First thoughts on the development process of a game

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I like to share with you my first insights into the process of developing a game and how game engines provide a framework to create a new game.

The process of researching the educational effects of computer games is mostly achieved by conducting surveys. Apart from using already existing games to conduct such a survey, it could be also necessary to create a new game from scratch. The new game could focus mostly on the desired training goal and thus allow an in-depth analysis of the influence of the game on the learning outcome. My current research project requires such a new game to allow me to focus on a particular topic.

Although I won’t need to program the game completely on my own, it’s very important to have good programming skills and insights in the game development process. And this brings me to my last two weeks.

During my career, I already finished some small programming projects, but I’ve never used a game engine. Furthermore, these small programming projects were only on an occasional basis and thus I don’t have much programming experience.
Now, with my research project in mind, I need to develop my game development skills and get an idea how I can realize game projects with a game engine. In order to do so, I started to watch some tutorial videos on youtube on how to develop a game with Unity3D[1].

After a few videos, the process of developing games became pretty clear to me, at least in Unity. The advantage of using a game engine like Unity is that it provides a good graphical framework and an access to the user control interfaces. Moreover, the game engine provides good tools to create levels, to import models from other 3D modelling tools and to manage textures. This makes, from a design point of view, creating interesting landscapes and environments quite easy. However, a game mechanic itself needs to be realized using scripts.

These scripts are the main tools of creating new game mechanics and thus the game itself. The biggest challenge comes from the fact that the idea of a certain game mechanic needs to be converted into the used programming language. Like in general programming, it’s important to define all the important variables and how they need to be changed to realize the desired game mechanic. As soon as the game mechanic is converted into the programming language, creating game mechanics is basically a normal programming process.

After the script is written, it can be managed using the game engine. The game engine provides the option to apply the script to a game entity and thus the game entity receives the functionality of the script.
As an example, the script could create a healthpoint pool and realize a functionality of loosing and gaining health. After the script is applied to a game entity, the entity now can gain and loose health.

After having gained some insights into the game development with Unity, I’ll need to get some insights into the different approaches of using other game engines. In this case, I like to gain also some experiences using the Source and the Unreal engine.
Additionally, as a game researcher, it’s pretty interesting to get some insights behind the scenes of the game development. It gives me a new point of view on the way how game mechanics work and how they’re developed.

Sandbox computer game Let’s Plays

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I like to give a very brief overview about the entertaining combination of sandbox computer games and the creation of Let’s Play videos.

I’ve already defined Let’s play videos (LP) [1] and discussed why open world and sandbox games provide their players with unique experiences [2]. Although it’s quite an obvious step, I like to discuss the combination of both approaches.

Sandbox games allow players to express their creativity and to play around with an open world they can shape without any constraints. Creating LPs is also a creative process, because players create an additional narrative arc through their comments.
In this case, creating a LP is already an expression of the own creativity. However, the resulting LP video about a game with a linear story is mostly linear, too. The feelings and the narrative arc of the player might be different, but the main content of the LP itself is mostly the same, if different LPs about the same linear game are compared.
Naturally, each player has a different approach and thus the LPs are distinguished by the narrative arc. The expression of the own creativity remains still intact, but it’s mostly biased by the story of the game, which is being played in the LP.

In contrast to linear game LPs, a sandbox game LP gives the player the opportunity to express the own creativity in two different dimensions. The first dimension is the same as of a linear game LP: the additional narrative arc of the player.
However, due to the fact that playing a sandbox game is already an expression of the own creativity, a sandbox game LP has an additional dimension of creativity. The player has the opportunity to create a completely new and unique story out of the openess of a sandbox game.
At this point, the gameplay itself already becomes the most obvious part, which distinguishes different LPs about the same computer game. However, the narrative arc created by the player is still very important, because it adds some context to the gameplay presented in the video. Without the important narrative arc added by commentating the gameplay, the LP could be hard to follow, because sandbox computer games don’t provide an own narrative arc like linear computer games.

Finally, from the standpoint of a viewer, LPs about sandbox computer games allow a broader variety of different „channels“. A LP about a linear game is still entertaining to follow, but watching a LP about the same game from a different player won’t provide much more new and interesting events. However, sandbox game or open world LPs are different all the time, because the gameplay itself allows unlimeted different approaches. In the end, the combination of sandbox computer games and LPs has created a new trend of approaching these games: the game becomes more and more a framework to present the own creativity to others.

