Heterogeneous Mixture Essay Example

Heterogeneous Mixture Paper A heterogeneous mixture that would be Solid/Liquid would be Skim milk. Although skim milk contains mostly water it also contains casein, which is a small protein. The casein protein is so small it may not be thought to be a heterogeneous mixture, but fifth skim milk curdles the mixture can be separated. A Solid/Liquid solution could be Seawater. The seawater is homogeneous which makes it a solution. The mixture of oil and vinegar to make a vinaigrette salad dressing is a Liquid/Liquid heterogeneous mixture, Due to vinegar containing mostly water, it is not soluble in the oil. Vinegar by itself would be a Liquid/Liquid solution. Foam is an example of a Liquid/ Gas heterogeneous mixture because it is a mixture to gas bubbles in a liquid. Seltzer water is a Liquid/Gag solution because it is a mixture between water and carbon dioxide. Mixtures and Solutions can often become contusing because solutions are mixtures, but not all mixtures are solutions. A mixture can either be homogeneous or heterogeneous. A homogeneous mixture is where the mixtures suture is where the components are not uniform. Mixtures can either be be a heterogeneous mixture. But if the skim milk curdles the mixture can homogeneous which makes it a solution. The mixture of oil and vinegar to make a vinaigrette salad dressing is a Liquid/Liquid heterogeneous mixture. Due to vinegar containing mostly water, it is not soluble in the oil. Vinegar by itself would BEA Liquid/Liquid solution. Foam is an example of a Liquid/Gas heterogeneous mixture because it is a mixture of gas bubbles in a liquid, Seltzer water is a Liquid/Gas solution because it is a mixture between water and carbon dioxide. We will write a custom essay sample on Heterogeneous Mixture specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Heterogeneous Mixture specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Heterogeneous Mixture specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Mixtures and Solutions can often become confusing because solutions are mixtures, but not all mixtures are solutions. A mixture can either be mixture is oeuvre the components are not uniform. Mixtures can either be Although skim milk contains mostly water it also contains casein, Which be a heterogeneous mixture, but if the skim milk curdles the mixture can carbon dioxide. Mixtures and Solutions can often become confusing because solutions are mixtures, but not all mixtures are solutions.

Abe Lincoln essays

Abe Lincoln essays The book is Abraham Lincoln by Russell Freedman. It was published in in 1987 in Chicago. The author of the book wants you to realize how good of a person president Lincoln was. He says "Lincoln was a mysterious man, but is a great American folk hero." "Abraham Lincolm stood out in a crowd as much for his wit and rollicking humor as for his height." Lincoln was admired by many people and they loved his way of acting towards the common people. He was loved by everyone. Anyone who admired Abraham Lincoln or was wanting to learn more about him would want to read this book. People of all ages could read it and they would get a lot out of it. Not only do you read about Abraham Lincoln but about our country's history and what he did for it. This book covered many aspects of Lincoln's life. He showed pictures of him as a president and showed maps of where he lived and during the war what things he did for certain parts of the country. This book was very easy to read because it went in the same order as his life. From a small boy to a grown man and then finally it talked about his death. It covered everything he did both good and bad, from boy to grown man. I learned many new things about Lincoln and what he did. I always thought of him as a grumpy old man. The only reason he looked so sad and gloomy was becasue of the way he looked. He knew that he wasn't a very good looking person, but he covered that up with his charm and humor. I also learned that Lincoln spent a lot of time studying while he was growing up. One reason he knew how to handle things and deal with people is because of the way he had learned to talk to them. In this book there is an index. Is is very useful if you are wanting to look up a certain event that Lincoln was involved in or anything he did during this time period. It ...

Summary Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary - Research Paper Example Pery and Wein (2008) advocating the full disclosure of terminal diagnosis indicate that "good death" occurs when the subjective (patient) and the objective (society, family) appear to blend seamlessly - before, during, and afterward (p.400). Simultaneously, Chochinov et al (2000) concludes that what patients are told, how they are told t and the manner in which they are able to integrate and cope with such information remains an important issue for clinicians attending to patients facing imminent death (p.505). Finally, Field and Copp (1999) emphasize that full disclosure approach to communication of terminal diagnosis is mandatory and results in positive outcomes for patients, their families and medical personnel. More specifically, Field and Copp (1999) indicate the following outcomes: (1) better information and communication from medical personnel, including nurses, (2) patient's participation in decisions about care, (3) psychological support from family members, (4) palliative c are, (5) self-esteem, (6) autonomy and decreased anxiety, (7) preparation for death and acceptance. Because there is emerging empirical evidence on improvements of patients' quality of life occurring after terminal diagnosis is communicated to them, a need for change in practice is mandatory. According to Rosswurm and Larrabee (1999), improvements in medical care are mad

Cocooning. Consumers are shielding themselves from the harsh, Term Paper

Cocooning. Consumers are shielding themselves from the harsh, unpredictable realities of the outside world and creating safe, - Term Paper Example Tutor Signature: Date: Cocooning: â€Å"Consumers are shielding themselves from the harsh, unpredictable realities of the outside world and creating safe, â€Å"homelike† environments†. Introduction The following research is related to the topic cocooning. The report includes the discussion about the term and its implications in the current consumer behavior. The research also includes the implications of the term and the factors impacting the consumer’s behavior. Finally a conclusion has been drawn in the research. Cocooning Cocooning can be said to be as the condition or trend when people socializing less and retreating themselves in their home more. This trend has become popular after the significant commercialization of the electronic shopping. The consumers are shielding themselves from the unpredictable and harsh realities of the outer world and are retreating themselves into the safe, cozy and home like environments. People are more looking at the home saf e home concept. People and consumers have changed their buying habits because of the high fear of the crimes and no longer like to shop after dark. People are highly frightened by what they see. All the people are looking for developing safer ways to guard themselves against the mad world by burring themselves deeper into the more protective shells and the safe places like cocoons (Moe, 2012). Consumer behavior is changing with a rapid pace. These trends are presenting threat and opportunities to the large variety of organizations. With the changing lifestyle of people the buying behavior of people are changing drastically. People are becoming more career oriented and have very less time for shopping and other activities. There is a high change in the cultural trends of the consumers buying behavior. The cocooning consumer behavior trend is taking high positions in this competitive market place. The behavior of the consumers is changing with a high pace. With the cocooning behavior taking place the organizations need to go online. The cocooning consumer’s behavior is promoting the online shopping trend, and this will take high priority in the coming period (Danziger, 2005). Cultural trends affecting the consumer behavior With the changes in the buying patterns and the promotion of the cocooning behavior of the people there is a high increase in the online shopping behavior of the people. People are all the markets are looking for convenient way of shopping from the comfort of their homes. The organizations are looking for alternatives using which they can easily grab the customers and can entertain the customers buying behavior. People buying behavior has changed drastically in the recent years they have adopted several online buying means like fingertip shopping etc. people are looking for places which acts like cocoon for them. They want everything in the comfort of their homes. The heart of the every cocoon is the bedroom and the bath. People want pl aces where they can easily distress and get recharged. Smart homes are the need of the day which can make the lives of the people easier. People are more attracted towards the ways which can make their shopping experience more pleasant and easy, as compared to the previous visiting system. People look the lives as the homes and gardens are the last places where they want to control their lives. People in the current market period want everything on a click. They do not want to visit the stores and look for buying things. People

Pricing Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Pricing Strategy - Essay Example As economic cycles decline, however, management teams cannot drive volume improvements. Pricing improvements, however, are an important route to increasing profitability. The key to improving profitability through pricing lies in moving from a tactical to a strategic approach to pricing. Pricing strategy involves much more than merely setting price points. In order to achieve profitable pricing, managers must consider both their price structure and their pricing process. Pricing structure is built around target customer segments and culminates in constructing the Product-Service-Price menu. The menu then becomes the basis for constructing and positioning offerings for the customer targets. Pricing processes focus on communicating value delivery to the target customers while minimizing negotiation driven price discounting in the selling process.1 "We begin with the most fundamental of economic constructs, price, because much of the analytic power of economic theory stems from the abstract image of markets that generate prices.On the surface, price adjustment might seem like an odd place to understand a process of social construction. Few economic precepts are more taken for granted than the notion that markets determine prices. Moreover, few economic concepts offer so little social content as price. Neoclassical price theory is a highly stylized theory of market behavior. It presumes that social content is unimportant to market outcomes. It offers no theory of how prices work in a firm; simply a notion that they do work. In neoclassical economic theory, firms readily react to changes in market conditions by adjusting prices. A wide variety of changes may take place: changes in costs, supply, or demand, competitive entry or actions, change in technology, and so on. Firms incorporate those changes and adjust prices upward or downward. Classical economics assumes that because organizations are endowed with this ability to adjust prices, industries, markets and economies can function efficiently. Much of the existing literature in economics takes this ability for granted, assuming this as a kind of innate organizational capability. To a student of organizations, this seems like an unrealistic belief, and indeed, some economists acknowledge this. In economics the literature on the costs of price adjustment argues that price adjustment can be a complex and costly organizational problem. For example, Caplin and Leahy (1991) argue that price adjustment is a "very difficult, costly and time-consuming process," Levy, et al. (1997) suggest that changing prices "is a complex process, requiring dozens of steps and a non-trivial amount of resources," and Ball and Mankiw (1994, p.142) "suspect that the most important costs of price adjustment are the time and attention required of managers to gather the relevant information and to make and implement decisions." According to Blinder, et al. (1998, p. 21) these costs have become "one of the main strands of New Keynesian theorizing." Yet it remains a problem about which, Blinder, et al. (1998: 4) argue, economists know "next to nothing," even though "a small mountain of

