Jacque Fresco on the Venus Project (17/5/2013)

Personal Research:

As it was recommended that I research the Venus Project in relation to utopias, below are my thoughts on this.

The Venus Project, in a nutshell is based on the idea that people no matter what their background, race or status can live together in harmony in sustainable cities using the most logical materials and methods in order to sustain their growing population. As it is referred to as a 'resource-based economy' money wouldn't be a factor as food, information, goods and medical care would be free to everyone.
The idea came from artist Roxanne Meadows (left) and engineer, designer and futurist Jacque Fresco (right).

In the interview I watched it certainly seemed an interesting idea and you can tell that the 94 year old Jacque Fresco is very passionate about the project although he accepts this would not be a utopia as he believes a true utopia can never exist. I also felt he spoke very well considering he was clearly trying to voice his opinion on how to help people live whilst the interviewer came across as rather aggressive and negative towards his ideas.

Fresco backed up his idea of living with one another by using a good example. He said that we have submarines in our world armed with nuclear weapons, however it is pointless to use them as even if you won a war the planet would be completely radiated and unable to be lived on.
Granted nations need to sometimes show force in order to deter other nations from attacking them, a scare tactic if you will. However, I agree with Fresco's example as quite rightly it is no use winning something if you are only going to destroy your prize/goal.

Fresco also spoke of how opinions are always changing. For example, in the past people never thought man would be able to fly in the air. Therefore whose to say that planes won't fly without wings in the future? We can't imagine planes without wings as how would the plane take off without them? However, future technology is always changing and therefore nothing is certain.
In fact Fresco's idea for a world in which people would live alongside one another would always need to be changed and updated as he admitted quite rightly that his designs would go out of style in the future due to better and more efficient ways of building architecture.

Fresco also impressed me as he understood he had no significant power or influence over nations which he said were all corrupt. Therefore he was saying that the idea for the Venus Project was one that couldn't happen without the voice of the people speaking up. In fact, just sharing the idea and talking about it would help it to be recongised and it is only when everyone wants it that some semblance of peace can be obtained.

Another thing I found interesting was that he said you had to "learn different people's values and speak in their terms, not your terms. If you speak ahead of the terms of people, they don't know what you're talking about". Thus he deliberately joined racist groups such as the KKK in the past in order to try and stop them. He was successful as he talked at their level in order to make them understand that its a person's nature over nurture that affects how they act and what they become. For example, taking a child of any race and raising them in England would give them a British accent and like wise raising a child in Italy would result in them using their hands more in order to communicate. This is because you reflect what you see and hear. Therefore if you are told that a certain race is bad in some way or form then it is likely that you will become racist. Thus this is how he approached the KKK.   

It was interesting to hear him say that people in the Venus Project could live how they wanted without being told how to live by an authority as one wouldn't exist. Machines would look after them throughout their lives by providing the goods they needed for free, but most importantly, the machines wouldn't control them. The reason why I found this so interesting was because it sounded very similar to my own 'Sim Project' in which I imagined the only way for a utopia to work was for machines to control people like Sims and have them do what they needed to do in order to survive both physically and mentally.
Whereas Fresco's idea isn't a utopia as such as those can't be accomplished, as seen in previous failed attempts such as 1948's Levittown. Instead Fresco belives it is a system that people would want to live in and therefore become the new way of living. After all, people are so used to paying for things that they don't know any better. 

Harvard Referencing: 

• Unknown. (2005) Fresco with Meadows [Online image]. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacque_Fresco_with_Roxanne_Meadows.jpg (Accessed: 17/5/2013).  
• Unknown. (2011) Jacque Fresco - New Zealand FULL TV Interview (multilingual subtitles) - Part 1 of 2. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3t0kCyHeO70 (Accessed: 17/5/2013).  
• Unknown. (2011) Jacque Fresco - New Zealand FULL TV Interview (multilingual subtitles) - Part 2 of 2. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrSABU3_IIo (Accessed: 17/5/2013).  
• Unknown. (Unknown) The Venus Project Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Venus_Project (Accessed: 17/5/2013).