Globally connected through education

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I like share some of my recent experiences I made with the online education website Coursera.

This article is one of the very rare exceptions, that will not cover any computer game related topic. Instead, I want to talk a bit more about new ways how scientific education takes place. However, I don’t want to generalize this topic in this article. Instead, I like to introduce this world wide learning environment by presenting my latest experiences.

The new learning environment I’m talking about is coursera.org. Coursera is an education company that allows universities and organizations to create online education courses for free. Almost everyone from all over the world can gain access to Coursera and join a broad variety of different courses.
As I was introduced to Coursera, I found the concept very appealing, but at this time, I had so many other things in mind and I never felt like it would be a good idea to join an online course. Of course, I still don’t have much time and so it might sound a bit crazy to join a class with several hours of workload per week, but I’m really enjoying it and it’s also a bit like a recreation to me, when I’m engaged in a completely different scientific field.

Joining a course in Coursera is almost like enrolling in a course at a university. The biggest difference comes from the fact, that these courses are online and can be accessed on an individual time schedule. Every week new video lectures are published and can be viewed by the students. Additionally, some supplementary material can be provided to enhance the learning outcome. Finally, the Coursera website provides a homework function so that students can also complete homework tasks, when they’re interested in.

From my point of view, the most interesting feature of Coursera comes from the fact that it connects people from all over the world. Students from all over the world, who probably would have never met, can discuss the knowledge presented in the video lectures and help each other to solve the homework assignments.

I like to end this short article with my most recent Coursera experience. The instructor of my current course is very active on the forums and provides a lot of supplementary material to enhance the learning outcome. One of the most impressive things he did were some Google Hangouts[1]. Interested students had the opportunity to join him in a Google Hangout and talk to him „face-to-face“ about the topics of the course. As I joined one of these hangouts, I really felt connected to the whole world. Not only that I was able to ask my instructor some questions, I was also able to follow the discussion with other participants from all over the world.

Thank you Ronen Plesser for giving us so many great insights into astronomy and for spending so much of your time on answering our curious questions.

Early access experiences

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I like to discuss the different gameplay experience of early access games compared to final release versions. Early access games can provide the player with a constant stream of new features, which can cause the impression of playing a completely different game.

Playing early access games (EA) is to a certain degree different from playing a release version of a computer game. In general, in both cases the player enters the virtual game world and can interact with it. However, the fact that an EA is still under development can often lead to unique experiences a release version can’t provide. The following article is mostly based on my own observations while playing early access games.

A release version of a game is finished and completed. All the features are implemented and the player should be able to explore the world without being disturbed by any bugs or balance issues. On the other hand, a finished game won’t change anymore. Of course, developers can release some additional addons or some additional content, which extent the game world a bit. Although these addons can provide some additional experiences, the game itself won’t provide a constant stream of new experiences like an EA.

Providing an early access version has also changed a bit the expectations and the approach of players towards new games. Back in the days, computer games were announced, had maybe a closed beta test and were only accessible for the majority of computer game players after the final product was finished and polished. Today, assuming an early access version is provided, players can start to experience a new game world in the current state of the development and have not to wait until it’s completely finished.

From my point of view, the most interesting thing of playing an EA comes from the fact, that these games can provide a constant stream of new experiences on a regular basis. Everytime the developers implement a new feature, the whole gameplay can change and the game can appear as a completely new game.

I already visited different celestial bodies in Kerbal Space Program (KSP)[1] before the career mode was implemented. The career mode currently relies on a tech-tree the player can unlock to gain access to more powerful rocket and plane components. Unlocking the tech-tree requires the player to do „science“ by visiting different zones of the KSP solar system and conducting different experiments in the particular zone.
In general, the solar system hasn’t really changed with the career mode – the only difference was the implementation of different biomes on some of the celestial bodies. Apart from the biomes, all the celestial bodies still look the same and still are reachable the same way as before. However, due to the fact that playing career mode restricts my approaches to the components I’ve unlocked and that I actually need to conduct some experiments, the game seems to be completely different. Still, I’m landing on the same moon as in the sandbox mode, but being able to bring back some valuable data and thinking about how to get the most science out of one mission provides me with a completely new experience of the gameplay.