Formative Role of Video Games

Formative Role of Video Games Introduction As a long time fan of computer games, Ive always wondered how video games have reached this point in time, I wanted to know how Nintendo became Nintendo, how games went from the arcades to home consoles and how games changed from two dimensions to three dimensions. The following was originally planned to be purely a discussion on the development of the games industry however once this project began I soon realised that video games owe most of its early years and breakthrough development to other entertainment industries, particularly film. After much research on the topic I altered my discussions focus away from purely the games industry to the broader entertainment industry, mainly because it is very difficult to separate the two, both now owe each other so much, in video games early years it took much from the entertainment industry but in the last few years things have changed, revolutionary techniques are being developed by the game industry and now are being adapted by the film industry, in this dissertation I wanted to see video games long term effect on the entertainment industry and whether it has been one of a negative or positive effect and my predictions for the future of both mediums. The Birth of the Computer Game The modern video game has evolved much from its very humble and almost accidental beginning in 1958 when William Higinotham a nuclear physicist while working on a small analogue computer in the purpose of describing various curves on a cathode-ray tube noticed the curved and bouncing effect reminded him of tennis(Brookhaven, 2009). He altered the amplifiers of the balls motion so bounding space on the screen could be controlled by the turning knobs on the machine. Higinotham designed the game from first conception in two hours and it took him only a brief few hours over a few days to alter the existing technology. The budget for first game known only as Tennis For Two was almost zero as it was made for existing parts. Too think of a modern game been designed in two hours or completed in a few days is just incomprehensible, not only would it be almost guaranteed to be a terrible game but making it functional to the player would be a impossible task, and the budget would be another imp assable road block. The current generation of video games if they are to be a success spend months in the design and concept phase and take anywhere from 16 months to over four years to finish and have a budget that matches Hollywood blockbusters. The 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV(Rockstar, 2008) spent 6 years in development and the final expenses rose to over  £100 million. However the developers perceived the risk of financial failure if the product did not sell as a necessary risk in order to live up to the fans expectations, this game was a sequel in a long line of a series known for breaking sales records and having a fan base like none other. This game however is not the exception either, many recent games have had budgets of over  £100 million and spent years in production, these high expenses are expected to rise when every generation of consoles are releases not only because of the technology behind them but the players demand for more, including highly designed graphics, unique art design and realistic effects rendered to a quality of CGI films. Hollywood My research is discovering videos games effect on the entertainment industry but more specifically the film industry and the aspect of them competing against one another but also with the rare and generally unsuccessful case of the merger of film and games. When video games first began to sell successfully in the early 1970s film had already been established as the main attraction for visual entertainment with strings of great releases and new releases that broke viewer and financial records one after another, the 1970s seemed an unlikely time for another visual medium to develop however video game managed to do that, by the late 1970s video games seen the releases of many classic games such as Pong (Atari Inc, 1972), Asteroids (Atari Inc, 1979) and Space Invaders (Taito Corporation, 1978). At the time however these releases were still nothing to be recognised by the critics of the entertainment industry, they seen them as nothing but toys, not to be taking seriously. These classic g ames didnt even make a mark on the film industry in regards to financial success, however this was primarily because the home console didnt exist yet and games could only be played in arcades where the owner of the arcades took all profits with only the initial cost of the machine ever to be the income of the early game designer. In the early 1980s arcades changes, they werent now purely for the gaming youth, the non-gamer began to discover this alternate entertainment medium and it became a regular event for them to occasionally visit an arcade, this is when the time began known as the Golden Years particularly in the United States and Japan when teenagers and adults alike would enter the arcade and discover a game that would just entrap them, video games started to become a area to look into for potential designers as games beforehand where only created for the love of it but now as a designer you could now make a living out of designing games, this is mainly because the fans of t he early games where mostly diehard fans where they would enter quarter after quarter to finish the game. Brian Garside (2009) of RadicalHive Remembers putting quarter after quarter, hour after hours into arcade game, and it was for the same reasons as everyone else was there, a very simple attraction, The games were very loud and very bright, and brought one thing most gamers wanted, instant gratification the more quarters you had the longer you had to play, the difficulty level was extreme, there was no lives* or saves* you just tried to get to the finish before you ran out of quarters, and if you did then you became an elite member of the gaming public because you got to put your name on the screen, where it could be seen every day by every gamer, that was the main goal of the early gamer, to say you finished an arcade game, this was something rare because of the difficulty*. Arcades borrowed much from the film world in its early years including the cinema building layout itself, the general arcade includes, the games, popcorn machines, snack and hotdog bars and generally in the centre area would be pool tables, it represented a meeting place, the arcade became a place to hang out, friends would meet up at the arcade and not even play a game, it was almost a staging place, you would go there before heading to the movies or after a movie you would return there for a few minutes to let yourself lose, aside from the games the arcade became a place to just hang around and let loose. The Home Console It wasnt till the home console when games took a firm place in the entertainment industry, the development of the designed home console brought around games that were developed past the loud noises and ghastly lights, the home console brought around the era of the complex stories in games with gripping narratives, moving performances and of course the Pixelated hero*. Fairchild Channel F(Fairchild Semiconductor, 1976), a unknown games company who today if you mentioned them to a gamer most likely you would get a puzzled response and even in the early years of game development they where an unknown company however their games machine left a mark on the industry because they coined a phrase which is used by every single person in the games industry, Console*. Video games now had a place in the 1970s home but they still hadnt changed much form the arcade, bright lights and ghastly sounds where everywhere, game after game were effectively the same but with a different name. This slur of games eventually lead to the great video games crash*of 1983-84 triggered by a non-ending market of low quality games and by far too many overpriced consoles, another involving factor was that the market was considered to be at full saturation, the critically slammed game of the successful film E.T.(Atari, Inc, 1982) was the breaking point, the rising popularity of the home computer(PC) and the personnel computer also was deemed to be part responsible for the crash particular with their aggressive advertising campaigns such as this scrupulous ad by Microsoft Why buy your child a video game and distract them from school when you can buy them a home computer that will prepare them for college?(Global Oneness, 2009). This crash brought an abrupt end to the current generation of video games and almost crippled the new games industry particularly in north America, many games companies collapsed and with the few that survived none maintained any high level of success after the crash. It wasnt till the end of 1985 that the games industry started to recover and that was with the immediate success of the now legendary Nintendo Entertainment System(1985). The 8-bit* generation had begun with a bang with launch games consisting of ExciteBike (1985) and Super Mario Bros.( 1985), gamers could not resist but buy the NES even with doubts after the many years of terrible releases just preceding this new line up and generation. Aside from the games Nintendo also standardised many console features such as controller ports, gun controllers and the Quality seal of approval*. In the early 90s things started to heat up again in the games industry, Nintendo now had a fierce competitor in the industry, SEGA. SEGA (19 90) released its Mega Drive, which they hailed as the first 16-bit gaming console and it proved that by displaying graphics which were unheard of at this time. But Nintendo hit back by releasing their Record breaking Super Nintendo Entertainment System(1990). This fierce competition between the two drove developers to become better designers and it was proved as much with hugely successful and critically acclaimed hits been released for each console, this home console war ended any chance of the arcades recovering, gamers had finalised there move from the arcades back to their homes, the home console had become the core choice by the games and also by the developer. The 3D Generation Video games where successful in their early years but they were never hugely successful, they never get anywhere near close to the popularity of the film industry nor did the game releases of films get anywhere closer and in fact generally sold much worse. Designers made a profit but it was only a sustaining profit, enough to keep the company going, pay the staff and develop future games but they just didnt have the financial backing of the film industry, games were rarely advertised and certainly didnt have any sort of vast marketing displays and if there even was a marketing team at all it would consist of very few people and have a simple budget as can be seen by the low quality of games advertisement in the 1980s, the advertisement stood close to what the game was, bright lights and loud noises. It wasnt till the 5th generation of gaming consoles or the 3d generation as its also known did games reach a level of popularity that could not quite yet match the film industries figures but certainly put a mark against it, their where many success stories but also many failures in this generation, it saw the fall of Atari, the 3DO, SEGA and the rise of Sony with the Playstation(1994). Nintendo where the only existing company to the enter the 3D generation and continue to be successful. Not much changed with the Nintendo strategy and it didnt need to, they released once again hit after hit until the end of this generation when in 1995 the disc based Sony Playstation overtook the Nintendo 64(1996) in terms of sales and it began to build a strong fan base including taking a good portion of Nintendos key market. The Playstation was the first home console to sell more than 100,000 million units worldwide, this is now the time the games industry started to be compared to the film industry in terms of sales and success. Aside from commercial success, the Playstation also changed the console development plan, the success of the disc was the final nail in the coffin on the old cartridge system previously used by Nintendo. The stability of the disc medium, cheap manufacturing expenses in using disc based games where the main reasons for its success. At the end of this gener ation SEGA fans had lost faith in their beloved console with few games being released on the console mainly because developers jumped ship to the more successful Nintendo and Sony and while there was still yet to be another SEGA console in the form of the SEGA Dreamcast(1999), this was the turning point in SEGAs decline and their eventual retreat from console development. Even with the great success of the Playstation, neither Nintendo or Sony ever seemed to publicly announce or display a challenge for financial success against the rest of the entertainment industry, advertisement still stayed low budget and was purely aimed at making existing gamers aware of future products rather than attracting new potential game players. The Changing Generation The following Generation displayed much of the same as the previous generation, The Sony Playstation 2(2000) was effectively the same as the first one just much more advanced with a few new features, the same can be said for the Nintendo GameCube(2001) except now Nintendo had adopted disc based technology. There was a new entry in the market place now, Microsoft seeing the potential of the games industry entered the market in 2001 with the Xbox. The Xbox didnt design its games or console any differently to Nintendo and Sonys consoles however it did add one thing, it is possible the most important new feature to games design since the 3D era took hold, the Xbox introduced online multiplayer through a service known as Xbox LIVE*. This new feature was the only thing that kept the console from complete failure as the games that accompanied the console where of a lower quality and Microsoft struggled to attract a strong fanbase, however though XBOX LIVE proved so successful that online mu ltiplayer is a standard now for most modern games. While this was going on, in the background Nintendo where busy working with the handheld market, before now everyone considered this market purely for kids and only a gimmick at best, Nintendo wanted to change that and they did with the Game Boy Advance(2001). They did this by developing games of a standard of the home consoles and Marketing the device as a independent handheld console separate to that of the home consoles. Because of the new advanced graphics available to developers, a completely realistic game could be made but this lead to huge criticism of the games with releases of ultra graphic Mortal Kombat(Midway Games, multiple) and the portrayal of criminal behaviour seen in Grand Theft Auto series(Rockstar Games, Multiple). These controversial games aloud non-gaming public to become much more aware of the games industry, although this was potentially dangerous criticism against the games industry, it is seen as exactly wh at the games industry was looking for. Sony particularly began marketing mature games for mature audiences, with advertising campaigns aimed purely for the an age group of 18 and above. The content in these games led to the ESRB and PEGI age rating system to inform parents that there are games available in the market that are unsuitable for their children. