Presentation

Topic: The Ethic of Video Games
( Violence and SEX )

What is Video Games?

• It refers to:
  Games played using computer power,where the computer upholds the rules of the game and the game is palyed using a video display(Juul 2005,p.36)
  
• Such as: the Sony PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube, or Microsoft’s Xbox
  
• games played on computers
  
• The player takes on the role of a fantasy character moving through an elaborate world, solving various problems
  
• Violent or not
  
• The player builds and maintains some complex entity
  Eg.army

James Paul Gee’s arguments for video games’ positive impacts:
( What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy )

• “Playing video games is not a waste of time, but a kind of visual literacy.”
  
• We can learn popular culture / certain kind of knowledge
  
• Eg. The names of the weapons in the game C.S.
  
• increase our creativity
  
• Eg. Design our house in the SIMS

Argument against:

Unlike games, which suspend the rules
of reality in order to use the rules of a game,
simulations attempt to model a system in a
manner that is consistent with reality (Heinich,
et al. 1996).


Reality VS Virtual World

• Nowadays, the boundary between Reality and Virtual World blurred gradually
  
• Teenagers may treat their asset in the Virtual World as their real properties
  
• E.g. : Committed suicide after losing some weapons in the game world
  
• Some immature youths with weak willpower may imitate the behaviors of the games’ characters(Sex and Violence)
  
• E.g. :Use violence as the only means to solve problems/Bullying other people
  
• Raised the ethical concern of the video games

Dating Game:

• Heartbeat Memorial
• Dating simulation

Heartbeat Memorial
Basic information :

• Heartbeat Memorial/Tokimeki Memory/心跳回憶
  
• Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
  
• Designer: Koji Igarashi (Programmer, Scenario Writer)
  
• First released for the PC Engine on May 27, 1994
  
• Has many series; Game Boy Color, mobile phones, PC, PC Engine, PlayStation, PlayStation Portable, Sega Saturn, Super Famicom, Nintendo DS
  
• Based on a Japanese animation “Only love”/
  
• 《純愛手札》
  
• Visual novel genre
  
• Single player
  
• A romantic dating simulation game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lICicD0sHUY

Dating simulation
Basic information:

• Unknown basic information
  
• Online game
  
• RPG, a dating sims

Shared characteristics

• the player controls a male avatar surrounded by female characters.
  
• The game play involves conversing with a selection of girls
  
• attempting to increase their internal "love meter" through correct choices of dialogue
  
• The game lasts for a fixed period of game time, such as one month or three years
• When the game ends, the player either loses the game if he failed to properly win over any of the girls, or "finishes" one of the girls
  
• often by :
  Having sex with her(D.N.A)
  marrying her (as in Magical Date)
  you achieving eternal love

How to win?

• Depended on "attraction meter" :
  
• Looks ,charisma, sports, art, health, etc.
  
• Can be boosted through going on diet, buying new clothes, doing gym, rest at home
  
• Buying gift to those girls in order to raise the attractiveness.
  
• Keep dating the girls can make a good impression.

Screenshot from the original version of Heartbeat Memorial illustrating the system of statistics standard of the genre

• Is it just a game?
  
• Is love just about calculations?

What’s behind the fancy game?

• Evil >curious and immature teenagers
  
• Influenced their minds unconsciously
  
• Misinterprets the concept of love/ marriage
  
• Long lasting, respect ,responsibility and commitment

Compare simulations with their
understanding of a system.
Simulations do not represent reality;
they reflect a designers conception
of reality (Thiagarajan 1998).

Only focus on appearance (dress up)
Materialism (expensive clothes, accessories)
Love is a careful planning and strategies ?
Love seems be possessive
Relationship only last for a few weeks
Ignored inner beauty
may allow the player to romance / having sex with characters in their teens or even younger

• A 19-year-old man shoot the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend after they disapproved of the age gap between the lovers.
  
• By Harry Mount in New York Published: 12:01AM BST 15 Jun 2006

Violence game: SAW

Basic information

Saw: The Video Game
Third person survival horror video
Developed by Zombie Studios and published by Konami.
Released on October 6, 2009 in North America

How to play the game

}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVkZ_vsI1PM

traverse the asylum and solve traps in order to escape
find things as weapons, health, or clues
The player combat to other people in order to survive

Problems

Brutal and realistic scenes
E.g. cutting people’s body to search the things
Negative impacts to teenagers; Increased aggressive behaviors, thoughts, and emotions
violent video games are highly engaging and interactive. They reward violent behavior, and the violent behaviors are repeated constantly over the course of the game
If played frequently enough, games like this can skew a young person's perception of violence and its consequences.

