Paper 2 Remix

Remix Assignment 2 - Political and Cultural Identities of video games:

Video games can be just as much a cultural artifact for a community as a film like The Social Network can. Each aspect of a game can mean something to a different person, or a game as a whole can.


For one group of people, the online play of a game like Quake can represent a hardcore style of play that many other games lack, requiring much precision, accuracy, and tactics where other game's reward players for simply being able to point near a target. Another group can value the story of a game, and what it has to say about politics, such as a game like Crysis, that shows the oppressiveness totalitarian governments can ensue on more then just their own people, or Metal Gear and it's display of government actions and restrictions through secrecy that even a democracy might not be aware of.

For others, the game can represent their appreciation of mood and atmosphere, such as Unreal, where they can find something that truly pulls them in and makes them feel like they are in that dreaded but beautiful world - maybe they aren't feeling the pain, maybe they don't breath the air, but to them it just as much the fact that something can seem so real when being so distant from reality.

For some it can even be the graphics, and how something looks so realistic that it adds to their feeling of being inside that world, or takes them "one step closer" to being there.