The Future of Gaming Research

So, researchers have not stopped at hypersexuality or theories with their data collections and studies.

One topic that you may not think gamers, in particular, would be good at would be multitasking.  It's interesting that people, in general, say that they are very good multitaskers.  But when it takes real concentration, the type that is necessary for video games, or even driving, we may find ourselves in a predicament because we are just no good at it.

There are two types of multitasking that I'd like to talk about: Sequential and Concurrent

The biggest difference is that one of them we CAN do, the other one we fail miserably at, and I will tell you why.

Sequential is the type of multitasking we are good at.  This type of multitasking is where we go from one movement to the other in a smooth fashion.  For instance, in a kitchen in a restaurant, you know that after you put the burgers on the grill you prepare the salad and send it out, after you send out the salad ready you drop the fries, and then flip the burgers, and finally pull the fries to drip-dry why you put the cheese on the burger and do the finishing touches to the basket. This way you are getting it ready to go out the window to the customer in time for the salad to be eaten and the fries and burger to be hot and fresh.

The other type of multitasking is Concurrent.  This is the type we can NOT do.  Simply because our motor functions, cognitive processing, and perceptual realities cannot double effectively.  What I'm really trying to say is, you can't use two high motor functions at the same time and trying to cognitively process and percept what you are trying to do.  If you do this, you will create a bottleneck in the process...

M + C = GOOD
M + P = GOOD
M + M = CATASTROPHE

A lot of people think they can text (a motor skill) and drive (...a motor skill).  Well, SURPRISE, you can't.  It just doesn't work.  Let's be honest, I don't know the real statistic, but I am sure at least 80 % of people with a texting phone have text and driven simultaneously before, I know I have.  It was not easy, but for me it wasn't entirely hard.  Which is why my Video Game Entertainment and a few select students will be at the State Fair in the end of this Summer in the Twin Cities area to test out the TEXTING AND DRIVING SIMULATOR using simply a PS3, a driving game, and a cell phone to test their hypothesis.

See you there! And thanks for reading!

Cordially,

Christina Higgins
Official University of Minnesota Graduate holding a Communication Degree!




Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

Avatars and Their Players

In terms of avatars, we are not talking about the blue people from the James Cameron film, but the characters we create to, sometimes resemble us, but mostly to REPRESENT us.

Many times people will create characters that look similar to us, or what we want to look like.

Here's me.  In the World of Warcraft world.  As you maybe can tell from the amount of gear, Sniggi is my main character. Simply put, these three characters are an embodiment of me in a virtual world. :D

The textual term for "avatar" refers to the controllable humanoid animated characters which was defined by Farmer and Morningstar.

Georg W. F. Hegel explained the relationship between a person and their avatar in three parts: Thesis (The Person), Antithesis (The Avatar) and the Synthesis (The Act of Controlling the Avatar)

http://thepopularfront.wordpress.com/tag/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed/

Next up, let's talk a little about the future of gaming research and what UMD Communication Department has planned for the end of summer.

Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

Presence..... Where are YOU?

When I say PRESENCE, what do you think of?

Being HERE on Earth?  Being in TWO places?  Feeling like something is next to you?

There are many, many definitions of presence and I think the best way to tell you is to SHOW you.

1. There is presence that has a social richness of people making connections with, let's say, Artificial Intelligent beings.

http://theegeek.com/artificial-intelligence/

2. Some say that presence is a type of realism.  An example of this could be the Holodeck from Star Trek, where everything you are interacting is not actually REAL, it cannot leave the platform it has been created.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Coming_of_Age_(episode)

3. Presence is seen sometimes as a means of transportation using narration to suck you into another world.  This can be seen when you are reading a really good book.  I know that when I read the same book twice, or even a third time, I can still smell the smells from the first time and hear the same music I was listening to when reading it the first time through.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/146718900333656795/

4. Presence can even be defined as immersion. You may think, "How much does this technology make me feel part of this world".  If you are playing a video game, sometimes you can feel like you are more part of that world than you are in your own. If you think of virtual reality games where you wear a helmet, you can almost get lost in the game and feel a part of the virtual world.  Which very well may be the future of gaming itself.  With Wii coming out with the nunchuck and Kinect by Xbox, and the upcoming trend, Oculus Rift.

