EDITORIAL ART + VIDEO GAMES By: Nicholas Zurkovic Level 50 Editor
Gaming and modding are not just a way to pass time, or have a little fun with your friends, they are a form of art. In fact, much more difficult than painting or filmmaking. But they share the same ideas, and inspiration. But more importantly, it can let your voice be heard. You may be thinking, how is shooting other people art. Well, you have to look beyond the lines to see it. Every game developer or modder have to think of one thing be`ore they even think about coding and making game environments, and that is what kind of theme, and art style the game is going to have. Take a few games like Dragon Age. They have the most creative developers, thinking of the idea to have it look similar to a watercolor painting. On the other hand, games like Borderlands, and the Walking Dead game have a cell shaded texture, where it is supposed to be hand drawn. Like in a comic book. The developers and makers of mods are just as creative, or even more creative than famous artists like Picasso, or Michelangelo. As they make the characters, textures, and maps, all from scratch. Everything has an inspiration. Modifications may be from a different game. Or games could be based of films. Not only do things inspire video games. But they can inspire others. Unfortunately, many people do not believe this. As a result many artists create video game inspired art. Take this for example. Artist Michael Edward-‐Miller created hundreds of pieces of art based on 1987’s Mike Tyson’s Punch-‐out to show that videogames are art, and that they inspire it. Movies are also greatly affected. Many films like Street Fighter were based of of games. Although they were absolutely terrible, the idea came from a game. As a result, videogames are just as much art as anything else. They require just as much work to make, and tons of creativity. Finally, the greatest thing about modding, and gaming in general is how to community can change the game. If you are not happy with something, ask for it to be changed. Either you or somebody else could create the mod. The great thing is, no matter what, somebody will have the same opinion as you. The chance of it becoming an official part of the game is high. Either that, or the entire community leaves. The Devs will always have to adapt to what is done, and make changes for the better. Being so passionate about something like a game that you want to change it by yourself is great. But using your mind to bring something from the outside world and bring it over to the digital, really shows how passionate about that topic. Creating mods can be exactly like art, and it is. Video games are a great way to express yourself.
How to Create a Storyline By: Cole Davidson
1. Think of basic theme and style of the game (setting, basic characters).
2. Determine what the goal of the
game is. For example, are the characters trying to find something, clues, on a quest, or save the world.
3. Create a storyboard for various
the basic stages of the game. The beginning will introduce the setting and characters. Middle will include a climax where, for example, an epic battle will take place, and then the ending. Maybe include a blub for the next game to be continued.
4. Create storyboards for each
stage with more detail. Also incorporate areas where the player has options and choices.
5. Keep going through and making
edits until it’s very clear in your head and on paper for others to be able to read and understand.
6. Remember that through history many storylines have been written and rewritten but just told in different ways. It’s OK to use one you like to help guide you through the process.
How to Host a LAN Party By: Nicholas Zurkovic
Have you ever played games with friends over WIFI. More than half of that time its laggy, and your ping is too high. So why not have a LAN party. LAN parties are a great way to gather a whole bunch of friends, and have a fun, safe, nerdfest. The only problem standing in between you is all of the hardcore networking hardware for you to connect to after you buy it. LAN, stands for local area network, and they don't come with your house. It costs lots of money to purchase all of the equipment to have one. But once you do, you know its worth it.
1. First of, you will need to pick up a high speed network like killer 2200 lan for example. 2. After hooking that up, you will need to find some friends with a game you would like to play. 3. Invite them over, hook up the pc’s to the network, and there you have it, your very own LAN party.
_____________________________ TIPS: Some most played games on LAN are, counterstrike, left 4 dead,(1 and 2) Garrys mod, and half life. The list is truly endless.