The same goes for another spaceflight related EA: Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager (SPM)[2]. The first versions of the SPM came without the option to land on the Moon. Only a few missions were available and the Mercury Program was the only way to launch an astronaut into space. Over time, the Gemini and the Apollo Program were implemented and thus I was able to explore the space in more different ways. Finally, a career mode was implemented, too. The career mode in SPM challenges me with some campaign objectives I need to complete until a certain deadline or I will lose some points or even lose the complete game.

One could argue, that all these features of the game could have been available right away to really enjoy the game, but from my point of view, this is not true. The constant stream of new features gives me as a player the feeling of progression. At first, I’m only able to land on a celestial body in KSP, but I can’t really benefit from this. At this point, I have to admit that landing on a new celestial body was a really exciting moment and the biggest reward I can receive in computer games are emotional rewards. In this case just landing on a celestial body was a great reward. After I did a lot of flights to other planets, the feature of collecting science was implemented. In my case, I felt like I really made some spaceflight progress and now I’m able to perform better in the game world. I now can even bring back some data!

My experiences while playing SPM over several new versions were almost the same. I learned to play the game, I learned how to manage my space agency. This new knowledge finally helped me to extend the variety of available missions and goals I can achieve in the game.

As a conclusion, EA can reward the player in different dimensions. On the one hand, new features can change the complete gameplay and the players can get the impression, that they’re playing a different game. New options, new ways and new spaces can be explored and recharge the excitement of exploring the game world.
Additionally, as the player makes some progress in learning the game, the game itself makes some progress and provides some new features, too. If the implementation of a new feature aligns with the learning curve of the players, the players can get the impression as if they learnt something new and they’re now more powerful.

Although the learning curve dimension can be biased by the sort of new added features and the genre of the game itself, the change of the gameplay by adding new features to it will be causing all the time a new gaming experience. In the end, compared to final release games, playing an EA will be different with every new version and thus can lead to a completely new trend of enjoying computer games.

Early access influence

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I like to trace the influence of an early access game version on the development process of the game.

I’ve already presented the concept of early access games and their impact on the development process of a game[1]. Today, I like to trace the changes in the development process of Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager (BASPM)[2]. Two months after the release of the first early access version, the developers received a huge amount of suggestions and feedback. After analyzing the feedback, the developers decided to rewrite the roadmap of the development process: the game will receive some additional major features the community has requested[3].

BASPM is a strategy game that allows the player to become the director of a space agency. The main goal of the first part of the game is to replay the race to land on the Moon. In order to do so, the player can unlock historic missions and launch them into space. In contrast to Kerbal Space Program, BASPM doesn’t allow the player to control the space crafts directly. Instead, it’s more about managing the funds of space agency, hiring the best employees and improving the components of the space crafts by assigning scientists to the projects.

At the end of October 2013, the early access version of BASPM was released. Over the last two months, the developers released on a weekly basis a new version. The weekly releases added new usability features and new missions to the game. At the end of December 2013, the game received one of the most desired features: the Apollo Program.

Over these two months, thousands of interested players experienced the game and made a lot of suggestions based on their experiences. Some of these suggestions could be implemented right away in a weekly update, but some other requests are more challenging and can’t be quickly implemented. Additionally, these features alter to a certain degree the concept of the whole game.

One of these features is the request to be able to replay the race for the very first landing on the Moon. The original concept of the game was without any direct competitors. However, a lot of players requested the feature to be able to race against another fraction.
At this point, the usefulness of an early access version becomes very obvious. The game isn’t finished yet and the developers have a lot of time to listen to the suggestions of their players. Additionally, the developers like to create a game the players really want to play. In the end, the developers decided to implement two new „Race to the Moon“ campaigns: the player will be able to decide whether he likes to play for the Soviets or for the USA.

To wrap things up, the example of BASPM shows the great potential of early access versions, because the developers can develop their game together with their audience. Features and issues can be adjusted right away and the final product will match the interests of the players. Furthermore, granting access to an unfinished game, improving it on a regular basis and responding to the reports of the players can increase the trust of the players in the developers. The players realize, that their oppinion is important and they start to feel very welcome. This will also strengthen the interest in the final product, because the players have helped to make the game as it is.

