People don’t think it be like it is, but it do!

Using sheep to conduct reconnaissance. Jumping off a tower to land in a bit of hay. Shoot someone in the chest, “MUST HAVE BEEN MY IMAGINATION”, they exclaim loudly as you return to stealth.

These are all examples of gameplay situations that you might have already come across. Spend any amount of time thinking about it and you will realise that they not only don’t make sense but are ludicrously unrealistic. Why then, do these kinds of immersion breaking experiences happen all too often in video games?

A video game’s objective is to be ‘enjoyed’ but that could mean almost anything. Some have taken to using the word ‘engaging’ as a broader definition of what makes a good video game over other words such as ‘fun’, ‘interesting’, ‘unique’, and so on. It is of course entirely subjective, though if we look at any kind of game we could say ‘engagement’ is inconvenience with a theme—if we’re being really reductive about the whole thing.

‘Inconvenience’ is a weird thing to be looking for but what sets video games apart from other media is its interactivity and challenge. As Dara Ó Briain comedically expresses, you can’t be bad at watching a movie, listening to a song, or reading a book, but you can be bad at a video game and the game will deny you access to the rest of the game for being so.

(Warning: Strong Language)

So, inconvenience is a requirement for enjoying a game even if it’s just the inconvenience of having to control your character. Without it, there’s no challenge and you don’t get those endorphins releasing from overcoming something you initially thought impossible (hello Dark Souls). Inconvenience also creates an artificial sense of purpose—you get an objective, an aim, a goal to strive for—as it acts as a barrier to break through.

How does this relate to weird video game logic?

Well, that interactivity is what can break a game into many pieces when it really should be one. Gameplay is something that rarely exist in other mediums and it’s often the case where the writers of the story don’t fully sync up with what’s in the heads of the game developers, or the other way around. It could also be a case where the theme or setting of a game doesn’t match the gameplay. The lack of synchronisation between story and theme with the gameplay leads to us experiencing ‘video game logic’.

Plus the fact that collecting trophies is so not Batman.

Ludonarrative Dissonance—Story/Gameplay Conflict

Ah, we get to the term that’s become somewhat controversial and generally pretentious sounding but lets keep it simple. What this is really about is when the story of a game is telling you to behave in a certain way but the gameplay rewards you for doing otherwise. Like in the new Tomb Raider games where Lara is shown in cutscenes to be unfamiliar with guns and fearful of harming living things then off you go into the wilderness to mow down your enemies by shooting them in the face multiple times without remorse. Here’s a handy video about it by Jim Sterling:

(Warning: Strong Language)

It’s about how gameplay and story come together and if they come together badly we get a conflict. As Mr Sterling says it, “A contradiction of premise and practice”.

Sim-toy Dissonance—Realistic or Cartoony?

Not another dissonancy thing! Let’s stay basic and just ask if the game is realistic or cartoony and don’t get me started on what is ‘realistic’ because that’s another subject entirely!

Basically, is a game trying to be more ‘believable’ in a real life sense or is it more gamey, arcadey, and toy-like? Themes could be realistic like Tomb Raider or playful like Mario Kart while mechanics tend to follow suit. The problem arises when the theme is realistic but the mechanics arcadey, much like in the new Tomb Raider games where thematically it’s trying to be very realistic and ‘survival’ but you still have your collectibles, your nemesis’ journal entries lying around the map, and machine gun upgrades in ancient tombs.

This isn’t about the story, like before, and is more about how mechanics just aren’t believable. The story has nothing to do with gun parts in tombs; it’s just a gamey/arcadey mechanic from the old days of weapon pickups in a modern ‘realistic’ game. Those mechanics can be fun and a lot of games rely on things like these to be great games but in the wrong setting it just feels weird. This causes the conflict and ‘video game logic’ becomes apparent. It’s less of an issue when a game’s theme is not realistic but the mechanics are, though that could still be a problem if it’s too jarring.

Wrap up!

Why do we have video game logic?

• Interactivity is core to video games and generally sets it apart from other media.
• Inconvenience = gameplay
• Gameplay doesn’t match the story and/or theme = ‘video game logic’.

Simple!

So, I’ve been thinking—building an audience on YouTube (or on any platform) is hard. Not exactly newsworthy but still an important fact to keep in mind, whether you’re at 100 followers or a million.

I’ve always prided myself on being a variety gamer who creates variety content on the GamerZakh channel but I failed to understand a fundamental aspect of community building. Day9 recently talked about how to build a community and he set 3 rules:

• Be consistent
• Learn the technical skills required
• Actually make content

Additionally, he insisted that you are simply not allowed to be a variety content creator until you already have a strong community who supports you.

