Blog Post # 3

In a youtube video uploaded by the Extra Credit channel titled How Games Speak — Learn the Language of Design, the video explores how game design is considered a language. It begins the video by setting the foundation by asking the simple question of “what a language is” (:45secs).

For me, the idea of thinking of game design as a language is very refreshing. This is because when they defined a language as “any system using arranged parts to communicate ideas and experiences.” It made absolute sense. This also made me aware that until I watched this video, I have never known the formal definition of a language.
The video then delves into the different layers of games Isolated meaning, Dynamic meaning, and Associative meaning. These three elements of gaming can be combined together to create radically different impressions. (1:50secs)

As the video went into a detailed explanation of each element I realized how important these elements were to my gaming experience because I personally have gotten different vibes from different Call of Duty titles through the years. For example, the color pallets used in Call of duty Modern Warfare 2 give off an energetic and youthful vibe. Whereas Call of duty Black ops uses darker color pallets to give off a gloomy and depressing Vietnam war vibe.

The video also talks about anticipating the players feelings in order to tap into the deepest layer of meaning a game can possess dynamic meaning which pretty much means that the game is using the player’s feelings as feedback and altering the game accordingly.(5:22sec)

This completely blew my mind, It also made perfect sense because I cannot count the times I have developed sympathy for a character in a video game campaign only to have my heart crushed by the early death. Once the game has gotten me into the mindset of sadness and grief the game uses the feelings to add the dynamic aspect of the game. Although this video provided very good information about the language of gaming in the following paragrapgh we will discuss the progession of gaming systems.

In an article by Riad Chikhani, co-founder and CEO of gaming social network “Gamers” titled The History Of Gaming: An Evolving Community the article documents the evolutions of how video games started as an interactive video experience at a science convention in the 1950’s to being a staple of 4 out of 5 households in the America.

The article begins by discussing how the first video game system was Magnavox. this system came out a few months before Atari the system most people thought to be the first video game system.(para 7)

From a marketing standpoint, I found this quite interesting as I thought about all the reason people mistakenly thought Atari was the first gaming system. The only explanation I could think of is a lack of marketing and promotion by Magnavox. Atari well marketed its product making it seem as if it was the only gaming system at its time.

From a business perspective, the article touches on how in the 1970’s restaurants began installing arcade systems to capitalize on the new video game craze. This was considered the area that spark competition among players due to them being able to record their high scores on the arcade system.(para 16)

I thought capitalizing on the video game craze to increase revenue was a good business move. I also think that the high score feature on arcade games gave the player more initiative to come more frequently to the establishment in order to hold their high score or de-thrown competition.