Arabic deisgns in gaming (17/5/2013)

Personal Research:

Realising that I could do more research about the 'Digital Arab's' presentation, I decided to look back on some of my own games in order to write more about the subject. After all, having never played the example raised in the lecture 'Prince of Persia' I decided to write about Arabic representation in titles I knew about, starting with the JRPG 'Ni-No-Kuni'.
 
'Ni-No- Kuni' is interesting as the game is meant to be family friendly and therefore suitable for all ages. However, since having the Digital Arab's presentation I find myself unable to play the game without thinking about the desert city and its inhabitants in terms of Arabic culture and design. After all, many of its citizens wear turbans or other such head ware, and the player can eat one of the cities signature dishes, curry.
Now, the game isn't blatantly racist as I saw in the examples used in the Digital Arab's presentation, but you can definitely see some stereotyping in this title.
However, you could argue that the game developers wanted to be realistic in terms of a desert environment and therefore used designs from other similar cultures in order to represent this.
Another idea is that since the city is in another world and that the main protagonist is a young thirteen year old boy then perhaps the game is meant to reflect a child's view of a eastern culture. Thus the developers didn't choose to make the desert location less Arabic in design. This is what I imagine at the moment since I haven't completed the game yet and don't wish to spoil it for myself. 

 
Having thought about the above, I then remembered a similar location from one of my favorite games 'Skies of Arcadia'. Here the player travels around a world of floating islands where they come across desert islands that are very Arabic in style in terms of the city's landscape, architecture, citizens clothing, their mannerisms and even professions which included kebab makers and belly dancers. 

Admittedly I have also now remembered my own use of Arabic design for a game idea I wrote for a project two years ago. It was a steam punk pirate game similar to 'Skies of Arcadia' as the player traveled to multiple locations that where designed to represent real world cultures during the time of 19th century pirates. Therefore, not only did I base the desert land on Arabic culture by including steam powered hookahs and belly dancers. Its design was also heavily influenced by the city of Agrabah from Disney's 'Aladdin'.  

Overall, I found my research throughout this blog post to be very interesting as I was only only originally going to write about 'Ni-No Kuni'. However, having realised that its desert city design reminded me of the one in 'Skies of Arcadia' I then remembered the desert land I made for a game project a couple of years back which in turn was influenced by the Arabian city of Agrabah in Disney's 'Aladdin'. You can start to see the pattern can't you?
From the above influences in my life and the way desert cities are being represented in gaming it is becoming increasingly hard for desert city designs to be represented in any other way than that of Arabic culture. After all, many deserts exist for example in America and Australia, yet developers seem reluctant to use these settings. 
This isn't necessarily a bad thing as developers may just want to choose an Arabic style since it is pleasing to the eyes and is more distinctively different for gamers. However, it is also a bit worrying that original designs are few and far between, especially since this style has also been seen in desert locations in sci-fi and fantasy titles which are not set on this Earth. Therefore, hopefully we will be able to see more varied desert locations used in future games.
After all, if we don't then we continue to risk looking too stereotypical.  

Harvard Referencing:

• Nguyen, T. (Unknown) 'Skies of Arcadia' screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://marsarcadia.esoarcadia.org/world/nasrkingdom/ (Accessed: 17/5/2013). 
• Unknown. (Unknown) Agrabah [Online image]. Available at: http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Agrabah (Accessed: 17/5/2013). 
• Unknown. (Unknown) AL Mamoon [Online image]. Available at: http://ninokuni.wikia.com/wiki/Al_Mamoon (Accessed: 17/5/2013). 

Finishing our blogs (14/5/2013)

We were told for this session to carry on with our blogs and to update them so they would be ready for next week's deadline. Therefore I went back onto my previous blogs in order to update them and tidy them up where necessary.  

The latest attempt at a Utopia in gaming (9/5/2013)

Personal Research:

Having looked at utopias and dystopia's recently I decided to look back on the game 'Bioshock Infinite' as I noticed similarities in the game to the things I have been learning during our lectures.