Items – the one and only reward?

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I discuss the need for a different character progression system in MMORPGs than just rewarding the players with new items.

One of the main goals in a MMORPG is to develop the own character. At first, new players need to „level“ their characters by completing quests or killing monsters. Each action rewards the player with a certain amount of experience points. „Level ups“ are often rewarded with a new skill, the player can now use with his avatar. During the level phase, the player constantly increases the strength of the own avatar. However, after the avatar has reached the maximum character level, the progression of the character abruptly stops.

Allowing players to develop their characters beyond reaching the maximum level requires an additional game mechanic. Most MMORPGs like World of Warcraft therefore mainly rely on the items a character can wear. On Blizzcon 2013, items were characterized by the developers as the greatest gift they can give to their players.

Items are a great mechanic to progress with a character. Every character has an inventory and can equip different kinds of equipment. The inventory allows an easy exchange between different items: players can just swap out an item to upgrade their avatar.
Additionally, items can change the appearance of the own character. The character doesn’t just get stronger and can deal more damage, the character also starts to look more like an experienced hero protected with shiny armor. In the end, items are rewarding their wielder with two benefits at once.
Most of these valuable items can be looted off defeated enemies, who live in dangerous instances. However, getting the desired item isn’t granted on the first win over a strong enemy. This keeps players interested in the game, because they want to collect these items to increase the strengths of their characters to the maximum. The only way to do this, is to complete the instance over and over again in the hope to receive the desired loot. During this period, developers can create new contents and also new items to restart the whole circle.

Unfortunately, restarting the item collection process has become common among MMORPGs. Since the release of WoW 16 main content addons were released. If I just take one complete set of new items per content into account, a player would have collected about 256 items. Naturally, this is a great underestimate and players have collected even more items over their career.
256 items are already a huge number and after so many different items, they can’t be such a reward anymore. Of course, new items still improve the own avatar and provide the player with the feeling of making some progress. However, every player knows that the shiny new item will be replaced in a few month. Items aren’t that special anymore and a new way of increasing the strength of the avatar would be interesting.

Unfortunately, this isn’t very easy to achieve. Exploring the world could evoke awe for the players, but this will work only once. Same goes for the great feelings after experiencing a big moment in the game. These moments are mostly related to the achievement of completing a difficult task. Like exploring new landscapes, big moments work only once, too. Relying just on the feelings won’t keep players active after they’ve experienced all the big moments.
Rewarding players constantly with new skills won’t work either. In general, most character classes work with a maximum of 10 skills. Moreover, if the player would have too many skills, the gameplay might become to complicated. Additionally, all the skills need to be balanced, so that no combination of skills is overpowered compared to other classes.
Another idea would be the option to build an own house in the virtual world. This house could be decorated with trophies and memories from the adventures. The trophies could be rare and thus requiring the player to complete some content again to keep the player active. However, this system is almost similar to the item based progression system. Instead of equiping the avatar, the player starts to hunt for trophies for his own house.

To wrap things up, keeping players active in MMORPGs needs a simple mechanic, which can be easily updated and which provides the player with a constant feeling of making progress. Currently, no other mechanic than the item-based progress system seems to be capable of keeping players constantly playing the game.

Homework assignments with computer games

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I demonstrate the idea to use computer games as an additional simulation tool to enhance the learning outcome. Simulation games can be used to validate and visualize the freshly gained knowledge.

I’ve discussed already several times how game mechanics challenge different abilities of the players and thus the players are training these abilities while they’re progressing through the game. I also discussed games like Kerbal Space Program (KSP)[1], because these games simulate real physics and the player can greatly benefit from additional specific knowledge. KSP can encourage its players to learn more about space travel to improve their own gameplay[2].

However, today I like to take a different approach and demonstrate how these simulation games can be also used to enhance the learning outcome. The demonstration will show, that a learner of astrophysics might take advantage of KSP to observe and explore important facts of orbital mechanics.
Typically, a learner does some homework assignments to train the freshly gained knowledge, but often the result can’t be directly verified. Of course, in case of astrophysics it might be possible to validate the results with real world facts. Unfortunately, this can be still very abstract to the learner. However, by using KSP to calculate and simulate orbital mechanics, the learner has the opportunity to simulate the situation and compare it with the own results.

