Research Topics for the Presence of Games in China
August 19th, 2008
In a week I shall be leaving my comfortable life in Australia and stepping out into one of the busiest and most insane cities on the planet; Shanghai (China). Shanghai has a population of approximately 20 million people and is the epicenter of China’s economic and trading boom.
My reasoning for traveling abroad is language acquisition. I’ve been studying Chinese for 7 years now and much of that has been a waste of time due to the hold-your-hand approach of Western language education. I realized how frustrated I was with the this early on last year and have since gone to considerable efforts to amend my wasted time, the exchange represents a large part of this.
I’ll be away for at least half a year, possibly a year and a half depending of if I can combine a second scholarship that I won for the same time slot. While I am over in China, I would like to use the time I have to extend my understanding of the impact of video games in the country. This is all part of an upcoming direction that I’d like to steer the blog in, where I begin to analyze games from a world perspective and not just an American perspective, as usually tends to be the case. Being interested in both games and Chinese culture, I am already familiar with some nuances in the country’s gaming landscape so I would like to investigate:
-the underground piracy economy
-the rampid success of online gaming
-opinion from older/parent demographic
-gaming and Internet Cafe Culture
-Chinese/English gaming language
Among other issues. ShangHai also hosts a number of game developers including the Ubisoft branch whom are working on the new voice controlled RTS EndWar.
The reason why I am writing about my travels is because I want to hear your opinions, I want to know if there is anything about Chinese games and gaming culture that you wish to learn more about. I’m hoping to do mountains of research by talking to locals, testing these online games, browsing through pirated goods posting my finding on the blog. So let me know if there is anything that interests you about this side of the gaming market and I’ll try and snuff it up.
Analyzing Contributions towards Negative Video Game Culture
May 20th, 2008
Video game culture; I find this so awfully difficult to write about yet so compelled to submit to the keyboard every time. Culture, culture, what is culture? It is an issue that I have been grappling with in this blog a couple of times already, each time concluding with mixed results. This time around though I think that I have formed a better methodology to approach the topic so let’s see what happens.
So Why Culture?
My interest in video game culture recently received a jump start when I read an article from Write the Game’s Keira Peney which summarized the various opinions on video game culture among us bloggers. Unfortunately I can’t say that I have read much on how other bloggers feel about gamer culture, which is probably why this article has opened a whole new can of worms which I’d like to explore.
It interested me why so many other people were also interested in gaming culture, it kinda surprised me a little as well. Once I got to the end of the article though and continued on to read the other articles referenced in the paper it all became clear. We have all been looking at culture from the same mind set.
What you’ll notice if you read any of the articles (including this one by me) is that we are all concerned about the growing negative social behaviour growing within our industry. Be it video game fandom, the negative overtones in online play and/or juvenile behaviour converging around online discussion boards; these are all issues of concern. We are all concerned because such behaviour is devouring the reputation of our industry and is restraining the growth of our identity as people. So therefore, in order to better understand this situation we have turned to culture (on the whole) as the answer.
Now that I am conscious of this I would like to step back and provide my own ideas about what elements within video game culture has spurred on this epidemic. Culture is, of course a complex issue and cannot be defined simply by a list of trends and occurrences. I’d like to acknowledge that. I’d also like to point out that culture is messy and you might notice, it is something that cannot be defined hence why I have had trouble differentiating video game culture as a whole from this negative social activity (another facet of video game culture itself).
What I am posting though is what I see to me dominate contributors to these issues. If you have your own ideas then be sure to let me know below or via email.
Read the rest of this entry »
A Call For Respect
May 6th, 2008
DP’s Editing Notes: I spent a long time thinking about how to approach this article and upon completion I feel genuinely disappointed that I have not expressed my feelings to a level of accuracy that makes me feel content. I might sound like a broken record but I am truly having a difficult time in fully understanding the ins and outs of the issue of culture (on many levels), an issue which fascinates me. I feel that this article may perhaps in some instances sound illogical and possibly domineering. Still I find it necessary to share with you my observations so if any of this makes a vague bit of sense then please share your thoughts.
I’m still thinking about culture and I just can’t shake a few ideas that are bothering me. I’ve talked before about Casual Gaming and this whole hierarchical view that seems to manifest in a significant portion of the gaming community. Where the core gamers view themselves as somehow superior to other, less experienced players.
What I have recently discovered from these articles is just how frustrated I am with fan culture. So I have decided to use myself as the example and explore how and why I react in particular ways to fan culture and if I myself hold some sort of bias/grudge in a similar way.
My Observations and Interpretations
My first such experience was over the recent holiday break where I visited a sale for a particular video game store. This isn’t just you standard game store though, this place sells anime/manga/games and is exceptional when it comes to video game collectables, rarities and hard to find game titles. So this place is obviously a breeding ground for fan culture. *rubs hands together with glee*
As expected, some of the customers and their gaming friends did get on my nerves while I was in the store. So I paused and observed their behaviour a little and plundered the depths of my mind to find what it was exactly that hit an uncomfortable nerve.
My conclusion was in their conversation. My interpretation of their utterances was that it seemed as though many of the fans lacked a certain context about various games lined up on the shelves. Even though they would rampantly talk about certain games, it appeared as though they had only a loose interpretation of the historical relevance and impact of the game as well as other bits of relevant, factual information. Despite their lack of knowledgable context they seemed particularly willing to take the approach of “resident expert” on the subject.
Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to Daniel Primed, my self-titled games analysis blog and the online supplement to Adventures in Games Analysis.
Reader Emails | RSS / Email Feed
Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 - $7.99
Level Design: Processes and Experiences
Speed Boost: The Hidden Secrets Behind Arcade Racing Design - $5.99
Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I - $5.99
