Final Project

a) Key quotes (at least five) [After each quote remember to add the name of the author; the title of the book/article or website, the publication place and publisher’s name/page number and the year of publication or the webaddress and date accessed; the page number.

1)For him, player control makes games "ethical objects" -- a fancy phrase meaning that game design can be ethical or unethical, based not on its content but on whether it pushes players to consider the consequences of their choices.

2)“The great secret of today's video games that has been lost in the moral panic over “GTA" is how difficult the games have become. That difficulty is not merely a question of hand-to-eye coordination; most of today's games force kids to learn complex rule systems, master challenging new interfaces, follow dozens of shifting variables in real time and prioritize between multiple objectives.” Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/29/EDGQCDUQ071.DTL#ixzz0X7GQ5POt

3)"Abstract :A video game and game system incorporating a game character's morality level that is affected by game occurrences such as moral, amoral, or immoral choices in an epic story's deeper context. The character's morality level affects the game's environment. Such a feedback system based on MORAL PREMISES provides an efficient means to enhance and deepen game play, as a sensible, realistic, meaningful, profound, and epic story naturally emerges. The measurement of moral choices will allow a player's soul to be rendered upon the screen in cinematic action paralleling internal dramatic action, thus providing the dramatic elements of classic literature and film. The presentation of moral choices in the game, based upon moral premises, will allow plot points that result in character arcs, romantic relationships, exalted game play, and epic story. Moral choices will lead to overall success, while immoral or amoral choices will lead to overall failure."

4)“The Velvet-Strike prompts us to wonder what is exactly is at stake in the fictive virtual worlds….when real-life warfare increasingly resembles games, and games increasingly resemble real life.” Mark Tribe/Reena Jana, New Media Art, Taschen2007,P.82 5)“Reality is up for grabs. The real needs to be remade by us.” Mark Tribe/Reena Jana, New Media Art, Taschen2007,P.82

b) Key Links. Add links to at least 5 good websites/ youtubes that give further information about this topic

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1udjd2Aq3E (Hillary Clinton Hates On Video Games -morally wrong for some kinds of videogames) (accessed 15th November, 2009)

2) http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0107/p09s02-coop.html (The moral cost of video games) (accessed 15th November, 2009)

3)http://talesrunner.gpotato.com/?m=guide&a=whatistr(Tales runner) (accessed 15th November, 2009)

4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3xtA88QuiQ(Consuming Kids) (accessed 15th November, 2009)

5) http://aplawrence.com/Opinion/yannopoulos-ethics.html(Video Gaming and Ethics) (accessed 15th November, 2009)

6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2xgIPRDp5g&feature=PlayList&p=D07EB07A0EACD101&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6 (Video Game Violence Controversey - Arcade Games Banned, accessed 15th November, 2009)

7) http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Computer_Games_-_Ethics:_Effects_of_Media_Violence (Computer Games – Ethics: Effects of Media Violence, accessed 15th November, 2009)

c) Key Books and Articles. Make a list of at least 5 books or articles that contain interesting material on the topic. Write one phrase or one sentence comment on what you think of this book or article .

1). The ethics of computer gamesJ Brzezinski. Choice. Middletown: Oct 2009. Vol. 47, Iss. 2; pg. 296, 1 pgs
Comment: Easy to read and his opinions are objective.

2). The banality of simulated evil: designing ethical gameplayMiguel Sicart. Ethics and Information Technology. Dordrecht: Sep 2009. Vol. 11, Iss. 3; pg. 191, 12 pgs
Comment: A bit long but the points are presented in a clear way

3). Probing the morality of video gameshttp://www.yaledailynews.com/news/scitech-news/2009/04/01/probing-the-morality-of-video-games/ (accessed 15th November, 2009)Comment: This article is talking about the violent games in virtual life would affect our real life.

4). Trigger happy: the inner life of videogamesSteven Poole London: Fourth Estate,c2000 Comment: Shows great influence of videogames.

