Time to play the game

‘Gaming’ isn’t just the physical motion of playing on a console or hardware, nor is it being able to communicate online or with a gaming community. Jane McGonigal talks about how it is not just the physicality of gaming but the ideological meaning behind ‘gaming’ that works its way into every single gamer. Gaming is a huge influence on new media audiences and could arguably hold more ideologies than any other media as it can completely consume a person’s mind, “This bias is part of our culture, part of our language, and it’s even woven into the way we use the words game or player” (McGonigal, 2011. P19)

Because of this everyone is a gamer in this culture not just in a digital culture perspective but as an attitude toward advancement. “you’d better start playing the game. What we mean is, just do whatever it takes to get ahead.” (McGonigal, 2011. P19)

McGonigal uses expressions and phrases to explain how these ideology’s better.

“We use the term ‘player’ to describe someone who manipulates others to get what they want. We don’t really trust players.” (McGonigal, 2011. P19)

Every game has certain rules which give its players the ability to play within these boundaries. These rules don’t need to necessarily have to follow any protocol and so can manipulate players into abandoning their own rules and morals to follow an already lead out path. McGonigal sees how we tell the difference between reality and imagination through the language we use. “This isn’t a game!, What we mean is that someone is behaving recklessly or not taking a situation seriously.” However it is not the game itself that bring across these ideologies but the fact that it is getting harder and harder to tell the difference between games and reality. The escape that games once offered and the ideology to ‘winning’ at a game is on the verge of spilling over to reality as people are now players and as Jane McGonigal said…”we don’t really trust players.” (McGonigal, 2011. P19)

Bibliography

McGonigal, J. 2011. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Penguin Press HC. p19-34.