COM257: Media History and Theory

In the article “Mobile telephone history,” Tom Farley explores the fundamental impact of the mobile phone on our lives. The author describes a mobile telephone as a wireless device, which connects to the general public by a common carrier of public utility According to Farley, the history of mobile phones began in the 1940s after World War II. The modern cell phones we have today started as radiotelephones used for such things as New York City fireboats and tugboats. After World War II, post, telephone, and telegraph administrations, the PTTs, and private telephone companies concentrated on providing landline telephones and services first, but research still persisted on mobile radio research and development. Civilian needs for easy and fast communication were finally starting to be addressed and on July 28, 1945 a cellular radio was first described in print. A year later, the first American mobile radiotelephone service began in Saint Louis, Missouri. AT&T and Southwestern Bell began operating MTS or Mobile Telephone service on June 17, 1946. Mobile telephony continued to advance, however it’s development outside of the U.S. came very slowly. Most governments at the time did not allow the public radiotelephones.

Farley goes into great detail describing the events that led to the first commercial cellular radio in January 1969. Frequency reuse was employed in a small zone system using public payphones. “Passengers on what was called the metroliner train service running between New York City and Washington, DC found they could make telephone calls while moving at more than 160 kilometers per hour (Farley pp. 25). Six channels in the 450 MHz band were used repeatedly in nine zones along at 225 mile route while a computerized control center managed the system. TheBell Laboratories Record article described it as “[T]he system is unique. It is the first practical integrated system to use the radio-zone concept within the Bell System in order to achieve optimum use of a limited number of radio-frequency channels (Farley pp. 25).” It wasn’t until 1969 that the first all transistor mobile telephones appeared from a large manufacturer and it wasn’t until then that the first portable radiotelephones appeared in the United States. The author notes that worldwide commercial cellular deployment prospered in the late 1970s and then continued into the early 1980s.

There is no doubt about it that the invention of mobile cellular phones has greatly transformed our lives as we know it. In 1983 when the regional Bell Company began the first United States commercial cellular service, the popularity of this new technology was staggering. It was estimated that there were 340,213 customers in 1985; 681,825 by 1986, and 1,300,855 by 1987. Today they say that mobiles currently number 1.5 billion. Personally, I cannot name a single person my age and older that does not own a cell phone or know someone that owns one. If I accidently leave my cell phone at the house and I’m already ten minutes away, I do not hesitate to turn right back around to get it. This article was very interesting because I had no idea that the prospect of mobile cell phone technology was even dreamt of in the 1940’s. It’s amazing when you consider that cell phones used to be the size of a brick and today some are only two inches long. You can access other forms of new media technology on this new media device too. Whether it’s taking a picture on your cell phone or accessing the Internet, mobile cell phones today allow the user to enter an endless world of cultural media.

-Jessca Highsmith

This week's text by Farley covers the history of the mobile telephone. The concept of mobile phones originated before World War II, with New York City public service departments having the use of radio telephones. After World War II, landlines were expanding and some research into
mobile phone communication was expanding. The first mobile radio-telephone
service began in 1946. These were all car based radio telephones. Service began expanding in 1949 when the FCC allowed more frequencies, to the Bell System as well as other companies that wanted to sell mobile service. The first fully automatic service, without the need for
an operator, came in 1948, though the manual operation continued until the late
1960s.

Mobile phone development was slow in Europe compared to the
U.S., but development in Japan was picking up speed. The government sponsored
development, and equipment eventually became exported to other markets. There was not much development during the 1950s, but in the 1960s the Improved Mobile Telephone Service from Bell System was introduced, which operated mostly like a regular telephone. Other countries also began updating their mobile service
during this time. While there was high demand in the U.S., the FCC did not
allow for enough channels to really support much expansion of mobile phones
until the 1970s.

Frequencies were reused in small areas by the Bell System on public payphones to form the first real cellular phones, in metro areas and places like passenger trains. Competition was on the rise in the U.S. in the 1970s, namely between Motorola and AT&T. They began competing to see who could create a working cellular device, such as for dispatch services that Motorola already made
equipment for. Motorola created the first prototype phone in 1973, and this was
the first handheld cellular phone. Meanwhile, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph
was field testing their own products in Japan, and used quality methods that
forced other companies to examine their own quality control and policies.  Companies began leaning towards Japanese equipment in their products because of better quality, such as Hewlett-Packard’s use of Japanese chips as they found the worst Japanese chips had a failure rate six times less than American chips.