Taking place on a floating city in the sky known as Columbia, the city is meant to be a utopia and from first glance it appears to be so. When you first enter the city people say hello to one other and seem at peace with the religion they follow which is further demonstrated by the heavenly choir you hear when you have to be baptised on entry.
However, the player soon discovers that this city was built on old idealisms and instead of slaves being free the city still uses many black workers as servants and workmen. This racism also extends to all other ethnic groups including the Chinese and Irish where propaganda depicts them as racist stereotypes. This doesn't just affect them as workers either, they also get treated like dirt in general and at the very start of the game when the player wins a raffle during a celebration they are offered the first throw of a ball at a mixed race couple. Therefore, I believe that the developers must have taken some inspiration from Sir Thomas More's utopia as in that, even though it was meant to be a utopia they still used slave labour.

The city also represents the above groups unfairly in the media as there is a museum of history depicting a war that their religious figure took part in against the Chinese. Therefore, whenever one of the George Washington look alike robots recounts the battle it uses terms such as "slanted eyes" and "yellow skin" to refer to the opposition. Even the statues and mechanized cutouts of the Chinese share this similarity as they look like stereo-typical drawings of their race. 

It was not the game developer's intention to be racist, but rather to be truthful to the era as Columbia is depicted as a city which was first launched into the air in 1893 before racial equality was considered important. The game space itself was to show the player the gritty truth behind the cities otherwise beautiful design and to further demonstrate to the player that A) you can't judge a book by its cover, and B) even in a city in the sky racism and non-equality can still exist.

By the end of the game however, the city that was meant to be a utopia becomes a dystopia when the down trodden races decide to fight for their rights. Much bloodshed and destruction occurs during this part of the game and therefore the once clear and bright colour palette of the environment becomes darker and uses a lot more red to represents blood and the colours worn by the people during the uprising.   

Thus another utopia collapses as a result of people's inabilities to work together equally and to sort out issues before they escalate. Whether we will ever witness a utopia working is yet to be seen. However, it is always interesting to see the ideals a utopia is built on before it collapses under the greed of others.

Harvard Referencing:

• Breet, M. (2013) City of Columbia screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://mattbrett.com/blog/videogames/2013/bioshock-infinite/ (Accessed: 9/5/2013).
• Kulka, P. (2013) Ball in hand screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://guides.gamepressure.com/bioshockinfinite/guide.asp?ID=18949 (Accessed: 9/5/2013).
• Narcisse, E. (2011) Uprising screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://www.ifc.com/fix/2011/07/bioshock-infinite-ken-levine-irrational-games-e3-2011-demo (Accessed: 9/5/2013).
• Unknown. (2013) Museum screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Hall_of_Heroes (Accessed: 9/5/2013).

Using ones imagination to create the space and story (9/5/2013)

Personal Research:

Concerned that games may be using the same character types or inappropriate ones as mentioned in my previous post, I decided to do a test by running 'Dungeons and Dragons' for a group of gamers who had never played a pen and paper based role playing game before in order to see what results I got.

I deliberately made the group consist of three males (two warriors and a wizard) and one female (a rogue) to see how they reacted to one another and how they played. Would they confine themselves to game mechanics they are used to in other video game RPG's? Or would they use their imaginations to a greater degree?

You can see my findings below.

Taking the quote used in the 'Narrative Spaces' presentation to heart, "The Dungeon Master's activities start with designing the space... where the the players' quest will take place", I decided to think of a good location to start our group's game, one that new players wouldn't be expecting. Therefore, instead of starting them in the usual tavern scenario or other safe place I decided to entrap the group in a cell underground assuming they had all been ambushed. I went on to tell them that their hands were tied around a stone pole and that their equipment was also taken away from them and placed in the opposite room. Thus, for example without his staff the wizard couldn't access his magic. I also made it so that they didn't know one another. Now it was time for them to roleplay their way out and work alongside one another. 

