New Games Journalism, Gonzo Jornalism and introspectve self torture

Bow Nigger

This writing by Ian Shanahan, who writes under the name Always_Black, tells the story of his experiance in a single match on Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast.

In a versus system which allows 1v1 lightsabre only duels where the winner of the duel stays on and the loser goes to the bottom of the queue to play again, all non players are free to spectate.

It straight away throws you into the good vs evil encountre the writter was not expecting in the game.

'Bow, nigger' his opponant straight away typed, another example of people exploiting the anonimity of the internet.

He wanted Shanahan to show respect before the respect before the duel started, even given the terrible first impression his opponant gave Shanahan decided to give it a go and was instantly regretting it when his contender took the oppertunity to attack with a very powerful attack while his guard was down. You see this all the time online, power hungry people takeing delight in the fact they are beating others rather than the honour and respect of a fair fight won well.

In the end, after some very lucky hits by Shanahan he does in fact win, defeating the forces of evil and everrything bad in the world, much like what the star wars serise is based on and consequently wins the respect of his next oppontant, the agressive racist instantly leaves the game out of anger, the person who is about to face off with Shanahan congratulates him by bowing and typeing 'Awesome'.

I found the article very intresting as I have a lot of experiance playing the game and the next title in the serise online. Dureing the course of the battle Shanahan does into quite some detail about the mechanics of the game and his tactics, although the tale/leged is what makes the article so very intresting to me, you really do feel his elation for the win and constantly hopeing he wont lose dureing the fight which he was at a constant disadvantage.

New Games Jornalism of course owes its style to New Jornalism, Tom Wolfe was one of the original New Jornalism writers.

John Dugdale, “Media: The Wolfe pack: 25 years after the seminal work
which redefined the art of reporting, John Dugdale reveals the real
importance of Tom Wolfe's New Journalism to everything from Loaded to
the New Yorker - and yes, it could mean dusting off your white suit ” The
Guardian (Nov 16, 1998): p2.

''journalism had 'wiped out the novel as literature's main event''.

Haveing read Hunter S Thompsons books before and had experiance with 'New Games Jornalism' before, it was really intresting to see how the 'New Jornalism' style came about and what the writers set out to do.

Wolfe wanted to bring the imaganitive, self exploration of novel writings to jornalism,'Jornalism that reads like a novel'.

Wolfe and Thompson are boh responsible for inspireing lots of other writers with similar styles seen in so many examples now that is nearly common place in many places like rock jornalism and lads mags.

I do enjoy Thompson's style of writing but because he lived such an intresting life, a boreing person at a boreing event, will always write something boreing for New Jornalism fans.
I guess New Jornalism is subjective but that adds to the unique and quirkyness of style makeing each writer very different.

Wolfe's idea of self exploration liken to a novel author is intresting to me, purposefully 'Gamasutra - Features - Into the Woods: A Practical Guide to the Hero's Journey Into the Woods: A Practical Guide to the Hero's JourneyBy Bob Bates'  for the basis of your story.
I like this a lot because as a writer who drinks alot and suffers from bad choices and depression, I see the truth in this Gamasutra article written by ....!
here is an amazing couple of sections


'The tough part is, you must venture into the woods over and over again, and it's dark and scary in there. The reason it's dark and scary is that you're the one who built those woods, and you built them specifically as a warning to yourself not to go in there . But you have to. What you confront in there is your own fears and inadequacies.'
  
'This is not for the faint-hearted. Writers and artists are particularly susceptible to depression. A lot of us don't come back once we've gone into the woods. The number of writers who have committed suicide out of despair for their lives is uncounted. We are assailed by doubts that our work is good enough. We look at the work that others have done and know in our hearts that we will never be that good.'

I saw the connection between this article and new game journalism and new (gonzo) journalism as I feel Hunter S Thompson definatly and purposefully threw himself into the woods as did Aldous Huxley (a fiction writer), maybe too Joan of Arc (if God did speak to her I apologise but lets face it, she was a bit crazy , had a death wish and obviously didn't know what her subconcious wanted), as we all do from time to time, introspection is important, you cant go through life pretending you are someone you want to be, you must know who you truely are...

