Homework (due next class):
38 Comments
Gordon Hu
11/10/2018 04:18:27 am
Westworld is an open-world game, full of side-quests and possibilities. There is endless customization and it satiates a primal human urge to kill, murder, and rape. There is violence and sex and adventure. No laws. No rules. The main characters, or guests, are invincible and the NPCs respawn, much like how enemies would during a Blood Moon in Breath of the Wild.
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Mariam Zagub
11/11/2018 04:01:39 pm
I am also watching Westworld and it's a very interesting concept for a TV show. I'm not a big fan but I don't have any other option since my computer doesn't have enough room to download a video game. It's interesting because the show is about violence and I just read the news that the show's sets were destroyed in the California fires. As I watch, I noticed that the way the show is portrayed with its camera work is made to create that suspense around that question you asked: better optimized for what exactly? It does seem as if it will simply result in complete chaos in the end.
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Turese Anderson
11/11/2018 05:55:31 pm
The game seems like it would be at least a little boring. Like, you can do anything you want, but, like, where's the male romance options? Also, if the NPCs don't respawn, then it opens a whole new slew of effects on the greater plot. If nobody remembers anything, how can there be a MMORPG-esque overarching history?
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Mariam Zagub
11/11/2018 04:13:01 pm
I decided to watch Westworld because I had no other choice since my laptop cannot handle large downloads without crashing frequently. This show was interesting but I definitely don't want to continue watching it. It was filled with all kinds of violence: murder, rape, assaults, mass killings. It was horrifying to watch. I also read the news that its TV show sets were destroyed in the California fires happening right now. What I found interesting about the show itself was that it took an artificially constructed world for people to see the truth about human beings. It took a completely fake setting, a setting that seems very real though, to see the worst in people and to see what humans often desire to do. I've noticed that that applies to how we communicate online today. Because there are fewer immediate consequences to our actions over the internet (and because of anonymity) people tend to be a lot more violent and scary.
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Gordon Hu
11/11/2018 09:09:08 pm
I read the news about the set being destroyed too. It's tragic but at the same time interesting. Westworld is a simulation created within another simulation (the medium of film, the set) and the destruction of the set may very much parallel the destruction of the in-world simulation.
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Eric Hernandez
11/12/2018 02:02:04 am
I also thought it was interesting how Westworld attempts to explore human nature through the platform of a video game. I think the show does an excellent job at painting the picture of human's as the bad guys, but I'm curious to see how the TV series develops this commentary as it seems very one-sided.
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Turese Anderson
11/11/2018 05:42:33 pm
I watched Westworld, and boy is this show a trip. I'm not trying to say anything bad about the show, but my favorite part is the themesong. The plot isn't bad or anything, the theme song is just really good. (And now I know where Super Best Friends got that song for their Detroit: Become Human playthrough (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj-ogS8IZHc))
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Oreste Turchetti
11/13/2018 12:05:19 am
I loved their version of Paint it Black as well! That was a cool scene. The theme song is really good too. I think
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Russell Lee
11/13/2018 05:22:35 pm
The theme song sounded like something fitting for an ominous futuristic sci-fi film and it was weird having it transition from the theme song, with the blend of technology and people in the opening, to the Wild West. The Wild West has that same level of uncertainty as the future of AI in that there're no laws governing it. It was interesting to see the ominous theme song fly over both concepts.
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Javier Arias-Romero
11/13/2018 08:00:52 pm
Yes the theme song is pretty iconic. And your mother was kind to give you tips moving forward. I would have been spared from a lot of debate if someone did the same for me. The show executed the time jumps flawlessly. What is even more impressive is the shear amount of jumps. I cannot think of another show on the top of my head that does this. I can think of books, and I think it is easier to do in books, but I could be wrong.
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Eric Hernandez
11/12/2018 02:00:24 am
I watched the first two episodes of Westworld.
