Twitch Plays Pokemon - A Fascinating Internet experiment

Odds are, if you've read any sort of technological related news over the past week or been on social media, you will at least have heard of Twitch Plays Pokémon, which has rapidly become an internet phenomena. If you're wondering what it is, I can give a quick run down. Basically, Twich Plays Pokémon is an online emulated version of the classic RPG Pokémon Red given multiplayer capabilities. The catch is that instead of multiplayer referring to each player controlling a separate character, all those involved are corporately controlling ONE character. the creator says that he made the game as a social experiment to see how large numbers of people can cooperate together.

As there are tens of thousands of people trying to play at any one moment, this obviously has resulted in massive lag and some truly derpy actions to have taken place. There is a mix of those who want to complete the game, those who simply play for fun, and trolls who enjoy messing up progress just for laughs. Memes are quickly sprouting up in relation to some of the more amusing events that have occurred.

What I find most interesting about it is the ability for players to vote between playing in "anarchy" and "democracy" modes, the difference being that anarchy ids a free for all where the game accepts all input while democracy only decides to do the most popular button chosen. There has been real debate over which is better, with democracy advocates preferring its effectiveness while anarchists believe that their favored mode is more in the spirit of the experiment regardless of it being less effective. It will interesting to how players continue to progress as game difficulty continues to ramp up while critical mistakes occasionally occur. This type of experiment hasn't really been before and I am fascinated to see how things will turn out.

The Lego Movie: how they made it.

I had the chance to see the Lego Movie this weekend, and I was quite impressed not only with the story and the humor but for the interesting visual designs and animation used to make it. The effects did a fantastic job at resembling a world made entirely out of Legos, so I was a bit curious of how the artists and programmers came up with them. This video below gives a cool look into just how they accomplished their task.

Warner Bros. Announces no bug fix for Arkham Orgins, instead plans paid DLC.

Warner Bros. Arkham franchise had been on the path of success, with the first two games of the series being excellently designed and critically acclaimed. However, their most recent release, Arkham Origins, felt like a step back to many gamers and consequentially received mixed reviews. However, perhaps more importantly is that unlike the other games in the franchise, Orgins is riddled with bugs, some of which are game breaking. This is inexcusable after being on the market for four months. However, instead of working on creating a patch to fix these major issues, the developers are instead working on paid downloadable content to try and get some extra money from fans of the franchise. Oddly enough, they went as far as to say that they currently have do not plans to fix the issues after they release the DLC, seemingly content to leave the consumers that purchased the game with a semi-broken product. Personally, I see this as bad business ethics and a major slap in the face to their dedicated fan base.

 Beyond this, as the Wii U version of the game didn't meet sales projections they are entirely cutting support for that version, even going as far to cancel the DLC. There is already a backlash over these decisions and Warner Bros. may be facing damage to their sales of future games in the franchise as a consequence.

Source: http://www.gengame.net/2014/02/warner-bros-games-montreal-too-focused-on-dlc-to-fix-game-breaking-arkham-origins-bugs/

Launching the Imagination - Chapter 4: My thoughts

Chapter 4 of Launching the Imagination covers the illusions of space and motion, which could be easier said as perspective and kinesthetics. Basically, it gave some semi-scientific explanations for how perspective worked with some helpful illustrations and then began to unpack a series of examples of how it is used. I was impressed with a two page example from Disney's Mulan showing the wide variety of shots and how the various perspectives influenced how we perceive the events. The section on kinesthetic (the study of movement) was also great, and helped me understand how to better imply movement in a still image. Overall I thought this was a nice, fairly short chapter with some information that goes a bit beyond what is taught in a basic art class.

Artist Focus: uniqueLegend

I like many different types of art, and digital art is definitely one of the categories I like most. Combine this with my favoritism of semi-realism and my favorite video game franchise and we get artists like uniqueLegend, a skilled deviantARTist known for his Zelda work. He is a 23 year old Australian artist who began drawing at an early age, yet has only been working with digital media for the past 4 years. He uses a combination of Correl Painter and Adobe Photoshop and is a personal inspiration for what I may be able to do when I grow my skills at digital media. With that said, let's see what art he makes!

This is titled Hero's Shade, and it a portrait of a long-dead hero's spirit that still lingers trapped with regret between the natural world and the afterlife. The balance of this piece works well, and the simple background helps the Shade stand out. The colors work together well and the value helps sell the illusion that this ghost is three-dimensional. The vegetation on the armor also adds just enough variety to ensure that this picture is visually interesting.

This piece of artwork is titled Final Day, an obvious reference to the macabre apocalyptic event that is soon to occur. A surreal moon with a disturbing face is coming crashing down on a walled human city known as Clock Town and there seems to be absolutely no hope for its survival. The balance here is near perfectly symmetrical and the atmospheric perspective helps give a sense of scale. The color here gives a very dark mood to the art and the implied line of the moon's gaze to the helpless structures bellow makes the picture all the more ominous.

The final work of uniqueLegend's that I'll be showing is titled Challenge Awaits, and shows a heroic Link determinedly marching forward towards some unseen threat. If there is one thing I like most about this piece, it's absolutely the color. Everything is vibrant and looks very bold, and there is a sublte light area around him to help his body stand out better. The flame makes for a undetailed yet intense background and our protagonist's entire body is facing offscreen, making him a massive implied line to our left. Overall this is likely my favorite work of uniqueLegend.


For a further look at uniqueLegend's art, you can find the rest here: http://uniquelegend.deviantart.com/

Launching the Imagination - Chapter 3: My thoughts

Chapter three of our book was about two-dimensional design and all the bewildering array of little factors and considerations go into it. I had already learned many of these things (such as balance and rhythm) from previous art classes, but as in the first two chapters it was a good refresher and there was plenty of stuff I had not been taught before. Gestalt psychology was one such example, and I'm pleased to report that I now know a new way to analyze art. As in previous chapters, the illustrations massively help keep the read both interesting and understandable. After reading this chapter I feel I have a better upstanding of how to compose art I make for future projects, both recreational and for school.

Artist Focus: Mark Kelso

I've decided to share one of my favorite lego builders with you: Mark Kelso. He is an adult fan of Legos in his 40's known for his detailed landscapes and massive spaceships. His photography and editing skills are pretty good as well. With that said, let's get started.

This is a waterfall background Mark made for a collaborative project. It's absolutely chock full of advanced techniques such as SNOT (studs not on top) and has a very clever method for the falling water. The greenery adds just enough varied textures to make this truly excellent.

 

Besides natural landscapes, Kelso is known for being able to build impressive buildings, the most famous of which is his replication of Lord of The Ring's Minas Tirith. This truly massive model isn't built at the same scale as seen in the movies but it manages to do an excellent job at capturing the likeness of the "real" city.

 

Finally, Mark is most famous for his spaceships, many of which are easily the size of an adult male. His Invisible Hand is no exception, a near perfect replica of the bad guy flagship from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. At the scale he built it at and with all the hundreds of hours put into designing the ship, it is difficult to tell that it is even Lego without a close up picture.

 

If you would like to see more of Mark Kelso's work, he can be found here: http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/5708