Comparison of Whitehouse.gov

I compared http://www.whitehouse.gov/, from October 30, 2003 and October 29, 2013. In 2003 the site was simple white, blue some pictures. It seemed quite easy to use and navigate and not hard on the eyes but it was not smooth the page just cuts in half. In 2013 it is blue and white smooth corners and it fits the screen. Navigation seems pretty easy on the 2003 website but on the 2013 version unless you know where to look you will be there for a while trying to find it because someone like me knows little about the government and everything is put in tabs and clumped together and it makes no sense. On the 2003 version everything is on the side in easy to understand links. The 2003 maybe ugly but it is easy to navigate, the 2013 version may be pretty but terrible to navigate. I prefer the ugly and the easy navigate because it was simple and I could find what I needed too.

Reddit Then and Now- Jacob Shaker

The Internet has changed, things have become faster, better, sleeker.  Websites have improved, evolved, reformed.  Ten years ago the domain name www.Reddit.com was bought as a domain name, eight years ago it began as the Internet news source power house we know today.  Reddit allows users to input content, which other uses can judge giving it "upvotes" or "downvotes".  The best posts are brought up to stand before the masses on the "front page" the goal of all users. Reddit has over time developed more systems to connect and divide us over the divisible lines of the internet.

1. Upvoting/Downvoting- Reddit has allowed each user a vote in there content, pushing good to the forefront of their site and moving the bad to the depths.

2. Adds- Reddit has been mainly a fan run site with no adds in the beginning, over time they have enjoyed one prominently featured add that will display an "add" about half the time.

3.  Random SubReddit Button- Allowing you to delve even deeper into the mystery that is Reddit, find the darkest corners and improve the content.

4. Reddit Gold- A purchasable service that Reddit takes NO MONEY from, allowing them to give you better content, services and products.

5. Community- As Reddit increased in popularity, as did it's user base, improving it's content and filtration.

6. Help Bar- At the bottom of the page there is a bar with help full links to lead you to hard to find places.

Though Reddit has had no drastic changes, it's subtle evolution over time has improved it such that it can handle it's own rampant popularity and has even become self aware.

Images that Mr. Todd should look at.

Miniclip 2003

1. Better Graphics

2. Search Bar 

3. More visually pleasing

4. The use of animated ads

5. Better site design and layout

6. More user friendly
7. The ability to share with friends on facebook, youtube, google+ etc
8. Being able to use the site in different languages
9. The ability to have an account
10. More information about the company itself, the privacy polices, your options as a user, etc.

Old And New Google

Google was created on 11 Nov 1998. Old Google's index contained 25 million pages...it now contains more than 11 billion pages.Old Google could use Stanford and Linux searches. Old Google had copyrights on the main page. Old Google could send you emails and archived your email. Old Google had an exclamation point. New Google has images, mail, and much more. The New Google now supports advertising. New Google also has privacy and terms. Also with new Google you can now change the search settings.

Left 4 Dead 2 - Brett Griffin

The special zombies usually have different ways of killing them but it tends to consist of people just shooting everything and everyone. When people see a they will probably keep backing up until its dead so it doesn't jump on them. The Smoker doesn't really have a technic for it, usually you just check tops of building or else it is harder to save your teammate when they hang them from buildings. The boomer usually is just run and shoot it far away from any teammates, one so it can’t spit on you, two so it doesn't explodes on you. The jockey is usually hard to find and kill before it jumps on you, just like the hunter it will hide behind corners to get you by surprise, if one does jump on you keep trying to walk to teammates or it will take you somewhere and kill you. The charger is usually going to be waiting close spaces to get multiple people or in doorways cause they know you have to go that way, survivors just try to hide behind objects to stop their charge and shoot them to death. People react to spitters the same way as boomers, stay out of spitter range so it can’t spit on you or the death pool spit doesn't get you either(it is bad to get stuck in).

Left 4 Dead 2 Strategies- Jacob Shaker

Left 4 Dead 2 Strategies

Jacob Shaker

In Left 4 Dead 2 you slaughter hordes of zombies mercilessly. These zombies a generally generic in nature, though there are exceptions to this rule.  There are eight zombies total that have special skills and powers so that they can kill the player, today we will ignore the two "boss" zombies and focus on the other six

The Hunter- The Hunter uses long jumps to pin down allies and attack them until someone free's them.
Counter- Stay together and be aware of any incapacitated players.

