Blogpost 8: Grand Chase: A Game Review

               MMORPG is my favourite gaming genre. I like the way of how an actual MMORPG story is weaved through and the part I play in my character’s role. I notice too that most MMORPG games have a very fascinating story, involves medieval scenarios that I personally love. I played almost at least 10 different MMO’s and this is one of the best games I played so far.

 Grand Chase is one of the many MMORPG games I played. With its 2 Dimensional side scrolling interface, it was one of the most unique MMO I played. Grand Chase features a total of 19 playable characters as to date. Five of them are already yours for free while the remaining 14 acquires a quest completion. Most MMORPG has an avatar type of system wherein you will create your character; Grand Chase is the only game I know that doesn’t do this type of system. Aside from that, this game also features also features a unique way of interface.  It promotes a room system wherein your character will enter a room and play. Players will play in two different modes, whether dungeon or PVP (Player versus Player). Dungeon is a storyline attached gameplay that allows 1-4 players in one room while in PVP total number of players that can play at a single room is 6. In my opinion, though this type of system makes a secluded gameplay of players, it is somehow organized and makes the flow of the game easier.  When I was a newbie gamer, I didn’t found it hard to play this game. With its arcade style of controls, it is very easy to level and gain experience.  Plus this game is free to play so no need for those crazy subscription payments! According to the article “Best Free MMORPGs” by Brandon Widder, “Free-to-play gaming is a young concept, but it’s an alluring one. Whereas big-name titles like World of Warcraft and the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online still require monthly subscriptions, many publishers and developers opt to create titles that are readily accessible on PC (and other platforms) at absolutely no cost to consumers.”

                From my previous blog, I said that one way to classify a good game is by its graphics and visual effects. This game, contrary to most MMORPG, promotes chibi-style characters. Through the first years of the game, graphics is not as astonishing as of today. I encountered gamers that hate cartoonish characters. But to those who likes a cute, bubbly anime ones I suggest playing this game. It may be cartoonish but the visual and digital effects of the game pulls off the quality. According to the article “Cartoony vs. Realism?” by Sophie Linney, “Cartoon games which are praised and valued for battling gaming conventions (Journey, Limbo) are often short in length, quite abstract and open to interpretation, more like an interactive work of art rather than an extensive experience of a story, but perhaps it does hint at a future for a deeper experience of games that are also in this style.”

                Each game has its own pros and cons but we all have this unique taste for whatever we play. I would accept the criticism about my favourite game because not all of us can appreciate anything. But we all have this passion and dedication on whatever we like.

Blogpost 7: The Future of MMORPG

                 Massively multi-player role-playing games never failed us in giving an alternate world of what we want. Like what I’ve said in my previous entries, we play the part our avatars portray. It is simply a game of playing your role, only which you have a dummy perfect avatar of you. But what if this kind of MMORP gaming has gone to a different level? What if MMORPG’s is not just on your laptop screens and gone through our own grasps and reality?

                The gaming industry nowadays is levelling up that fast. MMORP games on the other hand, has also gone through drastic changes since the creation of the first MMORPG back in 1990’s. What I have in my mind is that if this kind of gaming genre, or even in the other gaming genres, has gone through the psychology and mind of the players and created a realistic gaming using our minds. Apparently this idea is from an anime Sword Art Online, which portrays a virtual reality type of MMO. Basically it is real but the thing is it runs through our mind when we sleep, just like dreaming. If this kind of gaming has gone through our world, what would happen? In my opinion, this would be a loud boom to the cyberworld. Imagine a world where you can do the things your character does in the game, like slashing monsters and performing magic. It would be a real hit for all gamers out there. According to the article “The Future of Online Games” by William Murphy, of the site http://www.mmorpg.com/, “Whether or not we see the results anytime soon, the MMO is changing: both in terms of size and scope, and in terms of gameplay and ideals.”

                Sword Art Online, for those who are not familiar with, involves the systems of a real MMORPG like missions, levelling up, trading materials and even marriage. Since you are living in a virtual reality, life is like you are the main character in an adventure novel. This is like playing Sims + Everquest +doing real life activities at the same time.  But what is different about this game is that if players are killed within the game, they also die in reality. Sounds cruel to be in the real world, right?

