Another Post, another... BORKED PROMISE...

If you have been a follower of Stereo Left, Right, Centre you'll know that in my last post and subsequent follow-up comments I promised a certain Corvus Elrod a follow up post to answer some of his questions regarding my contribution to the month of April's Blog du Round Tableau (NB: not real french) and that, my readers, is just another one to add to the list of *BROKEN PROMISES*.

This is starting to get predictable. I make a comment about what's coming up on the Blog, and then I never get round to it. How cliche.

Moving right along, I just wanted to mention a little something cool that I discovered recently. If you have your finger ANYWHERE AT ALL near the pulse of the music industry then you'll know that recently a little British band released this album called In Rainbows and, as they say it in the Old Testament, we "saw that it was good". The real kicker though was that it costs whatever you choose to pay for it. I'm down for that!

Well, this is also a little bit of old news (hey, cmon - I post like, once a month, you gotta expect that a bit) but some other guys from a different part of the world have also released an album basically for free.

Trent Reznor and his groupies band have released a really quite excellent instrumental album, or more accurately, four of them, entitled Ghosts I-IV.

Yay free music! Great, but not what I'm most chuffed about (I pirate all my music anyway - sorry) - instead, I'm really pumped that they've included album artwork for every. single. song.

Not impressed? Well, they're wondrous high-res photos that (i assume) are meant to represent something about the song, or it's production. I couldn't find a link-able example but trust me, they're pretty cool.

So, like I said, it's free, go grab the torrent for it from The Pirate Bay or your favorite torrent tracker and listen away. Track numbers 21 and 22 come with my personal recomendation. ;-)

Finally, to end this very ad-hoc post, a link to my Last FM music profile, and a quick plug of the conference I am attending this weekend: The Convergence of the Real and Virtual Conference, the first academic conference being held solely in the virtual World of Warcraft!

April ‘08: S’Craft and the power of 3’s, Or “Why did I never know how much damage my Zergling’s did?”

Okay, so this is my first attempt at a ‘blog of the round table’ and if this is your first visit to my blog, to get a feel for what I am interested in, read my honours project summary post, the one immediately before this on.

But that’s not what I’m writing about today, in my oh-so conversational tone (picked up on that yet?), instead I’m focusing on the topic of Variations on a Theme: What are your favourite games? Well, one of my favourite games is the interminable Starcraft. If you are a follower of The Brainy Gamer, Michael Abbot, then you’ll know that he recently posted on the power of the story of Starcraft and its rather prophetic nature – reflecting modern society in a game from 1997. While I agree with Michael that the story is a powerful factor in the attraction of the series, and I’d argue that S’Craft is one of the few games with an extremely tightly integrated story and internal game logic, that isn’t exactly what I’m talking about today.

Everyone who’s ever played or watched Starcraft played competitively knows that it can be extremely fast paced and, if done properly, a significantly strong ‘early game’ strategy like the Zerg Rush (hyperlink) (along with obligatory ‘kekeke’ or ‘I’m in ur base killin ur doods’) can give one player an early win. And yet, not all races are created equal – there is a reason after all why it’s called the Zerg rush.

So, the phenomena I’m talking about is, of course, Asynchronous Gameplay, and it’s by no means a S’Craft specific trait. The other well known Blizzard game that deploys Asynchronous gameplay is, of course Word of Warcraft, and It does it in a different manner. World of Warcraft sets up extremely efficiently in its PvE (Player versus Player Environment) content the idea of the ‘Holy Triad’. That is, the most effective 5 person group for an instance is comprised of 3 roles (look at that – another 3!) the DPS, the guys who kill the monsters; The healers, the guys who stop the other guys from getting killed by the monsters; and a Tank, the one guy who’s job it is to try and soak up all the damage so the healers only have to heal 1 person.

Now, Mr. Elrod says in his guidelines suggest to “focus in on a narrow approach” so, I’m going to peel back the skin, if you will, of S’Crafts Asynchronous nature to explore this idea a little bit more.

