COP 3 Proposal What is the potential of video games as an art form with increasingly developed technology?
Intro To what extent do Technological developments in production and distribution impact on Animation?
Seeing as I hope to work in the gaming industry one day soon I thought it’d be appropriate to find a video game related topic to inform and discuss. Over the course of my dissertation I would like to investigate about the history of games as well as current technology, mainly virtual reality (VR). I want to investigate the psychology of video game immersion as well as genre, types of games and what’s so different about the experience, conceptual art including backgrounds, characters and props. I want to delve deeper into the discussion of video games as an art form generally and what the potentials for games are in modern day. I will also research into how VR can be used in a professional workplace as a tool for psychologists. I want to create a watchable demo for a potential game including a functioning menu with access to bonus content (conceptual works etc.). and I will research the importance of sound and how it helps to immerse the player. This is brief outline of some of the key points in my essay and have planned to read some books to gather research. This idea is still in early planning stages so over summer I may further develop and research my question and create a proper skeleton for my dissertation.
Books
Books
Journals/Websites http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-CAV2.html http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2010/07/the-psychology-of-immersion-in-video-games/ https://cie.acm.org/ https://www.jvrb.org/
Quotes Adams, E. (2014). Fundamentals of game design. 1st ed. Pearson Education Inc.
“Identifying psychological themes found in video games, further demonstrates the role of applying psychology in popular culture, and also demonstrates how video game developers use psychological phenomena to conceptualize storylines in game design” MacGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is broken. 1st ed. London: Jonathan Cape.
“We don’t like to be played with. And when we say “This isn’t a game!”, what we mean is someone is behaving recklessly or not taking a situation seriously. This admonishment implies that games encourage and train people to act in ways that aren’t appropriate in real life.” Mims, C. (2017). Virtual Reality Isn’t Just About Games. [online] WSJ. Available at: https://www.wsj. com/articles/virtual-reality-isnt-just-about-games-1438558372 [Accessed 3 May 2017].
“Virtual reality is going to be much bigger, much more compelling, and much less trivial than what its earliest adopters have so far envisioned” Nevelsteen, K. (2016). The Metaverse – Internet of 3D Virtual Worlds : ACM - Computers in Entertainment. [online] Cie.acm.org. Available at: https://cie.acm.org/blog/metaverse-internet-3d-virtual-worlds/ [Accessed 3 May 2017].
“System of interconnected worlds accessible through a single user interface” Wilson, C. and Soranzo, A. (2015). The Use of Virtual Reality in Psychology: A Case Study in Visual Perception. Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, 2015, pp.1-7.
“VR is compelling due to the almost limitless possibilities for the creation of stimuli and this has led to spread of VR into domains such as clinical and developmental psychology”
Case Studies
Case Studies Explained Skyrim - I’d like to explore how a narrative can change depending on the player’s choice of character, dialogue and play style. Dead Space - dead space being a horror game creates a lot of tension. i want to explore how that tension is created and used to scare the player. Call of duty - this game is a 1st person shooter which is mainly played for online use. i’d like to discover what keeps people playing for so long even after playing with the same maps and random people. World Of Warcraft - As one of the best mmo’s out there currently i’d like to look into what makes the company so successful and how they successfully create such a diverse fantasy world. Outlast 2 - as a brand new horror game it is up-to-date with technology such a vr. i want to know how the experiance differs from an immersive non-vr game such as dead space to a horror game with vr capability. bioshock - bioshock is another fi1st person shooter but is more story based than online. it still allows the player to chose a combat style with weapons and powers but i’d like to investigate how this experiance differes from other shooters like call of duty.
Idea #1 i could create a watchable demo that shows you how to play the game i will be designing. i will be creating all the visuals such as character and enviroment and make an animated video of the proposed game.
Idea #2 me second idea is quite similar to my fi1st, however instead of a demo i would like to make a trailer for a game that will be designing based on my research. i would still like to incorporate a digital way to showcase some of my work in the production but i’m not sure how yet.
Idea #3 My 3rd idea is to simulate a deatiled enviroment in unity or maya, for a player to walk through and explore.This idea is still a bit underdeveloped however if sources were available to me i would consider looking into the vr capability of this.