Through the Looking Glass Sharply - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 232

In reading McLuhan, it sounds as if he may have been anticipating the
higher levels of video games that we now see. For instance, he wrote, “Rap-
idly, we approach the fi nal phase of man—the technological simulation of
consciousness” (1964, 19), and he continues, “when the creative process of
knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human
society, much as we have already extended our senses and our nerves by the
various media.” In developing this thought he suggests that the content of
any medium is always another medium (1964, 23). McLuhan argues, for
instance, that the content of writing is speech. In this regard, video games
take us from entertainment to interactions. As he refl ected upon technol-
ogy (194, 33), he asserted that it alters sense ratios or patterns of perception
steadily and without any resistance. In that regard, one goal of developers is
immersion, which tends to be case in popular games and development tends
to still target the “hardcore” gamer (cf. Dymek, this volume). In assessing the
situation as he saw it developing, McLuhan distinguished between hot and
cold media—the dif erence being the amount of information provided (1964,
36). We note that feedback in games tends to make them hot, and they are
getting hotter as developers do their utmost to create communities.
We have asserted that the virtual world of games is but another form
of perceived reality among participants (Zackariasson, Wåhlin and Wilson
2010). In a way, this assertion is consistent with McLuhan (1964, 46). In
general, he observed, all things appear under forms opposite to those that
they fi nally present, and his quote directly: “The visible world is no longer a
reality and the unseen no longer a dream.” In an unanticipated manner con-
sistent with the need fulfi lment of gamers, he wrote (1964, 51), “Individuals
become fascinated by any extension of themselves.” This phenomenon seems
to be especially evident in hardcore gamers, and we note the rapid growth
of the industry. The same movement is also happening in extension worlds
where casual gamers are given possibilities to use the virtual to extend their
physical presence. One purpose of this chapter is to identify the nature of
games insofar as there is still not an agreement on what games are. This lack
of agreement is understandable not only in terms of present observations on
games, but, as noted in McLuhan (1964, 58), media are put out long before
they are thought out. He also noted that the meeting of two media is a revela-
tion from which a new form is born (1964, 63). Recently, Gaume (2006, 299)
noted, “People still do not know exactly what is a video game and it is dii -
cult to come up with a single defi nition.” We would agree totally and add our
observation that games became more popular as they became more realistic
in display and also interactive. Further, there is a need to recognize not only
how games will change, but how they will change other media. For instance,
cartoons have changed from the hand-drawn cell approach introduced as in
Disney to a computerized approach as in Shrek .
Finally, McLuhan has a few things to say about technology (1964, 70—it
is ahead of its time if we recognize it for what it is). Today, one of the major
drivers is technological development (CPU speed, graphics, artifi cial intelli-
gence, user-interaction, etc.) in video games. Breakthroughs in games were