Not Actual

Not Actual Gameplay is a motion graphic piece of design that looks at the influence of video games and technology on the future of warfare. Using mostly real war footage and a mix of live action and games footage to create an authentic looking trailer that depicts the game inspired

future of warfare.

The trailer features a number of upcoming technological developments that are either already in development for the military or in the pipeline. The footage follows a game centric trailer for a number of reasons. Not only is it a throwback to the basis of the entire project but it also the whole point of the project, it is meant to look like a game trailer. This all in the hope that the viewer finds the on going correlation between gaming and future warfare.

Gameplay

researchThe research behind the final outcome looks at numerous mediums, sources and people all of whom have inspired the final piece. Although the research has taken me on multiple paths, everything has in some way influenced my

decision making behind ‘Not Actual Gameplay’.

The HistoryOf theComputer

The development of the computer was a turbulent period that dragged on for years and years till it became the product we know today. It was the genesis of this so called virtual violence, ironically starting out as pet government project that has developed into a world wide phenomenon and now back to being used by the army and government for future warfare. Here is the history of the computer.

1939 - Hewlett Packard was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard.

1940 - The CNC is created; the first demonstration of remote access computing.

1943 - Project Whirlwind is begun by the US Army and M.I.T to create flight simulators for bomber crews.

1944 - Harvard Mark I computer is created, taking up an entire room.

1944 - Era 101, the first commercially built computer.

1958 - The SAGE project linked hundred’s of America’s radars together, creating the first large scale computer communication network.

1976 - Steve Wozniak designs the Apple I.

1977 - The Commodore PET, first of several computers released this year with an inbuilt keyboard.

1976 - The CD-ROM is created, in turn allowing for greater storage and more powerful machines.

03

ViolenceAndVideo Games

Recently Obama has invested $10million to research the links between violent media (games included) and violence.

“The research behind violence and video games has not really changed in the past few decades”

“On average, the research shows that exposure to violent video games increases aggressive thoughts.”

Ever since gamings incarnation there has always been some sort of invisible link between videogames and violence whether someone likes it or not. Whenever their seems to be an unfortunate act of violence (such as the recent TDKR shooting) videogames automatically assume the blame, but should they?

The first major violence and videogames study was undertaken in 1984, which surveyed 250 students asking pretty broad and silly questions such as “Somebody picks a fight with you on the way home from school. What would you do?”, after each student has had a chance to play a violent videogame. The scientists carrying out the study came up with this conclusion “The data indicates that videogame playing is neither the menace that many of its critics have portrayed it to be, nor necessarily without possible negative consequences.”. Not much of a conclusion, but yet nothing directly stating that videogames make the player violent. Since this study there have been over a 100 more carried out, with each one stating something different to the other...

“anybody who tells you that there’s any kind of consistency to the aggression research is lying to you, quite frankly”

There are two sides to each argument and they generally go down like this;

Someone arguing for tend’s to say “Kids who play more violent video games—it changes their attitudes and their beliefs about aggression. It does desensitize them. In the long-term it probably links aggression with fun, which is a really weird idea. Or aggression and relaxation, another weird idea.” Doug Gentile.

While on the other hand you have someone like Ferguson who says “There are over 100 studies at this point that in some way or another tap into video game violence and aggression. Most of them are horrible.”

One of the major problems with these studies is they have been trying to find links between videogames and violence rather than an increase in aggression, which is much more viable. Also whenever there are null links they tend to be ignored rather than investigated, as well as the measure for aggression can’t really be quanitified. The fact that the studies tend to test teenagers rather than children is also not ideal.

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Conflict

and

Science

Radar

Radar is one of the best examples of conflict accelerating technological development. It all occurred when a number of scientists were trying to use radio antenna’s and playing around with their properties; the credit for the creation of radar goes to Sir Robert Watson-Watt. This technology helped the military to track opposing sides, create new warfare strategies, develop technology which lent itself too stealth aircraft, while it also made the USA heavily invest in finding new ways of using radar.

What use has radar been to us? Well when a scientist called Percy Spencer was standing next to a magnetron (a device that powers radars), his chocolate began to melt. Which led to the Microwave being created.

The Space Race

Although their is no direct representation of technology used to go out into space being used at home, the battle between the USSR and USA put massive strain on the smartest minds from both countries, which ended up with them developing loads of amazing pieces of technology. Prior to this event we had only dreamed about leaving our atmosphere but due to the conflict between the two countries it let to us building rockets, fuels, space suit’s and so on, some of which would have inspired future pieces of home based technology.

