We talked a lot about metaphors in class today. The main one is the time = money. For example, one can spend and waste time just like money is spent and wasted. This is an attempt at defamiliarizing the concept. Another metaphor is anger = a bomb. I was talking to him and I blew up. However, Bogost suggests that anger = watering a plant. In other words, you're the one cultivating the anger, you are the one in control of it. If anger is a bomb, you can't do anything about it; if it's a plant that you nourish, there are all kinds of things you can do that are implications for acting.
Laying out models for how the world works lays out possibilities of action. This is done through using metaphors to help us better understand the world around us.
The discussion now turns to focus on Bogost's text and how he talks about how games set up frames for different things. We talked about Tax Invaders. It's based off the game Space Invaders, and its frame is that instead of a laser gun, you play with George W. Bush's head, shooting John Kerry's tax plans. It's a political message disguised as a game, and its frame is that you are able, as the player, to take an active stand against the democratic position. We decided that it was a way of dumbing down the boring, bland political message by putting it into the form of a video game.
Thinking about things like terrorism, drugs, poverty, and other things that politicians declare wars on shape the way the general public views these concepts as being enemies that are real and tangible. This is the same thing that Tax Invaders does. It depicts the frame in tangible form, in the rules of the game. It gets people to think about society, and it's up to the video game designers of the future to realize that and act upon that.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Monday, April 18th
Bret Keough, Anna Romano, Cade Taylor: Pages 28-64 in Persuasive Games
Procedural rhetoric, according to Bogost, is the processes used to persuade someone of something. Then, on page 46, Bogost begins talking about persuasive games. The goal of persuasive games is to make the player keep on playing; to give the game an addictive quality. However, Bogost is interested in videogames that make arguments about the way systems work in the material world. The examples he discusses strive to move the player from the game world into the material world. They're not really intended to be played for amusement. Examples include Tactical Iraqi, Crazy World, and Tax Avoiders. They make arguments about the way systems work in the material world by using visual rhetoric to hypnotize the consumer into continually accessing the media text. That's why it's so important to keep the visuals up to date, because that's what draws in the game's clientele. A downfall for a game would be taking the procedural rhetoric from another game, adding its own visuals, instead of having its own representation; this in turn leads to ineffectiveness. More successful procedural rhetorics have unique ideas behind them in order to avoid audits, income taxes, or CPA charges (according to Bogost). Finally, there is a very distinct difference between Sutton-Smith's rhetorics of play and Bogost's procedural rhetoric: the former characterize broad cultural contexts, while the latter express specific patterns of cultural value. "If persuasive games are videogames that mount meaningful procedural rhetorics, and if procedural rhetorics facilitate dialectical interrogation of process-based claims about how real-world processes do, could, or should work, then persuasive games can also make claims that speak past or against the fixed worldviews of institutions like governments or corporations" (p. 57).
Procedural rhetoric, according to Bogost, is the processes used to persuade someone of something. Then, on page 46, Bogost begins talking about persuasive games. The goal of persuasive games is to make the player keep on playing; to give the game an addictive quality. However, Bogost is interested in videogames that make arguments about the way systems work in the material world. The examples he discusses strive to move the player from the game world into the material world. They're not really intended to be played for amusement. Examples include Tactical Iraqi, Crazy World, and Tax Avoiders. They make arguments about the way systems work in the material world by using visual rhetoric to hypnotize the consumer into continually accessing the media text. That's why it's so important to keep the visuals up to date, because that's what draws in the game's clientele. A downfall for a game would be taking the procedural rhetoric from another game, adding its own visuals, instead of having its own representation; this in turn leads to ineffectiveness. More successful procedural rhetorics have unique ideas behind them in order to avoid audits, income taxes, or CPA charges (according to Bogost). Finally, there is a very distinct difference between Sutton-Smith's rhetorics of play and Bogost's procedural rhetoric: the former characterize broad cultural contexts, while the latter express specific patterns of cultural value. "If persuasive games are videogames that mount meaningful procedural rhetorics, and if procedural rhetorics facilitate dialectical interrogation of process-based claims about how real-world processes do, could, or should work, then persuasive games can also make claims that speak past or against the fixed worldviews of institutions like governments or corporations" (p. 57).
