Bibliography and Ludography

Bateman, C and Boon, R, (2006), 21st Century game design, Massachusetts, Charles River Media

Eskelinen, M, (2005), Introduction to Ludology and Narratology, [online] Available from http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/anticolonial accessed on 5.12.2009

Fullerton, T and Zimmerman, E, (2008), Game Design Workshop: A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, Burlington, Elsevier

Game Theory, Billson, D, (2010), Building Transmedia Worlds, [internet article] Available from http://gametheoryonline.com/2010/09/29/transmedia-video-game-toys-comics-films-movies-tv/ accessed on 9.11.10  

Jenkins, H, (2006), Convergence culture: where old and new media collide, New York University Press, London

Jenkins, H, (no date), Game design as Narrative Architecture, [online] Available from http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html accessed on 3.12.2009

Murray, J, (2008), Hamlet On the Holodeck, The MIT Press, Massachusetts

Salen, K and Zimmerman, E, (2004), Rules of Play: Games design fundaments, USA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Schell, J, (2008), The Art of Games Design: a book of lenses, Kaufmann Publishers, Burlington

Thomson, J, Berbank- Green, B and Cusworth, N, (2007), The Computer game design course: principles, practices and techniques for the aspiring game designer, London, Thames and Hudson

Video Games Blogger, (2010), Red Faction Movie part of THQ’s trans media strategy, [internet blog] Available from http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2010/04/05/red-faction-movie-part-of-thqs-trans-media-strategy.htm accessed on 10.11.2010

Wolf, M, (2008), The Video Game Explosion: a history from PONG to Playstation and beyond, Greenwood Press, United States of America

Ludography

Altered beast, [1988], Sega, [Arcade, DOS, Amstrad CPC, MSX, NES, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, PC Engine CD, Commodore 64, Virtual Console, Xbox 360 (XBLA, ZX Spectrum)]

Assassins Creed, [2007], Ubisoft, [PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
Windows]

Batman: Arkham Asylum, [2009], Rockstaedy Studios, [PlayStation 3,
Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows]

Castlevania, [2010], Konami, [PlayStation 3, Xbox 360]

Enslaved, [2010], Namco, [PlayStation 3, Xbox 360]

Fahrenheit, [2005], Atari, [Xbox/Playstation]

Infamous, [2009], Sony, [Playstation 3]

Myst, [1993], Broderbund, [PC]

Prototype, [2009], Activision, [Playstation/Xbox 360/Windows]

Resident Evil, [1996], Capcom, [Playstation]

Resident Evil 5, [2009], Capcom, [Playstation/Xbox 360]

Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions, [2010], Activision, [Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows,[2] PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360]

The Last Express, [1997], Broderbund, [Windows/MAC OS/DOS]

Tron: Evolution, [2010], Disney Interactive Studios, [Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii]

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, [2007],  Naughty Dog, [PlayStation 3]
   

Coherent and Expansive Worlds

I have been looking further into expansive worlds and when done well how creative they can be. I have also been looking into having a fully inclusive world for games that I create. For instance a scene in my game 'Wylde' would involve the protagonist saving a young pregnant woman. In the next game which would obviously be completely different in terms of style, genre etc you play the woman's son and there would be a brief cameo from the protagonist in Wylde.

Recently Marvel have done this as they bought a lot of their character rights back and began to weave them together i.e in the Incredible Hulk film, the military use weapons designed by Tony Stark the main character in Iron Man. They are forward planning, interweaving their characters stories so that they can bring 'The Avengers' movie to life, a film in which several of Marvel's join to form one 'super-team''. They had been doing this with their comics for years and it's very commonplace for one comics hero to team up with anothers. The small and unobtrusive ways they have started to coalesce their 'Marvel universe' was done very well and at no time do any of the cameo's or linkages seem forced, indeed many of them would be missed by people who weren't 'in the know' such as the scene in Iron Man 2 when Tony uses Captain America's shield to simply prop up his laser.

When done well, they add an element that can be enjoyed by dedicated game followers. Another example of a coalescent fiction world done well is the universe that Stephen King has created.King is a master of his craft and as with Marvel the links he provides to his other works are subtle but extremely enjoyable when found. An instance of this is in Insomnia when one of the protagonists mentions 'some banker who get sent up to Shawshank'.

This is something that I would definitely like to explore with my own games, I think a single interconnecting universe can be much more intricate than one that is created and recreated each time a media comes up. The cameo's an interconnections I would use would be subtle but apparent for those who enjoy the games I would create. 

With my 'game document' I began thinking of a way to coalesce universes that may be very different.

Incohesive Worlds

For my choice as an example of a badly realised fictional world, I chose the 'Underworld' films.

The reasons I chose this as my example are many, so I'll get started. The first reason is that in it's inception it decides to be nothing remotely original and simply play the cliche game. Yes it's a vampire movie but that did not mean it had to stick to vampire movie cliché’s. Film's like 'Let the right one in' have shown that a vampire movie can be just as successful without adhering to the stereotypes. 'Underworld' uses the stereotypes so much that the film almost becomes a self-parody. Cliche's such as the vampires are all pale, seductive and decadent to the point where they even have decadent names such as 'Viktor', 'Selene' and 'Kraven' and the werewolves are all hulking, feral and brutish. Other cliche's are rife such as all of the vampires wear black and the werewolves love nothing more than having their shirts off.

Another of the reason's I think this is an example of a bad coherent world is that, the film at first seems to create the illusion that this is all set in some fantasy world unlike our own where strange creatures roam the land like Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials ' novels, however we soon discover it's actually set in the modern day. The way that the Director/Screenwriter meshes the fantastical with the modern world does not work in any way, especially  when the same blueish dark hues are applied to the modern settings it looks like a film has been put over the camera lens for no reason.

I also think this film fails to create a cohesive world as it falls into a common trap in movies, the modern world and indeed the characters do not react to having fantastical elements in them. The human character of 'Michael Corvin' is never overly shocked that leather clad vampires and bare chested werewolves not only exist but are running all over the place. He never seems in any real state of shock or disbelief. For me this further ruins the film as although you take a leap of faith in accepting the films fantastical/supernatural elements, you expect that a the human characters would be a little surprised at their existence.

Finally, I think that another reason the film fails in the creation in it's world is due to  it's dialogue which was poorly written and seemed again to make the film set in some other world. It was also just poorly written in terms of language, an example is in the opening line itself...

"The war had all but ground to a halt in the blink of an eye." ... Not a great metaphor; if something 'grinds to a halt' it's a slow process and for a slow process to happen in the blink of an eye? It just doesn't make a lot of sense. Pretentiousness for the sake of pretentiousness.

And then there are the sequels...