Study of Videogames

Upon returning from Thanksgiving Break, our class continued to study different forms of video games. One particular game that we looked at was geared towards the United States Army. We also looked at War of Worldcraft. I am not a big videogame-player, but i'm familiar with the games that Professor Holmevik has presented to us.

It's interesting to take a different look at these video games by closely examining the effects that the visuals have on the players. For instance, in the United States Army game, not only did the characters look and act like real members of the army, each character had an individual profile about themselves, including their job title and involvement with the army. When your character approaches another character, the other army men introduce themselves and state their positions, as a real army member might do.

The player navigates through an army world in such a way that the player on the computer feels as though they are walking through the rooms and the places outdoors that their army character is walking through. Although at times it felt dizzy, it was much easier to navigate as if you were in the characters body than it would be if you weren't "walking in your character's shoes"

The setting that the creatos of this game designed is quite interesting. According to some of our classmates that have either served time in the army or have lived near an army base, the scenery portrayed in the game, both indoors and outdoors, is very realistic. One of our classmates that served time in the army explained to our class that the reason that the army members sit in an upright position with their hands on their laps is because this is a required way of sitting for all army members. That is one detail that the creators made that is just as realistic as the real-world army base setting. Another classmate is from the area in Georgia that this particular game is supposed to be based out of, and she said that everything from the color of the sky to the trees surrounding the practice shooting field looked real.

Even though I don't know much about videogames, I feel like I have a deeper appreciation for them after studying them in class. Discussion of the games effects on players even flourished a conversation about the possibility of terrorists logging into the game and learning about the United States army. The boy that is in the army told our class that there was nothing in the videogame that the terrorists don't already know, as army "rituals" and "traditions" haven't changed over the past ten decades.

Now, if I can learn how to play these games in a successful-fashion, i'll be uptopar with everyone else!