Beta gaming and early access play have become a mainstream ploy within the video games industry that is used to generate publicity and garner public opinion before a game is 'fully released'. However, as recently exampled by the Anthem debacle beta gaming and early access play present a host of problems for games designers and indeed the gaming public. These issues are heightened and compounded by marketing campaigns that present early access video games as a mostly finished product and foster an expectation that early access offers an advantage over other players who opt to purchase after the official release date. This article examines why beta gaming has become prevalent in modern gaming and why the abuse of DLC has led to some games being released that otherwise would be considered incomplete.
Apathy is a common emotion experienced with games that follow a “choose your own adventure” focus. Usually these game feature branching storylines, character deaths and the impacts of the player’s choices. Notable games in this genre include TellTale Games’ The Walking Dead Game and Square Enix’s Life is Strange.
Discuss, perhaps from a personal view, how the player may experience apathy after playing a choose-your-own-adventure. Is apathy a foregone conclusion after playing one of these games or does it vary on the player? As well, what are some of the other reasons a player may experience apathy? Could it be from the writing, disjointed plot, lack of character importance?
I believe this can be an interesting topic. When a person plays these forms of games, they are making drastic story-altering decisions in a limited amount of time. While people may make thousands of decisions a day, for the most part they are subconsciously thought about where the decisions we make are almost instinctual or based on personal bias. With these Choose Your Own Adventure Games, while being fictional, you are making these split second choices not for yourself but another person, even more so these games often give gravity to the weight of your decisions. Now from a writing perspective, these stories are very hard to properly cultivate because there are so many variables that making choices right from the first episodes already limits the possible paths you can take. Because of that, these games can be a completionist nightmare purely because each decision could impact just a scene or the entire feel of the story and having to go back over multiple times could feel like a mute point unless the story was worth re-watching.
– Kevin Mohammed6 years ago
The original God of War trilogy saw Kratos as a shallow killing machine, while the latest one gives a lot more depth to the famous character. The game revolves around Kratos and his son Atreus trekking the dangerous realms of Norse Mythology so they can reach the highest point and spread the ashes of his past love. How has Kratos changed and has he changed for the better with a son around? Is this game an accurate portrayal of a father and son?
Please explain why they want to reach the highest point and spread the ashes of his past love. It's helpful to add the reasons behind the stories. – Yvonne T.6 years ago
Another interesting contrast can be drawn between the stories told by Mimir about the father-son relationships between the Vanir gods and the evolution of Kratos throughout their journey. A comparison between the Greek and Viking philosophies of fatherhood can be examined as well to gain a deeper understanding behind the choices of the characters.
A different approach could highlight the role of parenthood as a whole with reference to Freya and Baldur, Thor and Magnus & Modi, etc. This topic seems really interesting and would make for a wonderful read. – simonmalik6 years ago
I think this topic is even more interesting since the release of the Raising Kratos documentary on YouTube because Cory Barlog is very transparent about his influence and motivation in making the father-son dynamic so integral to the new tone, narrative, and atmospheric direction. The central crew from Santa Monica are all quick to point out how their own experiences with raising children lent more emotion to the new direction, for better and worse, and they seem to be happy with the final depiction of fatherhood. From a personal perspective, I think the new direction is great because it slows the pace of the game to concentrate on the more poignant aspects of being a father while still acknowledging Kratos' quick-temper by having Atreus take on the role of "father" during some points of their journey. This is especially prominent in the scenes in which Atreus has to read anything for Kratos, and seeing the power structure flip in those moments complicates the depiction of fatherhood more by highlighting how parents must continue learning from their children even as they are tasked with teaching and raising them. Overall, Kratos seems to learn to embrace humanity and empathy more fully by the end of the journey while maintaining the strength that is needed to live in a world of Gods. – Aaron6 years ago
An exploration of the prominence of teasers in modern entertainment. Many movies, including Star Wars franchise and The Avengers franchise release teasers for trailers. A more recent and relevant example is Persona 5: The Royal. There was a teaser in December that hinted at something in March. The March announcement ended up being another teaser for something on April 24, still unclear whether this will be an announcement or a trailer or another teaser.
Knowing this, it's worth investigating what these teasers accomplish. They definitely generate attention and "hype," but is there a sweet spot? When is it too much? How is this discussion on teasers affected when Apex Legends is considered? Apex Legends released with no general public knowledge and was very well received. No teasers, no trailers, no prior announcement the game was even in development.
