NET12 Topic 1.4: Games: At Work, No One Knows I am a Wizard.

Q: Discuss in the tutorial your personal experience of games. It may be difficult to give a really full account, but try to remember the games you played as a child on the street, in your home. Include all sorts of games (e.g. cards, tic tac toe, hopscotch). Were there people that you tended to play with? What about nowadays, what type of game player would you classify yourself? An enthusiast, casual or occasional gamer? Why do you play games, if you do, and what part do they play in your daily life?

One of my earliest memories of group games was 'Catch and Kiss'! In kindergarten we played this nearly every day. There were few or no rules; you chased, you caught, and if you were then brave enough, you planted a quick peck on your captive's cheek. This was a fairly non-exclusive group. Any kindy kids could play. The next couple of years of school saw the evolution of role-playing games such as 'Baddies and Goodies'. The complicated system of rules eludes my memory today but I remember that the blance of power was always shifting, I related each day's play in great detail to my family each night (probably to their dismay), and once you had been inducted into one of the groups (Baddies vs Goodies) you could never change. Again, most kids were invited to play. Physical games we played in the playgroung tended to change as fads swept the school; such as Elastics (which seemed to be a girls-only game), where two people stand at either end of a large loop of elastic, holding it taut, while a third jumped in and out of the loop trying not to trip; marbles; British Bulldog (or bullrush) where you ran as fast as you could across the playground while the person who was 'It' tried to tip you. These games were a fun way to burn off energy at lunchtime and socialise with the other kids in your year mostly. The older I got, the smaller the group of kids I played with got. As we developed 'groups' of friends, you tended to play only when them, I suppose this strengthened our social ties and solidified our friendships.

As I grew up I was often given board games as gifts, which I played at home with my parents or with close friends when they came to my house. These included Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble. From an early age I was also instinctively drawn to any type of electronic, and then computer, games. I owned an Atari, on which simple graphical platform games were the go. I can't remember the order that I owned and played them, but I remember loving Frogger and Pitfall. I've got them now on a retro collection for my PSP. At the age of five I was given a Commodore 64. It used tapes and I remember spending many happy hours playing Summer and Winter Olympics. My dad and I played some sort of simple car racing game together. Computer gaming was something I predominately did by myself though.

As a teenager I discovered SimCity. This was perhaps my favourite game of all. I believe iscovering simulation-based games cemented my future as a gamer. I played this constantly for a few years, fascinated by the way that it all interacted. I also loved role-playing games like Kings Quest & the hilarious Leisure Suit Larry (though perhaps I was a little young to be playing that one!). A similar game now would be Myst. The graphics were gorgeous and I was fascinated by the multi-dimensional world that you could explore. This was a very solitary pursuit; I do remember not really telling many people that I was into computer gaming because it was seen as geeky and I didn't know any other girls who did it.

Getting into sport distracted me for a few years and there was a 3 or 4 year hiatus where I didn't play much at all, living and travelling around Australia and the world riding horses and often not having a computer or gaming console. In my early twenties (7 or 8 years ago) I bought a Playstation and rediscovered gaming as a hobby (Gran Turismo was one six-month obsession). These were played at home with a couple of friends, housemates or by myself. Over the last few years I have continued gaming on a Playstation, the Wii and tried to get into Second Life. I loved the concept of Second Life, going back I suppose to the old fascination with multi-dimensional worlds to explore, and with the addition of other players to interact with. I didn't really spend enough time playing to develop a group of friends within the game though. Asynchronous games like Scrabulous suit my lifestyle at present; I don't really have a lot of spare time to devote to gaming now with work and study commitments. I play the odd game on my iPhone (Peggle, Bejewelled, Scramble) and occasionally social applications like Farmville and Bejewelled Blitz. You can pick them up and put them down, they are a distraction that you can play for a few moments before getting back to study or work. In my house we have a Nintendo Wii, which I usually only play with other people. Tennis, snowboarding and Mario Kart are current favourites.

I'd call myself a casual gamer. With more time on my hands I think I could easily become more heavily into lots of games! I have tended to keep away from Second Life, WoW & other MMORPG's because I feel like I could become addicted, and I would feel guilty that I was not spending more time in pursuits that 'achieve' something!

What are the implications of the rise of casual and social games for online gaming and everyday life?

I think social gaming and the readily available casual games like Bejewelled are getting more people into the pastime and there is a type of game to suit everyone's personality and the amount of spare time he or she has. It's becoming more accessible to everyone. With the rise in popularity of social networking, people can see what games others play and this can act as a recommendation to try a particular game. I discovered Bejewelled through seeing an update on a friend's Facebook page. Like Hyatt, I believe casual and social gaming is changing society's perception of computer gaming from a geek pursuit into something more mainstream and acceptable.

Is it fair to say online gaming is more a part of everyday life in Korea than, say, Australia? Discuss reasons for the unique aspects of Korea's gaming. Classify the reasons presented by others in both the comments and the blogs, e.g. technological infrastructure, cultural, etc.

Certainly from Brooks' article it appears gaming is widely and publicly accepted in Korea. The stadium-gaming style one-on-one match complete with commentator and crowd of spectators is unlike anything I have ever heard of in Australia. Big Al's comment about young Korean couples often living with their parents, therefore not having the home environment to hang out in and to use for gaming, is interesting though because if the gaming was being carried out in private then perhaps it would not have been so widely adopted and accepted. I believe that the more mainstream an activity such as gaming becomes, automatically the more acceptable and 'everyday' it becomes. It's almost a 'chicken and the egg' scenario. Certainly if gaming is more public, then even to those who don't participate themselves it is still an entertainment option that they are seeing around them (in the PC Bangs and on the street) so it must seem an 'everyday' activity. In Australia, you don't see groups of people in shopfronts everywhere playing WoW. Unless you pay attention to online trends or are interested in gaming you could be forgiven for not even knowing it exists. It would certainly not be considered 'everyday' to my parents.