Well, since I promised I'd do it, (And since McKenzie Wark himself commented on that post. Gasp :O If you're reading this, let me tell you that you made my spring break a whole lot better) here's my afterthoughts on Gamer Theory.
All in all, it was rather enjoyable. Being both an novice game developer AND an absolute "Allegory of the Cave" nut, it was bound to strike my fancy. Good think I watch "This Spartan Life" often, or I'd have never found out about it!
I really found it interesting how, even though I have never played any of these games before (Except for the demo of Katamari Damacy that came with SoulCalibur 3), he still was able to easily relate the game to gamespace without losing the reader.
My two favorite segments were "Analog on Katamari Damacy," and "Battle on Rez." Let me address the former first: While I was reading this, we just happened to be reading Homer's "The Illiad" in class, so it was sorta interesting to see the reference he made to the Illiad's sequel, "The Odyssey." The other part was that, while most people concentrate on how weird the game is, or how your Katamari keeps growing until it turns into a large ball of sticky death, he focused more on how the Prince rolls said Katamari. It sorta reminds me of something Katamari Damacy's designer, Keita Takahashi, said in an interview once: "It's not about picking things up. It's more about the feeling of rolling." (To which the interviewing magazine comically replied with "Ummm... riiiiiggghhhhtttt...") Gamer Theory really took that idea and made it sound... well... sane.
Battle on Rez was another interesting concept. Rather than focusing on "Video games are violent and teach kids to murder and sell drugs!" (Which, sadly, the media has FORCED me to expect every time I see something about battle and video games in the same sentence) or the opposite of said statement, he took another mundane and overlooked concept, the feeling of aiming and targeting, and expanded it. And, as corny as it may sound, it actually changed the way I play Halo. I use the Battle Rifle (The very pinnacle of targeting prowess in Halo, even more so than the Sniper and Beam rifles) more, or I avoid aiming in general and abuse my grenades. And, as crazy as it may sound, my kill rate has doubled :D
Now, back in this post, I did mention that I found the section "Complex on Deus Ex" (Which was about Deus Ex's multiple endings, and the ways you get them) unnecessarily boring. After some reflection on that, I think that saying that was both a bit to harsh and biased. I guess I just found it boring because it promised that it was about complexity, and yet I found nothing complex about it. What I forgot to take into account is that I thought so because what makes my OWN game (Which, for an unnecessary plug, is found here,) so special is the unlocking of the multiple endings. Much like Deus Ex, my game has multiple endings that are judged by the player's actions. In fact, one may say mine may be even more complex, since Deus Ex's judged actions have some relevance to the storyline, whereas mine are just (seemingly) random interactions with the other characters that (seemingly) have no relevance to the story, like hanging out at a restaurant, or talking about making video games (teehee). What the gamer seems to find out at the end is that all those tiny little things you've been doing with the other characters have caused them to develop a bit of a fondness for you, and the character with the most fondness for you acts as a bit of a Deus Ex Machina in the final battle. One Drop raises the sea, I presume.
Buuut... Enough about my game. Back to Gamer Theory: Apparently, (If Amazon isn't a bunch of lying thieves) it comes out in about two days time. I'm definitely buying it.
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2 comments:
Justin,
I responded to your Disneyland piece (see below).
Mr. J
Justin,
Thank you so much for the many, many comments that you have left on my "blog" over the last few months. I do plan to get back to you, eventulay, though it never seems as though I have the time...
Here is what I wrote about you, for tonight's homework:
The last one is from Justin Ureta. This is only one of the many, many comments that he left on my “blog” over the time that we have been engaged in these web pages, but it was the first and, I thought, a good example. If you are looking for my response, or more comments from him, I would suggest that you look on both of our “blogs” as I don’t think that any of them are all in one place. This particular comment was on a piece called “Fahrenheit 451 80-91”.
“Kit, I saw your comment on Mr. Jana's blog (Under his entry, "READ THIS: My Reflections on Blogs and Technology"), and couldn't resist but to fight in the name of computer nerds everywhere ;) Let me start off by pointing out part of your comment: "We are reaching this age similar to what Captain Beatty says, “Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?” I see that already. You ask someone what the last book they read was and they can’t tell you, they don’t remember or it was something that had to read for class. So we look at why that is. I am sure that if you looked at when reading began to decrease it would drop in perfect synchronization with the introduction of an Internet that is available to anyone. Teens don’t do anything unless it is required. They want to sit on their “blogs” and their instant messenger and they’ll read a book if you make them, but not unless they have to. It doesn’t progress their understanding of “fitting nuts and bolts”. First off, I ask you not to stereotype your fellow teens in such ways. It would have worked if you simply said "the majority of teens." Second off: You regard typing such intricate posts as "pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts"? Please, if you could bring me three books that you own that were handwritten, I'd love to see them. Third off: Reading did not decrease when the internet began. That was radio. In fact, I think it is the internet that is SAVING reading! Since nothing could be easily transmitted by audio through the internet, everything is transmitted through text, causing teens all around the world to "learn" how to read again. On top of that, there are wonderful websites like www.dailylit.com that will actually SEND you novels for FREE via email. If it wasn't for them, I would have never gotten the chance to read 20,000 leagues under the sea. Fourth off: "They want to sit on their “blogs” and their instant messenger and they’ll read a book if you make them, but not unless they have to." Do you have a journal or a diary, Kit? Tell me, what is so different between that and a blog? And as for instant messanging, have you never written a letter before, or used the telephone? Instant messaging is the same concept, except, as the name suggests, it is instant. Convenient. Furthering communication between humans. I dare you to tell me that is a bad thing. As for "only reading a book when they have to," I sadly must agree with you there. I have a theory, though, that if you took a novel and gave it to a teen, he wouldn't read it. BUT, if you took the same novel and placed the whole of it's contents on a webpage, kids would read it. For some reason, the word "book" just has a negative impact on the youth these days. Finally, I would like to direct your attention to a rather interesting piece of literature (That I found online, of all places. Gasp.) http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/ It's a rather wonderful piece, building off of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, with the thesis that the world is becoming more like the video games that once mimicked it, and what's more, why that is a GOOD THING.”
This conversation became incredibly interesting and long (and heated, I might add). It was nice to debate this topic with someone on a more personal level than in a classroom setting. One of the nice things about this debate with Justin was also that his position was so radically different from my own. This element made it much more interesting (and difficult!) to come up with new arguments, anticipating the way that he would respond. Thank you!
Thanks!
Kit
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