Gameplay Journal #1 — Technicity
I will admit the reading this week was kind of a lot, most parts were harder to understand than others. I found myself rereading pages over and over again because the jargon and writing style was not making a lot of sense to me. Nonetheless, to my understanding technicity was presented as the interconnectedness of identity and technological competence. This meant that someone was basing their self worth or other’s worth off of how well they interact with different forms of technology. This technology can be anything from can openers, drills, computers, cars, video games, etc.
I know that my feeling is boosted whenever I get compliments on how I am interacting with video games. For example, my dad just recently purchased a VR to play on PlayStation. Me being the gamer/nerd of the family, instantly sprung to it and set it up for my dad. After setting it up, and everyone else having a turn, it was finally my time to test it out. “You are so good at games.” my sister said as I effortlessly passed the obstacles that stumped my family. I cracked a smile and felt pride.
As far as technicity for The Last of Us (TLOU) series, the game conditions the player to be wary and attentive of the actions they take. At the start of the game, you have limited weapons, low health, and are pretty lightweight when it comes to battles. Their are many ways to go about the situation, but at first what makes most sense is to sneak past enemies or deal with them stealthily. As you progress and get more confident, you can run in areas guns-a-blazing. TLOU is set in a post-apocalptic world where enemies are everywhere but supplies are not. If you take the time to explore the limited open-world area they give you, you might find supplies hidden away that you would not have otherwise run into if you just progress through the area. I want to compare the aspects of TLOU to the gestalt theory. The narrative is great, mostly indifferent at first but as the game progressess I found myself getting more attached and worried about the characters. The gun play and fighting is amazing, very nerve racking in trying to hit a shot with sway and recoil or meleeing and enemy or trying to evade attacks. The sound design is exceptional, from mood setting music to eerie and disturbing sounds coming from enemies. These things seperated are good enough on their own, but together they produced an exceptional game.
Below is a gameplay video I recorded for the purposes of this assignment. I got kind of carried away and into the game, as it is about 30 minutes long. However, the things I mentioned in the video I have written in this post. My gameplay is the beginning of the Left Behind DLC so there is no fighting unfortunately, but I still discussed the mechanics and systems the game offered and how it affects gameplay.
Dovey, Jon, and Helen W. Kennedy. Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media. Open Univ. Press, 2011.