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继续2004年:
Interactive Narrative：Theory and Practice
摘要
This thesis is a re-examination of the overused and misunderstood
medium 'interactive narrative.' Though there are many works that try to
discuss the theory of interactive narrative，very few offer anything
in terms of critical understanding. By contrast，this thesis tries to
find the definition for the word and expose the concepts that make it
different from other forms of media and interactive media，such as interactive
fiction，interactive storytelling，interactive drama，and interactive
story. The concepts outlined include sections on suspension of freedom，
interactive story，interactive discourse，and co-authorship.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/education/theses/20040615/ward_01.shtml
Alternative Game Controllers
摘要
The Katana controller from Hori Japan is an official tie-in with the
third installment of the Onimusha games，approximately 40" long and
making use of weight sensors in the hilt，similar to baseball bat controllers.
Because the sword is battery powered with a range of around 15'，it
allows players to make some fancy moves. Combined with Sony's EyeToy I
could imagine both of these gadgets being used for practicing kata（standard
sets of movements found in martial arts that mimic fighting with one or
more opponents） and other large area fighting games. It is only a matter
of time.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040618/lloyd_01.shtml
Manager In A Strange Land：Old-Fashioned Communication
摘要
If there's a theme here，it's that communication will happen； all
you have to do is remove barriers and let it. One tempting blunder to
make is to try and close off lines of communication ——I know after seeing
a programmer working on someone else's pet project I've been tempted to
say，"Don't talk to one of the programmers without going through me
first，okay？" But there's nothing wrong with people on the team talking
； the problem comes when someone goes off-task onto a low priority item.
Just make sure that everyone understands that they're not supposed to
switch task unless their lead or the project manager knows about it —
—and let them talk all they want.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/columns/fristrom/20040702/fristrom_01.shtml
Doing Mushrooms，Miyamoto-Style
摘要
On the other hand，I think it's very important that games retain
individuality and the individuality of the people creating them. I mean，
if you look at art，even if it's not art for the masses，it's very distinct，
and each piece of art is very unique. And it's going to have its own flavor.
If games go forward and gradually become more and more alike so that there
is no more individuality in games，that's not going to be good for the
industry. So to me，it's very important to have that uniqueness and those
distinct characteristics and try to continue to evoke that in the games
that we make.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040707/moledina_01.shtml
First-Person Control Design for Dual Analog Stick Controllers
摘要
When it comes to first-person control using dual analog sticks，we
are still breaking ground. In fact，different games require different
solutions，and there is no single optimal solution that will work in
every game. But hopefully this article will help you consider the many
possibilities which are available to you. In time，perhaps we will no
longer have to play games where the only control available to the player
is changing the sensitivity of the control stick.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040714/ng_01.shtml
Kicking Butt by the Numbers：Lanchester's Laws
摘要
There are now quite a number of books on the market about videogame
design. To my surprise，I haven't discovered any that address Lanchester's
laws； to my embarrassment，that includes my own book—— an error that
I intend to rectify if I can persuade my publisher to bring out a second
edition. In the meantime，here's a very brief introduction to a huge
topic called Operations Research. Theorists of military strategy can stop
reading here； you're not going to learn anything you don't already know.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040806/adams_01.shtml
Book Review：Creating Emotion in Games
摘要
Emotioneering，according to the book，is a set of techniques "that
can create，for a player or participant，a breadth and depth of emotions
in a game or other interactive experience，or that can immerse a game
player in a world or role." The definition continues："The goal of Emotioneering
is to move the player through an interlocking sequence of emotional experiences."
Freeman has generated some 1500 techniques for broadening，deepening，
and enhancing the quality of a piece of interactive entertainment. The
techniques are grouped into thirty-two broad categories，and are designed
so as to bring to gaming a degree of emotional authenticity that has historically
been neglected by the majority of game designers.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040818/kane_01.shtml
Manager In A Strange Land：Sliding Democracy
摘要
In theory，a committee is a good thing. We all have blind spots.
If we get together，we can shore up each other's blind spots and arrive
at better-informed decisions. So why do committees get such a bad rap？
Maybe because committees frequently fail to arrive at the correct decision.
In the absence of a leader，you can't blame a specific person，so your
democratic process gets blamed. On the other hand，if a specific leader
fails to make the correct decision（which also happens frequently ），
then only the leader is blamed，even though the dictatorial process ought
to be blamed.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040827/fristrom_01.shtml
Manhunt to Mortal Kombat：The Use and Future Use of Violence in Games
摘要
There are a number of factors that kept both Medal of Honor and Call
of Duty in the Teen category，" says Pat Vance，head of the ESRB. They
are straight，historical simulations for one thing. They are non-gratuitous
in terms of the types of injuries they depict. The amount of blood in
these games is minimal. There's no friendly fire. "These are straight
World War II simulations，and the developers made a concerted decision
not to include the more gratuitous injuries and other things that you
might find depicted in an M-rated game."
