A look into...Gamer

Games & Gamer Psychy

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Since the dawn of time, peo-ple have played games in order to socialise, entertain, be entertained or as a simple time passer. Today there are thousands of games, rang-ing from board games, card games and what im focus-ing on, video games. Since the success of the games manufacturer Atari in the late 1960’s. home and arcade computing has gone through a revolution with companys such as Sony and Microsoft following suit and further de-veloping the gamers world.

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For this study, i shall be look-ing at certain era-defining con-soles and making my subject play these and i shall docu-ment there experience of these technologys accompanied by quotes,anaylisis and history of the console. Throughout the following slides i shall be putting short quotes at the bottome of the page from the subject talking about her ex-periences and using pictures to express her emotion whilist playing these technologies.

An Introduction

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“Im excited to play all my faveorite consoles as well as consoles that are older and i have less knowledge about”

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“The SNES was a really fun system to play because the games werent that serious meaning i could enjoy them withou feeling the games pressure to succeed”

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SNESThe Sony entertainment sys-tems was released in 1991 and was a huge global suc-cess. Selling over 50 million units worldwide, the con-sole was the second yet first truely defining console to bring home video gaming alive. With new 16-bit graph-ic technology and polyphon-ic sound, people were know able to be transported into a world of pure gameing, more relistic then ever. The big-gest step up the SNES intro-duced was the ability of play-ing multiplaying shooter, sport and action games allowing people to play there faveour-ite games with there friends.

My subject played this con-sole alone however as the best submersive games for this console are single play-er platforsm. With the bright vibrant colours of the game play and comic-esq style, the subject was almost reducd to child like state of wonder as the console evoked an infant reaction as playing the game almost seemed like she was playing a cartoon. She remained this state for the more colourful games howev-er once i introduced a racing game, the scenery seemed irrelavant as the games com-petative nature took over her.

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PlayStaion 1The Playstaion 1 was re-leased in 1994 and like the SNES, was a huge success with Sony shifting over 100 million units in its 12 year shelf life. The console was the second of its kind in develop-ing CD-ROM games but like the SNES it is seen as the defining console that start-ed this now common place format. The biggest leap for the game was its ability to have 3D graphics and stereo sound creating a much more realistic and deeper game ex-perience. Games focused on being real rather then comic.

When playing the Playstation, you can notice a substational difference in playing mood from the SNES. Due to the console being far more graphicly supe-rior, the gamer can now be-come involved with the char-acters as details such as facial experessions and customisa-tion allow a more personalised experience. However this isnt always a good thing as due to its realistic nature and extreme submersive nature, the game now becomes more intense creating more stress, anixiety and starts to take the focus

away from enjoyment.

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“The playstaion is s console from my childhood and i love playing it. It does over stress my though!”

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“I love the ps2, however some games are very graphic meaning at times i either become too stressed or even scared by its visual conplexity”

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PlayStation 2The PlayStation 2 was the follow up to the Playstaion 1. It contained very similar fea-tures with a few big improve-ments and developments. The graphics became bigger and the console was more powerul meaning much big-ger games with more expan-sive maps could be created with games such as the GTA series pioneering what it was to play a fully 3D submer-sive game. The console also started to introduce online play which meant you could play with people across the world via connecting to the Internet. This creates a net-work of gamers and starts to connect the gaming world.

Due to the consoles power, games were now becoming massivly compacted mean-ing, people were playing for hours on end. My subject was if anything more relaxed when playing these bigger games. She enjoyed the freedom and showed a more playful side with the more open world games. However due to the consoles power and even better graph-ics, when playing more vio-lent and intense games, the agression of the gamer be-come much more and i start-ed to see outward experssive nature. The subject began to verbally abuse the games and show a more intese side to video game competativness.

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PlayStation 3Playstation 3 was the first con-sole to ever include HD and 3D graphics within its game meaning playing this console is almost like playing the tel-evision at time. Games now have developed away from cartoon based games and gimics but onto real life plac-es, events, people as well as creating virtual realitys for peo-ple to play as themselves but in a digital world. The console also perfected online play al-lowing even talk between play-ers via headsets. Everyone was now connected through the PS3’s network meaning there was lmost a real world within its virtual playground.

I noticed that the subject actu-ally started to become ques-tionable and cynical of the games. Due to these games actually looking like real life, the player started to ques-tion whether certain acts were even possible becoming a sceptic of the physics behind the games. She even then started to become frustrat-ed with the games as even though they were extremly complex in there gameplay, she demanded more out of the system as she was given so much to begin with mean-ing despite all its advance-ments, despite all its advance-ments, the player still became infurated and stressed playing.

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:Even though its the best ive ever played, the PS3 is just too complicated and realistic for me to enjoy”

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Gaming now has evolved so much over the past 60 years from home arcade copied to full 3D interactive gaming. They provide a great foundation to study human reactions and interaction due to them purely being made to evoke evocative beahviour.

“Out of all these consoles i feel that the Playsation 1 has the best mix. it allows me to interact with big games and serious titles however as it is stil graphicly not as demanding, it still allows me to serperate myself from the game meaning i can enjoy it rather then endure it”

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“Out of all these consoles i feel that the Playsation 1 has the best mix. it allows me to interact with big games and serious titles however as it is stil graphicly not as demanding, it still allows me to serperate myself from the game meaning i can enjoy it rather then endure it”

In this study i found that the older consoles did offer much less advanced games and did limit you to only so much making it hard to almost feel compelled to play it at times due to its lack of competativness. However comparing that to the more modern consoles, i conclude that there is too much emphasis on the realism of games as that stops a person truely enjoying the game as you become to submersed. After all isnt a game meant to fun and an escape rather then a virtual second life.

Antonio Panzera

York st John 2013