A final exam thesis on...video games?

I attend the closest norwegian equivelant of High School (our school system is somewhat different in terms of how it’s divided up in years, our “high school” is the optional year 11, 12 and 13) at a somewhat unique privat school. We actually don’t have any traditional final exams (or any exams at all for that matter). Although there are normal tests troughout our years at school, our final exam starts around February year 12, and ends aroung the same time in year 13. We get roughly 1 year to write a major thesis, about a freely chosen topic, and that serves as our final exam grade. Each student chose their own topic, and writes a thesis of 8 000 words or more + spends at least 100 hours making a practical work that can be presented at the end of the year (if they choose to focus on the practical. If they want a theoretically oriented thesis it’s a minimum of 12 000 words, and no limit on how long they have to spend working practically). Naturally, given my love for the cultural artform on witch this blog is based, I chose video games.

Over the course of the following year, I will write a major exam thesis about the history of video games; I will discuss and debate wether or not they are a cultural artform and how they can impact gamers and society. That’s all very interesting, but the main show is my practical project. I will (at least attempt to) make my own video game from scratch. So far, it goes by the name “Project: Arena”. It’s a 3D platformer, where you jump from platform to platform (yes, that’s actually what you do in this platformer), and try not to fall into the water below. I’m working with the free version of the Unity 3D game engine. Although it’s still fairly “barebones” I have a fully functional demo build, with 2 levels (and a third i originally built as a prototype, I will re-model it later to use in the “finished” game). Visually wise it’s nothing special as of yet, seeing as I have no finished textures, and I have yet to add any particular level of detail, and I’m still mainly working on tuning the gameplay “specs”. The height, speed and jump height of my character. Ones I get those “specs” closer to where I wanna be (I’m almost there) I’ll shift my focus to learning more about visual polish and start making new levels (as well as iron out some more than annoying problems with the pause menu).

As mentioned earlier, It’s a 3D platformer where you’r object is not to fall into the water below. The reason for the name, is that it all takes place within an Arena. I have several good ideas (at least i think they’re good) about what I can do to make the game interesting, including some features that I personally love, that faired over pretty well when i setup my prototype level at school, allowing my classmates to try the game out. They all got really, really frustrated because it was so hard, but few wanted to pass it on to the next guy in line, and I guess that’s a good sign (…or bad; R.I.P. flappy birds).I hope to share my progress on the project here; also, some of the stuff I’ll be writing in my thesis are highly relevant to this blog. Earlier, I shared a version of a chapter in my thesis on this blog, “are video games culture” and It’s one of my proudest articles. I hope to post more from the paper onto this blog, including my thoughts on how video games can impact society and gamers. I plan to release a reactions-video on youtube, where i filmed my some of the people at my school playing the prototype level for the first time(s. yes, they tried more than a few times). The reason for this is because many of them got delightfully frustrated and engaged. Of course I will post a link to the video onto this blog, so stay tuned. It’d definitely help you (and me, although I’m not a youtube partner) if you subsribed to my channel, “Thomas Tørrissen”, witch can also be found by searching for “Mr16thprestige”, although I have been thinking about making a new youtube user for the purposes of this project, although I don’t know if that’s so relevant, because I’m not sure how many videos I’ll have the time to record and edit, but we’ll see.

That’s it for now, and thank you guys for reading my blog. I notcied particular interest for my thoughs on the “how I met your mother” ending, and my alternate ending, and I thank you for that. I’ll write you in my next post, hopefully soon.

how i met your mother - my thoughts & alternate ending

(spoiler-free section)

So….the series finale to the long-running (9 seasons; damn) sitcom “how i met your mother” (HIMYM) recently aired, and shocked millions of fans worldwide with a very unexpected and controversial ending. Now, after 9 seasons of building up to one major reveal, and a ending that has so many loose ends to tie up, it’s literally going to be impossible to sattisfy everyone. I myself has bench-watched the show like a maniac, and I’m a huge fan, so naturally, when i viewed the final episode, I was on the edge of my seat just itching for the final reveal, whilst simultaneously I was a bit sad, because within half an hour, the series would be done; over; finito. I can honestly say it’s been an amazing ride, and HIMYM is probably tied, if not maybe the teeniest, tiniest behind the Big Bang Theory, for the title of my all time favorite TV sitcom. After watching the final ending, I was shocked, but not appaled. Was it bad? No, not really. After thinking about it, it made sense. But just because it made sense, that doesn’t mean it was nearly as good as it could’ve been. Now follows a quick run down of the actual ending, why I didn’t like it all that much, and how I think the show should’ve ended, with an angle that I feel actually would’ve sattisfied the majority of fans. 

