4th

I've been considering the marketing view of games, specifically the cost factor. This cost is measured as being perceived benefit - perceived cost. Apart from the obvious financial layout, games may have other costs, for instance, the waiting to install a gmae in the case of pc gaming, loading times in others. When I owned an amstrad 464, loading times of 17 min were possible! Modern technology has reduced that so it is rarley a concern. So in terms of time, the biggest cost I perceive is in actually playing the game, and more often in the case of story-driven gameplay, playing itself is not neccessarily the payoff, but rather a means to advance the story. This also seems to be the case in competetive games, where the experience itself is more of a tense, adrenaline-fuelled one, whereas the 'hit' may be got from winning. In these cases, the games are asking the player to invest often a considerable amount of time to get the maximum benefit.

3rd

Ludology = gameplay is everything
Narratology = everything has a narrative.

I have to lean more in favout of ludolgy. On personal experience, I've played games which have no clear narrative(Tetris), arguments against this seem to impose a narrative rather than reveal an existing one. Having said that, I do love a good story with my games, I play less and less of the more abstract twitch games as time goes by. I'll never be a 100% narratologist though, a good story with poor gameplay is just not an enticing mix. Special mention should go to the Metal Gear series, where the gameplay has remained relatively unevolved next to the cinematic narrative. It's unusual in that the cut scenes have been so lovingly crafted, and yet remain bat-shit insane. Focus on the narrative does not neccessarily result in a quality story.

2nd

Strange business college, nobody likes being bogged down in work, but waiting till you can start hacking away at projects is almost as tedious (almost). Plenty of reading to do tho.

First post

OK, ive transferred my blog from the UL SULIS(in the process making the creators of SULIS cry). Starting over's not so bad, only 2 entries in anyway. The skinny so far is I'm finally in 4th year of my course. It's the second week, and things are in full swing with projects, reading, this blog, and even my FYP(just about) ready to go.