ybaport19

[ybaport19]

The post cold war world as told by a game from the 90′s

By going through the internet a person can easily find the whatever it is that comes to their interest. The internet can become a source anything that has been digitized from books, games, movies, etc. Old games are now easily attainable with no cost due to people actually sharing their copies online for future use and this has led to even preserving the games despite dwindling number of physical copies. Old dos games became a kind of hobby of mine after discovering them while looking for simulation games on the internet. Simulation games have been popular in the last few decades due to how they try to represent the real world and how they give their player’s a chance to live in a world where they are free to be anyone they want. A popular sub genre from this genre are geo political simulators wherein players are able to take charge of a country from its economy, its society, and its military. To expound on this the game Shadow President will give us an insight to how a video game can easily politicize itself into promoting certain ideas among its players. The idea being satirized in this game would be the United States Foreign policy due to how the country can be considered as the world’s only super power after the fall of the soviet union. As the president of the US the player becomes the most powerful person in the world and could now also bring it to its knees if he/she wishes to do so.

Shadow President is a geo political simulation game from the early 90’s and the game puts its players into the role of the president of the United States of America during the end of the cold war and the start of operation desert storm. The game has been said to incorporate cyber punk and dark science fiction into its gameplay. The main goal of the game is to stay in power as elections happen every four years which bases a win through the approval rating that the player has. The player controls everything from the country’s economy to its military with the help of a few advisors. After a short tutorial, Shadow President then leaves the player on their own to decide how they will remain in power and also how they will lead the world in the coming years. With no real goal in the game, the player then becomes free to turn the world into whatever they want it be.

Playing through the game even with its original setting of the heated political landscape of the early 90’s the in game world can easily return the “cold peace” of the world’s peace level to the “cold war” that it just got out of. Another aspect of the game is how wars in the game are unavoidable and require the player to act in order to not lose their approval rating. With both the military and the economy in the player’s hands it becomes clear that the game puts you in a place where you can make the early 90’s better for the world or even worse for it. As a simulation the game represents the real world and simply gives you in a role where you can make change with the help of either your economic policies, diplomatic actions, military actions, etc.

I personally played this game and did an expansionary approach during my term as the president and proceeded to invade an oil rich South American country while surgically destroying Iraq to keep public opinion high which also prevented desert storm from occurring due to. Lowering corporate taxation for increased growth was another strategy that I used to keep the people who care about the economy at bay and also increase my approval rating. These actions easily led to my worldwide conquest to spread capitalism in 3rd world dictatorships around the globe. By 1993 I used the bad political situation in Russia as a chance to finally invade it with US troops stationed in the recently US occupied china. This lasted to a twelve day fire fight which led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in both the military and the civilian population even without the exchange of nuclear weapons. Within just three years I conquered a quarter of the world with the US military arsenal and easily bought capitalism and democracy to the corners of the globe that used to belong to human rights violating administrations.

Playing the game easily gives the idea that the United States can be considered as a rogue state because of its strength and diplomatic ties. The game, as seen in my play through, gave me a world where I was free to do whatever I want hence also giving the idea that the US was unstoppable after the fall of the berlin wall. Whether the world becomes a peaceful utopia wherein every world government has settled their differences or a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland dystopia where we see the human race struggling in the nuclear fallout with the continuing advancement of technology, the world’s fate is up to how the player interacts with the different countries in the game and dealing with their ideological and economical differences.

Aside from the geo political nature of the game, the game can also be seen as a form of satire due to its depiction of a political landscape in a way that is easy to understand. Although it doesn’t tackle other important aspects of geopolitics and warfare such as logistics, resources, complex ideological shifts, etc. the game gives a dark and somewhat comic take on the political landscape of the world due to how it uses colorful graphs and 8 bit representations of the different countries in the world. Even though most of the game consists of numbers such as Quality of life, spending per soldier, average personal income, etc. the game leaves it up to the players’ imagination to visualize the things happening in the game. Just like a book, promoting ideas during the non-digital age, the game has become something that can be interpreted by its users whether as a form of entertainment or as a commentary of the political situation in our world. Getting this game from a website of people contributing to the preservation of old video games can be seen as a kind of effort by a community of people in preserving these games. Even without the intent of going political or cultural, websites like these preserve pieces of entertainment from a bygone era and in turn saving representations of society or even culture from the past.

