Entry 2 - Game Play and Critics

As I know, there are many types of game genre such as casual, racing, role-playing, arcade, puzzle, sports, strategy and much more. The game genre that I wish to choose is role-playing video games. Role-playing games consider to be a form of interactive and collaborative storytelling. Events, characters, and narrative structure give a sense of a narrative experience, and the game need not have a strongly-defined story line. Interactivity is the crucial difference between role-playing games and traditional fiction. Whereas a viewer of a television show is a passive observer, a player in a role-playing game makes choices that affect the story.

The three games that I choose are The Sims, Harvest Moon and Smurf.

(a) The Sims

The freedom of The Sims will inspire you with endless creative possibilities and amuse you with unexpected moments of surprise and mischief. Players can create virtual people called "Sims" and places them in houses and helps direct their moods and satisfy their desires. Besides the character that player create, there are also non-playable characters (NPC) in this game.  Non-playable characters are characters that cannot be played by the player from the game's start like while townies are considered to be a class of NPC, they are largely outside the scope of this article. For an example, the maid, gardener, repairman, butler and also thief in the game that we couldn’t control them. Players can either place their Sims in pre-constructed homes or build them themselves. Each successive expansion pack and game in the series augmented what the player could do with their Sims. Sims farther from the center of the neighborhood spend more time commuting to work.

The game element and design:

• Have parties at public venues, such as pools and parks
• Have many more places to "public WooHoo" and the chance of getting caught in their underwear.
• The area of the town where Sims choose to live now depends on income. For example, Summer Hill Court is a more expensive residential lot.
• There are also new public events in The Sims, such as music concerts, movie premieres, pool parties, barbecues, sporting events, outdoor fishing, and the most civic-minded public activity in a Sims game to date, attending a public protest at the City Hall.

(b) Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon, known in Japan as Bokujō Monogatari, is a farm simulation role-playing video game series created by Yasuhiro Wada and produced by Victor Interactive Software. The main objective of the game is to rebuild a run-down old farm and turn it into a successful one. Over a period of time the player tends to crops and livestock, befriends nearby townsfolk, and eventually in some series get married and start a family.

Rules to play this game:

The player's character has primarily been male, but some games offer the option to play as a female character. The most common story line of the series involves the player taking over a farm that no longer has an owner tending to it, growing crops, raising livestock, making friends with the town's people and creating a family while running a successful farm. Each game provides objects to collect or goals to complete, whether it is befriending villagers, collecting musical notes, finding sprites, making rainbows, or ringing bells. Money is obtained by growing crops, raising livestock, fishing, mining, and foraging. With a limited time and limited energy, the player has to find a balance between the two in order to accomplish their work for the day.

(c) Smurfs' Village

At this game, players must help our blue buddies (Smurf) rebuild their home after Gargamel discovers it and scatters the Smurfsthroughout the forest. The game features popular Smurfs like Brainy Smurf, Papa Smurf, and Smurfette. The scenery in Smurfs Village is, well, Smurfy. The developers at Capcom produced a world that's nearly identical to the original cartoon, and every house, Smurf, and rock is colorful and cute. We can see our favorite Smurf surroundings in amazing smurfy detail. All the aspects of the Smurfs village are here, right down to the roads and flowers. To get the smurf character we need to pass the game level. For an example, we get Papa Smurf and Brainy Smurf at level 1 then to get Timber Smurf we should reach level 7 and use some coins. in addition, to me, the character of smurfs are cute although they were in blue colour.

Reference from :

http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/File:Sims3map4.jpg

http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Residential_lot

http://www.moonconnection.com/harvest_moon.phtml

www.mysmurfsvillage.com/‎

Entry 1 - Introduction to Interactive MeDia

In the introduction of the interactive media we have to learn about the concepts of interactive media, the history of interactive media and also the impact of interactive media. Interactive media refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions by presenting content such as text, graphics, animation, video, audio and games. Interactive media is related to the concepts interaction design, new media, interactivity, human computer interaction, cyber culture, digital culture and some specific cases such as, interactive television, interactive narrative, video games, social networks and so on.

History of Media Interactive

For example :

 

Interactive media are an instance of a computational method influenced by the sciences of cybernetics, creation and system theories, and challenging notions of reason and cognition, perception and memory, emotions and affection. Social networking websites are an example of interactive media. The sites use graphics and text to allow users to share photos and information about themselves, chat and play games. Video games are another type of interactive media. Players use controllers to respond to visual and sound cues on the screen that are generated by a computer program. In addition, interactive advertisement is also one of the examples of interactive media. Interactive advertisement is an online or offline interactive media that can communicate with consumer and to promote products, brands, and public services announcements and corporates.

In addition, interactive media are a combination of audio, visual, and cinematic communications, connected to form a coherent body of information. Unlike books or films, which present information in linear sequences, interactive media have nonlinear structures, allowing each viewer to pursue information along a personally chosen path. Interactive media are usually created by teams of professionals, including audiovisual specialists, writers, computer programmers, content specialists, directors, graphic designers, information architects, image-makers, and producers.

            If we talk about art in interactive media, we probably don’t want to dive into definitions behind the topic. It’s clear, that there must be media and someone who interacts with it. Most of people start to interact with world in early years, but there is no media jet. If we consider all around as an information, than we might say, that we start interact with information first. So we might say that all the media we consuming is just an information. Closer to media, there are a lot of media and multimedia channels available to consume these days. If we think about different channels we have used, than most of probably recall TV as medium to interact with. That’s also as an inspiration for current paper. To understand more, you can refer to What is Interactive Media Design?

The Impact of Interactive Media in Social and Emotional Development

Positive

• Interactive media can be used as a catalyst for social interaction and communication between students and with teachers and parents. Children who use the computer with classmates have demonstrated increased levels of spoken communication and cooperation during computer use. Children have been found to play within a set of rules, share leadership roles on the computer, take turns, and initiate interactions with others more frequently.
• Computers have also been found to enhance children’s self-concept and improve their attitudes about learning. Luckin, Connolly, Plowman & Airey (2003) found that age appropriate, interactive toys featuring lovable characters can help strengthen children’s emotional connection with the learning experience.

Negative

• One negative effect that interactive technologies have on children’s social and emotional development is the increase in aggressive behavior that some children experience after playing violent video and computer games. The great majority of research on interactive media focuses on the effects of violent games. This research overwhelmingly shows that preschoolers who play violent video games are more likely to behave aggressively than those who do not.

Lastly, I think interactive media is very interesting at what there are intended to do. There is a bit of redundancy as we go from element to element but I understand that being redundant visually may have been the objective of the website developer especially since this site is explaining and describing. Interactive media is also a particular relevance for practitioners wishing to engage directly with skills in interaction design, installation and user-centered design, whilst challenging perceptions of the production and delivery of content in new-media. The course provides the support necessary for such personal professional development: an informed critical environment, the use of professional creative design methodologies and exposure to industry-standard design and development processes.

Reference :
http://dppd.ubbcluj.ro/adn/article_5_2_3.pdf

http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289959/interactive-multimedia