Unit 9 - Characteristics & Context in Media Production

11/9/2019

Introduction to Blender

Blender is a rather complicated program for 3D modelling, that we will be using for our 3D work this year. Therefore, since none of us had any experience with it, we have used these first lessons to introduce us to the program.

The most basic controls needed to navigate the program are using the right mouse button to select and move things and then clicking either the left mouse button to make the change permanent or the right mouse button again to reset the object back to its original position. When selected, you can either move things freely or along the X, Y, Z Axes indicated by 3 arrows. A selected object is outlined yellow.

On the very right is a bar with the sections:

Tools

Create

Relations

Animations

Physics

Grease Pencil 

In the Tools section, there is a short list of a few useful tools. However there are shortcuts available for most of them, such as:

Translate (move) selected items  - G

Rotate selected items - R

Scale (resize) selected items - S

Mirror selected items around one or more axes- Ctrl M

Duplicate selected objects and move them - Shift D

Delete selected objects - X

Join selected objects into active object - Ctrl J

Other Shortcuts we learned are:

Inspector, toggle options visible - T, N, W

Border, square selection - B

Circle, paint selection - C

Lasso selection - Ctrl

Toggle select whole object - A

Extrude from selection - E

Loop cut, cut object into sections - Ctrl R + Mousewheel

Knife tool, cut objects in straight line - K

Commands, a list for useful commands - Space

Merge vertexes together - Alt M

In the Create section you can find a list of things for you to add to your layer, such as a cube or a cylinder.

We used all of these useful things we learned to create our first 3D Model; a tree. We created a cone, which we then copied twice, each time scaling them a bit smaller, and then used the Y Arrow to place them perfectly above one another. This created a simplified cartoon Pine tree shape. Then, making sure the cursor was still in the middle and therefore in the centre of the cones, we created a cylinder. We then scaled it to an appropriate thickness, selected its bottom surface and extruded it to an appropriate length. To make the trunk look a bit more realistic, we added 3 loop cuts and then moved the middle one to the side slightly. This makes the trunk less perfect and more natural.

Next we textured the Tree. First we selected edges that ran along the side of the tree, as well as all the surfaces. We marked them as seams and unwrapped the model. Then on the materials window and in the materials view we created a new material, assigned it to the model and were able to change its colour in the diffuse section. We made sure to only have the leaves selected and coloured them green this way. For the Trunk we made sure we were in the cycles render mode, where in the diffuse section we clicked the dot on the right of the colour picker. There we could select image texture and open a texture we had downloaded from the internet.

I found this introduction has been very useful, as I had never used Blender before and knew nothing about it and now I have at least a basic understanding of it. The actual modelling of the tree was much easier than I had thought it would be and I thought I did well. The texturing was a bit more complicated and I struggled remembering all the steps and where to find what. I will still need a lot of practice, however I am actually quite happy with how my little tree turned out.

18/9/2019

Low Poly Character Model in Blender
To create our character model, the first thing we need is a front and side view design of what we are trying to create. In this case, I drew a random girl, as this was just for practice. It's important to use guidelines when drawing this, as both views need to perfectly line up for them to be usable.

To be able to reference and follow this design when creating the model, we needed to be able to see it in the program so after I separated the two views into separate png files and made sure they were both centred.

Then I pressed N to bring up the properties panel, scrolled down and added two background images. Then I made sure to set their axis to their respective views. AKA, front view to front axis, side view to right axis. 

Now, if you press 5 to toggle orthographic view, you can press 1 and 3 to switch between the two views and will be able to see the two pictures.

Then, I made sure there were no lights or cameras on the layer, and if you do not have one already, you add a cube. Making sure I am still in orthographic view, I placed the cube by the characters crotch. I pressed Ctrl R and cut the cube in half vertically. Then I deleted one of the halves. I Pressed A to select the rest and added a mirror modifier to it and activated clipping. I pressed Z to toggle Wire-frame mode, and then B to use box select. I selected the top right Vertex and dragged it up to the shoulders to make a triangular shape. Then I used Ctrl R again to cut the shape into pieces, and move the outside vertexes to follow the outline of the body. I did so in both views.

The same process is basically repeated all over the body, extruding and adding cubes when needed. To attach a cube either pressing Space and searching Bridge or using Alt M to merge points is useful.

For the head, I added a new cube, pressed W, clicked subdivide smooth and then added the subdivision surface modifier. Now I could adjust the outer vertexes for the inner cube to fit the head. Then I attached it to the neck.

When I was done, I made sure to apply the modifiers and shade it smooth before moving on.

I found the modelling process to be much simpler than I had expected, although it did come with some difficulties. I encountered some clipping which made the model less than perfect. I am hoping to be able to create cleaner models in the future though, as I believe I have have learnt a lot from my mistakes.

Model Colouring

Once the Model is complete, I opened a second view and switched one to UV/Image Editor. Then I marked seams across my model and unwrapped it, now I was able to see the texture map.