EDITORIAL Serialized Storytelling By: Cole Davidson Level 45 Editor
Advances in storytelling are creating more complex storylines, characters, and as a result, games, which is causing me to want more. Obviously the producers of these games are attempting to find ways to keep the gamers they already have, but are also wanting to keep attracting the next wave of gamers. A trend that is happening in the gaming world is “serialized storytelling” which is when there are new editions of a game. The overall story theme continues, but with a new adventure. The characters mostly remain the same but we get to know them a little more in depth. Lately, the gamer doesn’t just participate, but interacts with the story. The gamer can now almost direct the storyline. We see this in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The director/ writer made several points in the game where the gamer has to make a decision, which affects the total outcome of the game. For example at the end of the game you decide if you want to kill the main bad guy or capture him. Another example of this would be in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In Skyrim, you chose what your character says and does and this changes the storyline. With the characters now continuing throughout a series of games, it allows the gamer to build a connection with the character. Quite often, when playing a game, you get to choose your character is and you almost build an identity with them. When a new edition of the game comes out, it’s easy to connect and continue into the new adventure. This is helping the producers keep existing gamers and sell more games. Being able to customize your own character like in The Elder Scrolls it makes you feel as if you where in the adventure. Advances in animation are constantly evolving. Resolution, detail, and motion all help enhance the story. When we have a game with great graphics like Battlefield 3 or Crysis 3, it makes it feel as if it were real and the gamer is in the game. Each time a new game comes out we expect there to be better animation than the last version. Having great graphics makes the storyline and game feel more like a movie, which you participate in.
With gaming growing every year, we can only expect the storylines to become more developed with interesting characters to follow and amazing graphics to pull us into the game.
TOP 10 TITLES LIST We have all been anticipating some new titles for 2013\14. This past week at E3 we got a look at what is coming out. This is the top ten anticipated titles for 2013\14!
10. Battlefield 4 9. Neverwinter 8. Saints Row IV 7. GTA 5 6. Batman Arkham Origins 5. Dying Light 4. Killzone: Shadow fall 3. Dragon age 3: Inquisition 2. Destiny 1. The Elder Scrolls Online
EDITORIAL GAME EVOLUTION By: Basil Pantages Level 1 Editor
The story Games it there early ages were very simple and jumped to the gameplay to fast without bringing any entrance to the characters or the story. But as games evolved its has bring us more story and more attachments to the characters in the game itself. For example some games have made the story player impacted which makes the player in complete control of what the outcome of the game will be in the end. Which adds more immersive details to games themselves. Gameplay aspects Gameplay aspects in games started off very simple like walking, running, jumping, day night cycle and even added multiple ways to die. But now the developers in games have added a lot more aspects to games such as sprinting, sliding under things leaning around objects, different ways to heal yourself, helping NPC's, dying in many different ways and also adding emotions to your character. All of these aspects add immersion to the game and make them more playable. The graphics Graphics in gaming have started out as pixelated and had very small color pallets. But now with top of the line game engines hold thousands of pixels and huge color pallets to make games look stunning and beautiful to the very last detail. Games like battlefield 3, Crysis 2-‐3 and far cry 3all show what game engines can really do to make a beautiful looking game. Ai/NPC Gaming has always had Ai that you would either be enemies with or allies with. Depending on which game there are different types of Ai for almost anything Ai: characters that can interact and be interacted with by the player. Enemy Ai: will engaged into combat with the player on sight sometimes without any warning. Neutral
Ai: will not engaged in combat with the player unless attacked first nature Ai: is the flow of the grass and the change of the weather.
