Them Newfangled Vidja’ Games
The recounting of the girl expressing hatred for the game even as she couldn’t stop playing it sounded familiar. My roommate and some other friends play xbox 360 quite a bit and often say things like “Oh, I hate this part!” or “I hate this stupid game!” (These are usually the most difficult parts of the game.) Sometimes I ask why they’re playing it if they hate it, it usually doesn’t go over very well.
I found myself beginning to feel concern for Jarish’s welfare, it makes me wonder how he turned out after having such an irregular childhood.
On the whole I agreed with a lot of the points made in this article, I think a large majority of people who didn’t grow up with video games tend to misunderstand them entirely as a mindless, sedentary time-waster that will turn your brain to mush even faster than television. In my own experience the same people who held these beliefs also espoused the wonders of reading, it always felt like a contradiction to me given that reading has less maximum potential to engage a person and is actually significantly more sedentary. Granted, most video games aren’t good physical exercise, but I would say that playing a good video game could be as beneficial (though in some different capacities) as reading a good book. And really, what knowledge or skill you acquire from enjoying something should be beside the point.
Another question I thought about while reading this essay is how long it will take for video games to be recognized as a legitimate art form by the general public. If we come to hold them with the same esteem as other games it won’t really get us to that point, as few people would identify popular board games as masterful works of art even if they are. Video games have come a very long way in a very short period of time, and the progression reminds me a little of the history of film – first it was seen as a fun diversion with no future use, and even after the picture shows caught on it took a long time for film to be recognized as a ’serious’ art form. A lot of the video games that receive critical acclaim in this area tend to be lauded for elements that make them like film or literature, such as visuals and story – Bioshock, for example, feels sort of like a semi-playable movie to me.
Oh, and the project. I’ll be honest, I probably need to pick up the pace. I’ve begun work on the introduction -starting with the question Engelbart poses at the beginning of the talk. I’m planning to create visualizations for the early parts of the talk resembling Commodore 64 and other early computers, and move forward technologically as the video progresses.
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