English 390 Gaming Blog

2007-04-28T08:10:00.000-06:00

Getting back to my cell phone video games, another game that I recently downloaded was Tetris. Simplistic and classic, Tetris is probably the most addictive game ever created. I cannot put it down once I've started! Tetris is a game that transcends across every stereotype. I don't know anyone who doesn't like Tetris. To prove this theory, here's a little anecdote. My nephew is 10 years old. He is truly a child of technology. Playstation 2, XBOX 360, and most recently, the Nintendo Wii all furnish his home. Of all the games and all the 3d graphics, Tetris is still his favorite game. Anytime his mom isn't on her phone for business, he can be found playing Tetris on it. Sure, he loves his first person shooters and other overly violent realistic games, but there is something about Tetris that he cannot get enough of. Perhaps the appeal lies in its simplistic nature. No matter how many levels we beat, Tetris seems the infinite playing experience. Without all the fancy graphics and strategicly placed marketing tools, Tetris offers a distraction without all the distraction. Also, because it is so simple, there is never a need to make to try and top it. Tetris version 9000 is much like Tetris 1 because anything more than subtle nuances would completely change the game. Tetris is the unbeatable game. One could play Tetris for a lifetime and every time the puzzle would be different. I don't know if its even possible to beat Tetris. Because we can never reach the end, it draws us in even more. My nephew is determined to beat Tetris and get to the end. He is convinced that some secret treasure is contained within the last level (if there is even a last level). Google Tetris and 20,200,000 hits come back. Almost all gaming sites have a version of Tetris available. For me, it is the symbol of what a video game should be. More than a decade after I played it for the first time, I still can't put it down once I start. Tetris is timeless and embodies everything a video game should be without all the hype.

2007-04-27T20:10:00.000-06:00

During Dan's presentation on Thursday, he brought up a point that is very interesting to me. When he showed the Tiger Woods clip in which the avatar looked remarkably like himself, he said that it really drew him in and made him emotionally involved. I had never really noticed it, but it is an important aspect of the game play experience. I have always been inadvertantly trying to play with avatars that I somehow felt connected to my own person. Whether I'm playing The Simpsons and choosing Lisa because she is the little sister to a mean brother or choosing a pink car because it somehow signifies my gender, I am always trying to find the character closest to myself. The closer I feel the character to be, the more connected I feel and the better the gameplay experience. Perhaps this is where my lack of aptitude and interest springs from in games such as James Bond and other first person shooters.

As I think about it, the ability to create my own avatar is one of the unique aspects of the Wii that has drawn me to that particular console. I like that I can create my own character. It becomes a virtual representation of myself and I like the little me. I also like that I can import my friends and we can create our own little virtual world. The level of connectedness to the game is important. When I don't have an interest or feel like I am emotionally involved, the gameplay becomes boring and almost frustrating. I don't care what happens because the character is nothing to me. Without a character that feels somewhat like myself, it is hard to really get into the game.

Although I feel like I am always looking for characters that somehow represent myself, I also think the emotional bond can be created in other ways. If I have an outside knowledge and love for the character, I think that I can let go of the need to feel like I have something in common with my character. For instance, Mario is one of my favorite characters. Who doesn't love Mario? But I have built up a relationship with him. First through the video games, then the movies, the TV show, and even comics. Mario is an old dear friend that I can always find comfort in. I think the emotional connection, whether because of similarity to myself or my life, or a built up relationship, it is very important to the gaming experience.

Video Games on Cell phones

2007-04-25T17:31:00.000-06:00

Since I have recently purchased a Sidekick (which I have now become co-dependent on), I've been really into using the technology that is always safely nestled in my pocket. Instant access to the internet, IM's, music, and, alas, video games. So I went a little download crazy and tried out a bunch of arcade games on my phone. My favorite is Asteroid and Ms. Pacman. These are two games that I grew up on and although they are the same games in theory (same objective, music, sounds, etc), the play is completely different for me. My trackball is certainly no Atari/arcade joystick. But its more than the hardware itself. Playing on the tiny screen as I sit on the El or as I ignore a boring lecture (of course thats never happened in this class), it is completely different. Perhaps it is the frequent interruption of phone calls or text messages, but more likely, I think it is the atmosphere in which I play. Instead of in a loud arcade filled with laughter or in the privacy of my own home, my game play has been integrated into my everyday life. I no longer have to stop to play my game, I can play it anywhere anytime. Maybe this is the draw of Gameboys. I never had one personally, but I guess it would be a similar type of gaming experience. I can be out in the real world, i can even be at work. I think atmosphere is one of the most important aspects of any experience, especially gaming.