                Sad to say this type of gaming is far from possible to happen. Listed the ideas of that anime, it would be a great conflict to the technical, financial and ethical values of our world. Also ideas about this type of MMORPG are far from the current status of science and technology. According to the article “Sword Art Online: An Idealistic View of MMORPG” of the site wwwpolychromium.wordpress.com, “A game like Sword Art Online is just a distant dream.”

                The thing I am pointing out here is what if and only what if MMORPG in the future is like this? Sooner or later, our world’s technology might be unreachable and could link to the era of virtual reality.  This isn’t something good entirely, but more of a bad idea. It would make the human race battle against the rights of this world. But I cannot lie that if this thing has come to reality, I would probably submerge myself into it. 

Blogpost 6: Creating Your World

Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game is the most widespread and most common gaming genre of the century. As of today, MMORPG subscription rates are more than half a billion dollars. It is one of the most common source of income to graphic designers, programmers, digital artists and all multimedia arts people. Unlike others, this type of businesses involves in the rendered services of the said professionals, thus requiring a great amount of labour.  Aside from that, capital and material resources are also factors to consider.  But how is an MMORP game created? What are the factors needed to do so?

                Since Role-playing games commonly involves a 1^st and 2^nd person point of view, the first step in making your MMORPG is writing an outline of your story. Most gamers are about the story itself, on how the main character of the game battles through the odds of the game. For me, the story is one of the two main points in classifying a good game. But in order to make a story, somewhat make a slogan slash tagline of your game. A tagline or slogan is a two to three sentence summary of what the game is about.  Also make brief descriptions of your characters, the setting, the idea of the game and the scope it has. This is really going to cost you headaches and migraines but hardwork always pays off. According to the article “How To Write A Brief Game Outline” by Aaron Callahan of the site makeyourownmmorpg.com, “Make sure that your game concept excites you as you will be putting a lot of time and effort into this game; therefore it should be interesting and motivating to you for the long-haul.”  The story also makes the game interesting in a way. Most MMORPG games I played either have a good story or a good gameplay.  

Gameplay on the other hand, is the greatest factor to consider in creating your game. What is the gameplay of your game?  What will the players do in your game? Is it a 3 Dimensional classic platformer, or a simple 2D side-scroll? Apparently if the gameplay is complicated and has a lot of methods, this will also say what software you are going to use.  Last year we had a project of creating our own game using a programing software Unity and to be honest it is hard. But all efforts in creating and coding our game might be profitable in the end. If you are a newbie at programing, try to study each functions in the system and make simple games. But if you are a prodigy and can produce stunning cause and after-effects in different programing softwares, this might be a big shot.  This is the hardest and toughest part of making the game but also the most important necessity in doing so. According to the article “Make Your Own MMO!” by Lore Hound (name of the team), of the site www.lorehound.com, “While the big games may be fun and exciting, it really is the indy games that live through the community.”

              After creating the story and making the game itself, visuals is another factor to consider. Nowadays people only appreciate what their eyes see and looks can be deceiving. If your game has a stunning art, it probably would catch the attention of the users right away.  From the character designs to the background layout, it all counts. Remember that good art will captivate the users to play your game. It is one way of faking the game itself. If you see deceiving advertisements of different MMORP games on the World Wide Web and it turns out the game sucks, this is somehow a way of drawing the users to play your game.

                These are only 3 of the many things an MMORPG development needs.  Imagine the time and effort a game needs in order to be successful. Whilst you got addicted to a game, try to appreciate it in a different way. You don’t know the blood and sweat the multimedia people gave to it and you might become part of this world as well.

Blogpost 5: PVP Bullying

      

   PVP or player versus player is a special feature online games promote, especially MMORPG's. Nevertheless the genre of your game, PVP between your friends is always the seasoning of your gaming life. In this system, players can kill their co-players without causing any real physical harm. But the thing that PVP gives to gamers is more than their avatar's pain, sometimes it spreads through the gamer itself and turns into an act of cyber bullying. How to classify if you are bullied? How to know if you are bullying somebody online? PVP is fun but here are the factors to consider.

