It is present in many games usually to create realistic characters, give reason for the story or as a means of immersing the player in a world simialar to that of our own with churchs or religious followers wandering about the gameworld. It makes a player feel for a character when they see them praying to their God for protection before going into battle (as can be seen in many WW2 games). Religion can also provide a back story to the game world with temples and characters involved in rituals of the game religion describing the characters states of mind or giving hint of dictators using the religion for their own benifit.

I said the subject of religion is a dangerour one because religious people can be said to be very passonate about their religion, given the holy wars of the past and present, and for their religion to be painted as wrong, lesser or evil can cause great controversy at the games release and often a court case to have the game changed or banned depending on the content. When Resistance was released, there was a level fought in a church from england. Religious groups sued Sony to have the church removed from the game dispite it not meaning any harm to the religion. Another case of religious unreset occured when Little Big Planet contained music referencing the Quran which caused the game to be delayed until the music was removed.

As a future games developer, I must be careful with game designs involving Religious content. I would nearly say no real world content should be allowed in games to prevent anger and to abstract the player from having to believe in a certain way to play the game. If a game is neutral of religion then it can be sold in more countries with less opposition.

Content that does not directly call upon religions should also be looked at to ensure its not offensive to religious groups but this is down to what the game is suppose to achieve and whether the content is essential or capible if removal.

After weighing up the different business ventures, we went with the Gaming cafe as it was the most business worthy from a profit and maintainability view. Game development was too risky as most games don’t break even and the graphic design idea required a lot of reputation before we got any real business.

Once we had the Gaming Cafe Idea we gathered pace into seeing how we could make ours enticing to our customers starting with the view that our customers would be like us. What would we like from a gaming cafe? This led to planning a trendy, gaming haven which had a cafe that anyone would go to and a place in the building just for relaxing in front of a Large LCD tv combined with Sky where you could feel like it’s a home away from home.

When we had our plan conceptualized we divided the work and headed our ways with our first meeting done. During the meeting Karen had taken notes onto a google doc which was then transferred onto the CSIS wiki so that we could always update our project.

My job for the project was finances. How we were going to make money and to figure out if the business was viable. I Estimated our costs by checking the internet for what ever I could find on setting up a cyber cafe, computer pricing and Starbucks. During my search I learned that not just having an internet cafe but a gaming cafe was a good way to maintain the business as many internet cafe’s fail. Also our addition of an actual cafe serving various coffees and specialty items like energy drinks, pizza, and smoothies that would appeal to our gaming customers as well as people who just came for a social gathering around cups of coffee.

I can see the relevance of this project with our future careers. We may not be setting up any businesses but the skills we can potentially learn from expanding an idea and selling it can prove usefully when dealing with our work environments and may let us do projects that we are passionate about.

Our Wiki Page

Ziggyware Xna developers Community

http://www.ziggyware.com – update: site has since shut down. Currently searching for a similar site.

Microsoft’s creators club

http://creators.xna.com

I don’t understand how it cannot be art as to call a computer game art is to call stories, films, images, and other types of art not art as computer games tend to be a mixture of at least the first 3 . I think the only way for a game not to be art to have it generated purely by a computer simulating no emotions while generating the game and even then it was designed by someone who purposely setup the computer to make the game in a specific way making the game indirect art.

Wiki Art Definition: Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art

A Lack of originality can also be found in games. The first computer game  1947: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device (wikipedia)which was a simple missle simulator based on early radar was probably one of the few original ideas for computer games as every idea afterwards labelled computer game still had this game or any other digital/analog displayed game that came before it but was never publicly known, never mind physical games, rpgs and reallife activities. A computer game as we know it may have a different story or some gimic which makes it stand out but its not original. A computer game is still just an electronic medium for fun. FPS games are either a simulation or arcade type, the weapon concepts all stem from the first projectile weapon and the idea of war has been around for as long as we could fight in an organised matter (fight in teams not free for all).

The first computer game has made any future originality virtually  impossible. Ignoring the fact that by being a computer game it cannot be original as there was already a first, there can still be smaller original ideas which form part of the game  however originality is impossibly rare. If a game is mimicing real life in any way than the real life objects are already in existance killing originality right there.  Fantasy objects are usually based on what we know so there was something they are based on, originality gone. You can’t really find it any more. Maybe the first health bar but that was already done in bar/pie charts in the business world. Face it, originality can exist but is damn near impossible and actually impossible when you look at a computer game as a whole.