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time(Nintendo, 1998), Grand Theft Auto 3(, Rockstar Games, 2001), and Halo: Combat Evolved(Bungie, 2001) were the first game in the industry to be marketed in the way of a summer blockbuster, they all sold hugely successful and these games are seen by many as the turning point where games left the old mentality behind of being just for the arcade gamer and now was at a position to enter the next generation as a strong competitor to Hollywood, by the end of this generation in 2006 total film sales reached an estimated $16.6 billion in North America for the film industry compared to the games industries $13.5 Billion (Breckon, 2007). Entering the late 2000s, the still young games industry is nearly as valuable as over 100 year old film industry. The Next-Generation. The 7th Generation seen many advancements, Blu-Ray disc technology, Massively multiplayer games(MMOs), High Definition technology and motion tracking as seen by the Nintendo Wii(2006). Microsofts Xbox 360 launched first into this generation in 2005 and it proved a success, aside from being first into this new generation it fully launched Xbox LIVE and multiplayer as a standard throughout the industry. The Xbox 360 now stands firmly second place in between Sonys Playstation 3(2006) and Nintendos Wii in the console battle. It has a strong game to console attach rate*, with loyal fans and marketing team any Company would want, these factors will guarantee its success into the next console generation. The Sony Playstation 3 launched a full year after the Xbox 360 and some believe this to be the main reason it had poor launch figures as well as the fact that there were a limited supply of Blu-ray diodes for the consoles main feature. The console to date has still struggled to compete with its competition with many of its games selling poorly, Xboxs leading exclusive game Halo 3(2008) sold over 10 million copies as for Sonys PS3 most successful exclusive game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots(2008) sold only a little over 4 million copies, however it has grounded itself, it is now financially a success and has guaranteed a place in the next generation line up. Nintendo on the other hand are on a completely different level compared to its rivals, it sales have been record breaking since its launch two weeks after the PS3. The Wii has sold almost more than both the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined with current sales figures at 52.29 Million units sold for the Nintendo Wii, 31.30 Million units sold for the Xbox 360 and 23.16 Million units sold for the PS3 (VGchartz, 2009). The key to the success of the Wii is the widening of the demographics, Nintendo completely changed their approach to selling and developing games, in previous generation Nintendo only developed games for the hardcore gamer(strict loyal fan) but now they are developing for a mixture of hardcore games and casual games(general public). Nintendos main aim for the Wii was not to beat its rivals but to get new people playing games, Satoru Iwata stated in(2006) at a Press conference in Tokyo that were not thinking about fighting Sony, but about how many people we can get to play games.. This is reflected in Nintendos Advertisement campaigns throughout the world, Nintendo dramatically changed their method of advertising to new much more successful methods such as featuring celebrities and even the advertisement developed by academy award winning directors. Their audience grew hugely with this advertising strategy including a varied assortment of game players including, children, adults and g randparents, their campaign is aimed at people of all ages. The success of these ads can be seen in the wide audience, a 103 year old pensioner was reported to be regularly playing the Wii, the Queen of England is was even reported to have a Nintendo Wii(Rousewell, 2008). With the games industry going from strength to strength it is hard not to see the games industries eventual overtaking of the film industry as the leading section of the entertainment industry. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillermot (2007) expects the games industry to grow an additional 50% in the next four year, casual gaming and the newly introduced in-game advertisement are expected to be the key factors to gamings take over. The gaming industry is also growing in other parts of the world, The Asian market alone is expected to reach $28.8 billion in sales by 2011 with a total sales for the games industry at $65(Breckon, 2007). By then the film industry is only predicted to grow to a total sales of $25.8 billion in sales, less than half of the predicted games sales. However High definition is now becoming a standard in the film industry as well as the re-introduction 3D films, both advancements could bring a new lease of life to the film industry, it can also be considered that at â‚ ¬60 a game compared to the film industries â‚ ¬10 cinema admission or â‚ ¬25-â‚ ¬40 for DVD/Blu-ray income might make up impressive figures however as for the individual customer using each medium the actual numbers of people still lean greatly towards the film industry. It could be questioned why are they seen as competition and not simply compared as separate mediums in the entertainment industry, many game adaptations of films and vice versa have been released mostly with only slight success but all have been critically slammed, ever year the two industries become closer and closer and with that will be massive financial gain, James Camerons Avatar: The Game(Ubisoft, 2009) and film (Cameron, 2009) is seen as the first step towards bringing these two entertainment industries together. Chapter 2: Literature review What is a game? This is a very common question and it is a very important one, I wish to make it clear that the great success of video games in the last few years have mainly due to the changes behind in the design room and in the studios not just in the way games are now being marketed, the general games design theory is seen as a factor in the success. Defining what a game is or a theory behind it is one that you can spend a great deal of time arguing over and even with a set of results it still is a open question. The definition will in general influence how one decides to design a game, so it is critical when designing a game that you completely understand the purpose for it. There are multiple ways we could define a game, with varying ranges of features. Greg Costikyan (1994) states A game is a form of art in which participants, teamed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal. This meaning is questionable, it may of defined what a game wa s back in the early years but because of the constant technology advancements if a designer was to define what a game was it would be more like, a game is a form of art in which participants single or multiple make decisions according to the narrative design in order to resolve game world situations and finish the game as the ultimate goal, this would be my definition of defining the modern computer game. The essential problem with defining a game is that depending on the era a definition will make sense in one decade but not the next because of the rapid growth of the gaming medium. This rapid growth is changing the industry, MIT Professor Henry Jenkins(2008) stated that video games have converged different entertainment platforms that allowed producers of these content to exercise new ways of stretching the viability of their intellectual properties. A single general theory only works when one looks at a genre of game type or who the player of the game will be, at the core reasoning for games, they only exist to be played, it is an interactive medium the only kind which is visual, audibly, interactive and within that a multiplayer component which allows many people to play at once and with the internet the numbers are almost infinite depending on the game. As with the genre and medium some are considered entertaining and some are considered a task, challenge is however a general the me with games design. As with every industry, once games design was established as a valuable medium, competition quickly arose as seen at Quakecon(Nok, 2009) and in a new medium players want quickly to become the best at it or be the first to finish it, to design a game to suit this want is a challenge and that is the general reason a games design theory was sought after in early game development. As the basis of games design is that every game or most games have a beginning, middle and an end, the game starts and ends at your own discretion and with a set of rules for you to manipulate or use to at your means. Playing the game is down to the player, but if there is a desire to understand games and game design, we must first clearly establish the purpose of it. We must determine the characteristics of all games, but discovering that outlines and establish a set of attribute for each game genre rather than what characterised games as a whole. Hoffman (2008) believes that outside of computer games, playing a game in general is an important part of life. I wish to discover does game design need a theory? Other medium generally have some sort of theory behind them but they are much more closely related in their genres as game design is very diverse and has a interactive aspect in design and game playing, what people want, and the level of scale and longevity are maybe too diverse for a game design theory to exist. Changes in games design: For the Better or worse? Defining games design is still widely regarded as a difficult task, what a game is though differs constantly and when it enters production depending on the type of game the design methods behind it are much different from a racing game to a action game. That is the first problem, it is complex to place the games design program in any one meaning. The actual study of engine design, physics and application of games design is much more closely connected to mathematics rather than traditional design practices, if this study was literally taken into practice than it would be a great oversight, designing a game using only mathematics and programmers instead of a blend with designers would only lead to failure. Ideally, a games design studio should be as interdisciplined as any other large field, it should consist of, programmers, designers, artists and engineers. Richard Rouse III(2005) states that the game design is what determines the form of the gameplay, however that is not always so a s seen by top-down or bottom-up design*. The features set in game design determines what choices players will be able to make in the game-world and what consequences those choices will have on the rest of the game. Bernd Kreimeier(2002) states that Games design like any other profession requires a means to document, discuss and plan. In the last few years with the advent of the growing online design community, a designer could refer to the growing online library of previously released games for general ideas and quick inspiration. In the early days of games design, designers generally referred to board games for their inspiration as there was no other means to compare work, without some sort of comparison it would of been very risky to release a game without any sort of knowledge of whether a similar product has been successful in the past. Hoffman (2008) believes that the main problem with game design is deciding where to place it, creating a game through a subset of sociology or a dedicated studio and these decisions are what make defining a game so complex. However while knowledge about games has grown rapidly, it could be said even more so than any other media industry, little progress has been made to document individual experiences to interweave into design practices and theories. Kreimeier (2002) states that on the base line of design theory, games design needs a related library to name the modelling assets been created, designing and a set of rules to express how these design techniques fit together, a case for design patterns could exist. Help from Hollywood? Games design is uniquely many thing, but at the basis of design it comes down to a few little things, coming up with the initial idea through thought and discussing, the idea to see it is not only a workable product but is it actually a good idea and from that point heavily expanding on the original idea until any team of designers could implement the design and achieve a expected result. Evidently if that was all designers had to go on it was be extremely difficult for anything to be created. Since the beginning of games design, games designers have worked around these initial problems by relying on design techniques and theories adapted from other media such as film and storytelling. Noah Falstein (1997) writes that part of the problem with encounters of people from Hollywood was their lack of respect. This problem though has been rid away with over the years but it was a huge problem back in the 1970s and 1980s when young game companies searched for aid in development from Hollywo od studios but received little help. Games are not only a interactive medium but they are a visual medium and game designers have been increasingly relying on design techniques developed from film such as motion capture however this is not to be taken as a side of weakness from game designer and should not question that games are the same as film but the film practices are investigated in an effort to identify methods which are suited in favour of games. Nevertheless this was not always enough, games design theories started to develop solely to do with games and without influence from other medium, Kreimeier (2002) also believes that games as an individual medium needs its own practices and if borrowed techniques were enough then there be no need to develop any practices specific to games design theories. These collective theories are individual but there has been much discussion on them and it could be probable that these individual theories could be developed into one universal ga mes design theory although the most likely result would be a flawed design theory. The open use of gaming terms promotes an over perceived meaning of our own belief of what games are, The academic public overly ignore the uniquely and complexity of game design. Junior designers whose own skill are limited generally embark upon designing games with no further research than their own experience as game players, this methodology is sure to fail, the desire to success, what people in reality like to play can be much different than what the designer actually likes, this is unfortunately a common problem in traditional game design, this is a problem Pederson (2003) states as critical for lead game designers. Those who overrate their own understanding will undercut their own potential from learning and further more it will lead to the same result as failure. Ambiguity and ambiguity of play are a important aspect of design brought up by Smith (1997), applying the principle and concepts to gaming have watered down the original medium and meanings, there is no longer a clear focus to the ideology of game design we desire to understand. This watered effect is creating genres, levels of design, innovativeness, expenses and lastly the technology are effecting this medium more than any other, price ranges in not only the technology but the actual developing of the game can be astronomical, the latest version of Grand Theft Auto(Rockstar Games, 2008) a sandbox* style game cost over $100 million to design and develop included over 1,000 members of staff and took of three years to finish(Linde, 2008). If you were to look for game design theory in this game, after much search you would result with a unanswered question, putting aside the budget and expenses to develop this game the sure scale of this project is enough to put a stop to the idea of needing or there ever existing an underlying games design theory. The style of game for the GTA series is not alone, other genre such as first person shooters(FPS), action based and role playing games(RPG) are also pu t in this bracket, it would be hard pressed to find a game theory where each of these genres could fit in, meet there goals and be overall a success. A Common Design Theory? There are a few genres of games where there is potentially a underlying game design theory that could be developed for any new game yet to be developed and this could exist in the racing genre, it is this genre where the same practices of desig