The World Of Games: Skyrim

Tyeger IrvingTerrain

The terrain in a game is very important for setting the feel and tone of the game, for example Skyrim is a game that’s set in the world of Tamriel that is a mythical land set in the medieval era, this means the landscape and terrain is full of forest and mountings, there are no modern building such as sky scrapers because that would break the games emersion where as in a game such as GTA 5 the game would have sky scrapers because it fits the games settings and tone, but it wouldn’t have a tavern in the city centre. having the terrain suit the genre is effective because it helps the player know where they are and fully immerse them in the experience.

Architecture

Skyrim architecture is based on the of the early dark ages around 1100s to1400s the buildings are mainly made from wood more than like timber and stone because these were the materials that people had access to in those time frames. In places where people have more money the houses are mostly made from stone with a wooden frame this is because stone is a stronger material and will last long. In areas where people have less money the houses are mainly made from wood with less stone if any this is because wood is cheaper because it’s not as strong as stone.

Objects

In the world of Skyrim there are many different types of objects that do various things some are there just for emersion where as some have a purpose and can be interacted with by the player for example with in Skyrim you can find enchanting tables these tables allow the player to add magical effects on to their armour and weapons. In addition to enchanting tables players can find chest which will contain items for the player to find these items can around from hold to a Daedra heart, chest can be used as an incentive to get player to explore the world so that they can find better items.

Characters

Within the game of Skyrim, you can create your own characters from a selection of different preset set character races. Different races start with different ability’s and stats for example the High elf can regenerate 25% of the characters maximum magicka per second for 60 seconds whereas the Orc can take half damage and do double physical damage for 60 seconds. It’s imported to pick the right races for your playing style as you can see it’s better to be a High elf if you wanted to be a mage where as it would be better to be an Orc if you want to become a worrier.

Non-playing characters (NPC)

NPCS are importin in games because they can add emersion and can be used to advance the story of the game, for example NPC can be used to start and unlock quests for an example of this can be found in blade and soul there is a quest called life saver where you meet an NPC (The Mayor) and he asks you if you can help them with saving people after the war which gives the play a quick tutorial of how to play the game. NPC have to be implant properly otherwise it can completely brake the theme of game for example in a game like Skyrim all the NPC fit the feel of the game you won’t find some walking around in jeans and a t-shirt because it wouldn’t fit the theme the same way you won’t find some walking around in a kimono in GTA 5.

Feedback interface

The Feedback interface in games is very imported because it can give the player important information such as their health’s stamina and equipment etc. In most games the main feedback interface is the HUD (Head-up display) which is where most of the feedback is presented. Another way the feedback interface can be used it by showing the player an effect that are active on them for example in Minecraft when a potion active it will be shown on your HUD. It’s important not to over fill the HUD because it can become a distraction and take away from the game.

Perspectives (2D, 3D, First person, third-person, scrolling, aerial, context sensitive.) There are different types of perspective in games these perspectives are important because it will dictate how people play the game and control his or her character.Games like Counter Strike are very tactical and require a lot of skill this is one of the many reasons the game is in first person because one it adds immersion, two if you could go into third person you could be able to look around walls with showing your body which would give people an unfair advantage. Whereas games like Fortnite a game that don’t take them self as serious are in third person this has many benefits for example the player can see they’re this means the player can get attacked to their character this also means that in some games the play can find or buy cosmetics items to the player.

Full motion video (FMV)

Full motion video is one of the best narration techniques for games as it doesn’t require any complex computer 3D modelling. It also allows the player to feel closer to the game and be more involved since they are looking at real people creating a more realistic environment. This technique has been very useful in the past saving the computer game industry time and money when it comes to creating video games since paying and recording actors is both cheaper and more time effective than using (at that time) cutting edge equipment to create 3D motion graphics.

Gameplay Interaction model; avatars omnipresence

There are many different ways the player can control and internet with the game for example the player might have an avatar they can see and control when playing the game this is true for most games but some games such as Sim City give the player a omnipresence’s where by the can see everything and control everything at the game time both of these ways work if done right for example you wouldn’t want a game like GTA 5 to be an omnipresence’s game because you’d lose a lot of the depth of the game where you wouldn’t want Sims City to have an avatar because there are too many things happening at once that the play wouldn’t have to deal with Single player A single player game is where by only one person can play at any one time. Single player games are normal have a good in-depth story because that’s the main reason people play them. An example of a good single player game would be Skyrim it has an expansive world with an emissive story that has you travel across the whole world.

Multiplayer

A multiplayer game is where by two or more players can play at the same time. Multiplayer game force more on the team work aspect of the games and a lot of the time you will need to work together to complete a final objective. A good example of a multiplayer game is rainbow 6 because you need to work with your team and you all need to communicate with each other to win the game.

Narrative

Narrative is one of the most important aspects of a game epically if the game is single play. A lot of games fail because the Narrative of the game is boring and bland an example of this would be No man’s sky the games has little to no narrative and the rest of the games is boring and bland the worlds feel empty an on the contrary GTA5 has a great narrative the story line if interesting and makes you want to come back the world feel alive and is a good reposition of Los Angeles.

Physical and Temporal

Physical is where the game is taking place for example Skyrim is set in the world of Tamriel that is a mythical land set in the medieval era where as Temporal is when the game is set (the time span) for example GTA5 is set in present day with modern car and weapons it’s important to keep the Temporal setting consistent if the game is set in the past then you shouldn’t have ray gun because it wouldn’t fit in.