Head Up Displays

The Head Up Display (HUD for short) naturally evolved through a pre-WWII sight technology for pilots called reflector sight. As the sight’s developed and got more complex; reticles created to track moving targets etc, they started getting organised and designed which led to the creation of the HUD for pilots. This amazing piece of technology let the pilot know and control his surroundings much easier, rather than have to pay attention to millions of dials positioned all around him. Currently HUD’s are in development for soldiers and other military uses.

For us the HUD is something that is prominent in almost every single game. Recently it has also been developed for cars to display useful, up-to-date information and pretty much created Google Glass.

The Internet

In a way, the internet is a war baby. The US Department of Defence funded a project called ARPANET – the purpose of which was to allow multiple computers to communicate with each other. A computer network also had a benefit to do with National Security – in the event of a catastrophe access to the countries super computers could still occur using a network. ARPANET’s protocols would allow for an alternative route if one is blocked off. All of this is the basis of the internet and how it works – although no war directly influenced this, the threat of war did.

The benefits to us are endless, it allows us to communicate to anyone all over the world, socialise in new ways, transfer information, Google.... etc.

Global Positioning Systems

The GPS was invented by the US Department of Defence and scientist Ivan Getting, with a whopping cost of $20billion. It’s creation was out of necessity for soldiers on the ground, so the army could track their lost comrades and find them, whilst also making travelling safer and easier. It work’s by transmitting over a small group of satelities spread around the world, to then pinpoint location, sort of like astrology.

The GPS became a consumer tool after Korean Arlines Flight 007, was shot down carrying 286 people over Russian airspace, not knowing it was so. For us it’s used almost entirely as a navigational tool.

Penicillin

The creation of penicillin was pretty much due to the horrific injuries and number of deaths occurring during WWII. By chance scientist Alexander Fleming left a number of petri-dishes outside (having attempted to create the ‘wonder drug’ for years) and something clicked. It’s development was accelerated by the British Government and was sent out to the injured asap.

07

VideogamesInReal life

Having looked at the link between videogames and violence as well as how technology had been accelerated by conflicts, I had to take a more specific step towards my outcome. I had become interested by how these pieces of technology had been used at the home front and during war; looking at taking the virtual into the real was the logical next step.

This re-creation of an iconic game environment is absolutely crazy, but it shows how much is possible with today’s technology and where we might be heading in the future. Will we be taking our supposed anger out on each other in the future, in let’s say a real world ‘Call of Duty’? Looking at these attempts anything is possible?

Super Street Fire

Street Fighter is one of the most iconic and recognisable games out there, pretty much starting out the entire beat em-up craze which the likes of Mortal Kombat picked up later on. Who hasn’t before thought about being able to re-create their favourite characters moves (Ryu’s Kick anyone?), shoot fireballs etc; well led by Seth Hardy, Studio 3 have recently made it possible, sort of...

Essentially this is Steer Fighter II, a re-creation of Ryu’s Stage, and giving you the ability to shoot fire balls, the famous HADOUKEN has come to life. All of this is possible through some ingenious computing, game design, engineering, carpentry and pyrotechnics.

To be able to play each player is given two pairs of gloves which contain accelerometers, the player pressing a button with their thumb when they want to make a gesture, which is sent out wirelessly through Wi-Fi. They are sent to a gesture receiver that interprets them and then allows for up to 32 different fiery outcomes. The fire comes from pipework laid underground in a specific grid that allow’s for movement from each player, but so they dont get burnt.

Resident Evil Escape

Resident Evil is pretty much the definitive survival horror game, one that has been scaring players silly for over two decades. A company called Scrap in partnership with Capcom have re-created an icon hospital level from the game in Tokyo, using a real abandoned hospital as its base (presumably with a number of fatalities happening there).

For this to succeed they worked closely with the games designers to try and re-create everything to the smallest detail, including all the gore. Extremely talented actors and make-up artists have also been involved to make this as real as possible, blurring the line between the virtual and the real.

The most interesting thing is that you are able to nominate a friend to be ‘kindnapped’ into the game, so they awake in an environment their not familiar with. This, for the mere price of $40 gives the player the best and most frightening experience.

09

The futureof

warfare

Robots

Robots used to be only found in sci-fi films and our imaginations, but now 12,000 (yes that many) are deployed in Iraq and other warzones and they make Robot Wars look like Crufts. One of the most interesting robots is the LS3 Robot Dog; resembling somewhat a giant Rotweiller, technically its harmless and helps the soldiers carry their equipment over any terrain.

