the Random Study

— Action Item (alpha): Breakdown the Language of Cinema

Person of Interest has been getting some attention recently and of course, it grabbed my attention. One thing that really got me to into this show was how some folks kept relating it to Batman. So, as a Batman fangirl, for the lack of a better word, I had to check it out. Thus, I chose POI for this action item. It’s new, it’s Batman-ish, and it’s a TV show.

There might be spoilers, so if you’re a “don’t-spoil-me-imma-die” person, you have been warned. But I still try to be as vague as possible for those who have not watched the series yet. But it’s best you do, it’s a good series.

The element in the beginning, how it started:
It’s started with a happy scene; two couples cuddling each other (woman and man). We don’t get a good look of their faces but we can make it out. Quickly after that scene, we end up with a hobo in a subway train… hmm, this hobo dude could possibly be the man with that woman from that happy scene a few seconds ago. Maybe. But of course, the hobo is not who he seems. He can fight, he has this special forces/secret agent mystery aura, and ends up getting bailed out by some rich dude. And all that happened in that order.

10 months ago
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— Action Item (alpha): Play a Game

Almost similar to the Iconic Elements rundown, this action item will simply tackle the ‘experience’ while playing a game (whatever game it is, be it a board game, a console game, a visual novel, and whatnot). But before proceeding, let me talk about the book I am basing these entries from.

The book is entitled, Video Game Writing and Design (I believe it was around 799Php in Fully Booked). Written by Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten. Haven’t finished the book yet but it’s a good read for aspiring game developers and designers out there. Maybe I’ll write a decent review once I get to finish it. So this next action item is about the experience of playing a game: ACTION ITEM (ALPHA) - Play A Game.

I am to simply write about my experience after playing the game for thirty minutes, but I ended up playing for more than that. I choose Deus Ex: Human Revolution because it’s something new for me (I can’t remember my last Deus Ex encounter) and with all the hype, I had to try it for myself.

10 months ago
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— Action Item (alpha): Iconic Elements

Last 2011, I came across a book about video game writing and design. I do mean the physical book… thank Fully Booked for actually having these rare finds lying around and with a surprisingly reasonable price tag. In the book, it had these exercise-like sections. So I thought about writing about that and here are some of the Action Items found in the book. They try address the relevant sections in a game’s overall design, from pre-prod and beyond.

Let me start with: ACTION ITEM (ALPHA) - ICONIC ELEMENTS In this section, we talk about iconic elements that you can immediately recall from a franchise. I chose Resident Evil, the video game, not the movie. What I write here is based on my own experience of the game.

1. Zombies - You must be like: zombies, what’s new? But the Resident Evil zombie, in my opinion, are a little different. The concept of the ‘zombie’ in the RE series is more like a mutation rather than something out of an urban legend/superstition or some plague that ‘brings the dead back to life’ (close but, with some exceptions).

The original idea of a zombie is that something organic dies and then comes back to life (based on the Zombie Survival guide book I so eagerly read).

The way I see it, RE zombies are mutations, hence, the really gross boss fights you encounter in the game. Notice how the story has evolved from viruses to parasites and something else in between (refer to RE4 and RE5). What I’m simply trying to say is that, this game gave birth to the zombie apocalypse we keep seeing/hearing of in games. More than that, their zombies affect animals and turns some humans to more than just mindless eating zombies but also into nasty creatures comparable to Necromorphs (Dead Space reference all of a sudden, sorry).