5). Video Gaming and Ethics, Alex Yannopouloshttp://aplawrence.com/Opinion/yannopoulos-ethics.html (accessed 15th November, 2009)
Comment: Clear Pros and Cons on video games.

d) Case study: Talesrunner

Brief Summary:
-South Korean company Rhaon Entertainment and published by NOWCOM
-Released in 2008
-3-dimensional online racing game with a "dreamy island" background
-Compete by running, dashing, skiing, jumping and climbing
-Magical fairy tale settings
-United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Mainland China
-Hong Kong: “跑Online” (Run Online); Taiwan: “HiYo衝天跑” (Run to the sky); Mainland China: “超級跑跑" (Super Run),

Describe it in detail:
-You can choose any character you like with different personality and ability. For example, you can be "Big Bo" who is very strong or "Maki" who is always hunted by ghost!
-You can also choose different mode to play, perhaps a sunny day on the field or under the subway.
-Every player has the same goal - to win and get a stone that can fulfill any wish!
-In order to achieve the goal, you have to overcome various obstacles or challenges, such as avoiding yourself to crash the fire balls.
-The very important thing is that you have to buy things in shops in order to strengthen your energy bar. How can you have "money"( here it uses a term TP )? You have to win.

The most interesting:
1) The player can train himself/herself in the practice mode before he/she is ready to get into the "battle".
2)A lot of teenagers, including my cousins are crazy about Talesrunner. BUT the only thing they have to do is pressing some buttons on the keyboard to mimic the act of running, dashing, jumping etc.!
3)Tools to trick others can be bought in the shop, there is a chick which can help you to hit your enemy's head constantly!

The most thought-provoking:
You have to win in order to get the stone - so is there any thing treausrable other than the stone or the frame of being the champion?

What key issue(s) or questions does this game raise?
1) If you want to get the stone, you have to win. It strives people to win at any time, they try to compete with each other in any occasion. However, what's the matter of not winning?? Aren't there any other value we should appreciate, such as friendship or sportsmanship?

2)Materialism - as long as you have enough TP values, you can buy anything you want in the shop. Is it true in reality? Is it necessary to buy those things?

Digital games -- But are they art? Introducing Super-Mario and Discussion on Adams on Art

Part 1
Super-Mario Clouds, Cory Arcangel



Features
-hacked "Super Mario Brother" in order to make it
-only clouds moving in the light blue sky
-not for playing
source from:http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/Things_I_Made/SuperMarioClouds(accessed on 26 November 2009)

Art or not?why?
Yes. Although the act of hacking is a bit weird and subversive, Arcangel presents his work in a very playful and interesting way. If you had once play Mario, it should be reminiscent to you. Moreover, the light blue is beautiful, moving with the clouds lead me to a stage of imagination.


Part 2
How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?
-Literacy art (writing, drama)/ fine art (painting, sculpture)/ Decorative art ( wallpaper, furnishings)
- videogames games -- literacy art
- aesthetically interesting
- not formulaic
- has content, should not be empty
- I suggest that aesthetic value is one of the crucial element of art as it leads people to contemplate for appreciation. There are some great artist who painted brilliant pieces like Kandinsky. He tried not to present anything in his work and mainly focused on the rhythm of music which requires our imagination. However, whenever we think of the Fountain by Duchamp, we can argue that aesthetic value is not that important, but the concept. Here I think is an interesting topic.

According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?
- more than just fun
- showing aesthetic qualities through lines, colors, forms etc.
- made people feel pleasurable
- have a content behind the formal elements

Pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies

According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies? (Some personal points are added)
Pros for individuals:
-Entertainment, for leisure and relax .
-One can use it to achieve something he/she cannot do in reality. For example, a shy boy without confidence can choose to be a character that loved by a lot of girls.
-If there is a practice mode, one can train herself/himself beforehand. This system helps to convey a message of "practise makes perfect" which encourage people to try more.
-Train different abilities of oneself: intellectual games like Tetris can help one to train one's brain, action games may strengthen one's sensibility or increase one's speed of reaction.
Pros for societies:
-Spread the culture of a country throughout the world, like the history of ancient three nations in China.
-For some governments (like US), they can use videogames as a mean to convey the message of nationalism.
-Create jobs - professional game player who spend lots of hours to test the games and get a salary.

