Blog 2

I ended up creating an account and spending some time in Second Life. After spending time in the "game" and reading up on what it's all about, I became quite intruiged. After creating my account and logging in, I started my second life in an area called Help Island. Here, I customized my avatar and explored the area. After leaving the island i was transported to what appeared to be a large strip mall, with an abundance of stores i could walk into, regardless of whether the shop was closed or not. They all seemed to be shops to further customize your character, like with tattoos or clothing. You have the ability to chat with people nearby you, as well as make pre-programmed gestures from a list. Travelling fast is made easy with the ability to fly. I feel as though my experience in the game should not be judged too heavily because my areas in which i travelled were naturally full with many other people new to the game. Help island was full of avatar zombies; new people reading through the pop-up help windows and confusingly walking around, making gestures to nobody and getting a kick out of flying and falling to the ground.

With regards as to how a game might push a certain point of view, I naturally bring light to games in the Call of Duty line-up. The first three and the fifth game in the franchise all took place during World War II. In these games you played as a couple different soldiers from one of the Allied nations (American, Russian, British). The campaigns featured you taking part fictional battles set in a World War II setting, so naturally your enemies at the time were usually Nazis or the Japanese. By making you shoot Nazis as an American soldier with heroic fanfare music playing in the background, the game is making you the good guy and the Nazi the bad guy. It is this way that the game pushes the idea that the Nazis were bad people, communism is bad, and that we are the hero.

After reading what Benjamin had to say, I'd have to contest that Videogames are a form of art. He was big on using the word "aura" throughout the reading, and I feel as though no matter the medium as long as one finds fascination in what is being presented, it should be considered art. Just like fine quisine is art, just like a great Novel is art, just like a still photo of Nature is art, just like James Cameron's "Avatar" is art, i would argue that videogames should be considered art as well. Especially when we are seeing a trend that many games are trying to be more and more of an "interactive, cinematic experience" where there is increased emphasis on the player connecting with the character of which he is playing as. The programmer's keystroke is to the painter's brush, as the canvas is to the Xbox360 hooked up to a TV. New instruments, new media, new art.