Simple Point Made

The online article how I was played by Online Caroline by Jill Walker is a simple article with an equally simple point. Games have gotten to the point where they fool the player into thinking that the fictional reality that exists in the game is real and the player can actually become a part of it. This situation is apparent in the case of Online Caroline when Jill begins to wonder if the fictional character she is exchanging emails with is actually a real person. This happens in other games as well. Games such as WOW, Final fantasy, and City of Hero’s, Are all games where some of the players become so engaged in the game that they believe that the virtual characters are real and that they interact with the player without outside interference.

-John

It Plays You

The whole Idea behind the essay “How I Was Played by Online Caroline” is how something like a simulation or a game can invoke different emotions within a person my manipulating them to do so. There are many console and PC games that have the same kind of feeling weather you’re playing a RPG, RTS or a FPS! Games and simulations essentially trick you into becoming involved in the simulated story and getting attached to at least someone or something in the game, and then forgetting that it’s just a game in the first place. If they did not do this you wouldn’t jump out of your computer chair and scream when the invisible soldiers first find, and basically put the hurt on you when you play F.E.A.R.
The same can be said about many, if not all games that have a story to them. Another example could be in Call of Duty 2. You are fighting in WW2 for the allies and have been through many turbulent times with the members of your squad. And it really hits you hard when suddenly, the sergeant that you have come to somewhat admire after all this, is shot in the head while leaving a trench. Even though you have watched all of their backs through the game he was going to die anyway, that was the way the story goes, but you still cant help but feel like you let him down somehow.

I think that the last sentence of the article sums it up fairly:
“You don’t play a simulation. It plays you.”

-Alan

Got played.

The Book Survivor is a weird one. The story ends when you start reading the book and the first and main character in the book, Tender Branson. He is in the cockpit of a hijacked 747 telling his life story to the black box. He orders the plane to land and he releases all of the passengers and then later lets the pilot parachute out to safety. He was part of the Creedish death cult where all of the members presumably killed themselves. This all happened ten years before the story starts in the book. He later meets up with his brother Adam and a girl named fertility who can tell the future. Tender becomes a famous religious leader and winds up being persuade by the FBI and him and his brother steal a car and drive to a landfill where they both slam into a concrete pylon and a small figurine of Tender stabs Adam in the left eye, Adam then asks his brother if he would smash his head with a rock, Tender dose so and kills Adam. Fertility finds out she is pregnant with Tenders baby and tells Tender that someone is going to hijack a plane, she then goes to the airport to fly to Australia, Tender follows and stashes his brothers gun in fertility’s purse and boards the plane looking for the hijacker and then realizes he is the hijacker. Tender wanted to kill himself in front of the whole world and the plane crashes.
If you think about it Tender’s whole life was somewhat of a game. He played the game and was dealt a bad hand. He stuck with it ended up fine. He didn’t take life seriously, especially his own. He played with people, for his own pleasure but ended up being played himself.

John

Surviving a Game of God

Once again Trevor has assigned a book that I see definite gameplay. Did anyone else notice Tender’s strange obsession with playing god? Whenever the fake crisis hotline phone rang he liked the control of helping people decide their fates. I couldn’t help but also compare Adam(his brother) and Tender’s positions as god versus Satan. Tender remains the one who isn’t truly doing much harm in the world, but then Adam is the one who is killing off the cult memnbers. Sadly I think that Tender doesnt really realize the game he has become part of. As he gains stardom his desire to commit suicide becomes stronger and stronger. Finally with Fertility telling the future with him, he becomes the biggest pawn in the game and doesnt even realize it. By knowing the future he becomes the future.

I think the book also has a lot to say about free will through the character Fertility. She his constantly foretelling the future which means she knows what is going to happen, but can’t do anything about it. This shows a lack of her freedom. I also noticed a commentary on society today and how commercialized everything is. As Tender works for the richies he talks about the prefabricated houses that are all so similar. I also notice how Tender himself becomes commercialized.

I really enjoyed the book, and found myself flying through it with ease.

Signing out Lydia

Wednesday in Class we talked about Frasca’s Videogames of the Oppressed and Beckett’s Endgame.

Ideas:
~ Aristotle’s Elements of Drama (Plot, Theme, Character, Language, Music & Spectacle)
~ Neoclassical Unities (Action, Place, & Time)
~ The Influences on Beckett (Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Jean-Paul Sartre)
~ Absurdism, Expressionism, Postmodern influences, & Existentialism

*Oh and we want to give a huge thanks to Ms. Mach who gave us valuable insight into the complicated and confusing play called Endgame*

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Homework: Read H.P. Lovecraft’s “Call of Cthulu”
“Shadow over Innsmouth”
“The Dunwich Horror”

Something that poked at my brain about this set of reading was when Frasca threw out the question of “If videogames are not narratives, what are they?” According to Espen Aarseth “it is necessary to study games through a cybernetic approach. He then states that games, unlike narratives, videogames need the active participation of the user not just for interpretation matters, but also for accessing its content.

I found that the example given about the narrative film of the dog was a good example of how a narrative is about what already happened while something like Tamagotchi is a simulation is about what could happen. The Brazilian dramatist Augusto Boal’s “Theater of the Oppressed” was very interesting. The way that he opened up the art of theatre to those who are witnessing it is amazing. To let the audience have some bearing on how to end a drama about current social issues is pretty cool. It lets the audience become a part of the play and in doing so sparks an idea inside their head that might make them do something positive, or negative depending on their emotions felt during the play. It leaves them with something to think about. Pretty neat.