I like to demonstrate this approach with one of my space stations I’ve build in KSP. This space station orbits in an altitude of around Kerbin (, ).

Supply Station in orbit

At first, we want to calculate the period of my space station’s orbit around Kerbin:

We can neglect the mass of the space station in because the station has almost no mass compared to the planet. So we can just insert as the total mass. We assume that the real world gravitational constant can be applied on KSP, too.

After we calculated the period, we can observe the period in KSP for my station: it does one orbit around Kerbin in 47 min and 32 s. Great!

Orbital period

Now we want to calculate the velocity of my space station:

After we calculated the velocity, we can observe the velocity in KSP for my station: it has a current velocity of 1980 m/s. Great!

Velocity

Finally we want to know the velocity we need to escape Kerbin:

After we calculated the velocity, we can try to plan a maneuver to escape Kerbin in KSP with my station: this time, we’re pretty close to the KSP maneuver, which only requires a velocity change of 806 m/s.

Escaping Kerbin

This short demonstration has shown, that a computer game can be used as an enhancement for a traditional learning approach. At first, the learner can take advantage of the specific knowledge about orbital mechanics to calculate some variables. Afterwards, the learner can simulate the calculated variable and validate the own calculation approach. Moreover, the learner can start to manipulate the simulation and learn even more about the connections of different variables and constants of the equations being used.

Realism vs. fun

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I discuss the problem of creating a realistic simulation to raise the general attention for global problems. A too realistic game might cause more confusion than a more simple approach.

I’m currently thinking about games, that help us to understand global problems like polution or overfishing. Anno 2070[1] is a good example how to present our own influences on our environment. The player can choose between the Eco and the Tycoon fraction. The Eco fraction tries to save the environment and uses only „green energy“, whereas the Tycoon fraction doesn’t care about the environment and is able to build coal-fired power plants. Over time, this playstyle changes the environment of the game.
The player settles on an untouched island and starts to build his city. If the player cares for the environment, the nature around the own buildings looks healthy and green. However, if the player takes the Tycoon-style approach, the nature becomes unhealthy and the whole island starts to look wasted.

Anno 2070

Apart from the constant influences on the environment, the player has also to face catastrophes like a fire on an oil rig. If the player doesn’t stop the fire in time, oil can leak out and polute the oceans. The player is armed with enough countermeasure tools to clean the oceans but players of the Tycoon fraction might not care about the polution because they’re not as punished as the Eco fraction for living in a poluted environment.

This approach of Anno 2070 to make us more sensible towards environmental problems is a good step towards a broader understanding of the global problems. Players can experience the different impact of building a coal-fired power plant or a solar array power station.
On the other hand, Anno 2070 is just a computer game and the main goal of a game is entertainment. Changing the environment is pretty easy and most of the polution is just gone away after the „dirty“ buildings are replaced. Although recovering the nature is easy, the general concept of the game helps its players to think more about the global problems.

A more realistic approach might help to develop a deeper understanding of these global problems. However, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, because realistic approaches need to take into account a lot of new variables. All these variables need to be simulated and also to be controlled and influenced by the player. A new player would be easily overwhelmed by all the important features and it might frustrate the player.

The simulation genre lives from simulating realistic facts. However, in most cases, the game simulates only one single topic. A flight simulator has only a limited amount of variables, that need to be simulated. Same goes for a racing simulation game. These variables are also well defined and can be easily implemented in a game.
Complex things like the global problems however do have almost unlimeted variables, which influence the outcome. Different laws to protect the environment and different approaches of the consumers towards their products are often the key factores. The product should be cheap, which forces the industry to produce very efficient. Efficient production often leads to a higher degree of polution. Additionally, businesses want to increase their revenue and „green“ production is expensive.

If it’s somehow possible to gather all the different variables and to create a simulation out of them, then the simulation would be very complex and the player needs to understand all the influences of each variable to successful play the game. In the end, a game, which should help to raise the attention for global problems in an entertaining way, will cease being a game and frustrate the player. One could argue that this frustration might also lead to a deeper understanding of the complexity of this problem, but in the end most players would only be confused about all the different variables and connections.

