There is one glaring weakness about the production blog that I have noticed thus far-- since I am posting as I conduct research, I can only argue my points as I learn more and more about the field. While I would love to continue examining the stories of video games at length, expanding more on themes, role of protagonist, etc., I am going to have to return to these topics as I gain more knowledge.
For now, I wanted to quickly discuss an area of video games which James Paul Gee believes has endless potential: The way in which these games "either reinforce or challenge players' taken-for-granted perspectives in the world." I won't go into too much detail, as my past few posts have been a bit longwinded, but Gee gives a great example with the game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, which is a third person shooter game featuring the American military. Whereas most titles in the shooter genre like Halo or Gears of War allow the player to run headfirst into battle, shooting everything in sight while getting shot numerous times and still surviving, Operation Flashpoint provides a very different experience. Players will have their character die in one shot, often by an unseen enemy sniping from afar, and have to crawl around on the ground, slowly progressing towards a goal as opposed to running around recklessly. The romanticized action hero that we see in video games (and action movies for that matter) may teach us one thing about war and conflict, but this video game can challenge those perspectives that we have been taught here in America.
As for more modern examples of challenging perspectives, the United States Army is currently testing a video game developed by IDS International called CultureShock, which puts the player in the role of a village elder. The intent of this is to try and teach real-life captains stationed in Afghanistan more about Middle Eastern culture, specifically so that they can better understand the values and difficulties that such local leaders posses. IDS International says that the game is "bound by the real world physical, political and cultural restrictions of Southern Afghanistan," and is working with Afghan-Americans in order to preserve the game's authenticity. By breaking down our American perspectives of "over there" through playing this game, the officers who will be working directly with village leaders will be able to communicate better, as they will have a better understanding of the culture through a practical, hands-on learning experience.
Another example can be seen in the game A Closed World -- a title that is similar in gameplay to RPGs like the Final Fantasy series (combat system and an intricate storyline), but focuses on Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender issues in a way that a player may find different from his or her expectations. Rather than trying to show how the game challenges or confirms our perceptions of GLBT life, click on this link to try the prototype of the game out for yourself and see how it affects you. This game was a project at MIT, aimed at showing the difficulties in including a character who is different from the perceived norm. Just as we appreciate Asian American literature, African American literature, Women's literature, and recently GLBT literature in English curricula, I think that video games have a great future ahead of them if they focus in these areas as well. Titles that challenge what our culture teaches us can only spark great discussion in a classroom setting, as students will begin questioning their own perceptions when they learn more about these respective groups in an immersive experience rather than only reading about them. There is no better age group to introduce these ideas to than young adults, as these developing minds can be expanded to question and explore everyday notions that are taken for granted.
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