Multiplayer Mayhem

Multiplayer Mayhem

Over these past couple of months I have been given the opportunity to play a handful of MMORPG’s. For those of you who may not know, a MMORPG is short for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. In short this game offers players a fantasy like setting while giving the opportunity for customization and earning skills. What sets this genre unique is the community based game play. In most role playing games of the past your character was alone in a sea of computer controlled characters called NPC’s (non-playable characters). But this is no longer the case. To establish a feeling of community, developers have created games that set thousands of players in the same world. And all of these players have characters that can interact with one another as in real life.
But in my experience with the genre I have found a wide variety of what an online community looks like. And believe it or not I feel it is the community aspect that will ensure that this genre will be as successful if not more in the coming seasons of game play.
Maple Story(http://www.mapleglobal.com) is a curious game that fits in this genre. Its setting and characters look like they were transported from a Pokemon cartoon. Anime is definitely the word of the day in this game. Where as most multiplayer games supposedly aim toward the adolescent male, this game looks like it is trying to tempt the other gender. One of the most exclusive elements of this game is it’s stylish customization. Appearance of your character can be manipulated by how much money you have to buy the upgrades needed. But upgrades for weapons are few, and far behind the choices of appearance and apparel options.
However, this game is not exclusively for girls. It does feature combat and cartoonish violence of sorts. But most of the bad guys are cute mushrooms and snails the, not some personification of evil. Instead, they are just hopping stuffed animals of doom. The community around Maple Story is impressive. It seems to be more like a hybrid of a game and a chat room. Many times there is a cluster of players huddled together in one part of town talking away.
The graphics are a bit basic, but for a free game it is impressive. Yes people 100% free, at least for now. The surroundings are set up more like a platform genre, such as Mario Brothers, or Adventure Island. The learning curve is basic as well. Give yourself 10-15 minutes to go through the tutorial and you got it down. As far as RPG’s go, the story lacks depth and direction. But if you are in the mode for a free MMORPG that you can pick up and play for a 15 minute coffee break here an there Maple Story just may be the game for you.

Ratings:(1-10)
Game play: 6
Graphics: 5
Sound: 8
Community: 8
Bang for Buck: 10(can’t get better than free)
Overall: 7 It’s a good game, and worthy of a download. But don’t expect it to change your life.

Next Time: RYL, the only piece of polished fecal matter you will ever see in your life.

Feminist vs. Attractive Feminist

Video Games A Cultural Phenomenon by Arthur Asa Berger

I just read an interesting chapter in Arthur’s book concerning Lara Croft in the game series Tomb Raider. As you probably know, Lara Croft is one of the most popular game franchises. And in a world of male dominated gaming having a game that revolves around a young woman is quite surprising.
As I read this chapter I found a brutal attack against males from a feministic agenda. This argument goes something like this, “Lara Croft is a male’s sex toy, and by controlling this female character they can in turn conquer her through sexual fantasy.” These arguments have even gone so far as to compare a joystick on a controller to male’s genitals. First things first, all men aren’t animals. Please please please do not reduce men into lustful idiots that can only think about rude ways to conquer women. The flaw of feminist thinking is that they try to reduce men into idiots. By doing this you give permission for them to act in such a way.
Secondly, let’s look at Lara Croft for a second. She has big breasts, a small waist, and a full bum. What does she do? Lara Croft is a modern day Indiana Jones, who finds and explores archeological sites. She is adventurous, smart, and beautiful. But feminists hate this because men lust after her? Feminists should be using her as a mascot! Look how our culture has changed. 50 years ago, if we had video games with women they would probably have the titles of “Homemaker, The Dinner Disaster”, “Secretary Tycoon”, oh and the most popular “Sewing for Samantha”. But our culture now sees capable, athletic women as attractive, which is what feminists have been pushing for, for decades. It’s not bad that men are attracted to Lara Croft; it’s bad that feminists don’t know how to quit scorning males.
Thirdly, look at all media. Culturally beautiful women are what you see on television, movies, and video games. Magazines that will never be read by a single male have beautiful models with near impossible figures to mock the teen wannabes every month. Barbie dolls at one time held impossible figures as well. And to be honest with you not too many males loved playing with them, or at least will admit to it. Beauty, femininity, attractiveness isn’t in the hands of males. It’s in the hands of the females. Females tell each other what’s attractive, and what’s not. The males simply want what is most attractive in their assessment.
Finally, there are going to be pigs in both genders. Some males will grossly lust after women as a trophy. Some females will grossly lust after the alleged power males have over them. So feminists please relax. Males will always find beauty attractive, and will want to be near it. It is inescapable. But if you want to beauty to found in the hearts and minds of women, instead of large breasts then please set the mold as such, and don’t blame males for going after what you feel to be the precedent of attractiveness.