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Wednesday, April 13th
Procedural rhetoric: procedures for interacting with the world around us.
N-grams: using rules of probability to predict which letters will come next. In other words, based on what you type, I can figure out which letters will come next to finish the initial thought. Involving or serving as an aid to learning.
Bogost Discussion:
Procedurality is a way of creating, explaining, or understanding processes, and processes define the way things work: the methods, techniques and logics that surround the way society functions in all contexts. Rhetoric, according to Bogost, is the relationship between the audience and the presenter. It can also be seen as something the presenter uses. Paula says that anything that can convey meaning is considered rhetoric. She uses picking out a shirt as an example. Laura counters this by saying it's more an example of a symbol. She says that rhetoric implies one persuading or making an argument about something. You're staking a claim.
Procedural rhetoric is going to combine procedure and rhetoric: methods, techniques, or logics for persuading someone of something. With computers, using computation systems as a way of analyzing them and what they're doing. What Bogost is basically doing in thinking about procedural rhetoric in this way is called "software studies" or "code studies." This is the analysis of computational methods, techniques or procedures.
Procedures are usually hierarchical in that they go from the top down. You have to follow a procedure because you're underneath me and I'm telling you what to do.
Procedures are also related to ideology. Ideology is the way you look at the world. It's a lot like a worldview, only ideologies carry negative connotations with false consciousness. It has to do with the difference between what is real and what we perceive, and as soon as you set up that dichotomy, ideology becomes a bad thing because it clouds the truth from our perception.
Are we bound in one ideology? I don't think so, because it is very possible to seek out other opinions and information to add to your perception of truth.
Is procedure closer to ritual, just following recipes blindly without thinking? Procedure can often be defined as executing rules. Rules are not the same as laws (this is Laura talking, not Bogost). Therefore, even things like speaking a language can be a game, because you follow a set of rules, not laws, in order to function within the contextual framework of that language. Just because there are rules doesn't mean you can't create something incredibly original. However, laws do, by definition, limit what one can do. Rules can be altered and substituted based upon personal desire; laws cannot. What effect to rules have on us and how can we alter them?
Visual rhetoric: using pictures, movies with little dialogue to convey a meaning or argue a point/stake a claim. Seems to lack the capacity to be analytic. Languages lack deep textual analysis. Can evoke an instantaneous reaction. Not specifically saying anything, but still provokes emotions. Images can be traumatizing , however words can be as well.
Using pictures to make an argument (Cade Taylor, Jackie Beresford, Anna Romano):
N-grams: using rules of probability to predict which letters will come next. In other words, based on what you type, I can figure out which letters will come next to finish the initial thought. Involving or serving as an aid to learning.
Bogost Discussion:
Procedurality is a way of creating, explaining, or understanding processes, and processes define the way things work: the methods, techniques and logics that surround the way society functions in all contexts. Rhetoric, according to Bogost, is the relationship between the audience and the presenter. It can also be seen as something the presenter uses. Paula says that anything that can convey meaning is considered rhetoric. She uses picking out a shirt as an example. Laura counters this by saying it's more an example of a symbol. She says that rhetoric implies one persuading or making an argument about something. You're staking a claim.
Procedural rhetoric is going to combine procedure and rhetoric: methods, techniques, or logics for persuading someone of something. With computers, using computation systems as a way of analyzing them and what they're doing. What Bogost is basically doing in thinking about procedural rhetoric in this way is called "software studies" or "code studies." This is the analysis of computational methods, techniques or procedures.
Procedures are usually hierarchical in that they go from the top down. You have to follow a procedure because you're underneath me and I'm telling you what to do.
Procedures are also related to ideology. Ideology is the way you look at the world. It's a lot like a worldview, only ideologies carry negative connotations with false consciousness. It has to do with the difference between what is real and what we perceive, and as soon as you set up that dichotomy, ideology becomes a bad thing because it clouds the truth from our perception.
