Response to Gee: Metalevel Thinking

One part of chapter two that I found very interesting was the discussion of the Semiotic Domain, but specifically dealing with the "metalevel thinking." Not only is this process important to a game, but it is necessary for a game to be able to survive over a long period of time and games that successfully meet the "meta" flourish and continue to get played.  I will talk about a couple different games that have done this successfully. One big game that a lot people may be familiar with is League of Legends. This game is constantly changing its meta game due to a couple of different elements. The game is constantly getting updated with new champions, champion balances, item balances, and environmental balances. I use balance in terms of they change something that has been either overpowered or underpowered in the eyes of the community and developers. With this in mind, players have to adapt to these changes at such a constant rate it could potentially make or break the game. I have had a couple champions(characters) in the game that have been "nerfed" so hard that they lose playability, well at least at first. One example of this was when they changed one of my favorite character's scaling that he wasn't as strong as he use to be. I was unable to perform or play him well at all, so I stopped playing him. After about 2 months, I picked him back up again and found that I had an easier time then before. The difference was that when I was playing him, I knew my limitations, and then they changed them drastically. After forgetting those limits, to a point, relearning what I could and couldn't get away with allowed me to play this character once again and have fun with it. Another big thing that has changed League of Legends "Meta" is the team compositions. Now this can be argued as being my opinion and wrong, but I feel as though there are a lot of people who can agree with this. Since the game has been out, the strategy of the "lanes" in the game has changed overtime. For anyone who doesn't know what this game entails, I'll do my best to explain the basics. There are 2 teams of 5 who battle on a map with 3 main "lanes." The change in the meta comes in when we discuss what kind of characters, along with how many go to each lane. For the most part, the middle lane has always been a solo lane and occupied by a ranged caster type champion (oh and just for the record, if anyone would like me to explain this more in depth in person, feel free to ask or comment). Top and bottom lane are the two that have changed a lot. At the beginning, and still sometimes today, top would consist of two champions. More recently, top has become a solo lane, while the other player goes into what is called the "jungle" and levels up by killing the creatures in the jungle rather then leveling up in the lane. The jungler also has the task of performing sneak attacks called "ganks" on opponents in the 3 lanes of his/her choosing to help out the team and the players in the specific lane. Bottom, for the most part, has been also a duo lane. The change in the meta comes into play when dealing with the kinds of characters that go there. At least in my experience, players would just go any champion they would want and have a 2v2 battle lane down bottom. More recently, the lanes now consist of a ranged champion and a support champion. This is followed by the strategy of the ranged champion becoming "fed" off of all the monster kills that yield more gold as the support champion focuses on healing and protecting it's ranged partner. With all this changes, the game has proved to be successful in continuing to adapt to new champions they add along with user feedback to make the game more balanced for all players. Another game I would like to point out that has kept the meta game balanced is Team Fortress 2. With all the content updates that come into a game that still is played by it's core gameplay, it continually keeps up with balancing new items and new game modes. The game still consists of its 9 classes from launch and have given each class a variety of tools to make each player somewhat unique over another playing the same class. They have introduced many new game types, weapons, cosmetic items, and has gone free to play along with being available to play on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It just goes to show that if you can update your game to meet the needs of the ever changing market, you'll continue to have a prosperous journey for both the players and the developers.

