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Blog #4: Freestyle

After reading the articles I noticed many similarities between them. The first article, Game Theory 101, went into detail about how a good story arc makes a good game. While the article doesn't introduce anything new, it interests me at how the author's perception seems to be that games need to have somehow have a good story to keep the player interested. I find this to not be true many times such as the Mario series or the Zelda series where the premise of the game has been the same ever since its inception. Although successful, games like The Elder Scrolls don't even come close to the sales of the Mario franchise even though the Elder Scrolls has the "open-ended" type style of gameplay. I'm a little confused as to what theme actually is, but I feel as though theme is not as important as just getting players as involved as possible. I notice the board game design source had emphasis on the outcomes as well as the other sources. Even though the "free will" in the game might give players more of a reason to replay the game, I feel that it is not necessary for a good game. The Elder Scrolls games, relates back to Hardin discussing Federation & Empire where he states how despite the game in actuality just being a set of data on a map, it's theme is so powerful that it gives the player the sense they are actually living in a different universe complete with its own currency, racial groups, religion and social issues that emulate the real world.

Blog #3: 2/12 Blog Post

A video game that works in favor with McLuhan's argument is The Elder Scrolls Skyrim. This game is very open ended and has a lot of lore, or history behind the series. The player starts off the game able to decide on race, gender, and other body features. They are then set off into the world with a main overall quest to be completed, there are also other side-quests that the player can complete. The game does not force the player to complete the main quest first, or at all and it is up to the player what they feel like doing. In addition to these things, throughout the player's journey, they can run into many different people and they can do favors for them or just talk to them and there rarely is the same conversation twice. All the lore in the Elder Scrolls history also ties into every new game released including this one. I find it interesting how developers even come up with the idea to build games as in depth and with as much freedom as the Elder Scrolls.

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Blog #2: 2/3 Money Spending

When it comes to the difference in how a professor spends money versus a student, a professor is able to spend a lot more money whereas the student is usually on a budget. When the student goes to a store they would most likely only go out to Wal-Mart or somewhere cheap and buy essential groceries. A professor might go to the same store and buy essential groceries along with some extra luxuries because they can afford it. When it comes to saving money, a professor might save up money for like a vacation or something fancy like that whereas a student would most likely save up for groceries or a concert on campus. A professor might dine in at a nice restaurant whereas a student would go to something cheap like McDonald's or something not as nice because they can't afford as much as the professor.

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