As we progress in game content, so too does entertainment. From this we can see a spike in YouTube as a medium for gamers to showcase themselves as players. Anymore you can't go onto the top viewed categories without seeing some player's winning kill or the like present and accounted for. This brings the exploration of being the "best" players and showcasing skills or feats of luck that may wow and enthrall fellow players who might have just been looking for some fun commentary. With this we also bring the flooding of such a medium in which everyone feels entitled to be internet famous for their videos, thus resorting to all sorts of scripted and silly antics in order to garner fans and monetary value. What we see more often than not is the lack of entertainment and more senseless children throwing out bigotry, slurs, and the like in order to try and appear edgy fun.
This in that of itself becomes a game.
The most videos, the most subscribers and all the rest in between is just another game to them in which they must obtain the highest score. Often times it has crossed my mind of turning this process into a game itself. Think about it: Enlisting bots or enraging fans in order to destroy a competitor's video channel or the like in order to reach the high score. It happens more times than not. The fact is many things become games to people with little respect or admiration for their competitors. Do we shun them for it? Not at all, some companies thrive on competition.. so is it all just a game until someone loses an eye?
When we think of the games that garner the most attention nowadays we think of the ones that truly encompass our imagination. With the advent of Steam for computer players as opposed to console players; they have embraced modifications for games. This leads to, more often than not, multiple more hours of game play than originally imagined by the creator. As with the other blogs on gaming this one incorporates what can be done outside of the conventional realm of what is before us. Remembering back to games such as Timesplitters that allowed you to create your own multiplayer maps and game mods was hours of endless fun; whereas now with the more main stream titles such as Battlefield and Call of Duty there is little to adjust in the game modes. Creating small tweaks to games can provide much more depth and strategy to the experience while the original content may be just as well.
A major portion of this goes to Valve's Counter Strike game in which different game modes may be found off the Garry's mod game which may be bought. Garry's mod allows the creation and destruction of already active content such as major titles like Portal, Team Fortress 2 and more. What we find throughout is furthering the content with the minds of multiple creators. Giving the audience free roam into creation and tweaking which then leads to YouTube videos and the like propagating the original game for them to then buy and download. The system itself is "self-fulfilling" and yet many major gaming companies do not wish for videos or mods to be made as they deem the coding their intellectual property. With this we see a decline in the understanding of how game mechanics work. Is there a right answer? Not really, but it's been tested that allowing your potential buyers to test and or sample what they will be getting certainly ups the odds of their purchase.
Ideas are easy enough but the execution is always something else completely different. As we go forward our minds mold into new concepts than the original perception. In this we must push the ideas forward like a ball of snow until it gets larger and more complex than the initial. Sometimes you can build these large concepts into things like snowmen or they get away from you and roll out of control down a hill. The destruction our concepts can cause as they roll away are still our responsibility.
This past week as I've been sick I have been able to update my old drupal/godaddy website in order to have it up and operational for showcasing my voice acting video.
http://www.trueredgraveproductions.com/ was my professional website from a few classes back. In it I have projects and works from other classes.
