Final project: Gears of War

In 2006, Epic Games revealed a third person shooter game that helped satisfy the need for those who sought video games with a passion for action and cooperative team play. This popular game is soon to be a trilogy with two of the three games already successfully developed. The game was noted as the highest and fastest selling game of 2006 when the first of the two Gears of War sold over 3 million copies in the first ten weeks which set a high standard for other game developers to follow. Gears of War consists of realistic graphics provided by the Unreal Technology which will be explained furthermore and a similar character view to that of the “Resident Evil” franchise. Gears of War known as GoW, is a third person shooter with the “over the shoulder” look which allows the character to be moved in many ways when compared to other shooter games. For example, the characters can roll, duck, hide behind most objects, deliver a powerful thrust to the opponent when in need and climb. The versatility of the characters allow for a more intense and enjoyable game instead of the boring “hide and shoot” technique limited by past technology. The Gears of War realistic graphics are based off of the Unreal Engine created by Epic Games which was soon published by Microsoft Game Studios. There are three advancements of the Unreal Engine with each one setting a new standard of virtual graphics. It was first illustrated in 1998 in a number of award-winning games such as: Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, America’s Army and many more to list. The first Unreal Engine was put into the Unreal Tournament video game which was released in 1999. Unreal Engine 2.0 was used by Bioshock 1 and 2 and also, America’s Army. Gears of War used the Unreal Engine 3.0 pushing the limits slightly further. This advanced technology used for GoW made fantasy look ever closer to reality.

The story sets place in a planet similar to Earth known as the Planet Sera. Shortly after the humans have colonized the planet they discover that there is a highly valued power source called “Imulsion.” The planet, sought after by many led the humans into a long and cold war for 79 years known as the “Pendulum Wars.” The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) was formed although it was minor and only an obscure world-government philosophy, it evolved into a legitimate political party during the wars. A corrupt day known as “Emergence Day” was the beginning of the tragedy that had befallen the human race. A civilization called the “Locust Hordes” were mutant-like creatures with certain human characteristics such as similar physical appearance (arms, legs, neck…) have begun their attack on humanity in order to extinct the human race. In the Hordes attempt to destroy humanity, they have managed to leave the COG as the only human government left on Sera.
Fourteen years after Emergence Day, a former COG soldier, Marcus Fenix had been reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Marcus Fenix has a right hand man by the name of Dominic Santiago who later introduces Fenix to the Delta Squad in which Fenix will be leading. In the first series of Gears of War, the objective of the Delta Squad was to obtain a powerful weapon called the “light mass bomb” in order obliterate all the Locust Hordes dwelling within the planet. During co-op story mode you play as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in order to successfully retrieve the bomb while the game deeply engages you in the never-ending action against the Hordes. With the ability dodge, hide, use team work and do almost anything to stop the Hordes in your way, the thrill leaves you wanting to play more and more.
In Gears of War II, Epic Games went more in depth of the reason Dominic Santiago is in the COG army. It shows through out the story that Dominic has an emotional crisis with his wife. As in the first Gears of War, your main objective is to get obliterate the Locust Hordes from planet Sera except Dominic Santiago gets “personal” with the Hordes because they have enslaved his beloved wife. As the gamer is focused on the main objective of the game, the story also entwines with Dom’s personal problem which dramatizes the story and engages the gamer into the game deeper. Unlike the first Gears of War, the second one takes place underground of planet Sera. The Coalition of Government (COG), takes action against the Horde’s stronghold in order to put an end to the war. New characters are introduced and some die a horrifying death which enriches the games campaign mode. Upon entering the underground world of the Hordes, Marcus and Dominic run into trouble left and right. Marcus, commanding the Delta squad which consists of Dominic, Baird, Cole and B. Carmine, discover an abandoned COG outpost in which they are ordered to investigate. Further along, Delta discovers some abandoned humans along the way. As they further went down the locust cave(hollow), they discovered the Dominic’s wife was indeed alive. However she was so weak and tortured by the locust she had to be put down in order to end her suffering. Enraged by the death of her wife, Dom and Marcus go out and try to save jacinto, which is mankinds last resort, from been taken over from the locust. Eventually, in order to win the battle they had to make a hole in jacinto in order to flood the hollow and kill the locust. Once again the COG are victorious..well at least for now.
In the first Gears of War, there are plenty of unique weapons and the characters presented are diverse and can leave you with a cold chill down the spine. The characters are unique in their physical appearance and the emotions that they show brings a completely new style of game play to the table. There are a number of characters that Epic Games have created with carefully crafted appearances such as Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Baird Damon and Augustus Cole as the main protagonists. In the second series of Gears of War, Epic Games have added more characters and weapons to accompany the games outstanding action sequences. Although the “good” side of the force has added a few artillery to the collection, the Hordes have also increased their weapons load and new characters in the second series.