At the bottom of the UV/Image Editor, I added a new image, named it and saved it in a safe and memorable space.

Then I went to the slots bar, added a new slot, changed the painting mode to image and opened up the image I saved before.

I went to the tools bar and added a texture slot. I was now able to select colours and paint them on to the model directly. I could also adjust the radius (width) of the brush and the opacity.

Struggles with this interface, are that there is no eyedropper tool, so there’s no way of recovering a colour I used earlier. Because of this I have patches of colour on the character, where I failed to recreate the colour I used before.

My model is also not perfect, as it has some modelling discrepancies which resulted in some areas that the brush would not paint, for some reason.

I was also painting using the mouse so of course it is not my best or cleanest work.

Another thing that frustrated me is that the brush is not very hard. The brush fades out, and so her clothing doesn’t have any harsh edges. I am unclear on whether there is a way to adjust this.

And lastly, I think it would be very helpful to be able to paint on to the texture map as well, however I have yet to figure out if or how I can do that.

I am looking forward to attempting to create a cleaner model, and using a graphics tablet, so I can hopefully produce a better end result next time.

Model Rigging
The next step is to get started on the rigging. I clicked on the file option in the top left of the screen, and selected the user preferences. I searched for rigify, ticked it and then saved the user settings.

I made sure my cursor was in the middle with Shift C, then clicked on add in the bottom left, hovered over armature and selected Human (Meta-Rig). I Adjusted the armature in edit mode if necessary.

When I was done, I clicked the armature option on the top right, and then selected Generate Rig on the bottom right.

I ended up with something like this.

Once again, I adjusted in edit mode if necessary. 

This whole progress has been quite complicated and I was quite lost many times, however I think I understand it well enough now, that I could repeat the process again, in a less messy way. I think rigging has been some of the most complicated stuff we've done, as I had a harder time understanding it. It may in part have been due to the imperfection of my model, but a lot of adjusting and weight painting was needed to get my model to move somewhat correctly, and even so it is still limited to how it can move. Most positions look unnatural and her knees cannot bend properly, she also cant put her arms down. Once again I am hoping a better model will fix most of these problems, however I will also try to be more conscious of the rigging when modelling next time.

Animating in Blender

The next step was to get started on some animation. I switched the screen layout in the top left to Animation and toggled Automatic keyframes on in the bottom left.

Now anytime I moved a body part it automatically made a new key frame, and all I had to do was go to the next frame, before doing so. 

I tried my best to make a good walking animation, but my model didn't pose or adjust very naturally and there was quite a bit of clipping and stretching that happened when I moved parts. I couldn't put her arms straight down and so I tried to animate her running with her arms up, however it made her look like a chicken. Her legs also wouldn't bend naturally and when adjusted, stretched and bent into strange shapes.

I made sure to move her arms afterwards as well so they would look less stiff, however it made little difference and I am generally unhappy with this animation. I am hoping that it is mostly because of how glitched and messy my model is and that it will turn out better with a cleaner model, however I will definitely need more practice. The process of animating itself, is however quite simple and gave me no trouble.

16/10/2018

Blender Camera and Lighting
Now that we knew how to animate a model in blender, we knew about half of what we needed to make a full animation in blender. Next we needed to learn about cameras and lighting in blender, so that we could not only actually film scenes, but also give them natural light-sources and shadows.

So the first thing we did was download the template for this lesson we were given. On this template there was a flat plane, with a large block and a character model on it. We had also downloaded a texture map of a vampire for the character model, which we turned into a material and assigned to it. First we created a camera object that we moved and rotated until it was facing the way we needed it to.





Then, if you pull open another window, select view, then camera and then active camera, you can see from the cameras view.









The lighting is pretty self explanatory. You create a light object and place it where you need the light-source to be. The different options of lighting also explain themselves to you when you hover over them, but simply put:

Point will spread light all around
Sun is a light that will shine from above
Spot will shine light on a specific spot
Hemi is a light that will shine in one direction only
Area works similar to a spotlight

We then proceeded to use loop cuts to cutout windows and a door from the block, turning it into a building. Then we used what we had learnt about texturing and colouring to add colour to our little world. Then we created planes, rotated them to face the same way as the building using R+Y+90, placed them inside the window holes and added a glass texture to them. We then upped the roughness, to make them more visible and glass-looking. We did a similar process with the door, however we made sure that the door plane was the same size as the hole, and added a glossy texture instead. Once again we upped the roughness, but this time to remove the mirroring effect.

This topic was quite self explanatory and therefore quite easy for me. I didn't encounter any troubles and felt I was moving ahead quite well. I am hoping that this will be helpful in the future when creating animations in blender.

16/10/2019

Making a short animation in Blender

Once the lighting, camera and texturing was all set up, we were ready to move on to making our short vampire film. We were given a sheet with exact instructions on how to create it, but I think that  if I've understood it correctly, all you need to do is go to your starting frame, set the object you wish to animate to its starting position, hit I and select LocRotScale. Then you go to the frame of where you want the movement to stop, put the object in its end position and hit LocRotScale again. Using this process on the Camera, the vampire and everything needing movement in the film, we made a little animation of a vampire entering a house.