So, back to the Zerg rush. Let’s break down how the Zerg “rush” the enemy with their little Zerglings. To get to the stage of being able to build their first Zergling, a player has to build a relatively low number of buildings – they only really need a ‘spawning pool’ to be built before they can start to churn out little ‘lings of their own. Aww shucks.

Great, you say, let’s do that! Not so fast, Little Timmy, cause your Spawning Pool only lets you build a Zergling if you have the requisite population cap allowance. And you only get that by creating, not a building, but a unit called an Overlord (bear with me, those of you who already know all this stuff, there’s a purpose for it). At this point I also need to explain that the Zerg differs from your traditional RTS race in a very important way. The Zerg, you see, employ a non linear build order. This allows a Zerg player to start building a unit as soon as possible as determined by your resources, and NOT determined by the end of the production of a previous unit. This means that a Zerg player can be making an Overlord and another Zergling and then halfway through start another Zergling or Overlord, without requiring a whole ‘nuther Zergling specific making building. Ah, parallelism at work – the revolutionary nature of which is worth another post in itself.

But getting back to our Zerg rush. Little Timmy was just about to build a Spawning pool to make Zerglings and splatter the pre-pubescent base structures of his enemies, who are currently dreaming of their high tech, and high resource investment, Protoss Carriers. Let’s not let him get there. But wait. Timmy knows that if he wants to get enough Zerglings to splatter aforementioned base, he’s going to need resource collecting drones - and LOTS of them. Also, Timmy knows that his Spawning Pool costs 200 minerals, whereas a drone only costs 50. So Timmy is at a critical juncture as he really wants more of those minerals, but also wants Zerglings.

At this point, it is probably worth comparing the monetary investment for each race in order to just get to the Zergling equivalent level fighter. If the player were to take 1 builder unit and keep the rest on mineral gathering duty…

A Zerg player would need:

• 200 minerals for a Spawning Pool + time to build it
• 100 minerals for an Overlord to supplying his population cap + time to create it (note this process is parallel, and not one after the other – a feature unique to the Zerg and hence asynchronous.)
• Finally, 50 minerals for 2 (count ‘em!) little Melee fighter Zerglings that go Muurrllsskkk when you click on them.

A Terran player needs:

• 150 minerals for a Barracks + time to build it.
• 100 minerals for a Supply Depot to supply pop cap (note this process IS linear, not parallel)
• 50 minerals for just 1 ranged Marine.

Finally, a Protoss Player needs:

• 100 minerals for a pylon to provide pop and power the following (linear warp time)
• 150 minerals for a Gateway
• 100 minerals for a Zealot

Okay, so what is this telling us that we didn’t already know before? For starters, it all seems pretty even at this point. There are no clear winners, but they are not really showing the full picture. We still don’t know one important factor in this whole plan, and it’s the key to the success of Timmy’s Zerg Rush strategy – if I send my doods at your doods who’s gonna win?

Again, this is an extremely complicated question to answer, but to be wilfully reductive, let’s put my Zerglings up against your Protos.

Example 1:

Timmy has 2 Zerglings, because he decided to save money on them, to get more drones to make more Zerglings in the future.

Joe has 1 Protos Zealot, because he too wanted more minerals to make more Zealots in the future.

Timmy’s Zerglings attack Joe’s Zealot for 5 damage 2x cause there is 2 of them, and Joe’s Protoss hits 1 of the Zerglings back for a whopping 16 damage.

Ouch. That really hurt because Timmy’s Zerglings each have only 35 health, and in 2 hits, he’s gonna do 34 damage, leaving Mr. Zergling on 1 health. The Zealot, on the other hand, has 100 health, and 60 shield on top. Man, you can see where this is going, can’t you.

Assuming that a Zergling attacks at around twice the speed of a single Zealot, it’s gonna have killed both Zerglings in 6 hits. In that time, it’s taken either 5 or 6 hits from the 1^st Zergling (25 or 30 dmg) and 11 or 12 hits from the other (55 or 60 dmg) resulting in a max total of 90 damage. PROTOSS WINS! His shield has soaked up 60 and his heal got hit for 30 more.

