Final Personal Enquiry

Morality Systems in games: The Good, the bad ugly

Howdy Folks!

Have you ever walked down a street on a fine day and you come across a lonely ant struggling across the pavement. You ponder whether you should let it be or put it out of its tiny misery. This my friends is a moral choice and these choices have been implemented in the video games we play and for this last personal enquiry I will be looking in depth at morality systems in video games.

Since the initiation of the gaming industry, morals have been the basis of the earliest story-based video games like the first of Super Mario, Metal slug, Sonic and resident evil etc. The moral system is applied through problem-based  puzzles, highlighting a clear goal- stop the menace, save the day. For instance, the main protagonist represents the good (courtesy,compassion, flowers etc.- all which is deemed socially virtuous by today’s standards) whilst the antagonist represents the ‘bad’ (darkness, close-mindedness, backwardness-a complete contrast). To a degree, the protagonist vs the antagonist can also be witnessed in some indie games today e.g super meat boy, animated films and every episode of Pokemon ever!

This struggle between good and evil has been a reoccuring theme in human history especially today. I believe it is the change in social conduct throughout history that has heavy influence on morality systems in games. Here’s a little history lesson.

The Romans and Egyptians kept slaves and the roman’s are most notorious for brewing slaves into gladiators. the Spartans abandoned Spartan children deemed unfit to join the army. The Aztecs orchestrated sacrificial rituals. So, ancient civilisations were pretty barbaric. Further on, the middle ages was also ‘a morally grey’ period. Social outcasts (e.g. witches, lepers, prostitutes) experienced severe social stigma, heretics were even burned alive. Pope Urban II, the head of the catholic church sparked the crusade wars, which led to the deaths of an estimated 4 million people.

Heretics burnt alive in medieval times.

Although,Churchill’s liberal reforms of the early 1900’s, paved the road for equality, human rights acts and converted the UK to a welfare state, the period saw the greatest two wars in human history.

In contemporary society, many people are a lot more open minded towards liberal and democratic behaviour,it’s part of being ‘decent’ people. I’m certainly not saying we are completely moral people ,websites like ‘worldstarhiphop’ have certainly proved this, but we’ve definitely come far from our barbaric ancestors who once roamed the earth.

Subsequently, I believe the games I spoke of before are a reflection of our change in moral behaviour. Games could be interpreted as -the protagonist (contemporary society-moral) vs.the antagonist( the old age-immoral). I draw my hypothesis from every game were the villain is an ancient evil.

Yet, as technology advances, artificial intelligence improves and game artist become...more ‘arty’, morality systems are being incorporated in video games in new ways in the video games of the progressing 2000’s. Ultimately, the concept of morality is exposed from different perceptions. I will be looking at two ways in which developers have done this: realism and choice making.

Comi-con convention goers

In many, if not most-story based action games, the main protagonist is by no means pure good, in fact I would go as far to calling them ‘anti-heroes’. Take the main characters of the best-selling action games Soap Mactavish, Drake, Niko Bellic and Solid Snake, Primarily,they are all murderers, but we don’t necessarily view them as such. Even in comic books, super heroes fight crime but break the law. The main aim in the video game ‘Payday’ is to rob vaults and kill cops. Although it is virtual, we hardly address these protagonists as evil characters, in fact we celebrate them, just look at comi-con conventions.

Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)

I believe this is what blogger ‘Rabbithen’ coined as ‘competence porn’. This is the theory, that humans are fascinated in observing people who are very skilled at a particularly interesting job, because we ourselves would like to have such control ourselves regardless of whether it is a good or bad act. This is a very valid explanation for why characters like Walter white, an outstanding drug maker/ dealer and tactician are also very popular in the tv world. It is this aspect in today’s media and our behaviour to it that reflects that Aristotelian view on morality written in ‘Nicomachean ethics’ where Aristotle suggests virtue lies in human excellence ‘activity of the soul’: human completion and happiness.

Another way games are developing morality in video games is in choice mechanics. Games with choice e.g. ‘Bioshock’, ‘Mass Effect’, ‘Fable’ allow players to occupy a more invested role in the game world. Choices like deciding who lives or dies are moral questions albeit very simple. The more evil choices you make in Fable 3, the more your physique takes the form of a Satan-esque character and vice versa. Subsequently, they are a fair interpretation of moral dilemmas that exist today.