Alan

Frustration: Like a chessgame that you can never win.

Im reading Beckett’s play and I literally am lost. As a drama student I thought I would be capable of understanding it. Yet the only connection I have gotten was the term “endgame” which is the last part and the end of a chess game. I really noticed how Beckett was trying to signify the end. He does this throughout with long pauses after dialogue. I cant imagine seeing this in theatre, it would be painful. I think a lot of this play was about waiting for the end to come. Clov is constantly expressing wanting to leave and we are constantly wondering when he is going to leave. This play seems so slow. Everything is about the end, about waiting for the end. Hamm is confined to his chair. Nagg & Nell wait in their ash cans. Clov can barely walk. If I can take it back to a chess game I can see that there is always these dreams that the characters want to accomplish yet in ways they are always checkmated.

Signing out Lydia

I think that video games can be created to deal with political issues. The creators of these games have already covered many types of media with their games but the political type. Critical thinking should be encouraged through games and the idea that people can learn about the world around them through games is a wonderful idea. Many people learn different ways and video games could be another effective learning style. There are so many people on this planet that play video games or have access to video games and the amount of knowledge that could be shared through a linked system of games all over the world would be amazing. We have a system like this that exists already but it’s used for Orks and humans raiding over magical items. It’s a good idea, and it could be used elsewhere and for different things, though if gaming companies started to confront political issues I am sure that the government would step in to stop it in some constricting way. That is the only wall that I see when it comes to political and moral issues in video games.
John

Presentations commence.

We started class with a valuable conversation on games & violence, with special respect to the comments made by Doctor Phil about mass murderers being video game players. (For more information on this check out his actual comments:Doctor Phil insults Gamers everywhere. I think it is very important we all realize that this was bound to happen. Of course the shooter was a gamer, of course he played violent video games. Oh yes and he also writes violent stories. They never say anything about the vast majority of people who don’t commit school shootings yet play violent video games or writes violent stories. Anyways as I figured the class all agreed that we can’t blame video games for the violence in children.

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John & Holli presented on the wonderful & Almighty game PONG
If you want to play pong check out…Play Pong.

Most Interesting Facts:
* Originally released as a coin operated game in 1972
* Atari was created in 1972
* 8,000 Atari units sold within 2 years
* It was the first game to achieve worldwide success.
* It ran on 128 Bytes of RAM and the processor ran at 1.19 MHz

Taylor & Beverly discussed the presently popular SIMS game, which I myself own and love. To preview the game check out the EA game homepage: Sims Online

Most Sim-tastic Facts:
* Game was inspired by the Creator’s loss of his home to a fire. He wanted to create a game where humans could control life.
* It is the best-selling PC Game in History, selling over 6.3 million copies
* Females account for 50% of the sales

Dusty & Michael brought us a presentation on Dungeons & Dragons which I had trouble following, and you may too. It was a little intense, but when you think about the game itself, good luck. Anyways to know more check out Wizard’s homepage The Deal on D & D.

Most interesting & understandable facts:
* Relies completely on the Players’ Imaginations
* Created in the 70’s after Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings Series

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Wrapping up the monster…

I was happy to have Trevor take a moment of silence for the Virginia Tech tragedy. For those stumbling upon this post I hope that you too take a minute to appreciate everything in your life, because you never really know when it will be ripped from your hands. We all need to realizethe value of life.
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Moving on…

Today we started by wrapping up Frankenstein. We discussed Gustav Freytag’s Pyramid, and this continued as a guide throughout our discussion.
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Then we went into a great breakdown of the story….

THE UNRELIABILITY OF THE STORY
> Victor’s Insanity, Emotional Instability, Cowardice, & Constant Sickness
> The Storyteller a.k.a. Walton (How reliable is Walton? The Man who wants to travel to the North Pole.)

THE CREATURE’S HUMANITY & AGENDA
> Always comes across composed
> Has thought about his anger & come to rational terms with it
> Constantly seeking acknowlegement as a worthwhile individual
> The “good spirit” who stacks wood, yet betrayed

CONNECTION TO MILTON’S PARADISE LOST
(Note: Epic Poem that recasts the story of Adam & Eve from Lucifer’s point of View)
> Lucifer’s annoyance & eternal punishment for challenging God brings a new light to the Monster’s
life. The Monster does not see himself as the punished Lucifer, but more as the Lucifer in heaven who is
learning his lesson. The Monster also paralells himself with Adam, as he was created by a “god,” and he is
the first of a new race. Also the relationship between God & Adam is related to the Monster &
Victor. Except in Adam’s story he gets a companion, the Monster does not.

Characters to think about:
Walton
Mrs. Saville
Crazy Victor
Elizabeth
The Monster
Victor’s Family
Cleval
Kirwin

Rising Action:
Creation
Victor’s Expression

Climax:
The Deal
Victor’s Betrayal of the Deal

Falling Action:
Deaths of Victor’s Family & Friends
Death of Victor

Resolution:
Victor & the Monster Never Resolve their Journey
Walton Turns Back; Last Letter

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Homework
*Read Beckett’s “Endgame”
*Read Gonzalo Fresco’s “Videogames of the Oppressed”