The Smoker- The Smoker can strangle players from long distances.
Counter- Stay together and be aware of any incapacitated players.

The Boomer- The Boomer can spew acidic bile onto players, dealing damage over time.
Counter- Be aware of Boomers and avoid their bile.

The Jockey- The Jockey can ride players, taking control of their actions, pulling them away from others.
Counter- Stay together and be aware of any incapacitated players.

The Charger- The Charger can knock a large group of players back and start mauling one of them.
Counter- Spread apart so that your not knocked back and help any incapacitated players.

The Spitter- The Spitter spits large pools of acid the deals damage to players who stand in it.
Counter- Avoid the acid.

Left 4 Dead 2

Well since each zombie has its own attack, you're either being attacked by it or you shot at it. There is no certain way to confront each one, mostly just to dodge the attack. A good strategy is to have a tank person up front, some in the back and another guy watching the roof tops and go get gas cans. And the group should never leave the group and they should all stay together. If one guy leaves the group, then the whole group may die and they will all blame that guy. So its always best to stay with group, go slow through hordes, gather any ammo and weapons and never leave any one behind. If you don't follow any of these, you might not get very far. Also, Don't Ever Shot Or Disturb The Witch!. She is very mean and evil and will kill you in 1 shot.

L4D2

They encourage the players to use teamwork and find out different ways to kill the special infected.

Going anywhere by yourself because you will probably get killed.

Hunters: They are made for downing single or strayed survivors.
Smokers: They are made for pulling people off high places for a huge health decrease or insta kill.
Boomers: They are made for when you are low on health and cause a wave of zombies to kill you.
Jockey: They are made for riding survivors off edges and running away and doing it again after they heal.
Chargers: They are made for plowing a whole team off a ledge that causes insta kill.
Spitters: They are made for helping other special infected to cause massive damage.
Tank(Extra): They are made for going after the weaker survivors because they can keep up and will do massive damage. They can do a special move that requires both triggers to be hit at the same time its called the hay maker. Basically they will smash the ground and at the same time will pick up a rock and throw it at the survivors.

The six special zombies in left 4 dead 2 change the ways you can play the game. You have to stay away from dark rooms because of hidden boomers and spitters. Rooftops have smokers on them that will drag you. Although the game isn't meant to be stealthy one can play like that. You can play with a strategy like having a "tank" a guy with a shotgun up front. A guy in the back with an AR shooting the zombies on rooftops. You can have a guy with a melee weapon in the back to fight off the hoard while moving throughout the map. This strategy has worked in many cases. Shotguns are super efficient in the game and can do collateral damage taking out the hoards easier. Melee weapons are very good in situations when you are getting surrounded because you can hit or pushback with it or you can spam the click button and cut heads off.

^^^^^ This is a total of 160 words not including these ones. 

Left 4 Dead 2

The special zombie encouraged players to keep moving and keep there head on a swivel. The zombies also encouraged the player to not  leave your teammates. By staying near your teammates you can get healed and saved if you are getting attacked. If i was a spitter i would  counteract the players ability and spit on them. From that my fellow zombies would attack the players when they are spit on. The acid would also damage the player which will make it easier to kill them. Now if i was a jockey i would jump  on the players back and move them into a group of zombies.

Left 4 Dead 2 : Special Zombies

       I didn't have a specific way of dealing with different types of zombies. Despite the fact that I was almost literally thrown into the game, after a playing with the controls a little to figure out what was what, I found that you pretty much just had to shoot everything that wasn't your team mates. I was aware of the different types of zombies and the two in particular that I had to go out of my way to avoid would have been the ones that spit acid (simply because I would get stuck in the acid), and the tanks. I did get the hang of the acid spitters quickly however, and the only thing I really had to avoid, was the acid itself. The tanks, were extremely annoying. They were the only ones I had real trouble with, and I almost died quite a few times (and probably would have had we not switched players at the last second)
       I had never played this game before, but I really enjoyed it. The fact that there was little to no navigation at all (something that I would normally despise) didn't bother me too much. It wasn't too difficult to figure out how to play, and it was easy to get into. The idea of different types of zombies that had other powers and were thrown into the mix with the normal zombies, was quite interesting to me. I think the game would have been a bit more of a challenge if it had been set to a harder level, in which I would have been able to see the effects of the special zombies better, instead of just shooting into a crowd of zombies and killing every thing in sight.

