Scan barcode
akemi_666's review against another edition
3.0
Gamic Action (ch1) and Allegories of Control (ch4) are solid 5 stars. Deluezian explorations of video games as processes (actional rather than representation) and systems (flat rather than deep).
Actional: an enactment between operator and machine, that generates agential configurations. Even if the player is privileged (in, say, an FPS), they must still perform (to) the code. A giveaway when an awed teammate exclaims 'You're a machine!' after you dunk on an opponent. (Pretty sure gamers don't talk like this, but my Hons supervisor said this to me during lockdown . _.)
Systems: rule-based simulations that regulate subjects though networks of feedback loops. The body a multitude of stocks; quantities to be modulated towards optimal performance. Galloway uses the example of 4X games, where the menus and statistics are on full display and every unit (person, battalion, city) has attributes in need of regulating. Another example would be min-maxing in RPGs.
However, Galloway can be quite totalising at times. His analysis of 4X games applies well to other strategy games, but it makes little sense in relation to story-driven games such as Journey or Heavy Rain.
The rest of the chapters are okay. Despite Galloway's claim at the beginning that he's going to start at games to theorise about games, he keeps returning to film and film theories, undermining his ontological foundation. In Origins of the First Person Shooter (ch2) he barely even talks about games; instead, he traces the POV shot across cinematic history. I'm pretty sure carnival games and military weapon interfaces have had far more influence on FPSs than Hitchcock films.
Actional: an enactment between operator and machine, that generates agential configurations. Even if the player is privileged (in, say, an FPS), they must still perform (to) the code. A giveaway when an awed teammate exclaims 'You're a machine!' after you dunk on an opponent. (Pretty sure gamers don't talk like this, but my Hons supervisor said this to me during lockdown . _.)
Systems: rule-based simulations that regulate subjects though networks of feedback loops. The body a multitude of stocks; quantities to be modulated towards optimal performance. Galloway uses the example of 4X games, where the menus and statistics are on full display and every unit (person, battalion, city) has attributes in need of regulating. Another example would be min-maxing in RPGs.
However, Galloway can be quite totalising at times. His analysis of 4X games applies well to other strategy games, but it makes little sense in relation to story-driven games such as Journey or Heavy Rain.
The rest of the chapters are okay. Despite Galloway's claim at the beginning that he's going to start at games to theorise about games, he keeps returning to film and film theories, undermining his ontological foundation. In Origins of the First Person Shooter (ch2) he barely even talks about games; instead, he traces the POV shot across cinematic history. I'm pretty sure carnival games and military weapon interfaces have had far more influence on FPSs than Hitchcock films.
More...