Reading 11: Social Issues

By Travis Gayle

Video games impact many social issues. Two popular issues that are perceived to be influenced by the content in video games and by frequency of play are addiction and gun violence. However, while one of these issues is strongly impacted by video games, to the surprise of many, the other is not.

Addiction is defined as being heavily dependent on a substance, thing, or activity to achieve some type of “good” feeling. Video game addiction is real and it is not only present in children. If we think about slot machines, these sometimes come in the form of video games and there are many people addicted to gambling. As I probably mentioned in a blog before, one of my relatives had an addiction for a long time to the casino and that eventually transferred over into mobile gaming because it evoked this same feeling where you lose many times, but that one time you win makes you feel amazing. So you continue to do it over and over again.

There is psychology behind how casinos and video games are developed. When I think about both of them, I think about how fun it is, but also, how unethical it can be. From a business perspective, it is a genius idea to target the weaknesses that people may have. However, is that just? I don’t think so. Fortunately, video game addiction is not the worst type of addiction out there, nor is it the most common. A study was conducted a few years ago for 3,034 children and teenagers. The average length spent playing video games was 20 hours a week, but only 9% of participants were diagnosed with being addicted. 4% were categorized as extreme users. Thus, the problem could be a lot worse.

Now something that is even less of an issue is video games as it pertains to gun violence. Gun violence itself is an issue that is perpetuated by the lack of regulation on part of the government, the NRA, and our own people. The supreme court ruled a few years back that there is no substantial evidence that connects young children playing video games to gun violence. If we think about the mass shootings in America alone, most of the criminals had little to no background when it came to playing video games. I do believe that the current ESRB is sufficient in their regulation. I would even go as far to argue that games serve as a cure to the ills that many people face around the world. They help children develop moral compasses and they are cathartic. They allow people to channel negative energy into something virtual as opposed to physical.

Video games have been a force for good in the world. To limit them to a specific age range would be an injustice. I would foresee negative effects and repercussions for doing so. It is true that there are people who are addicted. However, this is a small subset and we are choosing a lesser of many evils by choosing to have that be an addiction over many things that could be more harmful. Video games also build community. I look around in my dorm and see Fortnite bringing people with the most opposite personalities together. It truly is a beautiful thing. 

 

Reading 10: Culture & eSports

By: Travis Gayle (tgayle)

I think eSports aren’t really sports. It is actually defined as “a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers.”, according to the Google Dictionary. I think they are a form of real competition though. It is fun to watch and has a huge following. One eSport competition that I watched recently was on Fortnite. There is this guy named Ninja who is considered the best player in the world at the game. You can find a picture of him below. He was so good that celebrities wanted to play with him. He played with Drake and Travis Scott (who I heard was trash at the game). It was pretty funny, but cool at the same time to see how different communities were bridged together through this one event. I think that it is an aspect that gets overlooked when we talk about competitive gaming. I’ll eventually get into a discussion of the negatives, but this is a big highlight. Similar to sporting events, and even the Olympics as a whole, competitive gaming draws crowds and builds communities.

While the gaming world is awesome and does a great job at community building, it is not my cup of tea. I would consider myself more of a spectator than an actual player. This mainly because I don’t have much time to practice or play games as a college student. I commend the people who are college students who still find a way to game competitively because it was a balance that I could never strike. This is especially true for FPS games. I suck at those. I have a friend in the class who has gamed competitively for Halo and honestly, I would rather watch him everyday in that and Fortnite, as opposed to play everyday. I think he is that good and when you’re that good, your play isn’t the same thing every time. It is dynamic enough that it keeps a spectator engaged and it tells a story.

