Chapters 12–16

These chapters were very interesting to say the least. I think some of them were actually kind of confusing as well. Kitsch and throwaways were two that I really did not get. The concepts seem kind of out there, and I understood what he was saying but I also feel like there are not many examples outsides of the ones he gave. Granted, that could be because I know nothing about games and the gaming world. The relaxation one was probably my favorite because I found it the most interesting. I think it is really fascinating how some games are created around relaxation and getting the gamer to relax and then as soon as they complete their challenge it will show very stimulating screens and play high velocity music. It sounds like something that should be a part of a social experiment honestly. It could be something about how unexpected stressors after being extremely calm effect the body. And it also had some really good points about how games that are supposed to be calming and may seem calming, like Tetris, are actually very stressful. I found a lot of the games he talked about in these chapters very problematic however. I do not see how a lot of these games were allowed to even be created in the first place. The fact that a lot of the games were centered around the exploitation of women, or showing women as nothing more than something needing to blossom into a beautiful goddess is very upsetting, even if they were created years ago. And I understand why it is important to talk about them and show them as examples, but I think if they are going to be used as examples there needs to be more explaining better ways to go about creating them, especially ways that are not exploitive and horrible. Custer’s Revengewas horrible. I was actually shocked by how graphic it was for the time, even if there was nothing shown on the screen. And it begs the question, if this was allowed to be created in the era of the people complaining about Grand Theft Auto, how are they complaining about it? It just makes no sense to me that people could allow such a game to be created like that and the other games mentioned in the titillation chapter, yet still create an uproar over something that was not supposed to be in a game in the first place. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that what was in GTA was okay by any means, I just do not understand how their morals got skewed. I just think seeing what was acceptable then to now is completely mind blowing and fascinating and I would love to see more research done on the differences between pop culture and what was acceptable then versus now. Overall, all of these chapters were incredibly diverse in their content and very interesting to read about, and I would love to have some elaboration on some of them.