Useful links

http://www.konami.jp/visual/tokimemo-anime/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokimeki_Memorial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokimeki_Memorial_(series)
http://www.video-game-addiction.org/violence.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saw_(video_game)

Useful books

}Andy Clarke, Grethe Mitchell, ed. Videogames and Art, USA: The university of Chicago Press, 2007
}Arthur Asa Berger, Video Games: A popular Culture Phenomenon, USA: Transaction Publishers, 2002
}Jon Cogburn,Mark Silcox, Philosophy through video games, London : Routledge, 2009
}James Paul Gee,What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy, New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003
}Sicart, Miguel, The ethics of computer games Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009

Digtal games-But are they art?

(a)How does Asams define art?

- can be divided into fine arts, decorative arts, architecture, industrial design and literary arts
- representational
- aesthetic interesting(with beautiful qualities)
- have messages(communicate with viewers)
- expression
- Art lasts


Do you argee with his definition?

Yes i agree with his defination.
For me, i also concern about the real messages behind a piece of work.

And the aesthetic qualities of a piece of art are always the main factor concerning whether the artwork is or not.

I think it's important that the communication between the artist and viewers through the artwork.


(b) According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?

- computer games need to have aesthetics
- need an artist(eg: game desiners)
- interactivity
- criticized by art critics
- communication from the artists to viewer
(need to have path to understand)
- principles of aesthetics and criticism
- aesthetically pleasing
- illustrating the human condition
- add resting large issues related to ourselves
- contain ideas and messages
- art make you feel something
- not formulaic
- utility and saleability





(c) A games

Cory Arcangel: Super-Mario Clouds, 2002

http://www.zunta.org/blog/archives/cloudsscroll.gif (accessed on 9 November,20 09)

Features: This picture is from Mario(the computer games). We cannot play it. But we can just see blue sky and white clouds. The actual picture shows the clouds are moving.

This is quite funny and eye-catching.

Just playing-the ethics of digital games classnotes

(a)According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?

Pros for individuals:
- Educational
- worth to play(can get pleasure and relaxation)
- train people to think and react in a fast way
- get satisfaction through the games( fascinated of being powerful and express their anger)
- people can express their feelings through the images of the screen
- there are some professional game players(who have income)
- funny activity for leisure time
- changing people's behaviors and throughts
- able to create a better world in digital world than in the reality




(d)Should games be more like fantasy and less like real -world war?

Technologised Bodies

(1) "To what extent are we already experiencing a man- machine symbiosis that has turned us into cyborgs[or posthuman bodies]?" Christiane Paul (Digital Art, p 166)

Answer:

In fact, people wearing glasses can be regarded as an experience of a man-machine symbiosis. Also, people using their mobile phones at anytime and anywhere is this kind of experience. The above examples are poeple's experiences of relying on the machine and technologies. And people who lost their limbs in accidents may install some prosthetic-fake limbs(mechanical) to their organic bodies. This is an example of physical experience of man-machine symbiosis.



(2.) What are some pros and cons of becoming a cyborg?
Answer:
Pros:

- can take the advantages of machine (eg:mobile plones' communication function)
- for prosthetic- fake limbs, they help people to live more like normal people(more convenient)
- can get the best elements of both organic and mechanical parts(eliminate those worst elements)
- less human limitations


Cons:
- too robotic(not organic any more)
- against the rule of nature(not natural)
- human being may rely on the machine or technologies too much
-may not function as well as the natural limbs
- more like a robot than a human being
- controversial issue(moral and ethical problem)


Discussion (upload answers to your blog, comment constructively on others’ answers)
What do you think of Stelarc’s work?

-Robotic
- sense of future and Surrealism
- illusion(not real)
- science fiction
- difficult to imagine how Stelarc did the artworks
- made use of large amount mechanical elements
- not easily accepted by the public(main stream)
- crazy and very imaginative ideas for his artworks

Mouchette

source from http://www.mouchette.org/index.html

Constructing Identity Online- Discussion

My own identity online:
I have quite a number of identites with different user names on the internet.
For example, Facebook, Xanga,MSN, My Space, Blogspot, Youtube, Icq, forums(ie hkdiscuss), Lingnan, hotmail, google, yahoo, yahoo, twitter.
I use these identities to do different things. They have various functions.


I asked Yu about her identities online.
And yu has these online identities:
Similar to me, Yu has online identities of MSN, Facebook, Icq, Youtube, hotmail, gmail, yahoo, Lingnan, HKflash, cywy, blogspot, Xanga.And she has different usernames for different web sites. by using these usernames, she can do various online activities.

http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org/betalab/untitled/index.html(accessed on 14 October,2009)

Every time you press different positions, different images of birds with various gestures and actions will be shown. It's very funny and interesting. :D