The Sony Authorship Gods

For this blog I chose to play God of War III on PlayStation 3. This game is a Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios production. Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide (SCE worldwide, SCE) is a group of independent video game developers located across the world created by Sony; SCE Santa Monica is one of the fourteen game production studios and this is the one that the God of War series was developed. I was especially interested in getting to know more about Sony’s creative process because PlayStation is the gaming console of my preference (PlayStation 1,2, & 3). The creation of the SCE worldwide studios is. It is a strategic game plan set up by Sony to create a network of top-notch game developers to operate as independent studios, but they all share a relationship with Sony. The studios do not collaborate at all, being apart of the SCE worldwide, it simply means SCE will publish However, Sony cannot be credited the author of the video game. Like stated before, the only credit SCE gets in the creation of God of War III is for publication. Game designers, producers, programers, ect, vary from based on which SCE studio produced the game. Some of the other games developed by SCE worldwide studios include the Sly Cooper series and Infamous series created by Sucker Punch Productions, and Media Molecules’ game LittleBigPlanet. Click the Link here to find out more information about SCE studios and publication.

In ‪Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, novelist Raymond Williams proposes two views in which artists take when creating art. For the purpose of this discussion I will relate the creation of art to the creation of video games. First the artisan vs. the artist; the artisan being what is the popular culture and the artist represents the elite culture. All I can do is speculate what approach that SCE worldwide takes when creating video games. I believe that SCE takes a mixture of both of these approaches. Mostly because of the diversity of the genre of games they have produced. Games such as LittleBigPlanet, The Last of Us, and Uncharted are created from the artisan approach. These games are categorized in a genre of video games geared toward a specific audience. For example, LittleBigPlanet is a game designed for young adults, but at the same time, it is a game that can be enjoyed by all ages.The game  had to keep the player in mind while creating this game because if they purely aimed to please children for this game, the general public will not be interested. The artisan approach is more concerned with aesthetically pleasing the gamer. On the other hand, action and violent games such as God of War and Kill Zone will not necessarily appeal to everyone. They may be created from the artist approach, not the artisan approach because game creators focus more on the technicality (mechanics & dynamics).

The authorship of God Of War III does not entirely belong to Sony. The creation of this game was a collaborative effort. SCE are
the publishers of the game, SCE Santa Monica Studios contributes multiple the game developer, designer, producers, dircetors, artists and composers in the creative process of creating the God of War series. Based on the definition of authorship presented by Michel Foucault in, “What is an Author?”, authorship of a work belongs to the voice that created it. In the case of God of War III and most video games, the creation of video games is best achieved from collective effort of people from multiple backgrounds. Sony Computer Entertainment and SCE Santa Monica Studios are the Authors of God of War.

Can You Escape

Game List of Kaarek Kirsipuu in Apple store

This week, I chose to play the game named Can You Escape. This is smartphone base puzzles game, which already had several seasons and series created by Kaarel Kirsipuu, and I played from Can You Escape to Can You Escape 5. The purpose of this room is to break out of the rooms. Solve the puzzles and find all the hidden objects that you have to use in the room in order to advance to the next floor. Also, different rooms have different kinds of puzzles to solve, which is fun and challenging to make me feel addictively. In this game, I need to be careful and patient that is the most important part to solve those hidden objects and solving puzzles. When I am able to successful to escape one room, I really feel achievement and accomplishment. This is not just a game for entertainment, but also it can treat my ability of thinking. If you have interesting for this series of games, you can watch the trailer.

Overview of the Room

The game player should employ a trial-and-error solving method to scrounge for clues, as well as sleuth out way escape a series of rooms. The set-ups in the game are fully functional and interactive, with every drawer, chair and fixture serving as a possible point of detection. For example, the first level room of Can You Escape, I check the lock that use with key and next to the door, that is a wired wooden box then I touch it, and I can get close to the box. On the top of the box, there is a picture puzzle that I need to solve it to a right picture. The picture is about a horse and turn