Are we bound in one ideology? I don't think so, because it is very possible to seek out other opinions and information to add to your perception of truth.
Is procedure closer to ritual, just following recipes blindly without thinking? Procedure can often be defined as executing rules. Rules are not the same as laws (this is Laura talking, not Bogost). Therefore, even things like speaking a language can be a game, because you follow a set of rules, not laws, in order to function within the contextual framework of that language. Just because there are rules doesn't mean you can't create something incredibly original. However, laws do, by definition, limit what one can do. Rules can be altered and substituted based upon personal desire; laws cannot. What effect to rules have on us and how can we alter them?
Visual rhetoric: using pictures, movies with little dialogue to convey a meaning or argue a point/stake a claim. Seems to lack the capacity to be analytic. Languages lack deep textual analysis. Can evoke an instantaneous reaction. Not specifically saying anything, but still provokes emotions. Images can be traumatizing , however words can be as well.
Using pictures to make an argument (Cade Taylor, Jackie Beresford, Anna Romano):
Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday, April 11th
For Wednesday's class, we're supposed to have pages 1-28 of Bogost read. Now we're going to get a presentation on the Sims, then Laura's going to introduce us to Bogost.
I thought we were going to be playing The Sims today, but we aren't, but Laura says that we can send 5-6 people into the game lab to play then come back and send the next group over.
Laura's story of Bogost:
Very famous game theorist at Georgia Tech. He got his Ph.D. at UCLA in comparative literature. He worked for Persuasive Games at the same time. In order to get a Ph.D, you have to go to 6 years of schooling after college, and you apparently get pleasure as opposed to money. You have to get an MA before a Ph.D, know two languages other than English, take a ton of exams, get a job, then publish a book within 5 years of being hired. So when Bogost finally turned in his dissertation after 10 years, it apparently sucked so bad that they failed him. He went on to become very famous and do a lot of good things, which shows that you should always pick yourself up and keep on keepin on.
"Video games are an expressive medium." Bogost will talk about games as art, and will give us a way of analyzing them called "procedural rhetoric."
We started a discussion of whether The Sims is a game or not. I think it is just because I used to play it a lot, but there really isn't any ultimate goal or end to it, which is essential in the definition of a game. Also, the difference between WoW and the Sims is that WoW is online and you have to interact with a ton of people in order to succeed in the game, whereas with the Sims you're all by yourself and working with fictional characters within the game itself.
Are games forcing us to behave in ways that are more mechanical than the ways books make us behave? Well, they both make us perform a certain procedure in order to fully experience what the medium has to offer. Laura showed that reading a book is procedural.
Is there anything human that is not a biological or cultural procedure? I don't think that there is because what makes up a human's existence is his ability to utilize the contrast of nature (biological procedures) and nurture (cultural procedures). In other words, the combination of these two aspects in one's life is what makes him the person he becomes. With both, biological and cultural, come certain procedures that define how he reacts in certain situations and how he sees the world around him, and all these things accumulate to represent everything that is "human." Laura thought my answer was really good. Bam.
I thought we were going to be playing The Sims today, but we aren't, but Laura says that we can send 5-6 people into the game lab to play then come back and send the next group over.
Laura's story of Bogost:
Very famous game theorist at Georgia Tech. He got his Ph.D. at UCLA in comparative literature. He worked for Persuasive Games at the same time. In order to get a Ph.D, you have to go to 6 years of schooling after college, and you apparently get pleasure as opposed to money. You have to get an MA before a Ph.D, know two languages other than English, take a ton of exams, get a job, then publish a book within 5 years of being hired. So when Bogost finally turned in his dissertation after 10 years, it apparently sucked so bad that they failed him. He went on to become very famous and do a lot of good things, which shows that you should always pick yourself up and keep on keepin on.
"Video games are an expressive medium." Bogost will talk about games as art, and will give us a way of analyzing them called "procedural rhetoric."
