Reading 06: Theme Paragraphs

 

Reading 1: Ultimate game design, building game worlds.  

Meigs, T. (2003) Ultimate Game Design: Building Game Worlds. : McGraw-Hill/Osborne. 

In this book, Meigs explains in detail the important elements needed to bring a game world to life. 

In chapter 1 on page 5, Architecture for Game levels. Meigs talks about when you are building up your game world it is important to choose carefully which elements to add, for example, if you wanted to use a cool looking prefab but it would bring down the players game performance, it would not be worth it as the player would lose interest, where if you were to use a less demanding building, it would be a worthy trade-off as you are increasing the performance of the players game world. 

Theme: Detail, Preparation

 

Paragraph: This book was all about game development and different ways to go about it and how important it is to take into consideration different users may have different levels of spec when it comes to gaming equipment, and its most likely that users are using a budget device to play the made game so it is important to choose what elements to add into your game world when building it! You want all users to have the same great experience. 

 Reading 2: Why do you play World of Warcraft? An in-depth exploration of self-reported motivations to play online and in-game behaviours in the virtual world of Azeroth

Billieux, J. et al. (2013) ‘Why do you play World of Warcraft? An in-depth exploration of self-reported motivations to play online and in-game behaviours in the virtual world of Azeroth’, Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), pp. 103–109. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.021.

 This article was all about the game world of Azeroth in World of Warcraft. This is one of the most detailed and massive game worlds out there. This genre of game is called an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). Every day in the game world of Azeroth, thousands of individuals play together in a seamlessly open world. Unlike other games the world of WoW never sleeps, when the player logs out of the game the world will not stop and wait for them to come back but the world will continue to grow and develop as other players play gain progress throughout the game world. 

Here is the progress overview of a players character. WoW has a very in-depth game world that has thousands of hours of gameplay within it. 

Another reason players keep playing the game is so they can continue to level up their in-game character which will benefit them to have an advantage over less experienced players within the game world of WoW. 

Theme: Depth 

Paragraph: World of Warcraft is a well thought out game with an amazing game world that has thousands of worldwide online players and it is also filled with NPC characters along with lengthy side missions and a lot of main quests. The world of WoW is huge and the amount of detail that has been squeezed into it is amazing, and as a game developer or game designer this game should be a great influence on you when you are building your game world, it should be as well thought out and designed like WoW is.

Reading 3:  Myst and Riven: The World of the D'ni

Wolf, M. 2011, Myst and Riven: The World of the D'ni, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.

 In this reading the authour Mark J.P Wolf goes in depth about the world in the game Myst, Wolf was a big fan of the game and it inspiered him to write this book about it. 

Myst was a game all about puzzle solving and adventure by progressing through an almost seamless world where you could take different routes through the world and discover new places of interest. The controller the player used in this game was the mouse cursor and they would use it to interact with the 3D world around them, and for a game made in 1993, its very impressive. 

This game world has a purpose and the world of myst is all about the story of a father and his two sons, they are part of the D'ni which is a culture in the world of Myst, they are masters of writing and have obtained the ability to create "linking books" which allows the reader to "link" (travel) to the place in the book.  

In this game they used 3D rendered scenes which really helped the game for its time allowing the game to look a lot better while still keeping good preformance for the user.  

 

 Theme: Goals, Depth, Detail

Paragraph: Within Myst and Riven there was a clear game world that surroneded you and you had to find your way through it to reach the end, along the way you are met with various challenges and these will hinder you progress untill you figure it out. The game world of Myst and Riven was well thought out and a lot of effort went into making the game. Myst and Riven is the sequeal to the game Myst which was made in 1993 and the sequal was made in 1997.

 

Screenshot of Myst and Riven

 

Reading 4: Horizons Already Here: Video Games and Landscape

Murray, S. (2020) Horizons Already here: Video Games and Landscape. Art Journal. 79 (2), pp. 42-49. 

 This book by the authour Soraya Murray foucuses on the development of game worlds over time. At the start she talks about one of the first ever computer games called Colossal Cave Adventure which was a game about questions and answers. 

You may not think it but Colossal Cave Adventure had its own game world even though it was just built up through text, it took the player some initive and imagination to create their own game world as they played along, its interesting to think that every player would see a different game world when they thought of Colossal Cave but yet it would still contain the same elements and the same story. 

Theme: Detail, Goals

Paragraph: Within the game world of  Colossal Cave Adventure it is soely built up on text, as the player you are given information about the world but picturing the world needs a bit of imagination so its interesting to think that every player would see a different world but with the same content. This was one of the first games of its type and it later inspired and influenced many other games. This is a great way to show that a game world can be anything that you make it once there is some sort of story arc and some way to interact with the world wether it be answering a question, rolling a dice, or running around in as a character in a 3D world.

 

 

 

Reading 5: Of Particle Systems and Picturesque Ontologies: Landscape, Nature, and Realism in Video Games

Shinkle, E. (2020) Of Particle Systems and Picturesque Ontologies: Landscape, Nature, and Realism in Video Games. Art Journal. 79 (2), pp. 59-67. 

 In this reading the authour talked about the importance of realism in games. When games first came about they were all mostly 2D platform games with sidescrolling animations, but as the world continued to develop and technology kept getting better, the demand for realism within a game world was a hot topic. Visual realism was the driving force for the development of gaming hardware. 

Now at the stage the gaming hardware is at, it is easy for a triple A company like Ubisoft to be able to create a vast in depth world within a matter of weeks. 

Theme:  Depth, Detial, Preperation, Goals, Inspiration

Paragraph: This reading covered all of my relative themes as i found it to be the best explanation of what a game world can be and how much detail and thought has to go into it. Ubisoft make amazing detailed game worlds that are story rich and that sometimes would take years to develop. In receny years they have released a lot of simialr games that many people have thought to be just a re-skinned game that they have imporoved the quality on, between each assasins creed games there are a lot of similarities but realistilly there should be a lot of similarieis as it is all taking place in the same game world, there may be different people, regions and timelines in each game but they are all one ever expanding game world. 

In game screenshot from Assasins Creed Valhalla