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Tiffany
11/12/2018 03:42:30 pm
I don't know much about Westworld but the way you and others describe it sounds very similar to Black Mirror in that the show explores how technology affects humans in a mostly negative way. I've seen a few episodes of Black Mirror and was kind of ambivalent to them, so I might try watching Westworld for comparison because it sounds more upfront about the ugly realities of the use of technology.
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Tiffany
11/12/2018 03:38:24 pm
I played Life is Strange.
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Jesse Ou
11/12/2018 05:37:56 pm
Yes I completely agree. Life is Strange was such an interesting game unlike any I've played before. The themes of the game were very interesting, and I was also emotionally invested.
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Sean Tseng
11/13/2018 12:42:23 am
I like your mention of the gray areas in making the choices throughout the game. Often, no matter what difficult decision the player makes, Max's internal monologue does a great job of making players question whether they made the "right" choice. I think this challenging of our decisionmaking process and the motivations behind it is part of what makes this game compelling. I also love that at the end of the episode, you get stats on what other people chose, casting even more doubt on what is right and what is simply the majority choice.
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Jesse Ou
11/12/2018 05:09:03 pm
I chose to play the game Life is Strange. The purpose of the game was to highlight the more sinister side of human nature from what I have played. As for the purpose of games in general, it's to obviously entertain the players as with all forms of entertainment. What that entertainment actually entails can vary in games unlike most entertainment mediums. As for what makes a game a game is something difficult to define. My definition is that a game is an entertainment medium that requires the audience to have hands on interaction. The role of a player in a game can be anything really as long as the players actions have some kind of consequence on what happens in the game. The choices they make can have varying kinds of consequences. Some consequences may change what the viewer perceives but ultimately has no effect past a few moments in the game. Some can change the ending. The choices the players make can also affect the players themselves whether it make the players more emotionally invested through the hands on interaction or it changes the game and therefore changes what the players experience. In the case of life is strange, choices are the entire game. Almost all choices will consequently change the ending (or at least the end of the first episode) and can shape the player's experiences from then on. The player has a huge role in the game in that regard because unlike most games, the choices they make change the story, to the point where it's almost as if the player itself is writing the story. To make a player invested, games can utilize all sorts of tactics. The simple way is to have gameplay that's just fun. Obviously players will become invested in fun things. Another way is to make the player invested in the world. This isn't necessarily related to the story, although you can make players invested through the story. All of these examples aren't the only methods. Life is Strange uses story to make the players invested, but they also use a little bit of gameplay too. By having player actions interact with the story, it gives the player a power in the game that most games do not offer, and it's that power that makes them feel important, that they can make a difference.
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Oreste Turchetti
11/12/2018 11:42:34 pm
I watched Westworld.
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Monse Lopez
11/13/2018 12:49:34 am
Hi Oreste,
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Luc Pogue
11/13/2018 05:52:52 pm
I think you make an interesting point about violence and cruelty in this show. The purpose of both Teddy's death and Dolores' rape I think was to push us over the edge in sympathizing with the robotic characters. It raises the stakes of the entire show, and justifies the feeling of resentment that the robots may ultimately feel towards their creators (and the 'guests'). As Anthony Hopkins says in the show, the violent delights have violent ends...
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Monse Lopez
11/13/2018 12:33:42 am
I watched Westworld for this weeks assignment, and honestly, it was really difficult to get through it all. Not only were the scenes kind of intense, the overall tone of the show was dark. Also, this might be a little biased, but I couldn't get passed the western kind of theme going on because I cannot stand this genre.
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11/13/2018 10:55:42 am
I agree. I find that video games are a way for a person to escape reality. To be in a fictional world where they become someone else. However, they are being restricted by story narrative or rules that the game makers limit the player.
