Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Dave Grey on Gamestorming


What is gamestorming? It sounds like brain storming with games. Game storming is a term we use way before and it's about creativity. We never really design it for creativity but more for efficiency. Every one of us has a black box, and i think this black box is where we had all our creativity is.

It seems that people that are trapped in one place can never make creativity because we are unable to do so therefore our brain cells doesn't regenerate. If we want to be creativity, we need to think environment is like a factory. Think of work place like a factory. In order to feel creative we need to feel it. We need to take part and be energetic and be spontaneous.

Dave Grey actually make a game that makes people work from nothing to something. The first thing they did is Poster session where every single person make a poster on the proposal that they want to work on.

As designers we tend to be selfish and trapped our selves in our black box by not letting people in, however we can only improve by sharing informations with one another.

Games storming can help us move faster towards the results we want to archieve. It's about involving people, about sharing creative information, about creative process. It seems that he uses playing simple games like Dialogue questions/role playing/story telling/voting etc. and just by communicating with people one can really improve creativity.

Designers just have to make the game that is simple easy and fun that everyone can play. Designers are suppose to design for total chaos and not a perfect world. Like the game of Life, it's just a simple game. Everything is a game and a game is a world. Everygame has boundaries which involve time and space. Game has a goal where players has to archieve inorder to win the game. Rules that guides the players on how to play, Artifacts like gaming pieces and lastly players.

There are many million outcomes of a game. So in games storming there is no specific goals. We have to be open for ideas. A world is a journey and we can think of a game as a play.

First we need the boundary > then we need a Tangible outcome > we need to have players and resources > We need to start the game > Explore the games > Close the game to make conclusion wherether we get the tangible outcome we want.

Sometimes when the creative process is too long it might gets tiring and nothing will come out of it therefore planning is very important. People want to have a sense of complishment after a creativity process. The end of the process is a stepping stone and enables the learning journey.

From this video i learned everyone is important in the creative process. Inorder to get more ideas we need to share and through sharing that we realise that the game that we make could be better. This world is about improving anyway and it's really fun looking at his theory of game storming. It's like an idea of an idea makes a new idea and i kind of like it =D

Systems of Chaos and Complexity


Chaos theory is something that is happening randomly during an event that is actually predictable. The butterfly effect is a common trope where it involves time travel and the "what if" cases during the storyline changes the moment of choices which results in two significantly different outcomes.

Complexity theory has many different layers. From the basis of Complex theory we have the system theory which involve goal of principles that can be applied to all types of system in any form of research. Emergence is the integrative levels of the complex system where bby it creats patterns and multiply it which inturns make a simple interaction.

I love playing games that has multiple outcomes. Could be a dating sim game or other games as well. Firstly because if the options are fixed to a certain ending it's going to be very boring because players are being forced to go in that direction and there's no other way out. Like quizzes, when i take quizzes there are bound to have some question that either of the answers is something that you want to choose from but you can't just skip the question and go to the next one because they require for you to do so.

Games that are highly open ended are games like the sims etc. People that didn't know how to play would find it boring because they thought all you do is control this sim and fulfill what it needs and its easy but i should say that it is not easy to play it because each decision will trigger something to happen for example when you are hungry obviously you will cook and eat but what if you're cooking skill is not high enough and you cause a fire, player doesn't know what to do and in the end burns to death. Well it's very easy to die in sim because when it gets too hungry it dies. Well they do have an option where by you can let your sims roam freely so they know that the need to eat when they are hungry but who knows, it's just an A.I and sometimes it just does nothing even though it's hungry.

Pictures taken from:
http://www.emergenceingames.com/index.php?p=1_5_Games
http://oliteratico.co.cc/warhammer-chaos.html

Beauty & Aesthetics


Beauty is a part of Aesthetics. Like the combination of inner and outer beauty. Well the standards of beauty is always changing. When we talk about outer beauty it means the Looks and Inner Beauty means Characteristics.

Machines has inner and outer beauty as well. Of cause the main objective is the inner beauty which is the ability and it's function while the outer beauty which is the look doesn't really matter much unless it's a decoration item.


Classicl beauty like the sun set, the river, the forest, the beach. It's like how we discover it to be beautiful and we can never get tired of looking at it.

Human create technology to make life better and when our lifes gets better we strive for perfection/Improvements/Satisfaction/Eudaimonia etc. Since humans tends to compare among one another it's very common for us to compare with each other through technology as well. Like speaking of technology i think the only country that can make higher technology is either Japan or U.K.

Well there might be a day where we are able to create robots that is very high Artificial Intelligent and not to mention they might one day takes over our world and if they want to kill us all i can say it would be a rough fight really.

Well Gaming is different in a way that we create the characters by giving them a beautiful face, a wonderful personality and you can even call it perfect. But seriously it's just a game. We can never archieve perfection because humans likes to compare and they like to archieve something more than perfection. Let's take for example if this world if full of perfection, like how everyone is nice and friendly, its a perfect day and everyone is preety, no one talks about anything because they all too perfect. Isn't it boring? All you do is go out smile at everyone, work hard like everyone, do this like everyone. Doesn't this makes you a robot?

To me beauty is something that has to come withing one self. Self confidence is very important because without it, even if your're very beautiful you will still feel ugly. The inner self has to be strong because even if one has beauty on the outside but no beauty on the inside they will still turn out ugly. Like how people go for plastic surgery because they Envy and who knows you might just die because of the stupidity of envy.

