Search This Blog

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Time to play a game

Within postmodern cultures all over the globe, games are highly accessible and played worldwide from various media platforms coming in a range of different genres. However, games are not a modern creation or discovery, they stem greatly from a time of struggle documented over three thousand years ago from ‘Herodutus’ story’ of an eighteen year famine. The ancient Greek, documented on how his culture survived starvation through solely playing games and diverting minds from food. Giving them more motivation to overcome the deprived time and occupying their minds and emotions with various activities played as a community.

As Jane McGonigal discusses in her book, ‘Reality is Broken’, “We often think of immersive gameplay as “escapist”, a kind of passive retreat from reality.” (McGonigal, 2011. P6)

This allows us to identify that with games comes a sense of escapism, as reality no longer seems enough for the modern age and more and more people all over world crave more out of life. Although in Herodutus’ time, they depended on games to live, that has now grown and developed into a surreal sense of a ‘meaning to life’ and as McGonigal discusses throughout her book, almost a way of life and a positive reality by stating, “We are starving, and our games are feeding us.” (McGonigal, 2011. P6)

Although games today almost take over the real of the world around us, people still identify their roles within society and within their own personal lives, while the game simply taps into the desires of fulfilling one’s full potential and allows individuals to explore at the very edge of their skill level.

The four traits of games allows us to explore the need for individuals to play relentlessly and while over the years the figures of gamers has increase, so has the demand for new and enhanced gaming experiences, these traits remain the same in order to sustain motivation and excel human emotions when participating as reality just does not appear to satisfy.

“Reality isn’t engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn’t designed from bottom up to make up happy… Reality compared to games is broken.” (McGonigal, 2011. P3)

Each of the traits McGonigal discusses relate to real individual needs and identify with reality, these include; the goal, giving gamers a sense of purpose, where if in reality this sense is not fulfilled, simply through standard jobs or not obtaining one’s own family etc. therefore games present themselves as having a key purpose - goal. Rules, these are unnecessary obstacles which allow gamers to show the creative side of their personalities and motivate strategic thinking. A feedback system which then provides a sense of motivation and encouragement and lastly voluntary participation, this establishes common ground and allows participants to feel a sense of comfort and control with a game.
These traits touch on typical human emotional needs for everyday life and although they are present within the lives of individuals, some crave the need for more and find themselves struggling through life without this fulfilment.
Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading psychologist once said “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.” (McGonigal, 2011. P28)

Overall, “A good game is a unique way of structuring experience and provoking positive emotion.” and as humans, individuals require this and turn to games for the ultimate realization of themselves, their capabilities and attributes to life. (McGonigal, 2011. P33)

“Game design isn’t just a technological craft. It’s a twenty-first-century way of thinking and leading.” (McGonigal, 2011. P13)

Bibliography
McGonigal, Jane (2011). Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York, The Penguin Press. (P19-34)

No comments:

Post a Comment

This is a class blog for students enrolled on the History and Analysis of New Media Module at The University of Ulster. Please keep comments constructive to help students progress with the given text