Archive for January, 2011
According to industry estimates, the computer and video gaming industry has grown from $7bn in 2005 to more than $10bn today. Video gaming, no doubt, has a universal appeal, with people from different age groups addicted to video games. With the advancement of technology, games have become more sophisticated, offering rich user experience through advanced 3D graphics and control. As the industry grew in the last few years, the requirement of qualified professionals in game development has also seen a steep rise. As with any stream of knowledge, one needs proper guidance and skill to become a good professional. Various game development schools are offering courses that enable students interested in making a career in this field learn the tricks of the trade.
Apart from a creative mind, a person needs to have in-depth and hands-on knowledge of various tools to become a successful game developer. He also needs to have good understanding of sociology and psychology to understand human behavior. These will help him understand the human mind better and develop games that will be liked by many.
With technology changing faster than the speed of mind, it is very important for a developer to keep himself updated with the latest trends and technological changes taking place in the gaming industry. These Schools offer specialized courses that can be taken by both freshers and professionals who are already part of the industry.
While for the former, it is a great chance to learn how to develop his skills through problem-solving and designing, for the latter it is all about keeping oneself updated with the latest changes that are taking place in the fast-evolving gaming industry.
These schools offer various certificates, diploma and degree courses in game software development. Some institutions tie up with high schools to offer week or month long appreciation programs in this field to students.
A study conducted by an eminent institute of management suggests that flash game players might be more alert than their console counterparts. The study was conducted to weigh the impact of non-commercial factors on buyer purchase behaviour.
The experiment consisted of a survey designed to form two age cohorts of game players subdivided into two categories flash game players and console players. Both cohorts consisted of two focussed groups, one relating to players of flash communities and the other to those who identified as being console players.
A causal experiment was then designed to determine the responsiveness of the gaming groups in terms of ‘time to response’.Experimental observations were conducted for the two age cohorts alongside extensive metrics between players of the two groups.
Experiments to gauge ‘time to response’ ranged from simple multiple choice pre-exposed Q&A, wherein the candidates were allowed to run through question banks prior to testing, to logical reasoning and analysis. The objective was not determining the accuracy of the answer but ‘time to response’ fairly accurate.
Interestingly both groups of the respective cohorts patterned different distributions for parametric testing.’Time on Game’ seemed to fit into a statistical lognormal curve for flash games whereas a gamma curve for console games, this startling fact seems to suggest that flash games players gain more exposure to variety, whereas their console game counterparts are likely to get thematically stuck.
Logical reasoning and analysis, and basic math were also structured and administered into the causal analysis to further strengthen the evidence.The metrics were standardised to nullify intelligence factors and the ‘time to response’ argument established.
Xbox 360, Microsoft’s video game console is subject to many issues besides the general hardware failure nick named the Red Ring of Death. Since its release in 2005, Xbox 360 is under controversies for the higher failure rates and Microsoft not only had to extend the warranty period of the device due to failure complaints but eventually launched an upgraded version ‘Xbox 360 S’ covering the issues like red ring of death error. Though the general hardware failure brought a very bad name to the device and damaging the overall goodwill of the company but it was not the only failure detected. Many other failures listed below were also contributing towards the customer’s dissatisfaction.
1. Hardware failure
Hardware failure is the result of malfunctioning of any component on the motherboard and is indicated by a one led flashing around the power button. Usually an error code is also displayed on the bottom of screen referring to the component causing the failure like E74. This is more commonly known as one red light problem. The light that flashes red is Q4. Though it is not critical as the red ring of death error but in 2009 Microsoft had to amend its warranty and covered the one red light problem in it.
2. Overheating
This is an indication of the status of the Xbox 360 rather than a failure. When console gets overheated and the temperature of the console gets higher than a predefined level it shuts down the CPU and GPU simultaneously and starts running the fans at full speed to cool it down. In the meanwhile the two red lights start flashing until the temperature gets down sufficiently. Once the device is cooled down it is ready to be run again. To avoid this kind of situation continuous long duration gaming sessions should be divided into fairly smaller sessions and in between the sessions the console must be powered off and plugged out of the socket. It is better to keep it in an airy and well ventilated place.
Pokémon Black is the latest edition added to the popular Pokémon video game series along with Pokémon White. This time designers of the game have introduced many new features and a new environment never before seen in any Pokémon games. With all the new features and improved graphics it is bound to win the hearts of Pokémon lovers.
Typically Pokémon games are based in a village and forest environment and the story hardly involved the city life but this time with the Black version this is different. This time the story moves around a city called black city which is a major difference than all other Pokémon version released.
The city offers some distinct advantage to the gamer. You will find lots of trainers in the city and training and level up for Pokémon you catch is really easy. The trainers drop a lot of rare items that will give you an extra advantage in the battles. However, new Pokémon available to catch is less than what is available in the white version.
The most powerful Pokémon in the Pokémon Black version is a white dragon called Reshiram that attack with fire. The attack power is high but it can’t move as fast as its main opponent Zekrom from the White version.
The game has hundreds of hours of game play and some cool online features to fight with other gamers and also you can trade your Pokémon and rare items with them. This trading option is really great as you can even get Pokémon that are only available in the white version by trading.
DOS games is a vital part of gaming history and has helped get many modern games to the point they are today. If you’re not quite sure on what DOS means or what kind games have been released as DOS games then read this article it might be very beneficial for you.
DOS stands for “disk operating system” and is a shorthand term for many close related systems what dominated the market between 1981 and 1995. You will see many DOS related systems such as MS-DOS, PC DOS, Free DOS and many more. During the height of DOS operating system there was many DOS games developed and released. These ranged from simple video games such as Pacman to complex adventure games. You can still download and play DOS games to date.
Many DOS games have helped influence games of today some very basic ideas are still continued in the market today. Platformers are constantly used over and over and are making a big return in many modern games. In which a lot of modern games have returned to the roots and going back to basic principles seen in many classic games. These games are now flooding mobile network app markets.
There now is a huge amount of DOS video games which are available to download. To be precise there is over five hundred that can be downloaded. These consist of shareware, freeware and demos of many popular titles which have been released many years ago. A lot of these DOS programs are the starters for great companies such as Blizzard, iD software, Westwood and many more.