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Critique Essay: The Myth of The Ergodic Videogame, by James Newman James Newman wrote an interesting paper concerning the issue of videogames. The paper is called The myth of the ergodic videogame and it expresses the authors attitudes towards the development of the game industry within the conceptual frameworks of the whole e-commerce industry. This paper can actually be classified as descriptive essay with the elements of explanation in it. Academics have recently begun to devote much-needed attention to a cultural form in which the processes of testing, habituation, distraction and simulation are central. This is because Newman describes the industry's best examples of videogames and also gives a short overview of the audience for those games.
There is a clear question stated by the author in his article on which he is trying to find the answer through the research. Vide and computer games provide readymade wrld's, strange spaces int which thousands f people launch themselves every day. Is it possible t say that players inhabit the game-space? D videgame's inaugurate new mde's f perception in a manner comparable t that f film r photography?
This can be considered the main assumption f the article which finds its justification as the article diggs deeper int the concept. James Newman's article, The Myth f the Ergodic Videogame, performs a kind f thought experiment, taking a traditional non f narrative art - the character - and examining hw the concept changes when situated in the videogame. This peration is wrth taking int consideration here, as an example f a traditional artistic category and hw it is inflected in a videogame content. Newman suggests that the relationship between character and player is nt ne f representation, but ne f actin.
Newman's pugnacious article asks a simple question: hw ergodic are videgame's? Many games make significant use f representation, with recognisable characters and cut scenes where the player is in fact a spectator with any cntrl ver the curse f the game. This des nt mean that videgame's can be considered narratives, however. While games make use f increasingly sophisticated methods f representation, and actively adapt representative techniques and cde's frm ther media (including methods f characteristic), this propensity should nt blind critics t the nature f player engagement in the game world. The player utilises and embodies the character in the gameworld.
While it may retain significance n the bx, in adverts, even in cut scenes and introductions within the game, during n-Line engagement, the appearance f the players character is f little r n consequence. By this, I mean t suggest that the level f engagement, immersion r presence experienced by the player - the degree t which the player consider themselves t be the character - is nt contingent upn representation. n-Line, character is conceived as capacity - as a set f characteristics. (Newman) The author tests the hypsethis f his assumptions by providing the necessary research that deals with the actual users f the software and by examining their attitudes and thught's concerning the subject. According t Newman, what is important abut a character fr the player f a videogame is the set f capabilities that character represents, rather than personality r appearance which may be mre meaningful in traditional r conventional frm's.
Thus while initially the player will be attracted t the mst visually r narrative appealing character (the importance f this is bus as it affects which game they are playing in the first place), nce they begin t learn the specificities f a game, their preference may change. As they get accustomed t the beats within the space and the rates between the beats, players become habituated; they mre comfortably inhabit the game. Characters in this space lse a degree f their character as it is traditionally r conventionally conceived in four f what Newman calls a vehicular relationship with the player, but retain recognizable visual r acoustic features that act as signifier's fr that characters particular abilities. The game needs me... We can see that as characters me between mediums they bth gain and lse traits as the particular frm demands. Thus the situation f characters within videgame's shw's an example f distraction, the test-space and its tactile appropriation through habituation.
Initially, the player encounters the characters r beats in an pascal, contemplative sense. An unfamiliar videogame is page t print such thught's: Can I jump this chasm? Am I strong enough t verse that enemy? A player at this stage will likely lk fr representational cues t case a curse f actin. As the player becme's habituated and learns the specificities f the game-space, their reactions become mre unnatural- they n longer judge a chasms length by their wn real-world experience, but by the distance they know their character can leap safely. As the player tests the game-space, threats nce formidable become incidental, handled automatically.
f curse, in mst videgame's, the space is designed t test the player back. Perhaps the tetra mines fall faster nt the screen, r the enemies require mre sht's t defeat. At length, though, the player tends t see through the representatin's t the actual rates f the simulation itself- even if the visual information is erroneous, a canny gamer can current fr the fault by free f habit. We dnt really see the assumptions been pre by any measurements in the article but they may be approved by taking a lk at sme ther researches upn an issue, in ur case this is a Boards article. As Board, a fine guide amidst all this distraction, writes, It is n problem t see the free f distraction at wrk in the connection f any kids fingers t the buttons f his r her videogame controller. Can we imagine a time when ur brains are wired directly t the buttons, when the brain itself is a distraction-machine that can call up its wn diversity at the merest thought?
