I was born in 1975 so, I think my experience of video games might be a little different than the rest of the class. We had Atari - played Missile Command, Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Q-bert, Frogger... We got the Atari 400 with the little flat keyboard and I learned BASIC :) - I made some of my own games. Then my step-father started building PCs and we got online with Prodigy. We played (as a family) Space Quest and King's Quest. I didn't really get into any video games much after that. My husband plays Civilization occasionally on his laptop and he has PS2. Don't ask me what games he has because I don't know! He got me a Wii for Mother's Day this year and we play when company comes over mostly. People really like that thing and I guess I think it's better than sitting still. :) No, I really do enjoy it and I helped my husband with some things in Zelda (?) I think. I think I would really like a lot of the games that are available but, they seem so time consuming and I guess I'm afraid of getting sucked in to something less than valuable to my personal growth and well-being of my family. In a nutshell, I'm too old for that! I do think it's a relevant industry and an interesting topic of discussion. The whole notion of how it relates to and reflects our culture is well worth my time. I'm starting the class with a notion that the driving force in technological innovations is the economy. In other words, what gets developed is not necessarily what is for the betterment of humanity (or most needed) but, what is most profitable. Will we spend a given resource to develop hurricane proof houses for the poorly insured working class in New Orleans or will it more likely be spent to develop a more highly produced video game for the upper middle class teenager? I don't mean this to sound cynical, it's really just an observation and thought process. That being said, I think a relevant web site for this class might be Economist.com. Here is an example of a relevant article I found on their site:
Online gaming's Netscape moment?
3 comments:
Hey Jocelyn,
I think it is cool that you are, basically, an "old school" gamer. I remember King's Quest. That was a great game. I can't say we ever had family time for videogames at my house, but my aunt and uncle used to play Prince of Persia religously once a week. I always thought that was pretty cool. I also think it is cool that you have a Wii and not really surprising as that is really the best kind of console to own as a non/casual gamer. Also, I wouldn't say games are a total waste of your time. Who knows? Maybe when your daughter gets a little older you might find that it is a fun way to spend time with her. You can all have some family time playing the latest Mario Party game for the Wii. (Just to let you know, Mario Party is basically an interactive board game. It is really fun. ) Also, I definitely think money would be better spent on reinforcing housing in high risk areas, but for the people who have already gone through that tragedy games could be a way to destress for a while and take their mind off of their troubles. Good point though! I look forward to seeing you in class next week. Take Care!
(oops, problems with the comment system, got cut off, lemme try again :)
Hi Jocelyn, great post. I can relate, I was born in '79 and have alot of the same experiences programming in BASIC for my PCXT,AT,Jr. Games were so much fun back then. I actually wonder why they don't make games anymore like King's Quest, I think people are looking for that kind of entertainment again. I can completely understand that there isn't always time for games when there are far more important things to be accomplished (like raising a child!)
I'm also very interested in the cultural aspect of how video games are the recipients of much technological innovation that would otherwise be diverted to more "worthwhile" enterprise. This obviously has to do with the financial incentives for engineers and the like to join a multi-billion dollar industry instead of wasting away in a lab publishing papers that no one may read or care about. Not much that can be done about it I suppose...
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