Now, I’m not saying that my channel hasn’t grown over the years but it’s not gaining momentum either. I’m thinking it’s because my attempts to be ‘variety’ might be coming off as ‘unfocussed’. I proceeded to skim through all my videos’ basic stats to see which ones actually got the views and likes. Turns out, besides my ‘Top 10’ lists which do exceedingly well, the rest is all retro content—Age of Empires 1, city-building, Battle Realms, Theme Hospital, Populous, and even abandonware. People have repeatedly asked me to return to older titles and often tell me that they subscribed to me in the first place because of those games. I should start listening to them.

It wasn’t just that—I enjoyed making that content more than exploring the newer stuff, so from now on, I’m going to try and focus a lot more on covering old games. Not just as is though! I also happen to pride myself on taking old gaming experiences and modernising them with mods, HD versions, and refined editing such as Fallout 2’s Restoration Project, Morrowind Overhaul, and Age of Empires 1 in widescreen.

Age of Empires 1 in HD widescreen

Exploring the occasional new game will still be happening through the Gamer Encounters format of first impressions, but aside from that and Top 10 list stuff, it’ll be more retro content from the 90s to early-2000s.

All in all, this refocussing on retro content should actually be what the community wants and newcomers who stumble across my channel will have a clearer idea on what I’m all about.

Perhaps someday in the future I’ll be able to get back to being more of a variety creator in a stronger way?

Either way, thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next video!

No, this isn’t an April Fools’ post, I don’t really do those.

Just messaging to let you all know about some channel updates and what’s to come!

Live Streaming

Live streaming for me has been a slow and steady learning process, from offline experiments with Fallout 2 last year to my first live show on YouTube with Firewatch. They haven’t been perfect, so I’m currently using Stardew Valley to practice and figure out all the weird kinks that I encounter (like lip sync issues!).  Now that I’ve managed to kind of get into a weekly stream, I decided to up the consistency by fixing a time.

I’ve fixed a live stream time once a week, so you will know every week when I’ll be streaming. I know it’s not the best time for everyone, but I have to choose a time when I can guaranteed be free.

So the time is:

Saturday, 9AM (GMT +8)

Which is Friday evening if you’re in California (PST) or New York. Unfortunately, it’s not such a great time for the UK, which would be about 2AM. I would love to stream at a time when everyone is available but I’m going to stick to this for now as I’ve never actually done a scheduled live show before and I’m still working things out.

Community

Another reason why I’m pushing to get into streaming is regards to building a community. Uploading videos and responding to comments is awesome, but the real chats and interactions just can’t happen. Social media is an option, though my facebook and twitter isn’t really followed by that many and often I get told by people that they just don’t check that stuff. When I’m live and looking at chat, however, people ask questions and give opinions much more than they do otherwise, which I love and hope to foster because that’s how I really learn.

Variety

I know the channel has been a little overwhelmed with Stardew Valley recently. So, I’d like to let you know that more variety is returning, with a new game every week on Mondays through Gamer Encounters and retro gaming on the weekends. I’ll be getting back into city-building soon for Sundays but this first weekend is going to start up a new (but short) retro adventure with weekly uploads on Saturday. I’m also going to try work in a second stream of the week (not scheduled) to get back into Fallout 2, only live this time, as I know many have been asking for that.

So ideally, the week on my channel would look like this:

Saturday ► Retro gaming

Sunday ► City-building

Monday ► Gamer Encounters!

Mon-Fri ► Let’s Plays

That would mean 2 videos on Monday but live streaming creates a lot of videos right now.

And that’s about it for now.

Hope that keeps you in the know and clears up what’s going on with the channel.

Thank you so much for reading!

Take care!

Zakh

Hey guys! GamerZakh here with a discussional video—next-gen gaming.

Developers, publishers, and gamers all hype and get hyped about next-gen gaming, but what are we actually talking about? Is it just games that we already have but with better graphics?

For a long time, the new Playstation was called ‘next-gen’. It was praised for revolutionary innovations in technology and heralded as the bringer of a new age of gaming. Then, the Playstation 1 debuted.

Time is relative, so that means ‘next’ is relative. There will always be a ‘next-gen’, and as ‘next’ becomes ‘present’, and ‘present’ becomes ‘last’, let’s have a look at where we are now and where we could go… next… or perhaps where we are… or where we were… depending on what year it is when you watch this video.

Hardware?
The simplest thing to point out is the power of our hardware. Maybe what ‘next-gen’ means is simply what the next gaming machine is to be released.

Going from the PlayStation3 to PlayStation4? Xbox 360 to Xbox One? DirectX 12 on Windows 10? New platforms such as Steam Machines, Nvidia Shield, or OUYA?

Maybe it’s not even about new games? What if we just take games we already have, but make them run on modern devices—DOS games on tablets? Game Boy games on mobile phones? Can we call that ‘next-gen’ gaming?