Video games which are specifically aimed at learning must remember that fun is more important than what the game is trying to teach. If a game is fun the child will want to play rather than only when it is a homework assignment. A Learning game should be immersive (take advantage of what makes video games a better learning tool than books and videos) giving the player practical applications for what they are learning instead of just giving them a chunk of text to read and a multiple choice test at the end of a level. A game could be made that as part of it, children learn about money. How to count change and give a shop clerk the right amount of money is an important skill which we must all learn which can be best and safely taught through a video game where the child doesn’t lose money and can be rewarded for their successes with new levels or in game content to play with.

A game which is not learning aimed must remember that what is in the game will have an impact on the player even if its just a game where you shoot things. A game like cod teaches you to duck and cover when someone is shooting at you. This may make some people laugh but if you have never heard a gunshot before, you will have the flinching reaction to the gunshot but not the instinct to get behind cover. A game like cod reenforces you with the knowlege that if you dont take cover you will get hurt/die, movies and tv show us the same thing but games can use reenforcement learning to immediately reward or punish our actions. That was an extreme example but the point is that every game has something which can affect the way we think. A better example is games being used to teach us to drive. When you take the violence and missions out of grand theft auto you are left with a city driving simulator. If you could use the steering wheel + pedal controller you could use the game to learn driving in cities. The game wouldn’t be enforced but if you limited yourself to the speed of the other cars and stopped at all red lights you have a driving sim. Take the likes of Driver, the game where you drive from a to b with the constant risk of a cop chase and you damaging your car if you crash. The game enforces rules of the road so combined with the gta game you have some learning happening when you dont expect it.

For learning to be effective in non learning games however there must be a clear line of things you shouldn’t do in real life and things you should do. Racing through the streets at above safe speeds should result in lack of control of the car compared to safe speeds as well as law enforcement reacting only when you break the law. Fighting games should be arcade like in nature to show its fake or come with warnings when its actual sports where untrained people should not reenact. This clarification is vital when a game includes content which in our world is is possible but not something that should be reenacted.

The main difference to designed rules and implied user rules is that implied rules can be broken with the  consequences of other players becoming angry and possibility of the player being kicked from the game match by an admin. Implied rules are often made in communities to improve the overall game experience where designed rules cannot.

The question is, how should morality be applied to computer games?

When you take computer games as each containing its own world with its own rules, morality in my opinion need not match or own in the real world.  If you were to apply real life morals to ever game and expect to follow the path of good every time, you will play very few games with immoral choices and of those, very few can be played well.

If you take Grand Theft Auto for example. You are given a sand box world which represents a major city but is not quite governed by the same laws as a real city. For instance you can drive as crazily as you like without fear of death or the police causing you hassle as long as you don’t kill anyone in front of a cop or hit a cop car itself. You are in a world where gangs may want to kill you, you can only make money by completing tasks that break many laws and have an occasional mission where you have to hunt down and kill an enemy character, usually a crime figurehead. The world of GTA is an adult one with themes of drugs, sex, violence and rock and roll ( The games usually have a great soundtrack disguised as the radio channels) and the characters in the games are either established as criminals, stupid, corrupt officials or a mindless passersby. Should one follow the game to their own morals, unless they are willing to kill as a vigilante or in self-defense, they will find the game boring and not advance very far.

Games which offer experiences similar to that of Grand Theft Auto are inviting the players to do things they would never dream of doing in real life without the fear of the repercussions of their actions. For many, these games are a release from their life. I sure many have wondered what it was like to live the life of a criminal boss but through their beliefs of whats right have never committed the crimes that are done in these games. They are all about doing what we shouldn’t.

Games can sometimes offer their players a moral choice, thereby adding our world into that of the game world. The Metal Gear Solid series is an excellent example of this offering the player in later titles the option to progress through the game without firing a single lethal round and even rewards the player for achieving such challenges. Such examples include the option to choke an enemy guard until they pass out or to slit their throat and prevent them ever coming back and alerting their allies. During Metal Gear Solid 3, the player must face the ghosts of all those who they have killed with one of the funniest reactions from a ghost which was eaten by vultures when he died was “How could you have eaten me?!?”, turns out I ate the vultures which ate him… mmm virtual cannibalism.

Other games offer a good/evil account of the player like Fable and Oblivion. In these types of games, the player is often given multiple ending choices to missions with their karma weighted based on the players choices. Helping the poor usually results in positive karma with senseless violence resulting in negative karma.

