Extra Lives Essays

Tom Bissell, in his essay, “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” has described video games and how they are unique and different from movies, books, or even interactive films. Bissell says “I came to accept that games were incompetent with almost every aspect of what I would call traditional narrative.” This is showing the readers that even though there is a plot and story line, as characters can control and alter the story line or outcome by what you do or see throughout the game.

Tom Bissell in “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” emphasize the importance of video games in our life. Tom supports his

Video games have become as pervasive an aspect of our society as television, with many people spending more time playing video games than watching television. There are many perspectives with which to gauge videos games’ effect on society, from a functionalist, conflict or interactionist perspective. (Schaefer, 2011) Each of these sociological theories can provide a different view of video games, how they affect society and the subcultures that develop around them.

Using persuasive writing, Wright begins to influence his audience that game play is a beneficial source of entertainment not a wasteful one. Playing video games increases creatively, self esteem and improve problem solving skills of the players. Video games are becoming test runs that appear or feel close to the real thing. Where you can control everything with added effects like magic or future technology. Games have the potential to exceed almost all other forms of entertainment media. They tell stories, play music, challenge us, allow us to instantly communicate and interact with others. Encourage us to create things, connect us to new communities, and let us play with people across the world. Unlike most other forms of media, games are inherently tangible. According to Wright young children spend their days in imaginary worlds, substituting toys and make believe into the real world that they are just beginning to explore and understand. Wright states that games are the result of imagination and that they consist of rules and goals. Generation of teenagers has grown up with different set of games. Teenagers use the scientific method rather than reading the manual first. Games today maybe a person’s only place to express a high-level of creativity and growth. Older generations have a lot of criticisms for games, the games can help a person learn to think on his or her own.

Video games are progressively becoming a crucial medium today, despite the light connotation of its initial categorization. Today they are a business that produces billions of dollars and employs engineers and artists alike in an art form connecting interactive games, to virtual societies where millions of people dwell. However, like all human products, our same emotion, flaws and injustice show in the games, with the impression of hatred, racism and stereotypes that are our everyday background. What are the creators of these video games real intentions in the desire they produce in the human?

The author of this essay, is not intending to persuade the reader to feel a type of way. What he is expressing ideally are his opinions on said games. Yet, one is somewhat persuaded, because of how he speaks, clarifies, and uses rhetoric in his writing. It really makes someone want to stop what they are doing and get on the nearest gaming system. In fact, it is consolidating to know that he isn’t characterizing the game as just a game, but an aesthetic and an art. Tom Bissell questions himself, “To what part of me do games speak, and on which frequency (361)?” We all would like to know the answer to this question, because there have been so many games, some good and some awful. However, we as a world continue to try and try again. Some of the appeals that Bissell uses in his argument were emotional and descriptive. Basically, in the entire article he described to the audience in intimate detail the world of

David Perry presents an argument suggesting that video games are better than real life. Perry does not clearly provide a thesis stating that games are indeed better than life, but he provides a great amount of information about the beauty of video games and mentions nothing but positive aspects of them. Perry believes that new videogames will be a complex, emotional experience that will have the ability to be more engaging and meaningful than real life. His argument is weak because it lacks supporting evidence, he does not address other viable options, and he does not provide and clear thesis to his argument.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film The Lives of Other’s (2005) is set in East Berlin during the socialist reign from November 1984, up until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. The political context plays a significance role not only in the film’s subject matter but also in its cinematography, which exploits the voyeuristic tendencies of the audience, reflecting the surveillance of the Stasi Secret Police officers. The film follows a loyal socialist and playwright, Georg Dreyman who becomes subject (along with actor girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland) to extensive Stasi surveillance due to his association with subversive artists such as Paul Hauser and Albert Jerska. Hauptman Gerd Weisler is the accomplished Stasi officer assigned to