 Sources:

https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=1516&letter=S http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/ShadowPresident http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Intro_RogueState.html

[ybaport19]

Digital Identity

I don’t really have a large digital footprint as most of my online identity shown in social media is from my likes and interests. From memes in Facebook to car videos on Youtube I don’t really have an active social media account which I use to post pictures or even share links. Much of who I am online however is better represented in the games that I play. Although much of the things that I do in online games are things that I won’t really do in reality it allows me to play roles or activities that I can’t do in reality.

Social media for me is something that I need to have in order to relate and contact my friends. My account in a way represents me as a person due to how I am kind of a shy person who doesn’t really share anything. I am the kind of person who only likes posts made by other people rather than being the one posting. I don’t really hide much of my interests and simply looking at my liked pages says a lot about me as a person. However I do have a twitter account that used to be active and it represented me as an entirely different person. My twitter account was made for me by my friends as a joke and it had a certain persona when it came to tweeting. Here I am not the thin and non-active lifestyle kind of person but I do become an egocentric fitness enthusiast tweeting about eating my own bed before sleeping to maximize my gainz. This identity is far from who I really am and it just shows how one can completely invent a new identity online.

My videogames however show a different story. There are some games that don’t really show much aside from ratios and stats in general, some of my games however show a relation between how I play and how I am in real life. My grand theft auto online character for example, although it doesn’t really resemble me, buys things or own things that I actually want in real life. Whether it’s the game’s equivalent of a Maybach or a stilt house in the hills, my in game avatar has the same tastes as I do due to the fact that I am the one controlling it. Even though I won’t do the crimes I do in the game in real life my buying patterns show a lot about me and my taste in cars, homes, clothes, etc.

Although these are only some of my identities in cyberspace, they say a lot about me as a person. . I only have a few social media accounts as mentioned above and I can’t really go into the games because I play a lot of them. More or less my game identities are made differently but they do conform to my play style which differ per game. Whether I am compensating for things that I can’t do in real life or simply putting my real self into the online world, my online identity is something that represents my interests and hobbies even though I don’t have an active digital presence in terms of posting.

[ybaport19]

Identity and the AK-47

The AK47 one of the most popular guns in the world with nearly every bad guy in video games, movies, world history, etc. To explore the idea of how media has made this the weapon as a symbol for the evil that exists in the world an analysis of its origin in the real world in contrast to its depiction in media both new and old. The gun has also been available for use in several video games and it has even gained a cult following among its users from video games like Counterstrike to Metal Gear Solid. Video games being a virtual place where people can interact with each other with manifestations of themselves online, which in this case are soldiers in shooting games, the AK has also become a popular weapon. The way media has depicted the AK has led to its popularity as a weapon in video games and to analyze this we will look at the origin, the depiction, and the significance of the AK and its identity.

First we look at the history of the AK. First conceived in the soviet union during the end of the second world war, this weapon has become the staple of the USSR and its allies during the cold war. This has led to the wide spread of the AK during this time and has been featured as the main weapon of armed groups and governments that are considered enemies of the west. The weapons popularity also comes from the simplicity of the weapon and has proven to be reliable in any warzone its cheap price and availability eventually led to its popularity as a weapon for rebel groups and 3rd world armies. The gun has even proven to be more successful than its western counterpart which was the m16 due to its price and its reliability.

The AK has been depicted in different forms of media throughout its existence. Whether as a symbol for the struggle of a country and even as a weapon of choice for child soldiers. In Old media the AK can be seen as a weapon used by the kind of people who are willing to inflict harm. From news reports of violent uprisings showing the AK as a weapon for the bad guys. Even movies show it as a weapon for its villains such as the soviets in the movie Red Dawn and the Somalian militia in Blackhawk down. The depiction of the AK has always been for the bad due to how most of the world was made to believe that it was for doing evil deeds. As the main weapon of the communists during the cold war much of the democratic world was made to fear and even associate this weapon with evil. But despite all of this the other side of the world knows the AK as a kind of liberator from their struggles. A weapon that liberates rather than a weapon that oppresses to the people actually used them. Mozambique for example has integrated the AK into their national Flag as symbol for overcoming struggle. In the modern world, aside from still being depicted as a weapon for the evil doers of the world the AK has now come into the digital world by its depiction in videogames. For the first time in world history people simply sitting in the comforts of their home now have access to an AK in the virtual realm. Several video games feature the AK and it has become so popular that it has almost become synonymous with the word assault rifle. With new media people now see the AK as one of the best Assault rifles in the world whether in the digital or the real world due to its depiction as a powerful weapon. Even though its popularity as one of the best assault rifles in the world has existed even before the digital age now it is more spread with people all over the world knowing about its existence and popular culture has cemented it as a modern day icon.

