tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post114017787928353022..comments2024-03-28T05:12:10.477-07:00Comments on Gone Gaming: Big Head of Pointless Steam*Coldfoothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11636345146138362966noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140573863858405502006-02-21T18:04:00.000-08:002006-02-21T18:04:00.000-08:00Melissa and rinelk have the right idea with their ...Melissa and rinelk have the right idea with their definitions of game literacy. I read that thread on BGG and believe the poster was talking about the ability of people to learn how to play games.<BR/><BR/>Learning how to play games is a skill that many people learn at childhood, then forget. You have to use gateway games with simple rules (TransAmerica, Bohnanza, etc.) to reteach them how to play -- and even then some of them have a tough time learning.<BR/><BR/>Someone else mentioned computer literacy as a parallel; another possibility is comic literacy. This doesn't mean debating whether Sandman will be read in high schools in the 22nd century; this means knowing how to read a comic. Folks who don't read newspaper comics -- and even some who do -- have a real tough time reading comic books because they don't understand the process. Left to right and top to bottom doesn't always work, especially in Chris Ware comics, and they get very frustrated.<BR/><BR/>The same can be said for learning the rules to a game. My job as a game evangelist is to find the tools needed to reach this people and convert them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140238424342716092006-02-17T20:53:00.000-08:002006-02-17T20:53:00.000-08:00The literacy-literature connection is not one I ex...The literacy-literature connection is not one I expect the original author of the claim in question intended. "Literacy", as some of the other comments suggest, is used in a broad sense to mean something like the ability to understand what's going on in a particular domain. In the written word, being really literate means not only having the ability to identify words, but also being able to understand the relationships between the parts in a way that makes the writing intelligible. <BR/><BR/>This way of using "literacy" is easy to extrapolate to other systems, perhaps most famously modern computing. Most of us can easily understand the phrase "computer literate" without having it explained. That's what I'd try to keep in mind when understanding the idea of gaming literacy, rather than literacy in the written word. James Paul Gee has a book out, <I>What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy</I> which uses the word in this way. <BR/><BR/>So the author's original claim, as I understand it, really boils down to the claim that there is a rich conceptual vocabulary to gaming, and that knowing how to recognize and use those concepts is a complex skill whose acquisition makes it much easier to think about and act with purpose in the world of games.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140238075575027872006-02-17T20:47:00.000-08:002006-02-17T20:47:00.000-08:00Every generation deems their popular writers to be...<I>Every generation deems their popular writers to be bards. Not only will few of those popular writers be remembered 50 years hence, but the greatest writers of the generation are often not discovered until after their death. Dickinson and Melville spring to mind.</I><BR/><BR/>Asimov is still running strong, and I rather suspect Gaiman will be remembered for a long time. We have entered the information age, and I think nowadays people who are going to be discovered are probably going to be discovered relatively quickly (and before they're dead, unless they never publish anything).<BR/><BR/>I think without the 'net, Gaiman probably would have ended up on the road to post-humous glory. <I>American Gods</I> pretty much qualifies straight up as a classic just from looking at the style, art, set-up, and interplay of themes. And I don't say this just because I like Gaiman or the book.<BR/><BR/>Tolkien was that way, too. And many lit critics turn their nose up at the idea of Tolkien being a classic---even though Lord of the Rings is so strong and well-remembered by the general population. Only got stronger with the movies, and people will remember it and read it much more than they will ever do for Melville.<BR/><BR/>Altogether, we are all a lot more connected in the 20th century and definitely the 21st century, than we were in the 18th or 19th.<BR/><BR/>(And yes, I do like <I>Moby Dick</I>, although the chapter rather early on about the biological nature of whales is, in the eyes of modern times, almost completely inaccurate. It is not a book I would read again, though. On the other hand, certain Shakespearean plays, which usually only come to life for most people on the stage, I simply like to read....)Ava Jarvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01777180628319261015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140218996474350932006-02-17T15:29:00.000-08:002006-02-17T15:29:00.000-08:00I am just glad to know that there are other gamer ...I am just glad to know that there are other gamer snobs out there. Good post.