The Advanced Mobile Phone Service began in July 1978 and six
months later paying subscribers were able to lease the equipment for cars. The
first commercial cell service was offered in Chicago in 1983. One of the first
handheld mobile phones was the Motorola Dyna-Tac. North American mobile systems were analog while Europe worked to create a digital system that worked across all of Europe. European manufacturers began creating a new radio band, Groupe
Special Mobile (GSM), with the first commercial GSM networks appearing in 1991.
Qualcomm developed the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular system in
North America. Pacific Telephone invested in Qualcomm, helping to fund the CDMA
network and support it. CDMA was approved in 1993 and allowed for two mode
functionality, where a mobile would default to analog signal when the primary
digital (CDMA) signal was not available. These networks began expanding and
spreading throughout the 1990s. Meanwhile, the uses for mobile devices was
expanding. The Nokia 9000 Communicator, introduced in 1996, had a full QWERTY keyboard and had messaging, calendar, and limited Internet capabilities. It was
the first PDA, though it came at a time when there was still limited data
networking available. Cellular phones essentially shrunk to as small as they
can be by the mid-1990s, and since then have been adding more capabilities like
the Nokia Communicator. The early Blackberry devices only did SMS messaging and e-mail. Satellite mobile phone service was unsuccessful with the Iridium project of 1998, lead by Motorola but going bankrupt after 16 months.

It is interesting to see that mobile phone technologies date
so far back, and just as interesting to see how quickly they evolved from
devices like the Motorola Dyna-Tac to the phones like we have today. I have to
wonder how cell phones would be today if the FCC had allowed for more frequencies
earlier than they did. There are several old commercials on YouTube for early
cell phones and similar, and many are of the “bag phone” variety. I’ve also
seen an old AT&T commercial with a video-capable pay phone, which seems
like an evolution of the first cellular phones as seen in metro areas and
trains as mentioned in Farley’s text. Although we no longer see the built-in car phone as it previously existed, it is possible now for cell phones to connect through the
car’s audio system for a speakerphone effect, allowing for hands-free
conversations. Some are even going so far as to be able to read text and e-mail
messages, and allow the driver to “talk-to-text” to send messages.

My father used to work for Ericsson, and although I was
young I did get to see the evolution of some mobile phones and the technologies
for a time. For example, as phones became slimmer and lighter, and
then as color screens were implemented in phones. I remember as camera phones
were becoming more popular, and a couple phone styles offered an attachable
plug-in camera. Shortly after this, one phone style debuted with built-in
camera phone and Bluetooth capability, and the evolution of cell phone Internet
capability. Now, more and more phones also feature music player functionality,
effectively replacing MP3 players, and we have touch screen phones that eliminate hard keys.  The cell phone has practically become a personal accessory and a means of expression for many, and this will only continue as more phone technologies are combined.

     This week's reading, "Mobile Telephone History," by Farley, discusses how the first version of the mobile telephone was invented in 1946, after World War II, and since that time, how they have become such a crucial part of our lives.  Although the first commercial mobile telephones were invented in 1946, their cost and accessibility did not make them popular until 1995, and they have since come a long way.

     "On June 17, 1946 in Saint Louis, Missouri, AT&T and one of its regional telephone companies, Southwestern Bell, began operating MTS, or Mobile Telephone Service" (Farley, pp. 22-23).  These mobile telephones were all car-based radio telephones that were very limited in their accessories and functions.

     In 1947, Bell Laboratories' W. R. Young stated that Bell teams "had faith that the means for administering and connecting to many small cells would evolve by the time they were needed" (Farley, p. 23).  However, more mobile telephones were and have always been needed, and they were not only being produced very slowly, but they were also very unattainable to the public.

     As the years passed, mobile telephones slowly became more functioning, such as with the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958, Improved Mobile Telephone Service or IMTS in 1964 (which replaced the badly aging Mobile Telephone System), the formation of Nokia in 1967, the first commercial cellular radio system in 1969, when the "FCC approved an additional 115 megahertz of spectrum for future mobile telephone use" (Farley, p. 26) on May 1, 1974, the beginning of analog cellular systems in May 1978, and so forth until 1995, when there was the first major breakthrough and the start of mobile telephones as we know them today.