(Spoiler alert (duh), so If you haven’t seen the final episode and don’t want it spoiled, don’t keep reading untill you have watched it. )

THE ACTUAL ENDING

Season 9 was spent building up to Barney and Robins long awaited wedding. Each episode started a few hours closer to the wedding, and they all featured a combination of stories to bridge the gap between season 8 and 9, the events leading up the the wedding, and present-time events going down at the “Farhampton Inn” (the wedding locale) in the last few days before the wedding. In the final episodes we see Ted letting Barney give the “something old” locket Ted searched far and wide for, to Robin, so that she’d have it as a sign that Barney was truly commited, however Robin suspected that it was actually Ted who’d tracked it down, and she tricked the truth out of him. At that point she was shown having second thoughts about marrying Barney, and she wondered wether it was actually Ted she should be marrying. Both Ted and Barney convinced her to go thru with the wedding and she was happy. The “mother”, revealed to be named Tracy, was the bass player in the wedding band, and Barney suggested they played a game of “have you med Ted”, but ted refused, and left to the train station so he could get back to NY in order to pack before he moved to Chicago the next morning. However the train was very late, so late that Tracy (“the mother”) showed up at the train station after the wedding gig, and another old lady sitting next to Ted on the bench convinced him to go over there and talk to her. After that, he stayed in NY. The show fast forward thru several years. Many events in thoose years such as proposal and Ted & Tracy having children have already been shown as flash-forwards in the last few episodes of season 9. After many years we see the gang back together. Marshall and Lilly did move to Italy for a year, and after they’ve come back Marshall did get his dream job as a judge. We also see that after 3 years of marriage Barney and Robin couldn’t keep going, much because Robin was traveling A LOT, now having become a very famous on-air reporter for World Wide News. They stayed friends, even after their divorce. When we finally cut to the ending of Ted telling his 9 seasons long story to his kids, we learn that he’s actually been telling it to them 6 years after Tracy (“the mother”) died of a disease unknown. They say what he’s been telling wasn’t the story of how he met their mother, but rather the story of how he’s still in love with Robin, and they tell him to go get her. The show ends with him standing outside Robins window holding the blue french horn, Robing smiling and we can assume they end up together.

Now; does this ending make sense…yes, it does. Is it the best it could’ve been? No, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I feel betrayed, but there is an alternate ending I think provides much better closure, and here it is:

MY ALTERNATE ENDING

In one of the last episodes of season 9 Robin and Ted are talking on the beach. We see a flash-back to Ted’s childhood, when his best friend was a balloon, witch he lost so it flew away. We then see a scene where he does the same with Robin. He says he has to let her go, and she flies away just like the balloon did. This I feel makes very little sense, seeing as they end up together after all, but that’s not the point here. The point is, they should’ve skipped that scene, because of a reason I will explain later on. I feel that Ted should’ve met the mother of his children the way it’s shown in the show, and we should’ve gotten to see their first dinner date. They should’ve skimmed thru it, showing the “mother” telling Ted all about herself, and we would’ve got to see her saying she is all the things Ted want’s in a girl. She plays bass, she likes historical landmarks, she uses driving gloves, she loves this, she likes that etc… Ted would be silent, but smiling more and more. At the end of the date, she does what we all know is one of the things Ted values most in a relationship; she reaches for the check. At that point, Ted sees Robin standing next to the table, holding his hand, and he let’s go voluntarily, the way he in the actual ending did much earlier, and she flies away. This would show us once and for all that he had met “the one”, and he could finally get over Robin completely. He finally had closure with her.

I think this ending works better because that’s really what the show has been about all along. Ted meeting the one. The one who would finally give him closure, and let him get over Robin once and for all. A stale ending with him just meeting “the mother” wouldn’t have worked. It would’ve been a huge anticlimax, after such a long, suspensefueled ride; and that’s why I think they wen’t with the shock ending they did. However I feel it just doesn’t “work” if you catch my drift. I don’t feel neither I nor Ted get the closure I want, and I’m left with a somewhat empty feeling.

So there you have it. My thoughts on the actual ending to HIMYM, and my alternate ending. I’m happy to respond to any comments you have on the ending, or my alternative one. Thanks for reading. Chase Game out.