Video Games and Embodiment by
James Paul Gee
Modes of problem solving:
Embodied - involving the body
Affective - involving emotions
Technological - involving
tools/technologies
Interactive - involving
participation
Sociocultural - involving social
and cultural identities and groups
Theory of processing -
connectionist view of mental processing that encompasses embodied, affective,
technological, interactive, and socioculture.Gee's article will focus mainly on embodiment.
Previous analogies of the mind: like a blank slate to be written on, or like a
computer making calculations.
Video games, like Half-Life 2,
Rise of Nations, Oblivion, World of Warcraft considered "action-and goal orientated
simulations of the embodied experience.
Language is connected
goal-directed experiences in the material and social world, and are stored in
the mind similar to dynamic images joined to the perception of the world and
the individual's body, internal state, and feelings.
Human thinking is like modding a
game: in real life humans take a situation or event, and play out different
outcomes based on the goal or end result.
The actions of the event are influenced by the person's perspective,
biasness, or values; and can even play out conflicting values/perspectives to
role-play an alterative outcome.
Early child play prepares for
real life situations in the future. The
games are simulations to build on the experience as the child grows.
Players inhabit the avatar in a
game, whose mind and goals become the player.
The player takes on the traits, skills, beliefs within the confines set
forth in the game.Three-way interaction: virtual character - goals - virtual world
Player must use the skills,
traits, beliefs of the avatar within the game that is designed for that
specific gameplay. Conversely, players
can impose their goals on the avatar, as much as those goals will work in the
rules/confines set forth in the game world.
Projective beings - game
characters that are "projects" of the player and also the player
projects their goals and desires into.
Projective stance:
1. See the world, its people and
properties for patterns of actions
2. The actions realize desires, intentions, and
goals for a certain role.
3. Humans play out the certain role, but bring
with them their own specific goals.
Humans take on a role in games,
much like in life.
There is No Magic Circle by Mia
Consalvo
Magic circle - bordered space
that is set apart from normal, real life.
Inside the circle there are different rules where the player can
experience events not allowed in regular life.
Cheaters count on rule, and others
playing by the rules, so he can cheat.
A spoilsport wants to ruin the
gameplay experience for everyone, ex. driving wrong way in a racing game.
Some cheaters justify their
actions, "Everyone cheats/or is cheating," "I cheat only when I
am stuck," while others have no problems with the act whatsoever.
Cheating displaces the sense of accomplishment,
cheapens the gameplay.
Magic circle as they apply to
today's games are becoming less separate from life - from researching a game
beforehand, watching previews and trailers, video of gameplay.
Two agencies vie for control: the
game creator(s) and the players. The
players try to influence/change game, making the magic circle moot (not playing
by the rules).
Cheating in WOW: glider mod to
automate an avatar's pathfinding, fighting, skinning, looting. Blizzard considered it cheating. Justifications: to fast forward an alternate
characters, to alleviate tedious gameplay for leveling, or to sell the
characters.
The "magic circle" has
been broken.
Alternative thinking: keys and
frames
Life is a series of events
contained in frames. Keys, or keyings,
are meanings of the frames.
Real life is the primary frame,
whereas a game is a clone, with each having their respective keyings, or
meanings/understandings.
Three frames in regards to game:
the world of commonsense
knowledge
the world of game rules
knowledge of fantasy world.
No comments:
Post a Comment