My paper will focus on games and their contribution to the academic environment. In my paper I will focus on many aspects of gaming, such as: Multitasking, puzzle solving skills, cultural symbolism, social understanding and games that are being utilized in the gaming system. I will also refer back to the documentary Generation Kill, which aired on HBO a few years ago. In this documentary games were studied to show the effect they had on a US Marines and men serving in Iraq. The documentary explains that, video games introduce us to the cruel reality of war and therefore give a solider a preview of what they could potentially see in combat. Additionally Generation Kill provides information of how video games are creating somewhat of a fearless generation. My paper will argue for the expansion of games being used in the class room in any platform style.
In this weeks reading I was quit interested in the James Gee and his revelations on gaming and the way we interoperate them. I also think his ideas of learning and gender roles played in perfect with the Mr. Bungle article. Our culture is still struggling to see video games or MUDS as potential learning tools and merely brushing them off as a faze of adolescents. Even though the majority of people think of video games in that sense, there is a growing population of people that are willing to accept that it is a growing part of our culture. Some of the events that take place in these games have emotional effects on there users. It tells us that we are in an age where a non-physical world can be superior to our physical realm. The attachment to a certain video game, for some, is stronger than a real time friend. We could however class these people as nerdy gamers who stay up all night drinking Mt.Dew but that’s not the point. The point is that; people are hugely attached to video games not just because of the fighting or gun-play (well, its kind of apart of it) but manly for the ACHIEVMENTS.
Achievements in a game act as a drug for its players. You could say it’s a game, within a game, within a game and so on. Any game would be boring without them. For instance, think of PAC-MAN if you didn’t have to dodge the ghosts or collect the little yellow pellets, you would be bored out of your mind. The appeal to play the game would be diminished after five minutes. Now, think of what you know about the game. I know that if I collect a blue pellet the ghost will turn white and I can kill them, I know that if I want to escape quickly from left to right I can go through the portals on the side, I also know the ghost are bad, the food gives me points and so on. Because I have invested time into that game it becomes second nature. I’ve acquired a new set of rules and mind frame when playing this game. PAC-MAN is a very simple game but a good example non-the less. Now we have entered the age of first person shooters, third person shooters, locative gaming, MUDS and many more. Our mind processed the simple rules and concepts of PAC-MAN just like it will when we play games with more advanced techniques, like Tomb Rader. Sure, when we first start playing the controls seem foreign but because our minds grasp the simple concepts or achievements first, we begin understand the concept. When we are successful we come back because we want t fulfill more achievements in the game and in our minds. We learn things when the game is based on certain events, placed in a certain settings or placed in a certain era. We learn gender roles, sexual identity, physics from racing games, how to aim a gun from war games and even how to manage money from manger games. Anything and everything is a learning opportunity with video games. From learning how to jump, to figuring out a puzzle to get you to the next level, we’re learning in one way or another.
Video games can hit on all of are sensory nerves and not just some. In our day-to-day living we might find it hard to remember test questions for a test or how to type without looking at the keyboard. But then we go home after a long day, turn on a game, look at a screen, guide a character over a wall, talk to a friend, listen to music, and eat food as if it were second nature. We do it effortlessly because we have learned it and we acquired our talent to do so because we go back for more achievements.
Sincerely,
Capt. J. Dangle
Friday, February 12, 2010
I’m going to start out with saying that I really enjoyed Nakaura and this book. So, the optics of race or more importantly gender roles and racial theory’s were best describe, in my opinion, in Nakamuras Ipod example.
From what we talked about in class and in the fish bowl I gained a general senses that most people think of the colors of an IPod as just colors. What Nakumaru was trying to get across, was that Apple has thrown the most obioves race filled marketing plan and have capitalized. In the reading Eric Sross , a technology journalist, gives credit to apple by saying Apples mastery of the “metaphysical mystery of cool” with its success as “the company that best knows how to meld hardware and software, the company embodied in the ecstatically happy hipster silhouette. The company that is, in a word, cool.” In my opinion it seems that Apple has always been a company who care about their appearance. By this I mean their products. They stand out because they are white but when there black they become cool. How did we draw this distinction of thought, that being, white is neutral and black is edge? Well over time our community as formed our opinions for us. What Apple does is very unique and specific by introducing the black man in a different light. Not so much the black, edge, leather wearing guy but the normal dancing iPod enthusiast. Nakamura mentions “Their strategy for creating “cool” brand identity by promoting an Afro-futuristic visual culture in the ads serves to separate blackness from other identities …” It’s changing our perceptions of what we are used to.
