Charlie

Games are an extension of the human condition; a macrocosm of attitudes and underlying values of the society from which it is born. Ritualistic in nature, gamers participate in an event and allow themselves to be governed by the rules therein, giving them a release from the rules they are forced to obey in the real world. The game then becomes a form of limited self-expression, in which the person chooses what event he wants to participate in, and plays in this set role accordingly.

The game of poker, where all players are entirely individually focused, are playing an exagerrated version of someone they [may or may not be] in the real world; to attain "success", one must perhaps be much more ruthless than the mannerisms of everyday life. However, everyone at the table is willingly there, and allowing this behaviour for the duration of the game - an acceptance that this event is a deviation from the rest of the world.

Aging Game Boy holds off the whippersnappers

The Game Boy, although 17 years old and having gone through many redesigns, still holds strong as one of the most popular and best-selling portables to date, outlasting three generation of console games. Since the technology is relatively old, gameplay is much less complex than most games today. I think this is a testament to more classic gameplay...stuff that doesn't take 2 hours to figure out. To this date, I've owned five different GameBoys, all of which I've lost or broken...and I'll probably end up buying the next iteration.

Visual representation (as well as gameplay) have always been limited by the technology available. While older games such as Pong used highly abstract graphics, most games today have a more literal approach to the visual representation of the player character and the environment in which it inhabits.

What is most interesting to me is how video games today with more abstract visual language largely remain limited to a very niche market and fly under the radar. It seems most gamers today prefer ultra-realistic, and perhaps easily identifiable and relatable (or as the article states, more empathetic) video game personas. The graphics of the game often seem to have a direct correlation to the gameplay - the more realistic it looks, the more realistic it plays (i.e. objects need to obey the rules of gravity, no magic). More unconvential gameplay usually comes with more unconventional graphics - and apparently, a more unconventional player-base.

World of Warcraft - perhaps the most obvious choice for me, this game provides a huge wealth of player interaction. One of my primary interests in design is intercultural interaction, but also basically how people communicate with each other (the masses vs. the minority). There's player-player interaction, player-computer interaction, the often elaborate system guilds make to fight big bosses and distribute loot, in-game and out-of-game communication, etc.

Other games I'd consider are The Sims (largely due to it's huge fanbase of customization, and the psychology behind why people are so into the game) and Second Life (in a way, a combination of the Sims and the World of Warcraft).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Rahc3YOCaF0

The infamous sex scene from Grand Theft Auto. While most who hear about the scene in the video game might assume that it was just a very suggestive and quick clip, the sex sequence actually involves the player to initiate positions, change camera angles, and work towards achieving sexual climax. Things were made worse when Rockstar, the developer of the game, denied that they had any invovlement in the matter and instead blamed hackers. They would later own up to putting it in the game, but the damage had already been done.

Perhaps the initial reaction would be why there is so much commotion over a sex scene when the game involves stealing cars and killing people (which is portrayed quite graphically). Is it more okay for a kid to control a violent character or a sexual one? It might be more about whether or not one is closer to reality - the chances of a 15 year old kid running around a city with a shotgun and stealing cars is highly impropable (not to suggest that violent tendencies can't manifest itself in other situations). However, a 15 year kid having sex is probably much more likely to happen.

Not that I in any way understand the boundaries drawn - violence: okay, sex: not okay. And why are parents letting their children play a game that is rated M for mature, which specifically states that no one under 18 should be playing?

My initial reaction to the whole America's Army campaign is the perversion of using war imagery and footage for a recreational purpose. I remember seeing the commercial for the game and it mixed in real footage of people in a military campaign, shooting weapons in a residential area, with in-game graphics. It seems very inappropriate to blend something that horrific with a video game. While violence in video games is nothing new, I think this particular tie-in with real life seems disrespectful to all those involved in the war.

However, there is something to be said about the success of the campaign. They've managed to make the army incredibly trendy, and perhaps demystifies the fear people associate with the military. It'd be interesting to see how this directly affects recruitment numbers. It's also interesting in that in addition to a direct recruitment tool, it also is a very successful re-branding campaign for the army.

http://speeddemosarchive.com/

While most of us struggle to get through any game with time and patience, there is an emerging subculture of gamers who strive to beat games as perfectly and as quickly as possible. This is one of the many sites that are beginning to pop up on the web showcasing the best of those efforts. These players plan their routes through the game down to every second and every jump - each level is choreographed and replayed until they can achieve the fastest time possible. While some games take one or two playthroughs to figure out, others have been years in the making - when a new record is set for a game, others try to perfect the route even more in attempts to be the new record holder.