Gaming booklet

Edexcel Level 2 BTEC First Diploma in IT

20137377 20

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Andrei Placinta

Contents

Images taken from: 

front page taken from: http://www.wow-mop.net/MoP_wallpapers.htm

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Assassin’s creed image taken from: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/theassassins/images/31818509/title/assassins-creed-3-wallpaper

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Skyrim’s image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim

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Starcraft II image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ StarCraft_II:_Wings_of_Liberty

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The Sims 3 image taken from: http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/05/01/thesims-3-online-features-revealed/

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Brain Training image taken from: http://www.drjack.co.uk/does-brain-trainingreally-work-by-dr-jack-lewis/

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Fifa 13 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_13

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World of Warcraft taken from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ carolpinchefsky/2012/08/26/a-world-of-warcraft-player-reviews-guild-wars-2/

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League of legends image taken from: http://betweencontent.com/league-oflegends-quiz-hard-one/

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Action Games These games favour challenges, where hand–eye coordination and reaction-time are most commonly found.

Games in this genre usually contain parts of other genres.

The game starts off usually with a catastrophe that the player must repair by playing as the protagonist. The player has a set of attacks and abilities that he can use to eliminate his enemies. These games contain temporary or permanent power-ups (items that give bonuses to certain things like attacks, defense) that the player must take advantage off in order to progress easier.

An example of a new action-adventure game is Assassin’s Creed III. This is a historical game about an indian child who is trained to be an assassin and to drive off the invading british during the independence war. This game is part of a game series.

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Adventure games An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player plays the role of the protagonist in an story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving. Because the game is focused on the story, the multiplayer design is difficult so they do not usually have the option. This game genre contains an inventory in which the player stores items to solve puzzles.

This game genre usually goes well with action games and other game genres. This genre is based around story development where the player unlocks piece by piece of the story as he goes in a linear development.

An example of an adventure action game is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

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Comparison

While the Xbox and PS3 are good gaming consoles, the PC is above them because of the simple fact that we can change its components and improve it as technology improves, it also has the most power and will always do. PS3 is a good console because it has Blu-ray incorporated and therefore it can be used as a Blu-ray player. Xbox is good because it can hold a mouse and a keyboard therefore improving the aim on shooting games. A Microsoft Xbox 360 Console with 250GB costs ÂŁ160 nowadays, while a Sony PS3 Slim Console with 500gb Hard Drive would cost ÂŁ250 and a good PC costs about ÂŁ300 with about 250GB storage memory. All of these can be found easily in markets and the easiest ones to setup are the consoles. The number of games available on the PC are far higher than the other consoles.

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Handheld Consoles Nowadays there are a lot of handheld Consoles on the market: Sony has the PSP PSPGO and the PSVITA Nintendo has DS and 3DS. These can be found in markets, they are cheaper than the classic consoles but they have small screens, bad graphics and the games made for them are cheaper but smaller in length due to the limited capabilities.

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Strategy Games These games require the players to have a dynamic thinking, to balance their defense with their economy by building armies along with building constructions and using a city’s population to gain resource and thus building the economy.

The game starts with a small village which the player expands as the game goes on and grows his economy along with his army.

These games are usually seen somewhere between the overview and the perspective.

An example of a new strategy game is Starcraft II. This is a game about 3 factions which are at war: Marine, Protoss and Zerg. This game is part of a game series.

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Simulation Games

Games Platforms

Simulation games are made to simulate real life situations so people can experience situations which would be life threatening or which a person would need to see how it is to understand how it is. These are mostly used with educational purposes so pilots can simulate real life flights and doctors can simulate real life operations therefore gaining experience without putting people’s life in danger. Astronauts can use the simulations to train using the real life situation simulation so they can make quick decisions in case of problems outside of the simulation.

Handheld game platforms: Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, PSP, PSP GO, PSP VITA, NINTENDO DS, NINTENDO 3DS, N-Gage.

Game platforms: PC, NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Playstation, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Sega Megadrive, Sega Saturn, Nintendo Wii, NeoGeo, Game & Watch, GameCube, Commodore 64.

An example of such a game is The Sims 3.

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Educational Games

Technology

While technology advances, so do the computers, along with them the graphics cards which provide better graphics quality and games keep up with the ever changing graphics quality by improving their game graphics. While computer improves, so does the artificial intelligence used in games where it’s at the point of having the possibility of selecting how good it performs according to a system of levels. While technology advances, so does the control method, better controllers, better sound effects on the audio, more control on the possibility of actions we can do, everything is improving to improve the gaming experience, everything along with the scripting, the code from which the game starts.

Nowadays other devices like TVs and smart phones can be used as consoles to play games to make them more interesting to gamers.

Educational games are made with educational purposes in mind therefore they are made to teach different things, from how to calculate to what things are and how to read and write.

There are 2 ways of teaching a concept, either through a game or directly teaching and using a game to exercise. Educational games are nowadays used for learners who are kinaesthetic oriented learners.

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An example of such a game is Brain Training.

Sports Games

Individuals and Games

Sports Games are made having different sports in mind. Each game is made to be able to play one or more sport games by the rules of the specific sport you are playing. Real life sports are separated in 2 major categories: indoor and outdoor, and subcategories like: board games, dice games, physical games and so on.

While psychological factors are involved in games like competitive gaming, use of sound to give the impression of reality and levelling systems that create a false sense of satisfaction when advancing levels and having greater expectations with each level, every such pleasure has bad effects on bodies like drugs have, in this case games can cause eye strain, repetitive strain injury and decrease exercise routine while we should increase the exercise routine to improve our blood circulation.

An example of such a game is Fifa 13.

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Games in society

Massively Multiplayed Online Games

Games can affect people by socially isolating them, by making them become addicted and have excess playing time. While some people fiind their alternate reality better than their reality they tend to separate themselves from reality.

While games can have bad influences on people who play games too much, they also improve hand-eye coordination and improve thinking and strategy skills because they force the person to adapt and use what they know to advance and survive.

Massively Multiplayed Online Games are games which require an internet connection and are played only online where players interaction like buying, selling, trading and teamplay is important. These kind of games use servers to separate big groups of players into smaller groups and through servers they play online.

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An example of such a game is World of Warcraft

Role-Playing Games (RPGs)

Mobile phones

A Role-Playing Game is a game genre which is described as a decision driven story based game.

This genre was created to teach real life skills but because games which combined it with action and adventure genre became popular.

While phones have evolved from being landline to mobile, from simple to complex, from big to small and to big again having PDAs incorporated therefore improving the mobile phones’ utility and power. Nowadays smartphones can play games having quite good graphics for a mobile phone.

An example of such a game is League of Legends

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