The game play for gears of war is very unique. There are different types of modes you can do. For example for every game mode(exception wingman) there are two teams of five. One team is the COG (humans) and the other is the locust(monsters). The most popular game mode for gears of war is execution in which you try to eliminate the other players from the other team.
However, you cant just shoot them and watch them die. You must shoot the enemy enough times so that the enemy ends up crawling on the ground. The opponent will remain on the ground until he is revived by another teammate or killed by an execution move by your character. Another way to kill the opponent is to get a one shot kill. This happens by either getting a headshot or blowing up the opponent with a boomshot (similiar to a grenade launcher). Another game type that is quite fun is called Annex. In this gametype the objective of the game is for both teams to capture a specific location on the map. Usually the point to capture will be located by a weapon. When a team captures the location and hold that location they start to collect points for each second they last. The maximum amount of points a team can get is 60 points per each position. After a team has captured 60 points, a new location is shown. Teams get infinite lives while playing annex. The first team to get to 180 points wins the round and the first team to win two rounds wins the match. Guardian is also another game type which consists of a leader in each of the teams. This game mode has the same rules as execution except for one factor. As long as the leader is alive, each teammate gets infinite lives. So the best thing to do in this mode is to kill the leader and then kill the rest. The first to win three rounds wins the match. An interesting capture the flag mode is called submission . It basically combines the modes execution and annex but with a twist. Both teams rush to get the “flag” which in this case it is actually an AI-controlled player. The "flag" will wander the map and attempt to kill anyone who gets near. To "capture" him, you'll have to first down, then escort him as a meat shield all the way back to your base, all while your opponents are trying to kill you and shoot at the "flag". Because, if shot at enough, your meat shield flag will break free, go berserk and deal out the pain. Infinite respawns are also included in this game type. The first team to win two rounds wins the match. Wingman is when you and a buddy team up, sharing a single character model in this five teams of two game mode. It has the same rules as execution but the first team to get 15 kills or more first wins the match. The last game mode which I think is the best one is horde mode. This is basically a mode where you can have up to five people playing and trying to survive the hordes of locust. When a level is chosen, everyone must start out in wave one. As you progress further into the waves, the enemies get smarter, tougher, and more accurate. The basic goal here is to make it all the way to wave 50 without losing. Yet as long as one person survives a wave, the whole team can still advance to the next wave. This is by far the most challenging since teamwork is needed in order to win and advance all the way to the very last wave of locust.
The campaign mode in Gears of War 2 allows for a single player or two players playing cooperatively to complete the game's story mission as Marcus or Dominic(Main characters in GOW). There is a variety of difficulty for the experience veterans and for the novice gamer. There is also an 'Insane' difficulty which is unlocked after the player completes the game at least once. Players in Co-op mode can select different difficulties depending on their skill level. For example if one player chooses hard and the other easy, the AI will adapt to those difficulties. So when the AI shoots the player with the easy difficulty, it wont do as much damage as to the player that picked hard difficulty. Also what’s neat about the Co-op is that there is sometimes a double forked path in which both players would have to split up and try to help each other advance. For instance, One player might have to pull on a lever to help the other player open the door so that they can both be reunited. Also when been attacked from behind, one person can give some covering fire while the other person flanks from behind and kills the locust.
Along with the game play, Gears of War brings interesting weapons to its arsenal. One weapon is the Boltok Pistol. The Boltok is powerful magnum that fires single blasts.
The pistol has a powerful rounds along with its small clip and slow reload. Yet if reloaded perfectly, it will fire faster bringing enemies to a stop. The Boomshield is a shield in which it protects you from enemy fire and lets you fire back with a pistol. However since the Boomshield is heavy, your character will move slowly and make you vulnerable from the back end. A very powerful weapon which acts like a grenade launcher is the Boomshot. The boomshot consists of having shells when launched straight at an enemy it is instantly a one hit kill. However if one shoots it close, the result can be that you die along with you enemy. The frag grenades in the game are very useful in gears of war. The can be used as a melee weapon or a projectile. If an enemy gets close enough, you can stick the grenade to your enemy and shortly after will be blown to pieces. They can also be stuck to walls and other things. This is useful since it can be used defensively or offensively. Another type of grenades are the flash and the ink. Just like the frag grenades, the flash and ink can be stuck to walls or on enemies. The flash grenade temporarily stuns the enemy so you can run away or go up to them and shoot them. The ink frag explodes leaving a trail of poison gas in the air and anyone in the way( enemies or allies) can be killed by it so it must be used carefully. In the game, there are three standard weapons each character has including the shotgun, assault rifle, and hammerburst. When used at closed quarters, the shotgun can become a devastating weapon, turning bodies into little pieces. The assault rifle is always good taking down enemies from med to long range. A substitute for the assault rifle is the hammerburst. The hammerburst is gun which shoots short bursts of rounds and is a little bit more damage than the assault and can zoom in. There is a so the flamethrower which burns the enemies to death. The long range weapons in the game consists of the Longshot sniper rifle and the torque bow. With the Longshot one can zoom in from very far way and has the capability of downing an enemy or killing them with a head shot. As with the torque bow, it is basically a bow which needs to be charged before been shot at the enemy. If aimed carefully, it is a one hit kill. Yet, if the bow is not fully charged, it cannot penetrate the enemies skin therefore , bouncing off the body. Finally, we have the Hammer of Dawn which is a device that one can aim on open space and a beam from the sky will shoot down on destroying any enemy in its way.
Even though Gears of War has these unique features, many people still like to compare which of the two Xbox giants is better. The first person shooter halo 3 has been compared to gears of war on things relating such as multiplayer, story, and graphics. In the following video, it compares these features in a detailed fashion.

