Reyy

I thought I would start at the conclusion of the reading to illustrate my understanding of McLuhan's topics, "That games are extensions, not of our private but of our social selves, and that they are media of communication, should now be plain. If, finally, we ask, "Are games mass media?" the answer has to be "Yes." Games are situations contrived to permit simultaneous participation of many people in some significant pattern of their own corporate lives."(pg. 245) Games and sports are a medium of communication. As much as it were to tribal societies of the past but we have intellectualized it through writing...aka rules, rulebooks, scoreboards, magazines. McLuhan also points out that the form or pattern of the game is of first importance because it is the central core of the experience. Although the interdependence of the everyone to the game is what makes the game "fun". As an example he uses a hockey player's attitude towards his game and the audience, "Rocket Richard, the Canadian hockey player, used to comment on the poor acoustics of some arenas. He felt that the puck off his stick rode on the roar of the crowd." This is also probably along the same thought as the phrase "home field advantage"...[breaktime...breakfast ^_^ ]