Once upon a time...

Once upon a time videos games used to be ‘just for fun’ as a form of entertainment. Nowadays with the ability to play with mass amounts of people, with physical distance not being problem, video games have created their own culture and communities. Gamers view videos games as not just a form of entertainment but as a hobby. They become immersed in the culture of the game and strive to complete objectives or earn certain achievements. Developers create reward systems and achievements so that players keep coming back to the game determined to reach a certain achievement. Some people I know have become so caught up in the ‘buzz’ of the game that it becomes a priority over more important things like attending classes. The community of players of a particular game are individually involved in cultivating the culture that surrounds that game. Players can not only add to the culture by what they say and do in the game but also on online blogs and forums. Video games are a rapidly grow part of popular culture that is exciting and innovative and is one of the reasons that I chose to do this paper. The Perron and Wolf reading inspired me even more as they talk in detail about even more of the multiple layers of different video games and the different elements in which there is too explore. For example they talk about even just understanding the technology, my first game I played was on play station 1 called pandemonium, me and my friend played it all weekend to try and ‘clock’ the game. All we needed then was the console and 2 controllers. Now when I play on Play station three there are so many added pieces of technology which change the whole experience of the game for example the guitar on guitar hero. This new piece of technology for me changes the way I feel when playing the game as your actually holding a guitar making you feel more like a rock star. Perron and Wolf go on to talk about the term interactive, they have also amazed me with how many ways we interact with video games, for example as they say you interact still with the onscreen game but outside the games diagetic world like how you create your Sims characters. Video games to me were always really interesting pieces of technology to me but now I am realising that they are so much more complex than I thought from the cultures they create to the many different ways we interact with them and also the way the technology is becoming even more and more advanced which is changing the gaming experience.