More Gears of War 2

Although Halo 3 won , Gears of War is still a game everyone must at least try once. From the graphics to the story it is a game that will have you wanting for more. It also provides a beneficial experience for those who are accustomed to the first person shooters, like the Halo trilogy. To simply say, Gears of War has set the standard for games to come including the graphical technology, the real life storyline, and the action and thrill the game provides the player.

Links
http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/GOW2/TheGame.htm#/weapons/GorgonPistol
http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14232680/gears-of-war-2/videos/gearsvshalo_120108.html

rough draft..so far..

In 2006, Epic Games revealed a third person shooter game that helped satisfy the need for those who sought video games with a passion for action and cooperative team play. This popular game is soon to be a trilogy with two of the three games already successfully developed. The game was noted as the highest and fastest selling game of 2006 when the first of the two Gears of War sold over 3 million copies in the first ten weeks which set a high standard for other game developers to follow. Gears of War consists of realistic graphics provided by the Unreal Technology which will be explained furthermore and a similar character view to that of the “Resident Evil” franchise. Gears of War known as GoW, is a third person shooter with the “over the shoulder” look which allows the character to be moved in many ways when compared to other shooter games. For example, the characters can roll, duck, hide behind most objects, deliver a powerful thrust to the opponent when in need and climb. The versatility of the characters allow for a more intense and enjoyable game instead of the boring “hide and shoot” technique limited by past technology. The Gears of War realistic graphics are based off of the Unreal Engine created by Epic Games which was soon published by Microsoft Game Studios. There are three advancements of the Unreal Engine with each one setting a new standard of virtual graphics. It was first illustrated in 1998 in a number of award-winning games such as: Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, America’s Army and many more to list. The first Unreal Engine was put into the Unreal Tournament video game which was released in 1999. Unreal Engine 2.0 was used by Bioshock 1 and 2 and also, America’s Army. Gears of War used the Unreal Engine 3.0 pushing the limits slightly further. This advanced technology used for GoW made fantasy look ever closer to reality.






