Week Three: Bogost, Advergaming, and Call of Duty

In Chapter 5 of Persuasive Games, Bogost discusses advertising in video games and spends a great deal of time dissecting automobile ads in print, television, and in games. Bogost asserts there are three types of advertising: demonstrative, illustrate, and associative. I have provided a YouTube clip of what I consider a fascinating example of demonstrative advertising. This commercial was broadcasted on television, but features the video game Call of Duty to sell a real life Jeep. This Jeep is the new Call of Duty: Black Ops edition of the vehicle.

Though I have not played Call of Duty: Black Ops, I assume this vehicle is used within game play. In an explanation of demonstrative advergaming, as quoted on page 159, Chen and Ringel claim, “Advergames boost messaging effectiveness by present the product in its natural context and inviting the consumer to interact with it.” As anyone familiar with U.S. history and/or war films can tell you, the Jeep was widely popularized by the armed forces’ use of the vehicle. Therefore featuring it in this game is an example of the Jeep in its natural context. (However, anyone from my hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana will be disappointed that our homegrown product, the Hummer, is not featured instead.) This product placement within Call of Duty is believable. In fact, the use of any other vehicle (aside from the military Hummer) would have seemed absurd.

Because Bogost’s text is a few years old, at the time of writing, this kind of hybrid advertising was not yet prevalent, nor is the Black Ops commercial the first of its kind (see also the Grand Theft Auto-esque Coca Cola commercial from 2007). Game culture and gaming technology is becoming increasingly pervasive. Not only is advertising used within games, but we are seeing games used to advertise other products through additional media, a confluence I find endlessly fascinating.

Week Two: Gurak, Cyberliteracy, and Third Wave Feminism

I'm stuck on Gurak's notion of online communication being a hybrid of oral and written communication. He suggests electronic discourse is more personal, though it is in text form. This led me to the conclusion that the difference between online text and printed text is the use of voice. This is precisely what draws me to the blogosphere. The voice of the writer is not only justified but encouraged.

The idea of voice and personality in electronic discourse makes it an inherently feminist space. Just as the second wave used the mantra, "The personal is political," the third wave uses online communication and the blogosphere in particular to assume the same thing. This is why many second wave feminists and anti-feminists don't see the third wave as a coherent movement. We are not marching in the streets; we are marching through the World Wide Web.

Just as Gurak says is necessary in cyberliteracy, we have to think critically about the Internet in cultural history. This allows us to understand some of the key differences between the second and third wave. The key difference between the second wave and third wave movements is the Internet. Unless the computer pictured above has the ability to connect to Feministing or Twitter, I doubt that woman’s feminism can be found online.

Gurak writes, "Cyberliteracy... is about consciousness. It is about taking a critical perspective on a technology that is radically transforming the world" (16). It is a funny coincidence that he makes that point on the page after I scribbled "more voice in online comm -- very feminist!" in the margin. I had started thinking of online forums as the modern consciousness-raising groups of the second wave. Just as cyberliteracy takes a critical perspective on technology, we must be cyberliterate to appreciate critical online third wave perspectives on our global culture.

{photo credit}

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.