     I remember when I was six years old, in 1994, and our house was for sale.  We had a couple coming to see our house that day, and I was shocked that at the time when they were supposed to be there to view our home, we received a call from their real estate agent, saying they were outside.  I was so confused and could not fathom how this was possible.  This was the very first memory I have of mobile telephones, and when I received my first cellphone in seventh grade, many of my friends still did not own them.  I thought it was really cool how I could call anyone I wanted at anytime.  Mobile telephones have come such a long way even since the time I was in seventh grade, but especially since 1949.  Our world would truly be different without the invention of cellular mobile telephones.

In Tom Farley’s article “Mobile Telephone History” he documents the history of the development of the mobile telephone from a mere idea that was not yet possible due to a lack of infrastructure to the innovation of the necessary components (the transistor originally designed for calculators) to GSM and CDMA cellular phones. He also documents the “race” for mobile technology and the Federal Communications Commission’s role in restricting the development of American mobile technologies, highlighting the speed at which countries such as Sweden (advancing with less governmental restriction) and Japan (focusing on production and quality control) were able to advance continuing to reiterate how American cellular companies were striving to advance their technology and learning how to compete with countries such as Japan that had much higher standards for quality.

The author begins by defining a mobile telephone as a “wireless device which connects to the public switched telephone network and is offered to the general public by a common carrier or public utility”. He continues to define mobile history “not just [as] a study of the telephone [or] the handset itself, but a look at the wireless system it is connected to”(1). Farley notes that after WWII, the US (although slowly) pushed for the development of mobile technology for three reasons: consumer demand, the existence of research facilities, and manufacturing capability. However, despite these three elements, as Farley documents, the FCC and the United State’s inability to supply the demand of consumers due to limited and simplistic network infrastructure consistently held back the development of mobile technology. Farley explains the early progression of the mobile telephone from the first discussion in 1947 where it was realized that although the components of a mobile telephone existed-a network was needed in order to provide the actual service, the confines of the automobile, the expansion of automatic dialing (removal of the operator), and the “unveiling of the transistor” where the bulky vacuum tubes were now eliminated and mobile telephones could now actually be imagined as “mobile”! The competition between the US and Sweden and Japan to create the first cellular phone expanded as each country. The first commercial cellular radio system did not become operational until 1969 when there could be frequency reuse using a limited number of channels (economy of use) on the metro liner. This year marked the end of the “tube” and although large, telephones were now adapted into briefcase phones, and with the invention of the transistor by Texas Instruments, the rivalry for the first cellular phone began between the two US companies AT&T and Motorola; nevertheless, the FCC delayed their progress. The next pivotal year, according to Farley was 1978 when the AMPS began operating in New Jersey and New York with the help of Oki Electric. Finally this demonstrated that a larger scale mobile telephone cellular system could work, just as was noted in our discussion of the Internet, satellite service for mobile telephones got their start from the military (INMARSAT), which was “originally designed for ships at sea”.  MARISAT (the first mobile comm. satellite service began in 1976 but was problematic as there were interruptions between the operator and the user. The major cellular development was in the early 1980s and was outside of the United States, in Mexico and areas around Sweden. In Europe, the continent was swept by analog cellular car phones that used a magnetic stripe (now we have a sim card) yet these phones didn’t operate on the same networks so they were “working towards a digital frame. Later, the NMT450, by far the most advanced up to this point had “600 cells and offered roaming, an important first”. The US was once again still stalled by FCC regulations due to fears of monopolies and service rate. Finally n the mid 80’s when Japan took over part of the NMT, the idea of quality control (Japan) and roaming/networks merged. Furthermore, in the US, the Bell System split apart allowing for competition and new products! In Japan, the NTT ended their monopoly mobile phones but the direction they were going to head was uncertain.