The story sets place in a planet similar to Earth known as the planet Sera. Shortly after the humans have colonized the planet they discover that there is a highly valued power source called “Imulsion.” The planet, sought after by many led the humans into a long and cold war for 79 years known as the “Pendulum Wars.” The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) was formed although it was minor and only an obscure world-government philosophy, it evolved into a legitimate political party during the wars. A corrupt day known as “Emergence Day” was the beginning of the tragedy that had befallen the human race. A civilization called the “Locust Hordes” were mutant-like creatures with certain human characteristics such as similar physical appearance (arms, legs, neck…) have begun their attack on humanity in order to extinct the human race. In the Hordes attempt to destroy humanity, they have managed to leave the COG as the only human government left on Sera.
Fourteen years after Emergence Day, a former COG soldier, Marcus Fenix had been reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Marcus Fenix has a right hand man by the name of Dominic Santiago who later introduces Fenix to the Delta Squad in which Fenix will be leading. In the first series of Gears of War, the objective of the Delta Squad was to obtain a powerful weapon called the “light mass bomb” in order obliterate all the Locust Hordes dwelling within the planet. During co-op story mode you play as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in order to successfully retrieve the bomb while the game deeply engages you in the never-ending action against the Hordes. With the ability dodge, hide, use team work and do almost anything to stop the Hordes in your way, the thrill leaves you wanting to play more and more.

The game play for gears of war is very unique. There are different types of modes you can do. For example for every game mode(exception wingman) there are two teams of five. One team is the COG (humans) and the other is the locust(monsters). The most popular game mode for gears of war is execution in which you try to eliminate the other players from the other team. However, you cant just shoot them and watch them die. You must shoot the enemy enough times so that the enemy ends up crawling on the ground. The opponent will remain on the ground until he is revived by another teammate or killed by an execution move by your character. Another way to kill the opponent is to get a one shot kill. This happens by either getting a headshot or blowing up the opponent with a boomshot (similiar to a grenade launcher). Another game type that is quite fun is called Annex. In this gametype the objective of the game is for both teams to capture a specific location on the map. Usually the point to capture will be located by a weapon. When a team captures the location and hold that location they start to collect points for each second they last. The maximum amount of points a team can get is 60 points per each position. After a team has captured 60 points, a new location is shown. Teams get infinite lives while playing annex. The first team to get to 180 points wins the round and the first team to win two rounds wins the match. Guardian is also another game type which consists of a leader in each of the teams. This game mode has the same rules as execution except for one factor. As long as the leader is alive, each teammate gets infinite lives. So the best thing to do in this mode is to kill the leader and then kill the rest. The first to win three rounds wins the match. An interesting capture the flag mode is called submission . It basically combines the modes execution and annex but with a twist. Both teams rush to get the “flag” which in this case it is actually an AI-controlled player. The "flag" will wander the map and attempt to kill anyone who gets near. To "capture" him, you'll have to first down, then escort him as a meat shield all the way back to your base, all while your opponents are trying to kill you and shoot at the "flag". Because, if shot at enough, your meat shield flag will break free, go berserk and deal out the pain. Infinite respawns are also included in this game type. The first team to win two rounds wins the match. Wingman is when you and a buddy team up, sharing a single character model in this five teams of two game mode. It has the same rules as execution but the first team to get 15 kills or more first wins the match. The last game mode which I think is the best one is horde mode. This is basically a mode where you can have up to five people playing and trying to survive the hordes of locust. When a level is chosen, everyone must start out in wave one. As you progress further into the waves, the enemies get smarter, tougher, and more accurate. The basic goal here is to make it all the way to wave 50 without losing. Yet as long as one person survives a wave, the whole team can still advance to the next wave. This is by far the most challenging since teamwork is needed in order to win and advance all the way to the very last wave of locust.
The campaign mode in Gears of War 2 allows for a single player or two players playing cooperatively to complete the game's story mission as Marcus or Dominic(Main characters in GOW). There is a variety of difficulty for the experience veterans and for the novice gamer. There is also an 'Insane' difficulty which is unlocked after the player completes the game at least once. Players in co-op mode can select different difficulties depending on their skill level. For example if one player chooses hard and the other easy, the AI will adapt to those difficulties. So when the AI shoots the player with the easy difficulty, it wont do as much damage as to the player that choose hard difficulty. Also whats neat about the Co-op is that there is sometimes a double forked path in which both players would have to split up and try to help each other advance. For instance, One player might have to pull on a lever to help the other player open the door so that they can both be reunited.

