1.5 Lesson: Video Games


Everything Not Saved    

  Will Be Lost


Target


Assignment



Mass media, the art of communicating to a lot of people at once, has been made easier by computers and the Internet. One form of mass media is video games.

What Motivates You?

Is a Kindle book as real as a print book?


Your brain treats items and goods in the digital world as if they are real. Because they are.  

Virtual cows, swords, tokens, and other game rewards are worth billions of dollars. 

Video games build on little rewards or tokens, step by step, like links in a chain.  Notice how easy it is to gain items in the first level.  This hooks you to the long term goals, which become harder to achieve. 

Even punishment keeps you playing the game.  Your crops will rot and die or your house become infested with cockroaches, if you don't maintain them.

Digital Story Telling



Narrative video games, similar to graphic novels, use images and present a digital story.  This also hooks gamers.

Video games invite the player to imagine a fictional world ( the setting) in which the game occurs. The time passing in the fictional world of a game may be real or imaginary.

Video games require a projection into the role of a character, who is engaged in a problem ( conflict and plot). The game's goal tends to be problem-solving.

Often, a player completes specific tasks or levels to go through the pre-defined story. This story may be told through cut-scenes (visual non-interactive part of a game, conveying the game's backstory).

You are what you think.



In this lesson, you will...


  1. preview a text

  1. examine how video games motivate you, frustrate you, intrigue you, manipulate your emotions, or even shape your identity

  1. write an opinion paragraph





  Please contact your teacher if you have questions.