What is Virtual Reality and What should it be?

Virtual Reality is the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.

If 4 or 5 years ago you told me that today you can buy augmented virtual reality devices, i wouldn't believe a word you said. But "soon" we're going to be able to buy our own virtual reality devices, we've seen how the oculus rift works, Microsoft is also making their own virtual reality device called Microsoft Hololens.

Video Game Addiction

What is Video Game Addiction?

Video Game Addiction is described as an impulse control disorder, which does not involve use of an intoxicating drug and is very similar to pathological gambling.  Video game addiction has also been referred to as video game overuse, pathological or compulsive/excessive use of computer games and/or video games.

How Can Someone Get Addicted To it?

They usually use gaming as a way to escape from everyday life, these type of gamers avoiding problem by playing games, which in turns interferes with their lives because they're so busy playing game.

Joe Hilgard, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the MU College of Arts

and Science, did a studies that supports the claim that MMORPG's are the most addictive genre of video games.

"The games provide opportunities for players to advance levels, to join teams and to play with others. In addition, the games provide enormous fantasy worlds that gamers can disappear into for hours at a time and forget about their problems. MMORPG's may be triple threats for encouraging pathological game use because they present all three risk factors to gamers." says Joe Hilgard.

Violence in Video Games

Video games today are a lot more violent than a game created in the 1980's. and a research published in the JAMA Pediatrics, a journal of the American Medical association by researchers in Iowa state university and the national institute of education in Singapore, found hints that violent video games may set kids up to react in a more hostile and violent way.

3,034 boys and girls in the third, fourth, seventh, and eighth grade were asked detailed question about their video games habit 3 times over a period of 2 years.
overall, their aggressive and violent behavior declined slightly throughout the studies, but that's because children tend to act less aggressively as they grow older.

but a closer look at kids who play more hours of violent video games per week revealed increases in aggressive and violent behavior than the other.

But studies like this often fail to account for other factors that can contribute to aggression, such as violence in the home, abuse, and mental illness.

The point of this continued debate, though, is that not all players of violent video games are gonna commit violent crimes.

Gender In Video Games

According to a study released by the Entertainment Software Association, Adult women occupy the largest demographic in the game industry.
Women over 18 years old make up 36% of the gaming population, followed by adult men at 35%.

Sadly enough, the gaming industry haven't caught up with these numbers,

sexism still runs through the gaming industry, using women as an object rather than a human.

in the last of us ellie are portrayed as an object the player uses to pass through an obstacle.

in super mario, princess peach are portrayed as a damsel in distress in which the player must rescue.

Video Games Genre

What is a genre?

A genre is a category of literature or other form of art or entertainment (such as paintings or music) based on certain defining criteria.

Genre in video games refers more into the gameplay, and not into the story like a movie is.

But why is it different?

Why is a genre defining video games so different from defining a movie?

let's look at it this way, 

you are chilling with your friends in a cafe and one of your friends suddenly brings up this question "Hey guys, wanna watch a movie in the cinema? i heard about this new movie that's suppose to be really good" and your other friend said "yeah sure, what's it about?" "i don't know, but i heard that it's a first person shooter, adventure, puzzle movie."

wouldn't that be weird to hear? but what if they are talking about a game? it wouldn't be as weird.

saying a game to be a first person shooter, action, adventure game.

Ludo narrative resonance/dissonance

Ludic originating from the Latin word ludere which means 'to play'. Any word with the root 'lud' in reference to videogames and videogames study refers back to play or interactivity. Gameplay and "win-states" are types of ludic functionality that separate and individualize videogames from other media and from themselves.
Ludo narrative dissonance refers to conflicts between a video game's narrative and its gameplay.
or simply it essentially refers to anytime a video game's mechanics or gameplay betray the story that the game is trying to tell.
Let's look at watch dogs for example, we have Aiden Pierce who is portrayed as someone who is really heroic and mysterious in the story, but the player can shoot people in broad daylight.
There's also a cut scene in where Aiden visits the grave of a loved one whose death basically sets up the whole game but after the cut scene finished, the player could climb on top of his niece gravestone.

Verisimilitude vs Stylised Graphics

Game these days always come with either Realistic or Stylised Graphics.
Each of them come with their own advantages and disadvantages

Some player like how a game comes with a realistic graphics, since it helps the player dive into the game easier, but sometimes it can go a bit too far, if the Realistic graphic becomes more "Realistic" gaming would be a little bit scary, think about it this way, would you play GTA with graphics that is so "Realistic" you can't differentiate reality between a game. wouldn't it be scary?

on the other hand even though stylised graphics doesn't have that "Realistic" feeling into it, player can still have fun playing the game, let's look at World of warcraft even though they doesn't have a "Realistic" graphic they still have 7.1 million player playing the game.

Graphics doesn't always ensure how well a game will sell.

First Person vs Third person (POV)

Being someone who have been playing games for so long, I’ve played first person view or third person view, Each of them have their own advantages over the other.

In which First Person granting a more immersive game-play and makes the player feel more like they are the character in the game. But as far as a First person game could immerse the player into role-playing it, the player isn’t actually role-playing as a character in the game, but they are more engaged with everything else in the game world. From this perspective, we can’t say that the character exist in the first place, but it’s being used just a vessel for the player to do what they want in the game. So in other word the player is just playing as himself, not as the character in the game.

But Third Person on the other hand gives the player the ability to look at the character when playing the game, hence a constant reminder that the player is playing as someone else not as himself, and give the player a role-play experience of being someone else, a marine, spy, etc.

“The first-person character is never you but merely a make-believe character you are improvising as you go. In third-person games, that character is deeper for a number of reasons in a number of ways, which makes inhabiting their lives a more compelling experience for me.” - Adam Ruch

2013 : Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V is an open world, action, adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar games.

GTA V is set in southern California, the game is played from either third person view or first person view. GTA V is the first installment from the Grand Theft Auto series in which the player can choose between 3 protagonists to play with throughout the single player mode, switching between them during and outside of mission.

The single player story follows the 3 protagonists and their effort to commit heist.

Player who commit crime will receive a wanted star measured from 1-5, the law enforcement will be more aggressive the higher the player wanted star is.

GTA V also have an online mode in which each player can join a lobby up to 30 player, the story in online mode is also different from the single player campaign.

2013: Flappy Bird

Flappy bird is a side-scroller mobile game that was developed by a Vietnamese developer named Dong Nguyen in 2013. Flappy bird got popular in the early of 2014 and was famous for how hard and simple the game is. The developer claimed that flappy bird was earning $50,000 a day just from ingame ads and sales. The game was removed by the developer on February 10, 2014 due to guilt over what he considered to be its addictive nature and overuse.

2009 : Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox, openworld, adventure game developed by mojang.

Minecraft has no specific goal for the player to accomplish, allowing the player to do whatever he/she wants in the game. At the start of the game the player is placed in a virtually infinite game world, in which the player can explore and build stuff in it. Along the way player will encounter mobs including, animals, villagers, and hostile creature.