Left 4 Dead 2

These special zombies encourage player to work with their team members and encourages them to stay near their teammates. Staying nearby to teammates can help when you get attacked, as they can heal you, or if there is a larger amount of zombies, they can help you with their extra fire power. The specialized zombies discourage individual excursions from the group, as it become extremely hard to survive by yourself, and it is vital to stay near others for their healing abilities. If I was the Spitter, I would be able to counter the group abilities and I would also force the player to fire from a distance, as I could spit at them from a distance. This would make it easier to kill off the players because they couldn't heal each other. Finally, my abilities would stun players for a small amount of time since the acid stays for a few seconds, which could be long enough for a player to die.

Left 4 Dead 2

  Left 4 Dead 2 is a game about zombies and you and your team mates need to survive. Though out the game  you encounter zombies take the boomer for example it can vomit and cover players and the player in my opinion you need to run and shoot to stay alive. It is kinda like Call of Duty or Modern  Warfare you run and shoot until you get to you place you need to go.  To make it pass the game you need to get past zombie you adapt to the environment if it at night or during the day you adapt like in a real world situation.  While playing the game I notice that you have enough ammo in your gun to make it to the next ammo replenish box. Now it their a little less and you run out and have to use your melee weapon the game would be a little more harder. For example you run into a charger and you shoot him but then you ammo runs out,  so you have to use your melee weapon to get pass him or just run in a building.  Basically this game is a run and shoot game.    

Left 4 Dead 2...again

In the game Left 4 Dead 2 players are forced to fight off hordes of zombies. Most of the zombies are normal easy to kill zombies but there are a few special zombies that will cause you some trouble. In order to get passed these zombies the player is forced to come up with strategies to get around these annoying zombies. These zombies will cause more damage at short and long range distances, will cause you to be stuck in one place for an extended period of time or just plain out kill you. So the the player is forced to play slow and observe every little detail in the game in order to take down these special zombies. Because these zombies make you play slow it discourages the player from rushing around the levels and it makes them observe the level more. These zombies can be annoying but if the player knows how to deal and get around these zombies the player is in for one fun game that they will never forget.

Left for Dead 2

The six main special infected in the game make the player play like he is in call of duty. I say this because you need to be able to spin around and shoot a hunter out of mid air before he jumps on top of your player. Left for Dead 2 is a point and shoot game, when you come in contact with the special infected you have to play a little more conservative, depending on the infected you come in contact with you will need to adjust but only for very few. In left for dead you don't really need to adjust, with many of the infected you can just "walk around". The spitter you can walk around and kill, hunter, hopefully shoot out of air and the tank you can just move of the way. And the boomer is just really easy to kill, not changeling. 

Left for Dead 2

Left for Dead is a team game that you have to rely on your teammates to save you in case of an emergency with the zombies you need them to help you beat the level. With the certain zombies for example say you have a hunting zombie coming at you, you always want to be moving and keep your distance from the zombie while shooting. So being strategic in each situation for each zombie will always help you beat the zombies and the level. The zombies encourage specific behaviors such as anxiety and stress because they have to react in a certain way like running faster and then have to be nervous when in battle. The zombies also encourage good behavior because some zombies will do little damage and they wont be close to you making it easier to move around and kill the zombies causing less stress and more fun. Some strategies would be to keep you distance from the zombies while killing them, also whenever you get a chance re-load and run to a new place to be safe for a couple seconds. You also might want to be moving a lot if you can but if you cant you always just want to move side to side while shooting the zombies these are some strategies you may use to win the gaem.

Left 4 Dead 2: Writing Assignment

 

 In Left 4 Dead 2 the player is tasked with fighting hordes and hordes of zombies, among them are several types of special zombies that attack the player in unique ways, they are as follows.

-The Hunter can leap long distances and pin a player down, attacking them until an ally frees them.

-The Smoker can constrict a player from long distances and drag them across the map, strangling them helplessly until an ally frees them.