Another thing that sparked my interest was the cut scenes that are present in Ms. Pacman. They are the primitive cut scenes that everyone expects with Pacman, but I didn't seem to have as much problem with them as I have with some. They were simple and told a simple story, but they were cute and relaxing. I don't at all feel detached from my game play. However, when I play games like the Simpsons, I get annoyed with the delay and feel completely withdrawn from the experience as the cut scenes play. The simple "they meet" sequence with the two pacmen chatting is the perfect cut scene. Perhaps, this is what modern video games are missing. I don't want to see Pacman blowing up the ghosts in high definition and I don't care for a character to come out and tell me how great I'm doing, I just want a small piece of the puzzle without completely taking me out of the game. I don't know how creators could do it nowadays, but it really interested me.

Big Girls Don't Play Video Games

2007-04-15T10:10:00.000-06:00

Continuing on with Prof. Wright's lecture, another thing that interested me was the inclusive and exclusive aspects of game play. I thought it was particularly interesting how he spoke about game play for women. When I tell people that I am taking a class such as ours, I often get weird looks, followed by, "are you the only girl?" Even girls respond with this type of attitude. Why wouldn't girls be interested in this type of study? Even my brothers couldn't fathom that girls would want to play video games that didn't involve virtual pets or make overs. In Asian countries, many women are still subservient, so it seems a little more understandable to me, but in a modern United States? We pride ourselves on sexual equality and things like the affirmative action, but it still resounds in society. When my brother gave me his Playstation 2 and some games to try out, he left all the sports games at home. I played 3 sports all through high school and 1 in college, but still he thought I'd find no interest in them. Even he was prejudiced against me. I don't feel like the game play experiences that I have are any different from a males? Isn't every game play experience unique to the individual anyways? Everyone brings their own interpretations and experiences to video games. No two experiences can ever really be alike, so why so much emphasis on gender? Social background, age, ethnicity, and experience are factors that I feel are more important. So why all the fuss about girl game play?

Its most comical to me because it seems that even people of my generation have these types of thoughts. In an earlier post I talked about the same type of gender stereotypes with my parents' 50+ year old friends. But the stereotype seems to transcend demographics. When I go online to play multi-player games, people always indicate their sex and if I don't in my chats, they immediately ask. They rarely ask my economic status, my religion or race or even my age most of the time. I guess we're not all as progressive as we originally thought. As I was thinking about this, I also wondered if there were many women video game creators. Which led me to think, does that really matter? Would a woman create a different kind of video game, one that would cater to females? The answer is I don't think so. Video games as expression of art should, at least in theory, transcend trivial details such as gender. I found this article (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/learnmore/womeningames.mspx) about a female video game creator and I really liked her message. I think that she really summed up everything I was thinking and hopefully, as the years progress, these stereotypes will fade away.

2007-04-14T08:00:00.000-06:00

During Professor Wright's talk on Tuesday, there were many things that struck me as interesting. My next few blogs are going to be dedicated to duscussing some of the things he mentioned. The first thing that really got me thinking was the correlation between the physical setting/playing space and the experience that accompanies it. He talked about the cyber cafes in Europe and how it is more acceptable there to play video games out in society. I lived in Europe for 6 months, travelling around and seeing different countries, and I stopped at an internet cafe in every country. Even the smallest island towns in Greece had internet cafes everywhere. However, until now I did not notice the difference between myself and the rest of the people in the cafes. The cafes were always buzzing with chatter and camraderie, it truly was a social gathering. There was never a time when the cafes were not packed. But my experience there was completely different than the natives of the countries. When I went into the cafe it broke me away from the group I was travelling from. We would all sit down and type our emails to family members and not talk until our time was up and we were ready to leave. Everyone else was playing video games and chatting with people in the cafe, but we were all consumed in our own personal worlds. I guess to a certain extent we were engaging in our own socialization through our emails and through the social networks that we are all obsessed with and cannot go a day without checking (facebook and myspace of course). It was just a completely different experience for us.

It also struck me at the time that there really no younger people most of the time. The youngest were probably about our age and the diversity went on from there. Not only did the ages vary, but also the types of people present. I remember seeing men in business suits cheering each other on over different computers and trash talking each other. There was a mixture of men and women, though it seemed there were usually more men (which I will address in another blog later).

