Evolution of the Elder Scrolls! Pg 7
Minecraft mods and life skills Pg 17
What your kids are playing Pg 13
Biographies
Lloyd Scherz
Lloyd is a very hyper and energetic person. He wants to move to Iceland and raise Alpacas. He is a vegetarian and loves every living thing, except humans, which he despises. He is really good at climbing stuff, sword fighting (never tried fencing, but who knows) and other things that could have been helpful about 1000 years ago. Lloyd’s first name is from the welsh word Lloyd, meaning the gray, and his last name means Jester in German, which is where his dad’s family is from. He has ADHD and is partially insane.
Johann Schmidt Johann is a studious worker that spends way too much time concentrating on his grades and does not have a social life. He also participates in the swim team as a way of keeping in shape, but he mainly does it for the Physical Education credit that he needs to graduate. He focuses on learning science, programming and math, and will go into science for his university doctorate and career.
Roberto Guzman Roberto is when forced to a hard worker, he always does his best work at the last minute. He can talk to anyone or at least try and is good at making friends. As a kid he was never scared to talk to anyone. He plays soccer and is now participating in ultimate. He would rather be doing one of the two instead of being in school or doing homework. He is very athletic and will try almost any sport.
Table of Contents Yo Ho Ho and Some Software Boot........ Pg 6
Evolution of the Elder Scrolls.................. Pg 7
Animation Creation............................... Pg 11
Video Games or Mind Control............. Pg 13
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Table of Contents Ups and Downs of RTS.......................... Pg 16
Programing in Minecraft....................... Pg 17
Console v. Console Sales........................ Pg 21
LoL Champions...................................... Pg 22
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For every game that a person buys a year there are almost five games pirated. According to cracked. com the Recording Industry Association of America has predicted 382 trillion dollars have been stolen by piracy, that is the amount of money in the world 46 times over. In addition this was done on just one of the many sites, Piratebay. Two smaller income businesses, Steam and Zynga, are both located on the internet. While Steam sells games over the internet, they are downloaded immediately. On the other hand Zynga is the internet giant that created the hit game Farmville neither has a large enough influence to really effect pirating. On the other hand GameStop makes almost one-fifth of the money that is stolen a year, while GameStop a retail store, makes a dent, the shear amount of games that are stolen vastly outnumbers those that are bought.
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Sources: http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/znga/financials, http://ironhammers.org/estimated-steam-revenues-at-almost-1-billion/ http://www.cracked.com/funny-4003-the-pirate-bay/ http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/GME/financials
Evolution of the Elder Scrolls By Lloyd Scherz
Arena Map From elderscrolls.wikia.com
The Elder Scrolls series has been around for almost two decades. It has gone from a game where almost everything was randomly generated, to a game with a huge, handcrafted world with over 300 hours of playtime. It has evolved in many ways, causing the newest game to look almost nothing like the first but still having the same attractiveness to them. The games, published by Bethesda, all share two features which guide their creation. The first is they all are big, open world games. After you leave the starting dungeon or census office, you are first greeted by a huge, vast world to explore. The second thing they all share is the ability to be played and beaten by any type of character. Whether you’re a lightly armored fighter with a two-handed battle axe to a magical thief with a tendency to summon the undead, there is always something to do. These
two aspects make the games very enjoyable, and also make it very easy to be distracted from the main quest. This distractibility is one of best parts of the elder scrolls game. Starting with Daggerfall, the main quest is only a small portion of the content available. While it is very easy to get distracted from the main quest, it is a very good way to get you acquainted with how each game works. Unlike some games were after you beat the main quest you can’t keep playing, you can play as long as you want. Since the Elder Scrolls has changed immensely, people who are playing the new games or people who are going back to the old games may be confused. While they will find similarities, the way the different games work, especially the old games, may confuse people. That is why this article explains the games themselves, and how they change from one to the next. Elder Scrolls 1: Arena Arena is the first Elder Scrolls game. Originally planned to be an arena fighting game, the development team slowly added RPG elements to it. At first there were a few extra quest, but as more and more RPG elements were added, the main quest became of smaller and smaller importance. Eventually they scrapped the arena concept altogether, and turned it into a RPG. Since they had material with Arena on it, they decided it would be called that because the world was so dangerous. The game was entirely 2D, but designed to look like it was 3D. The game used 2D sprites to represent