           According to the article “What is Cyber Bullying?” by Michelle New PhD, “Cyberbullying is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person. By definition, it occurs among young people. When an adult is involved, it may meet the definition of cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking, a crime that can have legal consequences and involve jail time.” This electronically inclined topic boomed when social media became popular. Little did us know, cyber bullying also aired in the depths of the gaming world. Most of us gamers start by being the “noob” or “newbie” in playing, thus making us look like little ants crawling to the strong players. I'm not saying that all high-level players are bullies but some of them tend to overpower other players by means of Pking or player killing mercilessly. Some games allow Pking to low level players, some not. But regardless the level and power of your character, the most grieving part is that the “trash talk” and harassment they do. There was this MMORPG I used to play long before, and Pking is one hobby of the higher level players. One way to know if you are bullied online is when your avatar is being killed by another avatar for no apparent reason. Also add the fact that they are broadcasting online words that punctures like different types of curses and blames.

              Those are the signs of being bullied, but what are the signs of bullying?

           According to Meghan Casserly's article “Are You A Bully And Don't Even Know it?” of the site www.forbes.com, “In social systems with a pecking order it’s natural for higher-ups to exert power over subordinates. That behavior, he says, however unpleasant it may be for assistants round the world, is normal.” If you are actually bossy around your guildmates, and make them do things against their will is probably signs of being a bully. Although the article says that it is natural to the superior to overcome the weak, harassment is a different situation. In gaming, trash talking is one example of overboard superiority or bullying. Sometimes when the heat is on, PVP battle against your mates and suddenly you typed out words like “You call that skill? Probably the weakest one I saw!” or words like “F*ck You.” Sometimes, aggression towards killing your co-players is also another kind of bullying. Some MMORPG games promote killing sprees, thus making your character kill anyone and as may as you want.

             Though this is not reality, words can hurt somebody's feelings. It is sad to hear that in social media teens who have been cyber bullied came to the point of killing themselves. This scenario most likely would happen in the world of gaming pretty soon. Now that the era of world wide web and internet is becoming essential to our life, restrictions and prohibitions to bullying online could get harder to manage. 

 

Blogpost 4: Addicted to Gaming

Did you ever find gaming as your life and submerged yourself in tons of hours of playing? Did you ever play so long that you forgot to eat, sleep and even take a bath? Or been addicted to a game that you spent real life money on top-ups, novelty items and pro-gaming events? These are the signs of being strongly addicted to playing virtual games.

Online game addiction is just like any form of worldly addiction like gambling and drugs. Studies say that all types of addiction push the person to do something they cannot withdraw easily and see it as essential as eating and sleeping. More than 2 hours of gaming can be classified as addiction. Also studies say that gaming addicts are most commonly men than women, with the ratio 6:10. I experienced gaming addiction when I was in High School. Most of my gaming budies are men and we like to spend 3-4 hours in internet cafes. This addiction has led to many physical and psychological effects. There are different ways to classify a computer addict. According the article “The Mental and Physical Side Effects of Computer Game Addiction” by Seymour Jacklin, “A game clicks over from being an entertaining diversion to being an addiction when the player begins to neglect other normal functions of life in order to keep on playing or finds that they experience withdrawal symptoms such as irritability when they have not had a fix. Risk behaviours such as getting into debt, ignoring responsibility or depriving oneself of sleep are also characteristic of addictions.”

Physical effects include migraines, back aches, inability to eat and take proper hygiene and carpal tunnel syndrome. Excessive amount of sitting and radiation of hardware electronics on the other hand can lead to many other physical ailments like weakening of one’s immune system.

Psychological Effects includes dependence upon the game you are playing. Socialization in MMORPG are sometimes altered, so does the name says (Role-Playing). It affects the way we behave in the real world by being free of changing your identity.  On the article “Video Games: Are They Really a Source of Addiction?” Kristi A. Dename says that,” Massive Multi-user Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs) are the fastest-growing forms of Internet gaming addiction. This is because they combine customizable characters in a virtual world alongside other live players. This socialization with online characters that others around the world control replaces socialization within the real world. With those who have low self-esteem, social anxieties, or other insecurities, they will find comfort in a new identity.”

If we include the fact that you are addicted to playing online games, it can lead to tendencies like lesser social interaction to your family, friends and loved ones. If so, teens this days will soon neglect reality and be dependent on this artificial world. This can lead to the worst case scenario, raising an introvert community.