I would not be surprised if eSports reached an Olympic level, but I do not agree with the idea of it. Anything that depends on technology has a loophole or a way for people to cheat without others knowing about it. I don’t think there is a lot of integrity in online gaming, even at the competitive level. People will do anything to win. It’s just the nature of the environment. Furthermore, it should not receive the same level of recognition and support as other types of competitive activities. It’s cool, don’t get me wrong. However, when I look at competitive activities that deserve recognition, I think of actual sports. Think about the work that athletes like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and Kobe Bryant put into developing their craft. I can’t compare that to Jeff sitting down, eating pizza, and feeding into an addiction while being lazy under the gamertag xxNinjaSucks33xx. I respect the level of competition that electronic gaming provides, but the physical component that it lacks is what really gets me. Again, it is fun to watch, but it is hard for me to compare the two.

 

Reading 08: Mobile Games

By Travis Gayle (tgayle)

I agree that the rise of mobile gaming has been largely fueled by the growth in casual gaming and social gaming. I think that it is a negative phenomenon more often than not. We live in a society where people are hooked to their phones. There are several things in the technological world that hinder human to human interaction. Aside from social media, gaming might be one of the biggest ones. The way things are set up now on mobile platforms, gaming is becoming a social media in itself, hence the term social gaming. People spend so much time on their phones that when they walk around places, they don’t even no where they are going. Thus, I will purposely walk in the way of someone else so that it forces them to look up (I know it sounds like a mean thing to do, but its also mean to not make you aware that your addiction to your phone is going to cause you to get hit by a car or run over by a bike). I’m sorry. I had to vent for a second because I truly do think this type of gaming and social concept has damaged our society in some ways.

One of the games that was listed that we had the option to play was Candy Crush. I used to play it and it was fun for a while. I was never really about the hype though. Although I don’t think these games are conducive to the human elements of life, I will say that it helped one of my family members out a lot. I had a relative who struggled from a gambling addiction for years. Mobile games was one way to escape that and it truly did help. It replaced one addiction with another desire and feeling of winning or performing well. Fortunately, it did not get to a point where this relative was paying to play or unlock things.

I am not a supporter of the associated business models (ie. free-to-play and micro-transactions) that come with mobile gaming and casual gaming. There are two issues here. First, if a game is free to play, it should remain free to play. Having someone play 20 levels of a game, only to find out that to get to level 21 is going to cost $10 after so much time and effort was put into those other levels is BS. Secondly, for games that cost money, I think that I would rather have the game company give me a flat fee upfront instead of having me pay once and then pay 5 more times for a bunch of other features. Star Wars Battlefront II was guilty of doing this and it caused an uproar. It was pretty stupid on their part because they made the first game one flat rate. Why would you create a second version where you have to pay money to win? It is kind of a reflection of the ugly truth about the world. Without money, you really can’t win. This concept for gaming does debase the fun that use to be associated with gaming.

Reading 09: Mods, Bots, and Bowling

By: Travis Gayle (tgayle)

There is definitely still a charm to arcade games, but I believe it is something that will get lost as time goes by. I think our generation is the last to truly appreciate the old games. Many of us, however, are not going to go out of our way to make sure our kids are playing the classic games like Pacman. Maybe I’m wrong. The charm that I saw in arcade games had very little to do with graphics, because the graphics are crap for the most part. The charm came from the simplicity in terms of the buttons that had to be pressed or joystick that had to be maneuvered, yet winning or getting the high score was the hard part.

One of my favorite games to this day is Pinball. I had to use a pulley to launch the ball into the environment and from there I had two buttons that would control whether a left stick or right stick would hit the ball upwards. The idea was to not let the ball fall in the hole and to obtain the highest score while doing so. I spent so much time playing Pinball as a kid. What I just described sounds so simple, but as I mentioned earlier, getting a high score was not easy.

The concept that this arcade game provides is just one example that was so appealing. In looking at today’s games, it’s not fair how many cheat codes and hacks their are for people to get high scores or perform efficient “speedruns”. I think it takes away from the fun of the game for everyone like that. I compare games like Pinball to Call of Duty or even one of my favorite games now, Fortnite, and there are so many differences. Modern games are a lot more complicated in button usage, a lot more open in the possibilities, but a lot more easier to cheat in.

