Ok so the first article we had to read was pretty interesting. It is true that a lot of people like to put labels on video games, and that some people like to judge one game better over the over because of the content in the game. It is really interesting to learn that games are also being used to help people with rehabilitation and a training modular for work.
“The Hipsters of Gaming” article was very interesting and very true. It is funny how video games have come around full force from being bad and driving youths into violent behavior, to being ok because you can pretend to bowl in your living room. I personally like roll playing games and it seems that there are not that many out there any more, but there are tons of games if you want to play Sudoku on any kind of media. It feels like a lot of games are trying to follow a set formula that they have seen work in the past, and game makers have lost some of the “magic” that made a good game great, and after reading this article you can see that a lot of the games are being catered to the “hipsters” verses gamers.
After reading “ The Place of Games in Culture,” it is very interesting, because I do read manga and happen to like that style so it does make me sad to think that things are become “Americanize” to suite the gaming industry today. It is true that you do see a lot of different cultures represented in games, not just in appearance, but also in mannerisms and speech patterns. The only thing that can kind of go wrong there would be cultural stereotypes and then that would be opening a whole other can of worms.
So after reading all the assigned reading, my fear is that video games are going to become less of an art form and new ideas. With some many “games” coming out for education aid and fitness, will we lose the great games that have sparked so many people into picking up video games in the first place.
It is very interesting to see the game paradigm shifting from Japanese to American cultures. In the 80's and 90's the game culture was originated almost entirely from Japan, and now it seems that most of the highly popular games come from the American market. And although there are a lot more games oriented toward the mass market and casual gamers, the true works of art will always be there as well.
ReplyDeleteYou sez, "So after reading all the assigned reading, my fear is that video games are going to become less of an art form and new ideas."
ReplyDeleteand I feel I must wholeheartedly disagree. In the last five years or so, we've seen an enormous explosion of entirely new game types and alternate spins on old ideas. If you look back to the days of arcade boxes and the NES, most games followed one of a few formulas, with the most typical being that of the side-scrolling platform game. Most arcade games were 2d-fighting games, with the occasional shooter and side-scroller. When looking to home consoles and PCs in a contemporary setting, however, an enormous explosion of variety has arisen.
Take Katamari Damaci for example; it's a game about rolling over stuff and getting progressively bigger. Sure, it's just an abstracted fighting game, but all games can be abstracted into Chess or Go or any other board variant anyway. Some games, like Trine, are typical in presentation: a 2d puzzle-based platform game. However, the level of involvement in the game-world, and the variety by which one can accomplish their goals within it as a result of the three playable characters, shifts the game into almost entirely new territory (the closest comparison I can think of is Lost Vikings).
Even using your example of fitness and motion-control games, a great many variety of game has arisen - Wii Sports Resort is a good example. Sure, they're old games - almost ancient, like bowling and basketball - but in their motion-control presentation, Nintendo has almost made them into new games, sidestepping the traditional controller and integrating motion directly into play.
My real fear with this is that more emphasis will be placed on mass-appeal, casually-targeted games, and that we'll see a slowing in release of AAA titles like Dragon Age: Origins. I've got no data to back this up, but Wii Sports outsold almost every other game during the year of it's release - and really, you can play through the entirety of Wii Sports in a few hours. This, combined with the rise of indie, net- and Xbox-live-based games, may spell trouble soon for big-budget, long-form and hardcore games - simply because more people will play them.