Defining Reality

"Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World"

I had to roll my eyes. Video games don't make us better, I thought. They make us lazy and boring and dull. They detract from the quality of life. They are a threat to the individual and community.

In some ways, my personal theories regarding video games have not changed from this initial reaction to McGonigal's text. Granted, my theories are now a little less dramatic. I no longer believe that video games make people lazy or boring. And I do not believe that they are an inherent threat - although I still do believe that they still have that potential. (But I would argue that a great many of things have that potential.)

I agree with many of McGonigal's observations about the world.

Reality is indeed broken.

McGonigal suggests that in order to fix reality, we must recreate it.

I disagree.

Rather, in order to fix reality, we need to face it.

Much of my unrest with virtual spaces stems from the idea that reality is something that can be - or even needs to be - escaped. Virtual spaces provide an outlet for people to hide from reality. [And it is not just video games. Television, movies, music, even books can be hiding places, too. The effects of these hiding places have the same negative effects on reality as video games.]

So, what exactly is reality?

Reality exists beyond us.  We may seem to affect reality – through wars, systems, injustices, rules and laws – but I would argue that these constructions do not shape reality but, rather, dictate how we function within and interact with reality.  Reality is a physical and spiritual truth.  It cannot be constructed or recreated because it transcends us.

In this sense, reality is black-and-white.  We can create and imagine and construct, but we cannot change the fabric of reality.  We can only change our perceptions of reality.

This is essentially why I fear technology.  It distracts us from reality.  It hides reality.  It acts as though it changes reality.

To try to illustrate this with a tangible example...  Tanavia is my WoW character.  I identify with this avatar because I created her.  Because I created her, some of me is in her because she also serves as a representation of myself.

This alternate reality becomes dangerous when I replace my true physical and spiritual identity (Sarah) with my virtual identity (Tanavia).  This is dangerous because Tanavia is not real while Sarah is real.  You can strip Tanavia away, and Sarah still exists.  But if you take Sarah away, Tanavia is not.

We have a purpose in reality; hiding places keep us away from our purpose.  I do think that we live in a passive society that does not want to deal with tough questions.  Therefore, video games become a kind of substitute for these questions.  We fulfill our need to belong to something by figuring out the game.

However, there is a whole world – a whole reality – that we have access to that we are hiding from!  We turn to things that we can easily control and manipulate instead of working to understand the real world.

***Disclaimer: I am not suggesting that video games are evil and that we should burn all of our books.  Nor is every gamer/Internet surfer/television enthusiast trying to hide from reality.  Rather, I suggest that as a society, we need to stop searching for alternatives to a tough reality and start engaging with this reality.

I know this is all pretty abstract.  So, if there are any questions, I would love to further engage in conversation!

I would really love to hear what you guys think about all of this!

They're Fun, But Are They Beneficial?

If you had asked me to assess the societal value of video games last year, I would have probably told you that the world would be better without them.

I can no longer so confidently say that. 

Granted, if video games suddenly disappeared tomorrow, I am sure that the sun would keep shining and the world would keep spinning.  Video games are not a necessary means of survival.  They are, rather, an adaptation.

However, I am struggling to pinpoint exactly how I feel about the benefits and necessity of video games.  Now, I may be a little biased.  While I am having fun with WoW, I just do not enjoy gaming.  Overall, it bores me.  I just cannot bring myself to care about it.

That said, I cannot say that video games are pointless.  I particularly appreciate McGonigal's discussion of value and meaning.  Our texts and class discussions have helped me transfer this meaning from video games to the "real world" outside of virtual worlds.  I had really struggled to understand how something that is virtual, and thus "unreal," could have any meaning in the real world.  According to my previous self, because video games are not real, they are not important.  I have since learned to respect these virtual spaces.

I think last week's discussion became an either/or debate.  The family can choose the camping trip or the video games.  Several people mentioned the need for moderation.  I would argue that the greater need is balance.  (And video games are not the only problem here.)  We spend so much time watching TV, browsing the Internet, and just sitting around doing nothing.  We need to go camp together (or shop together or bake together or fish together), but that does not mean that we can't also game together.  We just need to add diversity to our routines.  This may be an extreme use of this term, but in order to have a full and meaningful life experience, we need to engage in multiple literacies of fun and adventure.

I do worry about the immersive growth of these virtual spaces, though.  They are still separate from reality.  These virtual spaces are human constructions while reality exists beyond us.  We can control our avatars and many features in our gaming worlds that we cannot control in reality.  For example: death.  Is it possible to get so immersed in the virtual world that we neglect the real world?

This can be broken down further, though.  I have a very black-and-white understanding of reality.  However, another lens could argue that even my conception of reality is just representation of reality.  Thus, my reality is not any more real than the virtual world (though I would continue to argue right on back...).  Shannon touched on this in class, referencing the migrations to virtual worlds and wondering if our beliefs about reality will change.

Any thoughts?

Fighting the Rage Quit

My Indy game is impossible.