Straight from the start, I was pleased to see the rogue being smart and escaping from her binds with a 'slight of hand' skill check. The other members unable to break from their bonds with pure strength roles then presumed she would help them, however she decided to roleplay and ask the question "Why? Whats in it for me?"
This was great as, not only was she taking a dominant role over the male characters which games tend to use as the main protagonist/s, but she was also role playing her character correctly. After all,  as a rogue's ideology tends to be sneaky and opportunist if it means making some money. It was also great to see that it was left to the only female member of the group to save the male members one would usually associate as the rescuers in gaming due to examples like 'Mario' and even the recent 'Bioshock Infinite' where the male protagonist needs to save a female character on multiple occasions. 

The rest of the session also proved to go smoothly as the players started to imagine the game play in their heads as a real thing instead of relying on computer graphics or even a board for this session. They also started to break the conventions of game mechanics and explore other ways of playing. For example, I was hinting heavily that there were lots of skeletons around them, thus hoping they would use a broken bone as a makeshift lock-pick which the rogue could use to escape the locked prison. However, due to me mistakenly saying at one point that the pole was made out of wood and not stone the group decided to wrench the support out of place using a combined strength check (which resulted high) and use it to smash through the rusted cage bars. This was something that I wasn't expecting but was glad to see since it meant they were stepping out of 'the box' as it were and employing tactics others may not have thought of.   

Overall, even though I recognise I have only tried this study on a small group I feel that I got worthwhile results since they were able to work alongside one another and use their skills effectively in order to all escape from the dungeon alive. I hope to repeat this test one day in order to see if I obtain the same results a second time or not.

Harvard Referencing: 

• Tenkar, E. (2012) 'Dungeons and Dragons' Image [Online image]. Available at: http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2012/03/picking-nits-from-mike-mearls-latest.html (Accessed: 9/5/2013).

Roles in games and how I think they are changing (7/5/2013)

Personal Research: 

Many gamers believe that there aren't a great variety of characters in gaming as they are almost identical to one another in terms of personality or appearance. Therefore, I decided to cover a few recent characters featured in games that I felt approached things differently and effectively.  

Lee Everett - The Walking Dead (2012):

A black protagonist that isn't the stereotypical (nearing racist) comic relief or tough guy character many black characters are represented as in the media. Lee Everett is a man given a second chance when the zombie apocalypse begins and he takes it on him self to look after a little girl he doesn't know called Clementine.

Lee is a great example as he contrasts the main protagonist of the TV show and comic book series named Rick. Whereas Rick started by trying to do good only to slowly lose his humanity down the line, Lee on the other hand is a man who was meant to be going to prison for a crime that never is really explained, but since the cop car carrying him crashes and puts him in the zombie filled scenario he is now given the opportunity to redeem himself after doing something wrong.

The game also does the smart thing by only mentioning that Lee killed someone, but not why or how. Thus the player has full control of Lee's personalty as they are throughout the episodic series allowed to chose whether or not he makes humane decisions in this new environment. Lee also demonstrates his humanity when he is put into situations that will make him sad, scared or angry and as a result may take it out on others including Clementine by yelling at her for not being more careful. However, the pair complement one another perfectly as she is still an innocent girl who keeps a man that has seen and caused death to keep going. As the french say, she's his 'raison d'etre' (reason to live).

He takes on the role of both leader and father figure very quickly and he cares when the people around him are in danger or hurt. He's not super strong or fast, he's just a human being who shows his emotions, which for me makes him the best sort of character.   

Lara Croft - Tomb Raider (2013):

Whereas her original character was mocked for years as just being a sex symbol, the newest iteration of Lara Croft is more human as she is represented in this version as a vulnerable girl in her early twenties who has to learn to survive in a new dangerous environment. Many gamers feared that she would be completely abused due to an early trailer which didn't make it clear if she was raped in one scene or not (she wasn't). However, this fear was proven wrong as the developers were able to create a believable character that you generally feel sorry for and want to survive.

The newest Lara is also great since she isn't over sexualised like her previous self and is given a visual design which shows her human vulnerabilities as her clothes are worn and torn throughout her trials on the island she is shipwrecked on. Plus she isn't wearing short shorts and now has trousers, thus the player won't just try and stare at her backside all the time. 

Although she switches rather quickly from the girl who was almost threw up after her first kill (out of self defense) to brutal Rambo style predator, I feel that it is the game's first few hours that truly show her human side. Plus, how are we to know how quickly someone would change in order to survive? Especially someone at such a young age which is clearly possible. Think of the children from William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies'.
  