5. You can also see yourself as a social actor within a medium, where we feel we make real connections in the virtual world. I know sometimes I will play World of Warcraft with my boyfriend who is in the same room as me, but when I ask him to "come over here", he leads his character to stand next to my own.  Really, what I was asking him to do was stand up with his physical body and walk over to where I was sitting in front of my computer.  It is odd how technology can draw us in so easily and make us, in a way, confused of our own surroundings and seem so real.

6. Then finally, there is presence as a feeling that the medium itself is a social actor.  The computer feels like it is real and everything inside of it.

All the above seems very complicated, and possibly overlap some.  Well luckily Lombard and Ditton (1997) decided to clarify and narrow PRESENCE down to 5 separate definitions:

PRESENCE: The psychological manifestation of the self being projected into a mediated environment. AKA Any time I am playing World of Warcraft.  I lose track of time, I sometimes feel dizzy when I had been sitting and staring at the screen, absorbed into the material and the constant switching between reality and virtual reality.

TELEPRESENCE: The ability of a technology to make you feel like you are there, again very similar to number 5. Having the full field of vision such as in a virtual reality type game, feeling the force feedback from the controller, surround sound, etc.

COPRESENCE: The ability to detect another quasi-intelligent being in the virtual landscape.  For instance, in the Sims game or even World of Warcraft, being able to distinguish the difference between a REAL person and a NPC (Non-Player Character).

SOCIAL PRESENCE: The ability to form a relationship with a para-authentic actor or avatar, usually with a warm and personal interaction.  An example of this could be a conference meeting where, instead of live video, you use an avatar to resemble yourself.

SPATIAL PRESENCE: The experience of a para-authentic self inside of a virtual environment.  An example of this would be similar to telepresence, but a more in depth and even more real feeling.  While using a virtual reality helmet, you would be able to look down and see your arms, and if you lifted one you would see that in the virtual world as you felt it in the real world.  You also are able to have a perception of body space.  This would be the future of gaming, Oculus Rift, as previously mentioned.

Now that we have a better idea of what presence REALLY is and since we were talking about avatars, let's move onto what avatars actually are.

Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

An ERSB Analysis

Everyone knows in the bottom corner of a game they see a letter that means what rating the game is.  So if a 12-year-old walks up to a counter at K-Mart and tries to buy one that has a big, black "M" on it, you should know better not to sell that game unless they have a parent that confirms that it is OK.  The ESRB stands for the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

http://elmhurst.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/group-vows-to-keep-fighting-m-rated-games-at-elmhurst-library

If you are not familiar with the rating system, there are six ratings: Ec, E, E10+, T, M and A.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

Ec is Early Childhood.  Any game where the content is intended for young children.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

E is for Everyone, containing mild violence and not very much use of mild language.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

E10+ is for children age 10 and up and may contain more mild language and violence.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

T is intended for ages 13 and up and contains a range of violence, crude humor, minimal blood and some use of strong language.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

M is for mature audiences ages 17 and up and contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and strong language.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

A is for adults ages 18 and up.  This contains the same things as an M rated game but for prolonged times.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

RP stands for Rating Pending, this is only used in advertising for a video game while it is in review for a rating.

A content analysis was done on video games across the rating boards, looking and coding for violence in each game.  They deemed each unit of analysis as any time there is an aggressive exchange that occurs between a Perpetrator engaging in a particular Act against a Target.  The Perpetrator would be the player or the NPC (Non-Playing Character).  The Act could be anything from punching, to kicking, to stabbing or even shooting.  They found that among all ratings of games, up to 89% of them contained violence.  That means that even the first three, E rated games, contained some type of violence.

I think that the ESRB are doing as good of job as they can to separate the 6 ratings. They have a large coding system and it takes hours upon hours of game play and coding per game to pass a rating test. This may cost a lot of money to do, but to stay within the law, game developers and companies have to go through it and hope that their game is successful.

Next up we will talk about PRESENCE in a game.....What is presence anyway???






Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

Entertainment Software Rating Board (2014). ESRB Rating Guide. Retrieved from http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp.

What's the REAL (not REEL) Truth?