The pentagon is investing billions into robotics and the benefits are endless; a robot has better and steadier aim than a human, doesn’t feel pain, don’t get tired or hungry and so on. The design of the robots are begging to be tailored to terrify other’s just by their pure aesthetic (one resembling the icon T-800).

By 2015 it is estimated 1/3 of the US Army is going to be robotic; are the Matrix or Terminator scenarios a possibility? At this moment in time it is more likely death will be caused by glitches; in 2005 a anti-aircraft robot malfunctioned and started to shoot out explosive shells at incredibly high rates, causing huge amounts of damage.

Supersoldiers

The US army have tried to create Supersoldiers through eugenics, genetics, hypnosis and more crazy ways for years. Today the Pentagon spends $400million a year financing their Supersoldier programmes.

American’s are getting fatter and more unfit year by year, while the military are desperate for more recruits, obesity is quickly becoming a matter of national security. Though instead of forcing American’s to excerise the ‘Metabolic Dominance’ programme which tries to convert body fat into energy is taking over. Then you have a ‘pain vaccine’ that would help soldiers suppress pain for months in a time. That’s not as weird as it gets though; the US army are developing ways of regrowing severed or destroyed limbs.

It is common knowledge that all of this is only limited by our biological DNA but it is likely in a number of years we will be resembling something out of Deus Ex.

Direct Energy Weapons

Besides developing laser weapons the US Army are also working with direct energy; essentially a microwave and a weapon combined. Essentially a beam is fired from the weapon that is able to boil water - pretty useful considering humans are 75% liquid.

Then their are weapons that are able to fire plasma energy which can paralyse you as well as infa-red rays that are can inflict extreme pain when concentrated. The army are also developing lightsabers, sort of... knives which use plasma ray’s are able to cut through flesh and bone, pretty crazy stuff.

It is an extremely interesting cycle seeing how war had influenced gaming and the way games tell their stories. The fact that now war and militaries are influenced by gaming and sci-fi is even more crazy, showing technology is accelerating to new and untested territories.

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AugmetedReality

Military Grade

Augmented Reality is ready to revolutionise modern warfare, the company, for the US military developing the first iterations is called Tanagram. They have been set the task of creating the first ever military ready set of ‘apps’ that will help soldiers in everything and anything. Currently some very basic functionality such as tagging and call signs are currently in development, but if that was to work, in the future we could see some crazy things. This still though is a good decade away from fruition.

The military have inspired multiple games, from the Tom Clancy series to Call of Duty and Battlefield but now the roles are reversing with games inspiring future technological developments. Very much like how sci-fi films seem to have predicted new products (2001, where something very similar to the iPad is seen, 40 years early). Things such as map overlays, ammo display, crosshair’s etc all could be possible to make war that bit easier for the soldier.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality has been around for a number of years, just has not really blown up in the public space until recently Google announced their project called ‘Glass’. What augmented reality involves is a mediated reality either in real time or indirect time. These sort of ideas and devices have been derived from head mounted displays (the sort seen in the 60s-80s) and have simply kept on being developed to the point they could be seen as useable day to day.

Augmented reality has been around in media such as movies and games for years, but now it is finally starting to enter the ‘real’ world. What Google Glass will do is cause a revolution, but what this means for the military is even more interesting.

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Arambartholl

Aram Bartholl

Aram Bartholl is a German born, multidisciplinary designer. His work varies from pretty cool typographic pieces to set designs, but what he always tries to achieve is to bring the virtual into the real world.

A lot of his theories are based of the ‘paragim of research’ where not only is he interested what media does to man, but what man does to media. He often tries to re-create the tension between offline and online etc. with some fascinating and creative outcomes.

Map

The project known as ‘Map’ is a public space installation that run from 2006-10, questioning the iconic red marker in Google Maps. The idea was simply to try and re-create a physical map marker that people could identify with and realise how big these journeys and places their venturing too really are.

I find this project extremely interesting due to Bartholl trying to communicate something that used to be only analogue, from digital back to its original state. Although it is quite a simple translation from screen to the real world, its powerful and suggestive due to its size and the iconicness of the Google needle.

First Person Shooter

This project caught my attention for a few reason; It’s based on my all time favourite game ‘Counterstrike’ and it ties it brilliantly with the idea of conflict. The first person shooter almost always tends to have a hand holding a gun in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, and thats what Bartholl has attempted to play with.

