a. 1. The waterfalls beneath the Grand Canyon were strangely realistic - I think that someone must have spent a long time making them just so.
2. Above, towards the snowy peaks made for skiing, I noted that some 'Northern Light' effects had been applied; while not remotely convincing, they DID give me a few ideas.
3. Entering the Great Wall while flying gave me the opportunity to look at the Wall's upper decorations - why did they spend so much time creating this upper story if no one - theoretically - was supposed to see it at all, or restrict flight if they were?
4. The strange skies of our third location haunted me. I had no idea that one could apply that kind of effect to an entire island - I can't imagine what that must've cost to create or maintain.
5. Although it took a lot of time to watch load on this machine, I found the bright, vivid environment of our third location beautiful, particularly the white grass and floating particles.
6. The choice of music at our third location was incredibly useful - I found myself regretting that it was a stream, as I wished to take a few of the songs home.
b. Flight and walking were easy - the former was standard fare from both games and real life; the latter a fantasy.
c. Far more pleasurable was the act of flight itself. Something about unlimited travel at far greater speeds was amazing.
d. The camera and positioning it was far and away the most challenging aspect. It became obnoxious largely due to just how much control - and how few tools - one has over the camera. Irritatingly, because the screen possesses only X and Y axes while Second Life has X, Y and Z axes, this naturally caused some confusion and made it much harder than a more limited camera situation would be.
e. Because we are affected by physics and must also see through our eyes exclusively, we cannot obviously actually fly, nor can the jarring camera situation actually occur in this actual world (at least without some kind of hallucinogens in play...) However, running, jumping and falling, while exaggerated, was right enough, and made sense; one did not also, usually, fall through floors or walk through walls, so that too was maintained nicely.
f. The feature of flight, again, is revolutionary and largely unexplored in virtual worlds. Whether games or simply containers like Second Life, Flight is usually abandoned for more familiar activities like running, jumping and (dare I say it!) mechanical transport of some kind. Even in interactive media that DOES feature flight (and it is almost always in a game), one is left with some kind of meter, or one is made to glide (without ascending) or cannot stop or turn in midair, or some other such limitation. Here, where combat is restricted, there is no limit, and therein is an excellent tool. I would therefore argue that instead of clinging to gravity and viewing flight as a transient thing meant to limit play or movement, that we should be able to abandon this limit within cyberspace; perhaps even find ways to create puzzles or other aerial structures for those that must have games in everything.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Secondary Excursion
I descended into this facsimile of reality as constructed by humanity with some mixture of curiosity and dread. It is indeed a strange thing to see the limits of human imagination as expressed onto a blank - if fallacious - canvas of cyberspace. To keep myself from straying too far from the path, I resolved to begin my investigations with the familiar - that is, places of worship.
The Twilight Cathedral (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/twilight/34/128/29) seemed as interesting a starting place as any. Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a lush environment of marble and vegetation. This seemed indeed to be a place of interest.
I was, however, slightly disappointed - for a cathedral, there was relatively little to see and do - it seemed a somewhat paltry, half-baked location, and I was quite frankly disappointed in the meager efforts.
Indeed,I realized that size was not everything after my next visit: The Holy Angels Cathedral (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ridens/50/99/43). Despite its diminuative size, I could tell that this location had a lot more love put into it. (Or at least, they seemed to focus a bit more on the angels, and quite frankly, they could have done worse than that!)
Upon my arrival, I saw, framed about me, the legendary leaders of the skies, Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
And this was no mean place either - from the schedules posted outside the doors, I could tell that this was an actual place of congregation for those who could assemble in the physical reality.
The last place I visited before I retired unto the heavens was this lovely location: that which celebrated the venerable Saints Patrick and Bridgid. ( http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Connemara/172/159/26)
Though its interior were modest, I sensed a closeness to the original Cathedral, a closeness to the simplicity which the vast majority of the human race has long since, I find, forgotten to appreciate. After making a donation in the offeratory box, I left the world, thinking to myself that, perhaps, human efforts were not so strange as I had first believed. Indeed, the time may come when I return for another look into this strange subspace.
The Twilight Cathedral (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/twilight/34/128/29) seemed as interesting a starting place as any. Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a lush environment of marble and vegetation. This seemed indeed to be a place of interest.
I was, however, slightly disappointed - for a cathedral, there was relatively little to see and do - it seemed a somewhat paltry, half-baked location, and I was quite frankly disappointed in the meager efforts.
Indeed,I realized that size was not everything after my next visit: The Holy Angels Cathedral (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ridens/50/99/43). Despite its diminuative size, I could tell that this location had a lot more love put into it. (Or at least, they seemed to focus a bit more on the angels, and quite frankly, they could have done worse than that!)
Upon my arrival, I saw, framed about me, the legendary leaders of the skies, Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
And this was no mean place either - from the schedules posted outside the doors, I could tell that this was an actual place of congregation for those who could assemble in the physical reality.
The last place I visited before I retired unto the heavens was this lovely location: that which celebrated the venerable Saints Patrick and Bridgid. ( http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Connemara/172/159/26)
Though its interior were modest, I sensed a closeness to the original Cathedral, a closeness to the simplicity which the vast majority of the human race has long since, I find, forgotten to appreciate. After making a donation in the offeratory box, I left the world, thinking to myself that, perhaps, human efforts were not so strange as I had first believed. Indeed, the time may come when I return for another look into this strange subspace.
Friday, September 2, 2011
TOONTOWN RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What features did you find the most difficult to use and why? How would you redesign them to operate better?
Which features of Toontown contribute to an immersive feeling (like you are really there)?
Things like having a house to live in full of furniture whose placement you control, familiar objects within the world that simulate the feel of an actual town, a genuine (synthetic) economy, and various camera angels that give the player a view quite similar to actually being there help immerse the player into the world.
Which features break that immersive feeling?
The abject lack of realism, unvaried model designs and low-quality of the graphics. True, realism is not especially the point (shall we say) , but some of the graphics look only a rung or two above the N64. The block-like sky and box-like “views’ from the windows give a rather nasty feel, like the player is trapped in a brightly-colored box.
Probably the most difficult feature would be the battle system, being slow, somewhat obnoxiously turn-based, and often bogged down by the sudden inclusion of other players. Teamwork is great, but I think that implementing some kind of function that prevents players from joining a fight after a Cog’s HP gets low enough would help.
The menu itself is also ugly to display in a fight – I’d definitely re-design it to a more streamlined interface – only a handful of gags that a player could select and switch out would make it onto some kind of dial or wheel.
Which features of Toontown contribute to an immersive feeling (like you are really there)?
Things like having a house to live in full of furniture whose placement you control, familiar objects within the world that simulate the feel of an actual town, a genuine (synthetic) economy, and various camera angels that give the player a view quite similar to actually being there help immerse the player into the world.
Which features break that immersive feeling?
The abject lack of realism, unvaried model designs and low-quality of the graphics. True, realism is not especially the point (shall we say) , but some of the graphics look only a rung or two above the N64. The block-like sky and box-like “views’ from the windows give a rather nasty feel, like the player is trapped in a brightly-colored box.
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