Week 10: Characters

Most of the time when you encounter a character on television its the same old soap characters and their unbelievable storylines where nobody is ever happy. They have character names but they are just people and thus do not really help you to connect unless you are going through the same as them. Drama series and the like will throw interesting characters at you until you drown in them. Looking at Heroes which just ended recently had so many characters that you followed and could connect with throughout the story. You cared when characters had bad things happen to them and potentially risked their very being, especially half way through upon discovering that Peter Petrelli was the one who went nuclear and destoryed half the city. His urgency to pull all the other heroes together and formulate a plan, got you hoping he would find a way to prevent the tradegy. Then finding out that is impossible and that the city still explodes is a massive shock to
 the viewer.

In one of the last books I read, Akiras brother is put into a coma while playing a game and the story begins about 10 minutes before he falls under. The rest of the story after that details how Akira struggles with her real life as she gets bullied by the Tennis Team and the trounament thereafter and when she plays as BlackRose inside the game to find out what could put someone into a coma. Most of the time while in the game, you can feel Akiras urgency to discover the darkest 
part of the game while helping her friends with their problems, such as Kite. Her real life however is no cakewalk due to her family falling apart after her brother didn't
 wake up so she has to hold the family together and look after her other baby. It is compelling to
follow Akira to see if she suceeds or what part of her life will go wrong next.

In both of these cases, the characters befall a hardship and then more weigh them down as the story goes along. With the constant misfortunes it is easier for the viewer to pick up on the integrity of the character especially if they can no longer cope with the situation and break down. To be honest, most links with a character are based upon at least one bad thing happening to them. However this is quite difficult if a character doesnt speak such as Link or Mario which
makes it difficult to understand them and their full characters.

In conclusion, it is required for a story to put certain strains on characters and place them in certain situations for the reader/viewer/gamer to understand what they would do and what type of person they are. Without these events, characters are pretty two-dimensional like those Soap 'characters'.

Week 9: Ergonomics

Game controllers have always been an important part of the games industry and part of the main three that a consumer would look at. The first being the console itself, the second being the controllers and the third being the games available.
The first mainstream input for games was the keyboard because the majority of games were all text based adventures therefore it was essential that you could input words. The arrow keys or numpad would not be used because games didn't call for directional input. A key board is very comfortable to use as
long as the user is sitting in a proper position, not slouching over the board or slipping half way 
under the table. The gradient put into these were used to give acess to all the keys easier than 
having to reach alot further. 
 
This was only initally however, as the joystick became the main gaming peripheral for gamers. It features 360 directional movement
(even if the games at that time didn't have those kind of mechanics) and a comfortable handgrip
which is designed to be held in the same way you would hold a glass. The indentations made into
the sides also help the lay of the users fingers to give a better grip on the joystick and maintaining comfort. Keeping the joytick fixed to the table gave it a wrist movement compared to an arm operated device. This would of course cause problems eventually.

After a while of gaming and computing, the mouse was brought about to bring new dimensions. For computing it meant new interfaces could be brought about such as windows and
visual menus. For gaming, users could now click on objects and places to move about the game in conjunction with the keyboard. These days, the most common genre of game on the PC is the First Person Shooter as everyone wants to shoot guns. (Also MMORPGs) Using a mouse, gamers can move their crosshair across the screen and also move their line of sight to the next target or for cover. Looking at the mouse, it is shaped to fit inside of a hand quit well. The bottom end is large and rounded to fill in the palm and the buttons are curved downwards to allow the hand to be in a relaxed position as it clicks and moves the device.

From the PC, to the home console, we bring ourselves to the gamepad, the most common of gaming input devices. Comparing the pads of the three leading companies over the last two generations will give us an idea of what is happening in the way of ergonomics. Starting with Sony, the PS2 and PS3 controllers are near identical if for a cable and a single button on the top. This type of pad fits comfortably in two hands and access to the joysticks and face buttons is done with the thumbs while the shoulder buttons can be pressed  with the fingers. It does work however trying to press the buttons closest to the middle and bottom can be a pain due to their awkward position. These pads also lock your arms close together restricting movement quite a lot.

The new pioneer in the field is the Wii which allows the left and right arm to be kept seperate but still achieving the same effect is a pad. The Wii remote fits perfectly into the hand and seems it was modelled with the relaxed hand in mind and the attachments can be moved far away from the main remote for movement. The current nunchuck is great for using a thumb on the stick and a finger on the C button but it doesnt work too well once another finger is brought in to press Z. The remote faces a problem too in that it its a bit too long for one hand. It is difficult to reach the 1 and 2 buttons during gameplay, even the +,- and home buttons are a bit of a pain to get too while holding the remote properly.

So as a mini review it seems that ergonomics has been brought into the gaming indsutry very steadily and is shown easily through how the pads are much easier to hold compared to the NES. Some handhelds may need a bit of work but the main consoles are becoming easier to use with each generation.