Pros and Cons of Gaming Platforms

Pros and Cons of Gaming Platforms

Sam Warren

 

Mobile Gaming

Pros:

• Good graphics
• Simple controls (for most games)
• Low cost games make for great value
• Good pass time
• Some games developed such as flappy bird and color switch can become very addictive to play
• Has things such as leaderboards to create an feel of community and competitiveness 
• Games can be played on the go for example on the bus or waiting for something like a class or meeting

Cons:

• Most games on mobile are either very easy but have a good story or lack any story and are something such as flappy bird and color switch and are seemingly impossible which is where the addictiveness comes in as people feel like they have to finish the game
• Controls maybe simple but on a small touch screen phone it can be very awkward to use the controls
• Mobile have a lot of bugs that are usually when players are loading into the game and it crashes
• As it is hard to create new and innovative levels on Mobile because of the restrictions the games can be boring and seem repetitive

Arcade Games: 

Pros:

• People enjoy the classic games that were first brought out in the 70's
• It costs everytime someone plays so the person who owns it can make a lot of money from it
• Arcade machines are usually located in an arcade which encourages people to leave the house and go to the arcade
• Because of the leaderboards there is a big competitive scene around arcade games as people strive to be that person at the top with the highest score

Cons:

•  The cost to play is good for the owner but can empty the pockets of keen gamers who want to be on the leaderboards
• The graphics of arcade machines not very advanced due to the time of release
• A lot of the hype around arcade machines has disappeared as console and PC gaming has become more popular over the years this means that they are not used as frequently
• The machines could only have on game on each which meant that to have 5 games you would need 5 machines which take up space and money

Console Gaming: 

Pros:

• Get most of the mainstream games that are high quality and sometimes console exclusives
• Very easy to setup and use
• Online multiplayer gives players a chance to socialise and make new friends
• With the online multiplayer services such as Xbox live you can get cool perks such as game discount, free games every month and services such as Youtube and Twitch
• Graphics are usually quite good you have the choice of buying games from the online store or you could go out and buy a physical copy to add to a collection
• If you get a physical copy it can be sold on when you are finished with it to get some of your money back

Cons:

• Because of the enhanced graphics a lot of people moan that you sometimes don't even get 30fps
• Most games that come out for consoles have a hefty price tag on them ranging from £40-£60  which is too expensive for people like casual gamers
• With consoles most of the features included require Wifi which can be a pain as a lot of people are cursed with bad Internet or Internet that can only handle casual use such as phones or laptops but when it comes to downloading a 40GB game to your console it can really take some time
• Like mobile games some console games are very addicting but in a different way, with console games they grip you as you travel through vast worlds or enjoy a very thought through storyline and it makes the player want to go back and play to see what happens next

PC Gaming:

Pros:

• Very good graphics and performance - better than consoles if you spend good money on a decent rig
• Have an extremely wide range of games that are mostly indie but also have some mainstream games such as Fallout, Skyrim and The Witcher
•  MMO's work very well on PC and are very popular
• Have a good multiplayer experience and a vast community that in my opinion are more active in forums which can help a lot when trying to get past a level or fix a bug
• Has the flexibility to play with a keyboard and mouse or you can plug in a controller and play with that
• Platforms such as steam have a lot of offers on a regular basis (Small ones every weekend and very big one on every holiday)
• With console you are stuck with the hardware that you are given but with a PC you can customise and constantly update things like your drivers which optimise your performance

Cons:

• To get a PC that can run all the high quality games on ultra settings you need to put some good money into a rig but if you spend the same amount you would on a console you could definitely get better performance from the PC
• Because of the constant sales it is very enticing to spend that last bit of cash you had lying around which can be a bad thing
• To get a good PC for the price you pay you need to do a lot of research on which graphics card, power source, monitor, mouse, keyboard, what processor and how many and a lot more things that need to be taken in to consideration, as well as this it need to be built which is not a thing that some can do by just guessing
• A rig setup can be very messy due to wires but with good management and use of cabletidys then it can be made neat

Jobs in Gaming industry

Understand organisational structures in the game industry

QA Tester

Test, tune and debug a game and suggest refinements that ensure its quality and play-ability, assuring quality in a game and finding all its flaws before it goes public.

Audio Engineer

Create the soundtrack for a game, including music, sound effects, character voices and spoken instructions.