-The Boomer can vomit and cover players it hits in bile, which obstructs their vision and calls a horde of lesser zombies to attack that player, they also affect nearby players with this bile when they die.

-The Jockey can leap onto a player and control their movements, attacking them and steering them away from their allies until an ally frees them.

-The Charger can charge through a group of players, grabbing one and knocking all others in it's path to the ground, they will then beat the player they grabbed until an ally frees them.

-The Spitter can spit a large puddle of acid from a distance, which does a large amount of damage to human players who stand in it.

Ignoring the other two 'boss' zombies, how does the behavior of these six special zombies encourage players to behave in certain ways? What do they discourage? What sort of strategies are specific special zombies the best suited to countering?

If i had to hang out with any of those people in the movie Indie game: the movie it wouldn't be anybody because they are not my type of social group.

Indie Game the Movie

       Indie Game the Movie, helped to give a good perspective on how complicated it is to make a game, and to be a game developer. If you think about how long it took to make the game Fez (About 6 years) imagine how long it would take to make a game like Skyrim (About 3.5 years) or Halo 3 (About 3 years). Now granted, it takes bigger companies like Bethesda or Bungie a shorter amount of time to make these games, because they have a lot more people working for them that are involved in developing. For example, Skyrim had a team of 90 developers working on it at a time, and Halo 3 had 120 developers. Much unlike the developers of Fez or Super Meat Boy, who only had a two person team each. Imagine if there had only been 2 people working on Skyrim, a game that already took about 3.5 years to develop? It would have taken a lot longer then 3.5 years for it to be developed. (Approximately 13 years if I did my math correctly)

       As for the content of the movie itself, getting to see parts of the process in being a game designer and a game developer was very interesting to me. These guys are dedicating their lives and sacrificing so much for a game, that may or may not bring them any income, or have any success at all. They are under so much pressure from the media and from people who have absolutely no idea how difficult their job is, and what their going through. They have to meet these deadlines in order to make an income, and if there is one game breaking glitch that can't be fixed within the time limit, then they could lose, a huge break. I can't exactly say that this is a life that I would want to live, but I do know what it is to be passionate about something and I respect them for that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

http://www.statisticbrain.com/halo-statistics/

http://www.statisticbrain.com/skyrim-the-elder-scrolls-v-statistics/


       

TheIndieMovie:JacobShaker

The Indie Movie follows the experience of three developing company, the makers of Fez, Super Meat Boy and of Braid.  It shows how each of these developers goes through their own growing pains of developing these games.

The maker of Fez has been developing for several years, having split off with his partner he finds himself with legal trouble while trying to make his game.

The maker of Braid released his game to great success, but finds himself depressed when players do not understand the deeper meaning behind the game.

The makers of Super Meat Boy find themselves in a time crunch to release their game before a harsh deadline, but are able to release it in time and sell over 20,000 on day 1.

Indie Game: The Movie

Indie Game: The Movie was not that great of a movie, because I though it was going to be about Indie games but it was more of a documentary not a movie. I like some indie games but not all my favorites are Minecraft, and Castle Crashers. The ones they pointed out I don't really like. I don't like documentary type movies.

Indie Game the Movie Thoughts

In Indie Game the Movie, there were 3 designer teams. 2 solo people, Jonathon Blow, and Phil Harrison. The team of two was Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes. Both of the solo developers have an internet reputation for being pretentious. Tommy seemed to me to be overly reactive to some of the things that happened, but Edmund was pretty awesome (though he swore as often as a Californian says "like")

We were shown this movie to learn about other perspectives game developers can have. We needed to see the differences in the mindset between indie developers and non-indie developers. We needed to see how personal indie developers took their games.

Indie Gaming The Movie

I liked the movie because of all the lessons learned throughout it. There were a few important lessons learned in the movie such as. You can accomplish anything that you set your mine to do, in the movie this is showed by them as in the two people who made Super Meat Boy and the one guy who made Fez. They only had one to two people to finish a project that will satisfy the public and the Microsoft users. Another lesson shown is all bad things must end, for instance in the movie the one guy who made Fez, when he was going to show the game to the public the game had so many glitches, and he thought that the guy would never sign the paper. But the one guy who made the game had someone speak to the other guy who contributed very little to the game and they reached an agreement to sign the paper.

