5/7&5/9 "Computer games"

what’s in a game engine?

graphics
physics
ai
...and a lot more

game “mods”

Mod (modification: fps, rpgs, real-time strategy games)
by general public or developer
can be entirely new games in themselves
partial conversions (total conversions)example development environment

games research and development

example groups and events:
the game developers’ conference: http://www.gdconf.com/
game studies: academic journal: http://gamestudies.org/
research groups:
academic: e.g., Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen
industry: and, of course, the folks at Microsoft, Electronic Arts, etc.
art:
e.g., the show Bang the Machine: Computer Gaming Art and Artifacts
e.g., alternative games competition, Rhizome.org at the New Museum, New York City, March 2004

what makes a good game?

play? or,
story? or,

realism? or, is it
something else?

more than identification

“When you play a video game you enter into the world of the programmers who made it. You have to do more than identify with a character on the screen. You must act for it. Identification through action has a special kind of hold. Like playing a sport, it puts people into a highly focused, and highly charged state of mind. For many people, what is being pursued in the video game is not just a score, but an altered state.
from Sherry Turkle, “Video Games and Computer Holding Power”

identification

Identification is known to psycho-analysis as the earliest expression of an emotional tie with another person. It plays a part in the early history of the Oedipus complex. A little boy will exhibit a special interest in his father; he would like to grow like him and be like him, and take his place everywhere. We may say simply that he takes his father as his ideal.
from Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
Cf., Jacques Lacan on “The Mirror Stage,” and writings about identification in film theory by Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Christian Metz, Stephen Heath, and others

space: what’s a boy’s space?

is it a place where boys can...
enjoy lurid images?
prove themselves with stunts?
gain mastery?
(re)produce hierarchies?
vent aggressive feelings?
engage in scatological humor?
competitively role-play?
and bond together
these criteria are from Henry Jenkins’ article