Elizabeth - Bioshock Infinite (2013):

Even though I didn't enjoy Infinite nearly as much as I hoped to, I have to say that Elizabeth was a useful assistant as she didn't get in the way. She had abilities that only she could use in order to progress the game and her power to bring things into the environment to help you was part of the game mechanics, not just a thrown in gimmick.  

However, for those who think her role was dumbed down since she doesn't kill, plays the support role and needs rescuing from the lead male protagonist on multiple occasions, I will tell you that this isn't the case. Elisabeth is a bright eyed girl who was locked in a tower for most of her life. However, instead of sitting around and doing nothing she decided to teach herself useful life skills such as lock picking, numerous sciences and even coding.

For me Elisabeth also kept me playing as I wasn't a fan of the protagonist who never seemed to lighten up and was just boring. However, Elizabeth's bubbly, excitable personality kept me wanting to see how she interacted with the environment around her once she had escaped from the tower.   

Overall, even though there are many examples of bland or poor characters in video games (even today), I feel that thanks to the above recent examples we are starting to see a change in the roster of characters featured in games. After all, once developers recognise from this current year that some of the most popular characters are in fact the most human I am sure we will start to see more and more personal stories told by better portrayed characters.

Harvard Referencing:

• Charlie. (2012) The Walking Dead is Overrated? Grow Up! [Online image]. Available at: http://finiteuniverse.com/2012/12/the-walking-dead-is-overrated-grow-up/ (Accessed: 7/5/2013).
• Davidson, J. (2013) Bioshock Infinite Review - A Hallmark in Storytelling. [Online image]. Available at: http://www.technobuffalo.com/reviews/bioshock-infinite-review/ (Accessed: 7/5/2013).
• Jorge. (2013) GDC 2013: Creating Emotion in the Systems of Tomb Raider. [Online image]. Available at: http://laracroft.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:JAlbor/GDC_2013:_Creating_Emotion_in_the_Systems_of_Tomb_Raider (Accessed: 7/5/2013). 

Carrying on research (7/5/2013)

For this session we were told to carry out research that we could add to our blogs in order to make them more detailed for the deadline that will be on the 21st of May.

However, I did jot down the following notes as well which include:

• Add images of my other presentation's slides to my blog as I have only done this for one of my blogs.
• Refer to old sessions and research in order to further demonstrate my understanding and ability to learn in my own time.  

I was then asked to speak to my lecturer one to one. I was given the following advice in order to improve upon my blog.

• Out of all the areas I have covered I need to do some more research into ideology.
• Try and add to the blogs my personal opinions to the things I have learned. After all, my lecturer is very interested in what I have to say and enjoys the layout of my blog. I just haven't been voicing my opinion as much as I should. 
• Can add further research and notes to older posts as everything is graded after this upcoming deadline. 
• Add more pictures to my blog to further demonstrate my points and to make the blog stand out more in general. 
• For my post on post-colonialism I should try and find some examples from things such as games that I know which include these elements and add them to it.  

Presentations on Utopias and Dystopias (30/4/2013)

For this session I made notes on the presentations I saw the others had worked on. You can find my notes on each group's project below.

The Tears of Gaia:

• They decided to mix the aspects of utopia and dystopia together as it was set in a dystopian world after the apocalypse in which those who didn't have power in the past now did e.g. drug users have now formed a church that gains control and followers through those they addict to their drugs. Also the idea of one person's utopia being another person's hell was taken into consideration and therefore inspired many of their more twisted enemies. 
• The idea for the main protagonist was rather nice since her goal was to scatter her husband's ashes across the lands. A rather brave thing to do considering the land is open and covered in a variety of savage killers. Both the main character and the enemies were portrayed well in the game's concept art the group provided.
• They had some really cool ideas for guns since they were plant made, such as the vine gun that allowed the player to zip to places and pull enemies towards them. 
• Overall a very strong idea with a lot of effort put into making it. I think many of the group liked the sound of this very much. 