Indie game movie

   

     Indie Game The Movie the movie to me was pretty good. I like the movie because it really got into the lives of Tommy and the guy with the weird beard. I think that Tommy was more nervous and freaking out about the game then the guy with the beard was. Don't get me wrong he was freaking out to but not as much as Tommy was. The guy from FEZ he had some problems with his game and his former business partner. That guy was to attach to his game and he did say that in the movie. He said that he redesigned the game four times.
     Why this movie was important to watch was to show the different steps in making a game. For example when Super Meat Boy launch it wasn't on the xbox market. That to me and them was a very important thing because like Tommy said it is what is going to sell the game. Then the Fez guy he went to Pax 2011 in Boston to sell his game and that is another important thing to making a game you need to sell the product. Advertise is the best thing to do when making a game. This movie to me was great.

Why Indie games are the base layer of gaming

The world of indie games throughout the whole gaming market is a global market always being affected by all levels of gamers. With an average gamer having the ability to be able to sit down and create a game that he truly loves, and something really personal about himself that he or she is able to input into a game scenario I think it has a huge part of what gaming is today. Large game designers feed off of this passion from small game designers and learn from independent games on what people like or dislike about about certain games and their motives and controls. In the movie Indie Game the Movie, I believe this is displayed very nicely throughout the whole the movie with all the struggles from creating a game to the amount of stress that comes along with he creation of something so basic but major at the same time. It really gives an in-depth look into the world of creating games, and I believe that this was a very good movie that really gave great info on the topic of indie games.    

Indie Game: The movie Nic Beaulieu

I thought that Indie Game:The movie, was really good. It gave insight on the lives on indie game developers, what it takes to create a game, and how much time and energy you have to make the game personal to you, and something that you think people will enjoy. It showed how the developers gave up almost everything in order to create these games. I think the movie was important to watch in class because it was informative about the process of advertising and releasing the games independently, and how you have to sometimes, take huge risks and give up everything for them.

INDIE GAME CLEVER TITLE

This movie brought up many different emotions while I watched it. Being able to see how the designers make a game and what they have to go through, mentally and emotionally, was interesting.
I thought the movie connect the viewers with the creators of the movie, which was an important task. The pair of developers I think was the most interesting. They were working on this game for reasons very specific to themselves, but at the same time, they were working on this game for their families. First, they have put in the game how they felt, and the feelings of when they were growing up. This was special because the game was a double of a story through these peoples feelings, along with a complete and solid game. I thought it interesting that they had to crunch and finish the game early, yet they still didn't get the game released on its scheduled date. After all that work, disappointment like that can not be taken simply. The way each of them handled the stress reflected about who they were AND I enjoyed watching that.

Indie Game: The Movie

I thought the movie itself was quite boring. Some parts of the movie was funny when we saw the reaction of the players when they were playing super meat boy.

Indie Game The Movie Reflection

For the past several days we watched this movie. In the movie it showed the struggles and achievements that Indie game designers have to go through in order to publish their game. The main concern was timing as it is hard to work by yourself or in a small groups and get as much done as a major game design company can. This causes a lot of stress towards the designer and makes them have to work twice sometimes three times as hard.

Overall this was a good movie that should be shown again, as it shows the difficulties of being an indie game designer and how the major companies treat these indie game designers. It also shows how these games are more deep in thought and require more skill to play.

Indie Game the Movie Review

Indie game the movie was important because it showed us what it was like to be a developer for an indie game. The reason we saw it was to see how a developer feels under extreme pressure and how we might feel put in that position. The movie also showed some of the challenges you could face while making a game, like bugs that break the game, bad reviews, and not being paid.

Indie game the movie

I think that the movie was a bit boring but I did like the games in it. The movie was teaching on how the developers felt when making the game. I wanted the movie to be more on how it was made and what was put into making it, not on how they felt. Its more like a documentary of the time making the game, not so much a movie about a indie game. It was a ok movie but it could of been better.

Game developer

I believe that the movie was very important because it taught how life would be if we decided to become indie developers. The movie said that when we become indie developers that we should not be disappointed when our game doesn't sell that much. Even though our game does awful that doesn't mean we have to get depressed about it.I really liked the movie, how it showed how they live their lives as indie developers.