When we n longer appropriate the scene tactilely but through ur nervus system? It is certainly possible t imagine the innervation f the nervus system directly t distraction, but fr my purpose here it versus the mark. This then is where - in this eleventh-hur infection f the apparatus - videgame's gain their wn particular felicity. The videgame's distraction is still channeled through the fingers t the buttons. This is the particular pleasure f the frm than int relief: the testing and tactile appropriation f a range f virtual spaces through the specific apparatus f the videogame. Newman seems t agree with the fact that videgame's are nt reducible t narratives r t games as there is a specific kind f fun t be had in nt being completely immersed in a game r in a story, in controlling through an apparatus a by with a set f simulated characteristics and ccasinally nt being in charge f whats ging n.
Extending his consideration f the idea f character in videogame spaces, Newman draws frm an analysis f gd games such as Civilization (MicrPrse, 1991) and SimCity (Maxis Software, 1992) by Ted Friedman which suggests a specialised relationship between the player and the entire game world rather than discrete representative parts. While this is an understandable approach t games in which the player directly cntrl's the functioning f entire civilizations r municipalities, Newman suggests that it has broader resonances across the varius videogame genres: Player account are structured and actin, and environment, and activity. In this way, any model f connection based and identification with a single entity in the gameworld is perhaps ver simplified... Clearly, this demands a totally new framework within which t understand the relationship between player and gameworld. Even the non f n-Line character as an identifiable and singular entity embodied by the player may be an versimplificatin indicative f an implicit reliance n existent models f audience... this linkage is best considered as an experiential we that synthesis, actin, location, scenario, and nt merely as a bnd between subject and best within a world...
n-Line, the player is bth the gal and the act f attaining it. (Newman) Cncept's presented and analyzed in the article are actually deeply expired and pretty clearly defined. The piratical part f the videgame's is investigated and the assumptions are really correspond t the initial definitions f them as they appear in ther researches and literature concerning the subject. While this seems a pure case f habituation and distraction, it must be recalled that videgame's free demand concentration frm players. Threats must be ascertained and dealt with in a systematic manner, and new challenges are presented which test the player in new ways. A gd example f this is the ubiquitous gamer term bss fight, where free at the end f a level r stage, a powerful and unique enemy waits t test the players abilities.
Players must be simultaneously habituated enough t their characters abilities t act swiftly and surely, while concentrating t discern the strategy required t beat the bss. free, representational clues are important in these situations and the usual rules t which the player has become habituated are been... in a way, it may be said that the game-space is suffused and ver whelmed by character. Thus conceiving f games as virtual architectures r regimes f desire and affect requires a consideration f the constant and complex interplays between distraction and concentration. Newman, time and time again states that visuals are unimportant t the play experience f the primary-player. He backs this up by saying that many great games have pr visuals.
First, the idea f pr visuals is ill defined. Des he mean lw resolution and few plans, r des he mean that the visuals provide insufficient information? He seems t mean the free. Secondly this logically debt wrk as any srt f prf. Simply because there is n correlation between technical quality f graphics and game quality des nt mean that graphics have n impact n the primary-players experience. T reuse an example, Nethack is generally played n a black display with care printable characters.
Although theyre available, the graphical from-ends are nt very popular, and generally used nly as tls t learn the cntrl scheme. The simple character-graphics are qualitatively better because they help immersion. Many f the best click series d nt have the mst painstakingly detailed images, but use a mre simple drawing style. This, however, des nt mean that the drawing style is unimportant, rather it indicates that the simpler styles have their value, and mre detail isnt always better. It must be admitted that because videgame's are free tied t specific hardware infrastructures and spaces while art thrives n intervening in and subverting the spatial arrangements that raise perception (by veiling hard scapes with image scapes, fr example), it seems premature t call videgame's art. However, as Benjamin nte's, Many art frm's have developed and perished.
Tragedy begins with the Greeks, is extinguished with them, and after centuries its rules nly are revived. The epic pem, which had its right in the youth f nations, expires in Europe at the end f the Renaissance. Panel painting is a creating f the Middle Ages, and nothing guarantees its uninterrupted existence. Similarly, there is n guarantee f the uninterrupted existence f the videogame as we know it that, but if it is true that interactivity is challenging the dominance f exhibition value, future art historians will n debt be grateful fr critically engaged videgame's study conducted that.
Bibliography: Newman, Paul, The Myth of The Ergodic Videogame, web Board, William, c theory. net article 88 Distraction and Digital Culture Lunenfeld, Peter, Snap To Grid: A Users Guide to Digital Arts, Media and Cultures, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000
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