Sandra Lopez

I thought that the first reading for the class was really good. It was a good intro to the class and in understanding why games exist and also why they are so popular. The example of poker being more of a male dominated game was a good example. Not being a poker player myself, the reading made it more clear to me why that game does not strike my interest. Marshall Mcluhan says "Poker is intensley individualsit, allowing no place for kindness or consideration, but only for the greatest good of the greatest number-the number one," (page 240).

I also found the reading hit on an important subject, that games, make us destress from everyday life. Also the fact that games were a mimic life events, made it easier to destress because it was as if we were making fun of them.

For my midterm, I chose to do Kigdom Hearts. This game includes Disney characters and also addditional celebrity voices such as, Haley Joel Osment as Sora, David Gallagher as Riku, and Hayden Panettiere as Kairi. Other notable voice actors included Sean Astin, Billy Zane, Lance Bass, David Boreanaz, Mandy Moore, and Christy Romano.

is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) in 2002 for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console.[2] It is the result of a collaboration between Square and The Walt Disney Company. The game combines characters and settings from Disney's animated features with those from the Final Fantasy video game series, developed by Square. The story follows Sora, a young boy, as he is thrown into an epic battle against the darkness. He is joined by Donald Duck and Goofy, classic Disney characters, who help him on his quest.

I chose this game because it has characters in it like the popular games that are out today with the mystic themes but you are accompanied by disney characters. This game gives a sense of familiarity that we don't get in other games. Even if the player is not familiar with the game world, they can still jump into it and enjoy it without feeling like a complete foreigner.

http://www.kingdom-hearts.com/uk/index.html

Rapper Master P and actor Seth Green are making a video game. Out of alll the people in the world that could pair up to make a video game, I did not see this coming. Although Master P does seem to dip himself into different types of businesses, like real estate (???), all I could think of to say is that if they can do it, more power to them.

The video game is set to have the players play in different aspects of the music industry. This means that a person can play a musician or a manager or even a producer, I would assume.

To read more about this article click on this link:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6178055.html

I personallly have never played Joust (although I might in class). From the description I read, it seemed to be hard to play. With that aside, I would find it kind of funny to be able to see a movie with men riding ostriches poking at people. Yes I know that jousting is an ancient sport and highly viewed in history with only knights playing, but I could have sworn they were on horses. Viewing it as a video game, I could see how ostriches would be much more interesting than horses because they could only go side to side opposed to flying. I really don't know how that would work with a movie. It definately could be done but how? Would they go the way of the movie 300, making it partially digitized and partially with real actors. That would work if done properly. Or maybe they'll go full out animated movie. That could work too.

The player takes the role of a knight with a lance, mounted on either an ostrich (player 1) or an emu (player 2), battling waves of computer-controlled enemy knights. The enemy knights have three different speed and agility levels and are mounted on giant buzzards. The game screen is static; its only features are five platforms hanging in mid-air (some wrapping around the screen), the ground, and a pit of lava below.
The game's incredibly simple controls are a factor in its wide appeal. A joystick moves left and right, and a "Flap" button flaps the mount's wings once. Pressing "Flap" in rapid succession will cause a gain in altitude until gravity drags the player downward.

Space Invaders

When reading the article, I thought of the game I played last week, Space Invaders, and my childhood favorite game, Donkey Kong Country. The difference between these games are that DK has better graphics than the other but in actual intereaction of how I would play the game. I found that these games are in two separate categories. One is only player interaction with the game, and the other is player interaction with the background being unmanipulated. Seeing it this way, I found that the real difference between these games are that one is representational and the other is abstract. Over time the games would have to have evolved and that is exactly what Mark Wolf writes in the reader. He compares the games to art and how they evolved from being abstract to representational.

Donkey Kong Country

So apparently Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is using Dance Dance Revolution for schools as part of his challenge for a fitter California.

Click for the article:
http://www.videogamenews.com/Home/tabid/36/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/416/Default.aspx

Click here for the challenge:
http://www.calgovcouncil.org/challenge/

I found that 360 and PS3 both have the Joust game that just came out in May. Just thought you might like to know.

and the

Lucas arts is coming out with a new game for the wii related to the Star Wars Saga. Star wars games are already on different operating systems including playstation and nintendo DS but this one differs from those because it will focus on light saber combat. check it out on this website:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6178981.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule;picks;title;8

I am in the middle of playing Half Life 2 and the game started to pick up and at the same time started to creep me out and make me queasy. I played whatever I was supposed to and right now I am stuck here in this hole in between buildings. I am supposed to meet someone in a square but I can't figure out how to get through the door. Hopefully I get out to play the rest of the game 'cause right now it doesn't look like it.

This is really cool. There is this new wii pad that senses your movement from your feet. Unlike the regular pads and instead of being a big button like DDR, it is also motion sensored and measures when you shift your wieght. Check it out...

Its interesting how the army used the "America's Army" game to promote recruits to join their forces. Touring around in hummers and passing out the game was a very interesting move on their part.

By passing out these games, the likelihood of the players to join the army I think are slim. When playing the game, you would be able to shoot someone or get shot an not have a reaction. You would just be able to restart the game and think nothing of it. If you get sick of it, just turn it off and go along with the rest of your day. In that way, when you use arms in real life, you wouldn't be able to turn it off or restart it.

With that said, I think that with video games that focus on combat and war, it would increase armed conflict because of the inability to differentiate real life and a video game. Although I know that people know the difference, there are still some that claim they didn't know the difference. It would give the mentality that armed combat is how you solve your problems. It isn't just that the game would do it because it is also the parents' job to teach the kids how to solve problems and not rely on what is shown through a screen.