Moderator: JC Denton
by artfan » 05 Feb 2010 22:52
by JoshF » 06 Feb 2010 00:00
Jesper Juul wrote:The Half-Real of the title refers to the fact that video games are two rather different things at the same time: video games are real in that they are made of real rules that players actually interact with; that winning or losing a game is a real event. However, when winning a game by slaying a dragon, the dragon is not a real dragon, but a fictional one. To play a video game is therefore to interact with real rules while imagining a fictional world and a video game is a set of rules as well a fictional world.
by artfan » 06 Feb 2010 13:02
by icycalm » 06 Feb 2010 15:47
JoshF wrote:Is it because dragons don't exist in the natural word, unlike the rule "collect 100 rings for a 1-up"?
Jesper Juul wrote:However, when winning a game by slaying a dragon, the dragon is not a real dragon, but a fictional one.
Jesper Juul wrote:To play a video game is therefore to interact with real rules while imagining a fictional world
by icycalm » 06 Feb 2010 16:04
JoshF wrote:How come slaying a dragon is less real than a game's rules? There's the fucking dragon right there on my screen.
by icycalm » 06 Feb 2010 16:17
icycalm wrote:He says the rules are real, but the dragon is not. But the dragon is a collection of rules, right?
by Bread » 06 Feb 2010 19:15
icycalm wrote:"Imagining a fictional world", lol -- videogames are the degree zero of the imagination -- there is NOTHING to imagine: it's all right there on the screen for you. Absolutely nothing is left to the imagination.
by icycalm » 06 Feb 2010 21:23
by icycalm » 06 Feb 2010 21:28
by icycalm » 06 Feb 2010 21:40
by icycalm » 06 Feb 2010 22:14
Breadcultist wrote:icycalm wrote:"Imagining a fictional world", lol -- videogames are the degree zero of the imagination -- there is NOTHING to imagine: it's all right there on the screen for you. Absolutely nothing is left to the imagination.
Isn't imagination involved when the player anticipates what lies ahead, or plans his next move? What about text adventures?
by hyac » 07 Feb 2010 00:59
icycalm wrote:In a videogame, nothing is actually occurring apart from the player sitting in front of a screen wiggling around a joystick. And of course a game disc is spinning, electronic signals are passing between the computer and the screen, photons from the screen strike the player's eyes, sound waves emanating from speakers arrive at his ears etc. etc. But nothing depicted ON THE SCREEN is actually happening. No one is walking. No one is shooting. No one is talking. The player is simply, with the help of the machine and a code which is merely a collection of 1s and 0s, tricking his own brain into believing that these things are happening, and that he takes part in them through the wiggling of the joystick or any other type of controller. That is all that's actually happening.
by JoshF » 07 Feb 2010 01:46
Not unless you have mutant powers.When you read a book, is the world in your head real?
by artfan » 07 Feb 2010 02:17
by JoshF » 07 Feb 2010 02:31
So then you are saying that fictional worlds... are not real?
by icycalm » 07 Feb 2010 04:34
artfan wrote:So Death Adder is made up of three things and is only partly real.
by icycalm » 07 Feb 2010 05:13
hyac wrote:So if you were to say something in a videogame is not real, would you just be saying that for the sake of convenience? For example, if you said that a soldier on the screen isn't real, you would mean "the thing we call a soldier that is on the screen is not an actual soldier."
by icycalm » 07 Feb 2010 05:20
by icycalm » 07 Feb 2010 05:33
by icycalm » 07 Feb 2010 05:43
icycalm wrote:The thing on the screen exists -- so it is real.
by artfan » 07 Feb 2010 09:10
But whatever it is that's on the screen is as real as anything else that surrounds us.
by zinger » 07 Feb 2010 10:38
artfan wrote:But the 'soldier' doesn't just refer to what is on the screen but also the fictional character we imagine in our heads. Therefore it can't all be real.