Have to be able to compose music and to be able to create an atmosphere for a game. Good communication skills and needs to be creative. You also need to be good at working towards deadlines.

Animator

Responsible for the portrayal of movement and behaviour within a game.

An animator has to have knowledge of 2D and 3D animation techniques, also to be creative and have good communication skills.

Games Artist

Responsible for creating an online infrastructure for a game, and ensuring the stability and security of the web services.

Lead Artist

Responsible for the overall look of the game.

Creative Director

Responsible for the overall look and feel of the game.

Be able to inspire developers and designers to make high quality material and give them a good feel for the theme that they are making it for. You need to have a passion for games and be extremely creative.

DevOps Engineer

Solve problems for the developers and designers. Also creating and maintaining network systems for games with online components

Be able to use C++ and C as well as key network programming languages. Have good communication skills and also be very organised. Be able to work towards deadlines and come up with creative solutions for problems that may arise. 

Assistant Producer

Create and implement marketing campaigns to maximise the sales of games.

Good management and communication skills also have a good eye for detail.

Lead Programmer

Lead the programming team responsible for creating all the games computer codes.

Technical Artist

Acts as a bridge between the Artists and the programmers working on the game.

External Producer

External Producers ensure the succesful delivery of a game, while working externally from the game development team.

Be able to manage people, time and multiple projects. Have a passion for games and a clear understanding of the roles and requirements involved in the gaming industry.

Game Programmer

Game Programmers design and wite the computer code that runs and controls a game.

Game Designer

Game designers devise what a game consists of and how it plays, defining all the core elements.

Narrative Copyrighter

Writing dialogue and incidental copy for a game, fuses a knowledge of games and game design with writing talent to create a beautifully crafted interactive.

Level Editor

Define and create interactive architecture for a segment of a game, including the landscape and buildings.

Product Manager

Create and implement marketing campaigns to maximise the sales of games.

Project Manager

Ensure the successful delivery of a game.

Top Ten Games

Top Ten Games

1. NBA 2K17

NBA 2K17 is a basketball simulation game which allows you to play as some of the top NBA stars of today and of history. My personal favourite mode is My Career which allows you to create a player and pick what height what position and customise him to a great extent, they even have a feature where you can scan you face and make your basketball player look like you. You start as a rookie and work you way to become a better rating, then try to get into a team perfect for you if you have reached the top of the NBA you can also take your player to My Park which allows player to team up with other people online and play 5v5 4v4 3v3 2v2 and such. Through your journey a story is told of you and your friend in the NBA Justice Young (played by Micheal B Jordan) and how you create a dynamic duo called orange juice and dominate the NBA.

2. Battlefield 1
Battlefield 1 is a first person shooter that has a massive multiplayer following where people fight in WW2. The online is the most part of the game and what most people spend their time on. But the game does have a campaign that lasts for a good amount of time. Since the game is yet to come out i cant say much about the story, but i played in the open beta and the multiplayer was very immersive and fun to play.

3. The Culling

This game is a purely multiplayer gruesome first person fight to the death hunger games kind of theme. In every game you start in a box and find yourself with nothing and in your briefs!
You find buildings and craft things like stone daggers and spears to defend yourself, in the building you can find better gear such as bludgeon weapons or even a knife. anything that is found can be traded in a machine for F.U.N.C this is used to craft things and also call in specialities like airdrops. Before going into a game you get to pick what airdrop that you want some cost more than others, such as a knife and a stun gun would cost less than body armour and a revolver. The story is left up to fans to figure out why you are killing each other and who put you in there.

4. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

This is is another online game that doesn't have a single player, it is a competitive 5v5 game where one team is attacking and one team is defending, this switched every round. The objective changes ever time between the three types of hostage, biohazard container or 2 bombs. Each team has different operators to play as who each have unique abilities such as extra armour for the team or can put up deplyable cameras. But these operators have to be bought with the renown that you earn from matches. There isnt a story for this game, the closest thing to it is the bio for the operators which tells the player where they trained and such.

5. Skyrim
This game is an open world fantasy game, it immerses you from the start as you get sentenced to death but just before they chop your head off a dragon attacks and you have to run and escape to tell the jarl of whiterun about what happened. The amount of quests in this game is unbelievable there are some that are not the main story line but are still as interesting and then there is the main story line which leads you through a mystical journey to release your inner shout and to consume dragons as you find that you are a dragon born. Whether you are doing quests or just on free roam it is still interesting as a dragon can attack at anytime....