Army using videogames...

For a while now I have been hooked on first person shooters. I mean the thing I like about them is that there are fun to play with people online, test how fast your reaction time is, and are sometimes very realistic. However, I was unaware until I read these articles that shooters are been used by the army in order to help recruit people and “train them”. On the article “Military is just a game”, it talks about how the army including the CIA have spent millions on creating video games that help train the recruits and help recruit people. The game that the army has used a lot for the recruiting is America’s Army, which is a first person shooter. I mean to me this is a surprise since I never thought a game could be used to actually train for something in as dangerous as war. Yes it does give the player an opportunity to see how the terrain and battles are without actually been there. Yet, to me this is a bad way to let recruits find out how war really is. We don’t want them to think that war is just shoot the bad guy and game over. Although this wouldn’t really affect the adults, but more of the younger kids which another article talks about this. In the article US Military Recruits Children: "America's Army" Video Game Violates International Law by Michael B. Reagan it states that the army is manipulating the youth gamers by using video games and promoting violence. The author also says that using this to recruit children is immoral and wrong since this will make them want to join based on the game and not on their liking. I must say that I disagree with this author. I mean its just a game. I'm sorry, but get over it. Its not like every kid that plays this game would actually want to join the army. Most likely they are playing it because it is fun. Besides they cant even join the army until they are 18 so whats the big deal? This author need to take a chill pill and realize that it is just a video game! Anyways now that I got into the topic into of realism there was this website promoting a movie of people who pretend they are in Iraq. I think this is a great video since it show ordinary people how the war in Iraq is brutal and how soldier/citizens face danger every day. To conclude I think the army should keep on doing video games to help recruits. After all that thumb to thumb action might help them someday into the real world combat.

From Gold diggers to glitching

When I think of MMORPG’s, I think of the quests, characters , and adventures one has on these types of games. However, after reading some of the articles for this week it changed my perspective on how I view this games. For example In the article "'Gold Farming': Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games," by Richard Heeks , it talks about how people use games such as World of Worldcraft and other MMORPG’s to make profits. At first when I read this I was not only surprised but also amazed on how people can even make such profit off selling “game money” and other items in the game. For me this takes the fun out in even playing that game. I mean why would you want to play a game and actually waste your hard earned money on 5 million gold or that amazing lightning blade that is so rare. This only proves to me that some gamers out there are so desperate to get the best armor or have the richest character that they are willing to fund “Gold Farming” people to continue promoting cheating. Yes, whether some of you may disagree, I believe this just increases more gamers to be more cheaters. Although Gold Farming can be seen as a positive since in a way its helping underclass people make a little money, its still does not make it ok for them to ruin fun of the game. I mean think of it this way; we have gamers that actually go through each quest and go defeat monsters or what not and earn their gold or levels the fair way. Then we have the other type of gamers who just don’t bother to go through the quests and buy their way into the game in order to advance. To me this is just another way of using outside sources to cheat in a game. Speaking of cheating, there was another article that talked about a different form of cheating: Glitching. In the article Cheaters: A Special Report by Gamer Informer Staff, it states how in games such as COD4 glitching is often used by gamers to win matches. I personally have experienced this playing call of duty 4. For example while playing a map online, some of the other gamers where off the map killing other players. This not only helped them rank up, but they pissed off a lot of players that were actually playing fair. Although most systems have warnings stating that glitching will result in been banned of Xbox Live, most people that do glitch never end up been banned. AHHH! When will this ever get controlled!?..Anyways there was another article(Computer Game Modding, Intermediality and Participatory Culture by Olli Sotamaa) that actually approved gamers of using their own modds to add to the games( examples of this are counter strike). I mean this is ironic since modds often create a better chance for the creator to cheat on his on mod. However, Most of these type of players state that this is not their intention. That they only want to create new and creative maps to their favorite games. I mean I up totally up for the mod since it adds variety to the game. The only thing that I would ask is if they don’t use it to cheat in anyway. To conclude, I find that some gamers would do anything to win or be better in a game. Whether it be from purchasing from Gold Farming people or glitching your way into a game, we must realize that people who do this in the virtual life could possibly do this in real life. Which raised the question, Should we be concerned how cheating in games could affect gamers especially young ones, in real life? I believe the only way to answer this is to monitor this more closely and hopefully spread the word around to help stop cheating in video games.