The picture puzzle with horse

around every piece of the whole picture make it integrated, and the picture is art and I canknew its aesthetic to make it integrated. When I figure it out, the wooden box will open and get a metallic piece. Then I try to search other places, and the drawer, which has similar metal piece that means their match. So the one I find is the handle of the drawer. After I open it, i find one screwdriver. Then, we can see there is a picture but with 4-digit number. after that, we use the screwdriver to open the stockade and inside has safe box, which can use the 4-digit code as passcode to open, and the key is inside. Through out the processing of solving these puzzles and finally get the key to escape the room, which is a ring by ring process just like the detective work to solve a case. The process is a kind of aesthetic that is full of logic and wisdom

The game developer, which is named Kaarel Kirsipuu that shows below the game name in the App store; however, in the google app store, there is other name – MobiGrow. After researching, I believe that Kaarel Kirsipuus is the main game designer and the MobiGrow is the mobile app development company that provide technical and commercial support, so the authorship of those games are belong to both. However, the artist of this game is Kaarel Kirsipuu, who makes Can You Escape logical and aesthetically, according to Becker’s writing “art worlds produce works and also give them aesthetic value.”(39)

reference: Howard Becker, “Art Worlds and Collective Activity.” In Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press: pp. 1-39.

NBA 2k16: Livin’ Da Dream- A Spike Lee Joint

Ever since I could remember, I have always been a devoted NBA Live video game player. NBA Live is a series of basketball video games, published by EA Sports who’s main competitor is the NBA 2K series. In 2009, my basketball video game experience completely changed for the better when I decided to convert from my traditional NBA Live playing days to NBA 2K, when I bought NBA 2K9 with Kevin Garnett as the cover athlete. Since then, the NBA 2K franchise has been my video game of choice and in my opinion is the best basketball simulation game on the market; this is why I decided to play NBA 2K16 (on the Xbox One) for this week’s video game and devote my fourth blog to this game.

NBA 2K16 is a basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It is the 17^th installment in the NBA 2K franchise, which usually has a musical director/producer like that of Jay-Z or Pharrell Williams to handle the game’s artistic concepts, but this year director Spike Lee was heavily involved in the development of the game, which is subtitled with the classic phrase for all of his movies as A Spike Lee Joint. There are three different cover athletes for the main game, one featuring Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans, another featuring James Harden of the Houston Rockets (my favorite player), and the last featuring Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors (the version I bought…got to represent for the hometeam). A special edition version of the game was released featuring Michael Jordan on the cover.

NBA 2K16 simulates the experience of the National Basketball Association. Players play NBA games with real or created players and teams in various modes, such as MyCareer, MyTeam, and standard games. When you first play NBA 2K16, it requires you to create your own player that you can take through a basketball career with the central goal of being the greatest player of all time. This is where director Spike Lee, whom I consider a major author/artist of NBA 2K16, enters the realm of the video game with the intended goal to create a more story focused “MyCareer” mode. Even though I have barely tampered with the MyCareer mode, since I’ve just really been playing exhibition games, I honestly believe that the story of the MyCareer mode will be phenomenal since it is handled by Spike Lee, who was the writer, producer, and director of the 1998 basketball film He Got Game starring Denzel Washington and Ray Allen. MyCareer is a story driven campaign that is called Livin’ Da Dream and focuses on an up and coming basketball prospect. The story starts with the player in high-school who eventually enters college and then the NBA to start a career in professional basketball. Lee worked with real world basketball players, following them and documenting their experience in high school and college competition, in an effort to more accurately depict the lifestyle of real professional basketball players. Several improvements and new additions were made to NBA 2K16, such as full body scanning and overall aesthetic improvements. According to Howard Becker, “All artistic work, like all human activity, involves the joint activity of a number, often a large number, of people. Through their cooperation, the art work we eventually see or hear comes to be and continues to be” (pg. 1). In conclusion, I believe that the development team at Visual Concepts in addition to Spike Lee’s direction all contributed to making this beautiful masterpiece called NBA 2K16.

• SOURCES
• Howard Becker, “Art Worlds and Collective Activity.” In Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press: pp. 1-39.
• https://www.2k.com/games/nba-2k16
• http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/29/nba-2k16-review

Who’s Doing the Shoveling?

