Ashley LaBelle

It looked a little dumb at first but its not bad for a younger age range to be able to get your ideas out there quick. I liked the fact that there is a runway after you dress your models. But you still have to worry about the thin models giving out that kind of message to younger childeren but i would say it's better than an 8 yr old blowing people up in a vido game.

Interesting for a bit. Gets a little boring but I enjoyed the visuals.
Relating this video to the abstraction article...
Scott Mcloud quotes,"The cartoon in a vacuum into which our identity and awareness are pulled, an empty shell that we inhabit which enables us to travel to another realm. we dont just observe the cartoon, we become it." Now i do believe that happens in every game that we play that we get into.

article- Abstraction, then can become an aid to identification, rather than something that alienates.
I could see a poorly made game making the player feel alienated. If they can't figure out the controls and they can't go anywhere. But lets say your a blob flying in the air and things are flying at you and you have tasks to try and dodge them, then capture them. The whole game could be made very simple with simple visuals and this blob doesn't have a background of who or what it is accept for the fact its suppose to capture the things flying in the air. I think the player would become so engaged and there determination would kick in that they wouldnt know what they are or who they are but just what they are suppose to do and that would be there identity; showing that abstraction can become an aid to identification.

Take for instance this game that is posted, it is very abstract, very simple but good use of color. The point of the game is very boring but still it conveys the idea that abstraction can be an aid to identification; because when your playing it, you have a point, to fight the other goo, when you start playing you are this blob but it doesn't have a background of who or what it is you just dive into the "art of war" in the most mild manner in this game.

I always kind of thought that if a younger child were to play violent video games that it might have an effect on them. I suppose it would depend on how the child adapts to things. I found many reviews about violence in video games and to my surprise many people didnt have a problem with it and said it was parenting. I found reviews from parents talking about how video games is a privilage and if they see there child is getting addicted then they simply would not let them play as much. Some reviews I found do Have some interesting comments about violence. In one of the last reviews i posted Danny_boy08 says that violent games desensitize an individual, it will remove the moral attachment to violence and it's effects. Shooting another person would be no different than shooting a bad guy in a game. I would have to agree with that. In the last comment the one who commented on DB's she mentions the news and how violence would do the same. Which i would also agree with. So overall there is a possibility that games contribute to today's violence but I think no matter how bad the video game got in the child's head it has to do with everything on the media, the parenting style, and the social life of the child.

Reviews
-Pickle (continuous player)
I think it so funny how they put the top 10 most violent video games up on the news. I have been playing games since i was 3 or 4, I was playing all kind of video games, Mortal Combat series, Grand Theft Auto Series, and alot of First Person Shooting Games( Such as Doom, Army Type games), And Even Stuff like Comand and Conquer. There is nothing wrong with violent video games. I have been playing these games for many years(im 19 years old now) I have never been in a fight, i can't stand to shoot guns, i don't drive like a maniac, never run from the cops. The most of it is the parents let their kids get violent, they give them guns,teach them to fight. Its nothing to do with video games, i could play a game where i am killing people in a army game or like grand theft auto, run a ton of people over. Then go out to my car drive somewhere and not even think a dime about it. I tried to do more stuff off of tv then i ever did of a video game. I think it wrong how they blame companys for making a game with a Mature (M) rated Label and selling it to parents who say yeah my 8 year old kid can play some game where you just kill people. I don't think they should blame the kid, blame the parent. Its just my opinion i wanna see what other people think, so these news reporters who don't even touch a video game and just read from (so called experts)

-I_Am_Sancho (parent)

It definatly falls upon the parent to govern what their kids play. I don't have a real problem with shooter games as long as they can maintain a balance between what is real and what is only play. And as far as games go, anything can be addictive or bring out agression. Even a game of Mario Brother's can frustrate someone enough to go out and kick the family dog.

For my kids playing video games is a privaledge when everything else they have to do like reading, or homework, or chores are complete. If I see any of my kids getting too hooked on games I instanly ban them from it.

I'm sooo mean...

-bt76 (parent)
Most of the violence in society today is caused by bad parenting. I would never let my child play a game like Grand Theft Auto, that is parenting; bad parenting would be letting your child play this game. These games glorify violence, desensitizing children to the horrors of violence. I would not ban the games, however, I believe that any good parent would not get this kind of game for their child, and discourage them from playing them

Danny_Boy08
The media has jumped on this training practice. If games don't breed violence, why would our military do this?

The answer in my opinion is that violent games will desensitize an individual. It will remove the moral attachment to violence and it's effects. Shooting another person would be no different than shooting a "bad guy" on the game. If we felt moral attachment to our actions in a video game, poor mario doesn't stand a chance after all they are only turtles, plants, and other little animals!

