Weekly Reading Discussion (Week 2)

ROCKSTAR North - Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V, like its predecessors, is a very controversial game where the player is tasked with missions to complete where you must commit crimes. Crimes such as; stealing, murder and assault to name a few. 
You can see why this game has copped a bad rap from most game critics. 
It is claimed that a game - being so violent and labelled as a "game" - encourages people to be aggressive, volatile and abusive. 

Blizzard - World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is undoubtably THE most well known and most addictive game there has ever been. I speak with personal experience and a commitment of 3 years of my life into the game when I say that it is an immersive and deeply complex game that has no real target audience, which is where I think the game was able to flourish. By not directing the game at a specific demographic it left it open to absolutely everyone to play. The appeal in creating a character (sometimes considered as an alter-ego) and levelling up to max level, customising him/her with the best looking armour and weapons and being in an open world where you can interact with other people seemed to appeal to 6 million people. 
Fun Fact! At the midnight launch of Blizzard's World of Warcraft they sold so many copies of the game so quickly that by 12:25am they ran out. Not to mention when they re-stocked the player-base was already reaching the 1 million mark which was unexpected from Blizzard. So unexpected that their servers couldn't support the influx of players. Server crashing in World of Warcraft early days was a VERY common thing, and if that wasn't enough the players also had to have a queue to wait in until they were allowed into the game. A personal friend of mine has a queue timer that was 48 hours long.

Mojang - Minecraft

Minecraft, much like World of Warcraft, is another totally immersive game in which the player goes Bear Grylls mode and survives from resources he/she acquires. Minecraft is a "sand-box-role-playing-game", meaning that you build every tool, every structure from basic things found in the world. Example: You acquire wood from breaking trees, woo blocks turn into wood planks which can be made into sticks, crafting tables and tools. Tools like; sword, axe, hoe, shovel and pickaxe are all used to better your game play. People have build some incredible structures in Minecraft (like a to-scale replica of Hogwarts or Kings Landing). 
Being a sandbox style game it ensures that there is NEVER an end to the game because it is all your own imagination and creativity. The game stops when you stop having new ideas.