Farley continues to discuss the rise of digital technology and in service called GSM or Groupe Speciale Mobile or what we now call Global System for Mobile Communications.  The US wanted a dual system so that they would not have to cut off analog users, Qualcomm is credited with the first prototype for the CDMA telephone; however by the 1990s a digital standard IS-54 was adopted converting any analog channels to digital (numerical representation). GSM offered many things it allowed for privacy, access, and speed, and by “2004 it was announced that GSM had one billion customers” in Europe, Finally in between 1994 and 1997 the FCC “auctioned off blocks of frequencies” and GSM and CDMA spread.
When “the communicator” was released by Nokia, (a precursor to all our slide-out multi function mini personal computers”) I doubt that anyone had any idea what was going to come. The use was not up to par with the definition of a mobile phone as it was not handling voice nearly as well as it handled data (something still problematic with many handheld blackberries etc.). Cingular was the first carrier of UMTS and according to this article “are very expensive”. It is interesting because this article was written in 2005 and the “mobile phones” we use today are far beyond the definition of what Farley defines at the beginning of this article. The expense of a QWERTY keyboard phone with emailing/SMS and GPS capability is not much more than a “standard” telephone and most business people and students use some sort of mini-computer/phone on a daily basis. This article demonstrates how quickly mobile telephones advanced. This is likely due to the existing infrastructure of the telegraph (explained by Kellerman) and also how the development of mobile technology was a global effort.

Sara Nussbacher

        This week’s article is entitled Mobile Telephone History and was written by Tom Farley, a freelance telecom writer.  Farley discusses the importance of the telephone and how it became dynamic and the most important communication tool of our lives.  The history of the telephone is discussed first in this article.  After World War II, the mobile telephone history began which was in the 1940s.  After this war the badly left civilian communication needs were able to be addressed.  Telephone and telegraph administrations and private telephone companies worked on providing Americans with landline telephones and services.  There were three reasons for this particular movement: 1) the United States was physically intact after the war, 2) Bell Telephone Laboratories had a large group of radio engineers and scientists to use, and 3) the Motorola corporation had grown significantly during World War II.  In 1946, Commercial Mobile telephony began and in 1947 the cellular radio concept was published.  Bell Laboratories’ D.H. Ring and W.R. Young communicated the true cellular radio system for mobile telephony.  All the cellular radio elements were: “a network of small geographical areas called cells, a base station transmitter in each, cell traffic controlled by a central switch, frequencies reused by different cells and so on.”  Mobiles may have been invented and used in the early 1940s, but it was only after 1995 when mobiles became low cost, rich in features, and used world wide.  In this article, Tom Farley eventually goes on to explain the first commercial cellular radio systems.  The Bell System made for the first time, the commercial cellular radio operational in 1969.  In this year the first all transistor mobile telephones appeared from a large manufacturer.  It was big, bulky and was place in a vehicle.  Also, the first commercial portable radiotelephones emerged during this time in the United States.  A Scandinavian wide mobile telephone network was planned during the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Nordic Mobile telephone group.  This group created a report in 1970 that said an analog cellular network would not be available until 1980.  Because of this the Nordic Mobile telephone group decided to just design a conventional, manual mobile telephone system.  Year after year, additional mobile telephone systems and networks were continuously made and in competition with each other. 

            Next, Tom Farley discussed the long journey to the analog cellular systems.  The Bahrain Telephone company began operating the first commercial cellular telephone system in May, 1978. In July, 1978 Advanced Mobile Phone Service began operating in two cities, Newark, New Jersey and Chicago, Illinois.  The next year, 1979, INMARSAT was born.  INMARSAT was an international group that fostered and coordinated satellite telephony.  The American telephone and telegraph split apart on August 24, 1982.  Eventually Europe was introduced to analog cellular system.  It was introduced in 1981 when the Nordic Mobile Telephone System started working in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.  Farley said, “It was the first multinational cellular system” (Farley, p.29).  Analog services were used for sending voice and the signaling was done with different tones and data bursts.  An interesting fact Farley informed his readers on was that the United States began its first commercial cellular service in Chicago, Illinois on October 12, 1983.  The fist handheld cellular phone was the Motorola Dyna-TAC from the year 1983.  The only problem with the analog cellular system was that the systems could work fine by themselves but not together.  Mobile telephones were not able to operate in other cities besides their own.  Planning for an advanced roaming service began in the early 1980s. 