However ‘fair’ may not does not necessarily mean ‘true’ and with influences from the works of Daniel Flloyd, James Portnow and Chris Rio, I’ll explain to you the problem of morality systems in games and why they are imperfect.

Firstly, thinking logically morality systems in video games are difficult for developers to design, for a major reason...Money. Think about it, choices creates more options/ variables which leads to more content, more content requires more developers or longer working hours, thus costing more money.

That lovely green stuff

Secondly, choices which are simple to make, such as ‘save an old man’ with the reward of xp/ money take away from the invested role players had. The game almost urges you to do the right thing, so the system of morals is bias. I’ll give you an example [Spoiler!], in the penultimate mission of ‘Saints Row 3’ you must decide whether to save shaundi or pursue killbane and achieve revenge. it is an interesting decision yet the song ‘ I need a hero’ is playing in the background. Thus, the choice crumbles into an easy to solve puzzle than a moral decision.

Furthermore.not only are good decisions easy to make in games, I always notice how evil decisions are always more radical. Writer Chris Rio calls this the ‘save the puppy, kill the puppy paradox’ and explains “when faced with a decision, the bad decision tends to be way more extreme compared to the good option. the good option is basically ‘neutral’ or something that any decent person would do in real life’. being the bad guy sometimes is, it always feels like fan fiction. Clearly the ‘good’ endings are the ‘right’ ones. But games have the potential to be the most innovative storytelling medium in history, and we should explore more beyond binary choices”

In ‘The Categorical Imperative’ famous Philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) states “it is impossible to conceive anything in the world, or even out of it, which can be taken as good without limitation, save only a good will”. In other words only acts done with a good intention are good. Therefore shouldn’t an evil decision done out of sympathy be good? alas, many games don’t recognise this.

Alright, Alright so Morality systems are not perfect, but how can they be resolved?

If the issue is money, Floyd suggests that developers could hide statistical value of choices made, just as Dayz has done or re-use content showing the effects of the players decisions. Both ways are cheap and interesting, the former allows players to create their own perception of morality which is realistic because morality is arguably subjective, whilst the latter allows players to take up a more invested role in the gaming world.

Floyd states “ what makes moral questions interesting is how endlessly debatable they can be” which could lead to another option of implementing choice into games, adding consequences to every decision regardless of its moral nature. For instance, faction based games , ‘Fallout: New Vegas’, ‘S.T.A.L.K.E.R’., ‘Everquest’, ‘Dragon Age’- show your impacts in the world have positive and negative effects to certain people. For instance, choosing to cut down a tree might build a house for dying human orphans but that tree might be a wood elves home. Decisions like these address real human dilemma.

Lastly, just’ remove the damn ‘good vs evil’ scale from decision making! The world does not need to see this, instead replace it with ‘The needs of the many vs. the rights of the few’ argument. This is a more interesting and a dilemma that every country addresses, in fact Floyd comprised this diagram  to show how choice should be operated. 

An example of this debate put to work was in ‘The Pitt’ expansion of ‘Fallout 3’. [spoiler alert] towards the end of the game you are faced with a decision, to kill an innocent infant whose genetics hold the key to cure the slaves or kill the slave leader and stop a child being taken from its parents. It’s this type of decision making which are much more practical and convincing moral decisions reflective of contemporary moral dilemmas.

The child of 'The Pitt'

Phew! that was a lot to think about, thanks for staying with me.

Therefore I will conclude, morality systems in video games are a wonderful concept and a few games pull it off, but like the ‘Dayz standalone’ it’s not quite there yet. Morality is a complicated topic for humans to solve and in video games it should be treated as such. However, if developers follow in the light of games like Fallout who have developed morality well, perhaps video games may be able to do some...good for society.

Thanks for reading..oh and don't go killing any ants, unless its the queen of swarm of mutant killer ants, then kill the bastard!

Critical studies library conference day (2nd April)

The big scoop

On Wednesday 2nd April, my year of game artists took a trip to the university library to meet our critical studies lectures and guest lectures as they had something in store for us.

