With regards to Ayiti, I think this is a great step forward with regards to playing/education with serious games. Even though the game is ludicrously hard, it accomplishes a few things with its play that few games do, like really put you in a desperation mindset that encompasses life in third world countries at times. With unforeseen circumstances and inadequate health care that is hard to imagine, but more easy to empathize with through this game. A few questions this paper has raised is how do we address these issues on an international level. What is the governmental responsibility, and what are the economic processes that cause entire nations to live in such deplorable conditions, even though the world is a place with immense natural resources? Things to consider…….

During the course of my paper, I would like to explore a few points about game and culture effects on the gamer. What effect does the gameplay have on the strategy that the player uses? Does losing at the game push the user to adjust his style of play? And does that attune the user to a way of ‘life’ that resembles how it really is in Haiti?

One issue that I would like to explore is the effect the realization (that you have to make sacrifices to ’succeed’) has on the gamers ability to progress in the game.
The game does a very good job of showing the conditions of a poor family in a poor country, and even how the most innocuous items (like shoes and books) can go a long way towards maintaining the physical and mental health of a family. But an interesting area of exploration in the meaning of the game would be how it leaves out the history of the country. There is no explanation of how the family ‘came to be’. And this leaves the gamer with few points of reference with which to ‘turn things around’
Ayiti makes constant reference to the different levels of work, school, and health care that are available (all differentiated by money) but it does not allow the gamer to see ‘who’ is responsible for the different class systems. What I mean by this is that as shown in the graphics, we are the trustee of a poor black family, in a poor black country, but we are not given any indication of who is providing the means of raising the standard of living. I believe this is a considerable area of discussion.
Considering the dynamics of the game, and it’s penchant for making the player adjust his tactics and game plan depending on unforeseen circumstances, “Ayiti”achieves somewhat in its aim to bring awareness to the dire situation in Haiti, and even though it does not give us any real history, there are a few storyline fillers about family in other countries and host Christmas dinners etc. So I’ve come to understand that the game gives a good impression of how family life operates, and how this dynamic determines the game play and influences the player.

I really don’t have much to say about WoW, cause Ive never played it, I just needed to wax poetic for a few lines

Wither art thou? Oh gallant knight and fearless steed, I await your arrival with tearful aniticipation -sorry I thought I was finished, but it’s like I have ye olde tyme prose betwixt mine ears and it dare not release its hold.

Anywho, I will talk about Facebook, because that is the only online community that I’m apart of. The one thing that I can say about my experience with Facebook is that about 93.7% of the people I have listed as friends I’ve actually met more than once, but the actual percentage of the people I have listed as friends that I actually talk to (on the regular) is about 8.7%. Crazy right? So what do I use this amazing tool for? Umm….. besides trying to not creep on people I don’t know and share pictures with people who care about the things that I do around the planet and do the chit chat with the peeps ummm……

nada.

Facebook for me aint no thing. They could shut it down tomorrow and I’d be none the wiser about it. I try to keep in touch with friends with it, it definitely makes it easier, but I still have plenty of other ways to do communicate. Email is a still beautiful thing , and A Real Live Letter can make people pretty happy. So I try not to get caught up in the euphoria (it gets pretty messy) and stick with what I do, which is be me .

What can I say about this game that hasn’t already been said about the LSATs. It’s confusing and long, frustrating and depressing, keeps you up at night and when you’re finished you’re not sure whether you should hang yourself or propose to your long time love. Good Times.

The thesis statement that I will use for my research paper goes as follows:

What effect does the gameplay have on the strategy that the player uses? Does losing at the game push the user to adjust his style of play? And does that attune the user to a way of ‘life’ that resembles how it really is in Haiti?

jk  (Is there a higher rate of depression in gamers after using Ayiti?)

On one level, the main character is motivated by guilt and not revenge or pure valor. We are shown throughout the game that he is trying to find some atonement for his past. In the trainler specifically fe find a man that is in complete control of his environment. Yet he doesn’t do it with physical enhancement or hyper masculinity, he controls the environment (and even life and death) through his mastery of time.