 I'm assuming you got the gist of what I mean by REAL vs. REEL truth, but let me explain in Media Literacy terms.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1167993/Australian-library-workers-uncover-original-Schindlers-list.html

Think about any war movie you watched as a kid, how REAL did it feel?  Did you feel bad for the soldiers or the innocent bystanders dying? I remember as a kid, watching Schindler's List. I did not know that Liam Neeson was an actor, I did not know that all of the people in this movie were actors, I honestly thought it was real. I believed it was true, therefore it was, but it was REEL truth.  The movie seems so real and I did not have enough knowledge built up or a handle for time, therefore that movie was just as real as my first day of 3rd grade where one of my classmates yacked up a bunch of cherries in class because she was nervous.

http://zeroslashj.blogspot.com/2011/02/spyro-endorsing-bastard-children-since.html

I was not media literate yet, I don't think I was media literate until late highschool to early college really. I still would watch things and have to think back and say, "this is not real life". This can pertain to video games in the same way it would a movie.  Children, for instance, can play a video game and then ask a parent while dinner one night, "Can I go see Spyro after dinner?", the parents will say yes and the child will continue to think that Spyro is real.

There are however 5 concepts of Media Literacy.

1. All messages are constructions. They all have a reason for being. The creators of movies and video games want us to be engrossed in the film or game because it makes it more real and more able to relate.

2. Media messages have own creative languages and rules. Different behaviors are portrayed differently in different mediums.  A newspaper will show a different light of violence than a movie will.

3. Individuals may experience the same messages differently.  It's all interpretation. Different scenes in a game can mean different things to different players, even within the same raid group.  This can vary among different races, genders, religions, ages, personal experiences, and even the background of the player.

4. Media have embedded values and points of view into the messages.  They may project a societal view that you mimic because of Cultivation Theory.  They can change the perspective on how we should act, feel or behave by changing the values in the video game characters.  They can make us hate someone in the game, by skewing the messages in that way.

http://batnight768.deviantart.com/art/Mortal-Kombat-Female-Ninjas-402937557

5. Most media messages are desired to maximize profit or power.  The mass media, especially the game industry, creates messages in games that will sell. Games like Mortal Kombat are created, and sequels have come out, because audiences and players like the violence and the hypersexuality involved in these types of games.  Players like games like Halo and Call of Duty because it can make them feel like they are doing good, even though there are actually people in the world doing that same thing and could be shot at any moment in time of war.

To become Media Literate there are a few things you should ask yourself.  So, for instance, I am playing World of Warcraft (as I often do) and I feel that I am being sucked into the REEL reality, thinking that what I am doing is for GOOD, not just to play a game.

I need to ask myself who created these messages?  "Battle.net Game Developers, duh".

What techniques were used to get my attention? "Definitely graphics, the customized character to resemble me, the fact that I get to pick the kinds of professions, clothing, and weaponry that I want".

How many different people interpret this same message? "I don't think anyone interprets the same message, but definitely a message like it.  I don't think people interpret it correctly, though".

http://azeroth.metblogs.com/2009/06/17/upcoming-mount-changes-and-you/

I know he doesn't seem like much, but man can he swim!

What lifestyles or points of views are featured or omitted from this message? "Sleep is definitely a huge one, there isn't much talking about how much money one has but definitely about how many mounts one has it may cause one to think they have a higher status.  You see I have a handful of rare mounts that I have collected.  I have played for a good year and a half now and I still have two more rare mounts (one is the turtle mount above) than my boyfriend, who has been playing for 7 years, does".

Last, but not least, why was this message sent? "To entertain.  Simply to make it so that I log back in tomorrow and farm some more Motes of Harmony.  Really they want more money in 6 months when I pay, so that's why they have to keep me entertained.  Which for an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) is a big job!"

So really, it takes time and practice to be truly media literate.  I still find myself trapped by the "shinies" and feel like I am part of that virtual world that only lasts as long as my computer is on.  But next, let's talk about the rating system of video games, ESRB ratings.





Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

The Mysteries (no longer mysteries) of the Cultivation Theory and an Unexpected Connection with BIRGing and CORFing

http://angelkissesmaternity.typepad.com/famousmommy/2009/11/tvwatching-guidelines.html

The CULTivation Theory (heh, get it?) is where, for heavy television viewers, exposure to televised messages will cultivate them to see the televised world as representative of the REAL world. So for you heavy Netflix watchers out there, what you see is what you actually think. A few things that you heavy viewers out there underestimate are:

1. Your likelihood of being a VICTIM of a crime (You are usually not the victim, let's be real)
2. The percentage of the population involved in law enforcement (yea, this isn't really obvious)
3. You trust less (that means people and things)

Like television, heavy exposure to video games can make you THINK that what is in the game is, in a way, real. For instance, many games portray other races in a bad light, and in some communities, children may group up where there are only white people.  Children will grow up having the ideas that other races are either scary, dangerous, or at least to be cautious around them if they are not accustomed to the races in real life.

The Cultivation Theory could also lead to an understanding of the WE vs. THEM idea.

Cialdini used two terms: BIRGing(Basking in Reflected Glory) and CORFing(Cutting Off Reflected Failure).

http://casanovapendrillblog.com/2012/07/cp-book-summary-influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion/

What are BIRGing and CORFing you may ask???  They are two ways that people use to speak about the "team" they favor, whether they win or lose makes the discourse changes from "We won!!!" (BIRGing) to "They lost..." (CORFing).  The individual, you, will take either side of the two in reflection of the ending results of your team.  If your team lost, there is no way you will have enough self-esteem left to admit they are your team, but if your team wins, hell yea! You scream it loud and proud and rub it in your face that you are so proud of your team and their victory.

These two theories are closely tied into Media Literacy, let's talk more about that and get out of theories for now.




Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

Social Cognitive Theory and All it's Greatness!

When you think of video games, I bet the word "theory" never comes to mind. Although, you have seen in my previous posts that there are in fact researchers interested and intrigued to learn more about the effects of video games, but you may not know that there are theories involved in video games and there are theories that can translate to video games, as well as the rest of media in general.

First we will start with one that many overlook and have experienced in their own lives, and possibly in video games itself: Social Cognitive Theory.

Social Cognitive Theory simply states that people do not learn things solely by trying them, they experience them in a way that can spawn from three categories: personal factors, environmental factors and behavior. They all turn to one another to complete the Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model (the three things that lead us to learning).

http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Health%20Communication/Social_cognitive_theory/

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) also looks at the four steps to learning something.
1. Attention: attention to color, action, attractiveness
2. Retention: your ability to remember (the visual and audio possibly)
3. Production: remembering the task and relaying it into action in the real world
(HERE IS WHERE THE LEARNING HAPPENS)
4. Motivation: getting encouragement (benefits and rewards) when the action is received well by others

For example: A new game comes out.  I start to play and the graphics are phenomenal, I feel like I am in the game (ATTENTION).  I start playing the game the next day, then the next week, then a month goes by and I love playing the game (RETENTION).  Next, after beating the game, I start again and play as a different character, possibly trying different classes, professions and any other skill that may be different from the first time and in doing so, learning more and bringing my new learned skills into the REAL world (PRODUCTION).  Soon it becomes a part of my daily routine and I start telling my friends to play it and show them how to play (MOTIVATION).  That is one way SCT can influence someone to learning.

One item that is part of the Social Cognitive Theory that many people may not know about it Self-Efficacy.  This, in short, is whether people people they can accomplish something. IF they believe they can, they WILL enact that behavior. Like The Little Engine That Could...

http://www.barrygee.com/ios/the-little-engine-that-could/

What is funny, is that we have two different ways of reaching self-efficacy.  There is enactive performance: simply learning by doing. An example of this would be riding a bike or learning to read.

The other side of reaching self-efficacy is symbolic rehearsal: a mental practice of a physical activity, without using physical activity.  Using your cognition instead of actively doing something.  An example of this could be reading any instructions to build something then building it or another unique example would be studying for an exam, then taking it.  You couldn't read a MANUAL for riding a bike or learning to read:

YOU JUST...

