Response to Serious Games lecture on February 5Th; Joe Delappe:
1. What did you learn about games and serious games in the lecture?
2. What issue related to games or serious games was covered?
I learned a lot about contemporary artists and their work through the medium of serious games.
The idea that games can be paired with social and political issues was very interesting. Instead of the games giving rise to a hero, artists introduced the concept of contemporary work through the idea of current issues such as war. Through this context, Joe introduced another idea; the idea that real violence is almost muted through the use of video games.
Example of Tekken Torture Tournament brought the concept of violence through gaming to a new level by actually introducing a game that inflicted pain when your subject was hit.
Isometric Screenshots by John Hadcock brought war photos into the virtual eye. Taking the idea of an emotional war photo and introducing it into a virtual context the idea of virtual violence is challenged by its once had emotional effect. Would and does it still rain the same effect?
Raid Gaza was a game in which social and political issues were brought virtual. By creating a serious game out of a current situation we can see how contemporary artists are using today's issues and playing with their role in a virtual society.
3. What did you learn about the discipline from which the class/lecture/colloquium was drawn?
I learned how the contemporary artist uses today's social and political issues as a foundation for questioning their effect in a virtual environment. Introducing such agendas as war and violence have two different effects in real and virtual life.
By the artist inflicting actual pain through the simulation of a virtual fight the viewers perception is challenged.
By the artist taking something as simple as Mario Clouds the viewer's perception is once again challenged from something ironically known to something unknown.
