Brown's Bit By Bit

The revolution that was the Wii console with its motion controls and financial clout is now but a distant memory. I remember people waiting in line for days to get a Wii when it debuted, the sales were gigantic and nearly everyone had a Wii. Your parents, your grandparents, and even your next door neighbor. It put Nintendo back on the map and they even toppled the competition in PlayStation and X-Box. Their competitors even tried to get in on their gold mine by creating their own motion control add ons. And then seemingly just as fast as the Wii rose to the top of the mountain it tumbled down and is now buried amongst the rubble. Why did this happen? How did a console that sold millions of units and was the apple in other console's eye fall so far off the map? A big part of this is that it was a gimmick. Much like Nintendo's massive failure in the Power Glove(It's so bad...) it relied almost solely upon the gimmick of the motion controls for sales. And just like the Power ...

Video games have crossed many barriers over the years. They have become not only financially successful but garnered critical acclaim and multiple accolades. They have made their mark on popular culture and arguably have just as much impact on it as any other form of media. But there is one last barrier that video games have not been able to cross and it is one that is absolutely mind-boggling.    It's movies based on video games. Video games themselves have been able to be just as financially profitable as the latest blockbusters. But when it comes to adaptations of video games into cinematic form, video games are not only behind the curve but have failed time and time again to even deliver a consistently good product. And this is rather ironic because games nowadays with their cinematic cutscenes have moments in them that are just as powerful and memorable as any film. And in the realm of cinema itself, video games have made an impression because more and more films ...

Hear me out here. I think there is definitely a psychological profile for people who like to play brutally difficult video games that don't really give you that many hints or clues of where to go next. They are the ones that love and cherish moments of no mercy, games that punish the player repeatedly and offer a challenge that is so great that it can take months of their time to finally conquer and overcome. These are individuals that love challenges. They love them so much that they become easily addicted and obsessed with overcoming and beating them. I would not surprised at all if a high percentage of these gamers are extroverts, rather than introverts. Where people like mysel f are more withdrawn and overcome challenges and obstacles but prefer to do it at our own pace with a clear path available. This is why games like Dark Souls really get on my nerves very quickly and aren't that much fun to me and I don't get wrapped up in their gaze and feel like I must pl...

Unlike many gamers I do not have that much experience with role playing games of any kind let alone table top games. I played a session of Dungeons and Dragons with my friends in high school a decade ago and I do not remember much other than there was something to do with a magic chicken. Other than that, nothing about the experience really enticed me or made me want to play it again. And I never did after that. Until recently in Digital Literacies class aka. Video Game Class after a recent play through of Call Of Cthullu, I never understood the appeal of table top role playing games. I thought they were too dull, nowhere near immersive enough, and they relied too much on the dungeon master's imagination and game plan and sometimes they turn the whole affair into a farce or make it too difficult and overall not that entertaining or fun. Call Of Cthullu though shattered those conceptions and showed me that table top role playing games can be every bit as immersive and fun as a con...

Halo was a watershed game for me when I was a teenager. It was the first time that I was playing a game that was actually a legitimate part of cultural lexicon. Before I had only been playing games that were no longer popular or not as popular as they once were. But when my step dad bought an x-box and introduced me to Halo, that finally changed. I played it religiously with my step dad after school on the Campaign mode and sometimes by myself and I was blown away by the game. I had never seen anything like it before. The graphics were stunning, the controls were varied but not too complicated, and the story was just as well written as the best sci-fi films. Halo was also a landmark for me in the sense that it was the first video game I remembered beating and finishing to completion. So many hours of my teenage years were spent playing Halo and it will always have a special place in my heart and it is one of the few games that made me feel a sense of euphoria and elation up...

I have recently started to play more mobile games. And what I have noticed as of late is that so many of these games provide multiple cheats for reaching certain point goals, or winning mini games within the game. These cheats are provided deliberately by the game developers and the coders to make the player continue playing as long as possible. Even basic trivia or riddle games have the same formula. Oh and if it is a game that requires lives, even if you run out, you can watch a video or another ad and get more lives or just wait till the next day and your lives are replenished. This takes a lot out of the challenge of gaming in my eyes and makes things a lot easier for the player and easier for the developers and the companies that made the game to make more money, but it cheapens the overall gaming experience. It essentially gives the player a free pass for their mistakes. But I cannot argue against the fact that it can be effective. Thanks to these cheats I was able to continue pl...

Now that some much needed history and context has been added as to what makes video games fun, it is time to take a good look at the circuits and computer chips and see what elements combine together to make a video game fun . After playing games on that I find to be particularly fun like Super Mario All Stars (SNES) and Donkey Kong Country (SNES) , I have come to the conclusion that what makes them and any other game fun is a combination of factors. Easy to comprehend and grasp controls, level design that is not frustrating or overly complex, innovative and creative graphics, satisfying sound effects and score, and near flawless mechanics. The fact that each game provided nostalgic memories and similar feelings associated with them was also present. To further solidify my theory, I played games that I did not find to be fun at all like Silver Surfer (NES) , and The Rocketeer (SNES) and they had some factors that were in common. They both did not have easy to co...