It wasn't particularity complicated, but reading the instructions did require lots of concentration and to translate it into a method to animate anything, like I did above, required some solid logic skills.

17/20/2018

Rendering in Blender
After finishing our animation in Blender, the next step was to render it. Doing so is actually quite simple. First we clicked on the render tab on the left, which will open up a bar of render settings.

We made sure the end and start frame were compatible with the animation we wanted to render, that it was set to render PNG's and that it would render 1 PNG per frame (frame step). Then we changed the output to a safe and memorable space. Then, making sure its set to Cycles render at the top, we clicked Render in the top right corner and selected Render Animation. Then we simply had to wait. Rendering takes quite a long time and rendering roughly 250 Frames like we did can take up to 2 hours.











Since most of the process is just waiting, rendering is very simple and easily understandable. Therefore I had no trouble doing it.

31/10/2019

Introduction to Unity (Kit Parts)
This week, we finally started to work in Unity. I've been equally excited and nervous to use this program, as it is very accessible, and has larger capabilities than construct 2, but is also much more complex and complicated.

At the top are the play testing controls. Scene is where you can see the entire scene, as you do when editing and game is where you see from the perspective of the camera, as you would when playing. When you press start, the game will begin to carry out the script, which is the code for the game,it has been given. It's very important, however, to remember to hit play again before you continue editing, as anything that was changed during play mode, will not be saved.

On the left is the hierarchy, where you can see all the game objects that are in the scene. This is also where you create new objects. These objects, however, only exist once, so if you wish to use them again, drag them into a folder below, to turn them into a prefab.

On the bottom are the assets. This is where all your prefabs, materials, scripts etc. can be found and where you can create folders to organise them in.

On the left is the inspector, where you can see and edit the properties of the game object you currently have selected and where you add components such as physics or scripts to them.

To test out Unity and gain familiarity with it, we created a little mini game, where you must click on falling balls. The first thing we did was create the actual balls, or blobs, as they were called in the project. To create a new game object you simply right click on the hierarchy section on the left, select 3D object and sphere. Then we renamed it Blob.

Then we went into our materials folder, left clicked there and created a new material.

Then, on the inspector on the left, there is a little colour box under main maps, where you can change your material to any colour on the colour wheel. But we wanted to add a picture to the material and so we clicked on the little circle by albedo instead. This allowed us to choose between some pictures we had previously downloaded. Once all this is done, we simply needed to drag the material on to the blob, and it was applied to it.

Then, after clicking on the blob again, we looked over to the inspector again. There we added a component, clicked physics and then rigidbody and then adjusted the mass and drag. Then we added another component, this time a new script that we named ClickDetection. Once this was all done, we dragged the blob into our prefabs folder.

Next, we created another new game object, this time an empty, and named it spawner. We added another new script component to this and named it SpawnBlobs.

Then, finding the script in the scripts folder, we opened it in visual studio and copied some code we had been given, into it. After that we needed to drag the blob into the prefab blob slot on the inspector. We once again copied more code into the ClickDetection script.

Next we needed to set up the UI, so we created a UI text object in the hierarchy and renamed it HUD. Then we renamed the text that was created with it ScoreText and made two more named WinText and LoseText. Then we changed the colour in their inspectors to yellow. We also changed the width and height on ScoreText and anchored it to the top left. Lastly we added a new script component to the HUD and called it KeepScore. Again, we simply copied code we had been given into it. After this, there were empty slots on the inspector; we simply dragged the respective HUD items into them and set the clock time to 30.

On the inspector for both WinText and LoseText, we changed the colour to yellow, adjusted its size and position, anchored it in the centre, and then deleted the text in the text field.

Then, we created a UI slider, and named it TimeSlider. We were also told to position it under the previously made ScoreText. We set the max value to 100 and the min value to 0, then we changed the fill and handle colours to red on their inspectors. Lastly, we made a new text, HealthText and nestled it in with the slider. We changed the text on it to "Time".

In the end, I managed to get most of the game to work. The balls fall as they should, they turn yellow upon being clicked, and the timer runs out in time. However I didn't position the Timer text properly and didn't manage to get the Hits to increase. The way we were taught to create this game was unnecessarily complicated, which resulted in numerous problems. We were given code to copy in, but not only did most of the code not always work correctly, but none of it was explained to us and so we didn't really learn anything about it and just felt confused. Other than understanding the layout of the program and how to create new objects, I didn't really feel like I learnt much from this experience.

7/11/2019

Introduction to Unity (Pusher Man)

After the last introductory game we made, there were still many things we hadn't learnt, and so we made another, quite different, game. This one would actually feature an environment, a playable character and interactable objects in the world.

Once again the first thing we did was import some pre-made assets we had been given, as well as some already written scripts. We organised them into their respective folders. 