6. Dragon Age Inquisition
Dragon age is an open world game with a big aspect of story, depending on what you do you can change the story in different ways. In the start of the game you wake up being held prisoner and being interrogated. You have a strange mark on your hand that can close rifts that spawn demons. You work your way up to eventually become the inquisitor and lead people to a hideaway castle that save peoples lives. There is and online aspect to it where you can pick more races that do different things from single player and you fight in a team of four to carry out various quests. And as suggested in the title there are dragons and they are extremely hard to beat in total there are ten dragons scaling in difficulty.

7. Diablo 3
This game lets you pick from various different classes such as demon hunter, mage, witch doctor or monk. After you have made a character you follow a series of quests through talking to people and learning more about the story. You kill many monsters and various demons to get better gear for you character. The real beauty of the game is in the reaper of souls expansion pack, this allows you to freely roam all the missions that you have done so you can really grind certain mobs to get the gear that you want. It also lets you do rifts that are extremely hard but rewarding.

8. ARK: Survival Evolved
Again this game is online and this is based in the primitive time when dinosaurs were still around and you are a human and have to build a base to protect yourself from the dinosaurs and other player on your server. You can tame dinosaurs, some dinosaurs tame n different ways, first you have to knockout the dinosaur this is done with a non lethal weapon or narcotic arrows. Then you have to figure our of the dino is herbivore or carnivore so you can give it raw meat or berries. then the dino eats what you put in its inventory while it is asleep, but you have to keep it asleep by feeding it narcotics as well. this is just one aspect of the game that can be mastered and can take up to 3 hours to tame something like a T-rex. There is a story but it is a very vague one and you find out more in the end game but it takes quite a long time to get to that.

9. Reign of Kings

Reign of Kings is an online role playing game with no single player aspects. You create a character with the customisation mechanic and join a server that you like, there is no story you create a story as it is a RPG the main aim of the game is to become king. The king gets to set tax and live in the castle, people live throughout the lands role playing as different things suck as lumberjacks, hunters, bards, tavern owners and many more. It is set in the medieval time and you fight with steel armour and great swords. You can build seigeworks such as a trebuchet or a balista. 

10.Mount and Blade Warband
This is a sequel in the Mount and Blade series and the most recent one, in this RPG you again get to create your character but in this game you get to put point into attributes such as archery, leadership and swords. The aim of the game is to make peace with all of the lands, there are 5 factions in the game: Khergit Khanate, Kingdom of Nords, Kingdom of Rhodoks, Kingdom of Swadia and the Kingdom of Vaegirs. You start out on your own and start to gather a following by going to villages and asking for volunteers, you then fight bandits and such to train the volunteers in to trained swordsman and they get better ranks the more they fight. eventually you can join a kingdom or you can try to overthrow one. From there its your choice- make peace with everyone or fight everyone until you own all kingdoms.

Ethics

L3 Game Design

Unit 78: Digital Graphics For Computer Games

Ethics: Impact of computer games on society

Concerns such as excess playing time

Some people play games way too much which is known as excessive play time or a gaming addiction. Problems with gaming addictions include mental and physical issues such as putting on weight, social insecurities, eating irregularities, migraines and carpal tunnel sydrome.

Social Isolation

Some people immerse there selves so much into a game that they cant differ the real world and the digital world. In some cases people have lost all of their social skills and only know how to socialise in online games but when it comes to talking in real life they find it extremely difficult to come across normal and are very nervous. People can feel very lonely even though they are socialising through games they don't have any friends in real life.

Cost

Some games have in-game purchases which the player can buy to enhance their experience or make the game easier. These purchases can be taken to extremes where people could spend upwards of £1000 on games that are free to play. But then some games such CS:GO have crates that are only opened using keys, both using money to obtain these things people will open crates and try to get good skins for their guns. These skins can be sold on the steam market for money and people also gamble for skins which loses them money. The rush of getting a good skin brings them back to buy more and they spend more and more money on the game.

Separation from reality

Some people play a game way too much and become engrossed, so engrossed that they sometimes cant tell the difference between real life and the virtual world. In extreme cases people have tried to repeat what they have seen in a video game and actually ended up hurting/killing someone.