A Plead

RUNNING HEAD: NOT A WASTE


As it is American parents are hindering many of their children from potentially the best educational outlet that has ever been developed. These parents are not restricted to the lower social economic status. Neither are they contained in one ethnicity or culture. This epidemic of intolerance has spread to our countries leaders. Instead of looking at the possibilities of this new medium, it is labeled as a cultural evil. Restricted, ignored, and doubted video games could possibly hold the keys to enrich our educational system. However, as long as elders see them as a corruptible waste of time that is all they will ever be. This paper will bring to light the great potential video games hold for our youth. Firstly, the history of societal reaction to new electronic mediums will be reviewed. Secondly, the researcher will show examples of video games that are highly educational. Finally, this paper will set forth a plan to incorporate video games into the educational system.
Motion pictures have been in development since the mid 1800’s. When films were first shown in Nickelodeons they were not impressive by any standards. (Wikipedia) But they captivated their audiences. And that captivation ensured the movies survival and development into what it is today. But living a near 150 years after the first motion pictures can the American society say their culture has not been enriched by this invention? There have been numerous movies that have shown the importance of faith, and good will to their audience. These movies have taught us history, and values. They have prodded us to imagine and to dream. And they have given us a better understanding of the world around us.
Television sets have been watched in this country since the 1930’s. However, the first sets were not only expensive, but unimpressive. Still, after World War II Americans were captivated by this new medium. (Wikipedia) And their captivation led to the Television’s survival and development into what it is today. But living a near 65 years after the first television sets can the American society say their culture has not been enriched by this invention? There have been numerous television shows that have shown the importance of faith, and good will to their audience. These shows have taught us history, and values. They have prodded us to imagine and to dream. And they have given us a better understanding of the world around us.
Video games have been played in this country since the 1950’s. The first games were quite basic. For example the game Pong released in 1972 consisted of two paddles that were vertically controllable. The purpose of this game was to hit a bouncing ball at the right angle so that the other player would not be able to hit the ball. Another early favorite was Pac-Man released in 1980. This game consisted of a yellow personified ball that had to eat little rectangles while avoiding ghosts. (Wikipedia) But as the technology advanced the video games could hold more information. Video games became more complex and needed more than basic hand eye coordination to win. Many of them required the player to develop strategies.
Sim City came out in 1990, and educational gaming was forever enriched. This game was based on an interpretation of city development (Squire, 2002). But instead of having to read about industrial, residential, and commercial zones in a text book you could actually place them on land and form a town. With the right teacher this game could have been an amazing tool to a lesson in civic development.
Civilization 2 created in 1996 also held near limitless potential. The player of this game could control many of histories important civilizations. While you play this game as in Sim City you would have to build cities. And as your cities got larger you could build historical wonders like the Pyramids, or build military units like a phalanx. This game also taught you about balancing taxes along with making your people happy. Think of how many history classes could have benefited if this game could have been used.
In 1996 Creatures was released. This game allowed the players to raise a virtual pet on screen. But there were science lessons that were going on in the background. This game taught lessons in DNA, mutations, hormones, development cycle, adaptations, and research. Playing this game required students to understand how these pets functioned on a biological level.
Many of these games have added sequels to their franchise, and still continue to teach American youth today. But what makes these games powerful tools is that children want to play with them. And as they do they learn. Just as movies and television shows have enhanced our knowledge in the classroom, we should use these video games in our school systems to the same effect. Video games allow players to be involved with a world created for them. And if we pump this world full of knowledge, children can’t help but learn.
If video games follow in the footsteps of its predecessors our society will continue to flock to them to receive entertainment. The industry will grow as the children who grew up on video games continue their hobbies into adulthood. However, it will take work to convince an elder generation that video games hold potential to be a teaching device. There needs to be software developers that will hire historical and scientific experts to input their knowledge into video game projects. There also needs to be a push to make these games accessible over the internet, so all children could play and learn.
In conclusion, video games could very well be a mighty agent that aids the educational system. The potential is near limitless, and very capable to teach. The unfortunate matter is as the children of this society want to learn from interactive media, their supervising generation does not feel it beneficial enough. And until the video game generation gets old enough to control the boundaries of the educational system many children will not have gained the amazing educational value of these games.

