Fifth Tutorial

   A little late on this progress report so I will try to keep it brief, I believe that the positive thing about my essay progress so far is that... well, it's progressing in some shape or form, slow and steady as they say wins the race (But seriously, I really do need to pick up the pace here since I will still need some time to get the thing printed out as well as work on my practical, and I really won't forgive myself if I end up rushing on that part).

   Incorporating my discussion about my practical piece, while not mandatory, would definitely allow me to show my connection between it and the dissertation. After some consideration over the past months, writing about it in first person will perhaps not be as confusing and distracting as I had initially thought it to be. I should try to briefly mention about what I have learnt from all of this and what will be definitive in the final piece itself.

   An important area that I am missing in my dissertation is game theory, namely Agency, a concept, when applied to games, shows how much involvements the player actually has when it comes to the game itself. Particularly, when more choices are actually offered within gameplay, the more agency there actually is. This section will most definitely take up a pretty huge chunk of the essay itself considering what I have read on it so far. This concept will be incorporated into the 2nd chapter and will most definitely add more to my analysation of the examples I have decided to talk about. 

   "The Last of Us" for example, is an game that actually lacks agency and has more authorship than one might realise, based on how it is stylised, the game is considered to be more of an interactive film. Games like "Grand Theft Auto", being of the sandbox genre, allows players to be much more aware of the game's environment while embodying that virtual character, giving a rather nice balance of agency and animation. "Journey" actually has a lot of agency, from trudging up a hill to fighting against the wind. What with the silent conversations with other characters to the hiding, ducking and diving, exploration the finding of another character/player as they go against the environment, this is certainly one of the better examples of games with a high amount of agency.

   As for my practical, based on my findings and analysing of other games. What can I do exactly to make this game concept of mine empathetic to the audience? What area should I place emphasis on? Mock gameplay or the cutscenes themselves? As game gets more complex more opportunities for animation, a whole new area in itself
three strategies: Linear cinematic, Procedural animation, Customisation of animation. So which form of area am I leaning to in particular?

   I am starting to think that including a discussion on virtual worlds (Eg, Destiny, Halo, Any MMO really) will also end up taking a large chuck of the essay, hopefully there will be some way to simply briefly mention it in the conclusion, as I don't see there being enough time to thoroughly research into that area by this point in time. It would still be beneficial to include it in the conclusion, to mention that these virtual worlds from the very beginning have allowed players to create their own stories, allowing them to take control of every single little aspect that is offered to them (Even gestures), Machinama in particular makes for a good example with all the videos that they have created out from these games. I mean... there have been some really impressive stuff done out of GTAV: