VIDEO GAMES- Week 7

VIDEO GAMES- 23rd April Tutorial


‘Both games and technologies are counter-irritants or ways of adjusting to the stress of the specialised actions that occur in any social group.’

‘As extensions of the popular response to the workday stress, games become faithful models of a culture. They incorporate both the actions and the reactions of whole populations in a single dynamic image.’

Marshall McLuhan


EXAMPLES OF VIDEO GAMES:

· Arcade Games
· Consoles- ps2, x box, nintendo
· Computer Games
· MUDs- world of war craft
· MMOGs


The Video Game industry rakes in more money than the film industry, even despite piracy.


ACADEMIC APPROACH TO VIDEO GAMES

Media Effects and Games- do they shorten attention span, cause shootings and increase aggression?

The Persistence of Effect- if play hotted up racing car game for 6hours and then get into real car, psychology suggests we still think we are in the game.

Games and Utopia; video games create worlds that are magical.

Thinking about video games as a new form of cultural practice... in the same way we now think about old media like newspapers, radio, television, films...- do VG have their own history?

what are some ways to approach thinking about games that might be unique to this genre?

Are there questions that are specific to video games that don't apply to any other form?



NARRATOLOGY- is the study of video games from the perspective of them being stories or literary works. Can we study VG like texts? Eg. Is it interactive fiction?

LUDOLOGY- Concerned with the Game Play elements.



The Aesthetics of Video Games:

· Game/play elements
· Fun elements
· Story elements
· Virtual world elements