The main character, Tim, is neatly dressed and even carries an unassuming mug on his face during gameplay, even when facing imminent death, he doesn’t show much care for his own life (possibly because he knows he wont really die) But as you can see, his attire isn’t really suited for the task at hand. But this game has traditional gender roles as well, which place the male as hero, and the female as ‘damsel in distress’ even using a knight at the end of the game to punctuate the traditional roles used in the game. We only know the story from Tim’s perspective, never hearing a female voice.

Another perspective could be that, during the course of the gameplay, we find that Tim is the actual ‘bad’guy’ and that we’ve been situated in a role that is antithetical to the platform genre, that his mastery of time in no way makes him dominant over his environment because his situation does not improve and he does not complete his ‘quest’ at the end of the game. Yet their still remains the hegemonic ideology of damsel being saved by knight, we are now only being given the perspective of the ‘antihero’

Dormans article is a means for me to situate ‘Ayiti’ as a roleplaying game in that it is very much trun based and tries to identify you with the character or avatars that you are controlling. It also discusses the rules that govern role-playing games and how these control and situate the participants.

Dormans, J. (2006) “On the Role of the Die: A Brief Ludologic Study of Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games Games and their Rules” Game Studies, Vol 6, Iss 1. <http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/dormans> Retrieved May 2009

Harviainen’s article takes an almost semiotic approach to understanding role playing games, where he situates the gameplay and the narrative as a text and then tries to understand the signs of the text through interpretation and how this can affect the player(s) in the game. This will help me discuss the narrative of ‘Ayiti’ and how the game discusses the family’s situation and your means of playing the game.

Harviainen, J.T. (2008). “A Hermeneutical Approach to Role-Playing Analysis”, International Journal of Role-Playing, Retrieved May 2009. <http://marinkacopier.nl/ijrp/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/harviainen_hermeneutical_approach_to_rp_analysis.pdf>

Messinger et al’s research paper deals primarily with how a video game play, primarily one who is playing an online RPG makes use of their avatars appearance in order to gain some sort of self graitfication, by making it appear like or better than the users actual self. I’ll use the themes discussed in this paper to examine how ‘Ayiti uses avatars in order to make the gamer understand the social context and environment that Haitians find themselves on a daily basis, which emphasizes the poverty that the game is trying to portray.

Messinger, P.: Ge, X.: Stroulia, E.:Lyons, K.:Smirnov, K. (2008) “On the Relationship between my Avatar and Myself” Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/352/263 Retrieved May 2009.

The article by Mr. Arnseth is an exploration into the ways that gamers engage the game and their intent upon playing. He discusses the perspective of playing for a learning experience or learning how to get a better playing experience. His view is that players who would like to learn something from the games they play are often deterred by poor game design of ‘edugames’. This can help my research because I can use some of Arnseth’s opbservations in reference to how Ayiti is played and ‘teaches’ gamers about Haiti.

Arnseth, H. C. (2006) “Learning to Play or Playing to Learn- A Critical Account of the Models of Communication Informing Educational Research on Computer Gameplay.” Game Studies, Vol. 6, Iss. 1.

]]> http://w0rld0fshad0ws.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/braid-not-my-hair-its-a-game-uh/feed/ 0 hsymonds Please believe me! So Smug http://w0rld0fshad0ws.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/cultures/ http://w0rld0fshad0ws.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/cultures/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 16:00:04 +0000 hsymonds http://w0rld0fshad0ws.wordpress.com/?p=19 ]]> In Halverson’s article about Fantasy baseball he explains the nature of the culture that this gaming form creates, giving it the term Competitive Gaming from the fusion of competitive gaming and fan culture. He states that Fan culture is both consumptive and productive because of the fantasy baseball fans interaction with the base of knowledge (stats) that is available and their manipulation and interpretation of this knowledge to gain a competitive edge against other fans.

Halverson, E. & R. Halverson. (2008). Fantasy Baseball, the Case for Competitive Fandom”, Games and Culture, Vol. 3, No. 3-4, 286-308.

’3rd World Farmer’  is a game with similar goals as ‘Ayiti’ in that you take control of a family in a third world country and try to maintain their health, give them education, and support them over the course of several years. The gameplay in ’3rd’ is not very adequate however (or mybe my gaming skills are lacking) but I found that the controls were very primitive, and the system the game uses is very frustrating. The game makes turns a yearly event, so it feels as though you lack a great deal of control over the family. There is also a certain lack of personality about the family. They are in a no-name country and are relatively isolated (I know this isolation is commonplace) but there isn’t any means of understanding the context of the family. Just the same as in the Ayiti game, there is no pretext for the game that would give an indication of how this family came to be in teh position it finds itself. Making it seem as though they are helpless in the condition that they find themsleves until your intervention (and they are culpable for it) I would definitely say that Ayiti is better suited to gamers from the standpoint that it allows users to have greater control over the family and keeps the gamer more interested in the gameplay, because there is a lot more feedback.

