McGonigal and her Games

"In fact, as Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading psychologist of play, once said, 'The opposite of play isn't work. It's depression.'" (McGonigal, Pg 28, 2011)

Many gamers and none gamers out there probably would not have known that work in fact is not the opposite to play. The majority of gamers out there believe that when they leave their work and come home and play their video games that this is an escape from what they believe is the enemy, work. This however from reading McGonigal's text is not the case, in fact we as gamers are actually looking for harder work out of a video game, work that challenges our brains and puts us to our maximum potentials to complete task that keep us active. We as gamers are not trying to escape work, we are trying to escape the boredom of tasks that are too easy and that can lead us into depression where as video games give us harder and more entertaining challenges that allow our brains to expand more and be free from boredom. This information is useful to gamers as they are slated fro being lazy just because they enjoy challenging gaming experiences over the boredom of tasks set out for them that do not stimulate their brains enough. (McGonigal, Pg 28, 2011)

"When you strip away the genre differences and technological complexities, all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system and voluntary participation." (McGonigal, Pg 21, 2011)

From this quote McGonigal is trying to tell us that not all different types of games are that different after all. For example this may sound a bit far fetched but we could compare the video game Call Of Duty and its Search and Destroy mode to a game of golf. In the Search and Destroy mode the goal is to find the enemies bomb and blow it up, the rules are simple, each player has one life and only one player can carry the bomb at once, in the feedback system it tells us how many players are left and how long we have left on the time limit. Golf has got all these defining traits, the goal is to get a ball in a hole, the rules are that you must stand so far back and hit the ball with golf clubs and the feedback system is seeing how many shots it takes to get the ball in the hole. With this quote and text McGonigal could change the way people view games altogether.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J.McGonigal, Reality Is Broken, The Penguin Press, 2011

Infinity Ward, 2003-2013, Call of Duty, Video Games, Activision.

Gameness of Games

Video games, board games, card games, roll-playing games, play-ground games and so on. There are countless numbers of games to be played and a large variety of consoles and devices to be played on. Bernard Suits states, 'Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles!' (McGonigal, 2011, P.22) When we play games we are coming to do voluntary hard work, work we enjoy doing, unlike work in real-life.

There are four defining traits of games; a goal, rules, a feedback system and voluntary participation. The ability to win is not a necessary trait of games. (McGonigal, 2011) Tetris, one of the most popular computer games of all time is the perfect example of a game in which you cannot win. If you play tetris you are always guaranteed to loose, so why it is so addictive? Many gamers do not wish to win the games they play, 'in high feedback games, such as Tetris, 'the value of being intensely engaged may ultimately be more pleasurable than even the satisfaction of winning.' (McGonigal, 2011, P.25) Gamers would rather work at playing a game rather than be entertained. This is why gamers spend less time watching television and more time playing games. (McGonigal, 2011)

'There are two different kinds of games: finite games, which we play to win, and infinite games, which we play in order to keep playing as long as possible.' (McGonigal, 2011, P.25) 'Jack-Change-It' is an example of a finite card game, once a player has gotten rid of all their cards they are the winner and the game is over. 'The Sims' is an example of an infinite computer game, the game has no end so the player keeps on playing because they enjoy the game.

Games have the ability to make us feel happier. 'A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we're good at and enjoy.' (McGonigal, 2011, P.28) Games today are addictive and mood-boosting, which make them extremely popular. We feel more satisfaction with ourselves from doing hard work in games than doing work in real life.

Finally, 'the most primal emotional rush we can experience is called 'fiero." (McGonigal, 2011, P. 33) The Italian word for 'Pride', fiero is the emotion we feel after we triumph. It is extremely powerful in producing motivation for hard work. The bigger and harder the obstacle is to overcome, the more powerful and intense the fiero. (McGonigal, 2011) 

Bibliography
McGonigal, J., (2011), 'Reality is Broken, Why games make us better and how they can change the world, Penguin Press HC

Gaming I.R.L.

'Gamers' can be seen as a cultural group that some people do not want to belong to. In an 'IGN' interview the massively popular video game franchise 'Call of Duty' (2003 - 2013) creators 'Infinity Ward' stated that their fans and players "aren't hardcore gamers, or even gamers, but they play Call of Duty every night." (IGN, 2013) This throws up a question of what a gamer is, which differs to what person you ask. Jane McGonigal would argue that games make us better and she dies so in her book 'Reality is Broken'.