The independent video game studio who created Shovel Knight

The game for this blog is one that I had recently played in the past week called “Shovel Knight” on the Wii U. The game itself is a side-scrolling adventure where you, as the knight wielding the shovel try to defeat a group of evil knights known as the “Order of no Quarter” to rescue his beloved “Shield Knight.” The game primarily allows the player to traverse different areas where along the way they visit stores and places for items and loot. The game itself follows mechanics from other games such as duck tales where the shovel is used in place of a cane but can also be used as a sword. The game also features unique variations depending on what version the game is played on. If you play on a  Nintendo system such as a 3DS or the Wii U, you have the ability to play with a touch screen along with obtaining multiplayer modes and challenge stages. Other consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox one, have a unique boss with their own unique stage. The game has many other platforms to play on allowing anyone to play on a system of their choice.

Gameplay within Shovel Knight

 The game itself was created by the people at Yacht Club Games who are independent developers that essentially succeeded in crowdfunding this project. Which bring us into the whole idea of who really owns the authorship of this game. The creators Yacht Club Games would be considered the ones who came up with the game but without help of the crowdfunding backers there game would not even have life. Not to mention the composers such as Jake Kaufman and Manami Matsumae who are freelancers known throughout the gaming world that helped in creating the music found within the game. This brings me to my belief on who possibly owns this game authorship. Like the theorist Howard Becker, I see the authorship of the game being placed in the hands of all who developed it. Becker would explain it that those who didn’t have the ability to create the game as “less rare, less characteristic of art, less necessary to the work’s success, less worthy of respect“(Art Worlds and Collective Activity,1982). The quote itself shows that those who did not directly work on the game affected one of its people in a unique way are still part of what they game became. The big thing is that people who gave made this game include smaller people who gave up something to make sure this game came out, whether its money or time in supporting the studios work. The credit sequence within the game mentions many people as well outside of the initial groups mentioned as to show that without them they would not have been able to create the game. Most games do this as they clearly know that one person did not create the game without some outside help or influence by another person. Yacht Club games even go far as to have a level dedicated to the backers of the game who really believe in them and gave more money of course to the crowdfunding.

“Shovel Knight vs God of War’s Kratos”

The framework of the game was created by Yacht Club studios, while the game itself would not be created without the many backers, influences( such as “duck tales”), composers, and support from the families of the company. Personally, I believe create something that becomes a huge success as Shovel knight requires many people as a whole.

Howard Becker, “Art Worlds and Collective Activity.” pp. 17.

The Battle between Gods

SMITE is a third person action multiplayer online battle arena video game.

In this game the player chooses the mythological God or figure they want to play as and take part in team tactic game. The Gods are controlled in a third person perspective; each god has basic attack and 4 spell attacks.  All players upgrade based on the time moving and their playing. This game offers many game modes such as:

1. Practice – main tutorial
2. Co-Op – 3 vs. 3, Arena, and Assault
3. Normal – Arena, Conquest, Assault, 3 vs. 3
4. League – Ranked versions: Conquest, 1 vs. 1
5. Custom – Challenging:  Conquest, Arena, Assault, Joust, Siege

The most popular mode and the main one I played was Conquest.  The players are put into two teams with 3-5 players each. Each team is placed on the opposite side of the map and there are about 3 lanes each defended by a phoenix and defense towers that deliver damage to the opposite team when they come close to them. The point is to defend your team’s tower and destroy the enemies’ towers as well as killing the enemies.

SMITE was developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios and it was made for Microsoft windows and Xbox. However in 2013 Hi-Rez studios partnered with Tencent Holdings Ltd.  And in 2014 Hi-Rez partnered with Level Up! Games, a South American company, in order to take the game to Latin American Countries.  According to Howard Becker in his piece, Art Worlds and Collective Activity, “the interaction of all the involved parties produces a shared sense of the worth of what they collectively produce. Their mutual appreciation of the conventions they share, and the support they mutually afford one another, convince them that what they are doing is worth doing. If they act under the definition of “art,” their interaction convinces them that what they produce are valid works of art.” (Becker 1982, p. 39)  Therefore the artists include all the companies involved with this video game. They are responsible for the expansion of the game and what it has made it. Level Up! Games may have not been in the original team of the game but because of their contribution to the Hi-Rez Studios’, SMITE was able to expand and popularity grew.

