A lot of people have been leaving the course recently, for their own reasons, some find it hard, some think its not what they expected or some have just changed their mind.
I feel sad as a lot of my friends have left and it has been a shock, I will miss then very much and hopefully keep in contact with them.
It is worrying to think as some of those people are a lot better at this stuff then I am, and some can't handle it. But i'm trying to just concentrate on the work as I have no intention of leaving... It just makes you think.
I guess I'm writing this post as a mini farewell to the people who have left.
so whether I knew you or not, I wish you luck in whatever you do!
Sunday, 27 April 2014
Alice madness returns: Mini review
I have recently finished the game Alice madness returns, and I thought i'd share my thoughts with you all.
I don't think this game has had good press, although I think i have a problem where if I dedicate myself to finishing a game I feel like I have to like it.
I'm a fan of the whole Alice in wonderland franchise to begin with, so I did enjoy most of the game.
Although I feel I was surprised at the horror side of the game, I knew it was supposed to be horror, but I wasn't expecting that much gore. My mum sometimes likes to watch me play to help out with puzzles etc, but i made sure she was out during the doll house level...
The art I feel was amazing, my personal favorite level was the Japanese one. And the attention to detail was great.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game, except its creepy side. But all in all a good game. I noticed some faults with the making of the game. But i feel bad commenting on them as I know I can't do better. But the last cut scene where her hair went through her neck was hard not to notice. It was such a dramatic scene but I couldn't look away!
So I do recommend the game for the style and art, not the budget...
I don't think this game has had good press, although I think i have a problem where if I dedicate myself to finishing a game I feel like I have to like it.
I'm a fan of the whole Alice in wonderland franchise to begin with, so I did enjoy most of the game.
Although I feel I was surprised at the horror side of the game, I knew it was supposed to be horror, but I wasn't expecting that much gore. My mum sometimes likes to watch me play to help out with puzzles etc, but i made sure she was out during the doll house level...
The art I feel was amazing, my personal favorite level was the Japanese one. And the attention to detail was great.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game, except its creepy side. But all in all a good game. I noticed some faults with the making of the game. But i feel bad commenting on them as I know I can't do better. But the last cut scene where her hair went through her neck was hard not to notice. It was such a dramatic scene but I couldn't look away!
So I do recommend the game for the style and art, not the budget...
Ophelia Analysis
In this post I shall be Analyzing one of my favorite paintings by John Everett Millias called Ophelia. As soon as I saw Ophelia in the Tate Britain I fell in love with her. I'm a sucker for traditional romantic art pieces. I'll be looking at the meanings behind what Millais has put into this amazing painting.
Most of the flowers in the painting are from the play Hamlet in which the painting was based or had symbolic meaning to what had happened in the painting:
The white crow flowers in the fore ground represents childishness.
The weeping willow hanging over Ophelia symbioses forsaken love.
The nettles represent pain.
The daisies near her right hand mean innocence, also in the play Ophelia mentions "there's a daisy" in scene 4 act 5.
The pick rose that floats near her head may represent that her brother in the play called her the rose of may, but also could show the mean of love between her and hamlet.
The violets around her neck refers to act 4 scene 5 where Ophelia mentions "i would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died, they said he made a good end" violets also mean death in the young.
I studied hamlet when i was in my 6th form English lessons and i find this painting very fascinating with how the play and the painting connect.
Most of the flowers in the painting are from the play Hamlet in which the painting was based or had symbolic meaning to what had happened in the painting:
The white crow flowers in the fore ground represents childishness.
The weeping willow hanging over Ophelia symbioses forsaken love.
The nettles represent pain.
The daisies near her right hand mean innocence, also in the play Ophelia mentions "there's a daisy" in scene 4 act 5.
The pick rose that floats near her head may represent that her brother in the play called her the rose of may, but also could show the mean of love between her and hamlet.
The violets around her neck refers to act 4 scene 5 where Ophelia mentions "i would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died, they said he made a good end" violets also mean death in the young.
I studied hamlet when i was in my 6th form English lessons and i find this painting very fascinating with how the play and the painting connect.
My career dream
This post going to be about where i want to go with this course. I find this very difficult to decide to be honest... There are so many great path ways i could take. I'm so happy that we learn everything on this game design course so I will be able to chose which path i feel right going down.
I feel i like the thought of character design and concept art.
First of all i'll talk about concept art. I have often seen the concept art for games and movies and have found them amazing of how they have been created and transformed into the world of games and movies, as scenery and characters etc... I would love to be able to create such works. i believe that concept art can be as good or better then actual paintings. I feel to get this I would would have to develop my art practical art skills and digital art skill also as most pieces seem to be influenced a lot from the digital side.
