Arcades, but no fire.

1. October 1, 2014

2. Today
1) Keeping up with the Gamedashians
2) Discussion: Arcades
3) That Fiske!
4) Group Time: Let’s talk presentations

3. Things to remember:
1) League play tasks are due Friday!
2) Make sure you’re up-to-date on you
weekly gameplay, too (photo bomb,
Avengers, Hearthstone, Card Hunter and
Second Life)
3) Your first analysis paper was due Friday,
too.

4. Moar League:
Do we want to keep playing League for
class, or would you rather we move to
another challenge?

5. ARCADES

7. Video Arcade:
an establishment containing a collection
of video games that can be played by a
customer for a fee.

8. Most arcades forced you to trade your
quarters for tokens– tokens were usually
quarter-like, but had no cash value.

10. Key Elements of The Arcade:

11. 1. Essentially created the video game
audience.

12. 2. Insured game access to those with less
money/means.

13. 3. Was a haven for gamer culture/nerd
culture

14. 4. Pushed innovation in gaming… for a
long time

15. 5. Insured that video games before the
“net” could be social (a requirement for
board and card games)

16. 6. Social learning and distributed
education through community.

17. Jonathan Fiske:
“Video Pleasures”
Fiske comes from the tradition of cultural studies.
Because of that, you will see a focus on people and
actions (and not on technology) in his work. This
piece proposes an interesting concept, though.

18. First… the five objections to video arcades
, from Fiske:
1.Addictive
2.Cause truancy/distract from school
3.Cause petty crime
4.A waste of money
5.Vandalism/Hooliganism

19. Does this list remind you of anything?

20. The same five claims are made in the
1980s in the United States about
recreational drugs as part of the “war on
drugs.”

21. “With the video game machine, the
machinist works not with the machine but
against it– the time his… 25 cents buys is
extended to the degree he can resist,
work against, the machine. The better the
machinist is, the less he pays, and the
lower the profit of the owner.” p. 80

22. WHAT?

23. Fiske went Marxist on you.
He’s saying that the video game
machine=societal control.
So when you drop in a quarter, you buy some
time with the machine. The longer you can
play, the more you’ve taken away from “the
man” having a chance to make money.

24. Take some time with your groups.
I want you to know what you’re going
to present on soon.

25. By the end of class today, I want you to send me:
1)Two potential dates to present
2)Your final topic and anything you need from me
3)One thing your group would like to have covered
in the second half of class.

26. For Friday
Read: virtual worlds stuff II (see schedule)
In class, we will actually look at Second Life.