Violent video games are no problem for 99.99% of our population. If you mix desensitization with the troubled minority, it may lead to problems. I propose you chase the causative factors that lead to trouble.

Review on Danny_boy08's comment
-MerlinTW
The media has jumped on this training practice. If games don't breed violence, why would our military do this?

The answer in my opinion is that violent games will desensitize an individual. It will remove the moral attachment to violence and it's effects. Shooting another person would be no different than shooting a "bad guy" on the game. If we felt moral attachment to our actions in a video game, poor mario doesn't stand a chance after all they are only turtles, plants, and other little animals!

Violent video games are no problem for 99.99% of our population. If you mix desensitization with the troubled minority, it may lead to problems. I propose you chase the causative factors that lead to trouble.

I find it interesting how this article explains games as an extension of man. The fact that games have been in our lifes for thousands of years and how tribes practice for years to aquire ways to battle. It makes me think that games are simply apart of our life, or in someway we need them. I know that our minds respond to rhythm and pattern, that maybe we can adjust to anything that feeds us this and then our determination kicks in. I do believe that games are a release for many things, stress, just to take our mind off everyday things. Maybe they satisfy this urge to conquer something.
I liked how in the article it said "a game is a machine that can get into action only if the player consent to become puppets." I find that to be true and slightly humorous because people get so engaged with a game and they are allowing themselves to not think about anything else in there own life. They have chosen to be a character and choose there responsibilities and when the player dies they choose to keep playing while taking on the rules of this new life. Yes the player directs the character and plays with certain skills they might have but its still within the boundaries of the game, and most likely you aren't thinking about something in your real life but rather thinking about how to get to the next level.

Ive always known that there are messages relating to life in video games. I like how this article brings to attention the fact that the creators of american army intentionally made this game to make war fun and recuit more people. They needed a way to get to more people who didn't know about the war.

While playing American Army it was actually pretty boring but i think i could have gotten into it if i knew the levels better. I was held at the beginning because it wouldn't save. But i got the gist, it was very real and very fake at the same time. I feel as if you can see blatently how this game was made or how the creator wanted the player to feel. You have a leutenient or whoever the guy is talking to you right away and ordering you around. He tells you to go get a gun and then you can play and everyone is nice.
My brother in law was in the army and he lost friends, told me about the conditions and food and just simply seeing movies its far far from reality of this little video game. And of course anyone who is educated in this area knows this. But in reality your arent with your family, you can't stop, and you would kill someone or be killed. That is very real and dramatic. The game is so interestingly light and not even close to what is real, and maybe it becomes more so later on in the game. But its a good and unfortunate tactic to try and recruit people. But at the same time that brings up violence in video games, does it effect the youth? some people would say yes and some no. The ones that said no should have no problem with this type of game and the people who created it because it has no effect on the player so the creator can try as hard as they want. But what was also said in the reviews i found is that it descencitizes humans from actual murders from the video games. So the creators could go in from that tactic, by not making it look fun but by making the player ammuned to it. And then if they target low income people then it doesn't sound all that bad if they join the army because they will get benefits out of it. Which makes the creators of this game possibly an accomplice to murders. And if this game does it, how many others do it and if not all. What might other games be trying to get us to do. How many creators are there? and it only makes sense that they would be putting there own opinions into the game. It's there art and they can blatently put it in there or hide it so we would never know. We are just playing there message filled piece of art.

Everything from the introduction to the ending of the game is extremely intriguing. The storyline is interesting and never boring. I could see this as a movie and as a book. It is adventurous, horror filled, creepy, and enticing. I'd actually almost prefer it as a movie or book than a video game, only because I cannot get past the first scene and I understand that I would need to spend much more time on it to really get the feel of the controls. This game makes you go crazy. I can get the dead body to the toilet but I cant seem to drop him, I believe I did it once and then of course I couldn't do something else. Just because I couldn't get past the first round doesn't mean I can't appreciate the video game for what it is. It's clear what the designers where trying to do. They wanted to make an action filled game that has the indepth plot like a movie has. You become this character and live there life with these insane obstacles of running away from the cops and trying to figure out something supernatural because you know your innocent. The designers didn't stop there. You have multiple characters you can play, 3 others. Not only to get a different perspective but you have to see all there important roles in order to win the game. You get to undertstand there stress levels and anxiety. It is like being in a movie but you control how you react to everything and go through the obstacles and almost feel the kind of stress that the character does.

The visuals are great in the game, after I had gotten so frustrated with playing the game I moved on to utube. You see every fight and action filled drawn out scene. Incredibly detailed filled that makes it like a movie. They added every aspect of a hollywood film. Flashbacks, love story, running away from something, trying to attain something, it does not get dull. They just need to work on the controls.
fight scene

last chapter