Nic Beaulieu Binary Project

Group Research Project

1 What was your project, explain it in detail.

Our project was to create a podcast explaining binary. We needed to talk about what its used for, how, and why its needed for everyday life and technology.

2. What was your specific role in the project (what did you do?)

My role was to create the podcast, set up the garage band, intro, outro, record, etc. Chris was the speaker and Jacob collected information. Davis was at testing nearly the whole project.

3. What grade do you deserve for this project?

I think i deserve a b+ or an A, because of my input with the information and setting up the base for recording the information.

4. Who was in your group? what grade do they deserve?

Chris, Jacob, and Davis were in my group. I think they all deserve the same grade as i do, because they all had important roles in putting the podcast together. Davis couldn't input much because he was gone, but i'm sure he would have had something to add to our project.

5. What was hard about your Project?  What was easy about your Project?

Our project was fairly easy. All we needed to do was gather information on Binary, get a quick draft typed up, prepare an intro and beat on garageband and record. I think the hardest part of our project was just getting a good recording done, there was always some noise in the background, or a stutter that made us have to restart the podcast, but we ended up finishing fairly quickly.

6.What did you learn from doing this project?

I learned how useful Binary is and how it is necessary for technology to work, its roots, and how complex, yet simple it is. I learned that binary makes much more sense than our counting system, but is hard to understand because we’re not taught it.

7.What was your final opinion regarding your topic?

I don't think this project really required us to form opinions, but i can say that i think binary is a really cool numerical system because its how computers “think”.

Super Mario

In this game they made a control system that was smooth without any movement glitches etc. It is important for a game to have this or people wont play it. People want a game that feels right when you play it. Even though the mario game had good controls if you'd die you had to restart completely which gets very frustrating.

Mario Game

On Friday we played Super Mario bros in class and to me the game to me gave me a really good state of mine of flow. I highly dislike the game because of the way it goes, for instance if you die a certain amount of times you have to start over. I also dislike it because of the controls are spread out and not really good controls to use. Games that gives me that felling is Black ops 2 because it makes me feel good when i destroy kids but when I go up against people who are ranked better than me a get a little worried but I got that much harder and sometimes win. One activity that gives me this felling is a friendly game of football. if someone out plays me I always want to find another way to get passed the defender and then get points, so when someone is beating me I go more tryhard and try to win most of the time I dont but I have fun.

Super Mario Bros.

     Friday we played Super Mario Bros online. It was a strange game, and I think it was kind of dumb. There were a lot of parts in it that you died for no reason at all. It was difficult to progress through the levels and by the time I managed to get to level 4, my time was up. I have played other Mario games, such as Mario Kart on the N64 and another one for the DS that were alright, but this version online just wasn't much fun and I found it to be rather irritating. As for the chart this game for me was a tie between apathy and boredom. It didn't give me anywhere near that perfect flow. A game that might give me this flow would be Resident Evil 5. It is a challenging game, but I've played through it at least 7 times, and I know a lot about how the game works. Resident Evil 5 is still a challenging game, but I feel comfortable playing it because, again, I have played it before. I'm used to the controls and the mechanics, and I know what to expect.

Research project-Group Response Nic Beaulieu

Our topic was whether we thought violent video games had a negative effect on the players behavior and attitude. The two sides to our topic were whether games did effect the player negatively, or they had no effect, or a positive effect. My role was arguing on the positive/no effect side.Overall I would give our groups project a B, we had some problems with 'who was in charge' and we argued a little about filming and some points in our controversial topic, which makes sense i guess.Cam, Matt, Nick and Jacob were in our group, and i think they deserve the same grade. I think the hardest part was getting our group to agree on something,the easiest part is gathering facts. I learned a little about the positive effects of video games on the player. My opinion is that video games don't effect players in a bad way.

Full screen Mario

      On Friday we played Super Mario and the game was played on the computer. This game to me it flow was a good pace for me. I like in the game all of the details in the background because the game has your eyes on the main character. Playing the game it felt kinda frustrating because when you die four times it would reset the game and you would have to start from the beginning I didn't like that about the game. To me the game was stressful because it is something that I don't usually play.    

