indeed. guilty as charged. which makes me wonder what people did before this era. relationships today are completely unique from everything in the past. i sort of worry what is going to happen if we feel no sense of purpose at age 12 apart from our ability to rack up a large number of myspace photo comments which we beg our "friends" to give us. where will we be in ten years? we all want to be remembered for something, or at least think we will be remembered for something--- validation that someone knows you exist now comes from the lolz comment you recieved.
someone should start figuring out how this is toying/reinventing our socialization.
on another semi-related note, my brother has been playing oblivion and halo endlessly since i've been home. at first i was pissed off that he wouldn't get off the machine and go outside. i still am, but after sitting there and watching the games, i don't really blame him. those worlds, the things you can do and create and the places you uncover combined with the knowledge that you have completed a quest etc. all seem pretty amazing compared to getting in a car, driving to quiznos and walking around the same acre of park that has always been there and only gets sadder looking by the day. we need a sense of adventure in our lives. if there is nothing left to accomplish or discover why are we here? i still haven't lost hope, but now i can understand why a kid like him would favor the old xbox- maybe we all should just wait for jesus to come back and destroy us all?
i have certainly had the same thoughts as recorded in your first paragraph.
but as for the burgeoning video game lifestyle, i think it's really unhealthy. there is always something new; there is something unique about every day and to be bored and disengaged with real life is a very sad thing because as far as things go, there's really no way to escape it. my mom just canceled my brother's world of warcraft subscription because he was sitting in front of the computer screen in the dark every day. his range of motion was limited to the movement of his wrist on the mousepad and the occasional 'trek' to the bathroom. it was pretty disgusting. i understand playing games in moderation (i mean, who doesn't love guitar hero?)but games have a tendency to suck kids in to excessively habitual use. youth should appreciate reading, conversation and the individuality of leaves or something, not the pixelized banality of violent video games. granted there are exceptions, the gaming culture produces obtuse, uninteresting people who are conditioned to expect instant gratification. becoming enveloped in it assimilates you to a culture that only exists on a computer. it all seems very orwellian to me.
I'm not sure that differentiating between types of culture within a single culture is a good idea - you start treading on a tightrope, and if you trip you end up marginalizing culture. Which is impossible because culture is a lot more like stock than it is like different lifeforms. Each stock may be different, but as a whole it's very important to take them all into account when trying to decide what the state of the economy is.
That said, I think that games (not necessarily the ones sold now) have incredible potential to be meaningful in the same way that movies and books are. Maybe not regarding exactly the same topics, but a narrative arc flows (albeit differently) through a game just as it does through a movie or a book.
There are games that are simply fun - that don't have any depth. Guitar Hero and Halo are a couple of examples. But there are also games that address aspects of culture, history, psychology, and social status - like Grim Fandango, Deux Ex, and Psychonauts. These are just the beginning of what I hope will be a wave of meaningful games.
In the end, a well crafted interactive narrative takes you to a different world. Books and movies also do this. So yeah, a lot of games suck, but be careful about writing off an entire medium just because of a bunch of bad seeds.
Actually, Cronenberg explored the same awkward state of virtual reality that you're talking about. eXistenZ and Videodrome are probably the two most prolific of his movies about reality, culture, and technology. In them he looks at how, in extreme cases, people lose touch with reality and the virtual starts to take over. Needless to say, he's a little terrified of the concept.
I'm kind of half-heartedly studying this right now, actually. I'm really interested in the way that technology and culture interact. Throw business in and it becomes super cool. Music is a perfect example - blogs have reinvented the way we read about and discover new music. They've even (in some ways) leveled the playing field with the big labels. Pretty sweet.
Games are weird. I feel like they're unfinished. There are a lot of them, but largely they seem to be focusing on ludology instead of narratology. I feel like there's significant storytelling and experiential potential in games to be something more significant than they are right now, but no one seems to have figured out how to do it.
Maybe I'll be the first. For the time being we'll just have to ignore them as a source of developed culture.
someone should start figuring out how this is toying/reinventing our socialization.
on another semi-related note, my brother has been playing oblivion and halo endlessly since i've been home. at first i was pissed off that he wouldn't get off the machine and go outside. i still am, but after sitting there and watching the games, i don't really blame him. those worlds, the things you can do and create and the places you uncover combined with the knowledge that you have completed a quest etc. all seem pretty amazing compared to getting in a car, driving to quiznos and walking around the same acre of park that has always been there and only gets sadder looking by the day. we need a sense of adventure in our lives. if there is nothing left to accomplish or discover why are we here? i still haven't lost hope, but now i can understand why a kid like him would favor the old xbox- maybe we all should just wait for jesus to come back and destroy us all?
Reply
but as for the burgeoning video game lifestyle, i think it's really unhealthy. there is always something new; there is something unique about every day and to be bored and disengaged with real life is a very sad thing because as far as things go, there's really no way to escape it. my mom just canceled my brother's world of warcraft subscription because he was sitting in front of the computer screen in the dark every day. his range of motion was limited to the movement of his wrist on the mousepad and the occasional 'trek' to the bathroom. it was pretty disgusting. i understand playing games in moderation (i mean, who doesn't love guitar hero?)but games have a tendency to suck kids in to excessively habitual use.
youth should appreciate reading, conversation and the individuality of leaves or something, not the pixelized banality of violent video games. granted there are exceptions, the gaming culture produces obtuse, uninteresting people who are conditioned to expect instant gratification. becoming enveloped in it assimilates you to a culture that only exists on a computer. it all seems very orwellian to me.
Reply
That said, I think that games (not necessarily the ones sold now) have incredible potential to be meaningful in the same way that movies and books are. Maybe not regarding exactly the same topics, but a narrative arc flows (albeit differently) through a game just as it does through a movie or a book.
There are games that are simply fun - that don't have any depth. Guitar Hero and Halo are a couple of examples. But there are also games that address aspects of culture, history, psychology, and social status - like Grim Fandango, Deux Ex, and Psychonauts. These are just the beginning of what I hope will be a wave of meaningful games.
In the end, a well crafted interactive narrative takes you to a different world. Books and movies also do this. So yeah, a lot of games suck, but be careful about writing off an entire medium just because of a bunch of bad seeds.
Actually, Cronenberg explored the same awkward state of virtual reality that you're talking about. eXistenZ and Videodrome are probably the two most prolific of his movies about reality, culture, and technology. In them he looks at how, in extreme cases, people lose touch with reality and the virtual starts to take over. Needless to say, he's a little terrified of the concept.
Reply
Reply
Games are weird. I feel like they're unfinished. There are a lot of them, but largely they seem to be focusing on ludology instead of narratology. I feel like there's significant storytelling and experiential potential in games to be something more significant than they are right now, but no one seems to have figured out how to do it.
Maybe I'll be the first. For the time being we'll just have to ignore them as a source of developed culture.
Reply
Leave a comment