Choosing the artist/s is important because the authorship should be placed correctly, the popularity and success of a final product must have been effected by the artist. If the companies involved had a bad reputation they may have not been as successful.  Just as you wouldn’t pay the same amount of money for a Van Gogh piece to a piece done by my little brother, the same concept is applied here. If a Studio is known for selling boring life-less games most people wouldn’t be inclined to play anything by that studio. However when Hi-Rez partnered with Tencent Holdings Ltd., the company that is known for League of legends the game became very popular in China. The artists influence the game and its success because we care about who made what.

Authors of Despicable Me: Minion Rush

I chose to play Despicable Me: Minion Rush. There was a couple versions of this game for different devices for example Minion Rush was for Android by Gameloft, and for the iPhone and iPad Despicable Me: Minion Mania. In was available to the public in 2013. The games were based off the movie Despicable Me that came out in 2010. Since its release there has been an updated version. With the game there is a short video that you watch that shows another minion getting an award. After the award there is one minion that is disgruntled and attempts to take the award away, then the game starts.

The game is a series obstacles for each level. Once you have achieved the goal for that level you move on the next level. Each level is based off places in the movies such as the lab, the neighborhood where they lived etc. The levels get harder and require more effort to get to the next level. For example I had to slide under ten objects in one minute. Sometimes there was a time limit on it. Nut most of the time it was based on how many times I could do something or how many items I could collect, hit, and miss. There was items like freeze rays, bananas, shield, a rocket and even something that increases your size ten times. While you are running to avoid cars, bombs, robots, and electric rays, you have to collect bananas. Bananas are the currency. You can but other minions, outfits, or get longer distances on items like the shield. So the money bananas you collect the better chance you have of beating a level.

Despicable Me: Minion Rush developer is GameLoft. This game was created after the movie(s) Despicable Me. Since the game is heavily based on the movie. Credit also goes to Mac Guff who did the animation for the films. I think that in many cases as discussed in class there is not one sole person who creates a game, this idea of team work and not having one sole “creator” is much like what Becker said, “the division of labor does not require that all the people involved in producing the art object be in the same roof, like assembly-line workers” (Becker, 13) This means that you can have many people all working on one project and not be together in a room or even in the same country. As long as everyone is one the same page and understand the collective goal than, collective work can be created.

The creators did a great job in incorporating the different characters in the movie it was interesting, fun, and challenging. They had characters in the game that were in the movie. The authors did a great job in creating the game. I have played game that are based on movies and sometimes there it’s the same feel and flow as the movie. This is not the case here, it was following the move but still had its own little twist to the game. Without the original animation of Mac Guff then the movie would not have been brought to life.

Howard Becker, “Art Worlds and Collective Activity.” In Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press: pp. 1-39.

Who Created Earthbound?

Ah, the game that created many fandoms and false promises. This week
I chose to play one of my favorite games from my childhood, Earthbound. Many might know the game better by the main character, Ness from the Super Smash Bros series. Admittedly I didn’t like it much which i was a child because I was only to watch and not play this game. After many years of neglecting it, I finally decided to dig up the game once more. At first I had no idea where it could be, upon looking online, the game was valued somewhere between $250-350 in 2010. This came as a shock since not that many people talk about it, it isn’t THAT popular. I say that with much confidence but in fact this game has a really long history, for one it was only unpopular in the United States, however in Japan, the game was a best selling title and even today being re-release for the WiiU in the United States after years of hard work done by the people of Starman.net such as

1. creating very detailed merchandise such as an entire anthology dedicated to Earthbound (an in depth look at the smallest details in the game)
2. holding conventions to show Nintendo that fans really care about series and that they may localize the other two games: Mother for the NES, and Mother 3 for the Nintendo Gamboy Advance.
3. meeting up with Nintendo at Washington State in 2007 to discuss the future of the Mother series, better known now as the EB Siege

Upon its initial release, the game didn’t sell so well in the United States when it was ported over in 1995 due to poor advertisement and bad placement in game shops. Alongside that the game was sold in a big box which could hold a console and sold for $80 in 1995 (today it is approximately $125). This game came with a full game guide and some scratch ans sniffs with scents pulled from what you might smell in the game such as bubble gum, or banana, and the secret scent, pizza.

