Week+2


 * Lab #2: Can Video Games be considered another new mass media? What makes Video Games a different medium from conventional movies and music? Why are video games catching on?**

As technology continues to advance, the video game industry naturally follows suit. New and exciting video games are constantly hitting the market, and the older games that seem to be losing their hype are suddenly updated with newer, faster, and cooler functions to explore. For //gamers//, playing a video game is no longer merely just a pass time activity or hobby. Video games are becoming more advanced in the sense that the games now demand more interactivity and involvement from players; //sucking// the players in, metaphorically speaking, and making the players feel as though they are physically in this virtual dimension. The video game //consumes// the player -- and this is where video game companies and designers grasp the opportunity to allow the players (also known as their target market and audience) to consume as much as possible.

Video games are gradually becoming more and more recognized as another form of mass media in the sense that players are consuming much more than they did before. For instance, video game companies design their games in a way that will enable them to promote or market additional products, thus taking in as much revenue as possible. Take //Pokemon// for instance. Pokemon was much more than a video game. There were Pokemon playing cards, a Pokemon television show, and Pokemon movies. Given that the video game was simply one component of the Pokemon empire, the video game was merely one of their many sources to promote and market their other forms of entertainment to their colossal audience. So while gamers were playing the Pokemon video games, they were additionally, and somewhat subconsciously, consuming the marketing of the other Pokemon products which they then unintentionally further communicate (and promote) to fellow gamers, friends, family, and so on.

Aside from a marketing perspective, video games are also being considered a new mass media because of their ability to express certain ideologies and beliefs of specific cultures and societies. Looking at Pokemon once again, there is a hybridization of Eastern and Western culture (Kelly, 293), and certain beliefs or ideologies within both cultures may be portrayed through the video game, jumping off the screen, and into the minds of the massive group of gamers. Also, video games may reveal stereotyped representations of sex, culture, race, or gender, exposing such notions to the large gaming audience.

Video games are considerably a newer form of media in relation to movies and music. Movies and music have been portals of mass communication much longer than video games have; thus, it is common knowledge that movies and music are synonymous for transporting specific notions, beliefs and messages to large audiences. Contrastingly, video games, a much newer media, and now //mass// media, is almost like a newer and therefore more //unobvious// portal of mass communication. Gamers, in a sense, unconsciously consume specific ideas and messages which they further communicate to others, getting such messages and beliefs across on a large scale.

Video games are slowly catching on as video game companies and designers are coming up with more and more clever ways to integrate marketing strategies as well as an expression of specific cultural beliefs and practices into their games. They continue to make the players feel more and more //part// of the (given) game, a part of this wholly separate and exciting world where they can become an auto thief, a dragon, a rock star, or even have wings to fly. In this virtual world, anything is possible, and the players allow themselves to be swallowed into the game, where they in turn consume much more than they're aware of.