Week Three: Mastery and Interactivity

1. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Steven Malliet and Gust de Meyer’s, and Aphra Kerr’s essays are effective origin narratives about the historical and economic rise of computer games. Key Ideas from Malliet and deMeyer: Periodize certain important games and the innovations they brought to the gaming culture and business models Forerunners of computer games are board games, children’s hide and seek, cops and robbers 1962 a pivotal moment when the first video as we recognize it today emerged Roles of “the godfathers” of the computer game (23) Willy Higgenbotham, Steve Russell, Ralph Baer and Nolan Bushnell and their particular contributions Higgenbotham brought interest in scientific instrumentation to nonscientific audiences with his creation of the abstract simulation game Tennis for Two (23)--innovation: interactivity and limited player control --no reward system In 1962 Steve Russell developed Spacewar at MIT --considered the first computer game Week Three: Mastery and Interactivity

2. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Key Ideas from Malliet and deMeyer (continued): Ralph Baer developed first in-home videogame through cable technology-- innovation: merged television and computer gaming (console idea) (24) Nolan Bushnell developed Computer Space game in 1970--innovation: a computer game in the pinball tradition, first arcade game & first created to make money (not popular game); developed Pong first game hit (arcade idea) Videogame industry launched in 1970s; standards for platforms and genres emerge Arcade and console vie for market dominance Bushnell’s Atari corporation dominates and runs a near monopoly over the coin-operated arcades game market Kee Games innovates the ROM chip that improves graphics and gameplay accuracy with Tank (which introduced the kill or be killed play mode--the father of the shoot-em-up Midway games innovates microprocessors, and introduces the early joystick and fake guns--its racing simulator innovates the bonus points system for violence--runnig over live creatures crossing the road (GTA elevates this gameplay element)

3. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Key Ideas from Malliet and deMeyer (continued): 1978 - 1984-- Games industry has first crisis and see Japanese games invasion Japan’s history of game machines helps it rise quickly in computer games industry Taito develops Space Invaders (1978), in partnership with Midway --innovations: first with narrative structure, elevates the reward system--endless points, endless play--aliens keep coming, used functional sound Nameco’s 1981 launch of Pac-Man pefects the maze game genre; innovations: non-violent content appeals to girls, found in arcades and family friendly spaces, and becomes the first star of the gaming era Nintendo and Sega develop new genre; the climbing or obstacle game, Donkey Kong and Frogger respectively Atari’s Adventure game; innovation: first graphics-based versus text-based adventure game; it Battlezone game; innovation: image processing Computing power and content development improve simultaneously in the early 1980s

4. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Key Ideas from Malliet and deMeyer (continued): Game platforms and genres: a) Arcades: simulation games b) Handheld: maze and climbing games (innovation: LCD screen) c) Home consoles: adventure games Nintendo rises to global dominance when U.S. games market declines in 1983--oversaturation of poor games driven by console market Miyamoto develops Mario Brothers from Donkey Kong Mario Brothers Innovations (content and technology): a) Human-like characters (Japanese Manga cartoon tradition) b) Multi-player mode c) Level system--levels of play (analogous to chapters) d) New opponents, new obstacles, new goals or quests Super Mario Brothers a) Eight worlds and thirty -two levels b) Character movements left and right c) Power-ups

5. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Key Ideas from Malliet and deMeyer (continued): Although Ninendo supplanted Atari after the crisis of overproduction of bad games in the 1980s, Atari remained competitive with the new games leader of that era Nintendo’s lead in the industry was helped by its Gameboy handheld gaming technology Gameboy revolution: a) First true handheld game computer b) Featured Tetris (addictive and popular -- psychological hook--making order from chaos c) Featured non-violent game d) Popularized the puzzle game genre Roberta Williams (and husband) developed first graphically controlled adventure game King’s Quest (w/type in commands) Lucasfilm Games developed “point and click” technology--key tech advance: typed commands replaced with computer mouse Rise of strategy game genre (aka God game: Sim City, Civilization) a) highly addictive play(good storytelling, user friendly interface--the mouse point and click) b) isometric perspective (37)

6. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Key Ideas from Malliet and deMeyer (continued): c) gamers now control who populations, not single character Adventure and Role-playing games helped make console games strong in the market Legend of Zelda: console game, a major breakthrough in role-playing adventure game (solve puzzles, earn power-ups, but emphasis on character development) Street Fighter: arcade game introduces the “beat ‘em ups” genre --adapted from martial arts movies--Draws attacks from parents and civic groups Early 1990s sees technology advances and “war of the bits” The 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit, 128 processors change console games forever--Sonic the Hedgehog and Virtua Racing games emerge Sony Playstation is introduced in 1994: Other tech advances: a) Cartridges challenged with CD-ROM format b) Connecting game console to Internet c) Color comes to handhelds d) Networked consoles and PC games displace arcades significantly e) 3-D graphics introduced in 1992: ID Game developer

