Visual Language in Video Games free essay sample

I believe this is very essential to video games and not just the obvious reason, which is that video games are all visual. There are many visual aspects that have to go into a video game for it to be successful. The creators must be able to create something that visually fits with their game but also visually relays to the player were and what to do. There are many aspects that I could go into that visually effect a game, but this is about visual language in video games not the visual aspects of games. Visual language is basically a language that everybody picks up in their life especially now that we’re more of a visual culture; the only thing is that they don’t really realize that they know this language. It’s really simple to understand once someone opens your eyes to it. Something like video games which are all visual can be easier or harder for someone to analyze it. We will write a custom essay sample on Visual Language in Video Games or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page To give you an example, I will explain the visual elements of games, the pros and cons of visual realism in games, visual effects of games on gamers, and an Image analysis of a picture of a character of a video game. For me to accurately example visual language in video games you need to understand some basic visual aspects of video games. Ever game has the same general visual elements to â€Å"†¦guide, direct, and communicate with the player. † (Visual Elements within Games) For example, every level that you play is designed to lead you to your goal. The level designer must make this easy for the player to visually find their way either with a map or simply by the way the level is laid out with a set path that player has to take. In any game there is a HUD (Heads Up Display) which is where the player is able to see things that they can’t physically look and see. For example, in first person shooters the HUD would show you how many bullets you have, which weapons you have available, your navigation, and grenades. The title screen is also a visual element that every game has. The title screens were originally used to attract the players when games were in arcades. They had to visually communicate to the player what the game was about. Finally every game has some sort of menu system to communicate to the player the options they have in this game. If one of these elements is missing the game will fail because it will not be able to visually communicate to the player and the player will not be able to play it. Now a day’s almost all games try to be visually realistic to increase the enjoyment of playing the game; however there are pros and cons to this. The more realistic the games graphics become the more visual elements the creators can incorporate in it. For Example, now they can put actual weather in games; the next generation consoles can actually create random weather patterns just like in real life. A game also is limited on where they can expand, you can only tell the same story over so many different ways. Graphics can continuously be improved and thus give the game industry a way to expand. The reason anybody plays games is to escape reality. There is a story of a king during a famine ordered everybody to play a game all the time and only eat once a week. Games throughout centuries have been able to let people escape there reality. With games becoming more realistic the easier it is for the player to experience enhanced escapism; basically the easier it is for the player to become the character and live in the characters world. The down side to hyper realism is a game trying to be realistic a game company may focus most of their time and money on the graphics side of the project; which may be bad do to every other aspect of the game will be hindered, if this happens then the story or concept of the game will be lacking and won’t be able to sell because the stories boring. Another con is games become more expensive. The more time, labor, and software usage the game company has to spend money on so that’s why games continuously become more expensive. The final con is the biggest one of all. Desensitization of reality; it is the biggest political argument against the game industry. Since games have become so realistic the players since of reality is distorted. For example, when someone shoots so many virtual people and have no remorse since its virtual they can also kill real people because they won’t feel guilt for taking someone’s life because they have done it so repetitively in their games virtual reality. The visual effects on gamers are very beneficial to the gamers and the game industry. â€Å"Video game players may get an unexpected benefit from blowing away bad guys—better vision. † (Brian Handwerk) Playing video games improve the players contrast sensitivity function which is the first thing to fade with age. This is the ability to see the different shades of things, also gives us the ability to see at night or when there is minimal amount of light. There are actually a lot of visual aspects in a person’s vision that is increased when they play video games, especially first person shooters. â€Å"†¦games can help an individual learn to focus on relevant visual information† (Rick Nauert). Games help us to determine what we need to focus or not focus on; because the player strains their vision to see the little figures when there try to shoot them in the distance. This benefits us because it will help us determine relevant and non-relevant information in our world of visual communication; however it only benefits the person who actually plays the first person shooters, not the spectators due to the spectator not actually reacting to the situation just watching the situation unfold. Visual language is all about analyzing the things we see so I will show you how I have analyzed a picture I found of Master Chief, the main character of Halo. The value states it’s a futuristic era by the armor/suit, also since he’s wearing a helmet possibly a place without oxygen. The focus is master chief since he’s in the foreground and in an action pose. The audience is anyone who likes the halo series and the picture states he’s ready for anything. The tone is apprehensive do to the smoke in the background; master chief looking like he’s ready for hordes of covenant to come after him, isolation, but it is also calming since the environment consists of earthy and cool tones. The structure is to have the focal point in the foreground in a heroic or dynamic pose and the background is added to show its set on the edge of a wilderness that master chief probably had to fight his way through, which is shown by the smoke; master chief is on top of the rock to emphasize his type of character. To summarize everything, visual elements of games, the pros and cons of visual realism in games, and the visual effects of games on gamers are all ways the games speak to us visually. The next time you play your favorite game, take a second to find out all the different reasons that game creators put certain things in their games. No creator will get the go ahead to put something in there game just because it is cool. There always have to have a reason why or how it fits in the universe that they are creating. We as a culture are becoming more visually lead, and we as a culture must be able to determine whats real or not and to not fall prey to â€Å"pretty pictures† that tell or sell you something and you try to recreate it in reality; almost all visual things are done virtually where restrictions can be stretched.