CSCE 590E Spring 2007

1. CSCE 590E Spring 2007 Understand Games By Jijun Tang

2. Announcements • We will meet in 1D11 on Wednesday, 4:00pm • I will go through basic Visual C++ programming to create a skeleton mine sweeper game • Finalize your group this week • Slides will be posted on class web site • Age <=17 please leave

3. Homework Due Today • Type in word, print it and turn it in • Question 1: List some games you have played, briefly describe them (or providing screen shots) and catalog each • Question 2: Compare Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360, using public available data (price, RAM, architecture, features, etc)

4. Types • Adventure (text-based/graphical) • Action (shooting, combat sim) • First-person shooting • Combat sim • Action adventure • Fighting • Real-time strategy (RTS) • Role Playing Game (RPG) • Simulation • Racing • Sports • Rhythm • Puzzle • Education

5. Languages • Assembly • C/C++ • VB • Java • Flash • Script

6. Types of Players (from wiki) • Casual gamer: A person who enjoys playing games with simple rules or which do not require large blocks of time to play, may even not consider him/herself as a gamer • Hardcore gamer: spends much of their leisure time playing games. • Competitive gamer: plays games for the enjoyment of competing with other players. • Retrogamer: enjoys playing or collecting vintage video games from earlier eras. • Glitcher: enjoys finding flaws in a game or finding ways to exploit unintentional features. • Professional Gamer: plays games for money • Game tournament • Receive prizes • Cyberathlete Professional League

7. E-Sports

8. ESA • Entertainment Software Association • www.theesa.com • Facts: $7-billion software sale in US, more than doubled from 1996 • 25% age 50+ play video game • 87% <18 seek permission from parents

9. Sales From ESA

10. Worldwide Online Revenue $6.86B $2.0B $2.35B $2.3B 2009 Windows Game Market Worldwide Retail Revenue • WW retail revenues for Windows games tripled in a decade • The online Windows gaming market has exploded • Projections put total WW Windows games revenue over $9B in 2009 $695M 2004 1995 From Microsoft Conference on Game Sources: NPD Data, DFC Intelligence and Themis Group

11. Ave. age: 29 Game buyer: 36 Women: 39% Online: 22% Women online: 40% All American: 50% Ave. age: 33 (12+) Game buyer: 40 Women: 38% Online: 44% Women online: 42% Head of household: 67% ~7.4-7.6 hrs/week Comparison 2003 2005

12. Who and what Who creates games for female? Female heroes in games? From ESA

13. Platform info • For Computer Gamers... • 30% of most frequent game players are <18 • 26% of most frequent game players are 18-35 • 44% of most frequent game players are >35 • For Console Gamers... • 40% of most frequent game players are <18 • 35% of most frequent game players are 18-35 • 25% of most frequent game players are >35

14. Genre info From ESA

15. Online game From ESA

16. How to Interpret the Data • Pro-data: • Do as data suggests • Why: the failure of targeting pre-teen female market • Anti-data: • Explore un-charted territory • Target older audience on Xbox? • Real Time Strategy on Xbox? • Shooting game for moms?

17. Entertainment Software Rating Board Self-regulated rating board ESRB From ESA

18. Why Rating? Example: Conker • Animated Violence, Mature Sexual Themes, Strong Language • Age 17+ • Seven different worlds with 60+ sub-chapters to explore • Massive multiplayer mode • Easy to confuse parents and buy for young kids

19. Conker Screens

20. New Conker on Xbox

21. Sega’s Night Trap (1992) Controversial Games (photos removed)

22. School shooting----Doom? DOOM

23. Flight Simulator

24. Flight Simulator Again

25. Teaching how to hi-jack? Grand Theft Auto

26. Hot Coffee Mod • Hidden sexual mini-game in Grand Auto Theft San Andreas • Can be unlocked by changing one bit in the main.scm file • Who created the scene? • Senator Clinton suggested new regulations • Re-rating and recall, lost $300M, numerous lawsuits. • Who’s responsibility? Rockstar? Modifier? End users?