Do the concepts of the past actually fit in today’s modern gaming? This is a question that I actually often think about because of how much joy past arcade games gave me. I don’t see a strong relationship between old games and the new age of gaming, but when I come across games that are simple enough where all I need to do is press one of three buttons, it takes me back to the days playing games as a kid. I guess the closest thing I can make to the incorporation of an arcade game is street fighter games of the past to something like Tekken or Mortal Combat. However, with all the new technology, and these extra button combos to do a special move, it takes that feeling away.

In short, modern gaming does not do the best job in paying homage to the arcade games that really set the foundation for the success of console and computing games today. It’s either that, or kids just don’t know enough history to connect the past to their present.

Furthermore, I played basketball at the arcade, but could not take a picture of me doing so because I was too busy shooting shots instead of shooting photos. #KOBE!! I also bowled and it was fun. I do have a picture of that. As you can see, the pictures are representative of my vision overtime. A great time. See below:

Reading 04: Sega, PlayStation, Game Boy

By Travis Gayle (tgayle)

The Playstation was developed in 1994 by Sony Entertainment. It was first launched in Japan. This was the brainchild of Ken Kutaragi. Mr. Kutaragi was a Sony engineer who developed the sound chip for the Super Nintendo. He bridged the two companies, but it was not the first time that he attempted to. Yet, it was the only one that was actually released. The PlayStation was originally a joint project between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Famicom/SNES. Needless to say, this was a failed joint effort. Nintendo and Sony could not come to terms on how revenue would be distributed so there was a split and they became rivals. Playstation had to move in a different direction. The project was nearly dropped, but Ken Kutaragi convinced the CEO of Playstation to let him continue the project, reminding the CEO about the bad blood that caused the near failure of the project in the first place. Playstation had to decide whether it wanted to host games that were 2D Sprites or 3D Polygon graphics. After seeing Sega Virtua Fighter (2003), Ken was heavily influenced by the idea of 3D Polygon graphics.

Some of playstations key partnerships included Philips (for the CD Rom), Electronic Arts (for sports games), and Namco (a second party for Sony for four years). Another second party developer, to this day for Playstation, is Naughty Dog. Games like Crash Bandicoot showcase the technical capabilities of the Playstation. Since 1994, up until about 2014, the playstation has progressed in its development internally and externally. The design is sleeker on the outside, and the technical capabilities, such as online playing and listening to music, exists on the inside. The later Playstations also hold a lot more memory. At one point, the initial PS2 only held 8MB of memory.

I honestly chose the Xbox platform over the Playstation because of my loyalty to the franchise. The original Xbox was cheaper than the original Playstation at the time that I got it as a gift. I got so used to the Xbox controller that the PS Controller just felt too small for me. Also, Xbox had Xbox Live and all of my friends had that too. It wasn’t until later that the Playstation came out with this capability. In answering what distinguishes consoles, in addition to capabilities, the price played a major factor for me, and the type of games being released for that system.The other major aspect for me with the Xbox vs. the Playstation was that Playstation games just looked so fake to me on the TV…even today.

With all things being considered, I would say that my favorite console is the Xbox, but I also love the Dreamcast because of the awesome, non-internet playable, games that they had. The Dreamcast was certainly a much cheaper option than even the Nintendo64. I wish the Dreamcast came out with more versions because I do believe that people have been missing out.

Below, you will find pictures that compare the controllers of the Xbox and Playstation as well as some games I played on the consoles.

