Reading Response 3 - Monique Bontemps

                For many people, video games are an entertainment to young kids and adults. Galloway had said, “Play is a symbolic action for larger issues in culture. It is the expression of structure,” (16). He also stated that it is “a cultural object, bound by history and materiality, consisting of an electronic computational device and a game simulated in software” (1).  As I continued to read, I noticed that our society today works with a machine, and us, the operator, as Galloway calls it. Many people use machines, to call, text, type, and many other things to function in life. But unlike computers and phones, video game systems work another way, more as an entertainment.

                As an entertainment, there is a view, which is the audience, but also the player, which is both the software and the operator. As the operator plays the game, we are able to control movements of a character, but also nondiegetic acts, such as pause and the menu. As the software operates, it actually puts the players, commands in to action, which is similar to Brenda Laurel’s description of the computer interface as a theater.  

As a video game player myself, I never really broke down the idea of gaming the way Galloway did. By using the Warcraft as a common example, I was able to break down his idea easily. One video  that is known Warcraft is Leroy Jenkins. As I watched this video, I was able to see it as a show, but also what the operator controls, which is the movements of the characters, the angle to view the game, options of weapons, etc. Not only that, you are able to experience the standstill of the game. Instead of pausing the game, all the players stayed in one area as the game itself went on. Personally I enjoyed this article as a gamer, but also seeing the game world through a different view.