COM 215 Media History

Outline Video games and convergence culture  Heavy Rain Gaming and violence  Violence, Moral Panic Games  Social change

History of Video Games Genres, Platforms, Technologies  “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device”

History of Video Games Genres, Platforms, Technologies

History of Video Games

Video game graphics

convergence culture  content flows across multiple media platforms  cooperation between multiple media industries  migratory audiences in search of new entertainment experiences

convergence culture – transmedia stories

Digital games and Hollywood films

Video game and Motion Pictures Convergence  How are games like films, and how are films like games?

Video game and Motion Pictures Tron (1982)  The first significant interface between a motion picture and a video game.

Photorealism and narrative immersion Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream, 2009)  interactive drama  four characters (Ethan, Scott, Norman, Madison)  “Origami Killer” – serial killer of children Virtual acting Body motion capture Facial capture Voice

Video games, photorealism, and narrative Empathy first, story second.

Violence in video games The legacy of Death Race (Exidy, 1976) Video gaming’s first moral panic – “consumers readily made the connection between the game's pixilated graphics and the film's orgy of automotive violence” (Kocurek, 2012) Pattern for future moral panic around games...

Legacy of Death Race (continued) Normalized violence Challenged culturally acceptable forms of violence

Alternatives Spec Ops: The Line (Zombie Studios, 2012)

Gaming as a social medium Communities at play How are MMORPGs, virtual worlds, and online fantasy sports built around social interaction?

Gamification - Speed Camera Lottery Drivers earn $ by driving speed limit 50% of corporate innovation will be “gamified” by 2015.

Gamification (future trend) Use of game mechanics, feedback loops, and rewards to spur interaction and boost engagement, buy-in, loyalty, fun, and/or learning Game-like approaches to education and problem-solving 50% of corporate innovation will be “gamified” by 2015.

Social impact games Using games to solve real world problems  turn scientific challenges into multi- player computer game  solved AIDS research problem (in 3 weeks!)

Gaming and social change Using games to save the world and solve real world problems Gamer superpowers urgent optimism tight social fabric blissful productivity epic meaning Jane McGonigal – we have to start making the real world more like a game. Jane McGonigal

Gaming and social change 1.Identify a real world problem you’d like to see solved 2.What game would you create to solve real world problems?