In this project, Bartholl supplied anyone that wanted to join in a cut-out postcard where the user could put together a pair of glasses with a gun put into the same space, just in real life. In game the players head movements control the hand, and its the same with the glasses wherever the user looks the gun follows, hence the recreation of the game mechanic.

1h

The 1H event was a one day workshop run by Aram Bartholl where anyone involved tried to re-create their favourite 1H (one handed) weapon from World of Warcraft. Once built everyone takes their home made weapon out on a day, but in the unusable state (just like in the game) bringing it into a real environment.

The thing that interested me about this was mainly how he brought something that is extremely game orientated and virtual, made it contemporary, cool as well as creative. Something you don’t see very often.

15

KeichiiMatsuda

Keichii Matsuda

Keichii Matsuda is a Japanese designer and film-maker who works with a variety of subjects. His work with film began during his Masters for Architecture, where he used video to try and represent technologies influence on architecture. He often focuses on how media integrates into our every day life, using multiple mediums to create hyper realistic outcomes.

Augemented (hyper)Reality

This series of motion graphic videos looks at how augmented reality and synthetic spaces may impact our everyda life in the near future. The video explores how we would interact with everything having an augmented reality interface, how advertisements would bombard us as well as move out of the way etc.

The way the visuals are organised around the user are based on a pilots cockpit. With the app’s and augmented reality circling the user 360 degrees just like in a jet. This insight gives me a good idea how something like a game interface might interact with a soldier and vice versa.

17

JayseHansen

Jayse Hansen

Jay Hansen is a freelance designer from Las Vegas, USA, who has worked on some of the biggest movies of the past few years, amongst other things. His work has a consistant style throughout the wide ranging films he has worked on (Avengers, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) to name a few, but they always keep that organic feel and rigidity to them, while the minimalist aesthetic always stays.

What really makes his work special is how he adapts his style to the specific environment and subject. All of his HUD design’s have incredible fluidity, they can alter depending on viewpoint and what is needed of them - the adaptation to the user is incredibly important. Making organic pieces of design that adapt to situations is where future warfare is going and through sci-fi / hollywood movies we are getting sneak peeks at how it might look like.

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The Theories

Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard is a world renowned French philosopher, sociologist amongst other things. What is interesting about his work related to my Final Major Project is his take on reality and simulation. He splits his views up in a number of theories; Simulacra and Simulation, Hyperreality, The Mask of War etc.

Simulacra are copies of things that either had no ‘reality’ to begin with or no longer have an original piece. While Simulation is imitation of something real over time. This theory of Baudrillard’s helped me understand why and how imitation and experiantation is rife between the video game and the military. The reccurring symbols throughout HUD designs, are tell tale signs of the sort of thing’s Baudrillard looks at in relation to this theory. Their is also the recreation of these designs in different HUD’s, be it with or without alterations.

Hyperreality deals with the fact that you are unable to consciously tell apart the real from the unreal. The best example of this being in the film ‘The Matrix’ where Keanu Reeves character was not able to tell he was in the matrix due to its resemblance to the real. This is something I will be attempting with the creation of my FMP outcome trying to blur the lines between the real and the conceptual.

One of his most interesting theories are to do with ‘The Mask of War’. This involves predicting an outcome to something that has not already happened, ala ‘Minority Report’ by Steven Spielberg. The fact that wars are started before their is an actual reason for them, that they are implemented to react first before needing to. The idea of being ready for something you can’t see is prevalent in warfare and gaming, something that I’m sure would become prominent in my outcome.

Paul Virilio

Paul Virilio is a French cultural theorist and a writer for and about technology. What interested me most about him is his theory called ‘The War Model’ - where he looks at how war and technology interact with each other and collide. He often argues that the two drive history, that without the two we as a society would not develop and not create all this fascinating technology and make all these new discoveries.

The correlation between the two is massive and something that I find extremely interesting. How technology designed for the military has trickled down and changed (or not) to the public sector and vice versa.

Slawomir Magala

Paul Virilio is a French cultural theorist and a writer for and about technology. What interested me most about him is his theory called ‘The War Model’ - where he looks at how war and technology interact with each other and collide. He often argues that the two drive history, that without the two we as a society would not develop and not create all this fascinating technology and make all these new discoveries.

The correlation between the two is massive and something that I find extremely interesting. How technology designed for the military has trickled down and changed (or not) to the public sector and vice versa.

