Well gamer week is upon us and like some of you, I’m less than thrilled. My gaming experience consists of the original Nintendo and Mario Kart and Goldeneye on N64. But that’s about it. And I generally only played those with friends. So basically, I’m not into the whole video game world. I read Zach Whalen’s article, “Game/Genre: A critique of Generic Formulas in Video Games in the Context of ‘The Real‘” and I can’t lie. I was bored. It took me a good three or four attempts to get through it. I tried the other articles as well, but I just couldn’t force myself through it.
I think that Whalen presented some slightly interesting ideas in regards to the typology and genre classification of video games, but it’s difficult for me to sit and read through something like that since it makes me want to crawl into my bed and sleep. I went to one of the websites he suggested and poked around for awhile just to see what it was all about. And it looked nice. Well-made. I guess it would be interesting to people… Whalen mentions the various categories that video games can end up being classified under on websites like gamespot, such as Grand Theft Auto III. Apparently in its case, it is classed under both action and Adventure. Is that weird for video games? To be two things? I’m trying to compare it to movies and there are romantic comedies and “dramadies”, so why not for video games too? Whalen notes that, “Action games typically rely on simulated violence or highly kinesthetic game play (or both) and generally lack narrative depth” and “Adventure games, on the other hand typically rely on a story to involve the player and successful game play requires understanding and advancing the story line.” Now, I have basically no experience with today’s video games, but the main two I can think of are Halo and Grand Theft Auto. And I would classify those two as Action and Adventure… According to Whalen, this is why video games should not be classified into various genres.
This is a really weak commentary. I apologize. That’s pretty much all I got out of the article. It bored me greatly. I can’t lie. (Sorry Paul! and Sorry Zach!). What can you do? I’d rather be watching The Hills and painting my toe nails.
free Falling said,
March 27, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I think it’s crazy about the lengths that people will go to to get the most recent playstation, as seen in that video. WOW. I guess I don’t understand the fascination. I must be out of the loop when it comes to the latest game machines. I do however like to be informed about the latest ipod gadgets. To me, games and their machines are in a whole different realm than what I am interested in.
dsll said,
March 28, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I agree with you gaming is not my cup of tea either, I mean I like the old nintendo and will still play it but you will not catch me staying up all night playing a game so intensely that it takes over my life! But I guess that for some this is what they enjoy and may think the things that I do are boring so i guess that I can’t judge I just don’t see the appeal!
firefly18 said,
March 28, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Wow we should all start a “who cares about gamers” group. Any thoughts? It seems to me that gamers are getting a little to “hooked up” on gaming, but at the same time that could be said about anything, by anyone.
brianfantana said,
March 28, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Haha I like reading your post. I agree that the Whalen article was rather hard to get through. Especially for anyone not interested in the “categorizing” of Gaming I guess you might call it. I am not a gamer and I still look at Mario Kart and GoldenEye as fun games back in the day. Those are the two I pick out as having played too, because few others were of interest of worth playing.
While I don’t stay up playing video games at night like “dsll” mentioned above, I do play games the odd time when bored. I’ll admit that certain games I find fun, but not addicting. My brother is an all and out Turd, and not only because he is a gamer, so gamers don’t take offense when I smash his name in public forums. Now my brother has almost every console imaginable, so naturally I have been exposed to many different games. I don’t understand the point in wasting time on most of them, but the odd one strikes me as worthwhile to at least try.
Basically what I’m saying is that video games aren’t all that bad. If people can keep control of the games and not let the games gain control of them, then I think they’re fine. Waiting in line for hours and sleeping out to get the newest console is over-the-line. But then again what would I know, I’m just a person who likes my sleep.
Cretaceous said,
June 18, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Cretaceous.