Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 12.1
From McLuhan: Some Things to Check
Item
Page
With respect to the virtual
Comments
1. We approach the fi nal
phase of man—the tech-
nological simulation of
consciousness.
19
“Creative process of knowing
will be . . . extended to the
whole of human society, much
as we have already extended
our senses . . . by the various
media.”
Sounds as if he may have been
anticipating the higher levels of
video games.
2. Content of any medium is
always another medium.
23
McLuhan argues, for instance,
that the content of writing is
speech.
Consequently, video games
take us from entertainment to
interactions.
3. Technology alters sense
ratios or patterns of
perception steadily and
without any resistance.
33
One goal of developers is
immersion, which tends to be
case in popular games.
Development tends to still target
the “hardcore” gamer.
4. Dif erence between “hot”
and “cool” media is the
amount of information
provided.
36
Feedback in games tends
to make them hot.
And they are getting hotter as
developers do their utmost to
facilitate fan communities that
bring the games out of the game
media and into other media.
5. All things appear under
forms opposite to those
that they fi nally present.
46
The visible world is no
longer a reality and the
unseen no longer a dream.
The virtual world of games is but
another form of perceived real-
ity among participants.
6. Individuals become fasci-
nated by any extension of
themselves.
51
This phenomenon seems to be
especially evident in hardcore
gamers.
Note the rapid growth of the
industry.
7. Media are put out long
before they are thought
out.
58
There is still not an agreement
on what games are.
One purpose of this chapter is to
identify the nature of games.
8. Meeting of two media
is a revelation from which
a new form is born.
63
Games became more popular
as they became more realistic
in display and also interactive.
Need to recognize not only how
games will change, but how
they will change other media.
9. Technology is ahead of
time if we recognize it
for what it is.
70
Breakthroughs in games were
associated with participation,
reality of display and commu-
nication.
The development of technolo-
gies for games has been done
in close cooperation with tech-
nologies for national defence.
10. Artist is engaged in writing
detailed history of future
because he is only one
aware of present.
70
Suggests
Snow Crash
, for
instance, might be predictor
of future. With the homogeny
of game developers and their
preferences for science fi ction
this might be a self-fulfi lling
prophecy.
Might note that Jules Verne was
writing about things about one
hundred years ahead of time.
an analogy with a sand pit in which players are provided a spade, a bucket,
fi gures and scenery with which he/she gets to create their own experience
based on these elements. In other words, one gets to change the path or the
narrative, instead of being constrained to a predestined route to the end.
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