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objects or creatures. Everything in the game world is randomly generated except the Dungeons for the main quest and Imperial City. Because of this, the world is infinitely big. You cannot walk between two locations, but have to use the fast travel feature. If you try to walk between towns, you will end up walking through the wilderness forever. The main quest is extremely linear. Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall Daggerfall is the second Elder Scrolls game. It was Daggerfall released in 1996. It had 3D environment, but NPC’s From Geek.com and monsters had 2D sprites. The game world is 487,000 square kilometers, or 188,000 square miles. Morrowind is a fully 3D game, made in The creators were able to make the game that big by 2002. The world is much smaller than previrandomly generating the map. ous games, being seven square miles. While Locations that aren’t important to the main quest that is a lot smaller, it is all handmade and has where randomly generated in development, so it’s more depth. Nothing is randomly generated, all the same in every person’s game. The main quest meaning it feels organic and natural. is more detailed and intricate than Arena’s. There is The combat, while sufficient, is not commore variety in your missions and there are 6 different plicated. You can move around a bit when you endings. The Character creation process is also highly fight, the direction you move determines what improved. attack you make, or you can have the option, Jared Sanders, a gamer who has played a lot of use best attack. You can hold a shield if you’re Elder Scrolls agrees, “I’d say storyline and character using a one handed weapon, but you can’t creation are the two biggest improvements there, along manually use it. Your character blocks an atwith greater variety.” tack based on your block skill. Unlike in Arena, you can manually walk between The main quest is complicated, making it towns. You can also by a horse, cart, boat, and even a possible to beat the game with only a small house. Some cities are small and only have a few house understanding of what you did. There are in them, while some are huge expanses of building three big guilds, which you can join all three. going farther than you can see. There is also a much The guilds have a big quest line where you rise larger variety of side quest to complete. There are through their ranks and become their leader. many guilds you can join. Beside the guilds, you can There are also three big houses, which you can do a variety of other things. only join one of. You become the head of the chosen house and get a stronghold. Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind “Rather than having a bunch of randomly generated citizens like in Daggerfall, each character in Morrowind has his or her own name, life, and story,” Sanders says, “Morrowind has a smaller world than Daggerfall’s by a long shot, but it’s deeper, I think.”
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Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Oblivion is the fourth Elder Scrolls game. It takes place in the Main province of Cyrodiil. The game world is 16 square miles. It is handmade like Morrowind. The entire game
is leveled. The monsters you fight change as you get to a higher level, and so does the loot. For unique items you get for specific quest, the power of them is changed based on your level. If you level in skills that are not combat based, the game gets very hard later on. The Main Quest is very linear, causing player travel around the continent. The game is a lot more limited than it originally was. Unlike in Morrowind, you cannot kill certain NPCs, and some doors are unlockable, even with the best lock picks. Some quest are locked until you get a higher level, but those are few. “The biggest improvements from Morrowind to Morrowind Oblivion are mostly mechanical: graphics, combat, From elderscrolls.wikia.com physics, so on,” Sanders comments, “The side quests are also more fun.” The setup is similar to Morrowind, but with fewer quest lines. There are the three guilds returning from Morrowind, but there is also a assassins guild. There are no Great Houses to join. Unlike Morrowind, you can buy a house and horses. Elder Scrolls 5 : Skyrim Skyrim is the Fifth Elder Scrolls. The game world is as big as Oblivion’s. It is a snowy, mountainous region. It is the first time in an Elder Scrolls game where there is something different about you character. Unlike almost everybody else, you can use shouts. Shouts are special words that can let you breath fire, push people back, and summon storms. The main quest involves stopping dragons from invading Skyrim. “Along with better graphics, physics, and combat, the best improvement from Oblivion to Skyrim is the hand-crafted dungeons,” Sanders say, “Oblivion’s dungeons were so generic that it eventually didn’t feel like they were even worth exploring.” There are the 3 main guilds although they have different names. There are radiant quest. Radiant quest are semi randomly generated quest. The game will look for dungeons you haven’t cleared, and the place a quest there. When you get a small way into the main quest, dragons can randomly appear. If the see you they will attack you.
Oblivion From Steam Forum
Skyrim From Steam Forum
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Animation Creation How are video games made? There are many steps to creating video games starting with the very creation of the idea of the game then going into the storyline of the game and going into the creation of the characters of the video games. From there it goes into movement of the characters to the creation of the background. From there it goes into the final stages of creation and the advertisement of the game.
Ideas are put onto a story board. At the same time rough sketches of the main characters are being drawn.
Ideas for games are thrown out either by designers or outsiders. Sketches are scanned into the computer
Characters are made into 3D controllable characters Layer of “skin” is added, then a layer of color and texture is added. Digital exoskeleton is created: defines how realistic character looks, and it allows the computer to control the animation.