As we sat and listened, the head of our critical studies, Emma Ash told us how the day will be dedicated to improving our critical thinking and writing skills for the blogs we have created, by visiting a series of different seminars throughout the day.

Although the day was optional I did not want to miss out as these would be sure to better the blogs I write to you. We could choose 4 out of 16 seminars that day.

I started my day in the 'Word art' seminar. t was interesting, especially one of the exercises we did, of which entailed us analyzing particular pieces of art and then describing them as creatively as possible.

The next seminar I visited was the 'Shaping your writing' seminar which was held by  Emma and Avril. They tasked us with the challenge to create a comic strip story in 5 boxes. My team partner Joe and I created a story based on a tale that Joe's mother told him when he was younger. When it came to presenting our comic strip I feel we impressed the lecturers because our comic was classic 'slapstick' humor. Yet, from my view it was my colleagues comic strip about sausages which which conjured up the most laughter from the audience. All in all this was a very enjoyable experience and I learned how blogs are similar to comic story's, both must flow from start to finish and convey the message.

Following from this was the critical thinking seminar. I chose to visit this because I feel I lack critical and analytic elements in my blogs. Thus, this seminar was the icing on the cake for me. The guest lecturer had us analyse an extract and evaluate from thinking both inside and outside the box. I guess I won't be able to gauge how much I have gained from the seminar until I write my next blog . However I certainly feel my analytically and expository skills have improve.

I ended my day in the computer labs editing blogs and getting further feedback from the lectures. Until it was time to leave. Although, the day was shorter than most, I definitely rested well that night, knowing that my confidence and experience in blog writing has improved.

Thanks for reading

Art direction- presentation on Dante's inferno

'Ooh....Intense!'

Howdy Folks

Last Month, our critical studies lecturers tasked us with the opportunity to create PowerPoints based on a study of a particular artwork(s) from films, TV, video games and art. We would subsequently present these presentations to our lecturers and class mates.

As far as public speaking presentations go, I have always thought I could do a decent job of them, due to my charismatic personality. However, when hearing we would be presenting in the large lecture hall, I certainly grew edgy.

I chose to base my presentation around the art style of the 2010 video game Dante's inferno. Similarly, in this blog I will be focusing on the art of Ash Huang, the lead concept artist of the video game. Mainly how he interpreted extracts from the poem into designs in the game. Furthermore, I looked at the symbolism that can be drawn from Huang's art in the game.

Firstly, Dante's Inferno is a video game developed by ‘Visceral Games’. The game was developed from a poem called 'The Divine Comedy’ by Italian poet Dante Alighieri in the 14th century. The poem accounts Alighieri’s experiences of transcending through the 9 circles of hell, led by Roman poet Virgil. The game takes an interesting spin on Alighieri’s works. For instance, the 9 circles of hell in the poem, limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery are all levels in the game.

Re- imagining Italian literature, roughly 700 years old is by no means easy yet Huang presents you with very vast, elaborate concepts of the circles of hell.  There is a particular impressionist style about his works which is…impressive. Even looking at Dante’s design (main character) you can tell he had been tainted by the effects of hell. This is expressed with his gaunt completion, not to mentions his sins in the form of a cross-shaped leather cloth, sown to his chest (ouch).

Although Alighieri’s work was the main focal point of the game, it can be argued that the game also takes inspiration from the art of Boticelli, William Bougerau and Auguste Rodin with his famous piece ‘The Gates of Hell’ a 20 feet high sculpture which actually features in the game’s first level. All of these artists took inspiration from Alighieri’s “The Inferno” poem and subsequently their work features in the game.

Rodin's-The Gates of He

Boticelli- the 9 circles of Hell

The works of artist H.R.Giger

Each circle is presented with a unique atmosphere and shape. For instance, in the circle of lust all edicts are phallus shaped, the lesions in these edicts are carvings of orgy scenes ( this sight was reminiscent of the works of Swiss surreal artist H.R. Giger, who is renowned for his works on human and machine interconnected relationship, which he deemed “biomechanical”, “his paintings often display fetishistic sexual imagery”). All of the above combined with the overall regal colour pallet are all symbols we would associate with sensuality.

