Saturday 11 February 2012

Videogame Studies Part 1: History of Gaming and Digital Game Studies

Everyone in this world enjoys a good game, it's a well known way to relax and have fun, unwind from the day with friends.
But whats the difference when it comes to play open games, and video games. Well with normal games such as, Football, Rugby, Golf and Netball, you have space and freedom to move about and do what you want, however when it comes too video gaming you have that one area you must stay in, and you can only stick to the rules as told.


Game playing is of course a extremely social thing to do, and can set you up into different social groups, especially during school, say you played chess you would be seen as a "nerd but if you then moved on to play football you would of course be a "top lad". Gaming is an extremely integral part of our society, they are an expression of our identity and human nature.

Roger Caillois - Man, Play and Games looks at the sense of playfulness, playing and gaming is important to who we are and how we learn. Playing is an unstructured activity and games are defined by rules and experiences.

Gaming is a very good way to learn, you can learn morals and new skills through gaming.
However Video Gaming is not the first time people have played.

When archaeologists explore an ancient society they find all sorts of items, however finding games is a very good record when discovering how people and groups lived.
Its said that Dice were among the earliest of items used to "game", and was used throughout Asia even before recorded history." The oldest known examples being a 3000-year-old set unearthed at an archaeological site in southeastern Iran. Notable dice games have included Hazard, a game popular in Europe from the 14th through the 18th centuries, Chuck-a-luck, a related game also known as birdcage, Craps, which replaced Hazard in popularity during the 19th century, and Sic bo, a Far Eastern Chuck-a-luck variant which evolved into a popular casino game in the 20th century." - Wikipedia. 


Now when I was younger I remember constantly sitting around playing board games, Monopoly, Snakes and ladders, the works. But what about the extinct board games?
"Among the earliest board games discovered by archaeologists and historians are a number of games the exact rules of which have been forgotten, with rules sometimes being completely unknown today and sometimes being only partially understood, although in many cases proposed or theorised rulesets for these games have been offered by historians and board game manufacturers. Among the earliest examples of board games whose rules have been lost is senet, a game found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burial sites in Egypt (circa 3500 BCE and 3100 BCE, respectively) and inheiroglyphs dating to around 3100 BCE." - Wikipedia. 

When I was younger, I was the typical gamer, apart from the fact my uncle had bought me every single James Bond game for PlayStation 2... I would also play Wii, and create families happily on Sims for hours on end, I also remember them incredibly creepy toys, Furby's which would like to talk to you for hours on end. 


I find that gaming, in the long wrong, could actually make or change aspects of our personality, for example, girls when younger enjoy to play with dolls, and usually grow up to dress up and act girly, boys play video and well turn out like boys....

With such games as Grand Theft Auto, you are in a typical "gangster" culture, so games therefore, also allow people to be involved in cultures they only dream of (I hope).

Violent games such as Call Of Duty and Grand Theft Auto involves alot of engagement, most people get sucked into the games and forget about the outside world, spending hours on end completing surreal quests. But could this make you miss out on a lot of important things in the real world? Is gaming turning us all completely stupid by spending too much time online? Its apparent that gaming can improve the mind, but I guess that is dependent on what you are actually playing. 

Different types of gaming may be: 
  • Agon: Athletics (Boxing) 
  • Ludus: Checkers, Fencing, Football, Chess
  • Alea: Counting out Rhymes
  • Ludus: Betting, Lotteries
  • Mimicry: Masks, Disguises
  • Ludus: Theater
  • Vertigo: Horse Riding, Helicopter
  • Ludus: Mountain Climbing, Skiing. 
Overall, even though gaming could seem harmful too us, it continues to get proven not to be, they will constantly stay popular within our society for a very long time. 

















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