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Writing Sample: Video Games: Industry and Culture

Essay Question:  Is it useful to consider video games’ representation of real-world situations and issues, or are they simply too disconnected from real life? In your response, be sure to engage meaningfully with a past or current debate about the impact of game representation.

           Video games can be seen as something called as an “expressive medium”, which represent the functioning of real and imagined systems. It lures people to come in contact with these mediums and come up with verdicts regarding them. In order to get to know this expressive medium and how it relates with gamers, designers and detractors, it is vital to comprehend different methods to build and assess real-world representations through video games (Bogost 2007). It’s evident that due to the technological revolutions, technology has basically become part of people’s daily lives through entertainment, work, travel, education, living, etc., and has shaped how the world functions today. However, people have failed to notice how information technology has affected people in different aspects, adding to the fact that people’s attitudes and behaviours are formed because of the constant contact with video games and other forms of media. It is possible that people nowadays especially the youth who have basically grown up with video games have been personalized because of these constant video game interactions. All of this relates to what this essay will talk about. This essay will focus on whether it is useful to consider video games’ representation of real-world situations and issues or if they are just too disconnected from real life by taking past and current debates of game representation into account, and furthermore by analyzing how video games like “Animal Crossing”, “Doom” & “Sim City” represent real-world situations and issues and if they are useful for people to consider in real life or if they are just too disconnected from real life (Oblinger 2004).

 

Before computers were invented, games had been created and played from the physical environment while utilizing real-world possessions, like space awareness, 3-D connections and physical items. Before direct contact with computer/video games, there had been 2 main forms of contact which were: individual-physical environment and individual-to-individual contact. In contemporary times however, technology (computer/video games) have quickly become the centre of the world mainly because of its never-ending forms of fun, entertainment and the pull that it generates towards people. It’s because of all these influences, the video game industry is flourishing and growing very quickly all over the world (Magerkurth et al. 2005). Over the past 20 years, researchers have been examining what are the various effects which action video games have on intellectual (cognitive) skills. Video games based on action needs gamers to process items which move quickly and are tangentially placed as proficiently as those items which move slowly and are placed in the centre. At the same time, gamers have the obligation to track and process numerous items as well. Research has proven that playing video games as challenging as this enhances optical acuity and concentration. For example, gamers have the capability to confine targets together at the intermedial and the outlying optical areas (Feng et al. 2007; Green & Bavelier 2006a) adding the fact that they are also quicker at finding their targets than non-gamers (Castel et al. 2005). Gamers have the capability to recuperate quicker from attentional capture as well (Chisholm et al. 2010; Green & Bavelier 2003, 2007) while at the same time being able to capture and track way more objects compared to non-gamers (Green & Bavelier 2006b; Trick et al. 2005). In more intuitive fields, gamers outperform non-gamers in all aspects like noticing transformations (Clark et al. 2011), noticing transformations through item pathway manoeuvers (West et al. 2008) and the difference in items (Caplovitz & Kastner 2009; Li et al. 2009).

 

Other researchers have found that video games based on action has advantages towards non-optical acoustic fields (Donohue et al. 2010). So much thought and effort has been put into research and examinations which had recognized enhancements of optical and 3-D concentration capacities of video games, however more substantial research hadn’t yet demonstrated if video games based on action have gone through transformations in the ways items are being represented. Because these video games need gamers to quickly and unambiguously recognize items including their features, it’s probable they impact heavily on the ways in which items are processed and represented. All of these impacts that video games have on people in the real-world show that video games aren’t disconnected from real life at all. This is all due to video game representation of real-world situations and issues (Sungur & Boduroglu 2012, p. 327).

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Many researchers are involved in constant debates that are centered around game representation. Putting this topic into context, it’s vital to understand the reasons as to how come the existence, nonappearance, or the representational forms of social communities are extremely fundamental in a diverse world which starts from social equality and power inequality to the archetypes of impacts and the creation of typecasts (Williams et al. 2009, p. 818). It has been proposed that TV forms of representation is actually “at heart a proxy for other social forces” (Harwood & Anderson 2002). This basically resembles that those people who are seen very frequently around different types of media are more significant and have more power and a higher status quo in their day-to-day lives. Harwood & Anderson (2002) utilize the “Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory” to claim that the media functions like a reflection for those present communal influences like a highly reliant contributing representative of them. So, by looking at the screen and determining the inequities which are present on there will show what inequities are present in the creation of social identity, social power and finally rule implementation in our day-to-day lives.

