Gaming Journal: Magic Cirle and Lusory Attitude

Magic circle is the rules and goals in a game that define the game itself, because without rules and goals there would not be a game. So in other words magic circle is the area where a person is agree to obey and do what the rules and goals is set for him.

e.g. when playing football then a person must obey the rule such as, only play inside the designated area (110 meters x 45 meters field) and once the ball is out of the field the player must obey punishment of losing the right of the ball. This situation explain how magic circle actually is.

In Boxing the magic circle is the rules that you have to punch your opponent and win the game whether by having the hit on target or by knocking out the opponent, punching other people is bad but once you enter magic circle in Boxing, you will not have any choices anymore.

While lusory attitude is the awareness of a player to obey and involve in rule of the game, and also the boundaries of what can the player do and cant do. E.g. in soccer lusory attitude is to not touch the ball with hand because by touching the ball by hand it would not allowed in the game.

The same case in card game is that when player able to see other people cards then there is no point of continuing the game since the rules are being broken, also in soccer the need to score goal to opponent goal is the main point of the game, if the teams who play soccer doesn’t have lusory attitude then the game will be useless since no one try to attempt to make goal.

Huizinga argue that play is waste of energy, to some extent I do agree with this, e.g. when I play soccer I do not fell any real benefit from it except from the enjoyment of playing it, but in other case a professional soccer player would have different dimension for them it is not waste energy, it is their job and they get paid for playing, this extent oppose the Huizinga opinion of play is only wasting energy and not give any benefits in real life.

Gaming Journal: Play Pain Pleasure

Theories explain that there are factors in play, fun is one of the factors, it is clear that when we engaged with games, mostly we enjoy and have fun with it, however we know that some of games does not give you fun only, they give you difficulty as well, therefore game is not always fun. In a game that I have played named Silent Hill there are various exasperating puzzle in the game that give me difficulty, but I still continue playing it because I know there are rewards that I need to continue to next stage in the game, it is the need of reward and challenge that keep people playing game.

Sense to accomplish things is natural in human mind because by accomplish a task or overcome challenge, will automatically give them rewards, rewards is things that will be given or obtain when a person finished performing a task, this rewards must give benefit to the person.

In game usually the rewards is obtain when overcome enemy or obstacles in a stage, it can be new weapon or simply key to open next puzzle. In game Call of Duty, one must destroy other enemy forces to advance to next stage, in doing so a person could get weapon and ammo dropped from killed enemy.

In case of Flow where a player actively involve in a game which lead to the total immerse and concentration, I have play House of Dead in arcade machine, in the game I put all my concentration and that lead to the lost sense of anything else including time, the time apply for me is the time in the game where its given and limited, in this game the iteration factor is high where if you are dead in a stage and you have to repeat the stage again the same pattern of enemy and timing will emerge, this game very well representing Flow factors theory.

Gaming Journal: Ban These Evil game

In the past few years since gaming industry start to make what we called mature video game that have violent factors in it, Which lead to suspected factor to fuelling aggressive and negative behaviour among gamers who is mostly youngster. Researches (Goldstein, 2000) make categorization base on demographic factor, studies that examine the relationship between playing game and behaviours, and comparison of those who play video game and those who is not.

In his research there are factors that support the connection between violent behaviours and video game but surprisingly it is the youngsters that play video game that contain less violent who has tendency to act violently towards other, rather than youngsters that play video game with higher violent factor in the game, Goldstein also argue that it is not the video games that causes violent behaviours, and some youngster is using video game as way to cope with their problems, furthermore the tendency of aggressive youngsters attracted to violent video games is high (Goldstein, 1998), he concluded that experience with violent games does not related to perception of crime.

There are some games that sparked public attention such as Grand Theft Auto where a youngster killed police officer and Grand Theft Auto is to blame for the influential factor (CBS News, 2007), with no surprise that Grand Theft Auto creating moral panic among parents, as cover in CNN (CNN 2004) stated that Grand Theft Auto is a violent game.

Rhetoric aspect in games, as explained rhetoric is the act of persuasion either by verbal and non verbal, such example is Rome total war a strategic game that having value of winning war and conquering other nation is a good thing, the game emphasis on the overthrown other nation, by way diplomatic or war, in the game as faction of roman empire a player must build troops and economic factors to support the campaign, player can make diplomatic relationship with other nation, also buying a part of particular nation, but war is the most efficient way to conquer other nation, this support the rhetoric theory of persuasion and Rome total war has present themselves of having value of rhetoric factors in the game.

Goldstein (1998, 2000). DOES PLAYING VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES CAUSE AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR?. Retrieved on 26^th February 2007 from the world wide web: http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/goldstein.html

CBS News (2007). Grand Theft Auto Under Fire. Retrieved on 26^th February 2007 from world wide web: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/13/earlyshow/living/parenting/main708794.shtml

CNN (2004) Grand Theft Auto: is Violent and exhilarating game. Retrieved on 26^th of February 2007 from the world wide web: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/fun.games/11/10/grand.theftauto/index.html

Gaming Journal: What is Game?

Game is activities where people interact with each other, base on Kramer (2002) “Games are objects which consist of components and rules and have certain criteria: rules, a goal, always changing course; chance; competition; common experience; equality; freedom; activity; diving into the world of the game; and no impact on reality” this opinion from Kramer consist with Wittgenstein ideas of game where it has various factors and it is not having fix boundaries.

Wittgenstein explain that game has no precise boundaries game could evolve from one to another and being changed to adapt with the needs, e.g. the game of basketball have certain rules and regulations, but it the rules will be changed if the player is handicap player as they could not cope with normal rules, so in Wittgenstein opinion game is a wide activities, it is not a activity that is fixed even tough there is rules in every game. Therefore game is unique situation where people immerse in it.

Wittgenstein also explain that there is family term among games, this refer to the similarities that occur in different games, in my experience playing Final fantasy 7 and Legend Of Dragoon, has lot of similarities where the each character in the games has their specialty in skills, some character has the skill of heal while other have the skill of attack, and both games have story line and goals to be achieved: beating the boss in order to continue to the next stage.

Other games that share similarities is Tomb Rider and Prince of Persia, where both games having character that have fixed path and goals, in tomb rider the character have limited health and in prince of Persia the character has the power to control time.

There are different rules in every game but just like Wittgenstein opinion all of them have similar pattern.

Kramer (2002). What is a game, really. Retrieved on 1^st march 2007 from world wide web: http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatIsaGame.shtml

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