Games having civics..week 6

For some of this weeks reading, I was somewhat confused on what some of the articles said. However there were two that stood out and were pretty much easy to understand. For example in the article “Young Adults and Virtual Public Spheres: Building a New Political Culture”, by Alan Rycroft, it basically stated that most of the “younger generation” use the internet to get their daily source of news and get involved with other stuff. I mean for me it is not a surprise that most of the people are using the internet to get the news. I mean online you can pretty much do anything. One can posts comments on other people’s ideas(such as blogger). Also thousands and thousands of news articles can be found in just seconds. Its no wonder that people are switching to online instead of watching Komo 4 news. I mean now that I think about it, its no wonder many of the top news companies are switching to online(Such as the Seattle P.I) because of the new trend that is happening. With this in mind younger people(such as myself) have better chance to connect with the rest of the world with using only one click of the mouse. The other article that kind of made sense to me was The Civic Potential of Video Games. In this article it had a lot of neat statistical information about teens that play video games having “parallel aspects to civic life” while another acknowledged that “parents can increase their children’s exposure to civic gaming experiences by first learning more about what constitutes civic gaming experiences, which games include these experiences, and which contain explicit civic content.” It also mentions how instructors can make their classes more intriguing by including video games. For this statement I am 100% up for it since it will actually make students want to sit and learn if they have something to actually explore. For example the game Bioshock would be a perfect game to be in an English class because of its great story and can relate on how students can create their own creative stories. As I read more into the article I noticed how the mention games like halo actually help gamers help out other gamers. This is interesting to me since I always thought halo was more on the competitive side than on the cooperative. Regardless of this, This article helped me see how video games can help shape the minds of youth by helping them perform civic duties. Its is fascinating to see how much video games as well as the internet have helped structure the minds of the “New generation” by helping them connect and open up their minds to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, I wait on what new things come out in the future to further revolutionize our way of living and communicating.

