Digital Games - But Are They Art?

After reading the essay " Will Computer Games Ever Be a Legitimate Art From", I have extract some of the idea from it.


It should not be just a entertainment, digital games surely are used to entertaining the players, however, the entertaining element is not associated with an art. Let's use the example of monopoly, we can be entertain via moving the dice and the little tools to make fun. However, other than the rules of the board game, it does not have other element to classify it as an art.

The arthur Ernest W. Adams has put the digitial games into a grey area which they are one kind of "things" between literary arts and fine arts. And this grey area contains the things of films as well as digital games.

So...To clarify a digital game is an art, it should be have such elements:

It should be an aestheic via cinematography, the editing, the quality of the acting, the quality of the story and it is not barely about the picture quality.

Besides, it should contains idea created by the game makers. The idea is not meaning the interactive element between the game and the player, but the rationale of the whole game- a story. For example, Romance of the Three Kingdom is one of the digital games containing an idea.

Romance of the Three Kingdom based on events that took place in China during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, when the land was divided between the Shu Han, Cao Wei and Eastern Wu kingdoms, as well as various other less-remembered forces. The games draw ideas mainly from the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the more historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms.

players revolve around managing numerical statistics, each representing an attribute of a city or character. For example, a city will have statistics indicating the amount of food stored within its walls, its vulnerability to disasters such as floods and earthquakes, how content the people are with its ruler or governing officer, etc. Characters have statistics to reflect their fighting prowess, intelligence and loyalty towards their respective lords, among other attributes. Players can spend time increasing these numbers before waging war on neighbouring territories or intending diplomatic efforts.



Thus the idea and the rationale why the game produced and how the messages shown to the players are clear. This is why a digital game is called an art. It is not only entertaining the player, but also giving them something through the games.

The old version of the game
from:http://www.emuparadise.me/GameBase%20Amiga/Screenshots/R/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms_II_2.png

the new version of the game
From:http://s.pro-gmedia.com/videogamer/media/images/ps2/romance_of_the_three_kingdoms_xi/screens/romance_of_the_three_kingdoms_xi_93.jpg

From http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/8/87790/1820038-box_rottk11.jpg

The Role of Social Media in Political Movements - The Student Strike / The Umbrella Revolution

In this blog, I am going to use my experience to express my idea and feeling to the question, first I would try to give the background what it is and how the social media help the process of the movement.

Before the moving to the central content of the blog, it is a need to give the background of the movement. Besides there is a dividing line between the student strike and the Umbrella Revolution when there was a clearance in the Central Government Offices, the student strike becomes a cvil disobedience on 26 September as the Police's act angered the citizens. Started from that day, it has been the 20th day of the movement.

So, the student strike started on 22 September when there were boycotted classes that week to lie on sprawling lawns outside the government headquarters and discuss different topics that leaded by professors from the universities in Hong Kong.
The boycott was in response to the decision by the National People's Congress imposing restrictions on choosing of candidates in the elections for the Chief Executive that will be held in 2017. The authority proposed that the election committee is made up of totally 1200 members who are mostly loyal members to the Chinese Government. And they will choose two or three candidates for the elections. This decision is not the "universal suffrage" that Hong Kong citizen want as it limited the voter's choice towards to the candidates.

therefore, the student strike aims at bargaining the true "universal suffrage" via the method of "cvil nomination" and later the occupying Central( the Umbrella Revolution) aims at the same goal.

During these 20 days, the social media played a crucial role in the movement and I tried to analyzed it by my experience. Before the boycott, there were lots of voice in Facebook, Twitter and even in your Whatsapp groups urged you to stand out, and I did go to Chinese University on the first day of the boycott.

<- Here is a short video clip I recored that day.






Then later the few days I did not go the the government headquarter as I was lazy to take a long bus route to there. However, I kept updating the news via the traditional mass media, and the new social media, like Whatsapp, Youtube and Facebook.

Until, the clearance night, I was watching the live steaming on Youtube on one hand, on the other hand, I was browsing the Forum chat room on the other side. Thus, the actual situation in Admiralty can instantly be seen by me. For example, I can get the information about "Joshua Wong climbed into the Cvil Square and was arrested by the police" within 3 minutes via Facebook.

pic taken on 17/10 by me

Besides, traditional mass media news, like Apple Daily and Now TV are not available live steaming through Internet, therefore, the credibility of the information is well to trust other than that of the Facebook sharing and rumors in the sharing in the Whatsapp.

As more and more news and visual images were instantly showing to the public, and information is much easier to spread instantly without the scanning by the traditional mass media, it attracted people to stand out and voice out their will.

pic taken on 12/10 by me

pic taken on 12/10 by me

Up to now, the movement is processing in a positive way as more and more people are willing to come out to chasing the goal.

Ethics of Digital Games

From the three games we discussed in the class, they are America's Army/ Under Seige, Doom & Postal and Remission respectively.

They are three different types of game;
America's Army is a kind of first-person shooter war game. Players become a soldier in the game and carrying with a gun to kill the enemies so as to win the games;

Doom & Postal is a first person game too. In such games, player is allowed to move freely in a particular area/ city. And they are allow to break the surrounding objects, kill the people with different weapons and even set fire on cars. This kind of games in some way do not have the rules to win the games;

Remission is a shooting game that players are ask to enter the human body, and remove all the germs and virus so as to cure the patient. It is educational indeed to the kids and players because it's purpose is positive and not bloody.

Therefore, I think the best one is Remission as the player is curing one another rather than killing someone, you can treat the game as a treatment to the patient; while the worst one os Doom & Postal, the main purpose of the game idea is to ask player to kill,to destroy, to ruin the surroundings. The concept of  it is awful and disgusting.

About the other question we discussed in the lecture, I would like to repeat Tracy's favorite game. It is the Sims 3! She mentioned that she could build a house by her preference and let her Sims live. It is lovely and fun to her. Besides, the concept of the games is greatly different from other type of games, player can control their Sims liberally, for example, to ask them to get a job, satisfy so as to create a "life" to their Sims.

P.s. the Sims series has launched the Sims 4 this summer, and here is a short clip for it!