Artistic Styles

L3 Game Design

Unit 78: Digital Graphics For Computer Games

Artistic Styles

Photo-Realism

Photo-Realism is used to games to make them more immersive, if this is combined with stuff like a good story then a game can be very realistic and engaging. Photo-Realism has been used  in games such as  The last of us and Watch Dogs to create a more immersive atmosphere which makes the player feel more engaged. Photo-Realism can make a player see emotion in a character that has been made up which is amazing and creates another layer to the game. This style gives of a very real style and depending on the game it creates different moods.

Abstract

Abstract is the opposite of Photo-Realism and in most cases is very unrealistic, it uses very bright colours to stand out and make the game stand out in a way of colours mostly. Games such as Geometry wars and Tetris are abstract as they use different shapes and colours to stand out. Abstract styled games create a very fun mood and atmosphere as they are mostly not serious game and have a childish ring to it.

Cell Shading

Cell shading is the use of shading and bright colours to create a comic book effect, gamers love the style of cell shading because of the comic book resemblance it is especially useful when creating a game such a spider-man as it goes well with he theme. This theme creates a happy mood as it is cartoon like and gives a feel of nostalgia to the player as they play through he game. Famous series such as Megaman and The legend of Zelda use this art style.

Exaggeration

Exaggeration is an art style that is used it games that aren't supposed to be taken seriously such as Wii party games. The art style is widely used in anime and is very wacky with over dramatic proportions such as big eyes.In some cases they almost look like a cartoon, like pokemon. Some of the best know examples of exaggeration in art is Final Fantasy and Xenoblade. The style makes a fun mood and atmosphere as it is a playful style and is not serious.

Film Noir

Film noir is very over extenuated style which uses things ile lights and shadows to create an atmosphere. Little thing like someone in black is there to cause harm and white is good is ther kind of stuff that is used in Film Noir. Another thing that could be is if someone is looking into a mirror they are portrayed as two faced. Colours are used a lot to create a dark atmosphere when needed it is wuite a dark style. One of the most famous games that used this is L.A Noire which was a game that followed a detective that tryed to figure out a series of murders, giving it an even more of a dark mood.

Pixel

Pixel art in games is a style that is purposely bad graphics such as 8-bit games it gives the game a retro feel. Games such as Minecraft and Terraria are games with big pixels and are still very interesting. The focus is on the gameplay rather than the graphics as the graphics give the retro feel. Most pixel games are not realistic as they are not trying to be, and are not really serious games.

Terraria Review

L3 Game Design

Unit 78: Digital Graphics For Computer Games

Terraria Review

Terraria is a 2D sandbox game that has aspects of action-adventure to it. It has so many things to do it can keep you entertained for over a hundred hours.

Terraria has a lot of bosses that are all very challenging in different ways once you have been to hell and defeated the Wall of Flesh, you enter hard mode where all the bosses that you defeated to get to hell come back and are twice as hard to kill! this adds A LOT of more hours to the game as not only are there more bosses but there are also new ores to get better armour.

A negative note about Terraria is that it is not easy to get the grasp off... if you don't look at the wiki then you are helpless on what to do next in the game. All of the bosses have peculiar ways of spawning which is not common knowledge, so if you are one of those people who hates cheating then good luck finding out how to do certain things like spawn bosses and progress further into the game.

A very interesting aspect is the NPC's that are on the game, when building a house you can make rooms that have a table, chair, light source (torch) and a door which will attract NPC's to live in your house. These NPC's are al different and have different uses, most of then are vendors where you buy rare and costly items from that cant be found anywhere else in the game. To list a few Goblin Tinkerer: sells items such as miners helmet and rocket boots, Gun dealer: sells items such as the flintlock pistol and bullets, Nurse: can heal you for money.

Another cool in-game aspect is the random events, you can be just setting up and getting comfy with you new house and then a blood moon rises... this allows zombies to open your doors and also spawns a lot more of them than usual making you defend your house from a hoard of zombies. Another one is the Goblin invasion where your house is invaded by a series of goblins,skeletons and wizards. This adds a pressure to get god weapons early so that you can fend off these random event and survive the night.

Some people compare this game to Minecraft which is understandable, as they are kind of the 2D and 3D versions of each other but i believe that Terraria had more depth to it with its bosses and different mechanics.

There are positives and negatives to Terraria but i believe that the positive outweigh the negatives and that it is a well rounded game that can be very fun for the majority. I don't mind using the wiki so this isn't a bother for me but i know some people hate using things like that and want tto find out themselves. I would give Terraria an 8/10.

Other reviews such as IGN  gave it a 9/10.