Bogost, “Values and Aspirations”
The idea that well-educated individuals are the freaks of society is the first thing that struck me. I would like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent individual, and yet that does not fit into the “education” system. Education vs. schooling is a very important concept. Do we memorize or do we learn? Do we just know facts, or do we gain knowledge? Public education promotes schooling, and not an education. Video games are also brought into this question, as they are used for both political and social promotion. When I read the Animal Crossing reference, I was brought back to class discussion of VR and how time is incorporated to make it more realistic. It is also uses the concepts of money and credit, something which can be considered life lessons. The procedural rhetoric makes it ritualistic, and the naturalism makes it more realistic than most games. Games become educational once they have a set of rules and standards which can be easily placed in our RL. What about morality in video games? Most video games now use graphic violence and sexually explicit images to entice the gaming community to buy it. The most popular games, Halo for example, use violence as a part of its procedural rhetoric. The more graphic and violent games, like Silent Hill and Resident Evil, are geared towards smaller, more mature audiences. Video games do enforce moral ideas through their VR and people are influenced by it. I remember the controversy over a book called “Hitman” which gave directions on how to become an assassin. Games are the same, except stronger in their messages because the player actually has to do these things, rather than just imagine them.
Grimes, “Ritual Criticism and Infelicitous Performances”
Okay, as a person not familiar with any of these terms, it read like scientific jargon to me, and was without total comprehension. What I could make of it was that “ritual criticism” is a developing field, in which people should tread lightly. Critics in the literary world have studied works on ritual, and now those works are being reviewed. Ritual is action, and a repeated action. The term “infelicitous” is what confused me so. It means “inappropriate” or”unhappy”. Inappropriate rituals or performances would be ones that are not a fit within the system or religion. Any help would be appreciated.
“Towards Computer Game Studies”
Ludology. “Let’s focus on computer games” (35). The concept is easy enough to understand. Once again, the ideas of ritual, and VR come up in this article. The game is nothing more than “means and ends” (38), and yet it tries to make the character dynamic and individualistic. This gives the game the illusion of being real, when it is really just a VR. Time is also another factor in games, as it tries to bring the game closer to RL, than VR. Oder, speed, frequency, duration, the time of action, and simultaneity are keys to the use of time in a game.
“From Work to Play”
During times of war or stress, people turn to video games as a way of release. People want to escape from their reality and into a perfect reality, one that is virtual. Around the Great Depression of the 20s, people use to buy cheap pulp fiction novels to escape the hardships of their day. Videogames have taken that place as it has become more entwined with out reality. We want to immerse ourselves in the game-play, and yet we should not. Total immersion leads to loss of reality. Games are more immersive when they involve puzzles for the player to figure out. When the puzzle is completed, the player feels a sense of success, even though the event never actually occurred.
“Towards a Game Theory of Game”
Games are now having theorists taking a look at them. Tools such as a narrator are being questioned. Is it just a way to disperse knowledge, or is it something more? Only being about two decades in the making, this branch of theory is still considered “young”. Games have many approaches to them, including experimental, performative, augmentary, descriptive, metastory, and story system. A good game would try to incorporate all of these with the experimental as the main game-play. The separation between author and audience is blurred, and the player is left with total immersion.
