Violence In Video Gaming

Gaming

My take on violence in gaming.

First of all, let me say that I don’t associate the number of red pixels on the screen with the level of violence. I don’t necessarily find pixel representations of body parts flying off in every direction to be particularly violent.

My definition of violence has more to do with abuse of power, inflicting will, cruelty, hate, and disregard for the beingness of others. These forms of nasty behavior are totally independent of the normal standards for violence. In fact, some of the worst cases may look to the casual observer totally benign.

Let’s consider a game that some might find violent — which I find totally non-violent. That would be Team Fortress. First of all, TF has a great deal of killing going on. hundreds and thousands of deaths per game.

Thing is, when the character dies, the player is just teleported back to the “spawn.” Spawn is the entrance point into the game. So respawning just means to go back to the entry point.

This can be very inconvenient. If the player is in the middle of running the flag back to his or her base and gets killed, then the player ends up back in their own base — sans flag. So now the player has to fight their way back to the flag again. So in this sense, death is equivalent to “having one’s forward progress thwarted.”

But, then again there are occasions when being killed doesn’t thwart one’s forward progress — it helps. Such an example would be: the enemy are over running your base and you need to get back to help defend it. Well, getting killed can get you back to the base pretty quick. So depending on whether or not the server has “insta-spawn” working, dying can be a quick jaunt home and quite helpful.

A game that many might not find violent is Tetris. Heck, there’s no killing, no blood, no guts. So how could anyone find it violent? Well, I do.

What about Tetris do I consider violent? The unrelenting grind — ever increasing difficulty with no reprieve. This is a characteristic of many arcade games. The idea is to collect quarters. One way to make this happen is to up the difficulty level without relief. Just make it harder and harder until the player inevitably fails.

I believe non-arcade Tetris could be improved by introducing milestones and plateaus periodically. Every now and then give the player a level that is a celebration of progress earned. This level would be slightly (ever so slightly) less difficult than the one just before — perhaps even introduce a novel/fun aspect in the form of graphics and sound. The Mario Bros secret coin collection areas were a bit like this.

“Barely hanging on” is NOT the best experience — and certainly needs a reprieve periodically. Consider Algebra class. Many text books and class curricula are designed to introduce new material every day.  This puts the students in the position of starting every class in the state of not-knowing. Hopefully the teach will usher the students from not-know to know during the course of the class. This happens. Not all the time. But a good deal of the time. Something that rarely happens is for the teacher to shepard the students from “know” to “handle.” Handle is a condition that comes after know. It involves using one newly acquired ability in way that affirm one’s knowledge and deepens one’s understanding.

A good way to introduce handling into a course curriculum is to insert one day out of three in which the knowledge gained in the previous two days is used to solve problems. These problems would be commensurate with the newly acquired  skill level. The problems could be constructed by altering those used on the previous two days so that they looked new and different, but in reality were solvable using the already known material.

This gives the students an experience of “Hey, I’m pretty cool — I can do this.” Unless a teacher is on a campaign to bring home the lesson that they (the teacher) are super cool and know a bunch of shit the students don’t know, then I would recommend trying the introduction of “handling” as a goal in education. How sad is it to watch a third-grade teacher that is wrapped up in proving to 8 year olds that she is smarter than they are.

Tetris is one of the most addictive games in the world, and is super successful in financial terms. Don’t believe for one second that I am waiting for them to redesign the game. They have a game that works for the sellers. I’m just saying that maybe it is not working so well for the players and the society in which they live. Kids that feel good about their ability to do, versus kids that hang in as long as they can then stumble and fall. The machine of commerce may prefer the hang in, stumble and fall mode. I think it is better for the soul of society if we venture into the area of “feeling good about our ability to do.”

 

 

Glass or Water?

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Glass or Water? That was the question.

In the analogy, a glass  represented the human biological machine and the water corresponds to the being or inner nature which transcends a single incarnation.

So which are you — the glass or the water?

Before you answer, let me apologize — that was a trick question. By the nature of the question it is implied that you can be only one or the other.

As water it is possible to be in many different glasses — one at a time.

Since my water nature exists apart from this particular glass in which I currently find myself, and since this water will exist long after the glass is turned to dust, then surely I am the water.

Okay, I am water. But, wait….. Continue reading →

In-Game Gold

Gaming, Table-Top Demo

This is a little experiment / table-top demo that I highly advise.

Whenever I give a table-top demo, I feel compelled to also issue a small warning. A table-top demo is not a quiz, it is not a brain-twister, it is not an idea. A table-top demo is a hands on activity that one is supposed to actually care out.

Typical process:

  1. hear nifty idea for table-top demo,
  2. instantly intuit something or other that the demo is sure to illustrate,
  3. never actually do the demo.

I highly recommend the following:

  1. hear nifty idea for table-top demo,
  2. instantly intuit something or other that the demo is sure to illustrate,
  3. do the demo anyway.
  4. confirm that what you thought was gonna happen does.
  5. AND, along the way discover several nifty things that you would otherwise not have encountered.

It is because of #5 (discover several nifty things that you would otherwise not have encountered) that I strongly suggest you actually do the suggested table-top demo.

So, obligatory warning out of the way, here is the suggested table-top demo:

In-Game Gold

1) Start  playing a game such as Zelda (from the original if you have it). Zelda is most likely the best all around video game ever.