By Roberto Guzman Bring figures to life: some use actors or humans others use computers depending on the motions desired
The Game world is created: A lot of the 3-D objects are created by using polygons
Code: The main programming language used is C. Always a main 3D code engine used to create polygons that are used the most important thing created here is the artificial intelligence and the physics in the game
Production phases: beta and alpha stages: beta the work out all the large and small “bugs” after all the bugs are sorted out that’s the alpha
The game goes into marketing where it can be sent to conventions or trade shows where they can have demos of the game available to the public.
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Just games or mind control?
What if someone told you the games your kids played weren’t playing exactly what you thought? The question of “Do violent video games really make kids violent has been thrown around a lot. There have been many debates on whether they do or not. It’s hard to say whether they do or don’t, “Although there is consistent research of violent video games causing violent behavior, and there are cases of serious aggressive behavior due to violent video games there are some who think there are no negative affects because of violent video games,” Dr. David Yeager physiologist at the University of Texas said, “media violence increases aggression and violence, both in the immediate situation and across time.” Kids who play violent video games at times start to show more evidence of violence or even talk back at times to their parents, after a lot of thought there was question on if there were any more things that could happen to kids. There are other things that could come from violent video games like, “the victim effect which is basically the more you consume, the more you fear and the appetite effect which is the more you consume the more you want,” Dr. David Yeager said. There are not that many ways to cure this violence but some say all you need to do is stop playing violent video games for a while others say it’s more complicated. Some say that there is a certain amount of these violent video games that you should play others don’t, “Basically there is this aggressor affect which basically means the more you consume or play, the more aggressive you become,” Yeager said. Violence can come from playing too much video games not only that but, many parents say, “my child spends more time playing than anything,” or “He ignores me now which he never did before.”
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Just games or mind control? There are many people who have been affected by the violence of video games not only young adults but also little children. There used to be a kid who was really nice and he was around the age of 6. Whenever Modern Warfare 2 came out he started to change in behavior and progressively because more violent. FAmily members became more aggressive because of these games. There were many who thought they were the only ones to notice but a man who worked with a another kids father who also noticed changes in his children from day to day, “After I bought my kids their game [Modern Warfare, Black Ops], they started become more violent with me they would talk back to me and say things they wouldn’t normally say to me,” Fuentez said, “I’m not sure if it’s just because they are teens or because of the game but kids don’t normally get progressively more aggressive because of hormones. I was scared for them and for myself so for a while I took away their video games hoping it would make it better, and it only sort of did, but at that point there was nothing I could do and there was no real way I could change them without taking them to a therapist.” So as you can see this is a very hard topic to discuss because there are many things that can be discussed and argued and it’s hard to pick a certain view point without being excessively biased on the opinion. Most kids become addicted to AAA games (or first person shooter), and whether we chose to blames games or not is on us but there have been studies that show some correlation between violent video games and the way kids behave now there are times when some kids have exposure to other things (drugs, alcohol, violence at home), but that’s beyond the point. Violent video games are not entirely to blame (although they may be able to cause violence), there are also other people on the games who can have a certain influence on kids. But video games are not all
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bad some parents also say it has the opposite effect on their kids, “Ever since ___ started playing the game [Halo Reach] they have become less violent, and i think it’s because they use it as a way to let out their emotions.” Some people for example Jesse Steinfeld, think “It is clear to me that the causal relationship between televised violence and antisocial behavior is sufficient to warrant appropriate and immediate remedial action… There comes a time when the data are sufficient to justify action. That time has come.” There are more games like assassin’s creed or crysis or battle field that have been considered to cause violence in kids, but many more research still needs to be done. There are a lot of thing contributing to kids playing these games some being, “Less than half of parents understand video game ratings,” Yeager said, “and from other reports almost all children and adolescents play video games and only 30% of 3rd-5th graders report that parents always help with purchase/ rental decision. Also 25% say parents never do so Only 36% have rules about when or how much they can play and 70% of children younger than 17 play “M” rated games.” One of the most violent video games is Grand Theft Auto, “the majority of boys and girls younger than 17 have played Grand Theft Auto” Yeager said. Another problem with games is that, “89 percent of teens parents never limit the amoun of time that kids play” Yeager said. so that gives children more time to play video games and in turn violent video games, “[and] over 30% of boys download video games from the internet.” Even, “E-rated games often contain official violence descriptor” which shows how easy it is to get violent video games.