            Tom Farley talks about the rise of GSM and North America going digital next.  Europeans saw things differently from the Americans.  They decided to create a new technology in a new radio band because their cellular systems were not able to be accommodated by the existing telephone systems. This new creation and service was a cellular radio but fully digital and was called GSM.  Later the  North American cellular network adopted a digital standard, IS-54 in 1990.  IS-54 was capable of converting any of its analog voice channels to digital.  Digital services were provided in the places it could operate in and analog where it was not able to.  Farley also discussed a new cellular band and systems in America as well as the mid 1990s fundamental change.  This meant more wireless channels and carriers were allowed in America.  Many different types of mobile phones, handheld computers were introduced which had features like a keyboard, built in calculator and calendar programs.

            This article by Tom Farley was very interesting to me.  It gave me great information concerning the history of the mobile telephone.  The mobile telephone is very popular today and has greatly changed since it was first created.  More applications and networks now exist than before.  This is an example of new media developing from old media.  The mobile phone updated its system and allowed a more efficient way for people to communicate with each other.  I use a mobile phone every day.  I communicate with people through texting or actually talking with them.  The mobile telephone has turned into a computer system with the advanced features that have been added to them.          

Faeben Fulford       

Video games are made of two things, according to Jesper Juul:
real rules and fictional worlds. Juul starts off his book with the discussion
of how video games came to life. He says, video games deviate from traditional
non-electronic games that are mostly abstract (Juul 1). He compares video games
to the board games of the ancient past, finding many common trends.  Video games as we know them today started with
Spacewar in 1969. By that time such
media as television, cinema, and printing press had existed and worked for
dozens or even hundreds of years. But video games were not the successors of
these media, they was not new media, but the continuation of the game history,
according to Juul. A different interface is used today, however: computer.

 The major theme of
Juul’s book is about rules and fiction coexisting in video games. On the one
hand, rules offer a challenge to the player; they set a bar for the player to
achieve in certain conditions. On the other hand, the offered challenge is affected
by the fiction of the game: the design, the underlying story, or other things
coming from the imagination of the creator and the user. Fiction allows
different people experience the same game differently. Fiction allows for
elaboration of the plot of a game. Games representing narratives (narratology)
are different from those representing something unique (ludology). Rules
however limit the freedom of playing, thus adding meaning to the action in the
game. The reason people love video games is for their interactivity: rules
create a mental challenge, which some may enjoy; at the same time some people
can simply enjoy the process, or the animation, neglecting the metal challenge.
The author uses the example of the Titanic
movie to describe why video games are fun for everyone: different people may
enjoy the film for different reasons, someone may like the love story, someone could
like the hit song, and another person would love the action scene.

Jull concludes by arguing that video games are not a silly enjoyment
solely for adolescent males, but that it is an art form to be, regardless of
its uncontrollability and dark history of many games being banned.

The view of the video games as the continuation of the old
games, such as chess, only with a different interface now relates to Manovich’s
article on new media. Although Juul argues video games are not new media, I would
say they are new media, for they use computer as an interface connecting the
database with algorithm inside the video game and the user. Thus, video games
are old media becoming new, for they use digital technology, just as photography
became new media as the photo camera became digital.

Juul's "Introduction" is by far the most interesting reading we've been assigned so far, in my opinion. Juul discusses a wide variety of topics concerning gaming, art, and play. He covers the evolution and categorization of video games for much of his writing, and sheds new light on the meaning behind the popular entertainment source.

The labels games can have are either emergence or progression. Emergence refers to the simplistic type of games like cards and checkers and tic tac toe. The rules and game objectives are the same every time one plays, however, due to infinite variability in the way one plays, the game is always interesting and new to the player. Progression refers to the more complex game style in which the player performs actions to complete the game in a progression fashion. This is found in adventure games, allowing for storytelling and more intricate plotlines that parallel the actual gameplay.

Juul also discusses the "classic game model" that includes six requirements based on three levels. The six requirements are fairly loose and have the potential to include a vast number of games. This flexible definition allows games to be "transmedial," meaning they cross over several different and unique types of media. He continues in this vein to conclude that video games are so unique and different from older games, and challenging the "classic game model" so harshly that it seems that their purpose is to break the model.

