. This study was conducted by Utrecht University students, in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The research conducted, and article written was by Hanneke Polman, Bram Orobio de Castro, and Marcel A.G van Aken, and copy-written in year 2008. The hypothesis behind this article is how does playing a violent video, rather than just watching one, affect a child’s aggressive behavior in real life.
With the invention of virtual entertainment the everyday interactions between individuals have been dwindling. The availability of instant fun has taken human interaction to the possible minimum in people’s daily activities. In the small growing community of board game players this social norm has not taken hold. With taking a firsthand view at this community we can better understand its ability to stand the test of time, and still grow even when faced with the fast paced virtual world. To better understand this it imperative to take a look into the mid of an avid board game player. Comparing this with the knowledge of the culture that I have experienced will give me a view of this mysterious phenomenon. This led me to set up a personal interview with a diehard Magic the Gathering player to discuss what draws him to playing card games, and if he enjoys these games more than virtual gaming.
For the past twenty years whenever there has been a shooting of any kind, committed by a young male, people have blamed video games. They say that video games make people violent. But that isn’t true. Video games may make people violent while playing them but that violence never leads any further than yelling at the television screen. Video games should not be put down. In fact video games help people better their motor skills, the military uses video games for training exercises, and a lot of people use video games to relieve stress.
Video games are games that allows interaction with one user playing against the system or two or more players against each other on a video screen such as a TV or computer monitor. Video games are good ways to understand and master skills in the game. When comparing Madden and 2k, the two games are very similar in a way such as, they are both a physical sport. They are both controlled by a person behind an analog stick. The games have some of the similar controls. The games are very effective in our youth lives. This effect could be a good and a bad thing, because the game could keep the youth in the house and out of trouble, or it could cause damage in the long run because of the youth being in front of a Television for a long time.
Can role playing games be perilous? Even if their just diversion for kids? Role playing can be normalized to kids, they can disturb the public and kids can become more violent with others.
Whether they be first-person shooters like Call of Duty, sports games like Madden or Fifa, racing games like Forza or Mariokart, or even games and apps on your phones, there are quite a bit of gamers in here. According to the Entertainment Software Association, about 59% of American play some sort of video game, so gaming isn’t all that uncommon (Entertainment Software Association, 2014). As such, there must be some sort of effect on the audience of this growing form of entertainment.
Role-playing games are becoming increasingly popular in this age due the assistance of the Internet. In these types of game a person can assume a character and give this character a personality, physical features and “live” through them. All though in past years “pen and paper” types have dominated the rpg world, now MUDs are making it possible to role-play along with thousands of others A MUD is a network-accessible, multi-participant virtual reality that is primarily text-based. (Bruckman, 1992). Although the term “virtual reality” often refers to a computer-simulated environment that contains varying degrees of audio/visual interface, this form of virtual reality is mainly text-based. Elizabeth Reid further explains by saying:
The four traits of a game include “goals, rules, feedback and voluntary participation” (McGonigal 21). The goals give a sense of purpose, rules promote strategic thinking, feedback gives the motivation to keep playing, and voluntary participation makes the game feel safe and pleasurable. “Pong,” one of the first video games to come into the mainstream that consisted of a vertical sliding bars and a small square block that acted like a ball; the goal was to prevent the ball from going off of the screen. The game required less than 8kb of memory in 1972. Today, games are requiring upwards of 30 GB, which is 30,000,000kb! Another example is an average size of a picture taken by modern smartphones are 3000kb. This kind of memory is needed to increase the polygon count so then it can be a more accurate representation of what reality looks like. This makes the object appear smoother to our eyes because it becomes increasingly more difficult to see the all the individual shapes and thus gives a higher level of detail. With video games rising in popularity overall having “83% of young people ages 8-18 have a video console at home” (Glazer 941). When including smartphone games, there are 183 million active gamers in the United States alone; that’s more than half the population! This shows that there could be a profound
In society’s current era of technological advancement, video games have gone a long way since they were first created. Video games in the twenty-first century are no longer just toys or junk in the lifestyles of the youth. They have become innovative inventions that not only entertain its users, but also help aid the people in both the academic field and in jobs. The influences that video games bring about in the culture of the youth today are, in fact, not the negative influences that most people think. Video games are actually this generation’s new medium for educating the youth. The information they learn are also mostly positive and useful things that they may apply in their future lives (Prensky 4). In a generation that revolves around technology and connectivity, developers and educators have already been able to produce fun and interesting games that can teach and train people. Video game developers and educators should continue to collaborate in order to create more positive, educational, and appealing games.
Many people believe that video games change people and mislead them to do bad things, such as drugs and alcohol, but it is the opposite. Gaming prevents people from such acts and actually helps to keep them away from the substances. Lots of people, mainly parents, believe that video games harm people so they try to keep their children away from them. In reality, video games make your life better. Video games can provide many benefits to your lifestyle as “numerous academic studies indicate that playing video games has many psychological and even physical benefits” (Guarini). Gaming helps stimulate the brain and advances your problem solving abilities. There are disadvantages to gaming, which is true, but the amount of benefits outweigh them by far.