Week 6—Electronic Literature

For the sake of OCD continuity, I have decided to re-post some additional thoughts based around the re-scheduled week 4 topic on Hypertext here in week 6. For the original ‘volitional’ week 4 discussion see my blog-post titled Week4—Hypertext.

Varying forms of literature have existed since time immemorial. What seems apparent from the outset is how literature has kept pace relative to its respective technological period in time. Arguably, the consumption of material consumed by the masses is generally proportionate to the level of technology. Ancient Rome used clay tablets as a type of gazette for the purpose of public announcements; Monks in the Middle Ages used various animal skins as a medium to record and archive information, to the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press that saw a proliferation of printed novels. In times that are more recent, we see the introduction and mass uptake of computers enabling literature to metamorphose into a digital format. Collectively this equates to an amount of information that is truly vast.

This plethora of information has generated the need for order, which has taken on a new meaning: How do you find what you are looking for? Maybe not so much today, but at one time in the not too distant past the solution to addressing this issue was to visit a library; but not all libraries were the same, a school library, for example, would unlikely contain the expanded works that a major city library would, and so on. Often, just the thought of going to a library triggered an internal sentience of personal affectation—perhaps albeit unconsciously—due to an acceptance that going to a library was indeed sage, and by doing so, it would yield answers to questions hitherto unknown. Once in the library the key to any successful investigation was in knowing how to use the library catalogue—often a mystery in itself! However, if all else failed a person could always enlist the expertise of the librarian. Men, arguably though, do not like asking for help because of the size of their egos, the bigger the ego the fewer the requests. They also have an inflated sense of direction, which they often refer to as a built-in road map.

Putting mapping into practice might work on a small or medium scale, but the amount of information that exists in the world today could conceivably surpass many libraries stacked end to end; and without knowing exactly how much information is out there, arguably it is bordering on the infinite. As much as some may hate to admit it these days the humble library catalogue is simply not up to the challenge, not to mention the logistics to access it all, although it would at least give a good reason to buy one of those self-balancing electric scooters. However, not all that matters now because there is something to take its place: Welcome to the age of the networked-database. Whether we like it or not, storage devices are growing exponentially with every passing year and in numbers that do not seem to be abating anytime soon. So how does anyone find what he or she is looking for?

The term Google is so ubiquitous these days it takes on more than just the name of an I.T. company. So much so is the impact of Google it now resides under the Oxford online dictionary as a verb (Oxford Learners Dictionaries, 2020). There are other words, however, that came along before the advent of Google which can help find whatever it is we are searching for in the expansive void of collected information. One word in particular has been around long before IBM made computers compatible, or Steve Jobs capitalised on selling as many Apple 1s with his inimitable business acumen; a word which dates back even further than when CSIRAC was but a glint in its creator’s eye; it was a term that early seafaring crusaders knew the meaning of all too well. The word is Navigation. This is what we need to find the information we seek, and to clarify this point using academic rhetoric: ‘Navigation can therefore serve as an entry point for meta-critical inquiry into the ways in which we read, think, and interpret information through media-specific ways’ (Pressman, 2008).

There is no doubt that a ship is guided on its voyage across the seas by navigating a course; it also needs involvement from a person at its helm.  This is also true of a database that is incomplete without input from an operator or user. Employing our nautical analogy to further use, with the size of oceans so vast that being in the middle of one means that land is not visible in any direction, it is no wonder that navigation plays a key role in a ship finding its way, safely. But if we factor in other elements, such as tumultuous weather with waves so big they appear as multi-story buildings crashing across a ship’s bow, it quickly becomes a prime concern for all onboard how well the ship is constructed. The same can be said when going online, which is often a challenge when it comes to finding what it is we want as the information dips below the waves of online surfing. However, short of cyclonic disasters which computers sometimes bring out in the best of us, if practised properly by coders, our savior should be right alongside the hypertext with our interactions. These are the new catalogues, with librarians replaced by database engineers, and webmasters who stack the digital-shelves, all of whom contribute to making the process of navigating the digital world easier, safer and far more rewarding.

Unexpected events are part of any journey, and the digital world is by no means an exception. Unwary users may end up down a wrong path ending up mired in so much information they forget the reason behind the purpose they started out trying to achieve. Or maybe they come across something that just a few clicks back was barely visible and didn’t really look that big a problem, until all of a sudden it pops-up out of nowhere announcing an exigency of monumental importance threatening to halt all further progress. At this point it usually pays to give the antivirus program permission to update its database, turn off your monitor, or close the laptop, and head to the kitchen to put the kettle on.

Works Cited

Oxford Learners Dictionaries. (2020, April 15). Retrieved from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/google

Pressman, J. (2008). Navigating Electronic Literature. Retrieved from Jessica Pressman: https://www.jessicapressman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Pressman_revised__final.pdf

Week 5—Digital Games

Have you ever played a digital (video) game? Statistically speaking, out of a worldwide population approaching 8 billion people (Worldometer, 2020) around 2 billion fit into the category of being called a ‘gamer’. That’s about 1 in 4. So in a family of say 4 people, statistically, 1 of them could very well be a gamer, whether they care to admit to it or not. What might even come as a surprise is the average age of gamers is 38 years! Sex is no barrier either with a ratio of players at around 60/40 male/female respectively. (Desjardins, 2017)

So why wouldn’t you call yourself a player of digital games? When compared to real life games, imagine a Venusian visiting Earth who finds herself musing on the reasoning behind playing the actual real-life non-digital game of golf. Perhaps she even draws a comparison to watching paint dry. And indeed many non-golfers may side with the Venusian. Okay, so now that we’ve cleared the room of those most unlikely to play a digital version of golf, let's continue...