My view on morality in games is that games do not need the same morals as real life. Of course real life morals should be applied to games where appropriate like looking after the weak instead of violently preying on them. Where a game is simulating real life like fable and gta, morals can be applied to extend gameplay possibilities (Moral choices in Fable) or ignored altogether so that we can enact those un-agreeable urges we may have in a safe, relaxing environment (like taking a  joyride in GTA).

I believe the responsibility is on the players and parents, if wannabe players are under age, to understand the world each game provides and to acknowledge that it is an optional, fictional world in which no real person is harmed and in the event that the content is not approved of or unsuitable due to age then the game does not need to be played.

People who commit  violent crimes have something wrong with them mentally. They have poor self-control and could not take the problems we all face in life and handle them normally. They may have been bullied,  lost their job or had any other bad things happen to them but if they want to cause harm to make themselves fell better, then its something wrong with them.

If someone wants to cause you harm, you can take away violent media(Violent Video Games, Violent Movies)  and weapons (gun protests) but the will find another way (Poison, bottles or just their fists). Video games are used as a scapegoat because its easy. They are seen by many as just a waste of time or a problem of society so why not try and find a way to get rid of them all together. We can refer to the Fox talking head.

There was a lawyer who fought against video games, Jack Thomson. I say was because he was disbarred as his protests got out of control to the point where he no longer cared about counter arguments and made his personal vendetta into a crazy one.

Vent over, Some Violent video games are GTA4, Manhunt and Dead Space. They are violent because you kill things often in a gory or non-socially acceptable way. GTA4 allows you to hire a hooker, kill her after shes done and rob her, Manhunt is like a snuff movie with you trying to escape a city by killing criminals along the way to appease the director who put you there who you later kill with his own chainsaw and dead space can be described as destroying monsters with some gory results. The questions are how to they affect us, why do we play them and what about boundries.

The effect of Violent video games is that they are a release from normal life. Inside them you do things that you hopefully never do in real life.  GTA for example you play a criminal rise the ranks of the underworld, you can do anything including taking on an army  of police, your never going to do it and because of the video game you can let out any anger you build in real life out on regenerating pixel characters. It’s like the Whack a Boss game which lets you vent without hurting anyone.  As I said before, they dont make you violent. Games like movies, books and the internet at most can be used for ideas for those who already have the desire to harm.

As for why we play violent video games, it really depends on the game. Some provide us with escape, others give us a sense of accomplishment for defeating a particular enemy but just happen to graphically exaggerate killing the enemy. We play horror games to give us the sense of fear which movies are failing to provide do to desensitization and the trend of slasher flicks. Video games have the advantage of player immersion and in a horror game, violent gore helps to show the player what the death they  just avoided or to add visual reward for finally defeating that monster that just wouldn’t stop attacking you. For some people the violence itself is the reason they play and for them that is their own weird enjoyment which makes you avoid them in dark alleys(down to the persons mentality not the game).

Video  games like films have been pushing the boundaries since they first came out. Way back when, they were tiny 8bit characters which would hack each other into red mist. Now that would be considered childish to the graphic realism shown which can get a game like manhunt 2 banned all over the world.  They will continue to push what can be acceptable until one day someone having their head cut off by string won’t affect us anymore.

Heres a discussion about the fight against video games

Ignorance – The Fight Against Video Games

This was a fairly long blog. For parents who have children who want to play violent video games, check the ratings, read reviews and watch trailers. If they are under the age rating and the game is too violent for them, DON’T BUY IT! It is illegal for shops to sell to minors below the age ratings so it’s up to you. If you catch the child with the game because someone else bought it, take it off them with the line ” You can play it when your older” or supervise them and make sure they know it’s not real and they should not repeat what they see. It’s not the games fault if the child plays the game, its yours if you don’t do something about it.

//Rant over

The competition was run with Microsoft as part of Tipperary Institute’s Games Fleadh to make our own version of Asteroids using XNA Games Studio. With several colleges and university’s in Ireland represented I was proud to be a representative of my university. We were each given a starter kit a couple months previous which was then used to create the game. As I was solo on this, I made my game a 2D top down arcade shooter with aliens, asteroids and pickups which helped the player.  We were interviewed by the judges and a couple hours later it was announced that my game came in second place with the first place given to the team who had a guitar hero drum kit controled ship which was pretty cool.

The style of the game was simple as I wouldn’t be a big artist but it worked well. I got a friend to make the flying saucers which I think really sold the game. That night, one of the industry game developers and judge said the game had heart which was good to hear. I will be back this year for the next competition.