1) Paul, 196-203
2) Wardrip-Fruin #34: Sherry Turkel, “Video Games and Computer Holding Power,” 499-514.
Ahh…video games. These readings were about video games and computer holding power. Turkel talked about video games as being almost an addiction, being compared to sex or sports. She interviewed a boy who would play game after game, trying to get the highest score and mastering it, then moving on to the next. He seemed to think about it all the time and wanted to do cooler things. Reading on in the article, I began to notice that it seemed like it was old-fashioned…she was talking about Pinball and the video games with spaceships. I realized that the article was written in 1984, which isn’t that long ago, but in the technological and game world, that was like a hundred years ago. Games have come such a long way since then. When I was a young girl, I played Nintendo. I loved it. I still love simple games like that. However, my younger siblings are a much better example of this HUGE video game trend. I never caught on to the games. Many of them are very complex. I am baffled when my twelve year old sister starts playing these massive multi-player games and is kicking butt! She is so good, and she is so young, how she learned how to do it all, or why she is so interested is mind-boggling. Those youngsters! I sound like an old woman. It all makes me feel so behind the times with technology. When I was twelve…cell phones were just becoming popular. We still played Super Mario Brothers or whatever was the popular game.
Anyway, back to the point, I understand the comparisons to sports, meditation, or sex. These games are addictive! As time has gone on since the article was written, the games (plots, what players can do, effects) have gotten more and more complex, the graphics are amazing, the characters, or avatars have gotten so life-like. For some people, video games are a way to escape the real world. To immerse themselves in virtual reality, teaming up with other people “like themselves.” It allows them to be anyone they want to be. I can understand that. However, how far is too far?
My younger brother broke his femur (big thigh bone) when he was about 12. He was confined to a bed for months. We put the computer in his room, as well as the tv, and needless to say…we pretty much never saw him unattached from the computer from then on…even after his leg healed! He was constantly in this other world, being another person, trying to take over the world or something (in the game). My first boyfriend tried and tried to get me to play these multi-player games. Games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Anarchy Online, World of Warcraft, etc.
I played a few with him, but they just weren’t my taste. I did got lost for a while playing games like the Sims. (The Sims allows you to control different avatars and live another life. Have kids, a job, get a house, have relationships, etc.)
I know how addictive games can be! Anyway, I think it is funny, as Turkel says, how the younger generation just accepts all this new technology as a fact of life. They learn to think with a machine in mind and how to respond to it. What will the program do next? They can navigate through computers, video games, etc. with ease.
I included two videos, the first of Anarchy Online, the second of Nintendo’s Super Mario brothers. I wanted to show how far the graphics and capabilities of games have come! Super Mario Brothers is very 2 Dimensional and you can only move in one direction. Effects are limited, but for the time, during the 80s and early 90s, it was extraordinary. Now, as seen with the Anarchy Online video, the characters are 3D. You can control how they look, how they move, you can change the camera views all around, and look at all the effects! I know the videos are both kind of long to post on here, but just take a quick look. Watching the whole thing isn’t necessary.