A hardware upgrade might be seen by some to be a move to the ‘next-gen’, but hardware is improving exponentially. Moore’s law states that computing power will double every 2 years. The only limits are physical laws as we approach atomic levels of manufacturing. Surpassing that barrier would be a little harder than just making things smaller.

However, it’s getting to a point where it’s inefficient and impractical for individuals to constantly upgrade their gaming machines. Some solutions are being contemplated, such as modular computing. Perhaps the future is subscribing to a computing streaming service? A remote computer does the processing and streams it to your many sized screens. Upgrading hardware is left to some company while you just play the latest games on ultra settings, without ever having to buy any sort of computer or gaming console.

This version of a post-PC era may or may not happen but it would eliminate all need to buy new computing devices, meaning there would no longer be a ‘next-gen’ platform. We would have to focus on new forms of interaction that would be difficult to predict at this point but we could imagine.

Gameplay & Interaction?
So, maybe ‘next-gen’ gaming is actually about gameplay and how we play our games? Maybe it’s about features, mechanics, or methods of interaction that we didn’t have before? Some interesting developments have been:
– Physical computing
– Anonymous multiplayer
– Gesture recognition
– 3D cameras
– Augmented reality
– Projection mapping
– Multiple screens
– Procedural generation
– The Omni
– Virtual Reality

These elements have emerged and evolved in recent years, and are changing the way we play video games.

In terms of interaction with computers, we have gone from CLI to GUI to NUI to OUI, and now we’re transitioning into AUI. Soon, we may be able to communicate and interact with computers as if we were interacting with another human being—with concepts such as Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana—or maybe the computer will be a part of us, something we attach or implant into our bodies, allowing new forms of gaming.

Sim-toy Dissonance?

However, one problem in our endeavour to make games more realistic is the uncanny valley. This graph compares human likeness to familiarity—level of realism VS acceptance. On one side of the valley, characters are obviously not realistic and we have no problems accepting these cartoony depiction, while on the other side, things are lifelike enough to still evoke positive emotional responses. In the valley itself, however, we find the pseudo-real, fake looking, and likely creepy appearance that our brain rejects as a poor imitation or just that something is wrong, such as simple prosthetics trying to look real or zombies. In gaming, this valley usually refers to our brain’s tolerance and acceptance of characters and worlds, but this can also apply when relating a game’s aesthetic with its mechanics. As video games’ themes and graphics become more realistic, traditional ‘gamey’ or ‘arcadey’ mechanics seem out of place and break immersion or acceptance of the game world.

Adrian Chmielarz at theastronauts.com calls this the sim-toy dissonance.

“The more the game is a toy, the more we enjoy its gaminess. The more the game is a sim, the less we enjoy its gaminess.”

Gaminess is fine, but if you have traditional gameplay while presenting it in a serious tone, it can causes sim-toy dissonance. It’s about communicating certain concepts to the player using metaphors, and old gaming metaphors don’t work when set in next-gen hi-fi games.

Godus, Little Big Planet, and Disney Infinity are obviously playful and toy-like, making their gamey mechanics enjoyable, if not at least acceptable, but if the realistic Battlefield Hardline presents the serious theme of criminals and law enforcement while having arcadey FPS mechanics like heavy weapons just lying around for pickups and capture the flag through a money pile, then it can cause the sim-toy dissonance.

Revival of 80s and 90s gaming?
This brings us to trends in gaming. If we go back a bit in video game history, most games resembled toys. Playful and silly adventures; arcadey shooters and racers. We’ve always had our simulations and simulations really are where modern gaming came from but technology limited how realistic they could be and always had the stigma of being playthings. As we move forward, we’re looking at 2 forms of gaming—sim VS toy—and we are starting to see a rekindling demand for what we could call 80s and 90s-styled, arcadey, toy-like gaming. GOG.com and the increasing popularity of indie development proves there is a market for old toy-like video games and has encouraged the revival of a number of IPs including Grim Fandango and King’s Quest, while spawning many new IPs that go against the grain of the previous decade of gaming—constantly aiming for higher fidelity and realism.

Community Gaming & Spectator Sport?
Then, we have a another type of gaming… the watchers. As we talk about next-gen gaming, it would be strange to talk about people who don’t play video games, but that’s the point. Gaming—professional or casual—is also a spectator activity, and it has been for a long time. This may sound weird to some, evident by Jim Reed’s report on BBC’s Newsnight in 2014.

“Who would want to watch teenagers just clicking away playing their video games all night?”

People all over the world watch sporting events, tournaments, or even friendly local matches without ever playing a single game themselves and video games are no different.

