This has not been a good month.
It also has not been a good semester overall.
Not in terms of research mind. That I'm okay with, and I've found several points of exploration that I can potentially take, but I've been under a rock for almost the entire of April because of outside issues that I may have mentioned earlier on.
To clear the air: I spent the majority of January ill with a bacterial infection. Come February, I was in a bad place in a relationship; long story short: sexual harassment if I want to put it lightly. Not light. Not fun. Fuck that shit, excuse my language.
In the past four months I've had an onslaught of bad news and battering of my will to actually do anything, including my teenage sister having heart issues similar to that of my dad (which nearly killed him two years ago...), the same sister almost running out on us, my elder sister moving across country and having to help her move, family rifts caused by a stupid argument about an inheritance my grandmother left when she died in September, and most recently my cousin was diagnosed with cancer.
Coupled with my undulating confidence in my ability to actually theorize, design and paint, this month has officially been a 'NOPE!' month. The only thing that kept me above water was going to see several of my favourite bands in concert, because I have a huge affinity with music.
As it happens, and on a more positive, MA related note, that made me think about music in games. Of course, that's been thought of before, but what about music directly correlated with a character? I'm not sure whether it's been greatly looked into, and would give me another avenue to potentially look towards, but I've begun to wonder what impact music can have in terms of attracting players to a character. Take films for example, wherein a character usually gets a bad-ass theme tune which gets the viewer all pumped up. It is also extremely common in anime too, where characters have a score written specifically for them which tends to reflect the nature/personality of that character. As for games... I'm not sure. I haven't paid a great deal of attention to it. If other paths of exploration hit a a dead end, perhaps I can consider this direction.
RESEARCH / PROJECT UPDATE:
It also has not been a good semester overall.
Not in terms of research mind. That I'm okay with, and I've found several points of exploration that I can potentially take, but I've been under a rock for almost the entire of April because of outside issues that I may have mentioned earlier on.
To clear the air: I spent the majority of January ill with a bacterial infection. Come February, I was in a bad place in a relationship; long story short: sexual harassment if I want to put it lightly. Not light. Not fun. Fuck that shit, excuse my language.
In the past four months I've had an onslaught of bad news and battering of my will to actually do anything, including my teenage sister having heart issues similar to that of my dad (which nearly killed him two years ago...), the same sister almost running out on us, my elder sister moving across country and having to help her move, family rifts caused by a stupid argument about an inheritance my grandmother left when she died in September, and most recently my cousin was diagnosed with cancer.
Coupled with my undulating confidence in my ability to actually theorize, design and paint, this month has officially been a 'NOPE!' month. The only thing that kept me above water was going to see several of my favourite bands in concert, because I have a huge affinity with music.
As it happens, and on a more positive, MA related note, that made me think about music in games. Of course, that's been thought of before, but what about music directly correlated with a character? I'm not sure whether it's been greatly looked into, and would give me another avenue to potentially look towards, but I've begun to wonder what impact music can have in terms of attracting players to a character. Take films for example, wherein a character usually gets a bad-ass theme tune which gets the viewer all pumped up. It is also extremely common in anime too, where characters have a score written specifically for them which tends to reflect the nature/personality of that character. As for games... I'm not sure. I haven't paid a great deal of attention to it. If other paths of exploration hit a a dead end, perhaps I can consider this direction.
RESEARCH / PROJECT UPDATE:
Motivation has been low, but obviously since my last blog entry I have been working on a project a tad longer than my first few. Progress was annoyingly slow, given outside intrusions aforementioned, but I'm pretty much done with it now. In the next couple of days I'll post up the stages of development I went through and of course the actually outcomes.
While I've been doing this, though, I've been coming across other interesting points of research. There is a channel on YouTube which particularly took my interest, called Extra Credits. They create short episodes discussing various issues within games and games design, all of which are written by James Portnow, CEO of Rainmaker Games. They often raise very good points, however they also have a habit of selling solutions as opposed to raising questions or teaching. So, these given theories I have come across recently could be ideal to actually explore and to disprove or prove them.
Some of these theories are about:
While I've been doing this, though, I've been coming across other interesting points of research. There is a channel on YouTube which particularly took my interest, called Extra Credits. They create short episodes discussing various issues within games and games design, all of which are written by James Portnow, CEO of Rainmaker Games. They often raise very good points, however they also have a habit of selling solutions as opposed to raising questions or teaching. So, these given theories I have come across recently could be ideal to actually explore and to disprove or prove them.
Some of these theories are about:
- Choice and conflict - the important aspect being choices or not-so-choices based on what the character of player is forced to do.
- Role of the player
- Race in Games - race being linked to culture
- 'Uncanny valley' the argument that realistic characters actually look less human
- And of course, I think I mentioned this before : what makes us Roleplay?
Not only that, but there were of course the topics raised in talking with Peter Field, Hannah Spikings and Chris Philips as part of the networking leg of the Report for Design Research 2.
I'll go into more detail about these and why I'd like to explore any of these avenues. But first, I need to wrap up refining this project.
I'll go into more detail about these and why I'd like to explore any of these avenues. But first, I need to wrap up refining this project.
It's been difficult, truly, with everything else that's been going on I've been doing my best to get on with my work. It's not like I don't know what I want to do or that I'm lost for direction. I honestly feel bad for not making an appearance, but it's taken me this long to realize that I've probably been suffering from depression for a few weeks now. These last few days have been horrendous. You know when your drive to do anything just melts through the floor and into oblivion? Yeah, that's how I've been feeling.