Then we started working on making the terrain. First we went to the hierarchy and created a terrain object. Then we looked at the terrain inspector. At the top there are a few categories to choose from. The paintbrush allows you to pain the terrain however you want to. We added a new layer and chose a grass texture for it. Since it was the first layer this applied to the entirety of the terrain. When we added another layer however, this time a rocky textured one, we were able to select which layer we wanted to paint, and then paint them using the given paintbrushes. There are also adjustable size and opacity sliders.

Underneath the picture sections in paint mode, there are also sub sections of the paint option. In there we chose raise or lower terrain. Here we are able to raise and lower the terrain as we wish, with the same paintbrushes as before, however we can only lower the terrain once it has been raised already, and not past the default terrain.

If we go to the picture to the picture of trees, we find the paint trees section. Here we were able to import some trees we had been given, and paint them on to the terrain. There are once again adjustable brush size, tree density and tree height sliders.

Using these 3 tools I created a little corner of my map, where I continued to work on this game. The terrain tools have so far been very intuitive and easy to use and I've found it quite fun to create a little world. However we haven't looked at all the tools and also had been given assets, and so I wonder how well I'll be able to use these on my own.

To add in a character, we dragged the ThirdPersonCharacter Prefab from the ThirdPersonCharacter folder into the hierarchy and placed him where we need him to be. Then we tagged him player moved the camera to a position where he was in the centre of the screen.

 Then we added the Camera Controller script to the camera and dragged the player into his respective slot on the inspector. We also changed his colours using a method we were showed online. Now we had a fully functioning, WASD controlled, character with a following camera.

After we had those two things set up, we needed to add in the actual game mechanics, AKA the physical game objects the player is meant to push around. We created a Cube, positioned it a bit above the ground, gave it it's own material. added a rigidbody component and tagged it "cube". Then we did the same thing for a sphere and tagged it "ball". Then we created a wall, made it a prefab, and built a little "maze". We also then created a cube as a goal, with a unique material and a box collider, made it a trigger, and added a ramp leading up to it. Then we made a cylinder, scaled it very flat, added a capsule collider, made it a trigger, and gave it a unique material signifying danger. We named it Danger, made it a prefab and placed 2 on the terrain, flush with the ground. Lastly we made a plane, gave it rigidbody and made it kinematic and gravity, added 2 box colliders, one of which is a trigger, gave it a material and attached the touch script component. Then we dragged the player from he hierarchy into it's respective slot in the inspector and did the same for the ball. We made it a prefab and put a few on the stage.

The last thing we did was create the HUD by creating a new UI text item, calling it WinText and set it up like the preset we were given. We also created a Lose text that was set up the same way, except that it had a different colour and text. We renamed the Canvas HUD and tagged it "HUD" as well. Then we changed the texture type of the coin and skull images we had downloaded beforehand to Sprite (2D and UI), created a UI image item, picked the image source as the skull and coin respectively, and placed 3 each in the corner of the screen.

Lastly we added the HUD script component to the HUD and dragged the respective items into their slots on the inspector. To make the HUD work, we also added the BallScoring script component to the sphere. 

The work we did on pusherman was very easy and simple, as the instructions we were given were very clear, however we did not do any coding, which is the most complicated part. I think the layout and features of unity as a program are actually quite simple and intuitive, but without the ability to code, I am still not able to use the program effectively.

14/11/2019

Adding a custom character to Unity

So far we have been working with preset characters and their animations, but of course to one day create our own game, we need to be able to add in our own character models, and their animations. 

Before we could even start in Unity, we needed to properly export our character from blender. For this we needed to first make sure we had a version of the blender model we made, with all 3 animations playing one after another. This was a step that was not clear to me, and so I was not able to make all 3 animations work. Then we selected everything in pose mode and baked the action, by clicking pose, Animation and then Bake Action. We made sure that the end and start frame were correct and then hit OK. Then we selected all the WGT objects and the metarig, deleted them and saved the project. Now we were able to export it in the correct format, as a FBX file.

Then we added our model as well as its texture paint into the assets and organised them into their respective folders. We also copied a player script we had been given into our assets. 

Then we selected the model, clicked on materials in the inspector and hit use embedded materials. Then the instructions said to remap the material to our texture paint, however I could not figure out how to get that to work for me, so I simply made a new material and applied it to the model. Then we selected the materials and defined each action with their appropriate frames and named them, we made sure to click loop action for walk and idle but not jump. Then we quickly created  anew plane for the character to stand on. Then we dragged the model into the scene and added a character controller component to it.

Next we created an animation controller and dragged it into the respective slot on the inspector. We opened the animator view and, having opened up the extended view of the model in assets, dragged the states into the controller. We made sure to add transitions going both ways between them, and then made an animation parameter of int 0.

Then we needed to select each transition, add the parameter to the conditions, and have it equal either 0 for run, 1 for run or 2 for jump. We also turned exit time off on all of them.

Then we simply made the camera a child of the player.