Game Sound

I learnt a lot from the Lessons about sound by Matt Applegate.
At first it was about how some people use sound to reference things, even make you feel how they want you to.
 Even the use of very peaceful and calm music whilst watching a horrific scene can make it scarier than any other sounds or music as it slightly confuses you brain and makes you feel uneasy and vulnerable.

Later we went and recorded Foley sounds for our games, Foley is where you make sounds and record them to use in a film or game, as games don't have any natural noises like when someone shoots a gun in a game, the digitally created model doesn't produce any sounds, its down to Foley artists to either record the sound of the real thing happening or create the sound by any means.

we, for example, used the sound of two ceramic tiles sliding over each other to create the sound of great stone blocks turning, after editing of course.

We learnt the idea of using tones to portray scale, smaller things should be high pitch and larger things lower tones. Lowering the tones and slowing down the sounds of the sliding tiles did help make it sound like rock blocks turning on the spot for our group game.

While learning how to use Audacity (a free audio editing software) i remembered a hobby i had given up on for quite a while, making experimentative electronic music.
Usually I used a basic sample compiling program the structure when sounds are produced and record some of my own noises from instruments but with audacity and the high quality record of Matt's we could do anything.
There was a brilliant recording of a can falling down through a vending machine and as it hit the bottom there was a hit and then the little plastic cover swung back into place this sounded to me like a perfect drum beat a kick drum then high hat. With some other added sounds i had made a new song and uploaded it on the internet to share with friends within an hour, I liked the noise produced by putting a plastic cup in between the parts of a slinky and the roping the lower half to fall to the floor, incredibly it makes the sound of the laser guns from Star Wars and once they were edited they fit very well into the song.

I like the idea of Foley and in practise I was surprisingly good at it, I will be making all my own sounds for my games and animations in future and when I get a high quality recorder my music will have a drastic change in the sounds I will be recording and editing to use.

'I think everybody here will agree...'

First of all, anyone who starts a sentence with those words should be automatically ignored as they obviously have no basis for their argument and they are trying to cheaply get other on their side and to make you think they have others who think the same as them... that's just the beginning to this rant

'I think everybody here will agree there is far too much violence in computer games.'

This statement was said during a question and answer section after a lecture about original ideas, by Mike Banbury (speaking on behalf of Sony about the creative process and sharing some of their successes and failures), in which we talked about where ideas came from and how to come up with fun, original ideas, for whatever purpose. We were also shown a video with lots of examples of what original titles Playstation have been working on, far too many to mention but only 2 were violent at all and as one was a fighting game then that quite the standard really. I'm sure the old man who took his time to state this massive over-exaggeration to Mike Banbury had no problem with boxing, a sport that gives many HUMANS lasting brain damage and can lead to death through its encouraged violence.

What annoyed me the most is that the guy had obviously never played a computer game before, this is unfortunately based on my pre-judging him based on his age and looks and the shear passion he said this comment with, as if violence in computer games had become an epidemic where each game is competing to be more violent than the last.
If he had played any computer games before then he must have seen Asteroids or Pacman, both of which contained violence unto the player in a way for the computer to win against you.

www.oxforddictionaries.com defines the word violence as this...

Violence Pronunciation: ˈvʌɪəl(ə)ns' noun [mass noun] 1 behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something:violence erupted in protest marches, domestic violence against women, the fear of physical violence, screen violence Law: the unlawful exercise of physical force or intimidation by the exhibition of such force. 2 strength of emotion or of a destructive natural force:the violence of her own feelings

That basically sums up what violence is, a force caused by one person to injure another.