<BR/>And, I pose the argument that what is or isn't literature, or a literature-grade game, is based wholly on perspective. <BR/>So, we on this site can decide that Struggle of Empires is literature-grade, and it will be so.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140215763773559482006-02-17T14:36:00.000-08:002006-02-17T14:36:00.000-08:00Coldfoot, on a very basic level I think that there...Coldfoot, on a very basic level I think that there is definitely something that could be called 'game literacy' - which is simply an understanding of the mechanics of a game. I see it particularly playing with kids, but also with some adults, where they really seem to be unfamiliar with the basic and fundamental building blocks of gameplay - taking turns, knowing that you don't count the space you're on if you're moving forward 5 spaces - generally, understanding the way that a game works. (And if you think game literacy is a ludicrous term for this type of concept, how about metagame awareness - to borrow a term (metalinguistic awareness) from another field). There are some people who understand how games are played, and there are others who don't, or who need a lot of help. I'd back my Biggie to understand a ruleset ahead of a lot of adults & teenagers I know - she won't beat a group of gamers, but she'll understand the rules and mechanics ahead of a lot of people.<BR/><BR/>That's not to say that one type of gamer/person is more intelligent/valuable to society than another, just that there are certain basic foundation blocks of gaming (gameracy?) that are required before one can play games or progress to anything beyond the games already being played.<BR/><BR/>There probably are some further foundation stones in understanding and playing EuroGames; we can quibble about terminology, and take ourselves far too seriously in the process.Melissahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12731608339380263848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140200324571986752006-02-17T10:18:00.000-08:002006-02-17T10:18:00.000-08:00Maybe some people can "acquire a taste" for the fi...Maybe some people can "acquire a taste" for the finer games, but that wasn't the case with me. I had all but stopped playing games until I found BGG. Then suddenly I stumbled onto medium-heavy euros and they just clicked. They filled the void that I had all along, like taking a huge pull on a bottle of Dom Perignon 1990 and going AHHHHHHHH, then wiping my mouth with my sleeve.ektedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02200891099572736360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140193023868351022006-02-17T08:17:00.000-08:002006-02-17T08:17:00.000-08:00Every generation deems their popular writers to be...Every generation deems their popular writers to be bards. Not only will few of those popular writers be remembered 50 years hence, but the greatest writers of the generation are often not discovered until after their death. Dickinson and Melville spring to mind.Coldfoothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11636345146138362966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140192311940176252006-02-17T08:05:00.000-08:002006-02-17T08:05:00.000-08:00Deary, deary, deary me.What's literature and what ...Deary, deary, deary me.<BR/><BR/>What's literature and what ain't is a long and debated topic even just in the realm of books, where you can either be incredibly conservative (scorning, say, books you believe to have been written as nothing but "romances"---and that would include <I>Pride and Prejudice</I> and <I>Tale of Genji</I>) to very liberal (incorporating more recent writings by greats such Isaac Asimov, Neil Gaiman, even Alan Moore).<BR/><BR/>And then... there is the discussion as to whether certain media should be completely and entirely <I>banned</I> from ever being considered works of art---like movies, comics, basically anything with a visual element. One award, after a comic book won it (Sandman by Neil Gaiman in particular) decided to ban all comic books from ever winning that award.<BR/><BR/>Because they couldn't POSSIBLY be literature.<BR/><BR/>It is rather like watching religous arguments, or heated flamewars about (Unix) editors.<BR/><BR/>What is and isn't literature is not a settled question anywhere. It's like whether something is art or not---you would think movies and comic books would qualify, but not to some.<BR/><BR/>If an author explores themes and character motives as deeply as Faulkner ever did---but he did it as fantasy, and with humor---why is he not also literature?<BR/><BR/>Basically, I think the whole classification of literature just stinks with prejudice.Ava Jarvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01777180628319261015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-1140190018780346442006-02-17T07:26:00.000-08:002006-02-17T07:26:00.000-08:00Not picking on Koldfoot specifically, but why do p...Not picking on Koldfoot specifically, but why do people not consider popular fiction to be literature? Where is it written that true literature must be hard to read and/or over fifty years old?<BR/>I like the analogies to wine/beer and literature with games though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com