Unlike pusherman before, I think these instructions were incredibly unclear. Points were constantly repeated across the sheet and some bits were left unclear or even unsaid. It was not clear to me that all animations needed to be in one file and the sheet did not mention so anywhere. This resulted in my character only having one repeated animation. The instructions also don't work nearly as well even after being followed, as unlike pusherman where I got everything to work, this character can still only move in one direction and only when using the arrow keys.

19/11/2019

First Person Shooter in Unity
After making a few smaller tester projects, we moved on to making something a little more substantial for practice; a first person shooter.

The first thing we did was of course create the environment for the player to move around in. I started off simply making a little town with a museum, but after doing do, I realised it resembled a village in Animal crossing, and so I decided to run with that. Then we dragged in the First Person Player object we were given, gave him the PlayerHealth and DeathHandler script component and deleted the default camera, so the one attached to this object would become the main camera.

Next we created a capsule as the enemy and added features to it. To continue the Animal Crossing theme I attempted to recreate Tom Nook; then we added the EnemyAI, EnemyAttack and EnemyHealth script component to it and made sure to drag all necessary objects into their slots in the inspector. As an extra touch, I searched YouTube for a way to have the enemies spawn in, and managed to create a spawn point. I also altered the EnemyAI script slightly and enlarged the chase radius so the enemies would immediately come for the player no matter where they are.

After that, we selected all environment objects and made them static, opened a navigation window and baked the nav mesh.

Following that, we added in the weapon the player will be holding. Originally we worked with a gun, however later on, I replaced it with a slingshot. We dragged the weapon Prefab into the hierarchy as a child of the main camera, which is a child of the player, and then used game view to adjust its position. We also changed the clipping planes near on the Main Camera's inspector to 0.06. When adding in the Gun, I was able to adjust it to sit perfectly in the bottom right corner of the screen, however with the slingshot I encountered some problems where it would disappear if it was to close to the player or the bottom of the screen. Because of this I was forced to place it in the middle of the screen, quite far away from the player, which is why it appears quite small. In the end we added the weapon script component to the weapon and dragged the main camera into its respective slot.

Next we created an empty gamer object and called it UI. We created  a UI Canvas inside it and called it GunStuff, inside which we created a UI image called sight. We then picked the source image to be an image we had previously downloaded and which's property is set as Sprite (2D and UI) and Alpha is transparency and from gray scale. We set its position to the centre of the screen.

To make the shooting seem more dramatic, we then put the explosion prefab we had downloaded earlier into the hierarchy and then made it a new original prefab from it by dragging it from there into our own prefab VFX folder where we then renamed it HitFX and deleted it from the hierarchy. lastly we dragged it into its respective slot of the weapon script in the inspector of the weapon.

We then adjusted the settings to suit, with shower being 0.2, fireball 0.1, dust 0.3, and smoke 0.3 and turned off play on awake for all of them. I tried to adjust the colour on it as well, however it came out pink for some reason. Although it was slightly frustrating that I was not able to choose the colour of the explosion, I do not mind the pink, and so I left it as it is. However should this come up again in the future, I will have to find a way to resolve it.

We also created  a new particle system in the hierarchy named it MuzzleFlashVFX, put it in our prefabs folder, and adjusted its settings to suit, then deleted it in our hierarchy and made it a child of the weapon and dragged it into its respective slot of the weapon script on the inspector of the weapon, however I cannot actually tell whether this worked and it actually shows up in game.

Next we selected the enemy, opened the animation window and created a new animation. To animate the enemy, we selected the appropriate frame, hit record and adjusted the enemy to the position we want him to be at in this frame. Unity then creates all the in between frames and that is how we created three animations; walk, idle and attack. With the attack animation however, we also selected the middle frame and added the AttackHitEvent. Then we made a new animation controller and opened it up.

Then we clicked the little triangle next to the enemy prefab and dragged all 3 animations into the controller. We added transitions going both ways between idle and move and move and attack and then added 3 parameters; 1 trigger called idle, 1 trigger called move and 1 bool called attack. Then we selected each transition and added conditions as needed; move if the transition is towards walk, idle if its towards idle and attack if its towards attack. Then we added the animation controller component to the enemy and added the controller into its slot in the inspector.

To make the UI we made a new Canvas under UI and called it GameOverCanvas, the we changed the sort order to 10. Then we made a UI text item called deadText, which we made a child of deadText and set up as e were instructed. Following that, we made one UI button called PlayAgainBtn and one called QuitBtn. We picked suitable background colours and text for each and chnaged the font on all text items to one we had downloaded beforehand. Then we made an empty game object, called it GameSession, attached the SceneLoader script component we had previously downloaded to it and made it a child of the UI. To finish it off we selected the PlayAgain button, clicked + on the On Click() section and dragged GameSession into the available slot. Then we selected SceneLoad() and did the same thing to the Quit button, only this time selecting QuitGame() instead.

To add the finishing touches to our project we made a new material and made the shader a skybox procedural, then we picked the sun tint, atmosphere tint and ground tint we wanted and changed the sun strength and HDR exposure however we liked. After that we simply opened rendering, lighting settings and put our skybox material into the available slot.