Play the game for a short while. Accrue some gold. Look at the amount of gold you have. Tell yourself (aloud is best) “Hey, I have 1000 (the actual number) gold.” Exit the game. Now, ask yourself (again, aloud is best) “I have left the game, did I take the gold with me?”

2) Start  playing a game such as Diablo II. In case you don’t know, Diablo II is vastly superior to its successor Diablo III.

Play the game for a short while. Accrue some gold. Look at the amount of gold you have. Tell yourself: “Hey, I have (fill in number here) gold.” Exit the game. Now, ask yourself: “I have left the game, do I have the gold with me?”

3) Start  playing a table-game such as Monopoly.

Play the game for a short while. Accrue some money. Count the money you have. Tell yourself: “Hey, I have (fill in number here) dollars.” Put the Monopoly set away — along with ALL of the parts, properties, etc. Walk away from the table. Now, ask yourself: “I have left the game, where is the money from the game?”

4) Reflect on each of the above games for a moment or two. Answer the question: “Given that I could not take gold or money from the game, what if anything was I able to take away from the game?”

Repeat the above demo a couple or more time is you wish. It is very possible that you will get new answers with each repetition.

 

Water Or The Glass

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Consider water in a glass.

A short glass, a straight glass, and a shapely glass.

Pour the water from glass to glass.

Whichever glass the water fills — fill it, it will.

Paint the glass, decorate, or mar — when the water leaves, such superficialities  are as if they never were.

Are you the water or are you the glass?

 

Many Nows

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There is “now”.

When I fill “now” with attention, I experience “now”.

As I stay with “now” I also experience other nows poking through the pixels of the present.

Sometimes those other nows are faint, and sometimes they are not so faint.

Continue reading →

The Game Has Started Now What Do I Do?

Bloggish, Gaming

It is not unusual for us to receive an email from a helpful user informing us that we’ve neglected to include an instruction manual with our games.

The comment is often something along the lines of “yo dude, are you aware that your game is missing any kind of clue on how to move or ‘do’ anything”?

We definitely like to hear from the users of our games. And, we certainly appreciate the attitude of wanting to help. But, I’m here today to tell you that it has not escaped our attention that our games have no game play instruction manual.This is not an oversight, it is deliberate. Continue reading →

This Must Be A Game

Bloggish, Gaming

I’m having fun does that means this must be a game?

I’ve been sitting here, scanning my memory for those occasions when I remember having fun. So far, each time I found fun happening the four elements of gaming were happening — a goal, rules, feedback, and a sense of voluntary participation.

This does not constitute proof that the four elements are required for fun. Anecdotal evidence does not constitute proof, even so, these is a definite suggestion of a link between having fun and playing a game. Continue reading →

Life As A Game

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Take any game, strip away technology and format and you will be left with the same four elements. These four elements are common to all games: a goal, rules, feedback, and a sense of voluntary participation.

I propose to you that if you take any life activity, tweak the four above elements into place you will have a game.

Sometimes (meaning pretty much all the time) we find ourselves involved in life activities for which (come hell or high water) you gotta do it. That’s not what I call voluntary participation.

The “omg that’s awfully straight-forward” method of transforming a required activity into one with a sense of voluntary participation is to just change your attitude. You want a sense of voluntary participation while involved in a required life activity, well assume an attitude of voluntary participation.

Another method for adding a sense of voluntary participation to an activity is modify the rules,  then voluntarily participate in the modified rules.

Example: You just gotta do the dinner dishes. Whether you like it or not, the dishes in the sink gotta get cleaned. Nothing voluntary about it.

How about adding the rule that all the dishes need to be scrubbed counterclockwise — not clockwise, not up-down, not side to side. They have to be scrubbed in a counterclockwise motion. You may not have a choice about whether or not you do the dishes. But you do have a choice about whether or not you follow the newly contrived rule.

This new sense of voluntary participation transforms the activity into a game. By changing the rules (even making it harder) then voluntarily participating in the new rules drudgery is turned into fun.

[Note: In follow-up blogs we will look at how playing with the goal and/or feedback can make a life activity into a game.]

 

Others Don’t Think The Same As We Do

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Le me give you an example:

A dear friend was helping out by picking up a few items from the grocery store while out doing her own shop. The willingness to help and the actual helping was much appreciated.

One of the items on the short list was 12 oz hot cups. Well, the store was out of 12 oz hot cups. They had 8 oz and 16 oz hot cups — but not 12 oz. Making a decision on which to substitute, she purchased the 8 oz cups.

To me the obvious solution would have been the 16 oz cups.  One could fill the 16 oz cup with 12 oz of fluid (or more) and thus fulfill whatever function the 12 oz cups were intended for.

I’m sure my friend had equally compelling reasoning for choosing the 8 oz cups. This blog is not intended as a discussion of appropriate cup substitutions.

The point is: in that moment when the cups arrived the nature of the substitution served as a shining example that others don’t think the same as I do. This shocking thing is not that fact that others don’t think the same way we do. The shocking thing is that this comes as a surprise.

As we go through the day operating under the tacit assumption that the inner world of others is governed by the same laws and conditions as our own inner world, we have ample opportunity for misunderstanding and confusion.

If you could manage to suppress your rampant xenophobia, you would do for better to assume that you have no clue who or what the people you see are — a stranger in a strange land. You’d be far closer to the truth.