I have probably completed the 20 required hours just through trying to get it set up.  None of the PS2 memory cards are saving; before that, the different versions that various people installed on my laptop have not worked.  Everybody that I approach for help has a different solution that does not work in the end.

I am frustrated.

I want to quit.

I have been thinking about McGonigal's claims that gamers like to fail.  I did not agree with her at all, at first.  I have never enjoyed failing anything.  When I do fail something, I redo it not because I enjoyed failing it or because I am optimistic about getting it right this time, but because I want to get it right and out of the way.

However, McGonigal quotes some interesting research.  "It's only fun to fail if the game is fair – and you had every chance of success" (67).

Well, Final Fantasy has not given me a fair chance to fail.  Everything that is keeping me from success with the game is completely out of my control.  I can't make the memory cards work or deal with any of the technical things because I just do not know how.

Failure is really only ever overwhelming when you cannot control what is going on.  So, when I die time and time and time . . . and time again in WoW, it's alright because I just have to endure the usually brief inconvenience of having to run to my body before I am back in control, slaying left and right with my righteous vengeance.

Granted, I guess it is not Final Fantasy's fault.

But it is my scapegoat because I am tired of playing the same beginning over and over again with new memory cards, hoping that they work.

I haven't thrown anything yet (and I don't plan on it) but I am already feeling sorry for the Gamestop guy who is going to have to figure this out for me.

It's Orcish to Me!

The game was loaded.  My account was created.  My character stood before me on the screen.  I grinned at the absurdity of the moment (I was about to start "gaming") and clicked "Enter World."

And then I panicked.

My second encounter with WoW was much more enjoyable.  I had been up late working on homework.  I decided to give myself a break from reading and entered Maelstrom.  (After all, it was homework too, right?!)

I planned to do some sight-seeing.  (I ended up killing some floating, radioactive-glowing slugs too, but that's beside the point.)  I wanted to spend a few minutes getting to know this world.

To put it simply, I loved it.  I realized that my fascination with this truly magical world is not so much the promise of adventure or the thrill of battle but the immersion into a new dimension of fantasy.  My imagination feasts in this new place.

To illustrate my point, I am absolutely captivated by the brooms that independently sweep by me.  You may laugh - and rightfully so - but every time a broom dances by me, I follow it.

I do not know exactly what is so entrancing about a world with magic brooms.  Maybe I will figure it out as I continue to explore it.  But I do know at the very least that it is awakening long-silenced dreams and ideas of my more imaginative childhood.

Shedding the Skeptic's Skin

I had the pleasure of discussing our course with a handful of people today.  And, as I boasted about having to play video games and read comics in my required course, I realized that I am actually really enjoying the course.

Do I understand it all yet?  Not even close.  Just today, one of my captive listeners tried to explain Indy games to me.  But about five words into his animated explanation, I pasted on a smile and resorted to nodding enthusiastically.

Yet, I am enjoying the learning process.  I recall a certain panic after that first night back in January.  This class is so entirely different from my previous fifteen years of education.  For the first time that I am aware of (besides perhaps a few days in senior year precalculus), I felt completely powerless in the classroom.  I have come to appreciate this experience as a future teacher.  I learned how to succeed in the game of school early on and have always felt confident in the classroom.  However, I understand that not all of my students will feel this same confidence, so it is a huge learning experience to be thrown into their shoes!

I looked at graphic novels for the first time last semester.  As I continue to interact with them, my appreciation for them increases.  Numerous times this semester I have engaged in arguments with skeptics about the merits of graphic novels  Most of these encounters end with me shoving graphic novels in their faces.  I have already forced at least two people to read The Arrival.

The graphic novel is a powerful mode of expression.  I remember being absolutely captivated with The Arrival.  The story was translated so powerfully and movingly through the images.  A friend of mine just returned The Arrival back to me.  As he handed it over, he mentioned that he didn't really understand what it was trying to say.  I immediately opened it up and spent the next fifteen minutes discussing the story with him.  It was awesome!

I suppose the theme of this post is my excitement with this new genre.  Graphics novels are sucking me in.  I never expected to care about them, but they are just wonderful!  Graphic novels open a world of new possibilities that are beginning to unlock my imagination [as corny as that may sound].  To illustrate my point, in Understanding Comics, Scott draws himself into a scene in Japan.  In Japan!!!  How did he get there?  With the flash of a pen!  The visual limitlessness of the comics thrills me!

In my presentation on intertextuality, I talked about a panel in Blankets that incorporated Tom and Jerry.  I interpreted that particular intertextuality to represent two things.  First of all, Craig's wish that Tom would "fall off a cliff and die" represents the poisoning of an innocent child's show, which then reflects the poisoning of Craig's own childhood.  Further, Craig wishes that Tom would die, but in the show neither Tom nor Jerry ever die.  Therefore,  while Craig wishes life would improve through the elimination of the horrible things in his life, like the television show, life follows a pattern of sorrow that does not deviate from the script.

Who knew so much could be read from a single panel?!

The conglomeration of images and text thus provide the reader with a wealth to discover.  Graphic novels offer a new perspective on the human experience.

I still have a lot to learn, but I fully embrace this perspective!