Results of Ruminations

NOTE: This is a long one. It's also a lot more theoretical than conversational. If you have a question, please feel free to post so that I can try to be more clear. There is little debate on what the greatest debate is when it comes to video games: Does the imaginary violence of the game translate into violent behavior in the real world? It seems to be very much a 'depends on your point of view' type of argument. Not only does it depend on one's point of view, but also the particular study itself, what it focuses on, and how well it's managed. It is also important to note the rhetorical tricks of the debate*, since most of the data are coming from second or third sources. But I am no statistician, so numbers do nothing to help me to understand the issue. In fact, numbers about this argument are superfluous, since the entire point of gaming (whether the gamer/designer/critic is aware of it or not) is the individual as the ideal. Let's look at violence, then, shal...

I see this kind of thinking from my students quite a bit. If it weren't true, it wouldn't be funny. The funny thing is, this is true—which is actually kind of sad. Thanks to The Onion for this. I wouldn't recommend viewing too many of their shirts, as not all are that worthwhile. Though I like this one... and this one... Funny.

I finished it! After three weeks, I finally managed to finish Simulation and Simulacra. It's 165 pages......and, as the pictures reveal, I spent some time trying to wade through it. The colored tabs represent different ideas and quotes that I found worthwhile, a lot of which will end up in Press Start . I'm pretty excited. Oh! My thumb is visible! Go thumb!

NOTE: If you haven't played the most recent Prince of Persia games, please be aware that I will not tell you when spoilers erupt from the essay below. This blog post is full of them. Also, the formatting in this blog is different from how I actually wrote it. Don't worry about the lack of italics or bold or whatever. It just doesn't matter enough for me to change it. Also, there is a footnote at the end of the essay, but it is not hyperlinked. Chalk it up to laziness. Blast From the Past I have a distinct memory of my first experience with Prince of Persia. It was the original Apple II game from 1989, developed by Jordan Mechner. In it, the gamer controls the dynamic hero through a set of fiendishly difficult traps in an attempt to save the princess. Standard fare, by all counts. My memories are a bit blurry, in part because I was still very young. I don't think the game was new when I was first exposed to it, but even then I can't be sure. I do remember this: I was...

Two little things to contemplate: Thing First— Having muscled my way through the majority of Simulacra and Simulation by Baudrillard , I am excited to say that there are some amazing things that this text will be bringing to Press Start (by the way, I just took the time to Bing (not Google!) Press Start and I think I'll need a new name. Well, that's why it's just a working title). I read it to Gayle, geeking out all the while. She nodded and said it sounded good. Anyway, here's the quote. I know it isn't in full context, and you have to know what simulacra means (the OED defines it as " something having merely the form or appearance of a certain thing, without possessing its substance or proper qualities; a mere image, a specious imitation or likeness, of something) , but I'm excited about it: simulacra of simulation, founded on information, the model, the cybernetic game—total operationality , hyperreality , aim of total control. This is, in my mind, t...

I started this blog over a year ago. (I was going to do a follow up blog on the actual date, sort of a 'full circle' thing. But I forgot.) It was—and still is—designed to let me sound off on things that tickle my fancy, a breeding ground for the rough drafts of essays that I will probably never get around to fleshing out and finalizing. It's been remarkably useful for that. Lately, with my work on Press Start , the blog has been useful to me for getting different ideas off the ground, hearing what my students think of my current work, and feeling like I'm not writing into a complete void; that my voice is, in a sense, heard. My life has changed significantly from that night last June when I scribbled down my thoughts about the Metal Gear Solid series, but one thing hasn't changed: I still think that 'blog' and 'blogosphere' are inane words. Meh. I take the good with the bad.

NOTE: This is the rough draft of the intro to Press Start to Begin . It is supposed to provide an outline for me as the writer and you as the reader. It should be giving you a bit of the scope of what the work will entail, thus preventing anyone from getting the wrong idea of what the book will be about. Feel free to comment below. Tutorial Welcome to the the tutorial. This is the area in which no lives are lost, ammo is infinite, and the result is taken from here and into the game. This is an area that is as picture perfect as you could hope for, a hold-my-hand, spoon-feed-me-the-answers section. It won't last long. What you have here is my own personal vindication, apology, and analysis of video games as an interactive form, an artistic experience, and (to quote Shakespeare's The Tempest) a 'brave new world' of narrative. It will expose and explore what it means to be a gamer in a theoretical sense, one based upon theories and responses, personal experiences, and a su...