27. The Mini-Game (photo removed)

28. Game and Violence • Study from National Institute on Media and the Family • Concerns • Children are more likely to imitate the actions of a character with whom they identify. In violent video games the player is often required to take the point of view of the shooter or perpetrator. • Video games by their very nature require active participation rather than passive observation. • Repetition increases learning. Video games involve a great deal of repetition. If the games are violent, then the effect is a behavioral rehearsal for violent activity. • Rewards increase learning, and video games are based on a reward system.

29. Concerns Warranted? • Exposure to violent games increases physiological arousal   • Exposure to violent games increases aggressive thoughts • Exposure to violent games increases aggressive emotions • Exposure to violent games increases aggressive actions • Exposure to violent games decreases positive prosocial (i.e., helping) actions

30. Results on 9th Grader By David Walsh

31. Culture Issues • Culture acceptance is hard to predict • Stereotypes • may backfire • but also may pay-off, should we avoid? • Foreign policies • Try to understand other cultures • Have some sensitivities • Culture acceptance is hard to predict

32. Requirements of Our Projects • We will mimic ESRB and rate your games • Vote from the class • Please do some research about your games: culture issue, violence? IP? • Avoid controversies

33. MMORPG • Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game • World of Warcraft (8M worldwide, 2M North America, 1.5M Europe, 3.5M China) • NavyField • MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) • Counter Strike: online first person shooter game (>200K simultaneously) • EverQuest • Second Life (virtual world)

34. Examples

35. Society Issues with Online Games • Improve society and provide fun • Some people make a living through adding stuff to online games • Bad things can happen • Play too much, mess real life or cannot separate real from virtual • Security problems, cheating, hacking • Deindividuation • In-game regulatory tools

36. What is a game • A game is a form of art in which participants, called players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal. (Greg Costikyan) • A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome. (Salen and Zimmerman)

37. Game Design • Early game design practices resemble the authoring of folk tales: • The game elements and rules evolve over time by the effort of countless nameless “designers” • Game design has developed towards systematic practices, games designed on purpose • Craft vs. Design • Characteristics of a craft product: combination of the methods and materials available as well as the situations in which the product has been used over a longer period of time • Characteristics of a designed product: the result of a trying to reach a design goal by using methods and materials available From The Book’s slides

38. Factors (Crawford) • Crawford: The Art of Computer Game Design (1984) • Identifies four common factors between all games: • Representation • Interaction • Conflict • Safety

39. Features (Costikyan) • “I Have No Words & I Must Design” (1994) • Identifies design choices that have to be made when games are designed • And the main features necessary for games: • Decision making • Goals • Opposition • Managing resources • Game tokens • Information

40. MDA (Hunicke, LeBlanc, Zubek ) • Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics • Three main components: • Mechanics that describe the parts of a game at the level of data representation and algorithms • Dynamics that describe the run-time behavior of the game • Aesthetics that describe desirable emotional responses evoked in the player during gameplay • Sensation, game as sensory pleasure • Fantasy, game as make-believe • Narrative, game as drama • Challenge, game as obstacle course • Fellowship, game as social framework • Discovery, game as uncharted territory • Expression, game as self-discovery • Submission, game as pastime • Provide a framework to span game design, development, game criticism and research

41. 400 Projects (Rules) • The rules consist of five parts • An imperative statement of the rule • A description of the domain of the rule • Rules which take precedence over the rule • Rules that the rule takes precedence over • A description of examples and counter-examples • The rules are meant to be tools which can be used in different phases of the design process

42. Areas and Challeges (Adams, Rollings) • Three different areas • Core mechanics • Interactivity • Storytelling • Narrative • Categorizing different types of challenges: • Pure challanges (logic and inference, lateral-thinking, memory, intelligence-based, knowledge-based, pattern-recognition, etc.) • Applied challenges (races, puzzles, exploration, conflict, economies and conceptual challenges)

43. Basic Elements (Game Design Workshop) • Identify eight basic formal elements: • Players • Objective • Procedures • Rules • Resources • Conflicts • Boundaries • Outcomes • The design method is to use the formal elements to describe the current design and make sure that all aspects of a game design are taken into consideration