Games Britannia part 2 “Monopolies & Mergers”

hello everyone its me again

during this weeks lesson with Ed we watched the second part of Games Britannia, in this part it showed us all the top board games that are the best in the market up to date, it also went on to talk about how they thought that early television and video games where threatening board games as they may make board games submit in the future due to future technology, this however is not the case as board games have not died, it is still going on very strong as thousands of people still love to play board games even if its as massive hobby where people collect thousands of games or if people just have a few that they play randomly every now and again.

overall the program was fun to watch and was full of facts that i did not know before watching the program i look forward to watching the third part of the series.

Dicing with Destiny

During this lesson with ED we was introduced into the history or gaming and he though there was no better way to do this than by watching part one of three in the series of Games Britannia, this part was called Dicing with Destiny.

This episode talks about medieval and ancient games that have been proven to be played not just for fun, for example Chess and games alike would have been played to work out strategies to fight a battle the opposition this would help the leader or the men understand the battle better and show them how it could or will be fought. however games like this and especially ones related to religion became less and less associated with these things and started to become more associated with gambling.

This then meant that more and more card and dice games where being played rather than board games, this then led to these games being associated with being "evil", this then led to a "stop gambling" campaign was started in 1784, back in those days though winning and losing was completely 50/50 based so one could win a complete fortune or lose it all within a few hours of gambling, a famous quote about this was said by Charles James Fox, he was one of many people who became bankrupt through gambling, he became bankrupt twice due to his gambling habits but he said "winning is the greatest pleasure in life, and loosing is the second". 

we also learnt that very big and famous games where based on other games from other cultures and eras for example the game Snakes and Ladders was based off of a Hindu game the would show you a journey of life across its board, this game was simplified and then adapted wha we now know as Snakes and Ladders.

i really enjoyed this part of the series and it talked about a lot of interesting things and theories tht have led to things as we know them today.

Paidea vs Ludus

today in lesson we learned many things one of those things was that Newman suggests that there are two types of games, these types are Paidea and Lodus in the short paragraphs below I will explain what each of them are.

Peidea

this is games or play that follow no rules, these types of games allow the players to do whatever they like, a simple example of a game that does this would be Minecraft as this allows the player to do or build whatever they want.from the very beginning.

Lodus

this is the opposite to Peidea because within this category the games that fall within it will always have an objective or a goal to complete before progressing through the game, these are games such as Call Of Duty, League of Legends and Need For Speed games, for example within Need For Speed games the player is always taking parts in races to build their reputation up and to buy and upgrade cars they may have or want this means even though a player may be driving wondrously around the map there are races and events for them to take part in at all times.

Newman then goes on to say that there are four different types of play and these are:
Agon      - Competitive play
Alea       - Game play based on chance
Ilinx        -  Game based on the movement within it
Mimicry  -  meaning simulation

	Paidea	Ludus
Agon	Skyrim	Beijing Olympics 2008
Alea	Risk of Rain	Card games (Rummy)
Ilinx	Skate 2	Trials HD
Mimicry	Minecraft	Need For Speed

So these are my notes for week two hope you like it and find it helpful 

notes for reading week one chapter one

"design now! start now! don't wait! don't even finish this conversation! just start designing go! now!"
this is a quote that is used within the first few lines of the chapter this instantly stood out to me and it tells me to forget everything else and just go and design.
say these magic words "I am a game designer" this is used repeatedly throughout the chapter saying always call yourself a game designer and nothing less because it says if you pretend to be something for long enough and do things that you think a game designer would do normally then eventually you will be a game designer because you will be able to do things you couldn't before.

if you aint dropping, you aren't learning and if you aint learning you aren't a juggler
this sentence is used to show that in all jobs failure is a good thing, because even though it may really annoy you or make you upset it will still make you better than before because if something is perfect then there is nothing to improve on so your product will be a one hit wonder but if you fail then eventually you will get closer and closer to completing the impossible.

this is a list of skills that is said that can be used for a games designer:

• Animation because most if not all modern games have characters that need to seem alive
• Architecture because a lot of games have big detailed structures that will be similar to real houses in different time periods
• Brain storming because you will need to come up with ideas in huge amounts and in short time periods
• Communication because you will need to talk with a lot of people if you are working in a team
• Creative writing because you will need to design fictional worlds, populations and story lines for the player to interact with
• History because alot of games are set in different time periods so knowing information about that time period will help with even the smallest of details when it comes to making the game
• Mathematics because you will need tyo calculate the risk analysis  and fit in the complex scoring systems.

these are just a few of many skills that are listed within this chapter but it goes on to say that listening is the best skill that you can have, this is because there are five main things that a game designer really needs to listen to and these are as follows:

• team 
• audience
• game
• client
• yourself

within the final few pages it says that I doesn't matter if you have a gift for what you do or not, this is because although someone may have a gift at doing something that doesn't mean that they will be interested in that specific area which means they may not put their full amount of effort into what they are doing whereas someone who doesn't have the natural gift will try their hardest to learn this skill and because it is an area of interest for them this means that they will be more likely to put more effort in than anyone else.

 

finally it says 

I AM A GAMES DESIGNER!!!!

This is a little questionnaire that I had taken on the first week of uni so ill tell you a bit about me based on the questions
Q= Question
A= Answer
Q1) What is the title of the book (fiction) you are currently and last read?
A1) The last book that I had read as I am currently not reading any was Fantastic Mr. Fox

Q2) What is the title of the book (Non-fiction) you are currently and last read?
A2) I was unable to remember the last book that I had read

Q3) What was the last live performance I attended (music, drama or dance)
A3) Sadly I have never been to and big names live so never

Q4) What was the title of the last movie/ film I had seen either in cinema or on film?
A4) The last film I had watched before being question was a DVD called Hot Tub Time Machine

Q5) How often do I read a newspaper (online or paper?)  
A5) I try to read a paper once a week to make sure I am aware of what is happening around me but I don't always read it so I pick one up every now and then

Q6) What was the last gallery/ museum/ exhibition I had been to?
A6) The last Museum or exhibition that I attended was a few years ago and that was a trip to Colchester castle with my former school

Q7) How many hours a week do I spend playing video games?
A7) I am the kind of person who will start playing a game a hours later wonder where the day has gone so I recon I spend around 20 to 30 hours a week on games maybe even more if it is holidays or breaks

Q8) How many hours a week do I spend playing games other than video?
A8) I personally don't really play a lot of board games or games in general that aren't video games occasionally I will play a game of football but apart from that I will so end around for hours a week playing board games this is things like monopoly as this games takes a long time to end

Well these where the questions and answers for the questionnaires that where taken out on the first day hope you enjoy reading and finding things out a little about me
many thanks
Kaden