Example 2:

Let’s pretend Timmy decides not to save his money for mineral collecting drones and instead opts for 4 Zerglings.

Joe, on the other hand, is still holding his minerals out for drones, and he certainly has more reason to, as his 1 Zealot costs the same as 4 Zerglings – he’s gonna need cash fast!

This time, Joe’s Zealot engages the 1^st Zergling and all 4 start wailing on his flimsy blue shield.

This time, Joe’s Zealot is going to take 8 x 5dmg for every swing of his Slicey-Slicey Protoss blades. How quickly the parallelism of the Zerg has swung the balance.

Joes Zealot hit the 1^st Zergling for 17, and in the process takes 8 Zergling hits, resulting in 40dmg. Ouch. Before he’s hit it again for another 17, he’s taken another 40 dmg. Captain! Shields are buckling!

By the time he has killed the first Zergling, Joe’s poor beleaguered Zealot has taken 120 dmg, out of possible 160 before he dies (discounting all sorts of tiny things like single points of shield regeneration and Zergling health regen).

The Zealot swings around to face his 2^nd attacker – yet two more persist! He takes 30 more dmg before landing his 1^st blow, and another 30 before he expires. For Aiur, as they say.

From this example, we can see in action the power of the parallel design and build philosophy of the Zerg (as well as being an interesting in examination the risk/reward potential of early game mineral to fighter unit production).

And thusly, I conclude my investigation into the off balance world of Starcraft. The Zerg, by employing a strategy of parallelism offset their weakness, including the squishy nature of their little Zerglings.

I hope you have enjoyed this delicious Theory Crafting romp through a small, small subsection of the Starcraft domain, and I acknowledge the fact that this analysis is very reductionist – I felt that a more holistic approach that attempted to include every little possibility such as who hits first in battle, and at what rate does health and shields regen, was out of the scope of this little blog post, as well as bordering nigh on impossible. Also, I didn’t compare the Zerlings to the Terran Marine because it is a more complicated affair, as the marine is ranged and… well… I’m sure you can imagine how that can complicate this kind of analysis.

Feel free to leave a comment, or ignore them as you will.

Cheers.

[Humorous side note – after spending an hour or so writing down stats about each race’s unit and buildings, I forgot how to spell the Protoss race – 1 ‘S’ or 2? It’s two, in case you were also wondering.]

Project Update

HOLY HOLE IN THE GROUND, BATMAN! IT'S A VERBOSE UPDATE OF MY HONOURS PROJECT - POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK ON VIDEOGAME MUSIC OF OUR TIMES! (Sorry Caps).

Follows:

In my project I propose to examine the role that music plays in the genre of videogames known as First Person Shooters (FPS). Specifically I will examine in detail the score of the Xbox game Halo 2, published by Microsoft Game Studios, and the complex relationships with other elements of the game. The Halo series of games are the Videogame equivalent of the Hollywood Blockbuster – they have some of the highest production values of the current generation of games and spend more time under development than their filmic counterparts.

Videogame analysis and critique, being a burgeoning field, has been developing a vocabulary and methodology with which to approach Videogames and their methods of creating meaning and story. Most analyses and critiques can be placed in one of two camps; those that study a Videogames efforts at inscribing a narrative in a game, identified as ‘Narratology’, often drawing on methods of analysis for other media, such as films, literature and especially hypertext and new media. The alternative, calling their study of games as systems unrelated to story ‘Ludology’, is exactly that, to treat Videogames as systems and representations, examining the rules and laws that govern the simulation.

My analysis of Halo and the music of the series involves a number of key elements. I will apply traditional musical analysis techniques to the music of Halo 2, looking at the function played by musical devices such as ‘Leitmotif’, as well as examining the effect of style and genre connotations. I will also apply a method of analysis that quantifiably examines the music in terms of ‘what plays when’ and try to find some motivation as to ‘why’ it does so. I wish to also apply an examination of the evolution of the music across the series, including key musical motifs and pieces, and view it as not only a development of the composers ‘voice’ but also as a representation of the progression of the themes of the games.

