Andrew Bennison's H&A research topic: The role of videogames in the 21st Century Society

Despite video games existing since the 1960’s it is only in recent years that they have achieved widespread popularity with the public and gained a popular place in society. For many years Video Games were looked upon as toys for children and teenagers and thus shunned in the same manner mediums such as comics have suffered.

The industry’s endurance to expand into the mainstream market has paid off making it quite clear that video games are here to stay. This is only further ramified by the industry now trying to bridge the gap between the casual and hardcore market to allow spill-over each way in turn making more sales.

Video games are already playing a huge role within society almost as much as music, film and television and this is rising at an exponential rate every month. As this is a new frontier for a relatively new medium making an impact on society I would like to research said impact and evaluate what video games mean to individuals, our culture / society and of course the industry itself.

Methods of research

o Interviews

· Friends

· Family Members

· Developers

· Online friends

o Websites

· Gamasutra

· Kotaku

· Developer blogs

o Journals and studies

· Industry magazines / websites

· Online

Student Research Tagging

In the right hand bar of the blog there is a section called "Student Research" as content is posted to the blog that is relevant to different students research topics you will be able to click on your name (and if people make sure that they tag posting correctly) we will be able to collate research.

As you post, type the name into the tag section, if the name already exists in the tag library it will appear and you can click on it to add it.

I think that it might also be useful if you subscribe to the comments sections of your abstracts or related posts

to do this click on the comments link of the post and then click on subscribe

What is the role of video games within education?

Video games have become a standardised part of the entertainment industry and there are many people out there that would call them selves ‘gamers’. These ‘gamers’ use video games as a form of entertainment and escapism as an everyday thing but there are such things as video games that aren’t designed solely for their entertainment value. Education has been known to use video games as an education tool but it doesn’t appear to be a widely used or popular thing. The potential for video games to be used along side the regular text book or to even replace them is uncertain. It is not widely known how they are being used now and of what audience they appeal to best. Are computer and video games successful in educating everyone to a standard that is needed or are they used more as support tools? Their will be research into peoples attitudes from an industry and public view as well as seeing how they have changed over time. There are other areas of education other than the schools and university course criteria such as making people aware and educating them on such issues as bullying within schools and how to cope and what to do. The genre of serious video games is another area of video games used as education.

Presentation Abstract - Resi Evil and Bio Terrorism

Hey People

I have posted my Presentation Abstract on the blog for people to view and see what they think of my presentation if that is OK. I was going to put it into fileshare website, but my account is not working at the moment so I have put it into the end of this post (Sorry about that)

Title of Presentation/Essay:

Resident Evil: Code Veronica X and the Portrayal of Bio Terrorism in Video Games.

Presentation Synopsis

Terrorism is a subject that been put into widespread discussion over the last 30 years and has become the main focus point for many forms of media ranging from films such as World Trade Centre; telling the story of two police officers trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Centre wreckage after the 9/11 attacks to TV Series such as 24.

But no form of media has more coverage of the terrorism subject than Video Games which over the last few years, has basically covered all areas of terrorism ranging from the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden in America’s Top 10 Most Wanted to Bio Terrorism in games like Resident Evil

For this assignment, I have chosen to focus on the title, Resident Evil: Code Veronica X and its portrayal of Bio Terrorism within the game; this is because I feel that it’s storyline and the use of the series characters creates a realistic scenario of what could happen if Bio-Hazards such as the T-Veronica virus were created in real life and what could happen if an organisation such as The Agency or the games main antagonists; The Ashford Family wanted to use them for their own personal gains.

Reading (Week 5)

This weeks reading is supplied by Luke Bale of Gamespotting Blog fame and is...

Tosca, S.P. [2003] Reading Resident Evil-Code Veronica X, MelbourneDAC 2003 [Available at:http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Tosca.pdf]

(Link to wiki site)

Abstract: This paper proposes a close "reading" of the computer game Resident Evil-Code Veronica X, in a practical attempt to argue for the application of reader response criticism to digital media.

This is a text that Luke will be using for his essay and wishes to discuss its content with the groups. It will also give us an opertunity to discuss methods of close reading.

Jason Rohrer: A Close Textual Analysis

We will be forcusing on a close textual analysis of a specific designers work during the session this week... Jason Roher

More specifically we will be focusing on 3 games in his ouevre Gravitation, Passage and Between

Rohrer J. (2008) Gravitation [download], PC/Mac/Linux, http://www.sourceforge.net/

Rohrer J. (2007) Passage [download], PC/Mac/Linux/iphone http://www.sourceforge.net/

Rohrer J. (2008) Between [download], PC/Mac/Linux, http://www.sourceforge.net/

This is a full list of Jason Rohrer's videogames
Primrose - A compelling tile-placement puzzle game
Between - about consciousness and isolation.
Gravitation - about mania, melancholia, and the creative process.
Passage - shown at Kokoromi's curated GAMMA 256 event
Cultivation - explores the balance between conflict and compromise.
Transcend - an abstract 2D shooting game that doubles as a multimedia sculpture.


Jason was named one of Esquire magazines best and brightest of 2008 and ran a design journal for Escapist magazine during 2008, Wired have refered to his games as "a superb and tightly crafted sonnet... more than any game I've ever played, it illustrates how a game can be a fantastically expressive, artistic vehicle for exploring the human condition." Clint Hocking, best known for his work on the Splinter Cell at the 2007 Game Designers Conference said... "Why can't we make a game that fucking means something? A game that matters? You know? We wonder all the time if games are art, if computers can make you cry, and all that. Stop wondering. The answer is yes to both. Here's a game that made me cry. It did. It really did."

Reading (Week 5)

This weeks reading to support the in session work is...

Rohrer J. (2008) The Game Design of Art, The Escapist Magazine, 24 Jun 2008 [Available at: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_155/4987-The-Game-Design-of-Art]

Game Hunters Blog

When looking on Kotaku again, I have found a rearly good blog that other people might like. Its called Game Hunters and the official games blog from USA Today newspaper.

You can find the blog at http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/index

Just wanted to see what people think

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Pre Build Release

I have just been looking on kotaku and the people that have made the great PC game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl have released a pre-game build from the beta period of the games development in 2004.

As the game was in development for an extreamly long period of time, this is a very exciting look on the process of how the game that was finally released got to where it was in terms of gameplay and general feel of the game.

I have never seen anything like this from a games company as pre builds of games are usually a close guarder secret between the developers and the gaming press, so it is nice to see something like this availible to the rest of the gaming industry.

You can find the files at:

http://gsc-game.com/index.php?t=community&s=forums&s_game_type=xr&thm_page=1&thm_id=17037&sec_id=16&offset=0

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

I have lifted this from the Gamer Think blog by Michael Highland, it is well worth a look.

"...these aren't the advanced skills that they are going to need, they are going to need more practical skills like how to build shelters from abandoned cars or how to collect drinking water by collecting the morning dew in human skulls"

Levinson T. In The Know, Onion News Network [available at: http://www.theonion.com/content/video/are_violent_video_games]

Computer Arts Projects

I thought i'd scan this and share it. It is from the latest Computer Arts Projects magazine.

Computer Arts Projects, Issue 121, March 2009

It is from the section called showcase and is featured alongside other groups and designers to watch such as previous Dare To Be Digital winners such as Ctrl_D designer of Vegeme (which we will discuss on Thursday)