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From a purely textual/communication perspective this is a trivial ques-
tion with an equally trivial answer: yes —this is the monumental promise
of the video game medium—its unique type of interactivity that provides
a completely new and revolutionary mode of writer-reader communication
so prominently described by Aarseth (1994, 2003), Murray (1997, 2005)
and several others (Frasca 1999, 2001a, 2001b, 2003a, 2003b; Juul 2004,
2005). Similarly as text, fi lm and recorded music medium changed our
(majority) cultures, the video game medium will transform our culture,
but also establish itself distinctively—compare the dominant role of music
genres in numerous, predominantly youth-oriented, subcultures. Video
gaming ushers in a completely new medium that was commercially estab-
lished as recently as thirty years ago, and consequently has not yet become
a “majority cultural expression form”.
However, this analysis has a simplistic view of the notion of “subcult u re”
because it does not fully encompass the users and their interactions, which
actually create the subculture. For instance, the punk subculture does not
relate to the music medium as such—punk music is the expression form of
the values of the punk subculture and not a culture built merely around the
activity of listening to LP records/music tapes. Simply put, the video game
medium is much bigger than the physical medium as such.
Investigating the video game culture as a whole would entail a much
broader perspective based on ethnographical studies and explorations,
which is far beyond the scope of this chapter. A “proxy” that might bridge
this gap in this study is to analyse the actual type of content being con-
sumed most frequently. The content, i.e. the material manifestation, does
not represent the entire culture as such, but inevitably refl ects the opin-
ions, perspectives, desires, aesthetics and preferences of both the authors/
Table 2.1
Top Ten Video Games Sold, 2010
Title
Genre
1
Call of Duty: Black Ops
FPS
2
Madden NFL 11
Sports
3
Halo Reach
FPS
4
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Platform
5
Red Dead Redemption
TPS
6
Wii Fit Plus
Fitness game
7
Just Dance 2
Party/dance game
8
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
FPS/TPS
9
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Action
10
NBA 2K11
Sports
 
 
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