The shooter project was quite easy to follow, but it still had some of the same problems as the last one. There were still a few repetitions in the instructions and things that were left out, that made certain mechanics not work as well. However, because we were making an actual, entertaining and playable game this time, and we had more creative freedom, it was a lot more fun than any of the other tester games we made. I was able to get it all to work, with mostly no troubles, however I did have to use an online tutorial to make it a fully playable game, which is a bit frustrating, as you would think spawning would be part of the instructions. Nonetheless I am quite happy with how mine turned out.

19/11/2019

Debate on Impact of Video Games
Because part of the class was on the panel last time, and therefore had not yet participated in an actual debate yet, we conducted another one, this time about the impact of video games.I chose to focus on the impact on crime.



My group was assigned to debate that video games have a negative impact, and as that is a stance I personally disagree with, it was quite difficult to argue for it. However I decided to still focus on a topic that interests me, which is how video games allegedly impact crime. It was very fascinating to research all sorts of crimes that were seemingly caused by video games, especially because I found it fun to theorize myself, what the actual causes could have been. In the end I believe I debated quite well, however my teammates were less enthusiastic and so we lost the debate.

1/10/2019

Debate on Demographics Representation in Games

As one of our tasks this unit, we were asked to prepare a debate on whether or not video games represent all demographics. I was assigned the "against" side and chose to focus on representation of sexuality.

I wanted to address the lack of diversity in sexuality representation, as this is still an issue, despite the rise of lgbtq+ characters in video games. Although we see more and more gay, lesbian and bi characters, lesser known sexualities like asexual, aromantic or polyamorous are non-existent, when their representation is probably more important at the moment. When these demographics aren't represented, it is only furthering, how few people even know about them, and the misconceptions they may have.

I thought that our side debated quite well, as we were very prepared and had some excellent points. But in the end the judges decided they were more convinced by the opposing side, and so we lost the debate.

2/10/2019

Presentation on Ethical and Legal Constraints in the Video Game Industry
To help us understand the differences between legal and ethical constraints and the importance they have in the Video Game Industry, we were tasked to prepare a presentation on the subject. We were given a list of guidelines and told it should be no longer than 10 slides.

When presenting I think I did quite well other than the fact that I did not know my notes by heart, and the person progressing my power-point kept going too far.

26/11/2019

Presentation on Controversies in the Video Game Industry
We were given two weeks to work on a new presentation, this time about controversies in the video game industry. The first controversy I chose to talk about was the Nintendo switch controversy, because I onw one myself and so this was one that affected me as well. Then I chose to focus on the Pokemon franchise because it is a very controversial franchise, which I found very interesting. Lastly I picked Rule of Rose which was a game I had not heard of before my research, but that looked very interesting to me.

I was not feeling very great on the day of the presentation and had worries that this would affect my presenting skills, however I think I managed to pull myself together and do quite well regardless.

14/10/2019

Report on Censorship and Localisation

Our newest theoretical topic was censorship and localisation; what the differences are and examples of what each of these cases might look like. To further embed this into our mind, and to encourage us to look into other cases of this, we were tasked with writing a report on two games. One that was heavily censored and one that was heavily localized. I chose to look at Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, where a particular piece of lore was changed when it was released in the west, as my censorship example and FIFA 17, that was possibly banned in Russia for not abiding by their gay propaganda law, as my localization example. This was actually surprisingly hard, as each topic only had a set amount of information and once I had it all written out, and had not reached the word count yet, I had a hard time finding ways to write more. This did however encourage me to research and write about extra things, somewhat related to the topics.

Report:

Censorship and Localisation

Censorship and localisation are two things that can often appear very similar, however knowing the difference between them is very important. Google says Censorship is: “the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by a government, private institutions, and corporations.” But it describes localization as: “the process of making something local in character or restricting it to a particular place.”

For example, in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl there is an old Folk story that can be read about in the Canalave Library in the game. The original Japanese version says: “Sinnoh Folk Story 3. There once were Pokémon that married people. There once were people that married Pokémon. This was a normal thing because long ago people and Pokémon were the same.”

Imgur. (2019). Sinnoh Folk Story 3. [online] Available at: https://i.imgur.com/Jpjmify.jpg [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

However in the English version, this was changed to: “Sinnoh Folk story 3. There once were Pokémon that became very close to humans. There once were humans and Pokémon that ate together at the same table. It was a time when there existed no differences to distinguish the two.”