It might be interesting to note that if a person who has no interest in playing actual golf on a golf course, may well find an interest in the digital version of the game, instead. The reasons are likely many and varied, none the least being the digital gamer isn’t tied the orthodoxy of conventional rules. In digital golf, for example, a player can team up with a virtual Greg Norman and even get in-game tips on how to improve their ‘digital’ game; all of which is generally unlikely to happen at a person’s local golf course. Games based on real sports, including many Hollywood-style movies, can even include the actual voice of the person whom the game is based around.

But to some people not all games are as appealing as a round or two of digital golf. One of the primary reasons games draw in a following is because of what the players get out of it. The word fun is undoubtedly an understatement because it tends to over simply the process. Yes, games are fun to play but there are many variables involved that contribute to the overall enjoyment that leads a player to proclaiming: hey, that was fun!

The technical term that game programmers use when building a game which helps drive the dynamics, i.e.: the interaction between player and game that gives the game its appeal and fun is called, ‘aesthetics’. In gaming language aesthetics play a large role in the success of a game. The following bulleted list of words which is borrowed from MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, goes a long way in helping put the term aesthetics into context: 

1. Sensation: Game as sense-pleasure
2. Fantasy: Game as make-believe
3. Narrative: Game as drama
4. Challenge: Game as obstacle course
5. Fellowship: Game as social framework
6. Discovery: Game as uncharted territory
7. Expression: Game as self-discovery
8. Submission: Game as pastime

The list shows the elements used that make a game ‘fun’. Combinations may vary but the general principals such as these are used to characterise a game in its early stage of development. And even in older games that may not have been as visually impressive when compared to newer games, the aesthetic elements are still present.

 Play Greg Norman’s Golf Power (USA)

In the early years of digital gaming the act of programming employed simple 8 or 16 bit graphics, which meant that game realism was far from immersive. For many gamers these early games may have really only offered a slight distraction for an hour or so ordinarily taken up by other indoor activities such as watching television. But over time the computational hardware used in modern gaming consoles and PC desktops has grown exponentially allowing for greater realism, compared with games of 20–30 years ago.  Today’s games in comparison have far richer visceral content and interactive gameplay but are still in accordance with the primary aesthetics. And such is the nature of continued research and development in all areas of the digital gaming industry, a whole new term has been created to give meaning to its rise. As a result, many of the games that take on the form of real-world-gaming are more commonly ascribed as e-sports.

Players of e-sports games compete with other players in real-time interconnected events. Moreover, as is the nature in a commercialised world, if something has the power to draw a crowd of people to watch those taking part, so will you find advertising dollars that filters its way along the money trail rewarding the few adept combatants who rise to the challenge and excel at their chosen avocation, possibly snowballing them and their e-sport on to greater stardom while increasing any potential earnings on offer.

Current Formula 1 and six-times World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, although noted as ‘a big fan of e-gaming’ dismisses the idea that e-sport has the potential to produce an actual real-life F1 champion (Hall, 2018). None the less, over in the paddock of e-sport racing, there is a category of gamers who regularly vie for various titles including team championship and driver championship. As of 2019 the Formula One Esports series, actively promoted by the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, had a total prize pool on offer of $500,000 adding real world incentive to the burgeoning e-sport motor racing fraternity (F1, 2019).

The second paragraph of this blog-post brought into question the perception about being called a gamer. Inevitably there will always be opinions by those averse to digital games for reasons often based on personal unacknowledged hubris. Which in a way draws my attention back to a time when being cool meant not openly declaring your affinity with ABBA songs among your high school chums because in doing so would invariably have caused outrage, replete with much maligned ridicule, resulting in the exponent labelled the school leper—such was the case of being a teenage male in the latter half of the 1970s. Interestingly, as it turned out, that style of music is of such esteemed excellence, as evidenced by countless prolific versions of ABBA based revivals with the likes of live-theatre productions and other recorded multimodal stories, including movies, that its very existence has demonstrated to those cupboard (closet) ABBA fans that they had indeed more class, back then, than their uncouth peers. Is this also the case for digital gamers?

Works Cited

Desjardins, J. (2017, January 11). The History and Evolution of the Video Games Market. Retrieved from Visual Capitalist: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-video-games-market/

F1. (2019, April 02). Formula 1 New Balance Esports Series to kick off its third season. Retrieved from Formula 1: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula-1-new-balance-esports-series-to-kick-off-its-third-season.6MRwBKUbBNbQXCImkEpvlP.html

Hall, S. (2018, February 22). Lewis Hamilton: Big fan of e-gaming but says it won't produce F1 world champions. Retrieved from Autoweek: https://www.autoweek.com/racing/a1691671/lewis-hamilton-big-fan-e-gaming-says-it-wont-produce-f1-world-champions/

Worldometer. (2020). World Population. Retrieved from Worldometer: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#top20