Super Mario Flow: Nic Beaulieu

 Today when we played Super Mario, I thought the flow was very close to the ideal. The controls were smooth, the game pace was really good, and it was like i was worried about dying, but relaxed that i cold just start over. I personally thought the game was a little challenging, which made it a lot more rewarding getting to new levels and completing the ones i had been stuck on.

Mario Bros

For me I think the game did not have any flow. This was mostly because of the controls making the game experience miserable. No I could not feel any flow because the controls made the game much more challenging than it should have been. The specific game that gives me the Flow feeling is the game Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This game takes a sure amount of skill, and has moderately challenging tasks, which creates a state of flow. Outside of gaming, I think playing sports gives me this state of flow. When I have the ability to make a difference in a sport, that gives me control, but also gives me a good balance of worry and anxiety, as in hockey, I know I can make a difference, but I know I might get hammered if I don't get my head up.

Super Smash Bros

In Super Smash Brothers the mental state of flow was present in that you need to stay focused in order to react to the amount of lag that happens after you press the buttons, your surroundings and to the enemy's that are present. Playing this game you do feel the sensation in the form of pride when you get the power ups, beat a level and even skip some levels. Games that give me a feeling of goodness inside are any multiplayer of a fps game. The rush of fast paced games are awesome and required more detailed quick thoughts. Activities that give me this feeling outside of gaming are playing sports and watching other people play the games I love.

Cziksentmihalyi’s Flow

The contemporary Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has studied in depth the idea of creativity, engagement, and fun. He created a theory he calls Flow. Flow is "...the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity."  Today I want you to play the 1985 game Super Mario Bros. Think about its mechanics and its objectives.  Does this game induce the mental state of Flow for you? Can you use it to feel the sensation described by Cziksentmihalyi’s Flow? What games give you that feeling? What activities outside of gaming get you to that mental state?  After you play the game (linked below), write a one paragraph blog post responding to these questions.   


http://www.fullscreenmario.com/

Nintendoland

After playing Nintendo land and seeing what types of games are contained in it, I came to the conclusion that, yes the game did have a unique play type with players seeing different things, but the game was terrible and boring. I thought it was pretty cool how you could have a single player have a different role from the rest of the players playing which can be done in many different games. This game helped focus this but t say the least, I have nothing good to say about this game. I don't really want to get into it but, it was not fun, it was boring and dull and even though it displayed what we were  trying to show, there are plenty of games that show it but are not awful.

asymmetrical gameplay

I personally like the balance of power that each player had. The single player could easily pcik off people when they went alone, which forced the three players to work together, creating a more difficult scenario for the single player. I have played other minigames with this idea, and I have thought about the balance in the game. The other game involveed slow motion, and the single player could move natural speed. The slow motion players had more powerful wepons that neutralized the single player, so working together was key.

Luigi's Mansion and Asymmetrical multiplayer

I thought that Luigis mansion was a very fun minigame, but only for a short period of time. It seemed like it would be fun for a little while, maybe 30 minutes or so, before it came repetitive, but thats all you can really expect from a minigame. Luigis Mansion was a really good example of asymmetrical multiplayer, where the players have greatly varied abilities. The humans ran around with flashlights trying to shine it on the invisible ghost, who tried to avoid the flashlights, and grab the unsuspecting human players.

Luigis mansion. The game uses a dumb multiplayer concept. The game is ran off the wii-u  which is a terrible console. The game wasn't balanced at all for the ghost was almost impossible to beat. The controls were easy to use however the game doesn't tell you which player you are in the multiplayer.

Asymmetrical Multiplayer and you -Jacob Shaker

Asymmetrical Multiplayer and You - Jacob Shaker

Asymmetrical Multiplayer is a game in which many players face one "boss" like opponent played by another player.  Asymmetrical Gameplay has always been a part of gaming, one of the earliest examples being Dungeons and Dragons. D&D pits a "party" of heroes against the world controlled by the Gamemaster, the Gamemaster controls everything other than the heroes, they are vastly more powerful than the average player and is the groups goal to overcome the Gamemaster's challenges.  Luigi's Mansion is similar to this style of play, one player controls the ghost who is invisible and hunting the other players, the other players in contrast are vulnerable to the ghost and are armed with a flashlight with a frighteningly small battery life. The ghost attempts to catch the other players as the players are trying to shine their lights on the ghost. This type of gameplay allows an vast amount of possibilities for new and exciting games.