Now it’s my turn to take the field, to harass my senses, corrupt my intestines with pringles and starburst, while feeding a horde-esque appetite for blood and chaos. For this honor I chose WoW as my means of digitally galavanting across expansive fields of wonder and mystery.

The type of character I chose was of the Night Elf race because of their penchant for magic and stealth. I like the intrigue of moving amongst the shasdows and being unseen when confronted with hostile enemies. I chose the Neight Elf above the other characters because it was one that I more readily identified with. I don’t usually play as ‘agressive’ or ‘bad’ characters, and I like to have a relative sense of autonomy during my gameplay.

As a Night Elf I chose the class of Rogue which further emphasizes my habit of using stealth and wit in my gameplay techniques. Also the dichotomy of being a deceptively able warrior appeals to me as well. I would name my character Husayn, because not only is the history of the name linked with many intellectual leaders, but as well it is linked with a lineage of able and fearless warriors. (not to be confused with Saddam Hussein-spl)

I don’t have any virtual representation at the moment. I’ll have to look into the appropriate avenues, when I am so inclined. But presently I feel that if I were to have a personlaity online, it would have to be of close resemblence to my physical person (as made possible by the game).

With regards to Ayiti, and my analysis of the game, it’s gamplay, and it’s representation of Haitian culture, I’ve chosen two means of analysis that would allow me to better understand the meaning behind the games structure, as well as how its representation of culture, does very little in relatoin to helping the gamer understand the process of how the family ‘came to be’ – rather than illustrating simply ‘how things are’. These two theories would be Semiotics and Cultural Studies. Broken down, semiotics is the understanding of how we interpret the signs in a game through understanding of the mediation between the signifier and the signified. In other words, what do different pictures and phrases mean when they are read in a certain context. Cultural Studies try to identify and undertand dominant ideologies within a text and how characters of differing races or classes relate to each other.

These theories are useful for the understanding of my discussion topics because they allow me to understand how certain intertextual elements give meaning to the game and shape the gamers views about the lives of the avatars as well as how we can gain (or recognize a lack) of understanding about a culture the game is highlighting.

Semiotics would try and gain an understanding about the dynamics of gameplay and the emphasis on sacrifice in your strategy to succeed in it’s understanding of the language used to persuade you to give up certain things (like a job or school) in order to maintain health.

Cultural Studies would take a look at the options available (and unavailable) to the player during the course of the gamplay due to finance or education restrictions and try and corrolate the item out of reach with a certain class of citizen (protestant or catholic schooling etc)

The strength of Semiotic theory is that it allows the user to break down distinct areas of a game and analyze it at a core (basic) level, however this process tends to place a higher emphasis on components of the game that add to the overall ‘effect’ and may skew the findings in a way the creators did not intend the game to be understood.

Cultural Studies allows the researcher to take a look at the culture of a society within a game and understand how it’s class system and views on race effect both the gameplay and the users understanding of the systems and institutions of  a country. The drawbacks are that there is a correlation (I feel) between the gamers appreciation of access to education and work opportunity and the relative ability of the gamer to provide for the family in the game. What I mean is that the greater the ability of the gamer, the less difficult it appears to the gamer that these Costs of LIfe are attainable.

Noting this I would say that Cultural Studies would be the better of the two because it would allow the research to be understood in a more broad scope, making the research have a better understanding of the totality of the game.

This is a game with well near 200 hours of gameplay, needless to say most gamers will be telling their partners, “It’s not you, it’s me “. A question I want to understand however, because of the ludicrous amount of gameplay involved, does the gamer actually acrue any real-life value from the gameplay (ie, prioitization skills, planning, organization skills). My reason being is that it appears from the construct of the game that a gamer is able to join guilds and complete quests and tasks of varying degrees of complexity, but do these tasks require the gamer to develop skills during the course of the game?