Formative Role of Video Games Formative Role of Video Games Introduction As a long time fan of computer games, Ive always wondered how video games have reached this point in time, I wanted to know how Nintendo became Nintendo, how games went from the arcades to home consoles and how games changed from two dimensions to three dimensions. The following was originally planned to be purely a discussion on the development of the games industry however once this project began I soon realised that video games owe most of its early years and breakthrough development to other entertainment industries, particularly film. After much research on the topic I altered my discussions focus away from purely the games industry to the broader entertainment industry, mainly because it is very difficult to separate the two, both now owe each other so much, in video games early years it took much from the entertainment industry but in the last few years things have changed, revolutionary techniques are being developed by the game industry and now are being adapted by the film industry, in this dissertation I wanted to see video games long term effect on the entertainment industry and whether it has been one of a negative or positive effect and my predictions for the future of both mediums. The Birth of the Computer Game The modern video game has evolved much from its very humble and almost accidental beginning in 1958 when William Higinotham a nuclear physicist while working on a small analogue computer in the purpose of describing various curves on a cathode-ray tube noticed the curved and bouncing effect reminded him of tennis(Brookhaven, 2009). He altered the amplifiers of the balls motion so bounding space on the screen could be controlled by the turning knobs on the machine. Higinotham designed the game from first conception in two hours and it took him only a brief few hours over a few days to alter the existing technology. The budget for first game known only as Tennis For Two was almost zero as it was made for existing parts. Too think of a modern game been designed in two hours or completed in a few days is just incomprehensible, not only would it be almost guaranteed to be a terrible game but making it functional to the player would be a impossible task, and the budget would be another imp assable road block. The current generation of video games if they are to be a success spend months in the design and concept phase and take anywhere from 16 months to over four years to finish and have a budget that matches Hollywood blockbusters. The 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV(Rockstar, 2008) spent 6 years in development and the final expenses rose to over  £100 million. However the developers perceived the risk of financial failure if the product did not sell as a necessary risk in order to live up to the fans expectations, this game was a sequel in a long line of a series known for breaking sales records and having a fan base like none other. This game however is not the exception either, many recent games have had budgets of over  £100 million and spent years in production, these high expenses are expected to rise when every generation of consoles are releases not only because of the technology behind them but the players demand for more, including highly designed graphics, unique art design and realistic effects rendered to a quality of CGI films. Hollywood My research is discovering videos games effect on the entertainment industry but more specifically the film industry and the aspect of them competing against one another but also with the rare and generally unsuccessful case of the merger of film and games. When video games first began to sell successfully in the early 1970s film had already been established as the main attraction for visual entertainment with strings of great releases and new releases that broke viewer and financial records one after another, the 1970s seemed an unlikely time for another visual medium to develop however video game managed to do that, by the late 1970s video games seen the releases of many classic games such as Pong (Atari Inc, 1972), Asteroids (Atari Inc, 1979) and Space Invaders (Taito Corporation, 1978). At the time however these releases were still nothing to be recognised by the critics of the entertainment industry, they seen them as nothing but toys, not to be taking seriously. These classic g ames didnt even make a mark on the film industry in regards to financial success, however this was primarily because the home console didnt exist yet and games could only be played in arcades where the owner of the arcades took all profits with only the initial cost of the machine ever to be the income of the early game designer. In the early 1980s arcades changes, they werent now purely for the gaming youth, the non-gamer began to discover this alternate entertainment medium and it became a regular event for them to occasionally visit an arcade, this is when the time began known as the Golden Years particularly in the United States and Japan when teenagers and adults alike would enter the arcade and discover a game that would just entrap them, video games started to become a area to look into for potential designers as games beforehand where only created for the love of it but now as a designer you could now make a living out of designing games, this is mainly because the fans of t he early games where mostly diehard fans where they would enter quarter after quarter to finish the game. Brian Garside (2009) of RadicalHive Remembers putting quarter after quarter, hour after hours into arcade game, and it was for the same reasons as everyone else was there, a very simple attraction, The games were very loud and very bright, and brought one thing most gamers wanted, instant gratification the more quarters you had the longer you had to play, the difficulty level was extreme, there was no lives* or saves* you just tried to get to the finish before you ran out of quarters, and if you did then you became an elite member of the gaming public because you got to put your name on the screen, where it could be seen every day by every gamer, that was the main goal of the early gamer, to say you finished an arcade game, this was something rare because of the difficulty*. Arcades borrowed much from the film world in its early years including the cinema building layout itself, the general arcade includes, the games, popcorn machines, snack and hotdog bars and generally in the centre area would be pool tables, it represented a meeting place, the arcade became a place to hang out, friends would meet up at the arcade and not even play a game, it was almost a staging place, you would go there before heading to the movies or after a movie you would return there for a few minutes to let yourself lose, aside from the games the arcade became a place to just hang around and let loose. The Home Console It wasnt till the home console when games took a firm place in the entertainment industry, the development of the designed home console brought around games that were developed past the loud noises and ghastly lights, the home console brought around the era of the complex stories in games with gripping narratives, moving performances and of course the Pixelated hero*. Fairchild Channel F(Fairchild Semiconductor, 1976), a unknown games company who today if you mentioned them to a gamer most likely you would get a puzzled response and even in the early years of game development they where an unknown company however their games machine left a mark on the industry because they coined a phrase which is used by every single person in the games industry, Console*. Video games now had a place in the 1970s home but they still hadnt changed much form the arcade, bright lights and ghastly sounds where everywhere, game after game were effectively the same but with a different name. This slur of games eventually lead to the great video games crash*of 1983-84 triggered by a non-ending market of low quality games and by far too many overpriced consoles, another involving factor was that the market was considered to be at full saturation, the critically slammed game of the successful film E.T.(Atari, Inc, 1982) was the breaking point, the rising popularity of the home computer(PC) and the personnel computer also was deemed to be part responsible for the crash particular with their aggressive advertising campaigns such as this scrupulous ad by Microsoft Why buy your child a video game and distract them from school when you can buy them a home computer that will prepare them for college?(Global Oneness, 2009). This crash brought an abrupt end to the current generation of video games and almost crippled the new games industry particularly in north America, many games companies collapsed and with the few that survived none maintained any high level of success after the crash. It wasnt till the end of 1985 that the games industry started to recover and that was with the immediate success of the now legendary Nintendo Entertainment System(1985). The 8-bit* generation had begun with a bang with launch games consisting of ExciteBike (1985) and Super Mario Bros.( 1985), gamers could not resist but buy the NES even with doubts after the many years of terrible releases just preceding this new line up and generation. Aside from the games Nintendo also standardised many console features such as controller ports, gun controllers and the Quality seal of approval*. In the early 90s things started to heat up again in the games industry, Nintendo now had a fierce competitor in the industry, SEGA. SEGA (19 90) released its Mega Drive, which they hailed as the first 16-bit gaming console and it proved that by displaying graphics which were unheard of at this time. But Nintendo hit back by releasing their Record breaking Super Nintendo Entertainment System(1990). This fierce competition between the two drove developers to become better designers and it was proved as much with hugely successful and critically acclaimed hits been released for each console, this home console war ended any chance of the arcades recovering, gamers had finalised there move from the arcades back to their homes, the home console had become the core choice by the games and also by the developer. The 3D Generation Video games where successful in their early years but they were never hugely successful, they never get anywhere near close to the popularity of the film industry nor did the game releases of films get anywhere closer and in fact generally sold much worse. Designers made a profit but it was only a sustaining profit, enough to keep the company going, pay the staff and develop future games but they just didnt have the financial backing of the film industry, games were rarely advertised and certainly didnt have any sort of vast marketing displays and if there even was a marketing team at all it would consist of very few people and have a simple budget as can be seen by the low quality of games advertisement in the 1980s, the advertisement stood close to what the game was, bright lights and loud noises. It wasnt till the 5th generation of gaming consoles or the 3d generation as its also known did games reach a level of popularity that could not quite yet match the film industries figures but certainly put a mark against it, their where many success stories but also many failures in this generation, it saw the fall of Atari, the 3DO, SEGA and the rise of Sony with the Playstation(1994). Nintendo where the only existing company to the enter the 3D generation and continue to be successful. Not much changed with the Nintendo strategy and it didnt need to, they released once again hit after hit until the end of this generation when in 1995 the disc based Sony Playstation overtook the Nintendo 64(1996) in terms of sales and it began to build a strong fan base including taking a good portion of Nintendos key market. The Playstation was the first home console to sell more than 100,000 million units worldwide, this is now the time the games industry started to be compared to the film industry in terms of sales and success. Aside from commercial success, the Playstation also changed the console development plan, the success of the disc was the final nail in the coffin on the old cartridge system previously used by Nintendo. The stability of the disc medium, cheap manufacturing expenses in using disc based games where the main reasons for its success. At the end of this gener ation SEGA fans had lost faith in their beloved console with few games being released on the console mainly because developers jumped ship to the more successful Nintendo and Sony and while there was still yet to be another SEGA console in the form of the SEGA Dreamcast(1999), this was the turning point in SEGAs decline and their eventual retreat from console development. Even with the great success of the Playstation, neither Nintendo or Sony ever seemed to publicly announce or display a challenge for financial success against the rest of the entertainment industry, advertisement still stayed low budget and was purely aimed at making existing gamers aware of future products rather than attracting new potential game players. The Changing Generation The following Generation displayed much of the same as the previous generation, The Sony Playstation 2(2000) was effectively the same as the first one just much more advanced with a few new features, the same can be said for the Nintendo GameCube(2001) except now Nintendo had adopted disc based technology. There was a new entry in the market place now, Microsoft seeing the potential of the games industry entered the market in 2001 with the Xbox. The Xbox didnt design its games or console any differently to Nintendo and Sonys consoles however it did add one thing, it is possible the most important new feature to games design since the 3D era took hold, the Xbox introduced online multiplayer through a service known as Xbox LIVE*. This new feature was the only thing that kept the console from complete failure as the games that accompanied the console where of a lower quality and Microsoft struggled to attract a strong fanbase, however though XBOX LIVE proved so successful that online mu ltiplayer is a standard now for most modern games. While this was going on, in the background Nintendo where busy working with the handheld market, before now everyone considered this market purely for kids and only a gimmick at best, Nintendo wanted to change that and they did with the Game Boy Advance(2001). They did this by developing games of a standard of the home consoles and Marketing the device as a independent handheld console separate to that of the home consoles. Because of the new advanced graphics available to developers, a completely realistic game could be made but this lead to huge criticism of the games with releases of ultra graphic Mortal Kombat(Midway Games, multiple) and the portrayal of criminal behaviour seen in Grand Theft Auto series(Rockstar Games, Multiple). These controversial games aloud non-gaming public to become much more aware of the games industry, although this was potentially dangerous criticism against the games industry, it is seen as exactly wh at the games industry was looking for. Sony particularly began marketing mature games for mature audiences, with advertising campaigns aimed purely for the an age group of 18 and above. The content in these games led to the ESRB and PEGI age rating system to inform parents that there are games available in the market that are unsuitable for their children. