Week 8 - Topic 8 - Video Games

Lecture –

The lecture this week discussed the effect of video games and their popularity between genders. The lecturer began with a lengthy discussion with the students, asking for their opinions on video games. He began with a generalised view that guys believe video games to be educational and girls don’t see a use for them. However when the discussion was opened up to the audience, he discovered that this was not the case. Many of the women agreed that video games do have a purpose in training the mind and helping with hand and eye co-ordination. People did admit to becoming addicted to video games, which can become quite dangerous as they then began to test the boundaries of virtual reality and actual reality, which seems to be becoming a popular theme in this class. It’s a social problem. The lecture introduced the concept of narratology, the new study of video games. It’s the belief that video games can be viewed like a text, like a book. That they have some academic properties.

Tutorial –

The tutorial tasks for this week included using Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Since I already know how to use Microsoft word, I just attempted the tasks on Excel instead and I found it harder. I don’t claim to be particularly clever when it comes to computers; it’s why I’m doing this course nor am I very good with formulas which is apparently what Excel helps you do, but apparently I’m also not very good with figuring out how to put equations into computers for them to figure out. I had a lot of trouble with the task, I tried and failed. But I do know more about Excel now – I shouldn’t use it.

Reading –

The reading for this week is from a book called ‘Trigger Happy’, chapter 3. It’s an interesting way to prove just how unrealistic games really are. As real as they may be perceived by the person playing it, the adrenalin rush of the chase and fire, the game, in reality, is extremely impossible. Not to mention the fact that the game is fighting aliens in space (unrealistic in itself) the book goes on to discuss how unrealistic the firing of a laser is represented in the game. An interesting example given by the author was the idea of putting a race car driver in-front of a race car computer game and he will still crash the car because the dynamics of control are different within the game. This is therefore saying that no matter how close to reality games can be, they are still games, not reality. An example I can think of, is if a kid playing a race car game thinks he can drive because he didn’t crash in the game doesn’t mean if he took out his parents car and drove as fast as he did in that game he wouldn’t crash. The realities are different. Real life has certain obstacles not represented in a game, including other drivers who also have an unpredictable mind of their own, whereas game characters don’t.