Environment

The Environment of the game is where the game is set for example GTA5 is set the in Los Santos a city that’s strongly based off the City of Los Angles it has a lot of land market from the city such as muscle beach. The game has the city ionic atmosphere the city feels alive at night with NPCS partying and having a good time and in the day time you people rushing off to work. The environment of the game is very important because it adds immersion a good environment should be icons, and interesting for the player to explore GTA5 has one of the most icon maps yet. The city is expansive with new thing still being discovered and added 5 years down the line Emotional A lot of game attempt to get some sort of emotional reaction from the player because this will make the game more rememberable there are different ways the game can do this for example they would kill characters that are important to the main characters and that they have made you gain a connection with. An example if this could be when Sarah is shout in The Last of Us, after Joel and Sarah escape the city and they think they are safe after seeing a military officer they all over for help the military officer radios in to the commanding offer who gives the order to kill them both.

Ethical

Ethic in a game are very important. When creating a game the game designs have to think about if the content of the game will offend or effect anyone for example if a games company thought it was a good idea to make a game that was mainly about a killing a certain religion they would have to think about how are the people in the religion going to react to the game another example is GTA 5 in some country’s parts of the game have been taken out and in other countries the game has been comply banned because they don’t deem the content of the game expiable.

Goals

All games need to have to have a main goal this doesn’t always need to complete the game for example games like Minecraft don’t have a story or a main goal, the main goal of the game is to survive and create as many things the player can/wants. Where was games like Skyrim main gaol is to complete the main quest line (and side quests) to defeat the world eater. Both goal work and sure to give the player an object.

Challenges

Games need to be changeling and have good challenges within them if the games too easy people will get bor4ed of the game quickly games need to have some level of difficulty to them because this makes people feel good when they finally beat the level or mission they had trouble with before this makes the player enjoy the game and want through progress through the game. Challenges can be built into a game many ways for example some game the whole press pf the game if the change an example being flappy birds the game was based around the change where was games such as Skyrim the games challenges are set around the story and are given to you by NPCS to progress through the story.

Rewards

Rewards are a key component of any game. The reward is the one of the main things which makes the player want to come back to the game (because of positive reinforcement) this means that without some form of reward or reward system the player would be left unsatisfied, making the game become eventually boring and monotonous. Another reason rewards are so fundamental to a successful game is that it adds more of a competitive streak to the game as players can compete to receive certain rewards, this has the benefit of making the game more popular because more people are playing it, therefore making the game developers more revenue.

Player action

In some games the play actions can affect the way the game will play and end, games like Mass Effect, Persona 4 and Fallout all have different ends deepening on how the player acts throughout the game this is good for adding depth to a game because the player knows that every action they take will influence how the game ends. GTA5 famously had three different ending (Kill Trevor, Kill Michael and Deathwise).

Rules

Some games don’t have to ecliptically have to tell you the rules for example Skyrim doesn’t tell you the rules instead the player is left to lean the game and found out for themselves for example if the player wants to know which direction to go in they can get a spell “clairvoyance” to found out which way to go it makes the ways with a blue marker on the floor. Whereas other games such as Forza Motorsports ecliptically tells you the rules of the game with in its first tutorial. In most cases if the game is open world it will either not tell you the rules of the game or it will tell you as the game progresses, but if the game is more leaner in design then the game will more than likely have some sort of tutorial systems in which the game will go through all the rules.

Difficulty

Games like Dark souls don’t have a difficulty setting in fact in dark souls case they only way to make the game harder is by completing the game after which the play is sent back to the start but all the enemies are harder and the player gets to keep the items they had gain when completing it the first time this is a very good idea because it adds replay vale to the game which is a hard thing to do because once players have played a game once lot of the time they will want to play anew game.

Game mechanics

Game mechanics are very important to any game because that’s the first part the player will need to learn the Game mechanics for most games need to be easy to understand and they must able to get picked up quickly by player you don’t want a game that people can’t play because the game mechanics are too hard to learn (this can change deepening on your target audience). Skyrim main game mechanic to learn is the inventory and skill tree, the skill tree is where the player will upgrade their ability’s by using the perk points the gain by levelling up this is a good system but can take long to learn because of how big the skill tree is, where was games like Minecraft only have the inventory system and the crafting system where the player craft items that they want to make this is a simple but effect system that can be learnt quickly.

Balance

A game needs to be balanced for the player to have the best experience for example in games such as CSGO guns need to be balanced because otherwise everyone would use the over powered gun braking the games game play and balancing system for example if the AK47 was only 200 USD then everyone would by the gun on every round and there would be no point in having the money system also the guns them self’s need to all be on the same level no one should be able to pick a gun and be able to overpower everyone else in the game.

Structure

The Structure of a game is very import to a game. There are many different ways a game can be structured for example a game such as bounce tales are leaner in design you complete each level till completion after which you progress to the next level, whereas games such as GTA5 are sandbox in design, meaning its open world so you have an objective you have more freedom you complete the objective how you see fit, also in GTA5 there are multiple objects and you can chose what ones you want to do and when.

Addiction

Games need to be interactive and build tension as the player progresses. This enables the player to feel a large sense of reward when they complete the game objectives. This cycle of continuously rewarding the player after they complete an objective is known as positive reinforcement and works by allowing the player to receive a dopamine kick whenever they do something that the game wanted them to. This means that a game can reward a user by giving them more of a certain currency (whatever the games uses, for example coins or gold) whenever the player returns on a regular basis, for example 50 gold every time the user comes back to the game. This could be further improved by making the reward progressively exponential where they receive 50 after coming back the first time, 100 after coming back the second time, so on and so forth, however this strategy is only effective up to a certain point because otherwise the value of the reward will decrease over time (if they constantly receive a reward just by coming back then they will have more gold to spend and eventually there would be no need to play the game to receive the gold) this is why although the reward would be progressive there would have to be a maximum amount that can be rewarded for the user coming back to the game.