- The Sims Presentation
- Brought the player into the individual home
- Plumbob
- Diamond shape that hangs over the player’s avatar person
- You can control his every move or give him free will and let him do what he wants
- Sandbox game
- No rules
- Do whatever you want
- Control their daily lives
- Cooking, eating, relationships, learning
- Creative outlet
- Design
- Narrative
- o History
- Created by Will Wright, creator of Sim City in 1989
- 6.3 copies sold worldwide by March 2002
- Expansion packs
- Livin’ Large
- House Party
- Hot Date
- Vacation
- Unleashed
- Superstar
- Makin’ Magic
- Player Modifications
- Give you a ton of different things you can do with your sims
- The Sims 2 and Expansions
- Released 2004
- Selling a record 1 million copies in first 10 days
- Features
- University
- Nightlife
- Open for Business
- Pets
- Seasons
- Bon voyage
- Free Time
- Apartment Life
- Almost on a 6 month cycle
- Characters were able to slump and slouch rather than being stiff and 2 dimensional
- Don’t have to buy all of them, but you have to have the base game then you can add the expansion packs to them in any order
- The Sims 3
- World Adventures
- Ambitions
- Late Night
- Generations
- May 2011
- Players have been collaborating with each other for years
- Medieval was a really big theme, and EA liked it, so they released Sims Medieval
- Set in Medieval times
- Can have quests and lords and stuff
- Create a World Tool
- Create a Pattern Tool
- Modifications
- Players dissect the code and make their own modifications
- Player communities would share them
- Items, skins, clothes
- The Sims 2 Content Manager Tool
- The Sims 2 Home Crafter Tool
- The Exchange & Your Sim Page
- Apparently you can download mods that allow you to work with Mario and Luigi stuff, be Lady Gaga, things like that
Are games forcing us to behave in ways that are more mechanical than the ways books make us behave? Well, they both make us perform a certain procedure in order to fully experience what the medium has to offer. Laura showed that reading a book is procedural.
Is there anything human that is not a biological or cultural procedure? I don't think that there is because what makes up a human's existence is his ability to utilize the contrast of nature (biological procedures) and nurture (cultural procedures). In other words, the combination of these two aspects in one's life is what makes him the person he becomes. With both, biological and cultural, come certain procedures that define how he reacts in certain situations and how he sees the world around him, and all these things accumulate to represent everything that is "human." Laura thought my answer was really good. Bam.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 30th
We're playing WoW today. Laura's reading a bunch of provocative statements about the game for us to form our blogs about. Me, Jackie and Anna are the only ones in the whole classroom to have written down the following statements. (Brownie Points)
"The social structures of WoW are in fact very similar to the interlocking and shifting hierarchies of multinational corporations."
"WoW is a playground for feminism."
"Is WoW biologizing cultural difference, or even tacking race onto personality and intellectual traits?"
"WoW is a virtual theme park."
Now a girl in our class is showing us how to create our own WoW accounts. I'm trying to make mine, but the application won't open for some reason...
Ok, so apparently the application wasn't actually installed on my computer, so now, instead of joining everyone else and playing WoW, I have to sit and watch this stupid application install on my computer. This thing's going to be done by the time this class is over. Awesome. Of all the computers I could have chosen today...
Installation just finished, time to start playing. Heyah!
Scratch that, it never worked on the Miami Internet. Apparently the firewall doesn't like the Blizzard downloader. So I tried it on my laptop too, but that didn't work either. Looks like I'm just SOL...
Scratch that ^, I am now playing. My guys name is Eatbraains, and naturally, he is a zombie.
"The social structures of WoW are in fact very similar to the interlocking and shifting hierarchies of multinational corporations."
"WoW is a playground for feminism."
"Is WoW biologizing cultural difference, or even tacking race onto personality and intellectual traits?"
"WoW is a virtual theme park."
Now a girl in our class is showing us how to create our own WoW accounts. I'm trying to make mine, but the application won't open for some reason...
Ok, so apparently the application wasn't actually installed on my computer, so now, instead of joining everyone else and playing WoW, I have to sit and watch this stupid application install on my computer. This thing's going to be done by the time this class is over. Awesome. Of all the computers I could have chosen today...