I've been working steadily the past week on my three-project mess. It's kinda hard to show exactly how much each has progressed, but it's good to see something going on. At least, I think so. Tales: 5,206 new words (that doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm pleased with it. I'm 25% through my goal for the month) Press Start: I have 9,995 words in the project, a number of which I've culled from this blog. (Yes, just 5 words away from 10k! Of course, as I lamented in the last blog post, a lot of those words have to be thrown away. I don't have an overall goal for the month with this one. A large—probably overly-large—portion of this one isn't going to be written until I finish Baudrillard.) Words: This is the revision one. It's going to float around 136,721 words (it's current count) pretty permanently. A better track: 3/44 chapters revised. That's not even 1% yet. Books and Other Snippets I'll probably post a little anecdote about the re...

I tried my hand at writing another essay today. It spiraled out of control and exploded messily on my computer. There are still bits I'm picking out of the keyboard. I'll probably post the tragedy here fairly soon...if I ever get beyond that last blasted paragraph. On unrelated news, Brandon Sanderson has just released a new stand-alone fantasy book that I plan on picking up this week. I recommend his work to anyone who likes fantasy.

Before we begin the analysis of the video game as a new zeitgeist, we'd be well served to create our own fictional avatar. Rather than selecting any one particular game, this imaginary game and avatar will prove useful in allowing us to apply different thought exercises to the same symbol-an intersubjective agreement of the highest magnitude. The character's name is "Petitor", a small sounding name for a small character. You can picture him how you like; I think of a boy dressed in sandals and ragged robes, dirty with too much exploration. A short sword girds his hip. Dark hair dangles in his face. The world in which he lives is littered with different types of cities-modern, classical, Victorian, postmodern, futuristic. There are sprawling landscapes, endless lands of dust and scrub grass, barren rock formations. There are jungles, lush and verdant. There are dark caves (of course-what game can escape the Cave?) and dungeons and sewers. There are pinnacles that Petit...

In light of the recent 'announcement' that I will be writing a book of essays about video games, I've decided to 'publish' the rough ideas I have a la McKenzie Wark and his Gam3r 7h30ry . The idea is to get other ideas based upon what I've written here—show me where my logic lapses, what I'm missing, what's too obtuse, etc. Please, please, please comment on any of the subsequent blogs. I will be tagging them as "Press Start", so you'll know in particular which pieces are actually being drafted for the book. Thanks to all!

NOTE: If you haven't read the ' Foregrounding ' blog post or the one entitled ' Rough Draft ', please do that first. They're both short, but they matter a lot for what you're about to read. Okay. Done. Enjoy. Zach de la Rocha: "On truth devoured/Silent play in the shadow of power/A spectacle monopolized/The cameras eyes on choice disguised." Rage Against the Machine's single "Guerilla Radio" from their Battle of Los Angeles album is a reaction against the political circus and faux-choice presentations during the 2000 elections. The quote is not in full context (it is much more political than theoretical) here, but it provides a powerful starting block. A little bit of re-punctuation will help to clarify the thrust: "On truth devoured, silent play in the shadow of power [is] a spectacle [that] monopolized the cameras' eyes-on choice disguised." Line by line, we see parallels between how video games are perceived outside o...

Okay, so I mentioned that I was going to try to put together some of my video game thoughts from this blog, forming a critical book or, mayhap, something more. After having an interesting conversation with a friend the other day (who, having read some—read: never finished—one of my fantasy-genre books), I was told that my greatest strength lay in crafting critical analyses, rather than character- and/or plot-driven pieces of fiction. It wasn't a criticism of my fiction writing; rather, it was an indication of what he, as a reader, preferred. I've been stewing on this opinion ever since, and, with the summer staring down at me with two smoking barrels of free time (pending Peter, of course), I have decided to work on not one, not two, but three different texts. It breaks down a-like a-this: Untitled Fantasy Story : This is my most current fiction work in progress. I am struggling with it mightily, as I don't know where it's going or what its purpose is. Still, my writer...