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Sean Tseng
11/13/2018 12:38:14 am
I chose to play Life is Strange, the gameplay of which I've watched before. I think part of the purpose of the game may be bringing into the forefront the unforeseen consequences that arise from the smallest of our choices. Many aspects make a game a game, but user interaction is obviously a fundamental one, as the difference between a novel and a choose-your-own-adventure is the consumer's capacity to manipulate the medium. Life is Strange has this in the traditional sense of carrying out tasks to solve immediate problems, as you consciously manipulate the physical world in the game. The butterfly effect introduces an interesting challenge as well in that you explicitly manipulate the abstract situations and relationships around you as well, but you cannot know the outcomes until it's too late to change it. The role of the player in this case is to use their ability to see the future and make active choices, shifting the way things unfold. I think something Life is Strange does well in engaging the player is layering on mystery. Several questions are introduced in the first episode, and it's possible for players to engage very thoroughly with many different characters that may add to or complicate the mystery. These open-ended points in the story hook the player into finding out more. Beyond the direct engagement of the player, LiS also has a beautiful color palette, soundtrack, and a degree of haunting eerie-ness that unfolds over the course of the game, so that even if a player may not be immediately invested in the characters involved, the experience is still pleasantly intriguing and surreal.
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Ryan Askew
11/13/2018 12:12:04 pm
I think you have made some excellent points and articulated them very well here. Especially about the open-ended nature of the game. Though there are certain limitations placed on where the player can go, or who/what can be interacted with, there are many different things to explore and many are entirely optional. This lets players choose their level of involvement as well, which I think is cool. Personally, I wanted to interact with everything I could find to discover more about the in-game world and the story. However, I could see how someone could also play through this game while skipping over a lot of things without necessarily missing out on the story and the overall game experience.
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11/13/2018 10:44:50 am
I had watch the first two episodes of Season One's Westworld.
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Ryan Askew
11/13/2018 12:03:41 pm
I played Life is Strange this week. It was a great opportunity for me to finally play more of this game I've had for awhile, and had started before, but for various reasons had never even completed the first episode. To do so now was a very gratifying experience. I learned much more about the mystery that drives the story of this game, aside from the inexplicable time travel ability of the protagonist. As a result, I'm now more curious and invested in what happens next and plan to continue playing the rest of the game when I have more time.
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Jonathan Truong
11/13/2018 02:58:31 pm
I played through the first episode of Life is Strange.
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Rawan Mohsen
11/13/2018 04:06:43 pm
Hey Jonathan,
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Rawan Mohsen
11/13/2018 04:02:35 pm
I played the game Life is Strange
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Michelle Nguyen
11/13/2018 04:09:55 pm
I also was invested in the game to see if my choices were right because I cared about the wellbeing of Max and Chloe. Despite some cringey dialogue, I still felt that as characters they were still interesting, so I wanted to see what happens in the end. Although these games tend to make me too anxious about the outcome, I still felt that I could handle it if it meant that my choices had the best outcome.
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Michelle
11/13/2018 04:07:20 pm
For this week, I chose to play Life is Strange. I know about the game through my friends who post about it on social media, so I vaguely know about the story and have been spoiled about the final episodes. But despite that, I really did want to play the game just to experience why my friends like the game so much. After playing through the first episode, I can definitely see why. Going into the game, I knew about how some of the dialogue is cringe-worthy, so it helped me stick with the game. Still, I think that the game progresses in a way that makes it different than say a Telltale game (RIP). The story grabs your attention immediately after starting the game through learning about Max's ability to turn back time. What made me still continue the rest of the episode to see if she reveals her ability.
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Stacy Fernandes
11/13/2018 04:47:06 pm
I agree with you in respect to the dialogue! Some points were cringe-worthy (like reading the emails from Warren). I think that its difficult to be invested into the game if the dialogue is bad. Though, I thought the game had a few good points in dialogue like during the car ride with Max and Chloe. It is different from the telltale games because these characters are original and there are no action sequences in them. Because of this I believe that the game is a lot more easy going and you can enjoy the story and characters.
