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Blender Render #2

It’s a Light Switch

Blender Render

It’s a cup

Story in Video Games Research Results

The research found here shows that a single player story in video games are very important to people. This can be seen in the first question “Do you think that Single Player Modes should be in Video Games?” out of the 20 people that answered, no one answered no. However, there seemed to be a split when it came to knowing “What elements of a single player experience engage [the player] the most?” with Main Story taking the majority but only by a single response, followed closely by Lore with Overarching Mysteries and Character Interactions receiving the same amount of responses with Sub-Plots receiving the least responses. When it came to completion of a single player game, roughly 65% of the responses said they completed the game all the way through, with 30% saying they completed a single player story most of the time with very few only completing them sometimes.

When it came to player characters, a large majority of responses did not care for the gender of the character as long as the character is created well. When it came to the type of character preference a player prefered, a large majority said they preferred a heavily WRPG customizability followed by an aggressively passive mute with a fully scripted personality receiving only 3 responses. The research also showed that the average completion of an Open World RPG after the first playthrough is completed is between 70% and 79%. When it came to dialogue skipping in JRPGs, very few people responded with the answer “all most always” and “never” showing that people only skip some parts of a JRPGs dialogue.

When it came to the presentation of a game's lore, player's most preferred option of lore presentation was through in game dialogue with the least popular option having to go to extra lengths to find it. Majority of responses agreed that 4th wall breaking is not overdone when it is done well with the second most popular response being that it is overdone. 75% of responses for the question “Do you think that combat is integral to the medium of video games?” saying “Yes” with the answers “No” and “Less so in the current era” receiving 10% of responses respectively and “More so in the current era” receiving only 5% of responses.

Heroic Archetype within Half Life

Gordon Freeman’s story in Half Life 1 follows the Archetype of the Hero's Journey. It starts off with a call to action. This is usually when the hero is spurred into action, when at first they may reject it, they come to accept their quest/mission. In Gordon Freeman’s case, this is where he is reluctant to take part in a science experiment that releases aliens on Earth and Gordon must kill them to save himself. Gordon then tries to escape the facility via the way he arrived but find the path destroyed. This is when he takes the second step of the hero's journey; Crossing the Threshold. This is where the hero crosses the boundary of what he knows and journeys into the unknown.

The next part of the hero’s journey is the challenges or trials. For Gordon Freeman, this is starts as fighting small aliens, then zombie alien hybrids, then alien creatures that shoot lightning and then a giant alien tentacle monster that has taken refuge in a rocket propulsion system. The next challenge for Gordon is to then fight through the military, stop a nuclear launch and fight his way out of the facility whilst fighting the tougher soldiers of the alien army.

Throughout his journey, Gordon forever sees the mentor/wise man of the series; The G-Man. Although never actually helping Gordon, he appears to watch and follow him. The special weapon in this case is Gordon’s arsenal of weapons including a crowbar, shotgun, grenades and a laser. The transformation for Gordon is when the military try to kill him. It is at this point he realises it is kill or be killed. It is at this point that he realises that he alone must risk his life to end the chaos to save humanity and himself.

The Abyss for Gordon Freeman is when he travels to the alien Borderworld, Xen. Here Gordon is alone fighting against the alien army with little to no supplies in the most perilous part of his journey. Gordon Freeman’s transformation doesn’t happen at the end of the game but at the beginning of Half Life’s sequel, Half Life 2 in which whenever Gordon Freeman is first seen everyone acts in shock and awe as they are meeting the person that saved everyone’s life from the events that happened in Half Life.

When Gordon Returns from Zen, he isn't immediately greeted as a hero, but as someone doing his job and completing a task by his “mentor” The G-Man. It is at this point that Gordon realises he hasn't saved everyone but released a greater evil onto the world, but only he and The G-Man know this, and it is at this point Gordon cannot return to his life and must wait “until [his] hour...come[s] again.”

Story in Video Games

Research

Why do we do research? We usually do it to make a subject easier to understand and use in the long run. There two types of research: Primary and Secondary.

Primary research is research that you do yourself, first hand. This can include things such as interviews and surveys. Doing research gives reliable and correct data and you also get greater control of the data that you have collected and how you use it. You also can target a specific audience and ask specific questions.

Secondary research is research done by someone else and is a lot quicker than primary research. The research is usually found via books or the internet. The upside to this is that it is low cost, a wide range of research is available and involves much more information however it is not always reliable or up to date.

There are also two types of data within primary and secondary research; Qualitative and Quantitative data. Qualitative data involves active participation with depth research that looks at specifics. This takes a long time with small groups whereas quantitative data is quick with large groups that has little participation that focuses on statistics and general data.

There also two types of questions involved in research. These are open and closed questions. Closed question give quicker responses with a small range of answers however you don’t get all of the information. Open questions give you more information but since you get a large range of answers it is hard to find a correlation.

Market research is done to find out what someone looks and wants in a specific product. This involves a large number of variables involved such as what demographic to look at, how aware an audience is of a product and how the consumer behaves to a certain product. When doing market research, the researchers will usually use control groups to research.

When it comes to the gaming industry and market research, it usually done to find out how a game is generally received and which genre is currently the most popular. Developers will take in this information and usually focus on that part when making their next game

joots-of-travel

not sure if its possible.

This is my Unity world. My subject was outer space. It includes a textured plane, a skybox, a directional light, visual assets in as the ship, landing platform, the planet and the rocks. I also add a smoke effect and spread it around the scene. I chose to have a space ship as the centre piece as I couldn't get an astronaut.