I started off wanting to be a concept artist, but then my teacher was telling us about character design. I loved designing character from when i was very young. Making up clothes and hair styles. I believe that if I didn't go down the art side i would have gone into fashion design. As i love creating things and i feel i have a lot of imagination. although character design sound incredibly hard I would really love to go down that path.
Character design involves you having to know 3d computer modeling, digital and traditional art and also clay sculpting which i think sounds interesting.
Although both options sound amazing i feel like i'm leaning more towards the character design, i would have to develop and learn a lot more about art and designing characters but hopefully the course will help me.
I feel i like the thought of character design and concept art.
First of all i'll talk about concept art. I have often seen the concept art for games and movies and have found them amazing of how they have been created and transformed into the world of games and movies, as scenery and characters etc... I would love to be able to create such works. i believe that concept art can be as good or better then actual paintings. I feel to get this I would would have to develop my art practical art skills and digital art skill also as most pieces seem to be influenced a lot from the digital side.
I started off wanting to be a concept artist, but then my teacher was telling us about character design. I loved designing character from when i was very young. Making up clothes and hair styles. I believe that if I didn't go down the art side i would have gone into fashion design. As i love creating things and i feel i have a lot of imagination. although character design sound incredibly hard I would really love to go down that path.
Character design involves you having to know 3d computer modeling, digital and traditional art and also clay sculpting which i think sounds interesting.
Although both options sound amazing i feel like i'm leaning more towards the character design, i would have to develop and learn a lot more about art and designing characters but hopefully the course will help me.
Personal inquiry: Sexism and violence in games
This is my personal inquiry, where i will look into sexism and violence in games. I plan to find out how sexism and violence came about in the gaming industry and how it affected the players who played them. whether the exploitation of women and how they are perceived in games is considered sexist, or if games are just dedicated to men. Also how the violence in games effects the behavior of the players outside of the games. if the violent games effect how they act to real people.
firstly i'll start talking about the sexism in games. i believe it all started with the up roar of Lara croft: Tomb Raider. she was the first main character in gaming which was a woman. yes she had short shorts and a low cut top, and yes although they were pointy at the start, she did have big breasts. She was obviously designed by a man for men, but when i was a young girl i didn't think about that, i was more involved in the fact that the main character was a strong interdependent woman, fighting crime and discovering ancient tombs and objects. i felt it showed women as strong people and that they can do just as much as men, or even better. i look back now and see why people believe Lara croft to be a sex symbol and why the main players of the game were men. In the most recent game in the Tomb Raider franchise there was a change in director. the game was taken over by a woman. the game she took over is a prequel to all the games. where Lara croft became the strong woman we know about, she gets shipwrecked on an island and has to survive by herself. the director said she wanted people to feel differently towards Lara and try and get rid of the sexy pin up image of her. She has made a more innocent image and her clothes are more covering. i would have said that sexism of women in games has gone down considerably through out the years. As now we have women fighters and main characters. But i remind myself after playing the most recent grand theft auto 5 of how you can easily just wander into the local strip club and enjoy a half naked dance. but grand theft auto won't be grand theft auto without prostitutes and strippers.
Now i'll talk about the violence in games and how they effect people who play them and if there is a correlation between them and crimes happening in real life. There was a game released in which the point of the game was to break into someones house and steal from and kill the people inside. It was a live action game where real people acted out what you wanted to do. This game was then taken into court along with the first grand theft auto for being far too violent. Although they wanted the games to be banned, the result of the court case ended with games starting to have age certificates to allow parents to see what age range of kids should be playing the games. This hasn't stopped games from getting more violent. the first street fighter had been criticized for being too violent from the start, where people would have their heads ripped off with the spine still attached, although this sounds pretty bad, it didn't look as gory as it sounds, as the graphics weren't too realistic. but now the most recent street fighter has people being thrown to the ground and pulled legs first through a chainsaw. Ouch. And the graphics are a lot more realistic and "cover your eyes" horrific.
As for the idea of game influencing crimes in real life i both agree and disagree with the statement. i feel that you have to be in an unstable state to begin with in order to be influenced by the violence in the games you play. I agree with the age rating and that kids under that age should not play as children are more influential then some adults. i do believe that some game are over the top horrendous with some of the violent acts, but could only influence how someone does the crime not influence the crime happening. I often played Tekken with my friends as a child but never dreamed of breaking their necks and throwing them over my should onto the floor. But maybe that's just me...
i believe that there is both violence and sexism in games, but i think that there is more uproar then there should be about the topic. i don't believe that the sexism is serious enough for there to be petitions to stop it and cancel it from games completely. but i do believe that violence can be a bad influence on a few and can be quite serious. In conclusion to this post I've realized the main culprit of both sexism and violence is grand theft auto.