How to Become a Gamer By: Basil Pantages
Many people think that gaming is easy but really it's more complicated then you think. First of all gaming has very many and interesting characters when it comes to online play. Such as small English kids that swear at you very time you win and people who get mad very easily even at the slightest of things. The tongue of an average gamer is very complicated and weird to a normal person that does not game. Some words of a gamer are noob,BEAST MODE,headshot,pwned and owned. Gamers also have there own alphabet which is 1=I or l 3=e or b 4 =a 5=s and 0=o. The third thing is what is most important to a gamer is the console or pc that plays the games that create which side of gaming culture. The fourth thing is gaming food, food is a big part of every culture and it is huge for gaming to the standard food for a gamer is Doritos, Cheetos, pizza, coke, Mountain Dew and lots of candy. The fifth thing is MLG. To participate in an MLG tournament is every gamers dream to play your most favorite game for $ 50,000. The sixth thing is for gamers to know all of the main genres of games such as horror survival horror, action, fps, tps and tower defense. All in all gaming is a great culture and has a very interesting and unique community and that what makes it what it is today.
DESTINY By: Basil Pantages
Bungie released a new trailer of Destiny, a sci-‐fi shared-‐world shooter that once again puts humanity against a grave extraterrestrial threat. It's coming later this next year for PS3 and Xbox 360 and we are still not sure about the next gen consoles yet. Gameplay aspects Destiny has many different gameplay aspects that part it from many other first person shooters. It has been confirmed that there will be a random weapon generator and that it will be able to support up to 300 players in one Game. Gameplay aspects-‐travel Destiny is very different from other free roam open world games. In destiny you can travel to different planets such as mars, earth, Venus, the moon, Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moon. Character-‐classes The classes in destiny are something that we haven't ever seen in a Bungie game yet. The three classes are Warlock, Hunter and Titan. Warlock Warlocks are like the mages of destiny they have been given powers from the traveller. They also have a 20:80 cloth ratio the warlocks can still use guns but they can also unlock more powers to use against there enemies. Hunter The Hunter is the stealthy assassin of destiny. There armor to cloth ratio is 50:50 and they are specialists at stealth and long-‐range fighting. They were once outlaws prowling in the wilderness and wastelands now, bending the rules and being as daring and ingenious as they are coming in handy. Titan The Titan is the tank of destiny walking right through gunfire killing anybody, anything in their path. There armor to cloth ratio is 80:20. Character -‐races There are 3 awesome races the awoken, the exo and of course Humans The Awoken Your traditional elf type race that you would see in many mmo's Exo A robotic terminator inspired race.
Humans your average normal character that you see in many modern games today. Enemies There are 5 enemies armies in Destiny such as the Cabal, Hive, Fallen and the Glimmer. Cabal The Cabal are a heavy type enemy. Being described Rhino-‐like creatures. The main area that you will see the Cabal in is in the exclusion zones on Mars. Fallen The Fallen is an enemy Race which can use both types of weapons and vehicles. There are 3 different types of the Fallen are the fallen dreg they are so far the only known Fallen with two arms. They are thieves and can be heard before they are seen due to the clattering of their bounty. They are crafty and known to hiss. They carry a pistol and a shock dagger. The next type of fallen is the Fallen Vandal: They seem to be a higher ranking than the Dreg and are outfitted with better weaponry. They tend to use long-‐ range weapons that take time to charge. The last type of fallen is the Fallen Captain A pack of Fallen is lead by a Captain. These Fallen actual Nobel but are extremely fierce. Do not underestimate them. The characteristics of the Fallen are very much like elites from the halo franchise Nimble, agile, cunning Travel in packs Dangerous at midrange but even deadlier up close they believe that Earth is rightfully theirs The Vex Bungie has withheld information about the Vex. The most that is known is that the Vex are robotic time travellers. Some characteristics of the Vex are Yellow color have large heads and Can wield firearms. The Hive The Hive are a strange zombie like enemy. They are ordered and or controlled by a Hive Leader through some sort of magic. The Hive are dangerous up close and can get even more dangerous the longer the leader is alive. Types Regular Hive Hive leader Hive brute The Glimmer They are/travel in gigantic onyx pyramids and possibly can control other creatures/species. The Glimmer are what we believe to be a mix of cabal and fallen kind
of like the covenant from the halo games So far destiny looks like a great game and has so much potential to come in the next decade.