In a non traditional vein, I wish to also attempt to identify important salient features of the relationship between the music and other non-musical aspects of the game. For example, I wish to analyse specific levels of the game by using concepts such as ‘level flow’, ‘progression’ and ‘optimal paths or strategies’, in an attempt to uncover meaningful relationships to the music. One tool I will use to do this is a world famous video recording of a ‘Speed Run’ in which the player, an American film student and Halo player, completes the game on the hardest difficulty setting (called ‘Legendary difficulty’) and never once dies, providing an insight into the importance of elements of the structure and layout of the levels, as well as combat techniques. The most reduced and implicit form of feedback that the player receives from the game is information about the player’s state; either the player is still alive and can continue on ‘progressing’ through the game to its conclusion, or the player is dead and must try again. This information reveals inarticulate or tacit aspects of the game that the designers intentionally and unintentionally included in the game, and which I believe are a vital aspect of the ‘meaning’ created by the game. The crux of the rationale for this approach is a belief that Halo 2 locates much of its created meaning (in a largely non-narrative sense) outside of traditional narrative structures and devices such as dialogue, narration and cinematic direction. In this way, I believe that I will see a parallel to meanings and ideas created by and revealed in the music.

I will also apply semi-filmic analyses, adapting concepts such as Mimesis and Diegesis, along with analyses of such things as the effects of geography, art direction and the Videogame equivalent of camera angles to specific levels and sections of the game. Throughout I will apply Ian Bogost’ theory of ‘unit operations’ as an approach to Videogame criticism, as well as his idea of ‘simulation fever’, especially in regards to the ideas of Mimesis and Diegesis in Videogames – whether videogames ‘tell’ the story to the player (Diegesis) or ‘show’ the story to the player by mimicking actions (Mimesis). To explain the relevance of this distinction, I quote Wikipedia’s entry on Diegesis:

When we come to a modern consideration of the cinema, it may appear that the medium is a straight-forward example of mimetic storytelling--but it is not. In terms of classical poetics, the cinema is an epic form that utilizes dramatic elements; this is determined by the technologies of the camera and editing. Even in a spatially and temporally continuous scene (mimicking the theatrical situation, as it were), the camera chooses where to look for us. In a similar way, editing causes us to jump from one place (and time sometimes) to another, whether it be somewhere else in the room, or across town. This jump is a form of narration; it is as if a narrator whispers to us: "meanwhile, on the other side of the forest".

By this definition it would seem at first glance that First Person Shooter games (and Halo in particular) are generally ‘Diegetic’ with only a short amount of ‘cut scenes’ at the beginning and end of levels determining what the player has to look at. However, if we consider Bogost’s notion of simulation fever, which says that, while we generally view simulations, and Halo could be considered as such, as ‘objective’ representations of what we are simulating, they are in actual fact necessarily ‘subjective’ by virtue of their nature as reductive. Even when a simulation renders every physical aspect of an environment or situation in detail, it still does not include such things as concepts of value, such as the value of human life, which Bogost says by referencing a military simulation of a sarin nerve gas cloud modelling simulation. While it arguable simulates accurately the progression of the gas on a University campus and how to evacuate quickest, it does not represent such things as who to prioritise for evacuation; the Nobel prize winning Professors or the students with years of possible contribution in their lives still left unrealised. In this way, by choosing what Halo includes and excludes in its ‘simulation’, Halo 2 could certainly be considered also Mimetic, and this seemingly contradictory state will be explored.

To sum up my project, I am looking at the music of Halo 2 and placing an emphasis on identifying other aspects of meaning creation in the non-musical elements of the game, applying current theories and concepts of videogame criticism as well as a number of adapted methods from other mediums. I wish to outline the relationships between the music and these other elements and hopefully persuade the reader that a Videogame about a super-human soldier in the future whose task it is to save the world is a work worthy of investigation and which locates its meaning and value in places non typical to media such as films and novels.

*******

Word! Did you read it all? If so, give yourself a pat on the back for getting through over 1,000 of the finest words on Teh Interwebs without exploding. Feel free to comment / flame / ignore this post.