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Stacy Fernandes
11/13/2018 04:20:39 pm
This week I chose to play episode 1 of Life is Strange. I played the game before when it first came out, but I love storytelling games so I decided to play it again. It’s cool to play as Max because as you interact with the objects in the world, you get to hear her thoughts about them which brings out her personality. It’s like I’m controlling the character in a novel! Which is the whole premise of the game. There have been other games that utilize this same premise where you get to pick out what you want your character to say/do (like the telltale games, Detroit become human, etc.) Though what’s interesting with this game is the fact that your character can reverse time! You can play the scene over and over again while exploring different outcomes! For me, that’s incredible! You don’t have to save your game constantly and if you mess up, you quit the game and relaunch it back to that save point as if the outcome never happened. I think the developers of the Life is Strange were phenomenal in that respect. Some parts of the dialogue between characters were unrealistic to me, though I thought the story in itself is great! The shots and lighting used in the game are very pretty to look at too. My favorite scene is probably when Max has to tamper with the sprinkler system so she can get past Victoria. I was petty this time and decided to take a picture of Victoria instead of comfort her which I have to admit was very satisfying. Overall, I enjoyed the game and would recommend it to anyone who wants to just sit back and relax as they play a game.
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Russell Lee
11/13/2018 05:13:27 pm
"These violent delights have violent ends."
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Luc Pogue
11/13/2018 05:49:04 pm
Since I don't really have the right equipment to play any games on my computer, I watched Westworld. I actually have seen the entirety of the first season back when it came out, and I do believe it's a really good show (not quite as good as it's partner/rival Game of Thrones, but still good!) With regards to gaming, the park within Westworld is designed like a hyper-realistic game-- it is up to the player to make choices and decide how their journey will unfold. Because the hosts are all robots, the guests can make whatever choices they choose in a contained environment, much like a gamer can do within open world games like Grand Theft Auto or the classic Sims games. Yet in Westworld, the stakes are obviously higher-- the lines between what is a game and what is real become quite blurred, as the hosts grow to become increasingly self-aware, much like their human counterparts. A new question arises: at what point should the hosts within the game be treated like humans? If they can feel emotions and physical pain, what justifies their constant murder and rape? (Is it just that we made them? That they are slightly more limited in their functions than humans?) These questions are obviously explored in countless science fiction shows and movies, but Westworld does a particularly good job of it in my opinion.
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Javier Arias-Romero
11/13/2018 07:55:56 pm
I watched the first 2 episodes of Westworld
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Stephanie Machuca
11/20/2018 11:09:31 pm
I watched the first two episodes of Westworld. I really liked this and might continue to watch, for I am intrigued. In this game, the guest has the freedom to do as he pleases without no real consequences. However, the hosts seem to be having an effect that is making them self aware as things begin to progress in the story line. This stimulation allows for the guest to realize his own agenda, whether it be good or bad. It's kinda unfair that the guest can't die; at least a sort of game over would be best and they can exit the game or something. This game, as with some other games, entertains the player in which they are after a certain goal/mindset they wish to accomplish on their own accord. What makes it a game is the participation of the player; how we interact with it is what keeps us hooked. For the show, it seems insane that they have gone beyond Virtual Reality to actually complete a realistic world. But I question what happens when they become full self aware of who they are? Similarly to the saloon girl, she woke herself up in MID SURGERY and became aware of who she is; what if this happens on a large scale? If they escape to the real world, how would one know to stop them?
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Nick Michael
11/24/2018 10:01:42 pm
I'm glad you like the show, and I would definitely suggest you finish the first season! I would actually disagree with what you said about players not being able to die. I think that aspect of the game only makes it better. If people have absolutely nothing to fear, including death, I think it would be fascinating to know how they would act. Keep watching, though! The show gets better as it goes (until the second season imo) and I think you'll really like the ending.
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Nick Michael
11/24/2018 09:57:04 pm
I watched Westworld for this assignment. I had actually already seen both seasons of Westworld prior to this class, but I decided to rewatch the first two episodes, because I really liked the first season (much better than season 2, which was ass). In Westworld, the game is molded entirely around the person who is playing it. The player immerses themself in a consequences-free world in which they can do whatever they want. This kind of environment can either bring out the best or the worst in people, and in most cases, it's the worst. I find this concept very intriguing, as it raises discussions about the true nature of human beings and what we would act like if there were no rules. The first two episode of this season are great, and it just gets better as the show goes on. Would definitely recommend it.
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