 DO IT!

http://thismamamakesstuff.com/2010/05/learning-to-ride-a-balance-bike/

PRACTICE IT!

http://robinheyden.wordpress.com/page/4/

MASTER IT!

http://kids.lovetoknow.com/expert-interviews/kids-living-green

We, in the social sciences, look to the ABC's to help us out with how we learn things:

Affective: Related to emotional responses; shows our liking of the "thing", our self-esteem and other emotions

Behavioral: How it influences our actions; if it physically changes a behavior in people

Cognition: Related to learning outcomes; example is the Learning Mental Model

So by now, you are wondering, "Yea, cool, but what does this have to do with video games???" Well by using video games as a learning tool, and with repeated exposure, we can help youth learn more in a more effective matter.  I know when I was in grade school I played a lot of Jump Start, I learned and remembered more from those games than I did from my teachers.  This is solid evidence that video games are cool and should be embedded/kept in the agenda.

Up next: Cultivation Theory.  Prepare to be amazed at how easily we are cultivated by media, even video games. *GASP*




Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

Hypersexuality and Stereotypes

Small waist, large breasts, child sized attire, the "bedroom" eyes, and arms stretched out a bit to make the breasts seem more inviting.  This is what game developers make our, I say our because I am a female, gender look like.

So first off, did you ever notice female video game characters are totally not what girls really look like in REAL life?  This would be because game developers attempt to make the "perfect" woman and by doing so, hypersexualizing females.

Hypersexual can be defined in two ways: Conceptual and Operational

The conceptual definition is like a dictionary definition: "excessive concern with, or indulgence in, a sexualized appearance or activity.

The operational definition is like a list of descriptions:

- Sexually revealing clothing

- Nudity or partial nudity

- Sex talk

- Sexual behavior

-Character body proportion

- Attire (or lack of)

- Breast size

- Waist size

Seriously...

Second, do you ever notice that there aren't many games out there that star a female character!? Alright, I know, there is Lara Croft, but really, think of ten games that feature a female character as the lead.

Can't do it?  That's because there aren't many. This leads me to think there is a huge problem with how society views women.  I'm not going to "hate" on game developers, because really, they make what SELLS. Not many game players are going to pick up a game with a chick on front who is in full armor and a mask on when there is a game with a picture of a chick on front that looks like the Lara Croft picture above.  This just sickens me.

This brings me to the Gender Schema Theory.  What the Gender Schema Theory says is that exposure to stereotyped sexual interactions on television can provoke schema that categorize women as sexual, submissive and less intelligent than their male counterparts.  This can sing the same tune for video games as well as television. This theory screams that we as a society are sexist, and that is incredibly wrong.  Because of exposure to these types of female displays, we actually believe that this is what women are supposed to be like and look like.

This doesn't just go for women either. Video games also routinely emphasize the "muscular, white male".  Many times in games your first pick for a character, sometimes only pick, is a white male.  They also hypersexualize the male characters to make them look "buff-er" and have more muscles than humanly possible. Characters like Kratos are hard to come by in real life.  If you ask me, I would rather see characters like Link again; normal looking.

There was a study done by Downs and Smith where they looked at the top 20 games across three consoles (Xbox, Playstation and Game Cube) examining hypersexuality for both genders.  A few findings are below:

1. Males were predominant as primary or secondary characters.
2. There were more revealing clothing for males and females characters among Game Cube than Playstation or Xbox games.
3. Females were least likely to be found in E-rated games.
4. Females are 10 times more likely than males to show nudity.

This study is but one of many that show that males and females are both hypersexualized, with an emphasis on females.

But another study (Ivory, 2006) conducted a content analysis looking at game review sites to see if players would comment on the hypersexuality. In doing a purposive sample (using units of interest that meet some predetermined criteria) of 100 game reviews, they found that male characters were referenced in the reviews (the sample unit) more often than females and that males were more often than not in the image as their avatar (unit of analysis) for the review. They concluded that there is a gender dichotomy (not equal) in video game characters, meaning that females are highly underrepresented, but when they are shown they are more likely than males to be portrayed in a sexualized fashion.

Now that we wrapped that up, let's move onto something a little less depressing: MORE THEORIES!




Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

What Kind of Player are You?!

Ever wonder what type of player you were when it came to video games?  Did you already have an idea of what type of player you were?  Do you not identify yourself as a player at all?  Take a look at the list of types of players.  I know that a few of them really surprised me.  Hopefully you find yourself at home with one, or more, types!

"Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences" lays out 9 different types of players.  Let's go through them one-by-one.

First we have the type everyone knows of, and sometimes grudges against:

The Competitor

http://www.techiestate.com/improve-your-visual-acuity-by-playing-video-games/

The Competitor is the player who plays to be better than everyone else.  This player will stop at nothing to win.  They may get aggressive if they do not win.  Be cautious when one of these types of players loses while you are around, they may throw their controller at you.  When I was younger, playing Contra on Nintendo (NES) was one of my favorite games to play.  I played with my younger brother, of course.  For some reason, he was always better than me. But whenever I played with him and he lost a life or I "made him die", he would slam his controller on the end of the bed just to show how angry he was.  There were times he would have to be banned from playing video games for a day or two because he just could not control his anger.  He had to win.

The Explorer

https://wowmisadventures.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/

The Explorer is the one player who plays to experience the boundaries of the play world in order to discover what others do not know yet. One example is when Mount Hyjal was under construction in World of Warcraft, there was one way to get in that not many players knew about.  If you were dead, you could sneak your way in and make your way up the mountain, an achievement that no other live character could get to.  I feel that I am part explorer because while I play World of Warcraft I search for things that are not commonly known by most players.  One thing for instance is the Onyx Egg.  When you are increasing your reputation with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, you can use these eggs to raise your reputation quicker.  These eggs are cleverly hidden and have a low spawn rate, so they are tough to find.  But even after I was exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, I still continued to find eggs, even though I had no use for them anymore.  It was just fun because not many players knew where they were.

The Collector

The Collector plays to acquire as much STUFF as they can throughout the game.  In the PC games of Nancy Drew, there are literally Easter Eggs, not only were they the in-game Easter egg tricks that Warren Robinett first created in Atari 2600 game "Adventure", these were Easter Eggs that if you put in the write codes for a door, or clicked the right thing X number of times, you get an Easter Egg.  Normally there are three in the game.  Unless you play for hours and hours on end, you will never find one by accident.  I have made it my goal in every game to collect them all, and hopefully remember where they are and how I get them when I play the next time around.

Another game I could be considered a Collector for could possibly be Pokemon Leaf Green.  I mean, you gotta catch 'em all.

The Achiever

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/exodar/Regnibla/achievement#81:a8306

The Achiever plays to not only be better than everyone, but to have the best rankings over time or the most wins.  When I think of the Achiever, I think of the person who wins realm firsts, *COUGH COUGH* my boyfriend, in World of Warcraft.  In every expansion there are always realm firsts for certain categories. The category my boyfriend accomplished realm first for was Archaeology. He has won two realm firsts in a row for Archaeology. I told him that I am going to win when the next expansion releases in the late fall. He wasn't too happy with me being competition for him to reach realm first. Maybe I will try for Herbalism or Fishing, I'm really good at fishing (All the rares, all the time!).

The Joker

http://breakingmuscle.com/family-kids/wired-kids-how-screen-time-affects-childrens-brains

The Joker plays just for fun, for the social aspect of gaming.  Now that I think of it, I don't know many people who play just for the fun of the game or simply for the social aspect. There is usually some sort of gain the players I have experienced are playing for. If I were to call someone the Joker, it would have to be after the player had lost a game and did not get sour or rude about the game play or other players.

The Director

http://www.comicbooktherapy.com/the-hardcore-review-going-viral-with-the-guild-33290

The Director plays for the thrill of being in charge.  They want to orchestrate an event in the virtual world.  One fictional character who does this is Vork from the web series The Guild. Other than the episodes where he appointed Kodex as guild leader to prove a point, he himself was guild leader. He scheduled all of the raids and meetings for his guild and loved doing it. 

The Storyteller

The Storyteller plays to create or live in an alternative world and build narrative out of that world.  

I remember in my 6th grade science class, my teacher brought in the game Simcity for students to play around with before school started or after school while waiting for the buses.  The day I was able to create part of the city I felt so much power.  I was creating a world; a world where people worked, and depended on their surroundings that I created.

