Character Modeling and following in Video Games.

The Marshall and Eric McLuhan (1998) Laws of media suggests that a new innovation apart from offering new ways of doing things obsoletes an existing technology, somehow combines with it or rekindles an idea from the distant past, and in the end is reversed by a newer innovation. According to Thornburg (2014) a tetrad of the McLuhan’s laws of media can be used to explain the cycle of any innovation. In this week’s module, I am using the tetrad to examine character modeling in Video Games.

As the use of games and particularly video games become more popular in learning and fun so also is the demand for more contemporary graphics and visual presentation from the creative teams of game manufacturers. Njal (2012) defines the creative team as those who work with task concerned with the game design, artistry, generating content, level design, story, etc. I think this is where Publishers like me fall into. The development of gaming requires huge creativity in its architecture and design. The conceptualization of icons and characters are major decisions in game design, such that ‘the famous brands and characters are ubiquitous’ (Chris, 2014). As brands and franchises change hands over the years, the major characters have stood out and are recognizable individually by fans or followers. The challenge therefore for game manufacturers is the innovation of characters that has high recollection power, with characters that are more relatable to culture and lifestyle.

Background

The history of video games date back as the 1950s when academics began designing simple games, simulations, and artificial intelligence program as part of their computer science research (Wikipedia, 2015). According to Njal (2012) Video Games entered most homes is the early 1980s with four slow 8-bit low memory and slow processing computers: Commodore 64, Sinclair, ZX Spectrum, and the Amstrad 464 (para. 2, p. 35). The timeline of video game characters is better explained in the picture tree put together by IGN’s Lucas Thomas in the next slide.

Brief Timeline

The characterizations of real people in the video and mobile games have successfully emerged especially after Kim Kardashian launched her Hollywood game App in 2015. This innovation has got game makers going back to the drawing board to carry out creative research into history, sports legends, modern superstars, celebrities, heroes and even remodeled ancient Mayan and Egyptian warriors to come up with all sorts of games. With consumers increasing having a say in how they want to be entertained, designing characters that relates to and or influences user emotions, psyche, mindset, lifestyle, socio-network, dreams and ambitions seems to the choice strategy for satisfying gamers’ experience. For instance in the Kim’s Hollywood game, a player apart from having photo shoots and all also chooses the dream looks (hair, clothes, shoes) and even vacation spots (Weisman, 2015). In the announcement for the latest version of the game, Glu Inc. mentioned that players can adopt a baby with a partner or someone else (iPhone Preview, 2014). Gamers can play alone or with friends or strangers online. Sports video games like FIFA 15 and much expected Madden NFL 2015 now allows a player to select his team and individual teammates based on his character or strength in the same way they would their friends in real-life (Gaudiosi, 2015).

New Innovations

Real-life characters in modern day video games obsoletes the visually appealing 2D and 3D fantasy icons that game manufacturers have built into games before now. Some video game icons like Lara, Mario, Pikachu and many more have evolved themselves over time as analyzed by Thomas (2014) in ‘ Rise of the Tomb Raider’ article. Characters are becoming more tush and real, just by having some basic features like size, shape, shade and angles changed. A lot has to do with the shift from 2D to 3D graphics and designs. Also obsolete are simple relaxation or entertainment games with major characters battling to solve their own problems like saving a princess, discovering a territory, taking a revenge etc. Today’s game lovers have found virtual training grounds/fields for real life experiences in games like NFL 15 (Gaudiosi, 2015).

Obsolete

The famous ancient Egyptian Hieroglygic writings wherein pictures are used as symbols to depict what priests or great people did. They were carved on stones and painted. People or followers or worshippers interpret a person’s philosophy or message from them. So while we may not have such sacred religious following or worshipping, new game creators like Kim Kardashian, and others who invented the games like Football, Madden etc. have succeeded in modeling their lifestyles and philosophies for huge addicted followers to learn from.

Rekindled

Tetrad in Pictures

TETRAD

In the future of gaming whether for educational or social purposes, a lot lies in the hands of the creativity architects. Firstly, I think multiplatform games will continue to do well and may evolve to ‘platform-continuity’ wherein a players may start a game on his PC and end it on his iPhone while in an aircraft, since time and space are shrinking by the day. Secondly, I think futures characters will continue to look more closely like real images, a termed now captured as ‘Photo-realism’. Lastly I see more game characterization of real-life stars, celebrities, heroes or even mentors or achievers in video games in next generation of Video Games. A continued high demand for user dictated themes and characters may lead to character-fusion and character banks from where players can pick characters they admire to solve problems they encounter in the games or even engage two life characters in self-created battles. These characters may range from celebrities to coaches, to school professors and college teachers who may have been profiled into a Game bank. I think Games with these features may be the reverse of this era.

Reverse

Laureate Education. (2014). David Thornburg: McLuhan’s Tetrad [Video file]. Retrieved from class.waldenu.edu.

McLuhan, M., & McLuhan, E. (1988). Chapter 4: Tetrads. In Laws of media: The new science (pp. 129-214). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Chris, H., (2014). The 10 most iconic Video Games Characters of all time. Retrieved from

http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-influential/the-10-most-iconic-video-game- characters-of-all-time/

Njal, N. (2012). Relationship between the creative team, software architecture, and game development processes (Masters thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology). Retrieved from http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:565954/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Weisman, A. (2015). Kim Kardashian release the ‘accidential’ reason why her mobile game is such a huge success. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/why-kim- kardashian-hollywood-app-is-successful-2015-3

References

Apple, Inc., (2014). Kim Kardarshian: Hollywood. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/kim-kardashian-hollywood/id860822992?mt=8

Gaudiosi, J. (2015). How Video Games are helping NFL Stars Train (Men’ Journal). Retrieved from http://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/races-sports/how-video-games-are- helping-nfl-stars-train-20150131

Thomas, M., (2015). The evolution of 8 beloved Video Games. Retrieved from http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/16/the-evolution-of-8-beloved-video-game-characters

Egyptian Writing. Retrieved from http://www.historyforkids.net/egyptian-writing.html

Wikimedia Foundation Inc., (2015). History of Video Games. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games