Video Games: Platforms, Programmes and Players

Vi
deo games have been around longer than most people realize. According to Gerard Kraus, the author of Chapter 5 in Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media, the earliest example of a 'video game' was in 1947, but games like tic-tac-toe and pong, or Tennis for Two, did not hit the

markets until the mid and late 50's (p76). With the popularity of these games, the video game market and technologies continued to grow.

Twenty years or so after the earliest example of a video game was developed, Magnavox Odyssey launched video games to the forefront of the consumer mind. Atari soon came on the scene and

redeveloped the original Tennis for Two game into Pong.

Games like Space Invaders (1978) and Asteroids (1979) (modern version of Asteroids) became games for the arcade and the household consoles. Hundreds of thousands of quarters were dumped into arcade games like these over the years, and, because of the demand, the video game industry has propelled itself to the top of the selling charts.

After the arcade games became such a hit, household gaming consoles and computer games needed to be developed with the newest technology. Nintendo made its way onto the scene developing games like Donkey Kong (1981) and Super Mario Brothers (1986).

These characters are still used in Nintendo games in the modern day. Nintendo pushed Atari out of the picture, but did not do it with out competition.

SEGA Genesis and other consoles competed with Nintendo for a while, but then Playstation came onto the scene and vamped up the competition. Those two competed as the top two video gaming system creators for several years until Microsoft developed the XBox. This competition between Nintendo, Playstation, and Microsoft has become a heated rivalry in developing gaming systems that continues to this day.

The technologies in the gaming systems today make the gaming systems of the 50's and 60's look like dinosaurs. The old consoles were bulky and cumbersome, and now, the systems are small, sleek, and wireless. The new consoles have HD and 3D technology wile the older games started out 2D. The development of video games has, and will continue to be, an important part of the advances in technology.

Case Study: Bioshock (2007)

Bioshock (2007) is a first person shooter which is set in a developed world. Gerard Kraus points out in his case study that, "The opening sequence and the cleverly disguised tutorial that is included therein. The game presents its world and mechanics in the first 10 minutes, a period in which the player gets introduced to the graphics, interface, interaction needs and algorithm of the game" (p88). This new world is not so foreign though, or at least to a reader.

Bioshock loosely uses ideas from famous science-fiction novels like Nineteen-Eighty Four (1948) by George Orwell and The Fountainhead (1943) by Ayn Rand. These themes are seen throughout the game. Kraus pulls a speech from the game Bioshock that opens, "I am Andrew Ryan..." and compares it to the author Ayn Rand and some of the themes she brings up in her novels.

Kraus's case study goes to show that the video game industry is not just for losers or slackers. He wants to show how far the gaming systems have come since basic pong and the original Super Mario Brothers.

The Nostalgia of the Young

People seem to have a way to revert to the past. And, one would thin

k, in this age at least, that ways of the past are just that, ways of the past. It is a new age. A technological age. An age that almost requires the young to grow up with these new technologies attached to their hands, and which requires adults to keep up with the changing times, so as not to be left behind in a technological wake. But, just because youth are growing up with these gadgets, does not mean that they depend on them solely.

Nostalgia is defined as "a yearning for the past" by Wikipedia. What could Sherry Turkle mean in the chapter "The Nostalgia of the Young" in her book Alone Together? I believe she is talking about some of the loneliness that

comes along with technology. We have become used to this technological age and youth are growing up in it. This is all that they know or understand, but when my generation was younger, technology was just breaking into society and had not wrapped its wires around the youth yet.

In previous Turkle chapters, and previous posts, the fact that technology has changed the way the youth think and act is evident. The title of her book, if given a brief background on the subject matter, is a perfect fit. In the present, youth are so dug in to technology that they may feel this is the only way. But, parents have been able to keep a hold of the non-technological days. They grew up with out it, and, although, technology has made the parents generation more attune to the changes and have

made life "easier" or more organized, they still remember when technology was just knocking on the doorstep of society.