Oh, and the thing about Heiddeger I mentioned last week? That's so last week. It's MIMESIS now.

- Ben.

2 months of catchup!

Wow, no posts since December! How to cover such a vast backlog of things to note and write down?

--== BULLETIN POINTS! ==--

• Dec
  
• WoW. Lots of WoW.
• Christmas: New PC, Dual Core for all my musical applications.
• Jan
• Turned 21 in Vietnam, couldn't ask for a more interesting day!
• The rest of Vietnam was good, very mind expanding and eye opening.
• Assassins Creed - that was fun. For about 3 days... pity.
  
• Feb
• More WoW.
• Uni begins - honours is mind expanding.

Well, that's about it (ha!) but I've got a really cool idea for a post/mini essay that I'm going to write up in the next few days (hopefully) about practice led research, inspired by an article by Prof. Barbara Bolt, who was in turn inspired by Heideggers notions of Handlability.

Tying into that is the idea of 'Semiotic Domains', a topic upon which I have been enlightened by a chapter in the 'The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology', edited by Salem and Zimmerman, though the chapter is not theirs. I think it has practical applications for the study of videogames.

I'm sure there's more and i've totally forgotten a lot of important details, but it'll all come good in the end.

Lions and Tigers and Honours, OH MY!

That's right. It's official. My application has been accepted and I am on the way to being an Honours student! ^_^

Expect more details on my project as I progress through it!

If I could find the application that I wrote, I'd put it up here, but I can't be bothered looking right now. I just got out of a 4 hour WoW raid with my new guild, and I'm going to bed.

A new post: Shock horror, another coverup

I have joined the hordes of Diablo II owners.

I am receiving a copy of Bioshock, courtesy of The Brainy Gamer.

Post #4 More posts about MY games, darrnit!

Why hello there, avid readers!

I bet you've been dying to hear from me again. Well, I hate to be brief, but I just don't go in for those boxer things, so briefs it is!

So what have I been playing lately? Have I dutifully gone back and played through SS2 as a Psy Op specialist as I hinted at? Hell no, dear readers, the limited time available to this author means that he has decided to move onto greener pastures, as it were, at least for the time being. I'm now playing the 1998 Blizzard classic, Starcraft(tm)!

So I've been getting around in SCraft for a while, and when i came back to it, It was just like riding a bike. A friend of mine got me back into it, as he wanted to "get into shape" before Starcraft 2 comes out (as if he could! Bar-humbug!). So we've been playing it a fair bit over Hamachi (a VPN program) and I've come to appreciate the dependability of the '98 style AI. My friend, who shall remain nameless, showed me this awesome tactic to apply when the first wave of enemies arrives.... RUN AWAY!

Woah, revolutionary stuff, but it really works! You just grab the guy that the enemies are attacking, find an empty space on the minimap that looks ripe for a bit o' exploring, and off he goes, trailing 12 hungry space marines in his wake... weeee!

Well, enjoy trying out this new (only took 9 years to develop this tactic) awesome Strat, and tell me how it goes. I used to ALWAYS get beaten in the first wave as a young'n... but now, I can pwn the computer with the best of them. It's interesting how age adds a very new perspective to things, no? I guess David Sirlin wasn't right when he wrote the article World of Warcraft teaches the wrong things... time really DOES = Skill.... or... does it just = NOT suck? Either way, Sirlin is a... well... when I approached him on his website to discuss this idea, instead of actually responding to my actual question, he decided to take it as a personal attack and convince me of his arguemnt by saying "No no no, YOU'RE wrong." Seriously. Doesn't he get the idea behind rejecting someone else's premise, and instead proposing a different one? Gosh, what is wrong with people on the internets! It's almost enough to make me cry, except that I'd get cyber bullied, so i'll just go be all emo in my room and turn off all the lights and dress in black. MMmmm sleep is very tempting right about now, and I've written about 3x as much as I initially intended. Oh cruel Blog, why must you always run deviously long or short?

Is this entire post self-indulgently long? Tell me in the comments! I crave the attention!

Peace out!