Games, Simulations and Society: Midterm Exam
Short Answer Questions
- Give an example of “rapid-fire” technological innovation in a digital medium. How does it resemble and diverge from what Steven Johnson described in the evolution of Twitter?
- Compare and contrast: the printing press and Wikipedia. What type of content does each encourage? How the distribution models differ? Who has the authority in each?
- What is maker culture? How does our current technology simultaneously subvert and encourage DIY production?
- Consider a multiplayer game that leverages user-generated content. To what extent does the designer control the content? The user?
- This could be called the era of distraction. Explain. Do you agree or disagree with the claim that our technology is changing our attentiveness?
Essays
- “In today’s society, everyone is an author and content creator.” Evaluate this statement in relationship to your own experiences. What are the implications of this trend for aesthetic production? How is the games industry responding to and making use of users as content creators? Use specific examples from the readings and works you’ve encountered to justify this claim.
- Independent games have been heralded as a potential salvation for an industry wedded to formulaic production. Consider the examples of independent games we’ve looked at so far. Give an example of independent production in gaming and use it to justify your own definition of “independent” media. How does the production process differ in “indie” work? What are the implications of the indie mindset for the future of gaming?
A good short answer response should be a weighty paragraph, while a good essay response is approximately 2-3 pages in length. Return your midterms to asalter (at) ubalt.edu by Sunday, March 20th at midnight.