The Performer

The Performer is the person who plays for an audience. They do special moves or use a unique style of controller usage in order to impress their audience. My favorite "Performer" was my boyfriend from Freshman year of high school.  He was two years older than me and absolutely loved playing Guitar Hero for me, not just because he liked playing the game itself. He was amazing! He would play any song, on hard, while staring at his audience. He was a pro! Prom night, he stayed over and instead of going to the after prom party, we went to my place with a bunch of my friends and he put on a show.  That is him in the above picture, with my brother standing in "aww" at him probably playing Free Bird on Expert, of course.

The Craftsman

The Craftsman plays to build, solve puzzles, or engineer constructs. The Creative mode in Minecraft would be a good example of this.  The main premise is that the player builds and creates large projects. I have not played myself, but I know a few friends who may be teetering on the addictive side of playing Minecraft.

Next up we have a different side of gaming you may not have consciously thought of.  My next blog will involve the stigma of hypersexuality in gaming.  More to come, stay tuned.

Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

Introducing Video Game Entertainment

There are many things people do not know about video games.  Video games can serve as a releasing tool, a friend, even as a way to feel accomplished.  Those are a few items you may have known about. Did you also know that video games do not only serve as a releasing tool, but instead as a tool for research?  Maybe not. In the following blog entries, I will walk you through what I have learned and taken out of my Video Game Entertainment course at the University of Minnesota in Duluth.

First off, let's start with the question: "Why do we like video games?". Always start with basics and knowing why we like them will help us understand why we use them for certain things: pleasure, competition, research, and even exercise.

There are many reasons we like video games.  Here are the 6 main reasons our textbook, "Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences", by Peter Vorderer and Jennings Bryant, defined to answer the question, "Why do we like video games?"

1. Just can't get enough of that emotional stimuli!

http://www.essence.com/2012/12/18/essence-poll-graphic-content-tv-and-video-games-blame-senseless-violence/

Gamers enjoy the sensation of emotional stimulation as a result of fast action and quality graphics.  Gamers like to be aroused (no innuendos intended). The emotional stimuli is the sweaty palm, the eye twitching, and restless-leg-syndrome inducing feeling we get when we play any video game.  I am playing Pokemon Leaf Green version as I type, it is an intense, clammy mess. Go Charmander, Go!

2. Challenge Accepted!

http://www.sicfitscottsdale.com/2013/07/are-you-ready-to-level-up/

Gamers push themselves to higher and higher skill levels and achieve new goals and personal accomplishments.  This can include a range of things from getting the best gear in Diablo III to getting all your profession skill levels to 600 in World of Warcraft. I like to think I game for the challenge because I am constantly trying new skills out and won't stop until I have reached the cap for that particular skill.

3. Must be the best! Must win!

http://kottke.org/tag/video%20games

Gamers like to prove to others who has the best skills and who can react or think the fastest using competition in video games. For instance, in the above photo, JKOTTKE really wanted to beat everyone. It was his goal to make all 5 High Scores. I wonder where he is today...

4. Immersion and Diversion 

http://techliberation.com/2008/09/16/women-play-video-games/

Gamers use video games to avoid stress or other responsibilities, or sometimes just because there is nothing else to do. I'm sure the girl in the picture above was relieving some built up stress by yelling at the 1990's style computer using a joystick to help encourage her rage.

5. FEEL LIKE MARIO, BE MARIO!

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wlas0006/1001a/2011/11/why-people-love-video-games.html

Video games allow gamers the ability to do things they would not ordinarily be able to do in the real world.  For instance, how likely is it that this father and son duo would wear these costumes everyday in the real world?  Highly unlikely. So, by wearing it in the comfort of their own home while playing their game of choice, Mario Bros., they are more apt to be a part of the fantasy of the video game world.

6: Let's do this Together!

http://www.popmythology.com/5-reasons-i-prefer-watching-video-games/

Gamers use video games to interact with friends and learn about the personalities of each other.  Some may think that gaming is for the loners who live in their mom's basements.  This is false.  Gamers usually play with others, whether they play in person or virtually, it is still considered social interaction.

So, now that we've established WHY we play video games, are you curious as to what kind of gamer you are?  Stay tuned for an elaborate look at the different types of gamers that our book categorizes.




Vorderer, P., & Bryant, J. (2006). Playing Video Games: Motives, Responses, and Consequences. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.