Reality is Broken But Games Are Fun!

"Games today come in more forms, platforms and genres than at any other time in the human race." (McGonigal; 2011, pg. 20)

With this quote McGonigal simply states that in today's world there is many many forms of games available to the population, these range from Board games, Card games, Puzzle games, Quiz games, Computer games and Console games. She goes onto tell us that even though there is all these kinds of games out there they all share the same attributes that essentially make them games.

"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; 2011 pg. 21)

These four defining traits are what make games what they are, each one of these traits add another level of structure to a game and each one makes them entertaining for the participant. Each trait has its own purpose for a game.

The first trait the Goal is what any participant strives to achieve when they first start to play whichever game they tackle. With the Goal it gives every gamer a purpose to play.

The second trait Rules, this trait is what binds the participant to what the restraints of the game and also gives it a purpose otherwise there would be no challenge for the gamer.

The third trait Feedback System, this is the trait tells the participant how they are doing in the game and how close they are to their main objective. It comes in forms of levels, scores and progress bars.

The final trait is Voluntary Participation, the last trait is the one that combines the first three traits, this one is accepted by every player who starts the game as they agree to abide by the first three.

"A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism  at something were good at and enjoy" (McGonigal; 2011 pg. 28)

McGonigal goes on to talk about the effects that games have on people outside of the gaming world. She believes that taking all the benefits that video games give to the participants and utilizing them in the real world would make the human race is some way thrive as everyone would be testing their limits daily and enjoying what they do.

Bibliography: 

McGonigal. J (2011) - Reality is Broken

A Faceless Virtual Reality

At the very start of this chapter Bolter and Grusin throw down the disclaimer that these three concepts are not universal truths.

"We do not claim that Immediacy, Hypermediacy and Remediation are universal or aesthetic truths; rather, we regard them as practices of specific groups in specific times." (Bolter: 2000, pg 22)

The concept of Immediacy is something that points towards a user having immediacy access with a medium and also with their desire to interact with this medium. Basically users want a more immediate connection with this medium and feel that they are a part of it and connected with it. When Bolter talks about Immediacy he talks about Transparent Immediacy, to understand this fully we take each word separately. When Bolter says transparent he refers to the goal of developers and interface designers where they strive to make a Interfaceless Interface.

"in this sense, a transparent interface would be one that erases its self, so that the user is no longer aware of confronting a medium, but instead stands in an immediate relationship to the contents of that medium." (Bolter: 2000, pg 23-24)

There are a few different mediums in which a user can feel connected to something, for example a user can be watching a television show, reading a book or playing a video game and they well get this connection with a character and they feel as if they are in the situation with them and feel what they are feeling and react in an emotional way, this is a sense of Immediacy. But the biggest medium form that allows a user to feel connect and involved is Virtual Reality. The purpose of Virtual Reality is to bring the user into an environment and allow them to interact in a real or physical way. This sort of interactivity with the user is achieved with providing the user with a faceless interface in which it tries to deceive the user from believing they are interacting with a medium to achieve this reality.

"Virtual Reality is immersive, which means that it is a medium whose purpose is to disappear" (Bolter: 2000, pg 22)

Bibliography:

Bolter. D and Grusin. R (2000) - Remediation: Understanding New Media

Websites:

Barrow. T 2010 - Immediacy, Hypermediacy and Remediation

Digital Cultures

Creeber starts of by stating that the study of New Media is a 'Complex and Diverse' field. In his work 'Digital Cultures' Creeber takes about Modernism and Post-Modernism and how they lead to and relate to New Media theory.

'Modernism is the umbrella term we give to the way that human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution.'(Creeber, 2009: pg 11).

When Modernism came about in the late 19th century it was received by the majority of society to be this scientific way that would take the human race forward and be revolutionary in the production process, and with the rise of Modernism came Industrialization.
Industrialization brought about arguably the most important production invention of all time, the printing press. The invention of the printing press gave birth to a way of relaying news to the masses in a way that was never done before.
Many Modernists believed the introduction of Industrialization to be the looming down fall of originality, that 'modernists came to perceive industrialization as the enemy of free thought and individuality' (Creeber, 2009: pg 12).
The best example of this being true was in Henry Ford's case. Henry Ford profited significantly from industrialization when he made adjustments to the assembly line method, this allowed him to produce auto mobiles faster and cheaper and this also meant that they were more accessible to ordinary Americans. However because they were all mass produced this meant there was no discernible difference in the final products.

'when asked what colours his cars came in, Ford famously replied, any colour as long as its black'. (Creeber, 2009: pg 13)

'There are many examples that reflect modernism's disdain for the media,' (Creeber, 2009: pg 12). The best example and most famous of theorists that took a stance against this was The Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School consisted of a group of Marxists that where exiled from Germany during the second world war and came to America. The Frankfurt School seen the media culture in America as a prime example of a culture that had become a 'standardized product of industrialization' (Creeber, 2009).

After the industrial revolution there came Post-Modernism. With the coming about of post-modernism came the society of consumers, in this era products where starting to made to fit the consumers needs rather than the product being made for manufacturings sake. From the point when this cultural change started it hasn't changed it has just become more demanding and now products are created to fit our every need and this is a result of the consumer society being embraced as it has been. The way of consuming has come on some much that even when your watching television your not passively consuming it your more evolved and you interact with it. New media is interactive.

'New media is interactive. In contrast to traditional media where the order of presentation was fixed, the user can now interact with the media object.' (Manovich, 2002)

Bibliography: 

Creeber, G & Martin, R. (2009). Digital Theory: Theorizing New Media