The cafes were always colorful places with a lot going on...they made me think of arcades here. Everyone was having fun and acting almost like children. There were times when I would return to the same internet cafe and the same people would be there again. It was like a packed sports bar in Chicago when the Cubs play the Sox. Everyone was in this zone and the noise eminated everywhere. I never really thought about how that setting affected game play. When I think of it as an arcade of sorts, it helps me to understand it a little better. I have never really been a big video game player, but I loved arcades as a child (and more recently thanks to Gameworks). There is an energy about that type of space. An excitement that I don't think necessarily comes from the game itself. I feel like it is generated by the people there and the fact that everyone is involved. I think this is what has been lacking for me in playing games on my home console. My brother is ten years older than me, so if I do sit down to play, I am all alone. There is no one to cheer me on or share tips, it rather bores me and makes me understand the antisocial argument against video games. The physical setting definately changes the playing experience and I think is an important aspect of video game play.

Who needs 3-D??

2007-03-26T12:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I saw The Simpsons' Movie trailer for the first time and it made me think of the discussion we had on Thursday about the place for 2D video games in a 3D world. The opening of the trailer shows a white 3D bunny tiptoeing through a meadow. A voice over comes on and says, "In a time when computer animation brings us worlds of unsurpassed beauty, one film dares to be ugly". Next, Moe comes on and explicitly states that the movie is in 2D. Just recently I have realized how much I enjoy forms of media that are now considered outdated. As I said in my last blog, I have returned to the world of grainy 2D graphics in the form of the original Nintendo and I could not be happier. It brings me more pleasure than any of the other new 3D graphics with lifelike settings. This led me to wonder, at 22 have I already become my parents?! Is my video game ineptitude attributed to my inability to adapt to new forms of technology? I have been pondering this since last class, but when I saw the trailer for The Simpsons' Movie I was slightly relieved. A cartoon series like The Simpsons have been on for over 10 years...in simple 2D, with none of the new fancy effects. The survival of a show like The Simpsons in a Jimmy Neutron world proves to me that enjoying 2D is not being outdated, it is just simplistic. 2D media has a place, even in 2007. When I play 2D games or watch 2D cartoons I am just as much enthralled as I am with 3D games. I get into the environment and I become part of the environment, just as much as I do in 3D. It may be a different type of gaming or watching experience, but it is not any less pleasurable. Since seeing that trailer, I have begun to realize the worth that 2D media still has despite the advent of new technology.

If you haven't seen the trailer I referenced, here's the clip form Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEnKL9QJQ4w

Addicted

2007-03-24T07:40:00.000-06:00

I have become completely addicted to playing the original Nintendo. Sure, I have to stop it every once and a while and blow on the cartridge a couple times, but it lacks all the confusing nuances of modern day consoles. I never get dizzy or nauseous and there is something nostalgic about playing. As I am sitting there delightfully enraptured in my game, a few of my parents' friends come over for wine and, apparently, a FEMALE college student is not allowed to play video games. They can;t imagine the draw of video games for a girl. They are all astonished, not only that I am playing video games, but also at the fact that the Playstation 2 is sitting right next to me...unused. My mother's friend asks if this is what my college education has taught me. My dad smirks and tells them that I am in fact taking a Video Games class and this is "homework" (with air quotes and sarcasm). Another friend remarks that his 12 year old son is addicted to video games and they are thinking about not allowing him to play anymore because of the stereotypical objections (they're too violent, they promote anti-social behavior and laziness, etc). So, being the video game scholar that I am (or pretend to be), I try to explain that video games are much more than just a game that children use to be anti-social and lazy. Everyone quickly dismisses my argument.

Being a child of technology, I took to the internet and Google to find something scientific to prove my point. Thousands of results come back, but one study done by the University of Rochester was particularly interesting to me. A survey was taken of 1000 gamers. They were asked about their motivations for playing. The researchers quickly found that there was a deeper psychological need to play video games. "Players reported feeling best when the games produced positive experiences and challenges that connected to what they know in the real world...It's our contention that the psychological 'pull' of games is largely due to their capacity to engender feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness". I showed this data to my parents' friends and it was as if they could not fathom that there is any real value to video games. After three bottles of wine and close to two and a half hours of debate, they finally agreed that maybe there was more to video games than they had originally thought and that a class like ours did have a place in a well-rounded education.

With the debate done, I happily returned to my game of Mario 3, as they chattered on about how much the world has changed.

If you'd like to read the full article, here's the link:
http://www.physorg.com/news86358590.html

Machinima

2007-03-04T08:05:00.000-06:00

Since I have been sick for the last week, I have had a lot of time to explore the world of Machinima. I had never heard of anything like it until we discussed it in class and I was truly intrigued. Nobody can deny that video games are expressive forms of art, but to be able to create Machinima is completely amazing to me. The game itself becomes an original form of expression and can take on a whole other level of meaning.

