I chose the novel Journey Under The Sea, which is about a sea adventurer attempting to find the lost city of Atlantis, and the trials, tribulations, and struggles encountered thus. I chose the book simply because I will always choose anything that has something to do with the ocean, given a choice. It is the most…
While reading Adrienne Shaw’s article, “On Not Becoming Gamers,” I found myself agreeing with her point that the construction of the “gamer” identity limits the range of narratives and diversity of texts available in the gaming industry. This is because the gamer identity is constructed in a very narrow manner– traditionally, “gamers” have been white,…
Most of the research I have seen on how violent games are influencing children has only shown negative effects. However, Daphne Bavelier described during a TED talk (in 2012) that these action packed shooter games may actually have positive effects on the brain, when played in small doses. She first proves the commonly accepted statement –…
There have been many arguments made for both sides, and honestly, I struggle to decide which side I am on. Many articles have made very intriguing points for why video games should and should not be considered art. Initially, I was sold that video games are indeed art. During Kellee Santiago’s talk Are Video Games Art, the…
As in most forms of competition, the equipment you have access to in video games says something about you. Your equipment can say something about your skill, commitment to the game, or your social status. As I grew up, the last of these was especially prominent. Family visits and gaming with cousins always had one…
Over the course of the semester, we have moved from very simple games (such as the Atari games, Blackbar, etc.) to more developed games (such as The Last of Us, Undertale, etc.) Now, we are moving into what is considered the highest quality of games that are produced, Triple-A Games. These games have much higher…
A few of the most common staples in modern gaming are the port, re-release, and remaster. Normally, these types of games are released years after the original and marketed as an opportunity to experience (or re-experience) some of gaming’s most standout moments on modern platforms (i.e. Tomb Raider on iOS/Android). They may be a direct…
My entire adolescence, I have grown up around game design. My school focused on it, and my friends were interested in it as well. From the 6th grade forward, I would make games as par for course with papers, presentations, and et cetera. As time went on, I stopped making games pure playing pleasure, and…
I understood interface as the hardware the player interacts with that grants them accessibility into the game world. However, after reading GameWorld Interfaces by Krisitine Jørgensen my definition of interface has become more complicated. Jørgensen describes the gameworld as an interface in which the player interacts with cues and symbols in the gameworld to play the game.…
The original Space Invaders was a mega-hit video game that was created as part of Japan’s long road to economic recovery in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When it was first conceived in Japan in 1978, the aliens were humans, but the developers pulled back from making the enemy human, which was considered potentially…