According to David Jaffe，director of Sony's Twisted Metal franchise
and the upcoming God of War，stripping the gore out of games can diminish
their impact. "I think you might be able to [separate the gore from the
violence]，but it's not as simple as shooting someone and simply not
having any blood. The Medal of Honor games do this. I love those games，
but without the blood，they just don't have visceral impact. They feel
watered down.
"I think the idea of creating impactful violence without gore is very
interesting. I have not really thought about it because up until now，
my games have been arcade-like，fast-paced titles. I think it would be
really hard to create violence without gore in that genre."
If there is a genre in which violence and gore have been successfully
extricated，it's fighting games. The first one-on-one combat games，
such as the Vectorbeam game Warrior，were bloodless because of the limitations
of the hardware. Even when Street Fighter II suddenly made fighting games
arcade headliners，fighters remained unblemished for the most part.
Then came Mortal Kombat.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040903/kent_01.shtml
A Perfect Short Game
摘要
What does it mean to say that a game is "perfect"？ We often assume
that perfection means that whatever we're talking about is better than
anything else，that all other things of its kind are inferior. And in
that case，it's risky to describe anything as perfect，because other
people will probably disagree on grounds of personal taste if nothing
else. If they like something else better，they'll say the game cannot
be perfect，because if it were，they would like it. Perfection，in
common parlance，includes being universally approved of.
But I want to discuss a perfect game using a slightly different interpretation
of the word. The first definition of "perfect" in my American Heritage
Dictionary is，"Lacking nothing essential to the whole； complete of
its nature or kind." Definition four is，"Completely suited to a particular
purpose or situation." Under those terms，I think that Tetris is a perfect
twitch game，for reasons that should be pretty obvious：you can neither
add，nor take away，anything from Tetris' gameplay without disturbing
its elegant simplicity—— even if there are other games you would prefer
to play. But it's not Tetris that I want to discuss in this column.
I've been a juror for the Independent Games Festival a couple of times
now，and having looked at a heck of a lot of small games，there's only
one that I continue to play. Among the finalists in the 2003 IGF was a
short-duration space exploration and combat game called Strange Adventures
in Infinite Space.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040915/adams_01.shtml
Environmental Storytelling Part III：Lessons Learned in the Virtual
World
摘要
My first encounter with designing for a multiplayer online world was
the challenge of learning to come to terms with these limitations，and
finding clever ways to design in spite of them. Most single-player，or
even limited multi-player games，needs to accommodate the possibility
of a dozen or so additional characters or avatars that might appear in
any given environment. This leaves a budget that allows their designers
the luxury to build detail-rich spaces，which takes advantage of the
effects today's powerful 3D cards can deliver. Furthermore，most game
companies can depend on an audience that is routinely willing to upgrade
their systems to meet the demands of cutting-edge titles. In our case，
our product needed to potentially accommodate the arrival of 50 to 100
avatars in an environment，and was marketed to a demographic of computer
owners that have never even heard of a 3D card. With a budget of 1500
or more polygons per avatar，and the potential of hundreds congregating
in any given space，this left the environmental designers a budget of
no more then 10，000 polys per any given virtual location.
Reeling under these limitations，we worked to become the living
definition of "less is more". Equally hard hit was our texture budget，
which insisted that since our member avatars could show up wearing countless
numbers of diverse clothing textures，our building textures would need
to be just as minimal as our structures. Under these constraints，we
developed a graphic style which chose visual consistency over complexity，
and immersion through suggested context rather then spelling out every
detail. Although our efforts were applauded，this choice made visiting
each annual E3 Conference a painful pilgrimage of what is possible for
every 3D game but ours.
One comforting realization came when exploring the 3D worlds of other
companies attempting similar online multi-player environments. Whether
you are visiting the streets of Toontown.com or the planets of Star Wars
Galaxies，you begin to see that each game has come up with solutions
based on similar limits. Whether they chose to allow their trees to render
only when you are right on top of them，or they limited vertical movement
because their props are flat textured "billboards"，each design team
did their very best to immerse their audiences despite how little they
have to build with.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20040920/carson_01.shtml
Unmasking the Avatar：The Demographics of MMO Player Motivations，
In-Game Preferences，and Attrition
摘要
As expected，male players scored higher on the Achievement and Competition
factors，while female players scored higher on the two Socializing factors.
The gender differences in the Achievement and Serious Socializing factors
were most salient. There were no gender differences with regards to the
Immersion and Escapism factors. Age was negatively correlated with the
Achievement，Casual Socializing，and Competition factors. In other
words，older players tended to score lower on these factors than younger
players.
Hours of play per week were most correlated with the Achievement，
Serious Socializing and Escapism factors. The difference in hours of play
between the top and bottom quintiles of the Achievement factor is 6.5
hours，and 5 hours between the top and bottom quintiles of both the
Serious Socializing and Escapism factors.
