Contextal Studies Christopher Booker

‎Thursday, ‎29 ‎October ‎2015
Contextual Studies
Stories and Charactes: what are they? and where do they come from?
- Stories were originally told through image
⦁ These images were often only available in places of worship
⦁ Giotto chapel
- There are seven basic plots
⦁ Seven basic plots - Christopher Booker
⦁ Hero or heroine
⦁ Other characters are there to help resolve issues
Examples - Expand on these in your blog:
I. Voyage and return (Final Fantasy XIII, Pokemon, The Longest Journey)
II. Comedy (The Stanley Parable, Octodad)
III. Overcoming evil (Mario)
IV. Rags to riches (Settlers, AdVenture Capitalist, Katamari Demacy)
V. The quest (Skyrim)
VI. Tragedy (Persona 4, Sonic 06)
VII. Rebirth (Far Cry 3)
⦁ Actions taken throughout the story can change the given genre

The Longest Journey

Arguably one of the best games I have ever played. The player begins in a world not unlike ours, aptly names "Stark"; and is before long thrust into the magical world of  Arcadia. Though the player is thrown back and forth throughout the game, there are large portions where the player is trapped in one world. the  This story fits perfectly into the 'Voyage and Return' model defined by Booker.

The Stanley Parable

This game is sheer comedy gold. I have never laughed so much whilst playing a video game. Every action the player makes is narrated, ignoring the narrator leads to some quite comical conclusions. This game fits the "Comedy" genre as defined by Booker.

Super Mario Sunshine

After the protagonist Mario is framed as a vandal, he must hunt down and capture the character who has framed him to clear his name. The act of overcoming evil is repeatedly apparent in this game.

Settlers Franchise

A simulation game in which the player must build up a settlement into a town or city, using gathered resources and trade to their advantage. This style of game-play fits perfectly into the "Rags to Riches" category.

The Elder Scrolls Franchise

These games are 'questathons', if you're not doing a quest you're doing it wrong. This fits them snugly into Booker's "The Quest" category. They also fit into "Rags to Riches", due to beginning the game as a prisoner and finishing as a hero, and "Overcoming Evil" as there is a great evil that must be defeated to complete the game.

Persona 4

Persona 4 falls into the "Tragedy" category, the player must hunt down a murderer and see some truly awful events unfold as they do so.

Far Cry 3

After crash landing onto a tropical island the player, the definition of a 'first world boy', must come to terms several tragedies. He develops into a powerful warrior throughout the game. This slams the game firmly into the "Rebirth" category.

Roger Caillois "Man Play and Games" Classificaitons

Caillois provides strict and distinct categories of games which he describes 4 distinct game categories.

• Agon, or competition. E.g. Chess
• Alea, or chance. E.g. Playing a slot machine
• Mimicry, or mimesis, or role playing. E.g. Playing a MMORPG
• Ilinx (Greek for "whirlpool"), or vertigo, in the sense of altering perception. E.g. taking hallucinogens, riding roller coasters, children spinning until they fall down

Final Fantast IX fits into agon category due to constant battles, chance due to alea encounters and luck based combat and ilinx due to constant uncertainty throughout plot.

Skyrim is in the agon category due to the constant DRAGON ATTACKS. It also fits into the mimicry category as it can be played in first person.

Borderlands fits perfectly into the agon category as there is always insane conflict taking place.

Minesweeper fits into the chance category because one's never quite sure of how accurate ones bombs will be. It also fits into the ilinx category for this same reason.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 fits into the mimicry category, as what it is trying to do is replicate life, mimic it.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Caillois#Caillois.27_key_ideas_on_play)

Evolution of Characters in Video Games

1948: The first video game 'character' was a small blue dot on the extremely well named 'Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device'. This is more of a tennis ball than a character, but still worth mentioning. This game was fundamentally quite similar to Pong, the player would hit the ball from one end of the court to the other. This game, though, is more closely related to the traditional table tennis or ping-pong.

1980: Jumping ahead to the first humanised video game character. Though in game he was merely a waka-waking cheese wheel, Pac-Man's artwork clearly illustrated a character. The problem was that with such a small amount of pixels to work with the character lacked any sort of relatability. The ghosts, however, Had eyes and notable characteristics.

1981: Donkey Kong, though the enemy of the player 'Jump Man' in his game, was definitely more prominent. The leap in pixel based graphics since Pac-Man are plain to see. The correlation between the improvement of graphics and depth of character begins to become apparent.

1985: In the first Super Mario Bros game, designers were still working with in the limitations of pixel based graphics. It's difficult to see any improvement from Donkey Kong's characters. The scrolling environment, however, was a massive improvement.

1986: Codemasters develop the first animated character, with moving arms and legs. Though the movements were still relatively simple, more depth is added to the character through them. The player begins to feel more as if they are becoming the character through gameplay.

1996: Ten years have passed and the progression into three dimensional gaming is underway. Crash Bandicoot was the protagonist in his self titled game. Crash Bandicoot was a new, fun and slightly insane style of character. His individuality and was only really achievable with three dimensional graphics that just weren't available ten years prior.

1997: Small developments can be seen in Crash's detail.

2007: Moving ahead another ten years... Altair from  Assassin's Creed, the first game in a monstrously successful franchise. I myself was in awe when I first witnessed the level of detail in these games. It was at this point for me that I felt I was truly becoming the character. Altair's body language is strongly based around that of an eagle, which makes him seem assertive or even aggressive in most situations.

2015: Grand Theft Auto V, an expansive sandbox. There are four characters to play as, Trevor (left) being the most interesting. Trevor drives the story forward with his insane antics, being the owner of a meth lab. His reckless behaviour adds an air of uncertainty to the game.