Ryan Seymour


References
Fromme, Johannes: "Computer Games as a Part of Children's Culture." in Game Studies, Volume
3, issue 1.URI: http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/fromme/
Squire, Kurt: "Cultural Framing of Computer/Video Games." in Game Studies, Volume 2, issue
URI: http://www.gamestudies.org/0102/squire/
Wikkipedia The Free Enclycopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_history

me and my girlfriend

A Summary of "Gender Steroytypes in Next Generation Video Games". Written by Zek McCaslin.

Okay here is my first attempt to summarize a journal article pertaining to the interpretive aspects of video games.

The Paper is entitled "Gender Steroypes in Next Generation Video Games". It is written by Zek McCaslin, and is published by University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, 2004.

Zek based much of his research on and article written by Beasley, B., & Standley, C. T.. The article was entitled "Shirts vs. skins: clothing as an indicator of gender role steryotyping in video games." I will eventually write about this article myself, as it seems it has become a foundational study in video game studies. Both of these studies look at primarly two factors in video game play. They firstly look at the number of male character in contrast with females in contrast with unknown gender. Secondly they view the appearance of both males and females and rank them according to voluptiousness. Zek's studie diffred by adding on two more zones of study. After looking at the number of characters and the clothing he looked at the violence used by the characters and their roles.

Zek's study consisted of 15 Playstation 2 games, 10 Xbox games and 6 GameCube games. According to Zek this selection was reflective of the actual distributed population of video games across these systems. In total there were 31 games used in this study.

Out of these 31 games the researcher(s) coded 243 characters. Out of these characters the researcher found that 99 of them where females. This conflicted with the Beasley article where less than 20% of the characters coded for were females. Instead, females made up 41% of the gaming population. Males slightly outnumbered females at 144 characters. This made up 59% of the gaming population. This study did not take into effect the "unknown genders". These are characters where the researcher probably did not consider one gender or the other. This is an unfortunate missing link to the study, because an "unknown gender" character may be a video game developer's attempt to appeal to either male or female player.

Clothing was then coded for according to four regions. Firstly, the neckline which contained the subcatergories of "high", "mid", and "low". The second area was sleeve length which contained the subcatergories of "high sleeves", "mid sleeves", and "low sleeves". The third area was the stomach which was catergorized by either covering the stomach or not. Finally, the lower body was had the subcatergories of "low", "mid", "high" and "very high". Zek found that females had a significantly higher amount of skin exposure than males did. In seemingly every catergory women had less clothing than males.

The Third realm that Zek studied was the amount of violence expressed by either male or female characters. Zek found that males were significantly more violent in video games, and drew out more blood in their violent acts than did females.

The final catergory that Zek studied were the roles that the discovered characters feel in. He developed 6 roles: Violent active, Active, Resistant, Victim, Support and Bystander. Violent Active, were characters that were controllable, and acted out violently to other characters in the game. Active, were characters that were controllable but did not commit any violent acts. Resistant characters were characters that acted against the controllable character in a violent way. Victim, were characters that had an act of violence commited against them. Support characters were those that offered assitance in the game, but did not get involved or become victimized in violent acts. Finally Bystander, were those that had no serious role, but watched on as the characters continued through the game.

Zek performed a cross-tabulation on the roles and found that 28% of males were violent active,8% were active, 31% were resistant, 6% were victims, 13% were support, and 14% were bystanders. His finding on females were 36% were violent active, 7% were active, 3% were resistant, 14% were victims, 26% were support, and 14% were bystanders. One finding that astounded me was that in this cross tabulation there were actually more violent active females than males. Males greatly outnumbered females in the resistant catergory. Females had a twice as high percentage of being a support character than a male. This may be a significant finding considering the previous generational roles placed on them.

This study has developed an understanding of the arrangment of gender in video games, and how they act out their roles. What I like about this study that I disagreed with in Beasley's was that Zek dropped the attempt to define a character as voluptious based soley on their clothing. I will soon hope to report on Beasley's article, but it became obvious to me her biasness against video games by the way she liberally labled characters without understanding the artistic format of this medium. Well This was my first summary, and I hope that it proved to be somewhat intresting to you.

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