While this youth generation is growing up, they are understanding that technology has not always been around. They are finding that there were things that occupied their parents time other than technology. The youth have become interested in the time before technology, and have begun asking their parents and the older generations what it was like. After learning and remembering that playing outside, talking on the phone, and getting dirty were all activities that could be fun without modern day technology, the youth generation has felt a yearning for this simplicity.

Technologies wires have wrapped themselves around society, especially the younger generations.

True Confessions

Confessing and venting online is a modern phenomenon which is picking up speed. There are websites like PostSecret where users can confess secrets. Users can post anonymously or can post with their usernames. PostSecret is a compilation of secrets which were submitted by users all over the world. It is used as a confessional site for those who do not feel comfortable confessing with a friend or family member.

These secrets can be vague or very specific, intimate or topical, real or exaggerated. Sherry Turkle's Alone Together points out the fact if the confessions are exaggerated, they becomefiction. I feel like these fictional confessions could potentially be dangerous. Users could see these exaggerated stories and eventually realize they are not %100 true. This could lead to even further isolation for some users because they may feel they are being lied to when they are confessing truthfully.

Venting is similar to confessionals, but has its own twist. When users vent, they are including emotions into their posts or message, while confessing is just getting the information off their chest. Blogs, facebook, and twitter have become venting outlets apart from those sites designed specifically for venting.

Some of these online communities allow "comment" boxes for the confessions or secrets. This gives users another level of intimacy. When complete strangers are able to comment, some users sift through the comments looking for encouragement, while others seek out the negative information. Both of these types of responses can be helpful for the user to hear other angles and to hear motivation.

Many of the users of these sites are looking for the same thing. A friendly ear, a place to get the feelings and emotions out, and community outside of their hectic, sometimes unfulfilled lives. Because of the advancements in technology (also mentioned in No Need to Call), personal face-to-face relationships are disappearing. We walk alone in crowded rooms, but online users feel free to share their most intimate secrets and feelings in the online community.

No Need to Call

Is the telephone, which was, not too long ago, a new technology, becoming obsolete? Land lines have become a technology of the past. Mobile phones stormed in and has recently begun to dominate the market. What will be next?

The telephone, in the past, was used frequently and for long periods of time. A phone conversation, when the technology was new, could last hours. It was something new that connected people at great distances. But now, with mobile phones, smart phones, and tablets, our conversations are becoming shorter. With the ability to text what is on your mind to find out exactly what you need to know without the cloudiness of phone conversations, people have begun to interact less on the phone.

Author of the book Alone Together, Sherry Turkle writes about the fact that teenagers avoid phone calls most of the time. The ability to choose whether to answer or not has given mobile phone users the power to reject calls. People, according to Turkle, only use the phone to keep up with our closest circles, but even that is becoming a habit of the past with texting and social media outlets.

People also complain that a phone call has become to personal. They become apprehensive to say too much or too little, that they might find out something they did not want to know or they themselves may divulge a secret they wanted to keep, but because of the pressures of a live (non text) conversation, significant amounts of information may be shared by accident.

People, teenagers especially, feel that since there are so many ways to express themselves online, there is no need to have long phone conversations. With this social media comes a new identity crisis. The posts and feelings shared through social media sites are only what the user wants to share; very topical. These different identities, or what Pete and Sherry Turkle call the "life mix".

This life mix separates our personal (real) lives from the online (fake) lives. Online lives are easier to manage because you, the user, control the content and decisions which are shared. Our personal lives are much more intimate. Feelings and emotions can be read non verbally in person, and on the phone, voice inflections can be heard. These emotions can not be accurately expressed on the internet.

The pressures on the internet are not nearly as high as in person or on the phone. When IM'ing or texting, it is okay not to respond right away. The user is able to edit his/her posts or responses, but, in person, the pressure is high and the response time is almost immediate. According to Turkle, "A text message might give the impression of spontaneity to its recipient, but teenagers admit they might spend ten minutes editing its opening line to get it just right" (AT 200). This shows that the pressure to respond is high, but there is time to edit your text message or IM.