Reading05: Xbox, Wii, Rhythm

By Travis Gayle (tgayle)

I used to have the original Xbox, and then my family bought the Xbox 360. Finally, on Christmas in 2017, I got the Xbox One as a present. Despite giving a presentation on the Playstation, I am loyal to the Xbox franchise. With that being said, the game that I decided to play for this weak was Call of Duty. I don’t have the earliest version, but I do have two of the cheaper and less cool versions of the game. Call of Duty was introduced by Infinity Ward in 2003. It was a war game based on World War II. It was such a big deal for a first person shooter game to be released that was based on some of the history that the U.S. and other nations had. After the release of COD, a few different versions came out before the COD Modern Warfare game drove the popularity of the franchise in 2007. Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, and World War 2 were among the most popular. For COD WW2, it broke a record of $500 million in sales in three days alone. It also broke the one day record for full game downloads on Sony’s Playstation 4.

Call of Duty is somewhat of a physically passive experience, but one could argue that people got so into the game against online opponents that they would jump around and get hyped up (I can sometimes speak from experience). However, one thing that COD does not have, which I believe is a good thing, is compatible with the Kinect or its own physical device. Manyadults attribute games like COD and Grand Theft Auto to why children can be violent or dangerous. This is a different conversation for a different time, but I will say that if you imagine having a toy gun that comes with the Xbox for Call of Duty. I think it would not be conducive to the promotion of a safe, but fun environment especially for younger children.

I do believe that there should be more physically demanding games, but not for first person shooting games. I think for sports especially, it is good idea to have users physically engaged. Not only does it make the game less boring, but it is healthy. More children are spending time inside playing video games which takes away from physical activity and human to human interaction. I foresee a successful game being able to tackle both of those issues. The Nintendo Wiis has had some success with sports games like Tennis, Golf, and Bowling for multiple players.

If I am being honest though, while I do say that these things are important, I prefer old fashion passive gaming. There’s something fun about just sitting and playing. I’m lazy at times and can’t help it. As far as virtual and augmented reality goes, those are cool, but I honestly don’t know how successful those are going to be. I know that Microsoft has something in the works in the coming years, but there’s been so much hype that I’m almost over all of it for now.

The below image is Call of Duty Modern Warefare 3:

The below is a screenshot from NBA 2K14:

This last screenshot is from a game I loved growing up and it was for the original Xbox. It was called SSX Tricky:

Reading02: Golden Age

By: Travis Gayle (tgayle)

I played three games this week. The first one was Tetris, the second one was Super Mario Bros., and the third was Pac Man. All three games take me back to my childhood because these were some of the only games I had growing up. I’d even play these in the early 2000s because when systems like the PS2 or Nintendo 64 were out, my parents couldn’t afford to buy me the hottest games of the time. In this blog, I will choose to focus a little bit on the history of Tetris as well as the relationship it has to modern games.

Tetris first came about in June of 1984 as a tile puzzle game. It was designed by Alexey Pajitnov, a 29 year old engineering. He created it in a building called  called the Soviet Academy of Sciences. It was the first entertainment software adapted by the U.S. from the Soviets. The game was not created by accident, but Pajtinov hid this from his superiors initially. Instead, they thought he was working on bugs. A 16 year old programmer helped Alexey finish the game, but Alexey does admit being addicted when he started playing it.

It became so popular that it became present on almost every console. It was released for the GameBoy in 1989, and there have been many variations and themes since inception. It was so memorable to me just because memory is just what the nature of puzzles happens to be. The lesson I took away from Tetris was just to strategize and think ahead a little bit. Relative to modern games, Tetris is decent. Some of today’s games are not as fun because of how easy it is for people to cheat, but Tetris was one of those games people really couldn’t cheat in.

I played a round of Tetris and took a screenshot that can be seen below. Additionally, I have a screen shot of the original Tetris that Alexey Pajtinov created. As you can see, the concept of the game remains the same, but through the decades there has been a different visual appeal to it.

Reading 01: Early History

 

By: Travis Gayle (tgayle)

NIMROD was the first computer designed so that people could play games on it. It was created by Ferranti in 1951. People would play a game of Nim against artificial intelligence. Nimrod used light bulbs as a visual display as opposed to a screen like the ones that we see today. The computer system itself had players use buttons to operate the game. Nimrod was groundbreaking because while it looks a lot different than what people perceive today’s video games to be, many of the elements are still there for most. A couple of examples are using buttons and interacting against a program’s AI. Also, many early video game concepts are still in existence today.