The significance of the AK47 is shown in its role in human history and the conflicts it has played a role in. Now the AK has become an icon in several fields whether its politics, video games, warfare, etc. The weapon can now be seen as a tool that is as significant as the hammer or even the automobile due to how it has led revolutions throughout its lifetime. With the history and depiction of the AK we can see how it has developed an identity which adheres to oppression but now its depictions and availability has simply turned it into a weapon of war which is praised due to how it has helped groups of people in attaining their freedom.

After discussing the history, the depictions, and the significance of the AK we can now see its role as something that creates an identity and how it makes its users succumb to it. Now to discuss its use in video games we will look at how games have depicted the AK. As mentioned earlier games have given the AK its popularity outside the warzone and now the question is do these depictions in games still adhere to the original connotations for the AK as the weapon for the evil in the world? Even though it is still depicted as something held by certain racial stereotypes such as Russian ultranationalists or Arabian rebels the AK now exists in a realm where race no longer matters. Now it is common to see in a game a depiction of an American soldier holding an AK because in games race no longer matters due to how everything done in a game is done by an avatar of a person rather than the person him/herself and how the AK has seemingly losses its history as a staple weapon of armed groups against the west. In games the killings are no longer real and playability is all that a player is looking for and it doesn’t matter whether the person adheres to the original connotation for the users of the AK. The AK is popular in games because it is good at what it does and players no longer care about its blood stained history or whether they have to adhere to certain values because their in-game selves are different from their real selves.

 Sources:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/collection/assault-rifles-best-and-baddest/

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CoolGuns/AssaultRifles

https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/01/economist-explains-4

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130493013

http://www.mozambique.co.za/About_Mozambique-travel/mozambique-flag.html

[ybaport19]

Games & Politics

Video games & Politics are now two seemingly far off topics that can be put together as video games can give its users interactivity that books, film, etc. can’t offer. As a medium for political commentary video games can simulate the instability of our world and put us into the shoes of the people who take part in this chaos. 

The exhibit had several games that had political themes from both small developers and larger ones. Although I was only able to go to an exhibit of this topic due to my schedule, I was able to learn a lot from actually playing the games that were in it. Two games were able to grab my attention and these were Killbox, and Paper’s Please. 

Killbox was a two player game that takes place in what is supposed to be a farm in an undisclosed war zone. One player played as a drone operator and another as a blob that somehow represents civilians. Its not the first time I’ve played a game that involves drones but its probably the first that showed civilians at the other end of the rockets at my disposal. I grew up during the golden age of call of duty and drone strikes like these were incentives for consecutive kills. I remember thinking of drone strikes as something that I actually look forward to because of the fancy way it was depicted in the game. This game did offer that cool technology except this time the people you are going to be firing at won’t have the capability of striking you back. Killbox provides a critique on the glorification of war in video games and on the failure of drones in depicting friend or foe. Unlike other games that feature this kind of warfare Killbox shows the darker side of it this time there are no red squares showing the enemy and only a single marked target. All of this coupled with the seemingly invisible moving and innocent living blobs that are going to take part in the carnage that is about to take place with a single click.

Paper’s Please is another game where in you play as a border guard in a possible eastern block country. The game gives the player a perspective of a border guard in an unstable part of the world where poverty is common along with the terrorist attacks. The player’s task isn’t only to decide who gets in the country or not but also to survive in the country despite living below the poverty line. It isn’t the first time i’ve played this game and I remember my first play through wherein I lost my job, and the game, due to death of my in game son which was a result of my poor spending on household heating. The game gives us a perspective of living in a poor country and being a border guard who has to make moral decisions every single day. These moral decisions are the core of the game and makes the game the political game that it is.

There are a lot of other games featured in this exhibit but these were the only ones I had the time to play. Other games featured other important topics such as gender, news censorship, surveillance, etc. Just like other forms of media Video games have the capacity to connect us with the various issues around the world hence making them a new medium for political ideas in our age.

Sources 

https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/16/killbox-drone-warfare-game-indiecade/

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/12/papers-please-review

[ybaport19]

Mediated Culture

Mediated culture can be understood as something that shapes modern culture and it can be argued that the computer is one of the best ways to experience this. In our world today media can be seen as a propellant for the creation and spread of culture with this we can assume it can shape the societies that we live in.