firstly i'll start talking about the sexism in games. i believe it all started with the up roar of Lara croft: Tomb Raider. she was the first main character in gaming which was a woman. yes she had short shorts and a low cut top, and yes although they were pointy at the start, she did have big breasts. She was obviously designed by a man for men, but when i was a young girl i didn't think about that, i was more involved in the fact that the main character was a strong interdependent woman, fighting crime and discovering ancient tombs and objects. i felt it showed women as strong people and that they can do just as much as men, or even better. i look back now and see why people believe Lara croft to be a sex symbol and why the main players of the game were men. In the most recent game in the Tomb Raider franchise there was a change in director. the game was taken over by a woman. the game she took over is a prequel to all the games. where Lara croft became the strong woman we know about, she gets shipwrecked on an island and has to survive by herself. the director said she wanted people to feel differently towards Lara and try and get rid of the sexy pin up image of her. She has made a more innocent image and her clothes are more covering. i would have said that sexism of women in games has gone down considerably through out the years. As now we have women fighters and main characters. But i remind myself after playing the most recent grand theft auto 5 of how you can easily just wander into the local strip club and enjoy a half naked dance. but grand theft auto won't be grand theft auto without prostitutes and strippers.
Now i'll talk about the violence in games and how they effect people who play them and if there is a correlation between them and crimes happening in real life. There was a game released in which the point of the game was to break into someones house and steal from and kill the people inside. It was a live action game where real people acted out what you wanted to do. This game was then taken into court along with the first grand theft auto for being far too violent. Although they wanted the games to be banned, the result of the court case ended with games starting to have age certificates to allow parents to see what age range of kids should be playing the games. This hasn't stopped games from getting more violent. the first street fighter had been criticized for being too violent from the start, where people would have their heads ripped off with the spine still attached, although this sounds pretty bad, it didn't look as gory as it sounds, as the graphics weren't too realistic. but now the most recent street fighter has people being thrown to the ground and pulled legs first through a chainsaw. Ouch. And the graphics are a lot more realistic and "cover your eyes" horrific.
As for the idea of game influencing crimes in real life i both agree and disagree with the statement. i feel that you have to be in an unstable state to begin with in order to be influenced by the violence in the games you play. I agree with the age rating and that kids under that age should not play as children are more influential then some adults. i do believe that some game are over the top horrendous with some of the violent acts, but could only influence how someone does the crime not influence the crime happening. I often played Tekken with my friends as a child but never dreamed of breaking their necks and throwing them over my should onto the floor. But maybe that's just me...
i believe that there is both violence and sexism in games, but i think that there is more uproar then there should be about the topic. i don't believe that the sexism is serious enough for there to be petitions to stop it and cancel it from games completely. but i do believe that violence can be a bad influence on a few and can be quite serious. In conclusion to this post I've realized the main culprit of both sexism and violence is grand theft auto.
Evolution of games part 3:
In this post I will talking about the history of video games between the 1990s and the present day. I'm a lot more excited to be writing this history post over the first two history posts, as I was born in 1994 and I can relate to more in this era then the first two.
1994 was a great year, not only was it the birth of myself but also the birth of the PlayStation 1. The PlayStation was created in japan by the Sony computer entertainment company. The PlayStation was the first video game console the ship 100 million units 9 and a half years after the launch.
The next Sony entertainment video game console was released in 2000 and was called the PlayStation 2 and still is known as the best selling home console to date. The next was the PlayStation 3 which was released in 2006 and has sold over 80 million consoles world wide.
The latest Sony console, was the PlayStation 4 which was released in 2013 and has become the fastest selling console in history, selling 1 million consoles in the first 24 hours of It's release.
In 2001 the PlayStation rival appeared on the scene, in the form of Microsoft Xbox which competed with the PlayStation 2. A year later Xbox live was launched, where gamers could play online with a broadband connection.
The Xbox 360 was released in 2005 which competed with Sony PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360 expanded its live service from the first Xbox, along with other multimedia services.
the Xbox one was released in 2013 and competes with the PlayStation 4 and the Wii u.
1996 was also the release of one of my favorite game franchise, the survival horror video game resident evil. Resident evil was created by cap-com for the PlayStation. There are over 10 games released to the present day, the franchise also grew into 5 movies the 6th coming out in 2015 and 2 cgi movies and a series of comics and novels. There is also a Japanese cafe dedicated to the games and the staff dance for the customers and shoot a nemesis statue in the center of the cafe. Genius.
All in all I feel this was the best part of the video gaming industry and I hope it carries on getting better! Although the competition between Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox still goes on today I will always be a PlayStation girl.
1994 was a great year, not only was it the birth of myself but also the birth of the PlayStation 1. The PlayStation was created in japan by the Sony computer entertainment company. The PlayStation was the first video game console the ship 100 million units 9 and a half years after the launch.
