Foundations of New Media su11

My apologies for my late post- somehow seemed to slip my mind.  Anyhow, continuing with our conversation this morning, I really think that its a mistake of highest order to suggest that video games, as a surrogate to “reality,” may offer opportunities for satisfaction and learning equivalent to doing the deed in real life.  To make my point by exaggeration, suppose we compare a game of tennis in the flesh to a game of tennis with phosphors.  Clearly, exhaling hours of practice into a deftly done serve cries out far more skill than pressing the A button.  You do not enjoy the fresh air, nor do you give your body a thorough workout-when you play from the safety of your couch.  Quantitatively speaking, the amount of “experience” you glisten from playing a real game of tennis far outweighs that which you play in the virtual world.

Just because video games offer a somewhat diluted version of reality is not to devalue them- indeed, even a virtual game of tennis still requires an understanding of the parameters of the game of tennis itself + the parameters within which the game of tennis is embodied in the video game.  Success requires some measure of concentration.  But any real tennis player will have to tell you that the amount of concentration a real game of tennis requires exponentially outstrips that of a virtual game.

Since games can’t compete with reality in a one-on-one basis, their only hope of “making it” into the Olympics, Espn, etc is when video games allow players to play games that they could never play in reality.  Thus, the game  Elder Scrolls IV  Oblivion throws players into a verdant fantasy world and players are free to generally act however they please.  Here then is where video games may really shine and offer genuine moments of satisfaction equivalent to reality.  A kid playing Oblivion may for instance, discover amidst his many heroic deeds in the game that he has a generally good natured disposition for helping others.  This may, like Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed, translate to heroic deeds in real life.

I tried gaming(MMORPG) only once and do not think that I will ever be interested in gaming. I honestly agree that gaming loses oneself in a simulated world. The reading mentions that people enters into an altered state in the midst of the game. This would be acceptable if a player truly enjoys only that moment where he becomes the role of the character to complete the quest. However, if he gets overly immersed in it and ends up in addiction, it would be harmful to the body, mind and soul. Many of my guy friends are trapped in this. I wonder if the danger originates from our inability to refrain from getting hooked onto gaming. Or maybe the danger lies in MMORPG itself.

The reading made me worry in the direction of communication abilities. When communicating with actual person, there are no simple certain goals or limited moves. In the reading David, was the one who claimed how he liked the aspect of gaming in its limited, simpleness. An article that I have read another day was a research about how lack of communication skills leads to depression and reckless actions.

Personally, I have never attempted to embark on a MMORPG because I feel that newer ones keep coming out making the massive amount of time and money spent on a older one voided. Nevertheless I have to agree that MMORPGs have changed the way people interact with one another working in a manner similar to that of social media in the sense that hanging out with friends have been reduced to working on missions and quests at home on the computer to be the norm for many youths involved in MMORPGs today. It is interesting to note how much time and effort many are willing to investing in MMORPGs instead of their own ‘real lives’. Even to the extent that some youths kill others or themselves in the process of becoming too involved in the MMORPG. However from a business perspective, MMORPGs have enabled business a new market to tap into via online advertising in such games. Hence in a nut shell, I feel that MMORPG is a topic worth discussing when we discuss about gaming

Sherry Turkle discussed the topic of videogames as a “window onto a new kind of intimacy with machines that is characteristic of the nascent computer culture.” She discusses how a rule-governed world has a strong hold over the current youth, that they desire it and this hold translates into the computer’s holding power. She does not accept videogames as a mindless addiction because they require mental thought, a learning process, and skill. She discusses how videogames are computer-specific, meaning that games outside the context of computers are different than games that take place in a computer because they are two different experience. She got the experience of “inhabiting someone else’s mind” from videogames as opposed to the  separated feeling associated with non-computer games like pinball. She discusses an interview with a person named Jarish who describes his experience with videogames as a learning experience, an escape, a personal domain, and ultimately a place where he belongs most mentally. She also discusses losing oneself in videogames, not addiction but infatuation of the world being simulated in the game and how involvement in the simulated world can affect our relationship with the real one.

Aside from Turkle’s discussion of videogames, I see them as a tool for me to get into another world, live  a story, and experience it in very much the same way I would experience a cinematic movie. In a deeper and less consumer level, I think videogames engage me on a personal level. When play God of War 2 I am thrown into a violent situation from the start, forced to learn what I need to survive. I possess the power of a God bestowed upon me by Zeus but am suddenly betrayed and have the power stripped from me. This makes me feel vengeful towards Zeus, because I lost my precious powers that have aided me so well. And so the game engages me on two levels: emotional and mental. I can spend hours playing this game because it’s so well crafted, I feel like I am actually part of the tale.

One aspect of gaming that interests me is games that are based on movies and the different options or “infinite” directions the game may take. The movie may have a particular story to it, but say that in the game things didn’t turn out the way the movie does. What would this provoke on the user? Will the user like the alternate ending because he/she is able to give the story a different direction he would have preferred or will he/she be upset at disturbing the original story? (I am not a gamer, but I would like to think that games based on movies should somehow follow the original story)

In advance of Monday’s class, create a post on this blog discussing some aspect of gaming that interests you. You may want to draw on the readings, bring in contemporary,examples, or situate gaming in relation to the other topics we have discussed in this course. Your post need not be long, but should be clear and deliberate.

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View the schedule page and choose a presentation topic/date in consultation with your group.

You can find an  electronic copy of Claude Fischer’s America Calling here.

Read Chapters 1 and 3 for Monday, June 6th, along with the assigned materials from the reader.