When describing a game McGonigal states, "When you strip away the genre differences and technological complexities, all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, a voluntary participation" (McGonigal, 2011: 21). If we look at an  example we can easily see what she is talking about, let's look at the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) title 'Super Mario Bros.' (1985). The goal in Super Mario Bros. was to rescue the Princess, the rules were that you have a certain number of lives, creatures can kill you and you can get power ups for your character. A feedback system was in place that told us how we got on, how many coin we have collected and how far into the game we are. As for voluntary participation, at anytime we can walk away from the game if we choose. McGonigal's explanation of a game in this sense seems spots on though what if we looked deeper into why we play the games?

Video Games can be viewed as an escape from real life, a common new media term when talking online and even when in person is 'I.R.L.' (in real life). Even this term suggests that we view games as another 'universe', somewhere were our lives are different. Our own realities are not as satisfying as within our games, no stimulation, challenge or goals. This could end in no enjoyment in our life, although with games we can have immediate gratification, whether it be saving the universe in 'Mass Effect 3' (2012) or living a fantasy life of adventure in 'World of Warcraft' (2004).

Games can have a good effect on our lives in real situations, take the game 'Tetris' for example, this improves our puzzle solving skills while we play, or our team building in the 'Halo' series (2001 - 2013) while playing team objective game types. There are even games designed to improve us, like 'Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training' (2006) which tries to improve our reaction time, mathematics, spelling and more.
"A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we're good at." (McGonigal, 2011: 22)


Bibliography

Bioware, 2012, Mass Effect 3, Computer and Console Game, Multiple Formats, Electronic Arts.

Blizzard Entertainment, 2004, World of Warcraft, Computer Game, PC and OS, Blizzard Entertainment.

Bungie, 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved, Console Game, Xbox, Microsoft Studios.

IGN (2013) Call of Duty Players 'Aren't Hardcore Gamers', Says Infinity Ward [Online]. Available at: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/10/21/call-of-duty-players-arent-hardcore-gamers-says-infinity-ward (Accessed: 13 November 2013)

Infinity Ward, 2003, Call of Duty, Computer and Console Game, Multiple Formats, Activision.

McGonigal, J (2011) Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better And Why They Can Change The World. Penguin Press HC.

Nintendo, 2006, Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, Nintendo DS, Nintendo.

Nintendo EAD, 1985, Super Mario Bros., Console Game, NES, Nintendo.

Pajitnov, A, 1984, Tetris, Computer and Console Game, Multiple Formats, Spectrum HoloByte.

The Gameness of Games..

McGonigal firstly talks about what a game is and how they can be attached to certain types of behaviours, such as 'players' and there ability to manipulate others into getting what they want. (McGonigal,2001,PG.20)

I also understand that the word 'game' can used in other references completely unrelated to video games. Such as people using certain metaphors such as 'Don't play games with me'. although these metaphors are widely used everyday, the fact that they are unrelated to actual gaming activity raises the suspicious that a lot more people know and accept gaming as more widely used within society.

'Games these days come in more forms, platforms and genres than in any other time in human history' (McGonigal,2001,PG.20)

This statement is true, simply for the fact that gaming and the ability that game designers have nowadays is unbelievably more advanced than at any other time and they will only continue to become more advanced with better traits such as graphics and online game play. Also for the fact that we can play games on so many different platforms which gives us almost 100% of the time access to gaming. For example, gaming in the house would be easily done on the XBOX, PS3, laptops and personal computers. And gaming on the 'go' can happen on iPads and mobile phones. All this ability and connectivity to games gives it a huge advantage to prospective game designers and software companies. 

Games share four defining traits which are Goals, rules, feedback system and voluntary participation.(McGonigal,2001,PG.21). Goals which the player hopes to achieve, rules which place limitations on how the achieve that goal. A Feedback system which tells players how close they are and voluntary participation which need the participation of all players regarding the first three traits. 

McGonigal states that when we are playing a good game, we are placing ourselves at the positive side of the emotional spectrum. (PG.28). I think this is very important when it comes to gaming, as we all have things that play 'games' with our emotions and the fact that games developers can make something as to affect your very emotion with simple touches of a button is something to be amazed at. 

Bibliography - Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal, 2011 - The Penguin Press