You could be the ‘watcher’ of games in the household. More recently, games such as StarCraft and DotA have expanded their audience. Valve is also pushing VR tech not just as a gaming tool, but as a spectator tool. Imagine watching a DotA match as if it’s on the table in front of you, seeing the fights up close. Or maybe watching a Hearthstone match as if you’re inside the tavern, looking over the shoulders of the players. Game development often takes into account how people not playing the game can get involved.

Maybe ‘next-gen’ gaming is about the gaming community? Not just the players, but the supporters; the fans; the watchers, coming together and driving videos games forward in new societal aspects? Gaming is in the top 3 categories on YouTube and with the popularisation of live streaming, anyone can play a game with a global audience, receiving and providing instant response to the watchers. Gaming may even develop forms of community gaming, such as Twitch plays Pokémon or Upsilon Circuit where only 8 people can play at a time and everyone else contributes by watching—part gameshow; part action-RPG, as they call it.

This communal gaming opens up entirely new areas for innovation and it’s likely that we’ll see many crazy ideas come and go over the years. Maybe, this is where ‘next-gen gaming’ lies.

Conclusion
In the end, there seems to be no single definition of what ‘next-gen’ means and perhaps that’s a good thing. What came before and what comes next is all relative to your perspective.

So, I’ll leave you with this question: ‘What does next-gen gaming mean to you?’

Alright, that’s all for now—thanks for watching—and I’ll see you in the next video!

–

REFERENCES

Watch Dogs
https://youtu.be/hmmMk5Wb3YU

Assassin’s Creed Unity
https://youtu.be/Y5tBpPxdZGs

Winulator running Caesar III on Android
https://youtu.be/R1ViCeOCS-o

Moore’s Law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law
Yes, Wikipedia, because there’s just so much on this. Check the references at the bottom of the page.

Modular Computing – Razer Project Christine
http://www.razerzone.com/christine

Prodigy
https://youtu.be/JnpU42FCg1E

Quadrilateral Cowboy
http://blendogames.com/qc/

The Omni
http://www.virtuix.com/

Uncanny Valley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
Yes, Wikipedia again, this isn’t a thesis! ಠ_ಠ

North Korea children playing the guitar
https://youtu.be/gSedE5sU3uc

Battlefield Hardline
https://youtu.be/ex1GlZS-t7c

Adrian Chmielarz on sim-toy dissonance
http://www.theastronauts.com/2013/04/why-the-next-generation-will-change-games-forever/

Free to Play: The Movie
https://youtu.be/UjZYMI1zB9s

What is Twitch? – Newsnight – Jim Reed
http://youtu.be/OPLool1mCvU

Valve VR
http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/3/5774892/valves-experimental-dota-2-virtual-reality-experiences-lets-users

Twitch Plays Pokémon
https://youtu.be/aG2Dc2bp4oU

Upsilon Circuit
http://www.upsiloncircuit.com/

It’s been a long while since I’ve made opinion content like this. It actually surprises me that I made these sorts of videos back in my first month of being active for Guild Wars 2.

Researching, script writing, vocal recording, video and logo collection, song selection, editing, and thumbnail creation — finally, it’s done! Though as the year goes on, more exciting games will be announced that should be on some of these lists (DAMN YOU BEYOND EARTH!)

If I had to pick a favourite, I suppose it would be the Puzzle games video. Not because I would like to play all those games, but that song from Kevin MacLeod is amazing and I was the most surprised by the games I found in that genre. It’s really amazing the kind of creative stuff that’s coming out.

These videos have gotten me more attention and success compared to any other video considering how short a time they’ve been online. I really have to thank Captain Shack at TheXPGamers for advising me on ‘hype content’.

Well, enjoy the videos! I really gave them my all!

Of course we’re all waiting for Age of Wonders 3, but we do what we can for now. If you haven’t seen my Age of Wonders 1 complete let’s play, well, here it is. It starts out at me recording at 1080p, but due to popular request, I dropped to 720 and scaled it up and enhanced it to 1080 so it’s actually clearer and easier to see what’s going on. I agree, 720 is better.

I searched all over the Internet for an Age of Wonders 1 map of the Blessed Continent, and every one I could find was cropped to cut out the text that was on the screen. So I captured a few images myself and Photoshopped a clean version of just the terrain and a version with the race labels:

Hope you enjoyed the video!

You can install RealVision then replace this file in your Skyrim install directory to use it.

I am currently tweaking the OPTION B PERFORMANCE version of the ENB in case you want to know my starting point.

Download here! (Last updated 31 December 2013)

Here’s my mod list too in case you’re interested.

Now, for any of you who are still struggling to grow your own YouTube channel, or if you were thinking about starting one, I made a video vlog of what I’ve learnt over the past year. I can guarantee that you won’t find this advice anywhere else, as it’s some insights that I’ve thought of and never seen elsewhere. Plus, it’s my advice, and as far as I know there’s only 1 me =)

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next blog post!