The characteristics of new media in our world today enable us to have a two-way relationship when it comes to spreading information and through this we can say that our society is more connected in creating views and ideas. The decentralized model of the spread of information can be seen as one of the main advantages of new media as it engages people in critical thinking and not simply taking information as it is.

One of the main tools in the digital age would be the computer and how this allows us to communicate with each other with ease. Advances in communication would be further amplified by the internet as it makes gives people a fluid dynamic when it comes to promoting ideas or spreading information even more than what man has achieved before the digital age. Computers have given us an efficient way of information dissemination since anyone can easily have an access to it. 

The culture created by the rise of computers and the internet would be the promotion of creating ones own ideas. In our age everyone could be on the same playing field when it comes to spreading information whether truthful or false. Aside from this people could now easily respond to ideas made by other people hence making the digital world a more interactive one as opposed to the past. People have become more interconnected in our age due to how a computer is accessible to anyone and the way it has advanced communication to a level that has the potential of encouraging free thought. Free thought can be seen as something bought by the increased engagement given by the internet which also encourages critical thinking in individuals.

Despite all the benefits of the rise of computers in our age there are also some disadvantages. As mentioned earlier the computer can also be used for spreading false information. Another thing that can be noted as a disadvantage would be how the things that we say can easily be viewed by other people and this could be seen as a huge disadvantage in terms of privacy. Another disadvantage would be the lack of actual human interaction as communication with the use of the computer doesn’t require physical interaction and this could lead to misunderstandings

I think that the rise of the computer and its role in mediated culture is a good thing. With the cheapening of computers almost everyone now has a chance in taking part in a culture that promotes the spread of information and ideas. Personally the creation of this culture has allowed me to become more in tune to what is happening in the world and it gives me the power to have my own opinions to any major event wherever and whenever it happens.  

Sources:

https://marketography.com/2010/11/23/a-mediated-culture/

http://www.newmedia.org/what-is-new-media.html

https://www.soic.indiana.edu/news/story.html?story=Interaction-Convergent-Media-Computer-Mediated-Communication-CMCMC

https://newtechnocomm.wordpress.com/2016/03/05/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-computer-mediated-communication-in-the-context-of-unimas-students-and-staff/

[ybaport19]

3D printing

3D printing can be seen as a new way of creating objects as it makes the creation of nearly anything simpler with the use of a computer program. This can be seen as something that makes the task of constructing or creating things a lot easier and possibly even more precise. Efficiency can also be another benefit given by 3D printers as it makes tasks easier and the time required to construct  the things that require more precision would be greatly lessened.

Several industries have begun to use 3D printing as it makes labor a lot easier. With the advancement of technology 3D printing can reduce the amount of work needed to create something be it a model of a house, car parts, etc. The variety of industries that can use 3D printing shows how people can actually use this as the tool that can reduce the time consuming and even energy consuming work of industries that require a lot of manual labor. Art is also another field whether in 3D printing can be used as it can make sculptures that may be hard to create with conventional means. Although this may remove the more artisanal value to sculptures there are things that the 3D printer is capable of doing that are better than man’s capabilities. 

Societal impacts of this could possibly lead to the decrease in demand for manual labor jobs and an increase in more tech based jobs. This brings us to the idea of how technology is once again taking over a job that can easily done by a human. Despite this people can still be trained on how to use this technology and eventually integrating it into whatever industry it is that they are working in. The use of 3D printers would also make work more efficient as it can easily make the things whatever they may be. Future occupations that might use 3D printers would need maintenance technicians, programmers, and the like. 3D printing would also have some ethical issues and these could lead to the detriment of our society rather than benefit it. This technology has the capability of producing nearly anything once given the capability to create it also that means weapons can also be created. Aside from this issues on environmental impact also come in as this technology dependent on plastics.

Integrating 3D printing in our society could basically mean us as people leaving the strenuous jobs for the machines. People have been doing this for a long time and 3D printing could simply be a step forward as it makes work easier in different industries. In the end we can see understand that 3D printing is still a tool and it will still require a controller. The one thing that 3D printers have is the capability of creation and it can simply be seen as a way of transforming our ideas into reality. Despite removing the manual labor 3D printers will still require the creativity and ingenuity of humans hence not making human work input obsolete.

Sources:

https://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/29/3d-printing-limbs-cars-selfies

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/31/building-by-numbers-how-3d-printing-is-shaking-up-the-construction-industry

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-dark-side-of-3d-printing-10-things-to-watch/