FIFA 10 and Tomb Raider

In terms of representation and avatars for FIFA 10, I don’t believe FIFA 10 perpetuates stereotypes. The avatars are the players on the field in FIFA 10. Although the user switches players, the avatar can still be considered to be relatively the same since everyone the user can play as is a professional soccer player. I don’t think stereotypes are perpetuated because each character is modeled after the real person of that character in real life. Characters in the game are modeled after their real life counterparts in regards to cleats, accessories, hair, face, skin color, height, and skill in comparison to other players. Therefore, if anything, the avatars in FIFA 10 serve as homage to the real life players that they represent. To the best of my knowledge, FIFA 10 does allow the user to customize their own player in regards to the categories mentioned above. This can have a dramatic effect on gameplay since most users name the newly created characters after themselves, creating more interest in the game.

I feel that Tomb Raider perpetuates stereotypes through its avatar, Lara Croft. The stereotype created by Lara Croft is what society deems as the perfect female: skinny, good looking, and breasts that are too big for her body type. A game would typically not sell that if its main female character had only average proportions and average looks. This Lara Croft character is the type of character we see on the cover of magazines and on starring on television shows. Even though most women are not like this, this is the stereotype of what the perfect woman is, as deemed by society. Tomb Raider, unlike FIFA 10, does not allow the user to create a customized avatar.

Going off the Lara Croft stereotype, I remember playing a beach volleyball game for PS2 in which all the characters were female and, like Lara Croft, all characters had perfect bodies. This game would never have sold if the characters were male. Also, I recently played Heavy Rain. One of the main characters in Heavy Rain is a female. There is a scene where she showers naked. I believe this also contributes to the Lara Croft stereotype because, like Lara Croft, and the beach volleyball players, this woman also had a perfect body and great looks. This stereotype is not fair (in essence, it says that every woman should look like a Barbie doll), but this is what sells because this is the stereotype that our media society has created.

Passage -- Story of the Game

Passage is a metaphor for life. At the beginning, a man begins, and has to option to find love or not find love. If he finds love, there are certain places he cant go in the game but if he does not choose to find a spouse, he can navigate to different areas of the space provided by the game. Having found love and not being able to access certain areas of the game may represent the challenges of marriage. Even though the graphics are elementary, the man(and woman if he chooses to find love) both clearly show signs of aging in their appearance as the game progresses and end up dying. The game allows the user to interpret what is going on at certain points to help create the storyline. For example, what looks like a walk in the park to me may be interpreted as something completely different by someone else.

Modern Warfare 2: Actions Allowed

As opposed to normal actions, which we can perform in reality, I am assuming actions allowed are actions not easily performed in reality. The first action allowed that I noticed was being able to switch guns with ease. Players apparently carry multiple guns around with them at the same time and can switch them at any time even though in reality this may become a cumbersome task because of how heavy carrying multiple guns would be. One player even seemed to be carrying around a rocket launcher in his arsenal which is completely unrealistic.

The other major action allowed is being able to be revived when dead or close to being dead. We see this in many video games where players are able to attain health packs in order to avoid dying or being able to respawn.

Modern Warefare 2, along with most other first person shooter games, provides a radar for its players so that they can see where they are inside of a "level." It is unlikely that players in a real battlefield will have radar communicating to them where they are and exactly where everyone else is.

I also noted the following actions allowed but after reconsideration, they appear to be more along the lines of normal actions so I will not go into detail: use scope, fight without a gun, stab someone, reload guns quickly.

Video Games as Works of Art?

The game I played from the Kuma website was National Bloodsport. I joined an existing game and played in a team setting. The specific game I played was called Battery. For this game, there were two teams (red and blue) each with home bases. There is also a middle-ground. The objective of the game is to control the middle-ground and protect it. Once in control of the middle-ground, that team can try to penetrate the other team’s base and tag it to get a point. However, only the team in control of the middle ground can score points. The team on the defensive’s objective is to protect their base and try to gain control of the middle ground so that they can go on the offensive.

The interface of National Bloodsport is user-friendly. The game allows players to communicate with each other both verbally and textually via the keyboard. The game also offers a radar to help players orient themselves. Moving, shooting and changing guns is fairly simple once getting the hang of it. The graphics are decent for an online free computer game and the sound(e.g. gunshots), in my opinion, adds greatly to the experience of the game. It is also easy to discern team members from non-team members because the game labels all players (this helps create the point of view of an enemy). I did not experience any lag during my game play which is also a positive. Overall, the game that this world creates works because the trailer to the game gives the player an arc story about the virtual world the player is playing in. This helps the player build a connection to the game and create the sense of greater involvement through providing a storyline.

I think that National Bloodsport is not a legitimate form of art. Even though this game teaches us about war strategy and war tactics, it is not the first game to do so. It is simply reproducing the many first person shooter games that have come before it with almost identical premises. I would agree that National Bloodsport is a reproduction of a form of art with that form of art being the first popular first person shooting game. As Walter Benjamin puts it, National Bloodsport lacks “its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” This statement is accurate of National Bloodsport because it is not a unique game in today’s gaming culture, giving it little exhibition value. I think games in general can be forms of art, however. As mentioned, I would consider the first successful first person shooter game to have great art value because it brings the player into another world and it is the first game of that nature to do so. Games following that original groundbreaking game are simply acts of homage and create no new significant artistic value.

Question: What is the main difference between exhibition value and cult value?

First Post

The reading defines a video game as “any forms of computer-based entertainment software, either textual or image-based, using any electronic platform such as personal computers or consoles involving one or multiple players in a physical or networked environment.” I completely agree with this definition but I do believe the element of interaction needs to be added. When I am playing a video game, I feel as if I am interacting with the game. I communicate to the game through a controller and based upon my communication, the game communicates back to me. This interaction between the game and the user is what users feed off of to make users believe as though they are actually part of the game, that the game is somewhat of a virtual reality.

An example of a video game that I have learned from is FIFA soccer by EA Sports. I have been a soccer player my entire life and I play soccer on the Men’s team at Bentley. Being an avid player, it is tough during the winter when we cannot play outside. Playing FIFA has helped me stay sharp during the offseason. The fast pace of the game forces the user to make quick and snappy decisions which have helped my soccer mind stay fresh during the winter time. Specifically, FIFA has helped me position myself on the field. FIFA allows the user to view the entire field from a sky view or television camera view. Constantly having this view reinforces my mind where I should be on the field for the position I play. I believe that observing player positioning in FIFA has translated to the actual soccer field for me, especially in defensive situations, where team shape is vital. I usually play FIFA in the “FIFA Lounge” where each of my roommates and I have a username. The “FIFA Lounge” automatically calculates cumulative statistics between players and overall standings.

I would definitely categorize FIFA in the “Sports and Beat-‘em-ups” category because it is a sports game. FIFA would also be categorized as a home game as opposed to a coin-op. FIFA has a practice mode that can be classified under paidea in which there are no objective but it also has many ludic contexts in which the user can play in tournaments or leagues.