Nintendo land

The mini game Luigi's mansion in Nintendo land was bad I did not like this game. The controls were backwards, you move slower with the flashlight shining (which is really stupid), there was no point to this game. It was just an invisible character in a ghost suit grabbing people. It was a birds eye view (I don't like those types of games), the "ghost" can be seen by any form of light, and the flashlights ran out of battery in like 1 minute. I prefer first person, side scroller, and third person angles. In conclusion this game is really bad in my opinion.

Asymmetric multiplayer

The game keeps the asymmetric mutliplayer balance by giving the lone player special abilities and adding in random factors. Both sides won about an equal amount of times. Another example of asymmetric multiplayer is the PropHunt mod for Team Fortress 2. In it 6 on 6, but even though only one side has guns, it is still balanced. One team can turn into any object to hide, but can't attack at all. The hunter team only has a limited time to find them all. The ingenuity of the hiding side is tested and the eye of the hunter team is tested.

Nintendoland: Luigi's Mansion

Luigi's Mansion was a game where four players were playing against one. The ghost who is invisible, goes around trying to catch the four other players. The players can only see the ghost if they shine their flashlight on him, but the flash light can run out of battery, so you have to go around and find more. I got to play the ghost and managed to catch everybody within 3 minutes. It wasn't a very challenging game. They tried to make it balanced because since the ghost is invisible, he clearly has more of an advantage. So the other players get flashlights, but if they had the flashlights on all the time, then they would have an advantage, so the lights run out of batteries and they have to look for more. The ghost can also re-appear and when it does so it moves faster.

Nintendo Land- Luigi's Mansion

On Friday we play Luigi's Mansion part of Nintendo Land. This game puts anywhere from 1 player verse the ghost to 4 players against the ghost. Obviously the ghost has different abilities in order to survive which makes this game mode very interesting and competitive.

The players must use their flash lights to shine on the ghost in order to take it down. The ghost however is invisible and has the abilities to dash (but gives away its position) and the ability to take out their flashlights.
This makes the game very balanced and interesting to both watch and play

Another example the gives different players different experiences with the characters they is King of Zombies within ZombiU. The person on the tablet uses the touchscreen to place different types of zombies across the multiplayer map, with strategic locations designed to take down the human player on the controller. This gives each player a different experience in their multiplayer play.

Luigi Manison

          On Friday we played Nintendo Land on the wii and wii u. And the Mini game was luigi manison. The game had good visuals and the controls were pretty good. In the game the person who had the wii u and played the ghost had the most power in the game because you could see everything. That part I like the most. While playing one of the other players it seemed that you had to shine your flashlight repeatably to find where the ghost was. If the ghost caught you then you where dead. To me the game look great and the sound wasn't the best but it was all right to me.

The Game Luigi's Masion

Th e game i did't get to play but is was able to watch other people play it. The game looked confusing but then i was able to figure out how to do it. They had a good idea on having 4 players and 1 ghost but some of the maps were bad. I'm not a fan of the Wii but sometimes i would play it. If i had to choose between that game and Mario cart, I would choose Mario cart.

Luigi's Mansion

The game we played was Luigi's mansion it was fun. It makes you sit on the edge of your seat because you don't know where the monster or ghost is. You have to use your flashlight to defeat the ghost and you can't see him. You can run out of battery on your flashlight which makes the game a little more challenging. I like how you can revive people by shining your light at them.

The Luigi's Mansion mini game was not really fun. The mechanics where you just walked around and flashed a light, or tried to eat people were simple and boring. Playing verses other real players was kind of fun, however the game it's self was lacking in graphics, game play, sound, and fun.

Luigi's Mansion: 3spooky5me

On Friday we played Nintendoland, the main attraction of which was the mini-game based off of Luigi's Mansion. This game demonstrated the concept of asymmetric multiplayer, or multiplayer where different players are granted dramatically different abilities. Think about how this game pits four players against one, yet still feels balanced through the lone player's different abilities. Think of another idea (Or existing example) of asymmetric multiplayer in video games and explain how it could be (Or is) Balanced around the vastly different tools players are given to work with.