Response to Reality Is Broken: Music Gaming

I wanted to do my response on the section of chapter 4 dealing with how failure in gaming helps with optimism and the details surrounding music based games. I have been very influenced by games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band and they have shaped my gaming experience in a big way. I want to take this time to point out some ideas that were mentioned in the book in regards to what music based games do to us as players. The one part that I found most interesting was the part that brought up the fact that very few players partake in playing games like Rock Band alone. I am one of those players who has spent the majority of my time playing these games on my own. I can say with full certainty that I cannot live without my iPod and my music at all points of the day and I think that has part to do with how I experienced music based games. I am the oldest of 3 brothers who also play video games, but I found myself playing the first Guitar Hero in my basement alone then either with or in the company of my brothers. It wasn't really until Rock Band came out that my time playing that game at first was within a group of my friends. That also may had to do with the fact that I didn't own the game or my own drum set at that point and could only play it at my friend's house. Once I got my own plastic drum set, I would play the campaign of the game on my own for hours on end trying to get better at the drums. Now one could argue that I practiced as much as I did because I wanted to impress my friends and to excel when I play in public. I won't deny that was what is was at first, but things changed with Rock Band 2. In Rock Band, to get the band related achievements, you needed to play in a band of no less then 2 people. Rock Band 2 gave you the option to play through all the features and access to most of the achievements in single player. I'm not against playing games with multiple people, it was just frustrating for me that I am missing so many Rock Band 1 achievements because my brothers and friends wouldn't play the game as extensively as I did. Along with Rock Band 2 being able to play the whole game alone, also was paired with me getting an ION Drum Rocker. It is a higher quality drum set that with the right module can be used as an electric drum set. I had the 4 drums, 3 cymbals, and drum pedal. The only module I had was strictly for Rock Band, and that began my serious obsession. I would play, no lie, at least 3 hours a day after school replaying a lot of the same songs trying to improve my score. As they started to release DLC, I would buy songs of my favorite bands each week they would release content. My library is over 600 songs to this date. This was what I would do from sophomore year until senior year in high school. After coming to SHIP, I didn't play it much. I wasn't able to bring my set to school and I slowly lost my obsession. It wasn't until sophomore year of college that I met my friend Andrew who to this day is the only other person I know that has as many Rock Band songs as I do (and more). He had all the instruments, in plastic form, and my obsession was sparked once again. Everyday, Andrew, our friend Jayson, and I would have what we called "Band Practice" and we would cycle through a couple of the same songs along with throwing in different ones. We enjoyed playing each day and it was probably the best times I have had at college. It is something that I miss very dearly as Jayson now lives in Texas and Andrew transferred schools. This game provided me with thousands upon thousands of hours of entertainment in both a single and multiplayer atmosphere. I have acquired a real drum module and have begun to really try and play my set in the "real" sense. I have been told by a bunch of people that I am at a skill level in rock band that could mimic actual drum skills that I could use in real life. It is one of very few games that will have replay value for me on an endless state, as many games I play I only go through once and I get my fill of it. It has been a very big influence on my gaming experience and how I experience music in my everyday life. I listen to music and picture how I would play the drum parts in rock band on my set and with the skills that I have, I can go out and experiment with that.

Response: V for Vendetta: Book/Movie Comparison

So for my response today I would like to discuss some of the big differences between the novel and the movie. There is a difference between some of the plot points, but since I don't think I can describe them very well, I'm going to stick with the character differences. Let's start with our hero/villain V. In he book, he is portrayed more as a killer who is willing to stop anyone in his way where as in the movie he is more of a freedom fighter who cares if his actions will hurt innocent lives. I personally can't decide between which V I like more. I think my opinion also has to due with the actor who played V in the movie as since I saw that version first, I heard Hugo Weaving's voice in my head as I read V's lines. Now let's move onto Evey. There are some real fundamental differences between the two versions. In the book, Evey seems to be more of an innocent person who ends up having a deeper relation with V and eventually takes on his role at the end. The Evey in the movie is more confident and there are many examples of her "rebel" instincts early on then in the book. They both go through the ordeal that V puts her through and transforms her into his follower. The book version has a more drastic transformation, or at least it seems that way. They both fulfill his work in the film, but the book version takes on his persona in the end. The next character I would like to discuss is Inspector Finch. In the movie, he seems to be more sympathetic towards V and his plans, to a point, while the book version is on a no holds bar search to take V down. I think it was appropriate for the differences between the two based on how V was portrayed in both versions. I liked his character in both versions and it is hard to decide which I like more. I like how the movie version slowly went towards V's side as more and more corruption was falling upon his feet, but I like the books version for his dedication to stopping V and took drugs to try and enter the mind of the villain. The last character I would like to discuss is Gordon, who is a pretty minor character in both adaptations. In both versions, Gordon takes Evey off the streets after leaving V, but both have completely different back stories. The book version is a criminal who shares a brief romance with Evey and gets killed by a gang. The movie version is a respectable man who reveals that he is gay while in Evey's presence and is taken by fingermen for showing a political parody on his show, but was officially charged with owning a Koran, which was illegal. He is never seen again after being taken. I really enjoyed both versions and I don't think I could pick one that is better then the other. They both have the same overall story, but each is unique because of its differences.