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Minecraft-logo-background by Bill Zoeker via www.ariablarg.tv
From Wood to Diamonds
By Johann Schmidt
For the last four years the game Minecraft has been currying favor from millions of people. This game has been awarded generously; including the Innovation Award, Best Downloadable Game Award, Best Debut Game Award, Audience Award, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. At this point the game has been bought online over 10 million times. Minecraft is just a basic sandbox game, but it has such an easily graspable gameplay type that it is one of the most popular games ever. Because of its easy gameplay and the nature of the game, large numbers of kids create mods that drastically change the game. These people have to invest a lot of time into the game before they can even start considering creating mods. These mods all have benefits associated with the time spent working on them. Seeing as Minecraft is a video game and is mostly played by kids, before a kid creates a mod they have to be aware of the programming language and the way in which the game works.
Minecraft Build 2 - Cavern City by Tumble-Pig via deviantart.
“I found a couple YouTube videos,” Barre said. “While I wasn’t technically wasn’t really doing anything on my own, I was just copying the code, I was able to make some basic mods and play around with them. For most of these people the first place that they turn is
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YouTube where there are a plethora of videos walking you through how to create your own mods. In addition there are groups of people that work together to create mods that make huge changes to the game. “I haven’t met too many people, but I eventually joined the modding team for Pixelmon,” Barre said. “That was a pretty nice community, but they moved really fast, and I didn’t have the free time to catch up with them. When these groups get together they create large mods that make crazy changes, for example there is Pixelmon, or Bleach mod, or another would be 3-D Terraria. Mods like these usually add extra AIs, creature, and abilities. On the other hand there are mods that are smaller, but they affect the gameplay style, for example there is TMI (Too Many Items), an inventory editor, or there is Optifine which changes the graphics settings, and makes the game run smoother. The final type of mods are supporting mods. They include Modloader, Modloader MP, and Modloader API Forge, these all allow for the user to apply the original mods to their Minecraft. “I really don’t spend any time at all [looking for ideas],” Barre said. “If I need idea there are a whole lot of people out in the community that have a lot of ideas and don’t have the time or experience to make them.” When creating a mod there is a period when the creator has to brainstorm the ways that they want their mod to change the game. When a modder lacks usable ideas they can go to assorted web pages where there are whole forums dedicated to peoples requests for Minecraft mods. Seeing as the actual modders are in cheap supply compared to the number of people who want mods for Minecraft the ideas that people recommend are usually unused and can be very good. This leads to modders who fulfill the requests of other people and supply a service that is in demand. “There is a thing called Minecraft Coder
Minecraft Build 3 - Ornamented Tower by TumblePig via deviantart.com
Pack which decompiles the Minecraft code into something usable,” Barre said. “It is very easy to update the Minecraft mods with MCP.” When a person creates a mod they run into the problem of the Minecraft jar being physically unreadable due to the way that it is saved. There is a special modding tool called, creatively, Minecraft Coder Pack or MCP. This aid helps people actually read the individual data files in Minecraft which can then be used to create the mods in question. This tool is updated in sync with Minecraft, but it is produced by a third party group so there is a lag between the main update and the MCP one. When a person uses this free software they can read the java code that the game is working in.
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Showcase Lannisport Timelapse Minecraft Project by Maruku via wallpowper.com
The Minecraft program is not structured for the use of mods, and as of yet there is not an actual sponsored way of adding mods to your game, therefore the kids that use these mods have to learn how to open the jar file, and modify it with the mods they have downloaded. These kids have to find a program that can extract the files, for example 7-zip or WinRAR. In addition they have to find exactly where the Minecraft jar is stored and then personally modify it. Another obstacle that they overcome is the that Minecraft jar is inside a hidden folder that requires the user to modify the options and find the jar. “I have made 38$,”Barre said. “In total.” When a Modder or group of modders finish a mod they run into the problem of distributing it to the public. When this scenario occurs there are a few places that an average person will turn adfly, mediafire, or both. These two websites provide money depending on the number of times that the file was downloaded. This allows for these groups to make disposable income on the mods that they have created, further incentivizing them to create more mods.
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The creation of these mods are enforcing important life skills, and helping these kids to appreciate being a producer of a product that they come up with. This in turn prepares them for jobs that require programming to create content. In addition these mods force people to keep on a fairly regular schedule and keep their fans updated on what they are doing. Finally these mods help to prepare people for working on a project in groups without being in the same area.