The game seeks to trick us for a time into abandoning what is real (home) and focus on what is inside our monitors and T.V.s. Baudrillard spoke on the process of a simulated reality in a multi-step process. “In the first case, the image is a good appearance – representation is of the sacramental order.” This can be related to the early days of video games when they used cathode ray tubes to project pixelated images onto a curved glass scene. Video games where very new, and exciting. “In the second, it is an evil appearance – it is of the order of maleficence. This can be related to games starting about 15 years ago till today. Video games were and still are thought to be a source of violence in people. Many view them as a waste of time and that they detriment a person. Though this mentality is starting to fade as we shift towards the third order “In the third, it plays at being an appearance – it is of the order of sorcery”. Technology is starting to advance to the point that anyone without training in the field cannot understand what is going on. As myths about video games negative appearance are being debunked or confirmed their negative aspects are getting swallowed up by the more exciting advancements in the fields. “In the fourth, it is no longer of the order of appearances but of simulation.” At this level the video game stops being a game, and starts to become a part of everyday life (home). For as much as some may dedicate their whole lives to games, in the

He uses a fictional experience in order to support his non-fictional argument that games are not detrimental to future generations. This method allows the audience to be transported to a parallel universe that widens their mind to a controversial topic. "In this parallel universe, kids have been playing games for centuries-and then these page-bound texts come along and suddenly they're all the rage"(Johnson 483). The reason this works so well is that it explains that a major reason adults despise video games is not the game itself, but rather the fact that they came about so abruptly like a force of nature. This imagery and paradox proves that adults that grew up in a different time when books were up and coming simply chose to dislike video games without any thought of ever thinking of them

So by playing video games you learn how to analyze each choice you make to see if the overall outcome is beneficial. He also states that many videogames now allow it players to “build, design, and populate”. This gives the gamer the ability to be creative and expand their mind. “Dream Machine” all in all defends the use of videogames by stating the favorable characteristics of gaming - “creativity, community, self-esteem, problem-solving”. The author uses his authority and knowledge of video games to display a position towards video games that most people have never seen before.

this essay is going to makes the argument that Far cry series is a work of art and to defend this argument by using themes and mechanics of the games.it will use counter examples such the tomb raider series and the last of us series and research.

Straight off the bat of Fallout 3, you are giving the trauma of the game 's opening, in which you are dumped bleary eyed and bloodstained straight out of the womb. Then the game expects you, a newborn baby, to come up with a gender, name, and future appearance. I personally find it rude to put that much pressure on a baby. Then the story goes Christopher Nolan by skipping parts of your life. Afterwards, your father, Liam Neeson, ditches you and leaves the vault you have been living in your entire life. Being motherless since your mom died giving birth and Liam Neeson ended up like Picard, you are also fatherless. Then when the protagonist is ready to step out in the real world, the immersion breaks when the game says, “Hey, are you satisfied with your first ten minutes of the game because if you aren’t just step into this DeLorean and travel back to the past?” I just do

After reading parts of The Storytelling Animal, it was clear that storytelling is in everything. As an avid videogame player it was evident that many of the games that people play, like Battlefield, have a storyline. After reading articles from the Proquest database like From Computer Games to Interactive stories, a plan was developing about games and stories. Other thoughts on the thesis were whether video games have stories and traits of their own and should these games have a storyline, especially since it is a game. After researching and a discussion about this topic with the professor, it was decided to do the first thesis idea. The topic is extensive in gaming articles and magazines. Gamers on both sides have an opinion. It seemed that most of the articles read dealt with stories and games rather than just gameplay. An article by Jan Simons in Game Studies discusses the narrative theory extensively as well as the ludology and narratology side.

Another Chance of Life Can there be another you? The answer is no, but by human cloning you can reproduce an offspring that grows into an exact genetically double of you. All of us want to prolong the lives of our loved ones and have a healthy newborn baby. Many infertility couples wanted to have a baby that is genetically theirs, not from adopting a child from a different family background.