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time(Nintendo, 1998), Grand Theft Auto 3(, Rockstar Games, 2001), and Halo: Combat Evolved(Bungie, 2001) were the first game in the industry to be marketed in the way of a summer blockbuster, they all sold hugely successful and these games are seen by many as the turning point where games left the old mentality behind of being just for the arcade gamer and now was at a position to enter the next generation as a strong competitor to Hollywood, by the end of this generation in 2006 total film sales reached an estimated $16.6 billion in North America for the film industry compared to the games industries $13.5 Billion (Breckon, 2007). Entering the late 2000s, the still young games industry is nearly as valuable as over 100 year old film industry. The Next-Generation. The 7th Generation seen many advancements, Blu-Ray disc technology, Massively multiplayer games(MMOs), High Definition technology and motion tracking as seen by the Nintendo Wii(2006). Microsofts Xbox 360 launched first into this generation in 2005 and it proved a success, aside from being first into this new generation it fully launched Xbox LIVE and multiplayer as a standard throughout the industry. The Xbox 360 now stands firmly second place in between Sonys Playstation 3(2006) and Nintendos Wii in the console battle. It has a strong game to console attach rate*, with loyal fans and marketing team any Company would want, these factors will guarantee its success into the next console generation. The Sony Playstation 3 launched a full year after the Xbox 360 and some believe this to be the main reason it had poor launch figures as well as the fact that there were a limited supply of Blu-ray diodes for the consoles main feature. The console to date has still struggled to compete with its competition with many of its games selling poorly, Xboxs leading exclusive game Halo 3(2008) sold over 10 million copies as for Sonys PS3 most successful exclusive game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots(2008) sold only a little over 4 million copies, however it has grounded itself, it is now financially a success and has guaranteed a place in the next generation line up. Nintendo on the other hand are on a completely different level compared to its rivals, it sales have been record breaking since its launch two weeks after the PS3. The Wii has sold almost more than both the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined with current sales figures at 52.29 Million units sold for the Nintendo Wii, 31.30 Million units sold for the Xbox 360 and 23.16 Million units sold for the PS3 (VGchartz, 2009). The key to the success of the Wii is the widening of the demographics, Nintendo completely changed their approach to selling and developing games, in previous generation Nintendo only developed games for the hardcore gamer(strict loyal fan) but now they are developing for a mixture of hardcore games and casual games(general public). Nintendos main aim for the Wii was not to beat its rivals but to get new people playing games, Satoru Iwata stated in(2006) at a Press conference in Tokyo that were not thinking about fighting Sony, but about how many people we can get to play games.. This is reflected in Nintendos Advertisement campaigns throughout the world, Nintendo dramatically changed their method of advertising to new much more successful methods such as featuring celebrities and even the advertisement developed by academy award winning directors. Their audience grew hugely with this advertising strategy including a varied assortment of game players including, children, adults and g randparents, their campaign is aimed at people of all ages. The success of these ads can be seen in the wide audience, a 103 year old pensioner was reported to be regularly playing the Wii, the Queen of England is was even reported to have a Nintendo Wii(Rousewell, 2008). With the games industry going from strength to strength it is hard not to see the games industries eventual overtaking of the film industry as the leading section of the entertainment industry. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillermot (2007) expects the games industry to grow an additional 50% in the next four year, casual gaming and the newly introduced in-game advertisement are expected to be the key factors to gamings take over. The gaming industry is also growing in other parts of the world, The Asian market alone is expected to reach $28.8 billion in sales by 2011 with a total sales for the games industry at $65(Breckon, 2007). By then the film industry is only predicted to grow to a total sales of $25.8 billion in sales, less than half of the predicted games sales. However High definition is now becoming a standard in the film industry as well as the re-introduction 3D films, both advancements could bring a new lease of life to the film industry, it can also be considered that at â‚ ¬60 a game compared to the film industries â‚ ¬10 cinema admission or â‚ ¬25-â‚ ¬40 for DVD/Blu-ray income might make up impressive figures however as for the individual customer using each medium the actual numbers of people still lean greatly towards the film industry. It could be questioned why are they seen as competition and not simply compared as separate mediums in the entertainment industry, many game adaptations of films and vice versa have been released mostly with only slight success but all have been critically slammed, ever year the two industries become closer and closer and with that will be massive financial gain, James Camerons Avatar: The Game(Ubisoft, 2009) and film (Cameron, 2009) is seen as the first step towards bringing these two entertainment industries together. Chapter 2: Literature review What is a game? This is a very common question and it is a very important one, I wish to make it clear that the great success of video games in the last few years have mainly due to the changes behind in the design room and in the studios not just in the way games are now being marketed, the general games design theory is seen as a factor in the success. Defining what a game is or a theory behind it is one that you can spend a great deal of time arguing over and even with a set of results it still is a open question. The definition will in general influence how one decides to design a game, so it is critical when designing a game that you completely understand the purpose for it. There are multiple ways we could define a game, with varying ranges of features. Greg Costikyan (1994) states A game is a form of art in which participants, teamed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal. This meaning is questionable, it may of defined what a game wa s back in the early years but because of the constant technology advancements if a designer was to define what a game was it would be more like, a game is a form of art in which participants single or multiple make decisions according to the narrative design in order to resolve game world situations and finish the game as the ultimate goal, this would be my definition of defining the modern computer game. The essential problem with defining a game is that depending on the era a definition will make sense in one decade but not the next because of the rapid growth of the gaming medium. This rapid growth is changing the industry, MIT Professor Henry Jenkins(2008) stated that video games have converged different entertainment platforms that allowed producers of these content to exercise new ways of stretching the viability of their intellectual properties. A single general theory only works when one looks at a genre of game type or who the player of the game will be, at the core reasoning for games, they only exist to be played, it is an interactive medium the only kind which is visual, audibly, interactive and within that a multiplayer component which allows many people to play at once and with the internet the numbers are almost infinite depending on the game. As with the genre and medium some are considered entertaining and some are considered a task, challenge is however a general the me with games design. As with every industry, once games design was established as a valuable medium, competition quickly arose as seen at Quakecon(Nok, 2009) and in a new medium players want quickly to become the best at it or be the first to finish it, to design a game to suit this want is a challenge and that is the general reason a games design theory was sought after in early game development. As the basis of games design is that every game or most games have a beginning, middle and an end, the game starts and ends at your own discretion and with a set of rules for you to manipulate or use to at your means. Playing the game is down to the player, but if there is a desire to understand games and game design, we must first clearly establish the purpose of it. We must determine the characteristics of all games, but discovering that outlines and establish a set of attribute for each game genre rather than what characterised games as a whole. Hoffman (2008) believes that outside of computer games, playing a game in general is an important part of life. I wish to discover does game design need a theory? Other medium generally have some sort of theory behind them but they are much more closely related in their genres as game design is very diverse and has a interactive aspect in design and game playing, what people want, and the level of scale and longevity are maybe too diverse for a game design theory to exist. Changes in games design: For the Better or worse? Defining games design is still widely regarded as a difficult task, what a game is though differs constantly and when it enters production depending on the type of game the design methods behind it are much different from a racing game to a action game. That is the first problem, it is complex to place the games design program in any one meaning. The actual study of engine design, physics and application of games design is much more closely connected to mathematics rather than traditional design practices, if this study was literally taken into practice than it would be a great oversight, designing a game using only mathematics and programmers instead of a blend with designers would only lead to failure. Ideally, a games design studio should be as interdisciplined as any other large field, it should consist of, programmers, designers, artists and engineers. Richard Rouse III(2005) states that the game design is what determines the form of the gameplay, however that is not always so a s seen by top-down or bottom-up design*. The features set in game design determines what choices players will be able to make in the game-world and what consequences those choices will have on the rest of the game. Bernd Kreimeier(2002) states that Games design like any other profession requires a means to document, discuss and plan. In the last few years with the advent of the growing online design community, a designer could refer to the growing online library of previously released games for general ideas and quick inspiration. In the early days of games design, designers generally referred to board games for their inspiration as there was no other means to compare work, without some sort of comparison it would of been very risky to release a game without any sort of knowledge of whether a similar product has been successful in the past. Hoffman (2008) believes that the main problem with game design is deciding where to place it, creating a game through a subset of sociology or a dedicated studio and these decisions are what make defining a game so complex. However while knowledge about games has grown rapidly, it could be said even more so than any other media industry, little progress has been made to document individual experiences to interweave into design practices and theories. Kreimeier (2002) states that on the base line of design theory, games design needs a related library to name the modelling assets been created, designing and a set of rules to express how these design techniques fit together, a case for design patterns could exist. Help from Hollywood? Games design is uniquely many thing, but at the basis of design it comes down to a few little things, coming up with the initial idea through thought and discussing, the idea to see it is not only a workable product but is it actually a good idea and from that point heavily expanding on the original idea until any team of designers could implement the design and achieve a expected result. Evidently if that was all designers had to go on it was be extremely difficult for anything to be created. Since the beginning of games design, games designers have worked around these initial problems by relying on design techniques and theories adapted from other media such as film and storytelling. Noah Falstein (1997) writes that part of the problem with encounters of people from Hollywood was their lack of respect. This problem though has been rid away with over the years but it was a huge problem back in the 1970s and 1980s when young game companies searched for aid in development from Hollywo od studios but received little help. Games are not only a interactive medium but they are a visual medium and game designers have been increasingly relying on design techniques developed from film such as motion capture however this is not to be taken as a side of weakness from game designer and should not question that games are the same as film but the film practices are investigated in an effort to identify methods which are suited in favour of games. Nevertheless this was not always enough, games design theories started to develop solely to do with games and without influence from other medium, Kreimeier (2002) also believes that games as an individual medium needs its own practices and if borrowed techniques were enough then there be no need to develop any practices specific to games design theories. These collective theories are individual but there has been much discussion on them and it could be probable that these individual theories could be developed into one universal ga mes design theory although the most likely result would be a flawed design theory. The open use of gaming terms promotes an over perceived meaning of our own belief of what games are, The academic public overly ignore the uniquely and complexity of game design. Junior designers whose own skill are limited generally embark upon designing games with no further research than their own experience as game players, this methodology is sure to fail, the desire to success, what people in reality like to play can be much different than what the designer actually likes, this is unfortunately a common problem in traditional game design, this is a problem Pederson (2003) states as critical for lead game designers. Those who overrate their own understanding will undercut their own potential from learning and further more it will lead to the same result as failure. Ambiguity and ambiguity of play are a important aspect of design brought up by Smith (1997), applying the principle and concepts to gaming have watered down the original medium and meanings, there is no longer a clear focus to the ideology of game design we desire to understand. This watered effect is creating genres, levels of design, innovativeness, expenses and lastly the technology are effecting this medium more than any other, price ranges in not only the technology but the actual developing of the game can be astronomical, the latest version of Grand Theft Auto(Rockstar Games, 2008) a sandbox* style game cost over $100 million to design and develop included over 1,000 members of staff and took of three years to finish(Linde, 2008). If you were to look for game design theory in this game, after much search you would result with a unanswered question, putting aside the budget and expenses to develop this game the sure scale of this project is enough to put a stop to the idea of needing or there ever existing an underlying games design theory. The style of game for the GTA series is not alone, other genre such as first person shooters(FPS), action based and role playing games(RPG) are also pu t in this bracket, it would be hard pressed to find a game theory where each of these genres could fit in, meet there goals and be overall a success. A Common Design Theory? There are a few genres of games where there is potentially a underlying game design theory that could be developed for any new game yet to be developed and this could exist in the racing genre, it is this genre where the same practices of desig

