Semester 2 Begins!

Right, So recently the second semester has started after the Christmas celebrations ended and I've been able to throw myself into my new assignments with glee and I'm starting to notice improvements from the beginning of the academic year in September. During warm-ups for our life drawing it really struck me how much I've improved in the space of only 4 months. The changes are there and even if it isn't noticeable to all it marks a step in the right direction.

Here is one of my early pictures from September 2013:

These are short 2 minute war-up exercises involving continuous line, opposite hand and blind drawing.

And here are the equivalent ones for January:

Now to some it may not seem like much but to me it shows the hard work is paying off. I must thank my teachers at De Montfort University as well for helping me.

Computer and Games History Part 3: 2000's to the present

Mind mapping the subject.

The period of the 2000's onwards is one where gaming has become bigger then ever before with massive publishing companies, developers and manufacturers spend and making billions. The net revenue for EA in the fiscal year ending March 31st 2013 was $3,797,000,000 (3.8 billion dollars) [1]. These companies make the blockbuster games of the current generation which sell millions of copies worldwide. However things are changing with an increase in the technology of smartphones a new market has opened up for cheaper mobile games which cost fractions to make but can sell equally well. New digital marketplaces like steam which allow for independent developers to publish their own games have emerged and this is creating tensions for the larger companies which are spending lots of money to compete with the cheaply made games where companies don't suffer as much of a loss if they don't sell well. It seems to building up but lets start with talking about the beginning of the 2000's and how it has lead up to this point.

In the year 2000 the Playstation 2 was released by Sony and is currently the best selling Console of all time with 157 million units sold worldwide. Sony now dominated the Market for many years with Nintendo's Gamecube while still popular not selling as much partly because the Playstation doubled as a affordable DVD player in a time when DVD players were still new and expensive. In 2001 Microsoft launched their own console called the Xbox which was met with limited success but it didn't matter to Microsoft with the billions the company had accumulated from PC sales they would come back with a vengeance.

The console market was now focused into 3 main companies Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and their intense competition only increased. In 2005 Microsoft Launched the Xbox 360 Introducing HD gaming and easily connected console multiplayer for the masses. This was shortly followed up by the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii both of which were released in 2006. The Playstation and Xbox were in direct competition over the gamers when the Nintendo Wii had a wider market availability due to its motion controls being advertised as an exersie choice with fun interactive games for all the family. Theses consoles all had digital marketplaces and hundreds of games being sold for them all. Some exclusively making players have to choose which was the system they wanted.

During this time The invention of touch screen smartphones and tablets that were affordable where apps could easily be downloaded from the internet and published by anyone. These games are made by small development teams with limited funds but work hard on their own time and funds creating lots of games in short spaces of time. Commercially successful games like Angry Birds or Candy Crush on Facebook make millions and only cost 1000's to make. However as the technology has been improving and become cheaper this new genre is eating away at the current generations target market with the cheaper games that can be just or even more entertaining.

With the Newest generation just being released with the Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U only the future can tell if the high cost gaming structure will survive because there will always be a place for high quality titles or will it crumble into obscurity in the wave of independent developers.

References:

http://investor.ea.com/financials.cfm

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/2884535025x0x671716/B89EEE77-BFBD-446D-AC7D-8D98F64C5BAE/510163_002_Electronic_Arts_BMK.PDF

http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=671113

From EA themselves



http://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/

Measured by VG chartz



Images:

http://www.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/2013/03/13/developers-remember-the-ps2-naughty-dog-insomniac-more-look-back-on-sonys/

Playstation image



http://cdn.petkaria.com/pictures/blogs.ne10.uol.com.br/mundobit/files/2013/03/Angry-Birds-New-Levels-and-Power-Ups-Trailer_1.jpg

Angry Birds image

Computer and Games History Part 2: 80's and 90's

Mind mapping and trying to decide the subject.

Last time we left off with the new age of personal computers entering the home with the ZX spectrum in the United Kingdom in 1982 being sold as the first affordable family computer. What was good about this was that now anyone in the house hold could plug their new computer into their television and begin using programs or in many cases create their own. This allowed the public to learn to program themselves and soon a whole generation of coders was created using magazines released to educate the population about computers and many games were created by self-taught coders.

This new world where gaming was becoming a vast new industry that had 100's of new games being released over the market with new consoles as well like. This new industries rapid growth meant that the new talent would keep producing games for years to come. This allowed the games industry to keep having lots of new content for cheap intern inspiring more people to begin coding and create their own content after seeing the success of their peers. This was however exclusive to Europe where this constant growth of talent and content made money. The story in America was a very different problem where in 1983-84 the video game crash was about to happen.

The main video game company operating in America at the time was Atari, which had massive sales of games and consoles but the profit margin was made from the games and not the consoles; which meant good content had to be released. This was complicated because Atari refused to give authoring rites to its game developers royalties and authoring rites for their work meaning that many would leave. Many new companies were being made by  these game developers and were in direct competition with Atari. Also the American market finally had it's first affordable micro-computers like the Commodore 64 being released in 1982 and with these game developer moving to create computer games instead of console games.

Eventually Atari lost its money and too many new companies tried to cash in on this gap in the market with too many unsuccessful, crudely made games flooding the market it eventually went under and the console market in America effectively died out for 2 years until in 1985 the NES was launched by Nintendo ( a Japanese company) with the most widely known video game character ever... Mario!

Suddenly a new generation of gaming was born. Of course new consoles were still being made but the Market was now torn between large companies like Nintendo and Sega. Sega's consoles were very successful with the "Genesis" released in 1989 and the "Dreamcast" in 1998. Handheld gaming was also formed when the Gameboy was released in 1989 and now gaming wasn't exclusive to the home. It was now anywhere you were. On the bus, train at school and anywhere else. The last major step in gaming was the rise of the newer systems where 3D was being used. The Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 by Nintendo and the newest big console in the 90's the Playstation. These high quality 3D games made big money and solidified the gaming industry.

If it wasn't for the 80's crash these new systems and companies wouldn't have got the chance to grow and become what they were and in the case of Sony and Nintendo what they still are today. The 80's and 90's made the foundation for the new market of consoles still existing today.

Referencs:

http://www.gamesradar.com/consoles-of-the-80s/
GamesRadar_ US on June 23, 2012     Contributors: Shane Patterson and Brett Elston

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/07/bbc_documentary_captures_the_f.php
BBC documentary 1984

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/23/zx-spectrum-computer-masses-games
Posted by Keith Stuart

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2011/09/21/ten-facts-about-the-great-video-game-crash-of-83?page=1
by Nadia Oxford SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983
unknown date and writer.

http://elder-geek.com/2010/08/the-insane-console-history-video-20/
2nd August 2010

Images:

http://ascii.textfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/c64_10.jpg

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/15/153607/2554987-3034468139-Mario.png