Game Fundamentals Actions in Games †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Game Fundamentals for Actions in Games. Answer: Introduction: The concept of action in games refers to the various on-screen actions performed by the playable and non-playable characters inside a video game. The actions of the playable characters are controlled by the player using controller devices like keyboard or joystick whereas the actions of the unplayable characters are controlled by predefined programs (Arnab et al., 2015). The first action in games was simply one direction running movement whereas in the latest games, the characters are able to perform a wide variety of movements as well as move in all directions (360). History of the Concept Although the concept of video games was developed as early as in 1950s, the concept of action was developed much later when arcade games were flourishing in the gaming industry. The initial games where player actions were used were Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Dangerous Dave and others. However, in these games, the actions were very limited as the playable characters could only move in four directions forward, backward, up and down. In addition to the directional movement, the characters could not perform any other actions except shooting towards an enemy (Scharkow et al., 2015). However, with gradual development of the game, the actions were developed and currently in games, the characters can perform almost any action as a normal human will do provided these actions are programmed with the character. Terminology Related to the Concept Some common terminologies related to the concept are explained as follows. Gamer Control This is referred to the extent of control a gamer has over a playable character during a standard game play. Generally in todays games like Grand Theft Auto, Far Cry, Assassins Creed and other similar games, the player is able to control the movements and actions of the characters like running, jumping, crawling, shooting, fighting and others (Lameras et al., 2017). The control is established through the use of devices like keyboard and joystick. Motion Capture Although technology is extremely advanced, an AI does not have the power to recreate accurate movement of a character by itself. Hence, motion capture technology is used where motion mapping devices are fixed over a real person and the person is needed to perform various motions (Eichenbaum et al., 2015). The mapping devices capture these motions and apply the same on the graphically created character in the game. Example of this Concept in a Game For explaining this concept, the recent game of FIFA 18 has been used as an example. In this game, a player is required to control 11 football players on the pitch (one at a time) during a particular match. The footballers used are the graphical replicas of the real world football players. In order to increase the likeness and authenticity in the game, the developers EA Sports adopted the motion capture technology using which they capture the exact motions of the footballers and apply them on the in-game characters. As a result, while playing the game, the characters perform actions almost exactly like their real world counterparts. References Arnab, S., Lim, T., Carvalho, M.B., Bellotti, F., Freitas, S., Louchart, S., Suttie, N., Berta, R. and De Gloria, A., 2015. Mapping learning and game mechanics for serious games analysis. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(2), pp.391-411. Eichenbaum, A., Kattner, F., Bradford, D., Gentile, D.A. and Green, C.S., 2015. Role-playing and real-time strategy games associated with greater probability of Internet gaming disorder. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(8), pp.480-485. Lameras, P., Arnab, S., Dunwell, I., Stewart, C., Clarke, S. and Petridis, P., 2017. Essential features of serious games design in higher education: Linking learning attributes to game mechanics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(4), pp.972-994. Scharkow, M., Festl, R., Vogelgesang, J. and Quandt, T., 2015. Beyond the core-gamer: Genre preferences and gratifications in computer games. Computers in Human Behavior, 44, pp.293-298.