From Pong to The Sims, the way we have played video games have never before evolved this much. By being fascinated from moving the white bar to orchestrating the life of a character, participation in the game has changed. This notion is prevalent throughout Raessen’s reading, whereby “computer games are re-mediating participatory culture” (Reassen 2005, p. 24). There is now further interaction with the game, where we are provided more options and more power over our game play.
Out of the three pillars to Raessen’s participation, interpretation explains the process of encoding and decoding. Explained by Hall, this involves media texts to be interpreted in various ways. According to Hall interpretations can fall under dominant readings, negotiated or oppositional. Dominant readings tend to fall under the preferred meaning or how the world should work (Hall 1973, p. 57), negotiated readings will be interpreted more broadly but understood in terms of one’s social experiences, and finally oppositional readings are a stark contrast to the preferred meaning. One example that displays this domain of participation is from The Sims. During the initial stages of the game you are allowed to create your own characters or select a default house. Let us say you are given a default house with two occupants being male and one female. Automatically you make the male find a job and work for the house, while the female will do all the housework, eventually establishing their relationship and furthering it on to creating a baby.
Source: The Sims 3 Forum
This is an interpretation that is relevant to a dominant reading, whereby
the above is your conventional family dynamics. Negotiated readings on the
other hand, may make them as just friends as it can be related to their current
social situations. As the antithesis to the dominant reading, the player will notice the dominant
reading, and actively oppose it by allowing the male to look after the child
and let the female to work for the house.
Source: Beyond Sims
In relation to reconfiguration, Arseth explains it through a player’s ability to shape the virtual world through their choices (Raessen 2005, p. 380). Thus, whether it is the female or the male that is selected as the bread maker, they are given an array of career pathways they can choose from, that in turn shape their game play (different promotions, obstacles, work issues etc.).
Suffice to say, with interactivity
increasing in the gaming world, it is no wonder that we are capable of spending
countless hours frolicking in these virtual realities.
Source: Cinema Blend
Hall, S. 1973,
Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse, Birmingham England: Centre
for Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, pp. 507-17
Raessens, J 2005,
“Computer Games as Participatory Media Culture”, Handbook of Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp.
373-388
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post is clearly structured and demonstrates your understanding of the themes this week. Sims is a great example where people often interpret the dominant reading. Perhaps you could have mentioned the role that culture has in this and the context that Sims is set in. It appears that a capitalist, consumer based society is promoted in Sims as the hegemonic norm. Your first definition of participatory culture was well defined and linked nicely with an example however I felt that the other definitions were blocked together and stated rather than entwined through the blog. Great read, Thanks!
Brittany, it is interesting that you use The Sims as your example. You suggest that if you’re given a default house with two occupants being male and one female “aautomatically you make the male find a job and work for the house, while the female will do all the housework, eventually establishing their relationship and furthering it on to creating a baby”. I find this a vast generalisation and wonder is this a choice made by the gamer or is this all the characters are limited to doing? Can you select to have two female or two male housemates or is it set up to represent the dominate ideology? If not, then the representation of conventional family dynamics is being represented by the gamer rather than the game and thus bigger issues of stereotyping are at play and perhaps you could mention the contribution that globalisation and increased Americanisation has had on this.
ReplyDeleteLike a lot of people ‘The Sims’ is an all time favourite game of mine so this post instantly caught my attention. It is also a perfect example of participatory media culture. As you have stated, the Sims allows almost endless opportunities for individuals to shape their personal game play. I like the example you used about the default house, I feel that maybe you could have developed this as to how games are contributing to/enforcing stereotypes. You have used a solid number of and reliable references to support your arguments and your spelling and grammar is appropriate. This is a well-written and coherent post.
ReplyDeleteUsing the Sims game as an example of participatory culture was a very good idea due to how popular it is simply for the range of choices we have within the game. I thought your first definition fit quite well with your contention and you expanded on it well, however the second reference might have benefitted from a bit more explanation in regards to linking it to your topic. The photos added a nice touch to the post, especially the ones that showed traditional gender roles [the female cleaning] and non-traditional ones [the dad walking the pram]. Great job!
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