Week 3

There are many kinds of digital games, but some of them are not as satisfied as others. Dr. Spock B (1998, p625) argued that computer games are good to help children to promote eye-hand co-ordination, but they can cause the aggression and violent responses to conflict. The one thing which is greater certainty is “most computer games are a colossal waste of time”. Daily Mail (30 July 2004, p. 8) also rebuked that some of them undermines the moral precepts and domestic rules or discipline in this society. Moral Kombat told us that some games promote the violence behaviours.

The Manhunt is a good example that why they are banned. It caused a boy killed his friend after he played this game. Therefore, it is considered as the moral panic at that time. This is the main reason that why these games were banned.

On the other hand, “rhetoric” is also considered with these evil games. Salen K. and Zimmerman E. (2004, p517) defined it as “a method of discussion or expression that contains underlying values or beliefs, a method that attempts to persuade others that it is correct.” It means the persuasive languages which consider the positive aspect, even there are lots of negative presses. The languages can be crude or subtle to convince others. Moreover, rhetoric can be verbal, written, visual, and behavioural.

Rhetoric can be used to examine rhetoric of representations of games and examine rhetoric within games themselves. We can use it to find out the value of games, and learn many positive things from them. Moreover, it does not mean that we do not necessary to ban the evil games by the rhetoric. Rhetoric is only the way to help us to think about games. If we do not care about the evil games, they need to “kill” or “be killed”.

Game: World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is an online role-playing game which developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is very popular and financial success, being the world’s leading subscription-based MMORPG. On January 11, 2007, Blizzard announced that the subscriber base for World of Warcraft has reached a new milestone, with 8 million players worldwide; there are more than 2 million players in North American, 1.5 million players in Europe, and 3.5 million players in China.

In this game, if players want to do all quests and get everything successful, no one knows how long it will take - maybe one year, maybe two years, or more. It is really waste time. However, it is a very successful game in the world, because it gains lots and lots of profits which we are unable to count easily and there are so many people like it very much. If players want to play it well, they need to train their eye-hand co-ordination. Furthermore, it also includes the group work which can help us to know the solidarity in the teams. Otherwise, different kinds of equipments have different effects for different professions. Players can choose what they want to use as they want. Therefore, players can be more satisfied and successful in this invented world.

References:
1. Salen, Katie and Zimmerman, Eric (2004, p515-534). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, Cambridge, Ma: MIT
2. Dr. Benjaminand Spock, MD. and Stephen J. Parker (1998, p623-629). Dr Spock’s Baby and Child Care, the seventh edition, London: W.H.ALLEN & CO. PLC
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft