Is it reasonable to consider computer games as art?
a) How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?
Adams raises a few aspects to define art, they are its category, history, duration and its expressiveness.
1st - category, there are fine arts, decorative arts, pure arts etc, but Adams believes that there is grey area to classify the categories, for example, shall we define "design" as an art?
2nd - history, Adams thinks art should be representational of its era or century.
3rd - duration, Adams thinks an art should be long lasting, although the work had been created ages before, we still find it aesthetically interesting.
4th - expressiveness, Adams believes a work of art should be expressive, it can tell artist's thought and message. Art is a form of expression.
I agree with Adams' definition.
Yes, I think there is grey area in defining art too. A lot of people may discuss whether design is art or not, because it seems not for art seek, it is for solving problem. But I think there are still some aesthetic properties in design, for example, composition, colors and shape.
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is a good example of durable artwork, although that is a work of 16th century, until now, art critics and artists still find it interesting and amazing. I think it can demonstrate that a good artwork should be durable. Besides, I think sometime, art is subjective, artists usually want to express their opinions through their artworks. I think if the artist can inject his emotion and thought into his works, it is definitely an enrichment and it can be an infectious work. How the artist presents his/her thought and opinion is an art form as well.
b) According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?
1. Content - videogames should have content or message to express.
2. Innovative - videogames could not be boring, it should be innovative which makes people feel challenging, so the creators should be willing to take risk.
3. Critics - videogames need critics to criticize its aesthetics properties, an artwork should be criticized by art critics.
2010年11月10日 星期三
2010年11月3日 星期三
Ethics of video games
Film in Class: Gamer Revolution
a) According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?
Pros:
Most people will concern about the violence problem caused by the video games, especially some first-person shooting games. Players are encouraged to choose different kinds of weapons (e.g. a gun or a bomb) and hit or even kill their enemies until they die or destroy their home countries in the games . There is a real case that a young boy brought a gun to school and shot at eight schoolmates' faces and finally found out that the boy played first-person shooter game for 100 hours.
Although the creator of those shooter game is not to promote violence, for example, Uwe Boll, the creator of Postal, said the humor is the biggest attraction of the game, in fact, those teenage players cannot get it, what they pick up from the game is the violent actions and behaviors.
Besides, it may raise the issue of racial discrimination. It is because some of the American video games take Islam as the shooting target or enemies, so players have to kill the Islam which may affect people's perception to Islam in real life.
Cons:
Sometimes, aim of the video game is to teach, it can bring knowledge to player.
Also, in the virtual world of the video game, you are like having a second life, it brings different kind of life experience than your real life and can fulfill your imagination, for example, marriage, sex and having supernatural power.
b) According to the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?
According to the film, it suggests that digital games do encourage aggressive values and anti social actions in the real world, digital games can affect players' personalities in the real life.
For example, the first person shooter game, players have to use a weapon to shoot other people until they die, video games use violence as a mean to get promoted, players become a killing machine. A game called "Postal" get banned in 30 countries as it is too violent. Through the laboratory experiment, by testing the brain activity, it shows that first person shooter game can produce aggressive impulsion in the players' brain. Video games like these will suggest aggressive behavior of the players on their lives, it can produce aggressive feeling, aggressive effects and thinking on the players, so they may act aggressively.
Some people think that video games suggest problem of discrimination. For example, discriminating people from Middle East, because a lot of video games use Middle East people as a bad role in the game, so players have to shoot at Middle East people.
I agree with it, especially teenagers is a great target of video games, and they are not mature enough to behave themselves and classify what they should learn from and what they shouldn't. Therefore, they will be influenced by video games easily.
c) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?
I think governments should have the right to ban certain games, because it can stop teenagers learning violent or immoral behavior from video games.
However, I know it is hard to implement that, because who is able to define which video games are those "certain" games? How do governments define and classify games that have negative impacts on people? Besides, to affect one's behavior is a long term issue in which the consequence does't immediately emerge, so how do we justify the impact of that game?
a) According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?
Pros:
Most people will concern about the violence problem caused by the video games, especially some first-person shooting games. Players are encouraged to choose different kinds of weapons (e.g. a gun or a bomb) and hit or even kill their enemies until they die or destroy their home countries in the games . There is a real case that a young boy brought a gun to school and shot at eight schoolmates' faces and finally found out that the boy played first-person shooter game for 100 hours.
Although the creator of those shooter game is not to promote violence, for example, Uwe Boll, the creator of Postal, said the humor is the biggest attraction of the game, in fact, those teenage players cannot get it, what they pick up from the game is the violent actions and behaviors.
Besides, it may raise the issue of racial discrimination. It is because some of the American video games take Islam as the shooting target or enemies, so players have to kill the Islam which may affect people's perception to Islam in real life.
Cons:
Sometimes, aim of the video game is to teach, it can bring knowledge to player.
Also, in the virtual world of the video game, you are like having a second life, it brings different kind of life experience than your real life and can fulfill your imagination, for example, marriage, sex and having supernatural power.
b) According to the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?
According to the film, it suggests that digital games do encourage aggressive values and anti social actions in the real world, digital games can affect players' personalities in the real life.
For example, the first person shooter game, players have to use a weapon to shoot other people until they die, video games use violence as a mean to get promoted, players become a killing machine. A game called "Postal" get banned in 30 countries as it is too violent. Through the laboratory experiment, by testing the brain activity, it shows that first person shooter game can produce aggressive impulsion in the players' brain. Video games like these will suggest aggressive behavior of the players on their lives, it can produce aggressive feeling, aggressive effects and thinking on the players, so they may act aggressively.
Some people think that video games suggest problem of discrimination. For example, discriminating people from Middle East, because a lot of video games use Middle East people as a bad role in the game, so players have to shoot at Middle East people.
I agree with it, especially teenagers is a great target of video games, and they are not mature enough to behave themselves and classify what they should learn from and what they shouldn't. Therefore, they will be influenced by video games easily.
c) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?
I think governments should have the right to ban certain games, because it can stop teenagers learning violent or immoral behavior from video games.
However, I know it is hard to implement that, because who is able to define which video games are those "certain" games? How do governments define and classify games that have negative impacts on people? Besides, to affect one's behavior is a long term issue in which the consequence does't immediately emerge, so how do we justify the impact of that game?
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