When people do achieves this “coolness” people often capitalize on them. The 2005 “iPod Ghraib” art installation by Trent Kelly critiqued our visual culture and political economy that Apple is flourishing in. In these pieces Kelly was making a statement that something that my look seemingly clear from a distance, when viewed closer, breaks apart into something else. The way in which the paintings are portrayed from a distance look fun, fresh and iPod but inside that is the horrible realism of war crimes. We see this alot with the coined term “Brandalsim” and gorilla artist.
Ok, now that we've got that out of the way.Wait..."Ipad"..WTF! So the passage I picked for this blog was Silvia's from cyber to hybrid,which is quite fitting considering this read speaks about the migration of cyberspace to physical space through the use of mobile technologies as an interface. She points out the explosion of social networking being at the palms of your hands and how it blurs the traditional boarders between physical and digital spaces.
Through out time we as humans have had a fascination with Man vs. Machine and we see this through movies, hyperality (that being, our conceptions of certain things are influenced by what we see and how its portrayed), TV, magazines and so on. Regardless, we take these a priori ideas of a machine and hold it up as some sort of technology or artificial being. The idea that we are pretty close to having robots walking around is not too far fetched. That being said, Silva’s explanation of mobile devices conveys the idea that we accept mobile, “social interface” tools and are perception of virtual space and physical space maybe separate to one another or one mashed up conception. Because we are immersed with so many different interfaces it would make sense that we mash our virtual understandings with our physical capabilities. Obviously we can decipher the difference between an actual physical space and a virtual space but I think Silva is making the point that our experiences in the virtual world are becoming more physically possible to create outside a virtual space.
By physical virtual space, I mean, the way in which we can use virtual tools in day to day life. For example, Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices and falls under the locative or mobile gaming category. This is a perfect example of the mash up virtual interfaces has become. With mobile gaming you’re taking the TV screen out of the video game and instead, transforming the places around you into the game board. Effectively, your phone becomes the controller and your body becomes the character in the game.
What I took away from this article is the fact that we merge virtual and physical space not as a necessity but as technological over load. We are constantly bombarded with new technology, new programs, system updates, which open up our consciousness to new possibilities in the virtual/physical lifestyle we have been accustomed to for a while. The idea of man vs. Machine and robots will become accepted just like a cell phone sooner than you think. With the growth and understanding of the technology we harbor comes the need to grow interconnectivity between our community and others around us.
Ah, blog number two. Our relationship is going so well and our community will begin to flourish for the next few months. But should I even call this a “community” or should I name it a chat room? In our last class we discussed the true meaning of a virtual community and how it (a non-physical experience) can substitute for actual face-to-face interaction. We decided that a community, in essence, is a group of people with common interests. Talking about this in terms of virtual communities we began to draw conclusions on what the rules of an on-line, self-governing community actually needs to be successfully. Going back to the question of: “is our blogging community an actual community?”, I would say no.Why? Simply because this blog will end at a certain time. And because it ends at a certain time we cant class it as a growing community. This is merely an experience but one that I think is essential for better understanding of a virtual community. Thinking about the virtual communities I am apart of I decided to pick XBOX Live (yes, I am a closet gamer). It continues to grow in a non-physical environment as well as an outside one, formed with in cyber space and serves to please a common interest to its users. It is a perfect example of what small communities can eventually achieve.
Before I start here is a quick look at what XBOX Live is.