We went from using a supercomputer to play a game such as Nim to having different games that could be played on the same television using different physical game maps and lights. We progressed even more by shifting away from light bulbs and moving more towards screens. In 1958, Pong was developed on one of those screens that resemble that of the very first Gameboy. Moving further into the future, games began to appear on normal TV screens that would connect with a console.

There were many technological advancements that gave way to the development of both video games and computers. In considering more of the evident examples today, the existence of virtual reality and augmented reality has provided a platform for more creation. Even more popular is this idea of networks. Back when spacewar and pong were a few of the only games, using wifi to connect to another user somewhere else in the world was unheard of.

We have progressed so much to the point where we now have these virtual devices called emulators. They “emulate” or mimic the behavior of different game consoles on the PC. The game discs are called ISOs and there are many different devices that can be used as a controller. Emulators, in a way, gives our modern era a taste of what it was like to play games going back decades ago. There’s something to be said about the authenticity of those older games despite having worse graphics.

Needless to say, there still existed technological obstacles for both developers and gamers. One of those is memory and how much can be stored on a single device. However, with more memory used up, something like speed could be a tradeoff. The bigger challenge is not necessarily technological, but more of an ethical issue. The monetization of games are heavily debated today. Some people put the time an effort in to move up the ranks in games and in some games that isn’t possible without paying money to win. It’s especially unfair with games that a user already purchased and is not free. There are plenty other issues in gaming, but the biggest one is not technological. However, these challenges do not take away from the progress made so far.

Reading 00: Introduction, Gaming

By: Travis Gayle

Traditional games gave rise to video and electronic games. Senet is said to be one of, if not the oldest, board game (3500 BC in Ancient Egypt).  There are a number of reasons why people play games and I would bet that the reasons approximately 5500 years are not much different than the reasons now. Senet was a game that if someone one, they were said to be chosen to by the gods. Egyptians were big on fate. The idea of being called something by a higher order or being honored was an aspect of games that was attractive to people. Another attractive aspect is the constraints that don’t exist relative to real life. If you think about games like Monopoly, theres plenty that a player can do whereas in reality most people cannot because they don’t have the real money and real life is not determined by rolling dice. Similarly, a video game like grand theft auto allows you to kill people and steal cars among other things without always having to pay the consequences (if you’re good at the game). Real life doesn’t work that way. Gaming, whether virtual or physical, also provides a competitive nature where the goal is to win whether it be on a team, against a computer, against yourself, or against another human. In short, both physical and virtual games–which stemmed from physical games–offer something that reality does not.

I am constantly in discussions with others about what are some cool games. I loved playing Scrabblegrowing up. I played with my dad and the rest of my family. He was the best, and I wanted to beat the best. I was a spelling bee champion at age seven, so I had a pretty wide vocabulary and felt like I could give him a run for his money. It wasn’t until I got older that I started beating my dad. I also loved to play Trouble because it was simple, fun, and you couldn’t really cheat if people paid attention. The elements of these games that made them appealing to me were that they were simple and turn based. What I really liked about scrabble was that you had to consider the potential moves of your opponents whereas for Trouble it was more about killing your opponents and getting to your final destination.

I think about my favorite board game versus my favorite video game– 007 Golden Eye for the Nintendo64. I am trash at most first person shooter (FPS) games. It says a lot that one of my favorite games is a game on an old system whose concept has been emulated and incorporated in many popular games today. There is something to be said about original games and the kind of vibe they have relative to our most recent technologies. Yet, when I compare even older video games to board games, the idea still exists of there being an end goal. There is still a concept of multiplayer. One thing that most board games lack is the ability to switch worlds. One thing that most video games lack is the level of intimacy a board game provides– problem I think holds true with all types of technology. They hinder human to human interaction.