Video Game Awesomeness Post 8

Unfortunately James Paul Gee points out that in order to really learn from video games you have to invest time into the game, so I decided to play Call of Duty 3 again. Although I did drastically improve, I still didn't get very far in the game. This time though I tried to get involved in the entire virtual world by listening to the story of the mission I was being sent out on. I knew that I had to try to get emotionally invested with the story plot of the game, or at least my character. Gee talks about how the autonomy of choosing the actions of what your character does has an emotional effect on you because you attribute motives and feeling to the character which allows you to "enter a realm of a world of your own creation." I started to play, but I did not project an identity onto my character. I could see how this would be easier to do if I was playing a game like League of Legends, or a game that is not have to do with constant gun fire. What I did notice though was that my attention was completely focused on the game. If I was't focused at any point I would be shot quickly and bleed out, or I would be stuck in a corner anxiously trying to figure out where I was which ended up with my soldier bleeding out as well.

I was excited though that I was so much more accurate with the controls! I could walk and look to my sides at the same time, and I shot soldiers that were against me instead of just shooting anyone that was around me. I stayed alive long enough to learn how to save my partner, and I consecutively shot 4 bad guys the last three rounds I played! This was due to the fact that my friend was playing with me, which made it easier to learn new tools for the game. We were learning together! Gee would say that we were getting a "taste" of the domain in which the presence of others is essential.

The probing principle also had an effect on the way I played the game because the first few times on a mission the enemy would hide behind a wall and when my teammate would rush threw the hall way, he would be right there to shoot her! Reflecting on these actions, I decided to tell my friend not to rush the hallway until I started to rapidly fire at him and the wall he was hiding behind. My hypothesis worked! He couldn't pop out his head to shoot back because of the flying bullets that would sail through the wall. The last thing I noticed about my reaction to the game was because I kept going on the same mission, I was able to strategize because I knew what was ahead for the most part. What is cool about video games is that even if you accomplish the mission, or beat the level, there is always something new that you have to figure out. A new mission means new abilities, new enemies, and a new virtual field. The learning never seems to stop!