While one might have imagined that scoring high on any factor would
lead to higher time investment in the game，this is not the case. The
data implies that there are 3 specific playing behaviors that lead to
heavy usage. First are players who are hooked on getting to the next level
or better gear. Many of these players are probably actually hooked onto
the behavioral conditioning of MMORPG design4. Second，there are players
who are deeply embedded into social networks in their community. They
spend a lot of time in the game because this is where their friends are.
And finally，there are players who spend time in the game to avoid dealing
with issues in their real life. For some of them，the "push" of avoiding
the real world may be stronger than the "pull" of entering a fantasy world.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20040920/yee_01.shtml
Aviators，Moguls，Fashionistas and Barons：Economics and Ownership
in Second Life
摘要
The average person has a very full schedule. For the average American，
television，work and sleep，are enough to take most of the hours in
the week. While people have begun to exchange television viewing for game
playing [Loftus04]，the high time cost of MMOG play is still a significant
problem for many. The very real possibility of generating an income within
Second Life can change that.
As Julian Dibbell can attest，it is possible to make a living selling
digital goods [Dibbell03b]. Several of Second Life's more successful creators
are using their profits to pay for tuition or as income while unemployed
[Au04a]. For many of these digital entrepreneurs，the ability to make
money doing something that they enjoy is a new experience. Residents often
join Second Life with no idea that they possessed the creative skills
or business acumen needed to make and sell digital items，but the ease
of experimentation and readily available in-world educational resources
lead them to explore the possibilities.
Some have even setup databases in the real world，tracking inventory，
sales，and customer data from their multiple stores within Second Life.
Using this data，they adjust product lines，prices，and advertising，
acquiring skills and knowledge that would be acquired at far greater financial
risk in the real world. For example，residents have discovered that
Sunday is the largest shopping day in Second Life and that attractive
but simple displays generate more sales. Undoubtedly，some will eventually
transfer their newfound business acumen back into the real world.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20040920/ondrejka_01.shtml
Weaving the Threads：Storytelling in City Of Heroes
摘要
We at Cryptic are constantly searching for new ways to add to the
fabric of our story. Telling a story over the course of an entire zone
is the latest technique that is part of our process for creating an online
world. We will continue adding new ways of bringing the story to the players
and when we do，we will make certain that it adds to the whole.
The initial Contacts and tasks are only the beginning of the story
that characters will find in Paragon City. As they increase in level，
the stories they started with will connect to other villain groups and
zones. The players will finish off many of the stories by completing Task
Force Story Arcs. These are very challenging Story Arcs that require groups
of heroes to complete. Many of them will bring them into direct conflict
with the arch-villains who are in charge of the organizations they have
been fighting all along. This gives the players many accolades to achieve
along their path to the top，with an obvious hierarchy sometimes absent
in games which just create larger monsters，divorced from any kind of
organization.
In the future，we will also be weaving in many more events…… Some
of these events will be small and only affect a few，but others might
have far reaching effects on a zone or even an entire villain group. These
sorts of permanent alterations to the tapestry will enrich the living
feeling of the world - the Rikti alien invasion which ended the Beta Test
is a startling example of a worldwide event with significant consequences.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20040920/fish_01.shtml
Event Wrap-Up：Austin Game Conference and Women's Game Conference
摘要
After more than 15 minutes of delay due to a technical problem，Vance
spoke to the crowd sans slide presentation and speech. She ad-libbed from
an outline of her speech，telling personal stories about her three daughters
and how they，as females，interacted with toys and the world differently
than a few young boy who spent a day at her home. "Women play differently
than men，" she said，connecting her story more directly to the game
industry. She added that，although women play differently，they are
not for the most part in the studios creating the games that they would
play，or implementing their ideas on how they would want to play a game
differently.
Vance's talk slowly drifted away from the issue of women in gaming
when questions were opened to the audience. Audience members instead asked
questions about the ESRB，possibly indicating some level of unfamiliarity
with it （seeing as many，likely，do not currently work in the game
industry，as illustrated the day before by the informal audience survey）。
However，the question and answer period did illustrate that the audience
was interested in learning more about the industry，not just the role
and future role of females in it.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040929/duffy_01.shtml
Manager In A Strange Land：Dependencies，Part One
摘要
The more involved game development gets，the more we need rigorous
processes to prevent screw-ups. We insert control gates and signing-off
procedures to make sure Joe doesn't start building a level until we're
happy with the original design，to make sure Fred doesn't use a placeholder
sound with the wrong name，to make sure we don't put a character in
the game that's going to be turned down later by the licensor，and so
on. We make pipelines - flow charts describing the path an asset takes
from being a twinkle in a designer's eye to an in-game element. The more
steps these pipelines have，the more professional the documents describing
them seem，but adding more steps creates more dependencies.
Of course，sometimes it's worth it to create those dependencies.
Slowing down the project now to prevent chaos later is often a good thing.
But more process isn't automatically better - it's a judgment call.
URL：http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041013/fristrom_01.shtml
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发表于 2005-2-24 16:29:00