Xbox Live gives you the opportunity to meet, talk and play games with people from around the world. It is set up exactly like Facebook or Myspace but its even more. MUCH more. Not only can you communicate via text but also talk to them using a head set, web cam, internet or phone applications. For example, I often call one of my friends and tell him to “get on-line and play a game”. There’s no need for me to ask him “how his day went” or “whatchu you doin man” because I know it will be discussed in the virtual realm. We’re not just playing a game. We are communicating with a virtual tool that creates a greater interconnectivity between people even if we are not physical in the presence of each other. Just like Face Book or Myspace, Xbox Live continues to grow with the many cell phone applications sprouting up. This also shows the dripping of a virtual world into our ever day lives. The Extension of computer to man.
Xbox live, as much as I love possesses some digital divide questions. You can use Xbox Live for free from a computer, an Xbox or your phone but if you want to play games online you have to pay a yearly subscription fee of fifty dollars. This is where their community marketing and rules come into effect. People who don’t pay the fee can still talk to people via text or with a head set, create their page, build an avatar, gain friends and play SOME of the games but without the subscription you don’t have 100% access. The stuff that Xbox still gives you with out the subscription is still awesome and would give somebody the opportunity to gain the experience. There will always be a digital divide but the divide is small here. People who get involved with Xbox Live, at first classed as what our generation has coined “NOOBIES” but will quickly pick up the lingo and become Xbox live literate.
Xbox live is an amazing example of what communities can achieve with time, marketing and a great appeal. With this virtual community individuals are able to choose the level or degree of interaction. They can choose when to participate; they can choose their degree of involvement with others, create a virtual alias, incorporate their interests through various ways of communication and build a greater global connection. There are only a few other examples like Xbox Live but in my opinion is the most versatile multi-virtual communication tool we have.
What is Cyberspace to me? Well I can tell you one thing, its nothing to bloody Microsoft’s Word Processor because it keeps telling me I’m spelling it wrong. Moving on. I would most relate my ideas of Cyberspace to Benedikt’s first conception of the term. Our so-called “Google generation” as Tony Blair coined it, to me is (in a very simple idea) a massive cell phone that has unlimited constantly changing applications from millions of users and different books. In fact think of how the cell phone has evolved and what the term ‘being on the phone’ actually means now. Texting, emailing, news updates, twittering, watching movies, listening to music, heaven forbid we actually make phone calls. GPS, Flight tracking, fitness programs, our phones are not just phones, they have transformed into multifunctional communication devices morphing our hands into a tiny screen, modem and a keyboard. We have the chance to talk to millions of people all over the world creating a “universal community” or a “global village” as Mcluhan would say.
Even though cyberspace is classed a non-physical terrain the fact that people can choose their own experience in the cyber world is the beauty of it. You can be who you want to be, you can be perceived in the light you choose and we see this more with the evolution of avatars and role-playing games. Avatars and social networking themselves is a product of the multicultural explosion happening with in our Cybercultue.
In essence the “phone” or “pocket computer” as I’m going to start calling it is a perfect example of Cyberspace and is a true testament to the power of Cyberculture avalanching from a simple desktop computer in to our every day lives.
“Sights, sounds, presences never seen on the surface of the earth blossoming in a vast electronic night”
Born in Manchester UK in 1987 and moved here when I was 9 years old. For about 5 years after that I spent my summers in England and the school year in good old WARshington. CAUTION: Living here for 13 years I have developed an English/American twang that sometimes sounds funny and my accent will often come out stronger when bought free drinks or gargling with Guinness. I enjoy traveling, writing and listening to music, anything Roman polanski or Michel Gondry produce, Indian curry, Painting, video editing, web design, Radiohead, keeping fit, Flash, those little mints they give you after you pay for your meal, playing soccer and having a cold pint of Boddingtons on a Friday. I work at the FEQL (Food Environmental Quality Lab) an agricultural chemistry lab under WSU. I’ve worked there for over two years as a lab technician working on the method development for pesticide residue analysis in crops for grower groups all over the United States. In essence we make food safe. I am a senior majoring in the DTC (digital technology and culture) program, which, I know, has nothing to do with chemistry, but they pay well. I’m currently working on some of my first free-lance design jobs, which I’m pretty excited about and keeping my NEW website updated. Plug* www.hangarounddesigns.com .Other than that I’m excited to meet new people and look forward to reading all your blogs!