7. FM 150 VG: VIDEOGAME HISTORY AND STRATEGIES Key Ideas from Malliet and deMeyer (continued): Castle Wolfenstein: first 3-D game, highly violent Doom and Quake: First person shooter (FPS) & 3-D: a) Inaugurates first person perspective b) Required high level of skill c) Heightened realism d) Heightened violence e) Quake was networked online f) Gamers play against other gamers (not computer opponent only) g) QuakeC-computer language uploaded to Internet for gamers to co-create the game--birth of the “Mod” phenom 34. Sports, simulation, & action adventure games also benefit from 3-D technology advances Electronic Arts game publisher becomes lucrative with NBA Basketball, NHL Hocky and FIFA Soccer; Tomb Raider interjects gender difference --heroine--less violence: Lara Croft become gaming’s superstar--Feminism?? 2-D games persist: strategy and RPGs/ Cut scenes introduced (42)

8. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Key Ideas from Malliet and deMeyer (continued): 38. Playstation 2, X-Box, and Game Cube consoles remain vital even with strong competition from PC games 39. Game industry leaders in the mid to late 1990s push for networked or online gaming -- their future vision MMORPGs 40. Playstation 2: Innovation--creation of computer console as multimedia machine • Justin Hall’s “Future of Games: Mobile Gaming” • Considers the development of new communication technologies that keep us connected to machines during every waking moment. Thinks about how mobile communication technologies affects new modes of gaming, human interaction with machines, and social structures. • Key concepts: • pervasive electronic play • digital distraction • cell phone games • Bot-fighters and SMS gaming movement • Counter Strike MMOG (anyone familiar with this game) • Read page 52: on surrogate gaming --discuss

9. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Key Ideas from Aphra Kerr, Ian Bogost: Kerr on “Digital Games as Text” Games as textual systems emerged in the US during the era of rock & roll music (Nintendo equates with the Beatles, Sega, the Stones), the Space Race and the Cold War Games developed by playful hackers embedded in Military industrial complex--driven by “intrinsic pleasure of experimenting not search for profit Media discourse about games in 70s-80s tended to reflect and influence the conservative political climate culminating with the Reagan Administration and its subsequent negative associations--moral panics about “health risks of playing games” “effects of game content on values, attitudes and behaviors”; but some positive views: games provide a safe/alternative play environment Belief that computers are good object: associated with work & education; games conversely are bad object: associated with waste of time & waste of human resources Bogost on “The Rhetoric of Video Games” Extends Salen and Zimmerman’s work, following Johan Huizinga, on “meaningful play” (all play means something--an intricate relationship among game design, play, and meaning)

10. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Bogost on “The Rhetoric of Video Games” (continued) Key Concepts: “Community of practice” (a subculture of sorts organized around a particular game and its values, strategies, ideas and approaches to play itself Recuperating the nature of play: from charges of unproductive , trifle and leech on normal childhood develolpment to useful definition of the term--rejoin the functions of play and learning “Possibility space” the free space of movement within a more rigid structure--rules make play possible in the first place (the childhood playground is example--children negotiate the rules of play) Procedurality: process is static course of action--games represent things through procedurality (systems of behaviors based on rule-based models--computational algorithms) Rhetoric: persuasive speech (Plato and Aristotle): one example: visual rhetoric (ads, photos, illustrations) at work in videogames, but add to that process-or procedurality Procedural Rhetoric--new ways to make claims about how things work: videogames make persuasive arguments with processes (for example filght simulators--model rules of how aviation works) a) Animal Crossing and the McDonalds advergame

11. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Bogost on “The Rhetoric of Video Games” (continued) Key Concepts: 6. Procedural Rhetoric (cont) b) America’s Army: Operations (military-entertainment complex) claims about US military ideology Epistemic games (model how a profession works) Critical gameplay (reinforcing or challenging dominant ideas, social norms and values, and understanding gaming’s truth claims) • Joost Raessens: “Computer Games as Participatory Media Culture” • Caution against buying into the rhetorics of “gaming culture’s remediation” of earlier practices of interactivity and participatory culture as somehow unique in gaming’s medium specificity • Earlier moments of participatory culture, Bertolt Brecht and Walter Benjamin (373) • Radio, film and TV had moments and expressions of interactivity and participation • Three specific characteristics of computer games as digital media: multimediality. virtuality, and interactivity (374)

12. FM 187 VG: TOPICS IN VIDEO/DIGITAL GAME STUDIES Joost Raessens: “Computer Games as Participatory Media Culture” Some Key Words: Self-organizing communities British Cultural Studies Frankfurt School Media-Effects Determinism Coercion (375) Hegemony Ideology Polysemic Negotiated /oppositional reading practices Turkel’s ”culture of simulation” (read pg. 377)