Legendsoflocalization.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://legendsoflocalization.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/marrying-pokemon-e.png [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

Quite noticeably, the part about marriage between humans and Pokémon was removed in the English version and replaced with a more longwinded way of explaining their likeness in the past. I believe this was most likely done due to the similarities of this concept to bestiality, as Pokémon are most commonly known as quite animalistic, despite how they allegedly were closer to humans in the past. One other theory is, that they removed this part because of some of the conservative views on marriage and human evolution in America. However seeing as Pokémon evolving is a prime mechanic of the Franchise, I find this highly unlikely. Another is that this was simply done as not to further encourage the sexualisation of Pokémon and their trainers. Though, if this was the case, it was quite a futile effort, as this perversion unfortunately still runs rampant on the internet. Considering however that there aren’t any inherent reasons for Nintendo to do this, other than that it might spark controversy, I believe this is Censorship brought on by ethical constraints assumed to be found in the west. It is quite a heavy case of censorship as well, as this removes an important piece of lore, regarding the past of Pokémon, which was intended by the developers to be mentioned in this instance. It overwrites a history that the creators of Pokémon had imagined for the Franchise, simply to keep it more child friendly.

On the other hand, if we look at FIFA 17 we will find quite an unbelievable controversy regarding its release in Russia. In support of LGBT+ footballers and their rights, FIFA 17 was released with the option of allowing the player to dress their characters in a rainbow-coloured kit.

Fifauteam.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.fifauteam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/A1081-20i.png [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

This is in league with the large-scale campaign “Rainbow shoelaces”, which is an action to raise awareness in sport. According to their statistics, 72% of fans had heard homophobic, transphobic and biphobic remarks at games. Their goal is to create more welcoming environment, by showing what a diverse group of people share this passion for sport. It was only natural that FIFA 17, a simulation of the football scene, would portray this as well. However, since 2013 Russia has a “gay propaganda” law in place, their reason is: “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations can cause harm to children’s health and development” Unfortunately this nonsense includes something as minimal, yet supportive, as Rainbow kits. This simple addition actually got Russian MPs to call for FIFA 17 to be banned in Russia in 2016 for breaking that law, because it is rated 3+ for all ages. Communist MP Valery Rashkin suggested to EA it should: "introduce changes to the programming code or the age classification of this information product," saying Russia could: "adopt corresponding restrictive measures" I couldn’t find any up to date articles on whether or not this was pulled through, however I think just the fact that it was considered is horrible enough. I doubt however that EA would have altered such a thing in the game because of one country, when their actions were in line with the majority of the football world. What is most ridiculous, is that the kit isn’t even included in the base game, it is just available to claim for free. However this doesn’t count as censorship, despite its similarities. Although I would say that it is censorship by the government of Russia, from the standpoint of the video game industry it is simply localization. After all, they were confined by the legal constraints in Russia and were restricted on their ability to publish this game there. Therefore, as awful as it is, it cannot count as censorship.

As a last example, I will present another, extreme case of censorship, Half-Life in Germany. Germany is a country that is quite famous for “protecting” its citizens to the most ridiculous extend, by demanding the most extravagant censors for things. After their history, a ban on Nazi related content can be somewhat understood, however the way they have asked for even unrelated gory content to be censored can only be described as babying their population. Half-Life was a victim of this, as the game was seen to be too violent and was subjected to a load of changes before finally being allowed to be released. In Half-Life you are required to kill a bunch of Alien enemies as well as some humans, who then abruptly explode into a pile of blood. However, in Germany this was combatted by turning all Alien enemies into robots. Now, instead of a Gory explosion, the Aliens spout screws everywhere upon death; the Human soldiers met the same fate, as they now combusted into an array of mechanical parts.

 I.kinja-img.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--gKiA5SDY--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/mseogtwrqv4bvjntntua.jpg [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

However, human allies had it much worse. Unlike enemies, these NPC’s weren’t converted into Robots, instead, were you to kill them, they sit on the floor and shake their head at you before vanishing into thin air.

Images.tweaktown.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://images.tweaktown.com/news/5/7/57320_06_half-life-uncensored-released-germany-finally.jpg [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

Needless to say, punishing people like a primary school teacher is a lot less badass. The last enemy in the game is the Headcrab. These parasitic life-forms are originally meant to launch about 3 metres in the air, grab on to peoples face and take control of them. But after the censors had their way with them, they simply vanish into thin air after death. This game was basically ruined by the unbelievable censorship requirements in Germany, but luckily this is unlikely to happen again. Recently, the law banning Nazi related content was lifted, already relieving an array of games from their censors. However along with this, censorship laws seem to have lightened in Germany in general, as Half-Life’s uncensored version is now available for purchase there. Hopefully this will signify a new age of less ridiculous video game censorship in Germany, and finally give its people the chance to play games as they were intended to be. Looking back on how heavily, and quite hilariously, censored Half-Life was in the past though, we will probably never forget just how strict Germany has been in the past.

Bibliography:

Altchar.com. (2019). German version of Half-Life is not censored anymore. [online] Available at: https://www.altchar.com/game-news/german-version-of-half-life-is-not-censored-anymore-aoeWM0f4OinI [Accessed 14 Oct. 2019].

Originals, T. and News, G. (2019). The 15 Strangest Censorships In Video Games. [online] TheGamer. Available at: https://www.thegamer.com/the-15-strangest-censorships-in-video-games/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2019].

