Social Platypus

Opinion Why we play games part 2; The ideal self By Josiah Sapp Everyone has something about themselves they would want to change. Whether it be physical, emotional or psychological there are pieces of ourselves that we wish could be different. On the flipside, we all have strengths that we can confidently claim as familiar territory. In the world of entertainment, pieces of content (movies, shows, games, books) are designed from the ground up to grab the attention of the widest group possible. Every show you watch or game you play, has a roster of characters that you may or may not identify with. The ones you don’t identify with tend to be the characters you care less about and aren’t worried if they’ll make it to another season or sequel. However, the characters we do identify with are the ones that we root for and are moved to tears when they make a heroic sacrifice. Why do we care so much about fictional characters? We know they’re not real and that we’re never going ...

Opinion Why we play games; Experiencing the impossible. By Josiah Sapp     I find it interesting to step back and to not only observe the world around me but to also ask why the world is the way it is. What compels people to do what they do? What are all the ways we communicate with each other? Why are cultural norms different across countries? It’s fun and enlightening to ask big questions but the answers aren’t always what they first appear to be. This post starts a three week journey into one of those big questions. Why do we play games? The answer to that question is varied and broad. It depends on all manner of factors including age, race, culture, lifestyle, and gender to name a few. In recent years, researchers have found that there’s a lot that goes on in our brains when we play video games.     In a brief description, gaming is a form of entertainment. A type of media that people pay for and consume much like movies, mu...

 Opinion Difficult video games: The resurgence of punishing gameplay  By Josiah Sapp     Games are fun right? They’re made to be enjoyed by an individual, a collective group or an entire community. People play games for all kinds of reasons. High score chase, a means to relax, or even to escape into a whole other world. Recently, however, a specific style of gaming has emerged over the past few years and it’s not the kind that first catch your attention. Difficult games have been on the rise and there are no signs of slowing down this community. These aren’t just difficult titles. They’re punishing. Brutal. So frustratingly hard that it will have you question why you’re playing it even after you’ve tried the same task for hours. Why do gamers put themselves through this torture? The history of challenging games is in our DNA and in the genealogy of game design.  Dragon's Lair Death Screen     Pick out an...

Opinion Video games have stronger nostalgic driven experiences By Josiah Sapp     Nostalgia is a tricky thing to pin down. You don’t really know what it is about a specific memory that brings about a fond feeling. It could be a certain smell of perfume that brings you back to your grandma’s house or how a song has more weight depending on who you were with the first time you listened to it. Nostalgia is incredibly powerful and highly marketable. Just the other day, I was watching a football game with my family and a life insurance commercial came on playing some old school rock & roll. Once the commercial ended, my dad says that the product was directed straight at him because it was a song and style of music he used to listen to growing up. The commercial succeeded in grabbing his attention by playing nostalgic music. In video games, the main demographic are just now getting old enough to experience nostalgia . Game developers are exploiting that and they’v...

Opinion Microtransactions: An old concept that needs clarification By Josiah Sapp     In today’s world, we’re constantly being sold something. Insurance, clothes, jewelry, new tech. It’s impossible to browse the internet without someone trying to grab your attention and give you a sales pitch. We’ve come to accept this type of advertising as normal in our society. It’s something we just deal with and if something catches our fancy, then we’ll buy it but if it doesn’t pertain to us then we don’t give it a second thought. Microtransactions in video games are no different than normal ads but they get under our skin somehow. The idea that a game (either free or paid for) has smaller transactions built within the game has somehow crossed the line. Why is that different than any other advertisement we encounter in the world? For most people, it feels forced.     Microtransactions have proven to be a very lucrative business stra...

Opinion Releasing unfinished games: The perfect storm of hubris and ambitious deadlines By Josiah Sapp     My very first gaming console that I remember playing was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Playing games like Donkey Kong Country and Mega Man X to my heart’s content. As a young lad, it would be incredibly disappointing to get half way through the game to only find out that I could never finish it unless I paid for another cartridge. Unfortunately, games today do have that problem and it’s infecting the industry as a whole. With the invention of beta demos and live updates, unfinished games are going up for sale and people still buy them. Why do gamers buy into a practice that is blatantly hurting the gaming community and why do game developers/producers feel like they can get away with it? It’s a combination of excessive pride and ambitious deadlines.     In today’s fast paced world of gaming, not being able to p...

Opinion Video game graphics; Going backward is moving forward. By Josiah Sapp     When I was growing up, the main thing that told me if a game was good or not was what the game looked like. The more realistic the graphics the better. That proved to me that a game was going to be entertaining because it was a cool thing to look at. I remember bringing home a Sega Dreamcast and playing it for the first time. The realism was unbelieveable. It was so good that my grandpa sat down to a watch a football game and didn’t even realize that we were actually playing that year’s iteration of Madden. Recently, graphics have been taking a back seat to gameplay and storytelling. It seems like a step back but the industry is moving forward as a whole. Minecraft     The independent (indie) game scene has really exploded over the past ten years. You can’t look at a top ten games list without including an indie game or two. Whether it be for originality...

Opinion Video game HD remakes; The power of memories. By Josiah Sapp Remakes make the gaming industry go round. It’s like their bread and butter . If a game was popular back in the day, it more than likely has a remaster, remake or HD release. Those terms are interchangeable and they essentially mean the same thing but one thing is for sure, when a remake gets announced the fans go nuts. At 2017’s Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) a remake of Team Ico’s classic hit, Shadow of Colossus, was announced and a trailer was even shown. Fans lost their minds. The original was released in October of 2005 for the Playstation 2 and nothing like it had come out but this time around there are already games that are similar. God of War, The Last Guardian, and even Uncharted 4 has elements that are pulled from Shadow of Colossus. The question is, what makes this remake (and remakes in general) so special? Our memories do. Gamers long to experience their...