About This Week's Lesson:
This week features Round 2 of Combat in the Arena of Ideas featuring your best shots at the First-Person and Action game categories. The first part of this week's lessons delve into The Birth of a Notion, Part 2 as we examine your Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior roles in developing creative ideas. The second part of the lesson reviews Pre-Planning Documents with particular attention paid to hot-rodding your Inception Document that will help you with the Graded Course Project.
These links feature the supplemental material that you are responsible for knowing before the next exam. Be sure to click on every link in this section!
Article: Video Games that Get Lost in Translation by Steven Kent
The US and Japanese markets for electronic games are very different. It is imperative that you learn why. This article, and those in the Optional Reading section (below) may help you to pitch the right game for your Graded Course Project, too!
Japanese Gamers Shun Online Titles (July 13, 2004)A Nikkei-related report from Japan has revealed evidence of the long held assumption that Japanese gamers tend to be less interested in online games than those from other parts of the world.
When a survey of three hundred Japanese online users were asked "Have you ever played a premium online game?" 54.3% answered with "No, and I have no plans to." This actually represents an increase in apathy from last year, when the same survey was also carried out.
When asked "What do premium online games need to become more popular?" 56.0% recommended "Better prices" and 20.3% "Better payment systems."
The report itself concludes that improved payment systems and more interesting content were the main barriers to increasing the popularity of online gaming in the country.
Optional Reading:These supplemental links are worth pursuing only if you are seriously interested in working in the game business and want to know about it in the broadest possible sense. This material will not be directly included in the exams, but if you're serious about delving deeply into the subject of game production, here's some more lessons from others who have also "been there."
Article: Sex and the Single Gamer by Anthony Breznican
The latest thing in gaming? Characters that love and lust!
Article: Video Games are Going Grey to Keep Going by
You've got to keep up with the aging gamer demographics!
Article: Casual Gamers Boost Online Game Market Gamasutra News
This recent report from the market research division of Screen Digest may surprise you. You might just want to re-think your MMORPG idea...