The official creator of Earthbound is Shigesato Itoi and most would assume he would be the “author” however it’s more complicated than that. Let’s start from the beginning, in the early 1990s, Earthbound or Mother 2 as it was called in Japan was in development, and somewhere along the way the game was just scrapped, the coding was left unfinished and it seemed like the Mother series would end after just one very difficult to play game for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). However, a novice programmer by the name Satoru Iwata, better known nowadays as the late president of Nintendo who passed away in July of this year, came the rescue and worked through the broken and unfinished lines of code to create what is known today as Earthbound. In my opinion, he should be credited as the artist of Earthbound because he was the one who carried the game through it become what it is today, a little known gem on the SNES and regarded as one of the best RPGs (role pllaying games) ever made.

According to Benjamin: “the authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced.” Yes, the game has been mass produced however because it did get little attention and 20 years later being recognized as one of the best games ever made, the game still has a lot of aura. This aura was mostly created through the hard work of Satoru Iwata.

Reference
Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Print.

Collective Authorship 64

Harvest Moon 64 is a farm simulator and RPG that was released in 1999 for Nintendo 64. The game revolves around the player taking over his grandpa’s farm after his death. You are told by your father that you are to improve the farm and he will be back in three years to check your progress. Once you take control, you are able to do a vast amount of activities to make money and improve your farm. By using tools that upgrade the more you use them, you can destroy unsightly rocks, pull weeds, and hoe areas to get ready to plant vegetables. You have a barn where you keep chickens and cows, and the more you take care of them, the higher grade their eggs and milk will be, selling for more money. The game is not restricted to the farm, but there is the local village where you can buy supplies, and also socialize with villagers to improve relationships by helping them. Harvest Moon 64 is a very deep and entertaining game, so it is not surprising that it took quite a few people to author it. Not only can the creator take credit for birthing the idea, but also the many workers at the game developer, translators, and the music composer who added to the experience we share when we play the game. The authors of Harvest Moon 64 are: Yasuhiro Wada, Victor Interactive Software, Natsume Inc., and Tsuyoshi Tanaka for they are responsible for the experience and aesthetics of the game as a whole.

Yasuhiro Wada came up with the idea for what is now Harvest Moon. Coming from a small country area in Japan, he thought it was a good idea to show how different, and also what good life lessons can come from farm living. Not only does being the lone person to think of the idea make him an author, but how his interpretation of traditional Japanese values placed into the game makes us feel when we play. Harvest Moon 64 is an aesthetically pleasing experience. When playing, the emotion or feeling of doing well for your grandpa is a strong motivator. You are given a farm after his death, and your job is to improve it and continue the heritage of the farm. These values tie into traditional Japanese culture where people still pay tribute to their ancestors after death. Some Japanese families keep altars at home where they put out food and usually have pictures of the ancestor to show remembrance. Yasuhiro Wada adds this element to HM64 by introducing the game as you return from your grandpa’s funeral. Not only are you trying to do well for your grandpa, but you are ‘cleaning’ his site, which is full of weeds and rocks to begin, to show thanks, appreciation of your past relatives, and to make them proud. The main objective ties into cultural traditions making it contain more than just farming mechanics, but a sense of responsibility you take when you accept the role of player. An emotional attachment to your progress is felt as you work hard in the memory of your grandpa to make him proud. Wada’s idea of values that are presented in HM64 make him an author due to his creative ability and unique narrative that stand out to be very important to the story and experience you have when playing.