With so many people looking at video games as a negative aspect of society, something like Machinima proves that there is so much more than violence and desensitization. Suddenly, anyone can be a movie producer. All the creator needs is a game and a computer. I don't know much about how Machinima is made, but it seems relatively simple and accessible to almost anyone.

I think that these videos that fans are making have become an important part of the paratext. It adds to the ovrall play of the game itself. Never having been a fan of games like Halo, after watching many of the videos, I gained a better appreciation for the art of the game and the way that it is set up. It made me want to explore the game and see what it was about. Fan fiction and art have existed around most forms of media for a long time and machinima is clearly the 2007 version of the aesthetic need to create something more than the creators of the game have provided. The fact that machinima is now showing up at film festivals and getting accolades opens up a whole new world of possibility.

2007-02-18T08:23:00.000-06:00

I have been utterly captivated with the show Lost for the past two seasons, but I had never looked at it in terms of video games. Because I have never been an avid video game player, the correlation was difficult for me to make. After reading Prof. Jones' chapter on Lost I was completely amazed with the comparison to Myst. (A game I have come to abhor, no less!) The island exploration in Myst bored me and frustrated me to no end. I had tried playing several times and I just couldn't seem to make any progress. But after reading the chapter and discussing Lost in terms of video game techniques, I obtained a new appreciation for Myst. This time when I turned the game on, I saw it as the island where Oceanic Flight 815 had met its demise. The island wasn't just a series of things that I couldn't figure out (mostly because I had no desire to); it was an anomaly like the episodes of my favorite show. The exploration, the tools that were seemingly always there (but not readily available until discovered and used properly), and the random things that "the others" have left behind are all aspects of a video game. Being able to draw on the similarities has given me a new appreciation for the both the show and video games, as well as helping me to better understand the techniques that video games utilize. The "non-linear" approach that the authors of Lost use has always been one of my favorite aspects of the show and now I understand where it originated.

After our class discussion, I delved deeper into the world of Lost. I had never heard about all the paratextual aspects. I would have never known about the backwards brainwashing tape or any of the little hints I have now acquired. For me, these are essential portions of the show and I cannot believe that I have missed out on so much! But I often wonder if paratextuality can actually push the limits too much. Finding out that a game version of lost is in the works, I wonder how it will affect the TV show itself. The creators are already planning to unveil new characters first within the game and then introduce them in the show (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Entertainment/story?id=1982147&page=1). I didn't like when two new characters popped up in an episode and I had no idea from where they came (but my friend who had access to the minisodes did). So I wonder, will I run out and buy this game just so I don't miss anything? How much will the game stay true to the show? Could it possibly ruin the show for me? All the extra stuff that I have stumbled upon in the last few days I feel is very necessary to obtain the full effect of the show, but when does it become too much? Does the survival of the show rest on the paratextual aspects? These are all questions I cannot seem to answer...I guess I will just wait for it all to play itself out...

Paratextuality

2007-02-10T08:30:00.000-06:00

Now that my life is no longer devoted to everything Zelda, I am back into the swing of playing random games that I know nothing about and, generally, have no skill at playing at all. After trying Hitman, Hitman 2 and Grand Theft Auto 3, I was completely nauseous and generally, could not even figure out how to move the characters out of the starting place. So, I headed back to a place I was familiar with: Springfield in The Simpson's Road Rage. This time I had a little more success in my game play and began to actually enjoy myself. As I progressed through the game, it occurred to me how much my knowledge of the show overpowered my game play.

Having grown up with The Simpsons I instantly recognized the token sayings that the characters often repeat ("Doh!", "Eat my shorts", etc), but at the same time, it made me aware of the affect of paratextuality. Each character repeated their token saying, but what seemed to me at the most inappropriate times. Mrs. Kurbopple gets in the car and says "Take me away from these children!", Homer replies, "Woo-hoo, donuts!". I recognized each character being uniquely themselves, but if I had never seen an episode, I would be very confused. I'd think it very random and wonder why the creators didn't create a way for the characters to interact. Its interesting to me how much the game requires the player to have a background knowledge of the TV show. Besides the dialogue, I felt like a knowledge of where the characters would want to go greatly helped me. Picking up Moe, I instantly knew I needed to head towards the bar and Flanders to the Church, etc. If I had no knowledge of these characters before the game, it would have been more difficult to figure out where people would be going and I would have to rely on the hand that helps guide you to the various places. Before this class, I had never really thought about the things outside a game that can be such an important element. Now, I realize that paratextuality is a key element to the game and, in many cases, is necessary.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG!