Cons for individuals:
-get addicted, spending all the time on videogames and doing nothing productive.
-doing those crazy things in reality, such as bullying friends or even shooting person(esp in foreign countries that owing guns is legalised).
-cannot get out the dreamy world, keep asking why the reality is so differnt from the game's world. Thus, the person may become a Hikikomori.
-health promblems - harmful to one's eyesight, shoulder etc..
-lose the skill and intention to talk or communicate with others.

Cons for societies:
-Violent games affect player's behaviour or manner: a kid mimic a game's killer to kill people after playing the violent videogames. These disturb the social orders and increase the crime rate.
-A society may become more solitary when more and more people attempt to close their doors to play videogames. The soft skills of communication may lost and this would damage the network and interactions between human beings.




Should games be more like fantasy and less like real-world war?

Yes, to some extent. Games should be more fantasy-liked, especially for the kids. They are not ready and prepare to accept the "cruelty" of reality. If they try to play the war-liked games which have the practice of killing enemies in order to achieve some goals, the visual impacts will be too strong for them. Moreover, some dreamy elements help to grow kid's imagination which is the very valuable thing for human beings. (i mean we cannot go back to that stage after we've grown up)
For the teenagers or adults, they have long been living in a realistic world. Although they have the ability to point out every unrealistic detail of the game, they may not want to do that because the objective of playing that is to put themself into the dreamy world and get rid of those stressful pressure.

Stelarc

1. What do you think of Stelarc’s work?
-close relationship with the viewers as he used human beings to present his work
-very mechanical and systemetic
-violate the rule of nature, of human being, more like torturing when the man was hang up by the wire
-maybe ironic as human being sometimes work like a machine

2. What are some benefits or dangers of becoming a cyberbody (cyborg)?
-benefits
-longer live
-don't have to use so much money to buy something not necessary (because of the logical mind)
-enhance stablity, the systemetic mind can reduce mistake (lessen the case of emotional problems and being late)

-dangers
-identity confusion
-health problem?

3. “To what extent are we already experiencing a man -machine symbiosis that has turned us into cyborgs?” Christiane Paul (Digital Art, p166)
Overall, we have been so much influenced by the mechanical and technological era. People try to use different kinds of method to make the products identical for selling or ensure the machine system is 100% accurate to run a company. Whenever we make mistakes, we will be scolded by our boss. Human beings are not supposed to be perfect, but the society needs more and more precise calculations in order to run its perfectibility. So, to a large extent, we become more and more like a robot.

Interesting website

You can type any website, and the programme will show you the "artwork"!















source: http://www.potatoland.org/shredder/shredder.html - Mark Napier - "shredder" (Accessed from Oct 28, 2009)

Online identity

Hung doesn't love to use comupter, but she still has three identities on the internet. First, that is the most popular device we use to communicate online currently -- facebook. Her name is known as "Hung Sheng"(which is the real name of her). Second, she has an account of "sthung" in the Xanga blogging. Third, the "two words" account for MSN.

One of my classmates, Y, she has an account on yahoo named "tissue". "Yanna Ng" is also her account on a facebook. Moreover, she uses Ng Tsz Yan in gmail.

Digital art VS Traditional art

What are some challenges digital art presents to the art world (ie galleries, exhibition goers, art critics and scholars)?

--popular culture that comes fast and goes fast
--it is a mix of media (painting+ sculpture+ etc.)
--definition of art is challenged
--too easy to reproduce
--easier to "tell lies", like photoshop, people can add or delete details conveniently
--creates limitations: people who can access must have some basic knowledge of computer and also have the purchasing power to own a computer