So violence is computer games is every time your character purposefully hurts another 'liveing' thing in the game world or even when the character is hurt in anyway by anything. I say 'liveing' because nothing in the game world is really alive is it? it will always just be programming you can turn on and off with the flick of a switch, and although you can be violent with inanimate objects, I dont think there will be many complaints about the violent acts done to a punching bag or a table for that matter, just some random examples of things you can be violent to but without evokeing an emotion responce

so violence, apparently pronounced ˈvʌɪəl(ə)ns', in computer games is believed to be a problem and as i try to think of innocent games that don't have any violence, like every puzzle games, or game aimed at people under 12. I notice there is quite a lot of violence in Super Mario games, I'm sure the old man who posed the original statement had let his kids play Mario and even Grandkids.But you do squash a lot of random creatures and even after killing turtles, you can kick around their empty shells and even throw it at identical looking people who if they are not related, must have defiantly known each other and bonded slightly over this fact. that's quite sick, your last sight in life is the corpse of your friend being launched at you.

The original Digimon virtual pets were by far the worst... a 20th century reboot of the old English cock-fighting brand.

Kids are encouraged to train their new laid egg from its very birth until the day it dies, to be stronger than the competition and to regularly find people with one which you can then let them fight, usually ending in the death of one.

its not illegal to smoke

Sitting here working away, allowed to drink as much alcohol but if i want to smoke a cigarette i need to ride a lift down 7 floors, go through 5 doors, 2 of which are security protected doors.
I personally believe cigarettes should be illegal, if we didn't have it we wouldn't miss it and seeing as it takes up more of my time and money than anything else i do every single day and seeing as how addictive and dangerous to every ones health it is, it should have been made illegal for the good of the public years ago, voting might have helped the situation of banning something that so many people in the country would miss, no doubt there are more people who feel this way and also smoke and enjoy it for the most part.
I could try and quit again, have a few terrible weeks of anger and frustration then the disappointment when i go to buy a pack of smokes and continue back to how I was before.


If of course tobacco is never going to be made illegal then of course I should be able to smoke in the place I pay money to live, its absurd that the aren't smokeing clubs, bars, hotels, or accommodation. If people didnt want the smoke from a flat to go anywhere someone with health problems or just don't want smoke in their flat then surely having a vent would allow all the smoke and toxins to leave the building.

Even at the pub playing pool I can stand two foot away from the table, just outside the door smokeing until it is my go, putting the cigerette somewhere safe, taking my shots and then going back to finish the cigerette outside where it isn't an legal offence . This is ridiculous as the smoke always ends up in the pub and its only down to me being curtious that i dont blow the smoke directly through the doorway.

At university and at pubs without smokeing areas, everyone huddles just outside the door, forcing people entering or leaving to walk through a field of smoke which every doctor will tell you to avoid as much as possible.

Things could be done to help smokers if they wanted to try hard enough and things could be done by the government to ensure no further generations will have to suffer the addiction and health problems caused by modern tobacco but of course the government just want their ever increasing taxes from tobacco and alcohol even if it means costing peoples lives.
Healthier substitutes are available but also there is the option of totally getting rid of the need for addictions in this world, surely we should be happy with who we are, we are humans, evolved for year to produce things of beauty and to even benefit the whole planet we live on but we still can't shake the need for a crafty fag when you are stressed or getting wasted in times of depression or elation.

Colocialistic freedom

Colloquialisms are something that mean alot to me, maybe because of where I come from, a place which is constantly producing strange words from cliques of friends and social groups, and also receiving words from everywhere which, although sometimes for only a while almost become like catch phrases for some people.


Colloquialisms are very amazing, unique things. Created from communication and creativity, sometimes even makeing it into the dictionary, here is what wikipedia has to say on the matter;
'Colloquialisms are often used primarily within a limited geographical area, known by linguists to spread through normal conversational interaction of a language, although more often now through informal online interaction. A common example given is the regional term used by people when describing a carbonated soft drink. In the Upper Midwestern United States, in common with Canada, it is commonly called "pop", while in other areas, notably the Northeastern and extreme Western United States, it is referred to as "soda". In the Southern United States, perhaps due to being the birth place of Coca-Cola, it is commonly called "Coke" regardless of brand. Some southerners even refer to soft drinks as "dope." The common belief is that this is an outdated reference to stimulant properties contained in these drinks.^[discuss]New England it is occasionally called "tonic." In some areas of Scotland it is referred to as "ginger", and confusion over whether this term referred to all soft drinks or just ginger beer was apparent in the case of In Donoghue v Stevenson.'