In conclusion, a game like Anno 2070 with only a simple simulation of environmental changes caused by polutions could be more helpful to understand global problems than a complex hardcore simulation. On the other hand, if a player has developed a basic understanding of the problem, a hardcore simulation that helps to understand every detail might be a good step as well.

Never, ever give up!

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I try to illustrate how computer games might help us to make our dreams come true.

„Never, ever give up. You can do what you want, if you just work hard enough.“ A very important and motivating thought. This might sound a bit like a seminar for managers, but it applies to all of us. If we have a dream and we start to chase that dream, we might be able to make that dream come true, if we just work hard enough.

Computer games might help us a bit to gain enough motivation to start something new. Computer games challenge us and we’re often barely strong enough to survive the challenge, but we can do it, if we give our very best. However, computer games also help us to face setbacks. Succeeding at a hard challenge often means failing very often to learn how to approach the challenge. In computer games, we can do this and we also like doing it this way. Nothing is more boring than a computer game, that just let us run through without any challenges. The virtual environments always give us some hope, that we can beat the challenge and beat the game.[1]

Playing computer games shows us, that we can reach our goals, if we work hard enough. We only need to apply this knowledge to our real life.[1] Of course, it is much more easy to succeed in a game than in reality. Often game successes are also much more obvious and much more colorful, but the idea behind remains the same.
Let’s compare playing a game with hiking, a real world activity. Of course, I could compare it with any other activity, but the hiking example might be much easier to illustrate than all the other activities.

As a hiker, you like to be out in the nature and maybe hike on top of a mountain or around a huge valley. If you’re new to this activity, you might be not able to reach the top of a mountain or walk around the whole valley. You just don’t have the endurance to walk such a long distance. Although you can’t reach the end of your goals, you can start doing some shorter hikes to gain more endurance. You will experience some issues, that you might not be able to walk the desired distance or you experience muscle ache after a hike.
Especially not reaching your goal right away or being slow might seem as a failure, but this is the same thing as if you get defeated by an enemy in a computer game. You just have to try again, if you want to defeat the challenge. You have to believe in yourself, that you can do it.

In the end, you might be able to hike on top of that one big mountain. You’ve overcome all these setbacks and you reached your goal. At this point, the whole concept can be applied to everything else. If you have a dream and you start chasing it, you can make the dream come true. You just have to stay true to who you are and believe in yourself.
Computer games can’t help you to fight all these small battles, but they can give you the first initial impuls to believe in yourself.

Unfortunately, Christmas is already over and we’re sailing towards the end of the year. Around New Year we also have the tradition to make some New Year resolutions and I like to encourage you to stick to your New Year resolutions. Believe in yourself and never give up – you can live your dreams!

Happy New Year everyone!

References:

[1] McGonigal, Jane (2011): Reality Is Broken, New York.

It’s Christmas Time!

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I present an example how Christmas also impacts the virtual world of computer games. Merry Christmas everyone!

Only a few days are left until we celebrate Christmas and hopefully enjoy a wonderful time with our families. Almost everything around us is decorated and prepared for Christmas. This event is one of the most desired events in the year and has a lot of tradition. However, not only our real life is affected by the Christmas time: computer games also try to celebrate Christmas with their players.

One big example is the MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW): every year a special Christmas event, the Feast of the Winter Veil, takes place in Azeroth. During the time of this event, players can solve special Christmas quests like cooking Gingerbread Cookies for Greatfather Winter, the Santa Clause of Azeroth. Additionally, several special cooking recipes are only available during this time. Players even find some presents on Christmas day under the Christmas trees in one of the capitals of each fraction.
The cities of Azeroth are decorated with coloful lights and Christmas trees and some of the instance bosses wear Red Winter Hats. Finally, players can even tailor a complete Winter Veil outfit.

Feast of the Winter Veil

Celebrating Christmas in a computer game adds some additional flair, but it’s not the same like celebrating and experiencing Christmas in the real world, eating all the delicious food, being together with your family and enjoying this wonderful magic time of the year. Although I try to convince you all the time with my articles, that computer games have a lot of positive impacts on our real life, but this time I like to emphasize that computer games can’t create the joy of the real world Christmas decoration and magic flair. Especially, if you’re walking through the decorated streets after sunset and by cold temperatures.

In this case, I wish you all a very Merry (non-virtual) Christmas!

Merry christmas