Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> All right, the last topic that we're going to look
at in this module is video games.
And the reason we're going to connect to this is because,
as digital media artists, we have a lot
of digital tools available to us.
The first video that I want to look at is, and again,
remember that by looking
at a video it's not the same as playing a game.
And I urge you to reach out and play these games but I want
to give you an experience with this, or just a,
sort of a peripheral experience with this as well.
This one is called Every Day the Same Dream.
And I don't want to give it away because each of these games has,
sort of, an embedded meaning in them.
But, this is, this is a video of me actually playing the game.
And, the controls are very simple.
The arrows moving back and forth and space interacts
with whatever is the option to interact with.
And, in the course of this, you play through a person who wakes
up in the morning, greets his wife,
goes down in the elevator, drives to work.
[ Music ]
And finds his cubical, talks to his boss, finds his cubical.
And, you'll notice that there is certain options for like sort
of steering off the path just slightly.
Like in this first example, I like look at the leaf.
And, after you've done one of these things,
you don't have the same options anymore.
But then you go and you sit in your cubical and you work,
and then, you essentially wake up the next morning.
It's about the repetition and it's about freedom
and steering off the path.
And there is another message that is involved with it.
And, this game probably takes about 15 to 20 minutes
to play totally through they urge you to do right.
The next game is called the Mighty Joe Off.
And this is, it's a complex game.
It's difficult to deal with although it's very easy to play.
The ideas that are embedded in it are contained or were put
in it by Anna Anthropy who is the author
that is also known as auntie pixelante.
She implements perversion, lesbians, and BDSM themes due
to her affiliation with all three of these.
And, the purpose behind this is because she was looking
at the stories that were created
by primarily white male game designers and she realized,
I mean, it's pretty obvious
that a white man cannot really tell the story of a lesbian.
So, she designed an [inaudible] that featured dikes
and perverts [inaudible] *** characters
and *** designers arguing that supposed dikes have seen
in commercials these pictures are written and drawn by men.
And as a result, she feels they don't look like us
or they don't express themselves like us,
and they don't *** like us.
So, she tends to take and put the first person experience
into it.
And definitely it like has a, you can feel the difference,
or some of the difference
in it although it performs very much like other games.
The third game is Handle With Care by Robert Yang.
And this is a half life to modification.
And what this game is about is sort
of the reconstructed memories or the memories
of a failed marriage during a divorce counseling.
The twist is that this is a, this is a gay couple and they're
like experiencing like a distancing
in their relationship.
But, what you do is you essentially are
in this control room and you are faced with these boxes
that contain these memories.
As you destroy them, the memories play out for you.
And, as a player, you start to experience some
of the relationship in the first person
as you've released the memories.
And, this has like a really powerful sort
of experiential feeling to it.
It's the, it's really about sorting through these memories.
And in the end you, well, I'm not going
to tell you what the ending is.
You should really actually play it yourself.
But, there is an end to it.
It has sort of a reasonable resolution to it.
[ Music ]
So, the key to this is go and play these video games.
Play board games.
Play person to person face to face games.
This is the only way that you can actually experience the
content that's within them,
especially if they've been made well.
So, the last thing I want to challenge you to go
and play a particular game.
It takes all of five minutes to play.
It's called Passage.
It's like a little lyric poem.
The link is provided here
and I think it will give you a really good experience
for what is possible within the game, sort of understanding
that one can get through experience.