The Life of Norman Rockwell :: essays research papers

Norman Rockwell is best known for his depictions of dail life of a rural America. Rockwell’s goals in art revolved around his desire to create an ideal America. He said â€Å" I paint life as I would like it to be.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second child of Jarvis W. Rockwell and his wife Nancy, Norman Perceval Rockwell was born in the famous New York City. In his summers he enjoyed life on the countryside, which made a profound impact on his art.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rockwell remained in Manhattan until 1903, when they moved to Mamaroneck, New York. It was there he decided to pursue a career as an illustrator.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1908, He began attending the Chase School of Fine Art. At the age of fifteen he quit high school to enroll in classes at the National Academy of Design. He left the Academy a year after finding out that it was geared towards training of the fine artist rather than the illustrator. He then enrolled in the Art Students League studying inder George Bridgman and Thomas Fogarty. In addition to excelling in his skills in drawing and painting, Rockwell was introduced to the illustration of Howard Pyle.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1911, Rockwell illustrated his first book, â€Å"Tell Me Why Stories†. Two Years later he contributed to â€Å"Boys Life†, He soon became art director of the magazine. Commissions for other children’s magazines, among them â€Å"St. Nicholas†, â€Å"Youths Companion† and â€Å"American Boys†, soon followed. In 1915, Rockwell moved to New Rochelle, New York, home to many of America’s finest Illustrators. He studied the work of older illustrators while painting crisply, painted renditions of fresh-faced kids and dogs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A turning point in Rockwell’s career occurred one year later when he sold five cover illustrations to George Lorimer, editor of the â€Å"Saturday Evening Post†. For the next four decades, Rockwell’s name would be synonymous with the â€Å"Post†. During that time he produced 322 covers for the magazine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By the 1920’s, Rockwell achieved considerable success.