  The substance of Harvest Moon 64 was brought to life by the game developer Victor Interactive Software Inc. Many people worked on the coding, the debugging, and visually made HM64 what it is. The art style, animations, sound effects, and mechanics of the game were produced by their team. Although the team takes the idea of Yasuhiro Wada, they are responsible for how the game is structured and looks. This is important in games that can become repetitive. Making the game more visually appealing not only adds to the totality of the project, but also adds to the aesthetics of the experience by creative animations that make you feel something is being done instead of just being simulated. John Sharp sums up what makes HM64 a strong artgame by saying “Artgames use the innate properties of games–among them interactivity, player goals, and obstacles providing challenge for the player–to create revealing and reflective play experiences”(Works of Game, 2015). Harvest Moon 64 contains all of these natural aspects of game and they all combine to make a reflective play experience. Without all of these authors contributing to the complete work, the game would not play the same, and probably would not be the highest rated Harvest Moon by Nintendo Power. The team at Victor Interactive developing on Nintendo 64 had individuals responsible for different parts of the game, but the combined work of these individuals at that time made HM64 what it is as a game and as an experience.

Natsume Inc. is an author of Harvest Moon 64 because they are responsible for translating the game into English. Without the work of Natsume’s team, many people outside of Japan would not be able to experience Harvest Moon. The work they add to the game opens the experience to many other people rather than just one population. Funny enough, Natsume misspells their own name on the main menu of Harvest Moon 64 as Natume. Even with some translation errors on the main menu and in the game, my experience and the experience of millions of others would not have been possible if it was not for their work. This shows that without working on the ‘game’ aspect, even translations add to the total project and decide who can take part and experience different art and games and how.

The last author of Harvest Moon 64 is Tsuyoshi Tanaka, who is the lone composer of the game. Music in simulation games is very important. With the chore of waking up everyday, weeding the farm, watering all the plants, feeding and caring to the animals, it gets repetitive. Without music, or using music that lacks variation or catchy melodies, a simulation game will not be as fun. Not only can the quality of the music affect the outcome of how fun a game is, but it definitely adds to the immersion and experience of the game. The soundtrack’s variations from folk music mixtures of midi-esque music and percussion not only help it as a game, but as an experience. Each location on the map: the village, the mountain, the beach, the farm; they all have their own music and it changes at night as well. You have a different feeling depending on the time and location where you are because the music is made to help you transition in game from moment to moment. The tone and style of music help you understand the current situation by eliciting feelings that are not possible with written cues. The village during festivals has faster percussive music to signify how bustling the town is. The booming horns make it seem something official is taking place. The work of Tanaka not only helped HM64 as a game with his compositions, but also as an experience by depicting certain moods with his productions. This allows us to feel closer to the game and understand the changes in seasons and events.

All of these people added to a singular project, and a lot of them will never be recognized as a true ‘author’ of the work. It is important to showcase how many people deeply impact the outcome of a game or any medium while we do not give it much thought. Many hours or coding, composing, and animating all made HM64 the game that it is. Harvest Moon 64 was one of the first games I was truly addicted to. I would stay up late on the weekends trying to get to the next festival or to level up my cows to golden level milk and growing vegetables. It was so deep and entertaining that you could focus to many aspects such as relationships around town and socializing to getting married, selling items by farming, fishing, and scavenging, or horse betting and getting drunk at the bar. All of these are possible experiences due to the collective work of many people. With one of these authors not included, the game would not exist as it does and would not be as great as it is.

Sharp, J. (2015). Works of Game. MIT.

Blog #4 (Instructions) – Accounting for the Artist

Not every object has an artist, but for this week you have to argue that the game you started playing last week does. For this blog assignment you must identify and explain why the individual (or individuals) you have chosen is (or are) the artist (or artists). Furthermore, how does considering the artist you’ve identified as the artist influence our understanding of the object. Why is it important?

So, to sum it up: figure out the authorship, then identify an author/artist for the blog, and explain why it matters.

Requirements:

• 500+ words
• styled text
• quotation + reference (style up to you)
  • Quotable theorists: Winckelmann, Hegel, Benjamin, Williams, Becker, Clarke and Mitchell, and Sharp
• 2 images
• at least one imbedded link
• category: Blog #4
• TAGS!

Grading:

• Blog post is out of 10, and comments and replies make up the difference to 10.