Our prof has assigned some readings for us to wax philosophical over..
Here an excerpt from pg 49..
6. New media is interactive. In contrast to old media where the order of
presentation is fixed, the user can now interact with a media object. In the
process of interaction the user can choose which elements to display or which
paths to follow, thus generating a unique work. In this way the user becomes
the co-author of the work.
the point talks directly about gaming as new media, I have always felt that a defining difference between a videogame and a book or movie is that a book or movie you can consume from end to end with confident feelings that you have experienced everything it has to offer. Videogames differ vastly in that the user defines their own experience as the consume..
just recently I went to talk to the mech game man in 3d Game Dot Heroes to advance him developing his game, and due to my own error of failing to talk to him some other unknown time, i was greeting with a sign stating 'development cancelled'. Now I am deprived of the experience of a game developed by a sprite in the game. =0 To my chagrin, my game experience is thus far altered irreversibly. If I want to fix my mistake, I must make a new file, and invest in a large amount of hours to reach the point of my mistake. Needless to say I am filled with feelings of chagrin. The exploitation of the ability to vex players with unfixable mistakes is oft abused in gaming, and I myself harbor both ill feelings due to my own blunders, but I do embrace it as a unique part of gaming in that I must employ skill to experience whatever it is I desire.
Although there are choose your own adventure books. but still, whats there is there and just a page turn away.
Of course, everyone has a different way of interpreting a book or movie; some people will identify with and think about different aspects of the narrative, plot, storyline and characters, and after repeated readings or viewings, people will notice different things about the story, and if watched at a different point in life, it will change, because the experiences the viewer has had in between will inform what they see and how they interpret the movie or book. In a good movie or book, there are enough interesting aspects and layers to make it difficult to absorb completely in one experience. Different threads of the story can be followed at different times, and may change drastically from person to person based on how they synthesize and interpret the world. One difference with games is that they make the player a character in the world ( see Emily's post about first person narratives), but that character's choices still can only unleash finite sequences of events determined by how the game is designed to react to the gamer's choices. Books, movies and games all provide points that the viewer can project scenarios from, but movies and books allow those scenarios at any point whatsoever, whereas games allow them only at certain points. The beauty of the game is that you can make the choice an actual part of the narrative, but it still has to exist within the programming of the game. I think concept art has potential to create those narratives from points that don't provide a choice in the game, and also allow you to imaginatively create a scenario that can't exist within the game's restrictions, but still relates to the storyline. Therefore, one who views game concept art sees the artist's vision of an imaginative scenario and from there can realize other scenarios of their own from other parts of the game. These realized scenarios will relate back to the concept art, so the concept artist has created a whole separate interpretation of the game with one image.
ReplyDeleteApologies for the long rambling post. I'll stop now because I was just interrupted by Diana and Lindsey and had to explain my new position as Ingrid's student advisor, and that derailed my train of thought. As of now nothing can be salvaged from the smoldering wreck.
The length of that post apparently caused the internetz to poop an anvil, because it forced safari to quit and logged em out of blogger.
ReplyDeleteI cant even follow that ramble to post an intelligible response, however I do disagree with a number of points, and think it prudent for you to play some videogames.
ReplyDelete