Competency Based Recruitment and Selection

Title: – Competency Based Recruitment and Selection Theme: – Recent advances in commerce and management Introduction: Competency for any job can be defined as a set of human attributes that enables an employee to meet the expectations of his internal and external customers and stake holders. We have generally observed that only hard work, knowledge, sincerity towards work, and intelligence does not alone makes a person star performer in his/her profession. There are many other factors that actually help an individual practically in achieving success in performing job. For example we have observed that during our school or college days a star student who scores maximum marks in exam may or may not be a good leader. Similarly to this a good batsman may or may not be a good bowler in the game of cricket. The only reason behind this to be a leader requires different set of competencies and to be a good bowler requires a different set of competencies than for a good batsman. That’s why human qualities and attributes which makes a person suitable for his/her job defines competency for that particular job. A competent manager is always aware about different competencies that a person requires to perform the job effectively and efficiently. And on the basis of their knowledge about this they select and train their subordinates for that job. There are many factors such are Social culture, work environment, nature of business, Organizational structure, responsibilities, nature of process and assigned activities, attitude and motives of management affects competency require for particular job. Competency based recruitment and selection focuses on identifying those candidates that can evidence those behaviourally defined characteristics which underpin desired performance in the role you are seeking. Competency based Human Resource Management: A general objective behind hiring a candidate to perform a particular job is to get that job done effectively and efficiently. In short all organizations strive to achieve excellence in whatever business they are. To achieve this goal it is very essential that the entire jobs are performed efficiently and effectively by all the employees. To achieve excellence in performing any job by an employee it is important that an employee should be competent to perform that job. Competency based Human Resource Management helps any organization in achieving in objective. Competency based human resource management is promising as best approach in developing and preserving competent human resources. Competency based approaches to human resource management have been developed since psychologist David McClelland’s research on competency concept. He is credited with launching the competency movement through the publication of his paper titled â€Å"Testing for competencies rather than intelligence†, in which he suggested that academic aptitude and knowledge content tests alone cannot predict a high level of performance, but personal qualities, motives, experience and behavioural characteristics can distinguish most successful from less successful individuals Meaning of Competencies: The Treasury Board of Canada has defined â€Å"competencies† as the knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviours that an employee applies in performing his/her work and that are the key employee-related levers for achieving results that are relevant to the organization/s business strategies. Competency may be defined as: â€Å"The behaviourally defined characteristics which strengthen effective and superior performance†. It’s all about how the person should behave in order to achieve the objectives. According to Schroder competencies are personal effective skills which vary from more basic specialized functional skills to the generic, person based higher level competencies. Competencies allow focus process-â€Å"How things are done? † not simply on outcomes. Classification of competencies: †¢ Core Competencies The Core competencies include those key competencies that all employees in the organization must possess to achieve its mandate and vision. These competencies describe in behavioural terms the key values of the organization and represent those competencies that are core to the organization’s principal mandate. Career Stream Competencies The Career Stream competencies are those behavioural competencies that are common to the all jobs in the stream, and combined with the organization-wide (core) competencies, make up the suite of behavioural competencies necessary for success in the Stream. †¢ Technical / Professional Competencies The technical/profes sional competencies tend to be specific to occupational areas, roles and / or jobs within the Career Stream, and include the specific skills and knowledge (know-how) to perform effectively within the jobs of the Stream (e. . ability to use particular software; knowledge in particular professional areas such as finance, biochemistry; etc. ). These competencies could be generic to the Career Stream as whole, or be specific to roles, levels or jobs within the group. These are the competencies some one must demonstrate to be effective in his job/role, task or duty. Thus these competencies are job or role specific and vary from job to job. A competency model can be used to develop specific job related competencies and come out with a competency dictionary. These competencies are organization specific as roles and responsibilities may vary from organization to organization even though the job title may be the same. Generally HR department of organizations is focused on developing professional competencies and evaluating the same during recruitment and selection process. This classification of different types competencies in not all inclusive it’s an open field of research. In addition to this, competencies can be classified as Personal competencies also. Personal competency includes the various behavioral competencies apart from the knowledge and skill level of an individual. It includes personal attributes like level of motivation, adaptability, developing oneself etc. It also includes interpersonal skills like relationship building, communication ability, openness towards change, cultural awareness etc. In addition to this we can define people management competencies like Leadership, Directing, team building capacity, capacity to work with a team, counseling people, providing motivation, knowledge transformation. A Competency model: A â€Å"competency profile† or â€Å"competency model† is defined as a set of competencies and includes associated behaviours that link directly to the work to be performance, and the levels of proficiency for each behaviour. Competency profiles can cover a group of positions / jobs within an organization. I have developed following process to develop a competency model that can be used for the purpose of delivering competency based recruitment and selection in a desired way. A Competency model is the basic tool or competency based recruitment and selection. A Competency model tries to explain what and all competencies are required to perform different jobs in an organization. A competency model also tries to prioritize the competencies for different jobs. It describes these competencies in the form of indicators, which can be quantified. Each competency can be quantified on a scale on the basis of its relative importance with respect to each job. This serves as a reference for all competency management activities in the organization. Competency model is organization specific as each organization may have its own way of defining and quantifying competencies and competencies may be unique for each organization. Procedure to develop standard competencies: 1. First step is to identify the competencies to perform different jobs. Main source to identify these competencies are job description and job specification. On the basis of that a specific competencies can be identified because these throws light on duties, responsibilities, tasks involved in the job. This will work out as basic list of competencies required within an organization. . Now the next step is to find out critical competencies for all jobs, prioritizing them and to give more significance. These core competencies can be find out through discussion with immediate supervisors for the job position. They are more aware of the different competencies required for performing job efficiently. It also includes brainstorming sessions with managers. 3. After finis hing first two steps, the next is to develop the overall list of kinds of competencies required to perform a job. This includes both primary and secondary set of competencies. This can be further categorized job wise competencies also. With this step now we have a whole dictionary of competencies required. 4. Once the dictionary of competency is ready, now the next step is to prioritize and rate or provide weightage to different competency on the basis of its importance for the particular job. This will help us in quantifying competencies. 5. A model for developing standard competencies is now prepared. This can be used as a tool in competency based recruitment and selection by developing different tests to measure such competencies. Competencies are not static for any job. It is a very dynamic in nature. As the time changes and environment becomes more complicated, competencies required to perform a job also changes. Competency based recruitment and selection: Recruitment can be defined as â€Å"The process of surveying all sources of personnel, inside and outside the organization, to locate and attract the best possible candidates for new or vacated positions†. One of the most important problems in any organization is developing an effective recruitment and selection process which can choose right candidate for a right job. Many organizations have already experienced the cost of selecting a candidate who is not competent for performing job although he is qualified and knowledgeable person. Competency based approach for recruitment and selection calls for more meaningful competency based job descriptions, more appropriate job advertisements, better screening process, Specific competency based written tests like psychometric tests, Specific behaviorally based interviews popularly known as behavioral event interviews, tailored reference checks based on desired competencies of specific role. With the help of competency based recruitment and selection process it is possible to improve efficiency of the job getting done in the right way, which leads to achievement of desired results. Following diagram explains the process of recruitment and selection based on competency. [pic] Identifying Recruitment Strategy Team: Form a workgroup whose primary objective will be to develop a gap-closing recruitment plan for the company. The team should include: †¢ Key Human Resources personnel. †¢ Staff who have knowledge and responsibility for day-to-day operations. Other work units as appropriate given your agency’s size and organizational structure. Bringing together a Recruitment Strategy Team from different parts of the company offers a number of advantages: †¢ Team members may have a variety of networking contacts. †¢ Team members may bring new perspectives that result in creative ideas that surface through brainstorming. †¢ Teams members may become m ore invested in the recruitment process and support/encourage involvement of their respective organizational units. Preparation of competency dictionary: Dictionary for competency can be developed with the help of competency model discussed earlier. Defining competency based job profiles: Jobs can be better described in terms of the competencies needed for performing the various activities demanded by the job. The competency based approach defines jobs in terms competencies and this more flexible as rigid descriptions used in traditional job descriptions resulted in employees performing strictly defined tasks. Recruitment and selection methods will have to be based on competency based job profiles. Role analysis can be a better means of developing competency based job profiles. Role descriptions are more effective in identifying job related competencies and thus developing competency profiles. The competency based qualification standards can be based on whole person competency based approach, and characterized by more assessment options and easy to quantify and hence evaluate. . Recruitment Advertisement: A good advertisement is one which can convey the candidates the exact needs of the organization in terms of the basic job related competencies which are necessary for performing the job competently. The exact competencies for each job are available in the competency dictionary and this can be used for advertising purpose to tell possible candidates what knowledge, skills, and attributes they must possess to be able to apply for the job. Competency Tests: Psychometric tests are psychological tests which can provide useful information about a wide range of competencies of an individual like abilities, aptitudes, values and skills, and can function as a scientific aid in selection. These tests are based on person-job fit concept. Psychometric tests are used for several applications like selection, promotion, transfer, placement, and potential appraisal. Different types of psychometric tests can be used are: Personality tests, Occupational interest, Ability test, Value system test, etc. Competency Interviews: A Competency Based Interview is a structured series of questions aimed at eliciting evidence of a candidate's behavioural fit against specific job-related competencies. In competency based interviews, behavioral focused interviews are used. In behavioral focused interview, the underlying philosophy is that the past behavior is the best predictor of future performance. These types of interviews are generally characterized by questions that relate to specific behaviours which have been found to be linked to successful/superior performance on the job. Candidates are not asked to describe how they would respond in a particular situation or event – that is, they are not asked for hypothetical thinking and responses. But they are asked to describe what they have done, what behaviours they have used, in a certain situation or event which has occurred in the past. Interviewers halting the candidate's response to a question once they have heard sufficient evidence of the candidate's competency. A Competency Based interview process will allow for evidence based information which can then be verified with a candidate's referees. Competency Reference checks: Competency based reference checks the competencies that a candidate has actually exhibited in the past. The information can be obtained from the previous employers or the educational institutions from where the candidates have passed out. Reference checks can be designed in the form of a questionnaire which can be used to obtain information about the candidate’s previous performance levels or capacity to exhibit competencies when needed. Selection of the candidate & Training and Development Plans: On the basis of the reference checks and other competency testing we can now select the right person for the right job. Once the candidate is selected further plans for training can be prepared on the basis of the competencies required for meeting future changes in doing the job. Conclusion: From our discussion it is clear that competency based recruitment and selection can be more effective in selecting right candidate for the right job to enhance organizational efficiency. Thus organization’s need to develop a competency model which can be used as standard yard stick for implementing competency based recruitment and selection. This can not only reduce the cost of hiring the people but also enhance productivity significantly by building human resources as per the exact needs of the organization in complex business environment. Author:Nishant C. Mehta Lecturer, Shri H D Gardi MBA College, Jamnagar road, Nyara, Rajkot, Gujarat. Phone: +919227227501 Email: [email  protected] com ———————– Identify the Recruitment Strategy Team Preparation of competency dictionary Defining competency based job profiles Recruitment Advertisement Selection of the candidate Competency Reference checks Competency Interviews Competency Tests Employee Training and Development Plans