In contrast, in the circle of greed you are presented with a very bright and colourful scene of gold coated machinery. There is grandness about the level, yet you are exposed to witness scenes of suffering, such as the damned being boiled in a pit of molten gold. One of the enemies you face is a body shared between two damned souls, one soul is notorious for squandering his wealth and the other is damned for hoarding his wealth, I thought this concept was very interesting. Summing up, I believe all the images you experience in this circle of hell are reflective of the negative effects of the industrial revolution. 

As you can see from the image, Huang has used flesh-like colours for the circle of gluttony. The level can be described as one large stomach or as a developer put it “a bile infested, disgusting area….the belly of the beast”.

The circle of anger and wrath is portrayed with very hot colours, matched with the various signs of fire and flames a potential symbol of human rage.

The last circle of hell, the circle of treachery is frozen over. This is an interesting concept, to some degree unexpected as well; it contrasts the biblical impressions of hell. Huang has designed the level with a dark and cold pallet, most fitting as the circle is where the worst reside for their acts against humanity and against God.

All of the images are graphic, the game is hell and Huang does a brilliant job of conveying it.  He does this with scenes of woe, disarray and turmoil. Examples of this are, the damned drowning in a pool of blood, or being grinded by machinery and many more, all of which are very disturbing. These disturbing scenes are a reason for why I believe the game’s art also challenges  societal conventions, perhaps through his art, Huang is expressing the consequences of a life filled with vice.

The City of Dis

However, despite how good the artwork concepts of the game are, you are not able to explore all of it as I would have liked to. You seem to be led through hell on a leash, only able to take momentary glances of the designs due to the intense story. Despite my thoughts the level designs follow well in accordance to the story and each step of the gameplay does seem in chronological order, thus I cannot really complain.

The various moods and themes in the game appear to reflect human nature- numerously representing the gothic, for instance the concept of desire is expressed in lust, gluttony and greed. Furthermore the Freudian concept of the sublime ‘awe and terror inspired by nature’ are explored in anger, wrath and heresy. Lastly the gothic symbol of the uncanny or “heimlich” and “unheimlich” (familiar and unfamiliar as Freud put it), are expressed in the circles of limbo and treachery.

All in all, In light of the minor issue with exploration, looking deeper into the game I believe the graphic nature of Huang’s art in the game,  are a question to societal convention and reminder of the consequences of vice much like expressed by Alighieri’s poems. This is why the game is a piece of art because of its meaning. It is certainly one of the top designed games I’ve ever played with an epic story and gameplay worthy of your attention. I urge you to play it.

Thank you for reading,

NOW GO TO HELL!!!

Creating a 3D Ford Transit Van

Va Va Voom! 

Design Brief

In the game production side of the course we were set the task of modelling a Ford Transit van. Within the project we were required to model a transit van with a limit of 5000 triangles (tri’s) and a texture budget this budget consisted of ; a 1024x1024 texture sheet for the exterior, a 512x512 texture sheet for the interior of the vehicle and a 128x128 texture sheet for the glass and lights. To complete the project we were using the ‘Autodesk 3ds max’, ‘Photoshop’ and ‘Crazy Bump’ software.

How did I feel about this project?

At first I will admit I was sceptical about the task, it was my first experience of modelling a vehicle, I was very apprehensive. However, a lecture by our course leader relinquished these feelings. When I realised that this project was no different from the past game production projects, I started to get fascinated with the van project, which is shown by my excessive reference photo album.

Research

My research ideally began where I started taking pictures. My friend John and I set off to the nearby Ford garage, which we were advised by my teacher Steve. We took many images parked vans, vans in motion, textures and all. Anything we suspected would look interesting or work with our van design.

Resources

In the brief of the requirements we were given, there were a series of links to various websites, I used some of these to influence my project direction, especially the 3d previews of the transit vans. Although, there is a strict no copyright rule in our course, I could not utilize the resources that I had found from the internet. Nonetheless, the internet research did help with understanding of the form of the vehicle, how the light hits the vehicle and most importantly proportions.