Week 5 race

After reading all the articles, it all came clear that all of them had one thing in common..and that is that they are against stereotyping against other races(obviously). For example in “Why I Didn't buy GTA: Chinatown Wars by Jaime Kuroiwa“, it talks about how video games as well as movies have identical stereotypes for each race. “Race and Video Games’ is pretty much the same thing except the stereotypes are different depending on what game you play. In the article Opinion: Resident Evil 5- How Does This Make You Feel,” by Tom Cross writes about how a game can cross the line on what its trying to show. As I thought about each article, I noticed something in particular about GTA. Almost in every GTA game I have played, the main character has been a minority(for the most part). Taking this into factor I wonder to myself why would they put a minority as the protagonist? Well for one, most of the races that get associated with trouble are usually Hispanic or Black(Ex gangs in Los Angeles Chicago etc). So Rockstar maybe took this into consideration and said “Well since most are in gangs and they are known for their violent ways so why not put them in like that?”. I mean this is wrong since it is stereotyping that Hispanics and Blacks are troublemakers and are linked to crime. With this I can clearly see why most people are against the GTA series. As with the game Resident evil 5..I don’t see what the big deal is. I mean yes the zombies are dark colored and are infected. Yet it makes sense why the game producers made it like that. I mean first of all it is in Africa..where the majority of people are dark skinned..what did the author want them to be? White? Second of all in the story its not so much that they are degrading the people..after all they are infected and cant function very well( they are zombies after all). I mean yes it’s a poor CONTINENT overall( Africa is not a country..cant tell you how many people get that mixed up) but you cant blame a game for having a story that is good and showing people that are actually native in Africa. So I don’t agree on the fact that there is stereotypes in the game. To conclude, it is obvious that many games such as GTA stereotype on races but unlike from movies where they show it for entertainment, in video games it is a way to attract and make a storyline more interesting. Lets face it…without stereotyping many games and movies would just not be as fun and appealing. I admit stereotypes in games are bad only if they are mean to abuse people. Yet if they are used for amusement purposes( it is used in comedy a lot), than to some extent it is okay. Yet like everything else it need some regulations in order for it not to go out of place or over the line( leading to racism and such).

Gender....oh sweet gender.

In the first article I read “Perils of a Princess” by Sharon R Sherman, it mainly talks about the differences between what type of games males and females are most likely to play. For example, in the article it states that most male would go for violent games such as Quake or Doom. While females would go for more of the puzzle games such as Tetris. I, for one do not agree with this statement at all. I have met many girls online that say that they would much prefer chain sawing locust(Gears of War1 & 2 picture on top) than be playing a game that requires putting blocks together(very ironic when compared to the article). However, later on in the article It talks about how in Super Mario bros 2, males and females picked their characters based on the gender of the character( ex guys picking Luigi and girls picking peach). I must say that I have actually seen this happen quite many times. One example of this is when I went to a Super Smash Bros melee ( a very fun game cube game in which it is a 4 player fighting game having some of Nintendo’s most popular characters) tournament at a friends house. As it came time to pick the characters, Most of the guys would pick the “masculine” characters such as Fox(yes he is considered male),Link, Mario, Bowser etc. While some of the girls that were present were choosing characters like Peach, Samus, and Zelda. To me it was very interesting as how this came up on this article because I never realized that gender in characters were so important in games.


Up till today, I have never really noticed the sexism in video games. Wait let me rephrase that. I have noticed the sexism in video games, but I just never really thought of it as a problem. Yet when I read the article “Playing with Fire: Trouble in Super Macho World?” by Gonzalo Frasca, it made me see things a little differently. In the article it talks about a Nintendo DS game which involves peach trying to save Mario instead of the other way around. Yet the catch to the game is that instead of jumping, throwing fireballs, and flying using a raccoon tail(like Mario), peach gets to use her…emotions? WTF!! I don’t know if Nintendo knew this but this literally shouts out “Sexist!”. I mean not only is this stereotypical, but it is dumb how Peach is not able to do the same thing as Mario because she is a girl. I mean even though I am a male, it still shocks me to see how Nintendo uses this to their advantage. Although this is not “fair” to many female gamers, they must realize that this is not the first time sexism has been used. It is basically everywhere especially in the media( movies, tv etc.). Perhaps is the reason why even though this article brought out some awareness, it will probably still not be composed to a be a big problem to me. I have become adapted to this as well as other factors in life(racism, sexism). This means that I will still play games that have a lot of sexism( such as GTA IV) since I have become accustomed to it.

Week 3 post

For this post I have decide to do the following article http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/ by Talmadge Wright, Eric Boria and Paul Breidenbach. This article mostly talks about how "FPS" (First person shooters) such as Counter Strike show a unique way their players socialise with other players. Mainly they focus on they way they communicate in the game. For those who dont know what Counter Strike is, it is a very popular PC fps that you to play on a team as either a terrorist or counter-terrorist. From there you can buy weapons and grenades to kill the opposing team.