How to Write Original Creative Writing Essays Complete Guide for Arts Essays

How to Write Original Creative Writing Essays Complete Guide for Arts Essays Have a creative writing essay due soon? Our film theatre studies guide covers both long-term strategies to writing essays and emergency tips for extra quick writing techniques. Read on to save yourself and let creative juices flow. What is a Creative Essay? Creative essays are an all-time favourite. They are spontaneous essays with no restrictions, guidelines or structure. Creative essays are non-fiction essays written from the point of view of the author. They are aesthetic, imaginative and as far as non-fiction can allow, factual. Creative essays include; memoir, biographies, book reviews, travel reports. Other forms of fictitious creative writing include; short stories, poems, hybrid essays, dramatic monologues, plays and flash fiction. However, all creative essays have one thing in common: they are all focused on telling a story, whether real, imagined or both. As fun as creative writing may be, a lot of folks still struggle to get a piece out. This is because unlike most essays, creative essays are written from the heart and depend majorly on originality and imagination.   So, before we get started, my first advise will be this: write from your heart. Choosing the Right Topic: A Few Suggestions from Our Writers What story do you want to tell? How do you want to tell it? Who is your audience? These are a few of the questions to put in mind before writing a creative essay. Like it was said before, write from your heart. It is easier to tell your story than tell someone elses. In telling your story, you can easily draw from the rich store of memories, personal experiences, imaginations and dreams you have. Take time to brainstorm. Think about what you want to write on. Most times in a fit of excitement, you may be tempted to start writing immediately without thinking through. If the idea is not deep and sustaining enough, the flow of ideas may cease and you may be disappointed or discouraged to continue. Take a walk. Go to a quiet place or go to your favourite spot to get your muse on. If you keep a journal, now is the best time to read it to recollect memories and gather inspiration. You may want to read a few pages of your favourite book or literary journals to get inspiration, watch your favourite movie or put your favourite song on replay. Soon enough ideas will begin to trickle in:   it may be a dream you had, an idea, a memory or interactions with your friends and family. Get out your writing materials and pen these ideas down. Ideas are fleeting and may come in with such a rush yoyo may forget them. You will want to capture as many as you can on paper. Dont be bothered if your ideas dont have a flow or structure. There are no worries, let them be as loose and as spontaneous as they can be, when you begin to write you will see them take form. Over time, the more you write, the more you will be able to arrange the flow of your ideas and put them in order, even in the first draft without having to write a second draft. A couple of ideas/writers prompts that may come to mind for fictitious creative writing include: Some lines from a favourite song; A favourite childhood memory; A rewrite of a favourite romantic or comedy movie; A re-adaptation of a favourite book; A favourite writing quote; A creative essay on a favourite author; A recurring dream; A life turning experience: accident, death of a loved one or a near death experience. Another couple of sample topics for writing creative non-fiction essays include: A short biography of a favourite author; A travel report on a tour destination with significant historical cultural and artistic value; A book report on an engaging book you read during the course; perhaps a compelling story from Charles Dickens, Jane Austen or Toni Morrison. Pre Writing Tips: Get Ready to Be Creative As the ideas trickle in, dont be in a hurry to put and arrange them into paragraphs or structure them. You may stifle the stream of thoughts that come in. Before you set out to start writing, do following steps. Free Writing Write as much as you can, as fast you can. This is called speed writing. The aim of speed writing is to get your natural voice and flow. Sometimes in an effort to make the first draft coherent and creative you may alter your writing voice and sound like some popular creative writer. Because you are not being yourself,   you lose your writing voice and make a poor imitation of a skilled writer who took time to develop his own writing voice.   Patiently develop yours too. Write freely and try not to bother if the piece is not logical or coherent enough. Stay on track and see where your train of thought takes you. You will be pleasantly surprised. Research So you have a story you want to tell, and just enough framework to build your story. Where do you get meat to add to your skeleton? Research. You may not need to browse the internet to get the information you need. Interviewing friends, families, cross checking dates, tracing family trees and scouting old newspapers are just a few of the methods of researching information to add to your story. Research adds depth and originality to fiction writing and makes non-fiction writings verifiable and factual. If you plan on writing a biography or a book report, take time to research on the author you wish to write on. Of course, you cant cover the entire aspect of the person you wish to write on, so how about covering a significant aspect of the persons life? Was the person engaged in a social reformation? Do you love the persons style of writing or use of words? Is there an aspect of his personal life that means something to you? Go ahead and delve in detailed research. You dont want to mar the image of the author because of inadequate research. Journaling The importance of a journal can never be over emphasised. Journals help you build patience, consistency, good observatory skills and an   ability to write whether you are inspired or not. Journals also make excellent muses when you need inspiration to write. Reading through past writings can birth ideas that make good foundations for a different story entirely. You dont have to record day to day experiences, you can record dreams, memories, quotes, phrases and songs that strike deep chords between you. Record moods, feelings, observations and certain bouts of ideas that seem to pop from nowhere. When you write your creative essay and you seem stuck, get out your journal and write anything that comes to mind. Sketching an Outline As you follow these tips, you will see your essay slowly take shape and form. It shows you are almost there. After researching and gathering just the right amount of information to enrich your essay, the next thing is to sketch an outline of the essay. A creative essay, like every other essay has 4 parts: A title, An introduction, A body, A conclusion. In your sketch, make these four parts into headers and list the necessary points under each. You will learn how to develop an outline as you read on. Write the First Draft The first draft may be just as messy as the free writing.   Not to worry. The aim of the first draft is to arrange sentences into paragraphs that are logical and flow into each other. You write freely, but with focus. Use the sketched outline as a guide, building slowly on the points listed under each heading. Dont worry about grammar, spellings 6 and punctuation. Just focus on writing out your ideas logically. Shape up the Title Most creative writers dont bother about the title of their essay until they are done writing. By the time they are finished writing, the title comes naturally to them. Here are a few points to consider when choosing a title: Titles should be catchy. A good way to do this is to use short sentences that sum up the essay. Sentences could be made of two or more sentences, usually beginning with an article. For example: A Forgotten Memory. The Scary Dream, The Cafeteria, The Three Brothers. Another way to create catchy titles is using figures of speech: metaphor, personification, oxymoron, paradox, hyperbole is just a few of the figures of speech to use. For example, A Nest of Lies, Chasing Shadows, The Tall Tale. The title could be gotten from the subject matter itself. For example, My Father, My Favourite Author, My Favourite Thinking Spot. The title can be lifted word for word from the source of inspiration; a quote, a song, a book or a movie. For example, As you Like it. Writing an Impressive Creative Essay A creative essay is structured like any other essay; it has the introduction, body and conclusion. However to further understand how a creative essay on structured   the online can also be divided into Set up Confrontation Resolution Introduction/ Set up There are no hard and fast rules on how to introduce your creative essay. However since its a short story, its better to get right into the action without wasting time. In the set up, you introduce the setting of the story, the characters involved and how they relate to one another. Also introduce the scene of the story; describe the time, day and environment where the story takes place. Introduce your main character and the other supporting characters that build up your story. Engage the senses of your readers by using vivid descriptions or narratives, imagery and appropriate tone. In the introduction, your readers should be able to infer a plot development from the description you have given. Body/ Confrontation The body consists of paragraphs that are chronological and connected. Slowly build up the plot in the body or change the mood and setting of the story. The body also contains the confrontation, which is the turning point of the story. The turning point could be a point of conflict when things suddenly go the opposite way, or when the main character faces an opposition or challenge. This moment can build up tempo gradually or suddenly come out of nowhere, it all depends on how you want to write it. Conclusion/Resolution In this part, the conflict is resolved, either completely or partially. The drama in the story sharpens, settles down then reaches a peak. Some writers make use of cliff hangers to whet the appetite of their readers and keep them hungry for more. It all depends on how you want to tidy up the story. Be sure to do justice to all your characters in the story. Post-Writing Tips So you are done writing your creative essay. What next? Take a Break It may be hard to take a break after completing your work. You may be so excited and in a hurry to get your essay submitted or published. No rush. Take a mental break and file your work away for a few hours or days. You will want to rest your mind so that the next time you get back to the work, you see it with fresh eyes. That way you begin to notice errors, bulky paragraphs, overflowing sentences and redundant words that either add bulk or dont fulfil the original intent.   Who knows you may see a better way of telling the story and start all over. Re-read and Re-write Read your story critically. Are there overflowing sentences, dead words, redundant paragraphs? Is the story too loose and flabby? Can you rewrite it in a more compact way? Then get back to rewriting. Seasoned writers know the story is not in the first or second draft but in the third and fourth.   The more you rewrite   the more you chisel away flab and fluff and refine existing ways of telling the story. Make each word earn its space on the page. Or perhaps you discovered a better perspective of capturing your story, dont be scared to haul out the work and start from the top. It will be worth the effort. Proofread Give your work to a second party to read. You may not be as critical as you ought to about your writings and a second pair of eyes may just be what you need to highlight errors. Dont take corrections and criticism too hard, welcome them. They may be just what you need to give your work the shine it needs. Formatting A lot of people forget to format their writing according to the editors/teachers specifications. This can be the reason why your work is rejected or poorly scored. Before submissions, take time to note the required formatting for submissions. Font type, font size, line spacing, page numbering and use of headers are a few of the specifications to have in mind. Perhaps the Most Useful Tip from Our Top Writers: Creative writing essays are fun to write. Spontaneity, variety and freedom of expression are a few of the characteristics that make these essays an all-time favourite. The key to writing successfully is to write from the heart. Once you have a sufficient pool of thought and ideas to draw from, it gets easy from there. Research, free writing, sketching, outlining and writing the first and second drafts are just additional tips to help you refine and sculpt your ideas. If you have a hard time coming up with an idea, start keeping a journal today. You will be amazed!