Final Presentation Topic: Plants VS Zombies.

A) Introduction to the work

Name: Plants VS Zombies
Publisher: PopCap Games

Designer: George Fan Releasing Date: May 5, 2009 Platform: PC/Mac/Smart Phone B) The detailed description of the work         Plants Vs Zombies is a tower defense action video game developed and  published by PopCap Games. The game involves a homeowner using many different plants to repel the army of zombies from "eating their brain".          In the game, players need to place different types of  plants which have their unique offensive or defensive  capabilities. Players act as the homeowner and use the  plants to stop the zombies. There are some horizontal   lanes which is the battle area for the plants and zombies.   Players have to put plants on right place to protect themselves.       The players need to know the attribute of the plants and  zombies and plan the battle array. The zombies have   distinct attributes with speed, damage tolerance, and  abilities.  Zombies may wear armour, jump over plants or  even drive a car. > Unique Design of the game     The contrast between plants and zombies had a key  characteristic of the game. The lovely plants looked cute  and likable. When the zombies look weird but special. Both  of them appear in the same battle field make a great visual  contrast.It can make the attention of the players easily. The  plants are designed as lovely and colourful so they have  many different form and look.     The zombies have the same appearance but they perform  in many costumes and styles. The characters in this game  included aesthetic and humorous. For example: Tall Nut. George Fan, the designer explained that the Tall-nut has character, citing its "determined gaze" and how it sheds a single tear when hurt. ("Interview with Plants vs. Zombies creator George Fan". Gamezebo. May 22, 2009. ) > It is Interesting!!       According the director George Fan , he designed this game  as a "gritty" and a "sickeningly cute" game.(Thompson,  Michael, "Aliens in the garden: the secret origin of Plants vs.  Zombies".) The game choose an unusual topic that zombies  are not attacked by human.   Just like resident evil 6 or House of Dead, the zombies look dreadful and players need to kill them cruelly.  Zombies in this game change the traditional image of zombies and the producer make them as a new icon of zombies. The durable of gameplay or interesting system make it different from other games. It balanced the both side of game players . It needs strong strategic elements for experienced gamers but keeping it simple for casual gamers. C) Whether Plants and zombies harms or benefit individuals  and society??    1.Benefit to individuals > Great entertainment for people to relax   Easy gameplay for the casual players and the game can  really attract people to play and relax. According to Justin  Calvert , the game impresses across the board with ingenious game design, uncomplicated controls, colorful visuals, upbeat audio, a decent difficulty curve."(Plants VS ZombiesReview,Sep13,2010,http://asia.gamespot.com/plants vs-zombies/reviews/plants-vs-zombies-review-6275775/) > Inspire creativity   "What makes Plants vs Zombies an absolute gem is the  loads of personality and unique animation for each plant  and zombie." said by Andrew Podolsky (Plants vs Zombies  Review,April23,2012,http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/plants- vs-zombies-review) who wrote review about this game. It  shows the great animation of plant and zombie make this  game so unique. It inspired people's creativity about the  characters. Many drawings and product are made by the   people. This game enlighten our imagination a lot.   This elaborate drawing was submitted by Fundead Legionnaire Roma Raqueno. 2 Benefit to society  >Economy   Plants VS Zombies is the fastest-selling video game  created by PopCap Games. According to PopCap, the iOS  release of this game sold more than 300,000 copies in the  first 9 days. It  generating more than $1M in gross sales,  and considered it "the top-grossing iPhone launch"(Plants s.  Zombies is PopCap's fastest-selling game". Joystiq,May20,2009) This game also create a lot of type of products to sell. Products of zombies   >Cultural  It brings cultural influence to the society. Many humourous  joke contained into the whole game. For example, "Scary  Potter"  comes from the movie "Harry Potter" or the Michael  Jackson style Zombies.(Review:Masterful Plants vs. Zombies Proves Less Is More",Wired.com,May5,2009) All of this arouse the attention of the society on the cultural  issues and increase more topics to discuss.

Mission to Earth

> What is new or different about digital cinema compared with traditonal filmmaking?

  The "Mission to Earth" show us how different  between the digital camera and the traditional film making.  In the clip, there are different size of frame with different angles of shots. The images are showed by the creator in a specific way that the viewer get feelings from those changing screens. 

  The whole story is talking about the , it is full of fantasy but there are still keep the characteristic of documentary. The shots and scenes are realistic but it's  fabricate space of imagine.  Traditional filmmaking focus on the content  but this video show a kind of presentation of concept with a loose story line.

> What is other art form that the film remind you?

 It reminds me a film I had seen long time ago called Mission to Mars. The film is about a team was sent to Mar and  saved another team which meets with a catastrophic and mysterious disaster. They need to bring back any survivors. This film focus on the story and it is clear that what the mission is about but "Mission to earth" tell the story with a lot of way like flashback, shots with different angles in one screen. There are still different between two art form.  

Mark Napier’s ‘Shredder (1998 )

Mark Napier’s ‘Shredder (1998 )



 

    The concept of it is changeable and you can type any website you like in order to see the presentation of it. The digital art showed as a medium connecting with the daily issues.
   
   This kind of art work is presenting concept rather than  actual art object. Because this art had no fixed form or model but it presented artist's concept and order of things.

   The audience can participate into the digital art and we can enter the website address and  process into a new model. For example, I enter nba.com and it recombines the formula
and show them  randomly.

  This kind of digital art carry with randomness and you will not know what you get from this digital technology. This is the interesting point that you get different result from it.

DADA Poem

Challenges digital art presents to art world

Ethics of videogames

A)   The postive aspects of playing videogames are education and entertainment for individuals. According to the film, the game called "Remission" teaches kids to kill cancer .People also play game for entertainment and they feel relax though the experience of playing video games. They get great individual feelings in the video games and people get into the game world in order to dissociate from daily life. People have a big topic to discuss and communicate with friends.
       
       For societies, It also have education aspect and the game producers make some video games can provide informations and knowledge. Moreover, it also share some values in the video games and the people can connect each others in the games. Video games provide huge economic profit that they pushed a type of industry with low cost. Just like Korean , they create huge profit from the video games and the game teams have great impacts to the society.



B)    According to the film, some games contain violence and bloody scenes. Those game make influence to the teenagers and affected their minds. Like the shooting games, it presented in First person mode and you can get into the game easily. Some games need to shoot others' head to score like Counter Strike, those games may encourage  aggression in real world.

      The government should take some policy to avoid young teenagers get addicted and set tthe age restriction on some games which present violence. A 14 years old guy killed 5 people in headshot becuse he played too many shooting games. This issue reflect some problems of the aggression of video games.


C)   Our groupmates like different types of games. I like Simcity and this  is a simulation game that you act like a cityplanner and build the whole city of your own. The plyer will face different situations like pollution , traffic problems and unemployment . Player need to find out the problems and solve them. The game based on the real life experience and it needed players to design and add some geography knowledge.

    One of my groupmate like the Sim , it look like Simcity. But this game focus on the life of  familiesand you can enjoy the participation into the virtual life. Ypu can design your house and plan your own life.





Super Mario Cloud

A kind of digital art example here about the famous video game Super Mario. There are specific cloud in this game and it shows the cloud moving slowly. It represents a kind of digital movement and shows  a new style of art .

   It is cute, creative and related to childhood. It reminds memories of us and shows the original thing . Although there are no character about Super Mario , you can still get the messages behind the cloud. It reflects some culture : popular culture of video game around our life.