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Now going beyond the context of how the media acts like a reflection for those social power connections, numerous other theories have given explanations as to why media consumers could probably have been impacted by them. “The Cultivation Theory” gives insights into how the media environment applies an extensive ‘gravitational’ pull towards people thoroughly forming their global perceptions to equal that iconic representation shown on television (Gerbner et al. 1994). All this research and examination stood immensely disputed and provocative (Hirsch 1981 & Potter 1994). Likewise, a cultivation examination done through a video game (Williams 2006) had demonstrated the mechanism had been accurate and targeted instead of being extensive which reinforced Shrum’s (2002) intellectual processing form of this concept. This is basically a variety of symbols which generated cultivation effects instead of a more extensive range of principles or morals.

 

The hypothetical mechanism in Shrum’s methodology proposes that the existence or the nonappearance of the media’s range of imageries leads to a range of parodies in audiences or the players via thoroughly-examined intellectual mechanisms. Price & Tewksbury (1997) had done a recap of this specific research on intellectual connections, preparing and outlining and produced a thrifty archetype for media imagery influences. Watching or playing media produces items where Price & Tewksbury label as being the “knowledge store” and furthermore define as “a network of constructs, including information about social objects and their attributes” (Price & Tewksbury 1997, p. 186). How often social objects shall be recollected and utilized is highly reliant on enduring approachability. Simply, approaching constructs is possible once reinforced recurrently and newly.  Therefore, depictions which are observed or played recurrently are easily approachable once an individual is trying to recollect knowledge regarding that social objects’ class. This is parallel to Shrum’s (2002) cultivation methodology where social objects and as well as different people are seen or played through the media which increases the probability of being recalled afterwards had they have been more predominant.

 

Hypothetically, a setting that is constantly influenced by media where an individual is greatly epitomized shall lead to the viewer or player that’s increasingly probable to recollect that individual kind instead of a dissimilar individual kind. The consequences of a procedural method like this one are extremely comparable to the consequences proposed by traditional cultivation despite the dissimilar casual mechanisms (Williams et al. 2009, p. 819). Contemporary research done by Mastro & Colleagues (2007) linked this and the mental models methodology for Latinos’ cultivation on TV. What this research had demonstrated was that a medium’s overall group representation has an effect on its operators’ insights regarding the group, but their real-world experiences had suppressed this. As Maestro et al. (2007) prove, even an unswerving pattern of TV representation is able to exert effects. This furthermore leads to the notion that it’s obvious an unswerving pattern through different media forms could exert effects too. This ideology massively applies to video games due to the fact that they have already started to take over preceding media forms to become the major iconic representation for people everywhere globally. In terms of gaming, groups that are recurrently observed or observed in specific parts, shall start to become increasingly approachable to the observer or the player. Sustaining previous video game knowledge analyses along with Harwood & Anderson’s TV research, the fundamental group factors which are related in this context are age, race & gender. As stated, this context applies mainly to the inhabitants themselves, because representation holds individuality and confidence influences on people of those groups (Comstock & Cobbey 1979; McDermott & Greenberg 1984). The social identity theory of Tajfel (1978) states that groups try to find self-representations where afterwards they associate those self-representations with representations of different groups. The group’s existence which involves inside the video games (Royse et al. 2007) acts like an indicator for those individuals which makes them realize they have societal responsibilities (Williams et al. 2009, p. 820).

 

Real-world and imagined systems can be represented by video games through the generation of practical archetypes of those particular systems from implementing certain regulations which produce specific feasible play spaces. The common themes of video games which people think about is mainly associated with fantasy and power. An example of this can be the space marine of Doom where the prime focus is to fight demons in order to rescue the planet from destruction. These themes however represent mainly just a portion of how video games are able to express themselves. Video games based on different themes focus on archetypes outside of fictional worlds, generating real-world representations which offers gamers new insights of the planet they live in (Bogost 2008, p. 122).

 

An example of a video game which is based on real-world representations is Animal Crossing. Taking this example as a case study is very beneficial to understand real-world representations in video games. This video game is an “animal village simulator” specifically designed to play via the Nintendo GameCube and DS video gaming platforms. Once the game commences, the gamer moved from his home to the tiny village present in the game. He then comes across numerous animal inhabitants and gets used to his/her new lifestyle. The gamer is basically broke once he/she gets there. The first step is to make money. Tom Nook who is a resident of that village and the shopkeeper and a real estate dealer supports the gamer by setting the gamer up with basic starting supplies like a small house and an environmental-based job of tree imbedding, transporting goods and the production of commercial constituents on the billboard in the village. Once the gamer had finished carrying out these tasks, Nook lets the gamer to see the village by himself. Now the gamer has experience so he/she is able to work, trade and create new surroundings for himself/herself. Animal Crossing gives gamers a major challenge of paying off debts for their homes and as well a chance to ameliorate their homes. There tasks in this game that can be carried out in order to pay off those mortgage debts. Theses tasks include fishing, insect searching, fossil hunting, and doing other small-time chores for neighbors. This is also helpful in purchasing other items in order to design and ameliorate their homes (Bogost 2008, p. 117). In reality, people are unaware of where the mortgage bills they pay ends up. However, in Animal Crossing, gamers are able to see how the debts they pay makes investors rich (Bogost 2008, p. 118). These are all real-world representations, because they epitomize all situations and issues of what people actually go through in real-life. Playing video games like this is actually very useful to gain life skills beforehand, because gamers are able to learn more about what it takes to live by themselves in the real-world so it is not disconnected from real life at all.