Installation just finished, time to start playing. Heyah!
Scratch that, it never worked on the Miami Internet. Apparently the firewall doesn't like the Blizzard downloader. So I tried it on my laptop too, but that didn't work either. Looks like I'm just SOL...
Scratch that ^, I am now playing. My guys name is Eatbraains, and naturally, he is a zombie.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 28th
Today we talked about Super Smash Bros, and now we're holding a mini tournament in class. I signed up to play, but I have way too much on my plate right now to even think about playing video games. Besides, I'm a much bigger fan of the N64 version of the game, and play it often with my brothers when I'm home. Melee is too complicated for me, and unfortunately the skills do not translate.
Jon did a presentation on it, and said that Mega Knight was actually seen by the players of the game as being unfair, and should thus be removed from the game entirely. However, the best player in the world, using Diddy Kong, played another really good player using Mega Knight, and actually won, so the rumors were put to rest.
Laura says that she can hear narrative going on in the banter between players, and it's a really unique game in the fact that there is no set narrative in the mulitplayer setting, but emerges brilliantly in the culture of players who use the game. "Remember when I beat you by doing this?" "Remember when this happened?"It's a pretty cool concept.
Jon did a presentation on it, and said that Mega Knight was actually seen by the players of the game as being unfair, and should thus be removed from the game entirely. However, the best player in the world, using Diddy Kong, played another really good player using Mega Knight, and actually won, so the rumors were put to rest.
Laura says that she can hear narrative going on in the banter between players, and it's a really unique game in the fact that there is no set narrative in the mulitplayer setting, but emerges brilliantly in the culture of players who use the game. "Remember when I beat you by doing this?" "Remember when this happened?"It's a pretty cool concept.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Monday, March 21st
This is what Laura thinks the argument of Reality is Broken is:
To be fair, we're going to call Christianity a myth that fits in with all the other mythological systems that have existed over the course of time. They have all depended upon a certain kind of narrative structure in order to spread and exist; this structure is called "The life of the hero." It predominates in epic stories, the Bible, and all kinds of contemporary media texts. So why do these things matter? This structure has allowed these myths and religions to persist throughout the history of mankind.
Jane McGonigle talks about this phenomenon in terms of gaming. She looks at the alleged gaming problem in which there is a mass exodus into the world of gaming. They're leaving reality in droves for the gaming world, and Jane asks why? She says this is because reality is broken (haha, title of the book). She says that games allow ordinary people who can't stand their lives to undergo the life of the hero within these games, and this is extremely attractive to these people.
So why is reality broken? In what ways? Social problems, no poetic justice (corruption). To me, I think that reality hasn't necessarily broken down, it's just transformed. What's broken is the notion of reality itself and the utopian desires of people who want reality to be a certain way, void of the elements that have broken reality. Reality has simply spread out across multiple mediums, becoming embedded in the virtual world. In addition, there is now global interaction, which has actually expanded reality in a universal sense.
Jane says that in reality, we need to be able to see problems, be able to confront them, and solve them in the best way possible. Obviously there are limitations to this ideal, so that's why people are leaving the world for games. Jane suggests that we make reality a game, which would make more people want to join in and feel empowered.
What happens if we make a social problem a game? One example is Ender's Game. It's a great book in which a boy is trained to fight an alien army, but finds out that... I don't want to give away the ending.
It's a hard time to be optimistic in our society with all the negative stuff that's going on, so Jane asks us if we can set goals on positive progress. This is a much lower bar than other huge goals that a lot of people focus on. Laura asked us how many people can set goals and focus on progress (I raised my hand). She offers 3 steps that help us do just that:
1. Develop the When and Where of creating an alternate reality.
2. Invite people into our alternate reality games (friends and family).
3. Create activities that can be adopted as the core mechanics of our alternate reality games.
We can't believe that we can create a better place in this world all on our own, but we can believe the narrative of games. Therefore, we should turn reality into a game.