2007-02-03T08:32:00.000-06:00

After reading Elise's blog about the Super Columbine Massacre RPG! (SCMRPG) I was intrigued and, honestly, appalled. I could not wrap my mind around the fact that someone had made a game out of a tragedy that is still so fresh in my mind. It just seemed cold-hearted and insensitive. Wondering how a "game" could get me so worked up, before I had even played it, led me to do some research. At http://www.columbinegame.com/, the creator Danny Ledonne offers a forum for people to discuss the game and its social meaning. He offer's an eloquent and intelligent "artist's statement" about the game and proves that the creation of such a game was not thoughtless and insensitive at all. Instead, it was quite the opposite. After downloading the game (free on the website), I spent hours playing. Within the game there are a variety of social statements that are made: finding a Marilyn Manson CD scores you bonus points, the accessibility of guns and the social pressures that the boys felt are commonly depicted. Various objects bring on dreamlike sequences that feature the boys long before Columbine, talking about college, their parents, and joining the Marines. These sequences take the player deep into the killers' minds. The game is interesting and simple, but also, a little sad. Long after the game has been shut off the player is left to ponder what it all means, something that I think is important. People fear that the game glorifies the killers and will promote more children to act the same way, but I feel like the game does the opposite of that. The more people think about it, talk about it, and remember it, the less likely it is to happen again. The game doesn't point fingers or try to give reasons for why Columbine happened, but it does provide unique insight that could be helpful in the prevention of future occurences.

After playing the game several times, I feel that my initial outrage stemmed from some type of sympathy for the friends and families of the victims of Columbine. If I were a child of Columbine, I think it would be very hard to know that people were re-enacting that horrible day as a "game". But I think that SCMRPG is much more than a game. By delving into the inner psyche of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, society can, in some ways, try to make sense of what is seemingly a senseless act. For that reason, it is important that the game isn’t generic. A generic school shooting game would be controversial, but I don’t think it would have had the same affect. Getting to be the characters of Eric and Dylan, knowing that these are real glimpses into their lives, makes the game something like reading a biography. The graphics are old school and not at all realistic, but it was more real to me than any game I’ve ever played. This clearly isn’t a game for a child, someone who could not understand the deeper symbolism, but for adults, it’s a jumping off point to addressing the problem of the school shooting phenomenon. For anyone that wants the free download to try it for themselves, here’s the direct link: http://www.columbinegame.com/download.htm (the game can also be found on limewire and websites like mininova.org)

In other gaming news, Myst and I do not get along at all! Even with the helps I keep getting stuck in rooms and when I do finally make progress, it freezes...Grrrrrr

The Suspense of It All

2007-01-27T08:28:00.000-06:00

Since I haven't played a video game since Nintendo and Atari were cool (literally the last game I played was Super Mario Brothers 3), I was a little wary of jumping into the world of contemporary video games. As I picked up the controller to play The Simpson’s Hit and Run, my brother had to explain all the buttons and what they do...I still have no idea what any of them do! There were so many buttons...whatever happened to just A and B?!? All those extra buttons just seem a little overzealous to me. I was really confused and couldn't keep the buttons straight, so I just started playing. No matter how I tried, I could not get Homer to go the way I wanted him to. I kept ending up at the bottom or sides of the screen in a corner that I could not get out of. After 35 minutes, I was exhausted, frustrated and slightly nauseous. My brother was tired too; he had never laughed so hard his entire life. He kept telling me that if I could just get to the next level, it'd be so much better and I'd really get into it. I never made it to the next level and I never really got into it.

Although I was not too happy with my gaming experience, it did get me thinking about suspense. In class on Thursday, we discussed how suspense factors into any type of experience, whether it is in literature, video games or TV shows. I think this is what was lacking for me (other than any real competency for video games that is). I didn't really care what was next; I just wanted to get out of that level. I think suspense is the key to enjoying a lot of things. It’s the excitement of speculation. We are left to wonder what’s to come and that keeps our attention. Watching an entire season of Lost on DVD was captivating, but it wasn't until season 2 premiered and I had to wait every week that I really fell in love. The same thought crossed my mind as I was reading Vanity Fair for one of my other classes. Originally, it was published in parts in a publication. So, there are superfluous portions of the story that only add to the pain of trying to read a 900 page piece of Victorian Literature. There are also points in the book that are supposed to build a great deal of suspense, but I turn the page and there, all the answers are laid out for me. If I had to wait for a month before I could pick the book up again, maybe I'd be able to enjoy the author's cliff hangers, but as it is, there's no cliff and I am certainly not left hanging. Who knew that in a society consumed with instant gratification that suspense is so important? I guess I will just have to keep searching for that game, the one that enthralls me and leaves me hankering for what is next.