 Colloquialisms can be very intresting and inovative like describing something as 'pin' to mean it is a small ammount, or stranger ones like 'peng' for something to be good.
I use many Colloquialisms which i didn't realise were such local terms until I moved to Suffolk from Kent like the ones I previously mentioned but also 'Gavvers' for police, 'Gatter' for alcohol, 'Jank' for something gross or rank. one of my personal favorites is 'bopping' a word which means walking which in the future tense would be to 'bop' or 'bop along', a personally hated term which also means to walk or go somewhere is 'gel' usually said 'gel-on' which means 'keep walking' or even 'fuck off', to describe your self would be 'time to gel'

Some even evolve over time, maybe from people moveing on the shorter more effective terms or maybe new places trying to make it there own for instances calling a friend 'brother'.
then it became common place with hippies and any other social group who idolised peace and friendship between man. 'Bretherin' is a olde times way of saying brother but became quite a popular term with a few, sightly chavy, social groups, and then became 'Bruv' as we know too well now days. Although, maybe the last evolution but my favorite is 'Blood' and for me that implies shared blood, a family member.
Of course it will never stop, 'bro'  has been in our language for decades now but its started to become common place to pronounce it 'bra' maybe not everywhere but certainly where I come from but mostly it is used as a kind of comical phrase, no one would say it during a serious situation.

Another example you might be familiar with id the phrase 'isit' said to express shock and ask for another confirmation of the factual basis of the information recently shared, to replace saying 'really?'

I've met a few south Africans in my time and used to want to live there looking after big cats, elephants and other animals in south Africa. I've learnt a few Colloquialisms terms and they are always interesting to think about, like 'fok' for 'fuck', 'Dutchman' for a white African, 'NotHot' for a dark skinned African, 'Dossing' means sleeping or taking a nap which of course in England means slacking off and whats interesting about that is 'bunking' is another word for 'dossing', 'bunking' could easily mean sleeping and must have a link to sleeping instead of working which explains how it became a nationwide recognised term.

I decided to look these up one day because I couldn't remember what exactly a couple meant or if they had multiple meanings.
On wikipedia I found this about the term 'isit':
isit - (pronounced: \izit\) the words "is" and "it" put together. Short term for "Is that so?" (For example: John: "Bra, I just found out I have a million dollars!" Charles: "Isit?"; or: John: "Bru, you would not believe how amazing it felt to footskate in front of all those people." Charles: "Isit?") Also, it can mean "really?"

amazing that so many slag words from just south Africa are already engrained into our language, I guess a lot of the English language id already made of other European words but i didn't think other languages were still influencing how we speak and even express ourselves.
I love words and trying to express myself, my feelings and ideas I have with stories. It is a beautiful thing to be interested in but also because words are the only way we have to literally describe anything a lack of interesting and diverse words can leave you emotionally stunted or a walking cliche' (a quick but interesting note thanks to wikipedia again, 'In printing, a cliche was a printing plate cast from movable type. This is also called a stereotype')'. printers slang? really? I hope the parade of the blind leading the gullible that is Wikipedia actually has some truth on this subject because if the word cliche actually was just printers slag for a piece of equipment then I wonder how commonplace niche' words, which are created each day, will be in the future.




