ON DIGITAL GAMING

The online discussions of Week 8 in ICM501 DE revealed that the majority of participating students have been passionately involved with video gaming since their childhood. Many students, both male and female, are involved with digital and video gaming. The idea of listing games played during our lifetime elicited a plethora of excited response in the discussion. Only a few students (including myself) have a minimal experience with digital and online games. I have played only a few basic online games, such as Solitaire. Prior to this class, I have not read or experienced complex games or digital war games, such as Kuma/War or America’s Army. Reading this week’s articles and discussions has changed my outlook.

America’s Army and Kuma\War Games: Kuma\War is a digital game with a video game format that has been segmented into episodes. The episodes are based on current world events and conflicts that are obtained from news, Department of Defense records and military experts. In Kuma\War, a player has a mission and receives background information from experts, soldiers and real wartime participants. Most episodes are based on the war in Iraq. However, some episodes are in Afghanistan, South Korea, Iran and Sierra Leone. A controversial aspect of the Kuma\War game is that episodic battles are re-created and published on the Internet only days or weeks after their occurrence. Sensitivity to society is expressed in the following statement from Kuma Reality Games:
“At Kuma, we are very sensitive and respectful of American and coalition soldiers and the sacrifices they are making every day. We hope that by telling their stories with such a powerful medium that we enable the American public to gain a better appreciation of the conflicts and the dangers they face.�

The Future of Digital Games? It is difficult to clearly foretell the future of digital games. However, the future of an industry can be gleaned from current developments in the field. The expenditures of the United States Army for developing the America’s Army game give a clear indication of the strength and future of the industry. The use of “viral marketing� has actually won the game several prizes at the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo. According to Justin Beck, to improve the army’s recruitment efforts, “United States Congress called for "aggressive, innovative experiments" to find new soldiers, and the Defense Department pulled up recruitment budgets to $2.2 billion a year.� The game is categorized as an advergame, but Beck considers that the term should actually be “propagame,� due to the biased nature of the game. There may be many more “propagames� in the future.
DiGRA is an association for academics and professionals for research of digital games and associated concerns. The association hosts luminaries, such as Janet Murray, who gave a keynote speech at the June 2005 convention. An abstract for current doctoral research was published by Suellen Adams, of the University of Texas, Austin. She discussed the phenomenon of anonymous persona for players within MMORPGs. Suellen Adams proposed a study of the role of character, avatar and identity. It is a topic for research because avatars can hide the identity of the players who create them. Within the virtual world, peer cultures can reveal a niche aspect of society.
A future use of this study can be surveillance of actions and characters that play virtual games. A sardonic application for the military may be the surveillance of game plays for use as military or covert actions. Data garnered from role-playing can be used to simulate how society will react to current events.
The Effect of Studying Module 8: Although I had not been a “gamer,� my viewpoint has changed as a result of reading about two leading digital “serious games.� Now that I have read about Kuma War, I will try the game because it is based on current events and DOD facts. I intend to use it as a learning tool to increase my understanding and memory world events.