21

developmentThis chapter provides an insight at the development of the final outcome influenced by everything seen in the

research section and more.

Editing the Footage

The scanlines were added to make the footage look something like a CCTV recording during an interrogation (very much a cliche in gaming, something I could rely on). Adding some noise and darkening the edges to give the impression of this being on screen added even more so to that principle.

Setting The Scene

When creating a trailer for anything you have to follow a number of rules and include certain pieces of content that feature throughout any and every trailer. The first point of action was making sure I was able to have an introduction which included both an age rating certificate and a game rating certificate, to make everything look real.

Next I had to find a way of setting a scene / mood for the trailer, something that was proving fairly impossible using real war footage, due to the lack of dialogue. I decided to go with a piece of footage from the live action Call of Duty film. The footage uses a very gritty tone, while the line ‘tell me how it all started’ gave me the opportunity to go in any direction for the rest of the trailer, rather than restricting myself to a specific narrative.

25

Satellite Scanner

To enhance the opening scene and to show of some of the insane satellite scanning capabilities in the future I decided to go create a scanner of my own. Using an existing Google Maps image depicting somewhere in Russia, I overlayed a number of functional pieces of data over the top, as if a satellite was searching for a target.

The numerous pieces of data give a detailed positioning of a target, using data frequencies of devices to pin point the target in even the most remote locations. Something both the Army and the CIA have been working on for a while. The scene is enhanced with further little bits of infographics and devices to really give that bit of authenticity to the scene. Design wise I was heavily inspired by the way Call of Duty depicted a similar scene in Modern Warfare.

27

Car tracker & Glitching

Another piece of satellite based tracking allows incredible zoom, when the target is not obstructed. Using existing footage of a car race, I edited the entire scene to make it look like a car is being tracked by the military. Overlaying a screen interface and a grid tracker, to make everything realistic while noise and colour correction were added to keep the scene in line with all the others.

The glitch was added for a number of reasons in this clip. Firstly I needed a way to create a transition between two very different locations (Russia and Afghanistan) and make it seem logical. The glitch makes it look like a clip has been damaged and the scene has moved much further in the time line. Secondly I see it as another chance to link back these pieces of real footage to their game counterparts and to make the link subtle but obvious.

29

Drone Interface

One of the reasons for the creation of drone’s was to keep soldiers out of harm and for spy duties to have a higher success rate. Therefore I wanted the drone to be able to help out with a number of covert pieces as the army plans on them doing.

Firstly the drone is able to move 360 and silently, keeping its balance extremely well and at high heights. It also has a built in scenario scanner that detects heat signatures and electrical devices. One other thing the army wants these drone’s to do is to be able to predict danger (very similar to Jean Baudrillard’s ‘Mask of War’ theory). In the scene this is depicted by object’s being left highlighted once the scanner has gone through.

Drone Piloting

One sequence I definitely wanted to include was to do with some sort of remotely controlled vehicle - deciding on a drone. The two things I wanted to make sure this sequence depicted was how the drone would be controlled and how its interface would look.

The initial sequence which shows the drone doing a few simple manouvers, has its interface based on the game Ghost Recon. The designers at Ubisoft worked closely with the army to make the design of the game as realistic as possible, which makes the design credible.

I included a few features such as latitude and longitude which changes according to the drone’s movements as well as a horizon line for control. The inclusion of the D-PAD on the bottom right is a link to how xbox / gaming controller’s are often now used to pilot such devices.

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Weapon AR

Augmented reality is one of those technologies that are being championed to the high heavens by the military currently. Due to the technologies untapped potential there are millions being spent to develop it right now. Things such as building scanners, holographic 3D maps are all in the works.

What I wanted to show with this clip is something even further down the line, AR for guns. In this particular scene we have a soldier with an AR enhanced gun that is showing his remaining bullets in a particular clip, with an enhanced sight to make aiming at moving targets easier. The two seperators would be for specific informaiton tailored to any given soldier - at least that’s what the army are currently aiming for.

33

Field Scanner

Scanner’s seem to be all the rage currently in the skunkworks of multiple armies and here is another - using Augmented reality amongst other things. This particular scanner track’s everything in its path to orientate the vehicle and signal any unusual signatures. This sort of technology is now starting to be deployed to vehicles in Afghanistan to reduce the amount of death’s by mines etc.

Design wise I wanted to do my best to replicate something that anyone could recognise as a scanner. I achieved this using two scan lines and finding the edges of every major outline in the scene and highlighting them.