The next Sony entertainment video game console was released in 2000 and was called the PlayStation 2 and still is known as the best selling home console to date. The next was the PlayStation 3 which was released in 2006 and has sold over 80 million consoles world wide.
The latest Sony console, was the PlayStation 4 which was released in 2013 and has become the fastest selling console in history, selling 1 million consoles in the first 24 hours of It's release.
In 2001 the PlayStation rival appeared on the scene, in the form of Microsoft Xbox which competed with the PlayStation 2. A year later Xbox live was launched, where gamers could play online with a broadband connection.
The Xbox 360 was released in 2005 which competed with Sony PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360 expanded its live service from the first Xbox, along with other multimedia services.
the Xbox one was released in 2013 and competes with the PlayStation 4 and the Wii u.
1996 was also the release of one of my favorite game franchise, the survival horror video game resident evil. Resident evil was created by cap-com for the PlayStation. There are over 10 games released to the present day, the franchise also grew into 5 movies the 6th coming out in 2015 and 2 cgi movies and a series of comics and novels. There is also a Japanese cafe dedicated to the games and the staff dance for the customers and shoot a nemesis statue in the center of the cafe. Genius.
All in all I feel this was the best part of the video gaming industry and I hope it carries on getting better! Although the competition between Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox still goes on today I will always be a PlayStation girl.
Evolution of games part 2:
In this post I will be talking about the history of game between 1980 and 1990, I intend to see how far we have come in another 10 years.
The first major break through in 1980 was the Magnavox Odyssey, which was the world's first home console. It was designed by Ralph Baer, who started working on it around 1966, with a prototype call the brown box. Which is now in a National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Around 100,000 odyssey games were sold the year it was released and 350,000 when a newer model made an appearance.
Odyssey were sued by Atari for patent infringement in the design of Atari s game Pong which closely resembled Odysseys tennis game. Odyssey had other games for example invasion, shooting gallery and more.
Also in 1980 Atari 2600 was released, Atari 2600 was a video game console which used ROM cartridges containing game code.
later, in 1982 Atari inc released a new console called Atari 5200 super-system, but commonly know as just Atari 5200. Which was -like Atari 2600- also a home video game console. The difference with both consoles was that Atari 5200 had an analog joystick and numeric keypad also with start pause and reset buttons.
In 1983 Atari had started to go down hill with many game and consoles unsold. Which resulted in Atari burying a mass of unsold video game cartridges and consoles in a land fill site in new mexico. In the large amount of unsold items among them were a few million copies of "E.T. the extra-terrestrial" which was one of the biggest game failures.
in 1989 in Japan, Nintendo released its first handheld console called the game boy. The game boys best selling games were tetris which has sold 30.26 million, and Pokemon red and blue which sold 23.64 million.
I believe these 10 years were very influential to the video game industry. It brought us the first Nintendo game boy, and the fall in Atari. It also was the start of home consoles, which may be responsible for the fall in arcade game players in the 1990s, most people will probably be sitting in their house playing tennis on their new home console, Magnavox Odyssey.
The first major break through in 1980 was the Magnavox Odyssey, which was the world's first home console. It was designed by Ralph Baer, who started working on it around 1966, with a prototype call the brown box. Which is now in a National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Around 100,000 odyssey games were sold the year it was released and 350,000 when a newer model made an appearance.
Odyssey were sued by Atari for patent infringement in the design of Atari s game Pong which closely resembled Odysseys tennis game. Odyssey had other games for example invasion, shooting gallery and more.
Also in 1980 Atari 2600 was released, Atari 2600 was a video game console which used ROM cartridges containing game code.
later, in 1982 Atari inc released a new console called Atari 5200 super-system, but commonly know as just Atari 5200. Which was -like Atari 2600- also a home video game console. The difference with both consoles was that Atari 5200 had an analog joystick and numeric keypad also with start pause and reset buttons.
In 1983 Atari had started to go down hill with many game and consoles unsold. Which resulted in Atari burying a mass of unsold video game cartridges and consoles in a land fill site in new mexico. In the large amount of unsold items among them were a few million copies of "E.T. the extra-terrestrial" which was one of the biggest game failures.
in 1989 in Japan, Nintendo released its first handheld console called the game boy. The game boys best selling games were tetris which has sold 30.26 million, and Pokemon red and blue which sold 23.64 million.
I believe these 10 years were very influential to the video game industry. It brought us the first Nintendo game boy, and the fall in Atari. It also was the start of home consoles, which may be responsible for the fall in arcade game players in the 1990s, most people will probably be sitting in their house playing tennis on their new home console, Magnavox Odyssey.
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