Creating a utopian game:

• Their first idea was to be a game made up purely of sound and to have the player speak what they wanted to do in whatever environment they wanted before the game replied with the events. The game itself would be played in pods similar to the concept of pods used to access virtual reality in sci-fi movies. They also explained that such a system would be expensive, take up a lot of space and technology wise wasn't available yet. However, they said that this would be the only way to accomplish a full realistic experience due to the bugs seen in motion controls which players face in gaming today and the fact that certain voice command systems such as the 'Kinect' still can not pick up accents.  
• There other idea was a simple game similar to 'Flower' in which you play a diver swimming underwater in order to collect and lay different coloured coral.  
• Overall people responded with interest to the first idea since it could be played by the blind, and perhaps be used to help cure fears such as those scared of flying as they would be able to go over the events leading to a flight it in their heads prior to actually flying.   

Block 32:

• With the idea being a blend of 'The Matrix' and 'Wall-E' the player finds themselves playing as a robot called Q-Pid in which it is their job to ensure that the humans who live in virtual reality pods in towers are kept happy. Therefore, the gameplay would actually vary from utopia to utopia, ranging from first person shooters to plat formers. Also the utopias would greatly vary since everyone's is unique e.g. wanting to be a superhero or wanting to go out drinking every night. If the player isn't able to complete these goals then they don't get the energy they need to live. 
• Overall this was the funniest presentation since it was lively and kept the audience's attention. Plus the game idea seemed very interesting and sounded cool. 

A Block Too Far:

• Similar to 'Minecraft', the goal of this game is to work in groups under the command of either a player council or under one player's control (king or president) in order to gather resources and build what they believe to be a utopia from the pool of resources everyone gathers and are told by their leader/s to build. By building things beneficial to the group they would receive regular rewards. However, since this is a multiplayer game when two groups come across one another they can choose to remain neutral, make peace or go to war.
• Even though the group said that in order to keep the utopian setting no bonuses would be given to those that go to war, many people in the group were skeptical and thought that many players would start a fight regardless. Therefore, even though I real liked the sound of the game's mechanics I personally feel it wouldn't become a true utopian game. This is because even though people have numerous ideas on what a utopia should be, some players would use the above ideas to revel in chaos.  

Eden:

• Since their game was for a dystopia they decided to not go with the typical apocalyptic setting and instead set it on a spaceship. Said spaceship is on the end of its ten year journey and to celebrate it decides to crush the fruit in its bio-dome to make alcoholic punch. Therefore it is yet again humanities own stupidity that defeats them in this game since said fruit and the rest of the plants have been irradiated by cosmic rays, thus causing those to drink it to become plant like zombies.
• Playing as a middle aged single father who doesn't drink, it is up to the player to save their daughter and as many of the crew as they can using a variety of sci-fi gardening tools against the plant menace since guns are not on board the ship and the main protagonist is meant to be an everyday man. Therefore the gameplay was closely influenced by the 'Dead Space' series.  
• People seemed to like the idea and were curious to know what sort of futuristic gardening tools the player would use considering everyone just imagined hedge clippers which would look a bit silly. Myself I liked the idea of the character the most as not only are they an amazing sounding hero, but they also have a daughter they need to look after which makes them more grounded in a realistic world where human beings have both strengths and weaknesses.

Dystopia of the Mind:

• Taking inspiration from the game 'Catherine', this dystopian game requires the player to play as a psychopath that depending on what they do in the day affects their dreams. Thus the more crimes the player commits in day time the more messed up their dreams become. The idea of the player's vision also becoming distorted as a result was a rather interesting idea.
• The health bar would be represented by a brain in which certain colour coded parts faded away as a result of being damaged. This was rather a cool idea since a health bar hasn't been done like this before. Also, similar to a bar that tells you if you are good or evil there would be a neutral to psychotic bar.
• Although the game was full of good ideas both myself and many of my peers felt that it contained errors.  

Our Presentation - Topia:

• People didn't seem to complain about our game idea in any way, therefore I can only presume that people either liked it or were disinterested (hopefully not the latter). 

You can see our groups presentation below.