Reading Response 3 - Thomas Hinkebein

Growing up, video games have always been a huge hobby of mine.  From computer games to X Box 360, I have played hundreds of types of games on many different counsels.  However, until reading the first chapter of Alexander Galloway’s Gaming: Essays on Algorithms, I had a completely different perspective on the video game, gaming system, and my relationship to it.

            I love the way Galloway explained how two actions are needed for the video game to function properly: the action of the gamer, and the action of the game to complete the gamer’s request.  When one plays video games, they do so because it is an alternate reality for them.  When one begins to play, the game consumes them, and the only reality that exists for the moment is what is occurring on one’s monitor.  Because of this, we as gamers only take into account the actions we perform while we are playing the game.  As a FIFA player, I get wrapped up in the idea that I am the one performing the actions.  By pressing the ‘A’ button, I am commanding my player to pass the ball, and therefore, I believe I have performed the action.  However, I never appreciate the complicated software and programming used in order for the game to carry out my command action.  Without the actions of the game itself, there is no game, because nothing would occur on that monitor when I pressed the ‘A’ button.   In order “to understand video games, then, one needs to understand how action exists in gameplay, with special attention to its many variations and intensities”(pg 3).

            By getting a sense of how the video game works, and the relationship between the game and the gamer, we form a better appreciation for the game itself.  As a gamer, my perspective on video games has definitely changed, and will most likely play video games with a different mindset from now on.  All of the actions, cheats, and everything else in the game is there for us as the operator to access, and the game can provide us with the action we want, as long as we provide it with the correct action first.