Videogames as a Medium

Video games are finally breaking thru as an artistic medium. It seems like video games have been around for a short time, but in fact, video games have been around for 40 years and have been a commercial medium for 30 years. It wasn't until the 1970s that video gaming had any sort of affect on our culture as a whole. Since the game needs input from the player for it to function, i think that's one of the biggest reasons video gaming is becoming an artistic medium, despite what it is-it still makes you think. There are many differences between video gaming and film, in film everything is done by the filmmaker and no input is required by the audience. Video gaming at times leaves some windows open and has unanswered questions while film usually wraps everything up in a nice little bow and leaves nothing unanswered. Film and video games became financially successful in its first decade of existance. Alone, video gaming has opened a form of entertainment that still needs to be examined and analyzed as much as film has.

Hyperidentities....MMORPGS....

I am not a fan of MMORPGS, Massively multiplayer online role playing games. But through this article I learned much about them. There is this whole universe where the avatar exists, usually people who play this game have more than one avatar they can pick and choose from, I thought it was always the same character. You then name your avatar, if you do not have a name in mind the game assists you in picking out a name. MMORPGS are and have been getting huge, and they seem to last for ages. Often times MMORPG players are referred to as users not players because of the fact that it is almost impossible to end the game. One thing I read in the article that I found very interesting was the Mechanism of Transference. basically, it is when a person transfers their emotions unconsciously to the avatar itself. Once thinking about it, i realized that people do do this, if they don't feel human the create a night elf, if they don't feel male or female they create a quite androgynous character. I think another way video gaming is becoming more like art is because more we are feeling and getting so emotionally involved in the game that we are actually transferring out feelings into out characters into the game, obviously it is easy to do that in film-but this proves video gaming is getting closer and closer to be considered art.