Paragon Fleet by BlueBlankey via deviantart.com
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Champions of Glory
By Johann Schmidt
League of Legends is an new free to play game that is taking the nation by storm. In return for being free to play there are only some free champions, playable characters, provided each week. As a result there is no guaranty that you will get your favorite character, so we have assembled five of the best characters of each class that you can use to get started or restarted. We provided the base stats of all the Champions and their name. H=Health M=Mana MS=Movement Speed
E=Energy HR=Health Regeneration AD=Attack Damage R=Range
MR=Mana Regereration Ar=Armor
ER=Energy Regeneration AS=Attack Speed
Tank Support Ranged Mage Fighter Assassin
Amumu
Janna
Caitlyn
Fizz
Darius
Evelynn
H:556 M:260 HR:8 MR:7 MS:319 AD:51 R:125 Ar:21 Cho’gath
H:434 M:366 HR:5 MR:8 MS:319 AD:52 R:125 AS:0.638 Ar:13 Kayle
H:470 M:290 HR:5 MR:7 MS:300 AD:50 R:650 AS:0.625 Ar:17 Ashe
H:500 M:240 HR:8 MR:7 MS:310 AD:56 R:175 AS:0.688 Ar:16 Kassadin
H:519 M:238 HR:9 MR:6 MS:315 AD:54 R:125 AS:0.658 Ar:24 Olaf
H:500 M:222 HR:8 MR:8 MS:315 AD:51 R:125 AS:0.670 Ar:17 Jax
H:520 M:245 HR:8 MR:7 MS:320 AD:58 R:130 Ar:23 Shen
H:511 M:295 HR:8 MR:7 MS:310 AD:56 R:125 AS:0.625 Ar:21 Soraka
H:474 M:208 HR:5 MR:7 MS:300 AD:49 R:600 AS:0.638 Ar:15 Corki
H:511 M:275 HR:7 MR:8 MS:315 AD:56 R:125 AS:0.658 Ar:17 Viktor
H:534 M:270 HR:8 MR:7 MS:325 AD:58 R:125 AS:0.638 Ar:20 Riven
H:561 M:235 HR:8 MR:7 MS:325 AD:60 R:125 AS:0.694 Ar:22 Rengar
H:513 E:200 HR:8 ER:50 MS:310 AD:58 R:125 Ar:19 Maokai
H:446 M:300 HR:5 MR:5 MS:310 AD:52 R:550 AS:0.651 Ar:11 Thresh
H:457 H:463 M:280 M:290 HR:5 HR:7 MR:4 MR:5 MS:300 MS:310 AD:51 AD:52 R:550 R:525 AS:0.625 Ar:17 AS:0.658 Ar:16 Miss Fortune Xerath
H:500 M:0 HR:11 MR:0 MS:320 AD:57 R:125 AS:0.625 Ar:15 Vi
H:435 M:0 HR:4 MR:0 MS:319 AD:55 R:125 AS:0.625 Ar:16 Kha’Zix
H:511 M:296 HR:8 MR:7 MS:310 AD:61 R:125 Ar:22 Rammus
H:452 M:200 HR:6 MR:5 MS:335 AD:46 R:475 AS:0.625 Ar:18 Sona
H:520 M:250 HR:6 MR:8 MS:300 AD:50 R:550 AS:0.625 Ar:18 Vayne
H:460 M:295 HR:6 MR:8 MS:315 AD:55 R:550 AS:0.658 Ar:16 Diana
H:440 M:220 HR:8 MR:7 MS:350 AD:51 R:125 AS:0.630 Ar:16 Volibear
H:430 M:260 HR:6 MR:7 MS:350 AD:50 R:125 AS:0.643 Ar:15 Master Yi
H:506 M:288 HR:6 MR:5 MS:310 AD:63 R:125 Ar:25
H450 M:310 HR:5 MR:8 MS:305 AD:50 R:550 AS:0.625 Ar:11
H:442 M:200 HR:5 MR:7 MS:300 AD:53 R:550 AS:0.644 Ar:13
H:438 M:230 HR:7 MR:7 MS:345 AD:48 R:150 AS:0.658 Ar:16
H:526 M:250 HR:8 MR:8 MS:320 AD:57 R:125 AS:0.625 Ar:24
H:530 M:235 HR:7 MR:7 MS:330 AD:58 R:125 AS:0.625 Ar:20
Sources: http://lol.fanrealm.net/ http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_champions
AS:0.658
AS:0.638
AS:0.679
AS:0.665
AS:0.679
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Console vs Console Sales By Lloyd Scherz Many people love or hate certains consoles. They say facts about the console that are probally not true to brag about there consoles. These are the console sales from when each console was released to 2013.
All Versions Sony PS3 77 Million
Nintendo Ds, Ds Lite, Dsi,Dsixl 149 Million
Icons for ds, wii, and ps3 http://commons.wikimedia.org xbox icon http://images4.wikia.nocookie. net ps3 and xbox 360 sales http://www.ign.com wii and ds sales http://www.statisticbrain.com
All Versions Nintendo Wii 89 million
All Versions Microsoft Xbox 360 76 miilion Key
10 million
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