Webblog Part 2- Week 2 lecture 6 summary

This lecture focused on 'the academic study of video games'.

• video games were around before the internet, and began approxamatly 50 years ago.
• Steven Pool wrote the book "trigger happy", exploring the field of video games and their appeal. This was released on creative commons, and made into a documentary as well.
• Video games are evolving at a rapid rate.
• video games are extraordinary because you are interacting, changing and emersing yourself within the game.
• Video games are different from any other cultural untertaking because unlike books and films ect, you as the player can experiment and 'see what happens when I do this'.
• computer/ console game use is widespread and is the equivalent of back in the times when it was common to own a television.
• the BAFTA awards show how video games are becoming mass.
• it is a struggle for games to compete with other films/books narratively.
• games such as the 'sims' allow for some emotion to be brought into the gaming characters.
• people use real money to buy 'imagenary' objects for thier online game's character.
• are the real world and the cyber world merging?
• video games include the following;
• arcade games, consoles, mobile handheld consoles, computer games, MMD's (text based games), MMOG's (Eg- Everquest, world of warcraft).
• in the 1960's, spacewar was an early video game..
• However, it has been recorded that video games were around as early as 1954. These games however, were hidden so as to not be in the spotlight.
• Video games have been intertwined with the development of computing technology since this game (Spacewar).
• military interest in video games have been in the form of simulations ect.
• Theoretical Considerations:
• media effects and games- the impact of the game on the audience)
• the persistence of effect- games can have lingering effects on how people experience reality
• Games and utopia- in video games we can create a perfect society.
• new form of cultural practice? - what does this allow us to express that we cannot anywhere else?

• Narratology: is the study of video games from the perspective of them being stories of literary works eg- Janet Murray, Lev Manovich
• Ludology: in contrast, is concerned with the game play element.
• Platform studies: tracing a history of video games according to their hardware platform.