Reading Response 3 - Maddie Schroeder

            The first chapter of Alexander R. Galloway’s book, “Gaming: Essays in Algorithmic Culture” is a new aspect for me. I’ve never been one to game although my brothers are always in the basement with their friends shooting people and racing cars. They have this crazy addiction that I myself, have not fully understood and I have never really thought about gaming and the culture it has created. Before video games, people read or watched television, they went for walks and to the movies but with the invention of video games, there is a whole new category of entertainment that has changed they way people look at amusing themselves.

            I find it interesting reading about all the aspects behind the video game. As a game buyer, you only see the result, but there is so much more behind the scenes that go into actually coding the game. Having our little experience of coding gives me a lot more appreciation for what these games can do! For example he talks about how there are actually cheats and short cuts that are built into games. The player thinks they are clever for figuring out that there is “the ability to see through the walls in Coutner Strike”(Galloway 13), but really, it was programed that way. The one video game that I have owned was a Wii Nancy Drew game where the player had to solve a mystery at a ski lodge. I remember I would go online and fine passwords to unlock things that could not normally be unlocked if the passwords were not leaked on the internet. I thought I was so clever for gyping the system, but in reality Galloway says “Often these are deliberately designed into the game for debugging or testing purposes and only later leaked to the public”(13).

            The idea of making video games is so complicated and hard to understand sometimes and I think Galloway did a nice job of explaining gaming in a way that anyone can read it with ease. The more I read I realized that there is the sense of interaction with technology that has not only transformed the minds of teenaged boys finding something to do, but the way people teach and inform other. The invention of video games has made interactive learning very popular and has unlocked a new and effective way of learning. Who knew that the human mind would remember things through practice!