Continuing my research I began to look at vehicles in games and were I might find the vehicle I had created in video games. I looked at such games as ‘Dirt 3’, ‘Burnout Paradise’, the ‘Colin McCrae’ games, ‘Truck simulators’ and even ‘Grand Theft Auto’.

 Although, I did not believe the van I created would be video game worthy, but looking at how vehicles in the games we play are well blended into their sciences, gave me ideas on how I could texture the van. There was a small tutorial clip posted on blackboard on modelling a vehicle, this was handy in helping me visualise the best way to mode. Additionally, I watched ‘YouTube’ clips on modelling cars using 3DS max- all of which were supportive. As hinted before, none of my research created a final solid outcome, but they allowed me to envision concepts for a final idea.

Conceptual ideas and planning

I chose to model the ‘Ford Connect 2005’. This vehicle project was 5 weeks long.  My structural plan consisted of:

·       Modelling for 2 weeks

·       Unwrapping and texturing in 2 weeks

·       The last week will be applying finishing textures (bumps, specs etc.).

Progression

After taking many images and visiting the Ford garage, I began modelling my van. To model in scale I used the blueprints provided to us on blackboard, as a basis of my model’s shape. Steve advised us to use the strip modelling method to model as opposed to sculpting a standard shape, which we did for the previous objects, it wasn’t easy to get right at first but, I strip modelled each side of the van: front, sides and back in line with the blueprints.

Afterwards, I welded the edges of each side to show the 3D shape of the van.  I added the Roof as a cap, after connecting all the faces. I did not bother with a floor of the car; I didn’t think it was necessary. I modelled the exterior, then the glass and lights which were followed by the interior.

After the body was fully sculpted, I began to add the finer details accordingly e.g. the grill, lights, bumper and so forth.

When I was happy with the finished model, I made certain that there were no engons (a tedious task indeed. Furthermore, I made sure all polygons were all flipped on the same side, another tedious task.

The 3^rd stage of the project was unwrapping my van. This was by far the longest and most challenging aspect of the project. Unwrapping still feels like a task I need to work on. I do not look forward to unwrapping as much as I enjoy texturing.

Alas, in the early hours of the morning, I finished unwrapping and moved onto texturing. This task wasn’t particularly difficult as I had been doing so numerously during the intensive week, and this time round I was definitely better organised.

I cropped reference images that I took on my research onto dedicated texture sheets using Photoshop. Subsequently the sheets were applied to the vehicle.

Finishing touches

Unsatisfied with the look of my textured van, I added a normal map and a specular map to all the textures to five it more character. There is a nice dust look along the skirts of the vehicle, creating a sense of realism. Nonetheless, the specular map and added gloss map, allows the side plates to look shiny, a characteristic of a car. I had to alpha channel the glass and gloss mapped it too. I learnt from my peer Kieran that instead of alphaing, the windows completely black, paint them a mid-grey tone, just to hint at the windows’ see-through property.

Lastly, I added, photometric free lights to the model, a podium, a box warehouse and a huge ford sign in the background. It wasn’t necessary, but I feel that all of these helped to create a nice finishing render, to which I am proud of.

Issues and errors

No project is without fault and I did run into a few along the course of the transit van project. It was my first time strip modelling and Mitch Small flagged at how my van model was unevenly segmented. Secondly when modelling the rim, I extruded it forwards then backwards, this left a big whole where the wheel skirts should be, fortunately able to overcome it.

My last big issue was the texture. Although, I feel I have made a greater job of the texture sheet in this project compared to previous projects, but still, some textured objects previous look blurred and clunky. Additionally my specular map and normal maps might be too intense, perhaps I could have made it more subtle.

Final thoughts and Conclusion

Despite these issues, I am very proud of the way that my van project has turned out, this time round, I was better organised, better planned and not doing a half-hearted job. I have learnt from the project, to reference more, draw concepts of the model, dedicate more time to texturing, but most importantly stay organised, work to a plan and work quick to give enough time to correct errors. However, I am very happy with my outcome and if I stick to what I have least, it will be very excited to see the outcome of my next projects.

Ford_Transit_Van by denzilforde on Sketchfab