Superbetter- turns hardships and trials into a game, completing 5 missions a day until the goal is achieved. Example- Jane the Concussion-Slayer. She had to make the concussion the villain, and recruited her little sister as her guide who had to call her every day to check in. Other people got roles too, making it much like a game. People believe in this kind of language a lot more than that which "worked" in the past (the disease is a demon). She wants to take the enchanted world and implant it into the disenchanted, realistic, scientific world. It's very idealistic to think that we can fix reality with games, but I think that it's something that is very intriguing.
However, I also think that it takes a certain kind of personality in certain circumstances to get into this mentality. If I had a concussion or some other disease, I don't think that I'd be able to immerse myself into that kind of a mentality without feeling extremely self conscious about losing my reputation or maturity. I can definitely see how it can work for other people, but for me, I have to be able to see the problem in the most simplistic sense in order to see what kinds of solutions will/won't work.
That's just me though. I can absolutely see how this can work for others.
To be fair, we're going to call Christianity a myth that fits in with all the other mythological systems that have existed over the course of time. They have all depended upon a certain kind of narrative structure in order to spread and exist; this structure is called "The life of the hero." It predominates in epic stories, the Bible, and all kinds of contemporary media texts. So why do these things matter? This structure has allowed these myths and religions to persist throughout the history of mankind.
Jane McGonigle talks about this phenomenon in terms of gaming. She looks at the alleged gaming problem in which there is a mass exodus into the world of gaming. They're leaving reality in droves for the gaming world, and Jane asks why? She says this is because reality is broken (haha, title of the book). She says that games allow ordinary people who can't stand their lives to undergo the life of the hero within these games, and this is extremely attractive to these people.
So why is reality broken? In what ways? Social problems, no poetic justice (corruption). To me, I think that reality hasn't necessarily broken down, it's just transformed. What's broken is the notion of reality itself and the utopian desires of people who want reality to be a certain way, void of the elements that have broken reality. Reality has simply spread out across multiple mediums, becoming embedded in the virtual world. In addition, there is now global interaction, which has actually expanded reality in a universal sense.
Jane says that in reality, we need to be able to see problems, be able to confront them, and solve them in the best way possible. Obviously there are limitations to this ideal, so that's why people are leaving the world for games. Jane suggests that we make reality a game, which would make more people want to join in and feel empowered.
What happens if we make a social problem a game? One example is Ender's Game. It's a great book in which a boy is trained to fight an alien army, but finds out that... I don't want to give away the ending.
It's a hard time to be optimistic in our society with all the negative stuff that's going on, so Jane asks us if we can set goals on positive progress. This is a much lower bar than other huge goals that a lot of people focus on. Laura asked us how many people can set goals and focus on progress (I raised my hand). She offers 3 steps that help us do just that:
1. Develop the When and Where of creating an alternate reality.
2. Invite people into our alternate reality games (friends and family).
3. Create activities that can be adopted as the core mechanics of our alternate reality games.
We can't believe that we can create a better place in this world all on our own, but we can believe the narrative of games. Therefore, we should turn reality into a game.
Superbetter- turns hardships and trials into a game, completing 5 missions a day until the goal is achieved. Example- Jane the Concussion-Slayer. She had to make the concussion the villain, and recruited her little sister as her guide who had to call her every day to check in. Other people got roles too, making it much like a game. People believe in this kind of language a lot more than that which "worked" in the past (the disease is a demon). She wants to take the enchanted world and implant it into the disenchanted, realistic, scientific world. It's very idealistic to think that we can fix reality with games, but I think that it's something that is very intriguing.
However, I also think that it takes a certain kind of personality in certain circumstances to get into this mentality. If I had a concussion or some other disease, I don't think that I'd be able to immerse myself into that kind of a mentality without feeling extremely self conscious about losing my reputation or maturity. I can definitely see how it can work for other people, but for me, I have to be able to see the problem in the most simplistic sense in order to see what kinds of solutions will/won't work.
That's just me though. I can absolutely see how this can work for others.
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