Communicating in these type of games is extremely important especially if you want to win. However, in the article, they break it down into 4 caterogies on how players actually communicated. The first category is the creative game talk. This is mostly where players words for humor and joking around with other players. I personally have experience this while playing CS(counter strike). Most players would input "ROFL" or "LOL" whenever someone would fail at shooting the other player. Also they would jump off the level while screaming "terrorists are falling down"(dont know why haha). The second category is the game conflict talk. This is where if someone gets a really good headshot in the game, the other player will call him out by calling him a cheater or someone that broke the rules would get banned from an administrator. This will happen a lot since there is always someone who cant take defeat and will start saying that they are hacking or what not. If they dont stop there they go into further arguing which leads to the third category. Insulting/Distancing talk happens frequently not only in counter strike but in a lot of games. It involves the use of taunting talk/trash talk/ritual insult , racist comments and bad humor comments. I know this for a fact since i have been a victim of this type of comments. I have been called a m*****f****** to an a**h****. There are more on the list but i would take up a lot of space. The last category on the list is the performance talk. This is where players actually strategize in the game by using in game symbols, teach secrets to newbies( novice players), and encourage each other to do well. To me this last category is the most important because it can also tie into real life. For example in a sport where it requires a lot of teamwork, strategization is important because without it there would be no chance in winning a game. To summarize communication is important in a game as it is in real life whether it be negative or positive.

Reading articles

In the article The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames by Douglass C. Perry, it gives a good perspective on how Mythical creatures tie into videogames. I mean for some of the video games such as God of War and Resident Evil 5, if it wasn’t for the mythical and fantasy creatures in the game, I know for sure I wouldn’t be playing them. The fact that developers actually create the creatures based off old Greek mythology is to me simply amazing. I mean from my personal experience, every time I play this type of games it feels like I am actually in a movie/book. I am in control on how and what the outcome of the “story” will be. Its also good to know that many of the best games out in the market today have these traits that many gamers are looking for. In a way it has now become a standard for games to not only have decent game play, but to have an easy to follow story. Because of this, I can see why many developers would go and take some ideas of books such as the famous Lord of The Rings trilogy. Video games with mythology and fantasy creatures also show the creativity and effort to draw in more of a general audience(not just gamers necessarily). I say this because my sister was one of those people who really thought games were just mindless killing and violence. So one day I sat her down and told her to try out Bioshock( A really good xbox 360 game). At first she was skeptical and didn’t even want to play the game. However as she further played and saw the storyline and mythical characters, she become more intrigued as to what would happen next. After only playing two levels did she realize that Bioshock was in some ways similar to the books she reads(she likes reading Twilight type books). So after reading this article it really made me think on how without mythical or fantasy creatures have made modern games very fascinating and intriguing. As to the mini games that we had to play that explain the basic guidelines to a video game, I found each fact to be very important. I mean without rules in a game how can one even win or lose? I am also glad that they mentioned the difficulty has to be according to the skill of the player( Imagine just having veteran on Call Of Duty 4! Ahhh!). With out controls or features to a game how would we even play! Last but not least is the variety of characters that are one can choose on a game( think Street fighter IV, Mario Kart).Without any of these important guidelines, a game can not be very successful.

The King Of Kong

The King of Kong movie was actually pretty good(it was even better than the new street fighter movie!). I mean when i first saw the title of the movie i thought to myself " well this is just another nerdy documentary about people that take gaming way too seriously". However i was taken by surprise on how this was not all about gaming competition but actually had a simple moral along the way. To me it was that perseverance will eventually pay off. I mean here we have Steve Weibe trying to beat the all time record for Donkey Kong arcade set by the most disliked person in the documentary(Billy Mitchell). The thing I like about Steve Weibe was that no matter what hit him( First score not been recorded, unfairness..etc) he would persevere to the point we he would travel across the country just to get a legit score. I mean this is just to show you that like everything else(sports and academics) video games also need practice, more practice,and above all perseverance.

Test blog

Well i guess this is my first blog for literature 220 class! Just wanted to make sure i got down the blog posting stuff since this is my first time using blogger.