Scott Locke
The Evolution of Video Games
Boxer, S. (2011, May 16). La noire – review. Retrieved from Guardian.co.uk.
This video game review from the Guardian’s website exemplifies the thoughts many top video game reviewers have had on the recent release of Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire. Believing that the game is more of an interactive drama than a traditional video game, Boxer asserts that the use of real expressions of the actors providing character voices creates a rich, deeply engaging experience in which the ability to read a character’s “tell” is more important than the video game controller dexterity typically required for the enjoyment of video games. His thinking is lock-step with my view that video games are evolving into a medium that melds old and new media.
Bradford, C. (2010). Looking for my corpse: Video games and player positioning. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. 33 (1), 54-64.
This article differentiates between ludology, or the study of games through their form and adherence to genre conventions, and narratology, or the examination of narratives in the medium. The author argues that scholars have had difficulty analyzing games in the past because they were trying to use techniques traditionally applied to literature or film studies. She suggests that games are a hybrid medium that has specific form and narrative elements that impact people’s emotions and processes differently than traditional media. She discusses the commentary that video games make on society and how players’ values and ethics affect their interaction with artificial worlds.
I used this article as a foundation for my assertion the incorporation of rich narrative experiences have played a role in attracting female gamers like the author.
Brooker, W. (2009). Camera-eye, CG-eye: Videogames and the “cinematic”. Cinema Journal, 48 (3), 122-128. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Approaching his analysis of video games from a cinema studies perspective, Brooker observes how cinematic techniques have influenced video games. Brooker supports his argument that visual and narrative techniques are finding common ground in film and gaming by suggesting that game conventions are being used in movies like “The Matrix” and film conventions like lens flares are intentionally added to gameplay to convey a cinematic feeling in games. The article also discusses technical limitations that prevented games from developing narratives earlier in their history. He concludes by suggesting that games are moving away from using now-traditional cut-scenes to incorporating exposition into actual game play for fully immersive playable “interactive movies.”
This article applies to my term project because of its examination of cinematic technics in games as well as its references to game motifs within Hollywood movies. It supports my assertion that the two media are strongly influencing one-another beyond oft-shared underlying source material.
Chatfield, T. (2010). Fun inc.: why gaming will dominate the twenty-first century. New York, NY: Pegasus Books.
Chatfield takes the position that video games will continue to grow in both annual revenue and influence on popular culture. His examination of the industry and its place alongside popular movies and television programs attempts to break misconceptions about who modern-day video games are designed for and who’s actually playing them. He cites the fact that 40 per cent of all video game players are women, that most of the bestselling console games of all time involve no real-world violence at all, and how World of Warcraft’s online community of over 12 million players is changing our understanding of what it means to be sociable in the modern world. He addresses other uses for games beyond entertainment for mass engagement in military, economic, and human rights issues.
The author’s arguments echo my own in projecting where the future of gaming might lead. He provides a brief history of the