Maus Response: Style compared to other Graphic Novels

So one thing that I want to discuss about Maus is based around the style of which it was made and how it compares to other graphic novels. Every graphic novel has it's own unique properties that are created based on each artist's own style and they can either make or break a story (in my opinion). We can usually tell after a couple of different works by the same artist what they like to stick with in regards to art style, overall presentation, etc. Here's where my analysis starts up. Having started reading Maus for class, I found myself in an interesting conversation with my friend Tyler from class about this particular novel's style. We both found ourselves having to really take our time reading this story for a couple of reasons. Not only was the actual content a bit to take in all at once, but we both found the art style a bit strenuous on our eyes. There was a big difference for both of us in reading this and Blankets. Even though blankets was at least 3 times longer in pages then Maus, it probably took us both longer to get it done. With Blankets, the panels could have a lot of text, but it was spread out (for the most part) and was pretty easy to read. With Maus, there was a lot of text bunched together in each panel and, at least for me, the dark style of this graphic novel made it hard for me to read for long periods of time. When I read Blankets, I found myself not being able to put it down, but that was for a couple of reasons. I won't deny the fact that I enjoyed the story in Blankets more, which could be a reason as to why I couldn't stop reading, but I can definitely say it also had to do with the art style of the book too. I didn't hate reading Maus, in fact I found it to be a great read overall, but the underlying fact is that the ordeal was a bit more then with other novels. To some people, this may be a reason why this book may or may not be read, but in all honestly it was a great book and I was recommended it even before this class and I'm just glad we had the opportunity to read it.

Response to Blankets: Phil's Story

So we follow Craig around in Blankets, but his brother is around for a good majority of it too. As I'm sure everyone who read it is aware, there were some parts during the reading of this that had me concerned for Phil. There were two parts and/or ideas I wanted to discuss surrounding his character. First off, I hope that most people were as disturbed by the assumption made around what their babysitter did to him at first, and then shown some more graphic images later on to only confirm those feelings. This idea seemed to plague Craig over the idea that he didn't protect his little brother in that instance along with the part when Phil had to sleep in the dreaded cubby hole. Now I will return to this idea later as the second part plays into it. After we follow Craig some more into his later years, we seem to only see Phil in memories of when they were kids. At least for me, I thought he had either died or committed suicide up until the part that Craig actually talks to Phil upon his return from Raina's house. Now I know what some of you may think, "He talked about him to Raina earlier in the book," but he didn't seem like he talked about him in such high spirits that he was still alive (in my opinion). It seemed like he was just not telling her about his brother's death and wanted to only bring up good memories to not be a downer with all the problems that were already on Raina's plate. Now after they talk, they seem to slowly rekindle their relationship and begin to act like they did in the beginning, but older and more mature (to a point). Let's return to the first idea brought up in this post. One would think that having been subjected to only what is imaginable to someone like Phil would have on his personality or well-being, hence the reason I thought something might have happened to him over the years. They don't really seem to talk about it much after the retelling of the event earlier on in the book. Are we to assume the parents found out and fired the babysitter along with called the police? It leaves us to decide what might have happened, but as for me, I would of liked to have been told directly as we don't get a clear answer on the question of how it effected him as a person. He ends up with a wife while Craig still is alone. That is my discussion I hope it was informative and thought provoking. How do you feel about this topic?

Test Post (Intro)

Hello all!
I just wanted to test out what a blog post will look like on here along with going into a slight introduction of myself. I am currently at Communications/Journalism Major at Shippensburg University. This will be my last semester before I graduate and I'm looking towards a job working at a TV station. I enjoy gaming alot and have been playing video games since I was very young. My first system was an original Nintendo all the way up to me playing on my R2D2 Xbox 360 and tons of games on Steam and some League of Legends. Some games that have really had an impact on me have been the Super Mario series throughout the years, Legend of Zelda, Halo, Call of Duty, Bioshock, Dead Space, Gears of War, Team Fortress 2, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Fallout 3. I'd have to say that Fallout 3 is my absolute favorite game I have ever played and have well beyond 1000+ hours invested in multiple characters. I also have loved playing through the Guitar Hero series and then playing through Rock Band, and continue to play it today. I have my own YouTube Channel where on occasion I do recordings of new DLC for the purpose of allowing people to preview the Pro Drums Track incase they are hesitant to purchase it. I also am able to score pretty high on the leaderboards and I like to show what I can do in our virtual world. I will post this with a link to my channel if anyone would like to check it out. I also post videos of other things too, but the Rock Band videos are what take up most of the channel. I plan to do most posts for class on different topics along with my feelings and opinions on what we are doing throughout the semester. I am currently a Guru and if anyone has any questions about Xbox or Steam related topics, feel free to call/txt/email/message me with your questions.

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