Open Culture

Robin Burke

GAM 224

Outline

Admin Open Culture

fan-domopen architectures / toolsmachinima

Cultural Resistance

Admin

Play papersstill not finished

Culture papers due next week

Open Culture

Culture is not produced by one groupand consumed by another(sometimes seems this way)

Culture is a web in which all parties participatein different ways

Open Game Culture

Games are like this one group produces games another group buys

But players have their own voice that voice influences what games are

produced, and (most important) that voice influences how

the games are understood

Non-game example

Star Wars Fanatical fans

in-depth knowledge of every piece of official Star Wars narrative Producers

not totally free to rewrite the story to their convenience the hard-core fans are a crucial audience

• big consumers• strong influencers of others

Appropriation Fans produce their own materials using the settings and characters

of the original• fan fiction• art, etc.

Star Wars images are popular symbols• http://www.moveonpac.org/savetherepublic/?id=5543-

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Questions to ask

What is the extent of fan involvement in the game? fan sites fan art / fiction

What do the publishers do to generate greater involvement? marketing materials hosted discussions public beta releases

Game Platforms

Platform Specific computer hardware, as in the

phrase "platform-independent". It may also refer to a specific combination of hardware and operating system and/or compiler, as in "this program has been ported to several platforms". It is also used to refer to support software for a particular activity, as in "This program provides a platform for research into routing protocols".

FOLDOC

Game Platforms

Open architecture game specifically designed to support

modification Designers think of the game software

as support software supports many possible games including the one they've written

Users acquire the game also the tools for modifying the game

Design issues

Declarative architecturehow to design the game so that its

components are declaredrather than programmed

End-user toolshow to create the toolsso that an end-user can produce

game content with them

Declarative Architecture

User Game Program

Hardware

User Game Engine

Hardware

Game Content

Procedural

Declarative

Engine Characteristics

Defines what properties can be associated with game objects

Defines what kinds of game assets (graphics, sound, etc.) can be used

Defines the limitations of the physics of the game world

Example

Unreal Tournament

Capabilities

First-person 3-D environment indoor multi-level

Characters health armor

Artifacts weapons ammo health power-ups emphasis on respawning of items

Supports multi-player indoor battles

Example 2

Warcraft III

Capabilities

3rd person 3-D environment outdoor tiled map

Characters health manna many others

Artifacts buildings characters are produced economic attributes

Supports single- and multi-player strategy games

Machinima

Machine + cinemaUsing computer game environments

to generate movies Repurposing the game tools

to support non-game endsthe game is "played" to generate

particular video sequenceswhich are treated as shots and edited

into movies

Examples

Next Wednesday

Culture papers due in class Grand Theft Auto III case study