For this game, I would suggest using Narratology as a research theory because of the genre of the game and its massive scope. You are effectively building a history for the avatar and quests in the game give you certain objectives to reach. Because the game is so openended however, I fear I do not have the manpower to use the Game Theory approach because the game has innermerable amounts of consequences which would be too time consuming to to try and gather. My reseach method will be qualitative in nature because I would of necessity need to see the change (or relative staticity) in the individual lives of the gamers (myself included) Using the methodological approach outlined by Consalvo and Dutton (2006) I would be more able to fully comprehend the interaction between the gamer and Oblivion and log a comprehensive list of tools that the gamer has at his disposal during the course of the game.

Some of the limitations to my research approach can be found in the fewness of the subjects I would be able to study. My sample group would most likely be limited to myself and a few other participants, 5-10 at the most, meaning that it would be difficult to generalize to a larger population. Also my method is subjective in nature and is rooted in a personal experience of a gamer and not of a more detached observation of an ‘onlooking researcher’.

As stated before, some of the weaknesses in the Narratology Theory is that its scop is pretty small when compared to the gradios empirical data of Game Theory. Of course the scope of a fully played game is immense in itself, but if one were to expatiate upon the choices available at every moment in the game, it would be mind boggling to the researcher.

If only everyobody stayed this happy.....

Something that is seemingly benign at the beginning of the game, but turns out to be vitally important, is the focus that you chose to have for your ‘family’. Before you begin the game, you are asked to chose from 4 areas what will be your focus for playing the game. They are Health, Happiness, Money, or Education. Upon choosing one of thes categories, it appears there doesn’t seem to be a difference and gameplay (and really there isn’t) but you’ll soon find out that the game uis designed only to allow you to focus upon one (maybe two) areas of living at any point during the gameplay. Noting this, one issue that I would like to explore is the effect opf this realization (that you have to make sacrifices to ‘succeed’) Has on the gamers ability to progress in the game.

The game does a very good job of showing the conditions of a poor family in a poor counrty, and even how the most innocuous items (like shoes and books) can go a long way towards maintaining the physical and mental health of a family. But an interesting area of exploration in the meaning of the game would be how it leaves out the history of the country. There is no explanation of how the family ‘came to be’. And this leaves the gamer with few points of refrence with which to ‘turn things around’

Ayiti makes constant reference to the different levels of work, school, and health care that are available (all differentiated by money) but it does not allow the gamer to see ‘who’ is responsible for the different class systems. What I mean by this is that as shown in the graphics, we are the trustee of a poor black family, in a poor black country, but we are not given any indication of who is providing the means of raising the standard of living. I believe this is a considerable area of discussion.

Steve- Well guys, that was a great game! I love how the dots move across the screen and flash sometimes! I’m just sooo addicted to this game.

Bob- Yeah Steve, but it’s kinda hard to get into the groove when we have to sneak into the lab to use a 3 million dollar machine to look at a couple dots. I mean the game is great and all, but I don’t have the insurance to pay for this thing if it goes down. And it just feels like something is missing, you know?

Steve- Missing like what? This thing is the best we have, probably the best machine in the country. What could possibly be missing.

Bob- It….. it needs more…… cowbell. It needs more cowbell!

Steve- You’ve been smoking again haven’t you Bob.

1970′s

Nolan- Ok we’ve got computer games and we’ve got games on TV, but those really aren’t going to make us money. I don’t have the money to make a supercomputer, we need something that a wide audience can get to themselves.

Ted- How about putting games in bars an stuff? We could charge em a quarter or something and see how addicted people can get to the games.

Nolan- That just might work! But we need money. How much you got?

Ted- 37 buck.

Nolan- Right- we need more cowbell!

Ted- You mean money to build arcade machines?

Nolan- COWBELL!!!.

Ted- I hate you.

1990s

Humble Servant- Master with the NES under your belt, you can now be considered the grandmaster of the videogame world. You control the hearts and minds of millions of people, as well as mine. You have no need to exert yourself to establish your dominance. I am in awe by your immense technological prowess.

Masayuki- I know. I know. The truth of your words is as clear as the day sun. Only because of boredom did I begin designing the NES in the first place. But I feel there is more I can do. I think the NES could use something.