Colloquialisms are not created on purpose, just as you can't force a meme on the internet, the proof being Millhouse from the Simpsons and the meme of 'Millhouse is not a meme'.
Colloquialisms are things similar to player decided objectives for computer games, someone sees something unique and makes it recognised.
As a writer of poetry, songs and stories in many forms, my language is an extension of my self and forever this quote will be my motto and benchmark in terms of always trying to be as expressive as possible:

“My language is the universal whore whom I have to make into a virgin.”  —Karl Kraus

Female games

We recently discussed gender in computer games, the people who make them and play them...


With the data on 'Today's Gamers' United Kingdom National Gamers Survey 2009, I found out that males out number females for playing more hours of games, using consoles and PCs, at all age levels, except females do play more games on portals (a portal is a game which is on a website, allowing to play in your Internet browser or gives you  link to a game and other things, for example msn.com is a portal site)


I decided to try out a game which is designed for females so I tried 'Cake Mania 2' (http://www.games.com/game-play/cake-mania-2/single/)
 The game is part strategy, part reaction time and part memory based. The aim of the game is to make cakes which customers come into your shop by making the base, icing and decorations, theres lots of different combinations and it is easy to start making the wrong thing and then you are forced to throw it away, causing a lose in profit and making it take longer to buy upgrades for iceig machines, buying new machine and buying a cake stand.
The gqame was quite fast paced and by the end i had built up a very effitient system, which did go wrong a few times but i did actually enjoy the game and want to play more. I like that you can choose what possible iceings and bases they can order, by only buying the machines that produce those things.

I checked out what a girl gamer website is like, i didnt realise that everyother game review i had read before was JUST for men, its ironic that it is cool for females to like male games but its very strange if a male likes a female game but of course this happens all the time, different people brains prefer different puzzles.
The game sites I visited were written very friendly and not very sarcastic and over the top like some reviews I had read before, also the websites were not updated as often as many sites i use.
Another problem was that the websites did not actually review or mention some amazing games that have been released and I wouldn't personally class them as male aimed games and of course, when you start ignoring some of the market then you will completely lose the comparisons between games and it will be harder to tell which is actually better, its almost like the reviewers and games companies are telling us what we can and cannot buy.

the female gamers websites i visited were:

•http://girlgamers.co.uk/

•http://www.girlgamer.com/

•http://www.thumbbandits.com/

Liar's Dice iterations

Liar's Dice is a game i already loved because it appearance in the gambling tables on Red Dead Redemption.
The game uses dice and any amount of players with the minimum of 2.
Each player secretly rolls an amount of dice, usually 5 or 6, and then the players take it in time to make a guess/bluff at how many of a certain number on the table, for example if I am in a game with 3 others and i have 3 of a certain number i can make an educated guess as to how many are also on the table, depending on how dice are being used by each player.
At your turn you can challenge the previous guess or make one of your own but it has to be either more dice or same amount of dice but a higher number on the dice.
If your guess is challenged and is wrong the you lose a dice but if it is right them the person who challenged it will lose a dice.
The winner is the last person with dice.

The first iteration made was to help people who had lost most their dice before the others as it is a slippery slop when you start losing dice.
The new rule was so that if you got all the same numbers on your dice and that was the amount of dice you had then you got one of your lost dice back, but you couldn't get more than you started with. For example if i had 2 dice and both dice rolled and landed on 2s then i would gain a dice back.
This would help people who had only 2 dice left but might make it too hard to go out when only on 1 dice as there is a 1:6 chance of rolling a 1 and getting a dice back and of course someone might be very lucky and roll all 4s with 4 dice.

A idea i didn't get to try was for there to be 3 dice in the middle, you might be able to tell I am a fan of Texas hold'em poker.
I'm not sure if this would change after every bet because that would really spice things up.

 Also I thought of having a way top swap a single dice of your own choice with someone else's, of their choice. This could be very beneficial for your educated guesses and also bluffing, deciding what to let them know.
I have no ideas as to when they would be traded and rules for that though.

This was very fun and their is quite a lot of potential for other iterations too, in red dead redemption a player can, at any time, choose to declare a guess spot on and if this is so then everyone else loses a dice but if its wrong the player loses one.