 

Animal Crossing basically represents day-to-day life of a village. It’s where gamers are required to personalize and care for their surroundings. This also however represents longstanding debts (Bogost 2008, p. 119). It generates a representation of day-to-day life where debt and labor are vital (Bogost 2008, p. 123). It focuses on how important the recurrence of routine labour is in order to help modern material possessions. It revolves around the outcomes of obtaining goods and staying in touching distance of the Joneses which is very important here. This game establishes this exploit by generating an archetype of business and debts where gamers are able to be involved in and find the outcomes. In its archetype, Animal Crossing facilitates the real world to attract focus towards that world’s pertinent features (Bogost 2008, p. 119).

 

The representation of anything through video games (originating from monsters to longstanding mortgages) it’s done via “procedurality” by the generation of regulation-based archetypes of their selected themes. In the world archetype in Doom, a lot of attention is put towards the trajectory and the strength of weaponries. In the world archetype in Animal Crossing however, a lot of attention is put towards environmental surroundings, commercialization and labour (Bogost 2008, p. 123). So, different video games have different real-world representations. Looking at the culture of learning and digital media, video games give two overlying prospects. The first one is that gamers are able to gain more knowledge regarding certain features like consumption and commercialization in Animal Crossing or city development in “Sim City”. These games are all centered around people’s practices. The second one is that gamers are able to gain more knowledge regarding procedurality as well which will only get more fundamental as the growth of technology occurs worldwide (Bogost 2008, p. 123). The purpose of the procedural representations of certain video games is mainly to offer something exciting, new and fun. The framework of these representations enables gamers to enter a completely new world. However, not all video games which have this ability show this in the same way. Other video games utilize procedurality to talk about the cultural, social or material components of people’s involvements. This can be done intentionally or unintentionally depending on the primary purpose of that particular video game and how it is being set up (Bogost 2008, p. 123).

 

In conclusion, this essay has given insights to the background and different types/themes of video games, the intellectual, optical and auditory benefits of video games for gamers, how they represent real-life situations and issues plus how each video game depicts real-world representations differently by giving examples of these differences through the video games Animal Crossing, Doom & Sim City. And furthermore, this essay has mentioned how useful it is to consider video games’ representation of real-world situations and issues and are not at all disconnected from real life by taking past and current debates of game representation into account, the background of procedurality and by backing my claim by analyzing how video games like Animal Crossing, Doom & Sim City represent real-world situations and issues.

 

                            References

 

  • Bogost, I 2007, “Persuasive games”, 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press Ltd. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Gerbner, G, Gross, L, Morgan, M & Signorielli, N 1994, “Growing Up with Television: The Cultivation Perspective”, in J. Bryant and D. Zillman (eds) Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, pp. 17–41, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

  • Green, C. S & Bavelier, D 2003, “Action video game modifies visual selective attention”, Nature, Vol. 423, No. 6939, pp. 534–537, viewed 29 October 2018, doi: 10.1038/nature01647.

 

  • Green, C. S & Bavelier, D 2006a, “Effect of action video games on the spatial distribution of visuospatial attention”, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 1465–1478, viewed 29 October 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2896828/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • McDermott, S & Greenberg, B 1984, “Parents, Peers and Television as Determinants of Black Children’s Esteem”, in R. Bostrom (ed.) Communication Yearbook, Vol. 8, pp. 164–77. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

 

  • Oblinger, D 2004, “The next generation of educational engagement”, 1st ed. [ebook] Stockholm: Journal of Interactive Media in Education, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 1-18.

 

  • Potter, W.J 1994, “Cultivation Theory and Research: A Methodological Critique”, Journalism Monographs 147, 1–17.

 

  • Price, V & Tewksbury, D 1997, “News Values and Public Opinion: A Theoretical Account of Media Priming and Framing”, in G. Barnett and F. Boster (eds) Progress in the Communication Sciences, Vol. 13, pp. 173–212. New York: Ablex.

 

 

  • Shrum, L.J 2002, “Media Consumption and Perceptions of Social Reality: Effects and Underlying Processes”, in J. Bryant and D. Zillmann (eds) Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, pp. 69–95, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

 

 

  • Tajfel, H 1978, “Differentiation between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations”, London: Academic Press.

 

 

 

 

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