Pictures taken from:
http://www.grahamowengallery.com/photography/macro-photography.html
http://www.chinatownconnection.com/chinese-symbol-for-beauty.htm

Pirate’s Dilemma


Pirate is a word that reminds me of the movie pirates of the carribean. While Pirate in history is said to be the worse people of all because they steal and kill people just to salvage their food. Well in mordern world Pirate is someone who steals from another. the word Piracy means Theft.

With the internet we have in he present, we can basically become a pirate easily. Downloading videos/music/information online. Seriously even if the website disallow use to download pictures it only means that it is policy protector but there's a thing called screen shot on computers so... & there is also a thing called Photoshop and seriously one can just take a screen shot change it here and there and TaDA~ its new again. Nothing on the net is policy protected.


Pirates in the olden days use swords canons to rob the others but hey~ WE have even better things and it's comfortable. All we need to do is to sit down relax, turn on our laptop and VoiLA we are online doing some Ahem* Illegal stuff. I always feels that every one should have at least done a crime some where be it like downloading piracy things online or maybe porn at home? or rent 2nd hand DVDs. People just didn't realise that they are pirates themselves.

Even in games, trust me ANY GAme you played there is bound to have hackers. ANd seriously it just spoils the fun and they dont care because even when they are banned they can still create new character and continue to hack.

Like speaking of file sharing ain't all students pirates too? Well we always share information online with one another for submissions and stuff. Since everyone is watching/buying piracy DVDs because it is CHEAP/FREE. Human beings are just stingy but who can they blame? Everything is expensive now a days and not the mention the economy is not bad therefore people do such stuff to have fun and entertain themselves.

Piracy is something we all should not do but how many actually stopped? or should i say how many actually didn't do it at all? People will just use excuses like if he can do it i can do it too.

Well,I would say that the do not do crime video might work and well singapore started closing down music websites for free downloads online.

Pictures taken from:
http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/yo-ho-lessons-from-piracy-for-industry-dynamics/
http://liventechnicolor.blogspot.com/2009/11/thankstaking-gets-complicated.html

Postmodernism


Post Modernism is a art. It is playful, logical yet interpretative. while Modernism is strict, skillfull and Unified.

In Post modernism, it has many ways of interpretating the truth. But what is the truth? It can be informative as it's logical and realistics. Like how we always do things without realising it? Like turning on and of lights, misplace things because it's just so common to place things around. Well we always do the same thing over and over again yet we didn't notice.

The difference between modernism and post modernism is that well both of them would definately asked questions like the things we do and why do we do it? Like why do we turn on the lights? Because we need it duh... there is no certain correct answer and no certain wrong answer.

In Modernism - Artist way is his own way.
In Post Modernism - Artists gather around to share information.

Post modernism can really bring fun to people, while i have just come across an interesting video about a group of researches working together to make climbing stairs fun and guess what. The escalator is just beside and everyone is using the musical stairs. Aww i want one in SP too =D

Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

Pictures taken from:
http://www.konghee.com/www/2009/07/postmodernism/

Modernism In Games


Modernism is an art that is simplistic to be seen from a different point of perspective.


Post Modernism is different from modernism in terms of like beliefs of oneself which is subjected to change depending on the environment and time. Games now are trying to capture human conditons through mediums.

For games to be unique it has to be interactive. It has to be fun. It means we get to make choices and take responsibility of our choices whether be it good or bad.
Since we can find PostModernism in games does that means it is a form of art? Well i think games can be a great source of entertainment in life. Like how we change life from no fun to so much fun now? Like how we get to kill people without killing them in real life? hmm it maybe a bad thing but really, its just fun and most importantly it's Interactive.

From this i learned that we can really bring post modernism in games in a creative way which lets the user have fun and learn things as well. I feel that many people lack the ability to make decision themselves. Therefore they should play more games and make more decision =D

Pictures taken from:
http://michaelnewberry.com/av/post/post.html
http://www.sawse.com/2008/02/06/solace-in-the-seemingly-obscure/

Modern Art movements

Cubism artwork breaks up object and is being re assembled with multiple viewpoint.

There are 2 types of cubism. Analtic and Synthetic.

Analytic cubism is the first phrase of cubism that simplify objects in to shapes. Synthetic cubism is the same as first phrase but colors are added in and not just a single object but several objects place together. One very interesting thing about cubism is even after simplifying the objects it still has its original form.





Futurism is the love for speed, noise, mchine and pollution. From the picture above i can see that it is a picture of a battle horse well why is it a battle horse? Because of the spear i see around it so i guess there must be a person riding this horse moving forward in high speed. Well there seems to be alot of enemies around it as well but the horse just wasn't afraid. It symbolises courage and with the color schemes used it feel as though the horse is in victory and it looks as though the surrounding time has been stopped.


Surrealism is like drawing of dreams, imagination that explores one person's inner and outer self. In order to draw surrealism one has to have alot of imagination and dreams.

Movie of Surrealism like Alice in the Wonderland and Inception movie settings is place in dreams and yet this dreams become so realistic. It kind of brings a sense of mystery and well it definately looks interesting and cool.

Well we haven't really tried doing any of this art before basically because we wasn't teach and well i would say that i would like to try it because it looks so weird yet it looks nice =D



Other than just using one method to do art. We can also combine both theory into one like this painting above mixing cubism with surrealism.

Pictures taken from:
http://dark.pozadia.org/wallpaper/Artist-Surrealism/
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/italian/italianclubbepfall2000.html
http://www.160grams.com/magazine/2010-2011/february-issue/futuristic-icons.php
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/or/cubism.html
http://t1.gstatic.com/