Humble Servant- Master what could possibly be added to the NES to make it greater than now? It is perfect in every way. In fact, with your permission I would wish to take one NES’ hand in marriage one day, when I can afford it.

Masayuki- You’ve always disturbed me, but you give good foot massauges so I keep you around. Anyway- I feel that the NES could use more……… more……… COWBELL! Yes! Cowbell!

Humble Servant- Master your thought process has always been immensely greater than mine, which is why I adore you (and loathe you). I could only dream of comprehending what Cowbell means.

Masayuki- So do I…… So do I……….

2009

Husayn- I think I’ll play some Halo 3 today, online against my friends in Australia, who love to trash talk me even though my record can only speak for itself. Then I’ll play poker on my IPod Touch while I listen to music at the same time and level up on WOW. Life is good…… but I think I’m missing something……….

Serious Game

http://costoflife.ning.com/

Serious Game

Ayiti: The Cost of Life is a game produced as a collaboration between Global Kids, Microsoft and UNICEF. The game is designed for kids and adults aged 11 and up. The purpose of the game is to facilitate the well-being of a Hatian family over the course of 4 years. You take turns before every season alloting  how each family member will occupy their time (school, work, family farm, resting, or in the hospital) For each memeber of the family you must consider their health, happiness and level of education. Their are seveal factors that come into play like illness and storms and which can deter even the best of family planners, but the emphasis on this game is that you will have to make sacrifices. Either you work or go to school, rest or work on the farm. With limited finances decisions and priorities have to be made in order to accomplish goals. The game is turn based, so before every turn you also decide how to allot finances in terms of how richly of conversely how poorly your living conditions will be in order to survive and stay out of debt. I chose this game because it is fairly difficult and it places high importance on being fiscally responsible but is also realistic about the multiple challenges facing impoverished peoples.

Unbeknown to him that  lay hidden a world of clouds and princess’, sewers and adventures, levels and tests that only dreams could uncover. Yet, how does a dream translate itself into an inexorable, uninhibited joy who’s sole desire emanates from a dull rectangular box? And why is it that no matter the form of vessel through which these dreams manifest themselves there still remains an unfettered attraction. From a humble beginning with 8-bit enthusiasm through the successive growth and perfecting of man and machine this boy walked controller in hand to his eventual maturation. There were many notable nights and trysts of the role-playing sort, but the mighty, the great experiences who stand towering above the rest are 4 in rank and station only later generations of gamers will be able to fully appreciate.

In their own right they all hold the highest point of his affection, each one being the pinnacle (in his estimation) of their form. Therefore they are without distinction in his heart, inasmuch as they relate to each other.

Super Mario Bros. is an epic underdog battle between a simple plummer and the forces of evil. Clean in it’s design, elusive in its goals (both manifest and hidden) and simple in its controls ‘Mario’ is clearly a landscape changing game. Sonic the Hedgehog is a thrilling and relfex seasoning experience that rises above the limits of its simple design to hold your heart hostage. Halo. Direct in its efforts, aesthetically exhilarating, fundamentally at the core of what gamers want: a well paced, heart pumping experience.  Metal Gear Solid 2. Riveting, testing, humbling. A benchark for tactical/shooter gaming.

The need to understand these games is paramount for our understanding not only of youth culture, but steadily increasing numbers of adult lives are being entertained, captivated and fulfilled by a phenomenon that is almost global. Western culture (including Japan) is being thoroughly affected the gaming industry. Movies, television show, comics, even music (Sonic the Hamilton) is influenced by videogames.

‘Ayiti: The Cost of Life’ is an online game that is designed to make you in charge of the fortunes of a Haitian family over the course of four years. You have to keep the family healthy and happy while trying to earn a living and get an education. The game puts the challenges right in front of you and is determined to make it difficult, especially if you have the mindset that you can do all things at once. It teaches you sacrifice and prioritization. http://costoflife.ning.com/

‘Layoff’ is a simple match-em-up game that uses the recent economic crisis as it’s source material for informing the public about home much money the US government is really spending. Not to taxing in its purpose but informative nonetheless.  http://www.tiltfactor.org/layoff/

‘Homeless: It’s no game’ is created to show the hazards of living on the streets. It is a rather simplistic approach to a very serious topic like extremes of wealth and poverty rather than exploring the conditions that create an environment like the game creates. It’s pretty easy to play as well.