Week One: The Medium of the Video Game (p. 1-134)

The first six chapters of The Medium of the Video Game detail the history and the technology that has evolved in the last fifty years. What I find interesting is, despite the great advances in video game technology, I still find nostalgic low-tech games to be very popular. As an elementary student, Oregon Trail was the game to play. The narrative of Oregon Trail is simple: get to Oregon. Most of the game play scrolled on one axis. However, the game was so popular that there was a week-long waiting list to play it on the computer during library hour. Now, Oregon Trail has seen a revival through internet popularity. You can now download the game online and my Facebook newsfeed occasionally features status updates about fording the river or someone dying from cholera.

In addition to Oregon Trail, many text-based games are still popular. Currently, my husband and I play Chore Wars. (My character's progress is pictured to the left.) This game encourages us to actually clean our house but does so in a fun way. When we do a load of laundry and claim the adventure online, we run the risk of encountering a Laundrosaurus Rex. Chore Wars details our text-based battle, tells us how many gold coins we've earned, and whether or not the monster left behind a lost sock.

Additionally, a favorite text-based game of mine is Kingdom of Loathing. Though I have not played since my first years of undergrad, it is clear that this is still a massively popular game. Its graphics are minimal, featuring a crudely drawn map and stick-figure characters. However, it is the irony in its simplicity that makes it so great.

I am curious to know what Wolf would say about multi-genre games such as Mario Party. Wolf addresses games that fit into multiple genres but Mario Party encompasses so many. This game posits itself as a video board game with various types of mini-games between each round of turns. The mini games themselves cover the genres of abstract, capturing, card games, catching, chase, collecting, and many more. It seems to me that it would be necessary to create a new genre for these bundled interactions.