I like your writing, but I think teasers for trailers is a way to get the audience ready for the real deal. It builds up anticipation and is a marketing tatic used to get people to see these movies – tcokinis6 years ago
I think that the teaser trailer has grown with the internet. It gives the film an additional video for twitter and other social media. It builds an extended hype cycle that big budget movies want to maintain up till their release. Allows studios to market movies months and years in advance. – Sean Gadus6 years ago
Teasers for motion posters, character reveals, song teasers, trailers. In the South Indian movie industry, pre release marketing hype right from creating special tribute images to organising special screenings is turning out to be a separate revenue generating industry in itself. – Dr. Vishnu Unnithan4 years ago
Yesterday, after much speculation and rumors, Google announced "Stadia" its streaming only platform designed for gaming. Looking at the announcement that google made, the article would examine the pros and cons of Google's approach to gaming. This article could examine streaming benefits and downsides, the integration of other technologies (Youtube will be built in to the platform) and the potential benefits and downsides for consumers and developers.
I'm surprised that "Stadia" isn't receiving more attention on this platform because the technology is poised to impact several aspects of video game entertainment: playing games, streaming games, watching others play, purchasing games, jumping into other streamers' games mid-play, immediately finding walkthroughs, and many more. I know that one of the main drawbacks being heavily discussed is the potential for lag and latency with cloud streaming, but I don't personally know the specifics regarding the technology and specifications needed to run it smoothly. I do hope someone with more information and understanding of the technology will take on this topic because if it is successful, it's certainly has the potential to change the landscape of video games in some dramatic ways. – Aaron6 years ago
With Google's recent Stadia E3 Presentation, there is a lot more information to add to this potential article. Could also include the ideas about xCloud and Bethesda talking about their cloud capabilities as well. – JagoCarithian6 years ago
Anthem, the newest action RPG by BioWare and EA, was released in February this year to mixed reviews. After a massive hype and marketing campaign, gamers were on the edge of their seats in anticipation for the open-world adventure. But in the wake of the Fallout 76 backlash, this loot shooter type gameplay has also fallen flat. PC Gamer has called it “deeply flawed” and BGR said it’s “an Iron Man simulator”. But why is this so? This article would compare the pros and cons to the new open-world game including elements such as: game mechanics, graphics, story line, and dialog. It would compare Anthem to similar games such as Destiny 2 and Fallout 76. Finally, it would suggest ways that BioWare could improve on the game overall, including: an improved loot system, a broader map, a stronger story line, a more thoroughly developed history, and additional, varied missions.
Resident Evil 7 was a fresh shock for many fans. Many were pleased with the overall quality of the game, and the returning to more horror-centric design instead of action-oriented gameplay gave fans hope that the franchise would rise again after the previous games which were considered blunders by many. With the recent release of Resident Evil: RE2, the fans preferring the old-school Resident Evil once again find hope in the series' direction. In what ways does Resident Evil franchise learn from their past criticisms and rejuvenate its strengths?
I don't think it's entirely true that they've learned from all of their mistakes. One of the more frequent criticisms of the RE2make is that they axed a sizable chunk of enemy types. The bosses are also the kind you'd expect from an action game, considering they require you to hit a specific tiny spot on the enemy if you want to do any damage, and they can take hundreds of bullets to kill. And Mr. X is more of a dangerous nuisance than a terrifying adversary, unlike Nemesis and Lisa Trevor. That said, Capcom has probably learned that making Resident Evil an action series based of the success of RE4 was a mistake, following the failure of RE6. The general removal of quick-time-events outside of self-defense item use was probably a good idea, but not so with the removal of the ability to shake off enemies by rapid stick/button mashing. I think RE2make is a step in the right direction beyond 7, but it still falls back on bad habits in certain respects. I think there is definitely a lot to discuss here – LaPlant06 years ago
I agree with LaPlant0. While RE7 was definitely a masterpiece of horror storytelling (the first 30 mins were amazing!) I found that the RE2 remake was lacking in a lot of what made the original such a great game, including ditching the fixed camera for a player-controlled camera. I think part of what made a lot of 90s horror games great (RE1 and 2, Silent Hill 2 and 4) was the limited and sometimes altered perspective of the game camera. RE7 captured a little of that by using tricks with a first-person perspective, which, as I recall, is somewhat unique to 7, but the RE2 remake felt far too action oriented, like the somewhat cheesy RE games released in the 00s. – Samir M Soni5 years ago
OSR is the popular shorthand for "Old School Revival" or "Old School Renaissance", a popular movement among new tabletop RPGs to draw inspiration from the design choices and play style of the earliest D&D editions from the 70s, rather than the modern products being released today.
The OSR movement is comprised of everything from articles detailing ways to get into "Old School Gaming" to wholly-new games, developed in the style of old D&D.
This topic is quite niche to the tabletop RPG community, but I think anyone interested in game theory and game design could find the research interesting; especially when it concerns why such a widespread return to form has occurred amongst the community. There is often emphasis in OSR put on player agency over the now-prevalent linear adventure plots, so this may be a chance to get to the heart of why these games drew peoples' attention in the first place, and how the new innovations within modern products may be detracting from the initial strengths. Lastly, the role of the internet in gamers organizing their interests and creative ideas in this way cannot be understated and could form another basis for investigating how the movement grew.