McIntyre, B., Albert, W., Smith, M. and Smithee, S. (2019). Russia Calls for FIFA 17 Ban Claiming Propaganda | Game Rant. [online] Gamerant.com. Available at: https://gamerant.com/fifa-17-russia-propaganda-ban/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2019].

Mysteries, G. and Mandelin, C. (2019). Legends of Localization: People Used to Marry Pokémon All the Time. [online] Legends of Localization. Available at: https://legendsoflocalization.com/did-you-know-people-used-to-marry-pokemon-all-the-time/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2019].

Evans, L. and from Lewis, S. (2019). 8 Strangest Examples Of Censorship In Video Games. [online] WhatCulture.com. Available at: http://whatculture.com/gaming/8-strangest-examples-of-censorship-in-video-games?page=8 [Accessed 14 Oct. 2019].

4/12/2019

Can Video games convey message or meaning?

The Auteur Theory suggests, that rather than the writer, as it would be with a book, the Director of a Film, or in this case Video Game, is the so called “Author” of the story, as they are the ones guiding it and it’s visuals.

A great example of this applying to the Video Game Industry is the infamous Designer Hideo Kojima, who created the Metal Gear franchise and the newly released Death Stranding. Kojima single-handedly invented the stealth genre with his determination to make games realistic and immersive. Rather than creating another military shooter game, like the many that were popular back then, he wanted to make a game that show-cased an a little more realistic approach to military service. He also refused to add clunky, gamey looking HUD’s and instead opted for designs that he could realistically explain into the universe, almost to an excessive amount. This is the Hideo Kojima touch, that makes his games stick out from the rest, and that defines him as an Auteur.

On the other hand, Shigeru Miyamoto is a prime example of how we can pour our feelings and experiences into a videogame. For The Legend of Zelda he drew from his own childhood experiences of exploring forests and caves, and how it felt to get lost in a maze. The way Miyamoto managed to insert the real sense of adventure and discovery that he remembered from his childhood, and how it was the first of its kind, was truly what set the franchise apart.

So yes, Video Games can absolutely convey meanings and messages. Every aspect of a Game speaks not only about our personal preferences, but also our past experiences. The narrative can reveal, what our favourite past-times are, how we conduct them, how we prepare for them, what kind of people we meet through them, and what we wish to achieve from them. The Games mechanics can portray what entertains us, what we deem necessary and what not, how we most like to play games, what we struggle with, and what games we like to play. Even the UI can speak about what we find aesthetically pleasing or how we understand Menus. But most of all: it is a big tell on what we feel is missing in the market. Whether we feel we want a certain type of game to exist or we just feel we could improve upon an already existing concept, we are most likely to create games we wish existed already and want to play ourselves. Like any media, video games are a form of art, and it is impossible to create art without some meaning. Even if we do not put any intentional messages into our art forms, we are constantly telling about our life, personality and opinions.

However if we are intending to send a message through our media, games are probably the best to do so with. Because of its interactivity, video games are able to bring across points much more convincingly. For example: if we wanted to create a piece of media that helps people understand mental health and convinces them to take actions to help people struggling with them, we could very well just make a film about them. We could record people’s struggles with anxiety or depression and likely receive sympathy from a large crowd. But with video games we can do more than that, we can simulate these struggles and give the players an even better understanding of what mental health struggles are actually like, which will reach so much more people. Video games are becoming more and more like movies and movies are already experimenting with interactivity to become more like video games. This is because both mediums understand that whatever lies in-between the two is what will reach almost everyone.

Rather than a theoretical example, let us also look at a real example. The game Afterparty is about two adults, Milo and Lola, who wake up in hell but have no idea how they died, or what their sin was. The goal of the game is to meet with Satan, and out-party him so they can return to earth. The core mechanic of the game is the ability to drink different alcoholic drinks, each with different effects, and gain new dialogue options through them. While it may seem at first glance like, the game is glorifying alcohol and telling the player to drink alcohol in order to make socializing easier, it is actually a bit more sensible than that. It does suggest that drinking can help give you a confidence boost but it also portrays how it can end quite badly. There are scenes where being drunk leads people into fistfights and if you drink the right cocktail, your extra answers will become very aggressive and provocative. The extra “alcohol answers” are also not always the right choice. Sometimes in order to give the right answer, the player character does not need to be drunk, but can reply soberly. In this way, I think the game portrays alcohol in a much more progressive way, not painting it as a deadly drug, but also not glorifying it as a solution to all problems. It is one of the vital pieces of media, which promote safe drinking, rather than abstinence, a teaching that can literally save young as well as older peoples lives. All of this is of course masked behind a morbidly humorous, meta party game.

So not only can video games convey meaning and messages, but sometimes they are also where we least expect them, and not visible at first glance. This helps video games implant great messages into our brains, without us even knowing. This may scare past generations, but to the modern day gamers, they are the media of the future, and will only improve, as we create new ways to play and experience them, and as new auteurs rise up and revolutionize video games, as we know them.