Another point he considers is the parts of a game. He sites Caillois in his four categories: competetion, chance, simulation/make believe, and vertigo. Caillois states that these are mutually exclusive, while Juul disagrees. The four pieces are present in every game to some degree. There is chance involved in every game we play, some more than others, and to have any context surrounding a game, one must make believe at least a little bit. That's what games do, in Juul's opinion; they "provide context for actions." He continues in his writings onto a loftier subject: art. Video games are considered lowbrow by many, as he says, but is this the truth of the matter? Video games and fine art are not so dissimilar. Just because video games are played by the masses and are available for consumption by a huge number of people, as opposed to the protected works of art in museums, doesn't mean they are any less creative, valuable, or artistic. He dreams of a day when these popular games are considered high art as they should be, to conclude our reading.

    In this text, Juul defines games, video games, and also gives a
brief summary of his book. Juul states that "to play a video games is
therefore to interact with real rules while imagining a fictional
world, and a video game is a set of rules as well as a fictional
world". Video games have been played for nearly half a decade now and
started with the invention of Spacewar! in 1961. Juul notes that video
games are still a relatively new media when compared to television,
film, and print. He calls this media a "comparatively new cultural
form, intimately linked to the appearance of computers, postdating
literature, cinema, and television". Juul isn't interested in the
question of how old video games are, but instead is interested in "how
video games are games, how they borrow from non-electronic games, and
how they depart from traditional game forms".
    Juul begins the
chapter by explaining concepts of games. Games exhibit emergence and
progression. A game has emergence--the "primordial game
structure"--when a small amount of rules has a large number of outcomes
in which players create strategies in order to win. Progression is
"historically newer" than emergence, in that it came from adventure
games. Games with progression contain sections where the player must
execute a "predefined set of actions" to accomplish goals in the game.
Game players approach with their "repertoire of skills" and increases
the effectiveness of his repertoire throughout the game. Juul states
that "to play a game is to improve your repertoire of skills".
   
According to Juul, 'games' must satisfy the classical game model to be
considered games. The six requirements of the model are "1. a
rule-based formal system; 2. with variable and quantifiable outcomes;
3. where different outcomes are assigned different values; 4. where the
player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome; 5. the player
feels emotionally attached tot he outcome; 6. and the consequences of
the activity are optional and negotiable." A game, Juul says, is
"transmedial" because it is possible for it to involve several types of
media or "tools". Juul examines the purpose behind games and discusses
Ludwig wittgenstein's idea of a game. He also looks at Vladimir Propp
and Claude Levi-Strauss's claims concerning narrative and "formal
structure". Juul also discusses rules of irrelevance, narratology vs.
ludolgy, and the "cultural status of games".
    I found this
introductory chapter interesting for several reasons. One of the most
notable reasons is that 2 of the members of my presentation group
examined video games. One of my group members studied Spacewar! for her
presention. I was able to play an online version of the game using
keyboard buttons as primitive controls for the spaceship. It is
interesting to see how far video gaming has come. It is also neat that
even games as old as Spacewar! offer entertainment even 48 years later.
Juul also mentions Senet, which I studied and have learned to play for
my presentation. Senet, which is several thousand years old is also
still an entertaining game to play. It has been recreated for online
play in which the entire layout is virtual.

 --Carter Neely
    
   

In the article, "Introduction" by Jull Jesper he discusses the world of video games.  The author explains how the video games are two different things at the same time.  For example, video games are considered to be real because the players have to follow real rules.  A video game has real rules according to Jull, but it is played in a fictional world.  A variety of on screen displays provide the player with information so the can complete the mission of the game.  For example, an arrow can indicate different meanings which helps the player to progress in the game.  According to the author video games deviate from traditional non-electronic games that are mainly abstract, and this is what made video games progress.  The author states that a video game is a rule based formal system with variable and quantifiable outcomes where the player exerts efforts in order to influence the outcome and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable. 

Being able to interact whenever your playing a video game helps the player on choosing between imagination of the game and seeing the representation about the different rules of the game.  According to the author we can examine the rules as they are found mechanically in the game program or in the manual of a board game, or we can examine the rules as something that players negotiate and learn when they gradually improve their skill (Jull pg 3).  For example, fixed signs in the game help the player to imagine and also helps to cue the player into the ficitional world. 

Video games have a brief history as well as a long one.  The first video game according to the author was spacewar which came out during the 1960s.  Video games are considered to be a new cultural form which is linked to computers, cinemas, television and literature. Rules of a game provide players with certain objectives that you cant overcome.  Ultimately video games helps you to improve your skills which makes it an learning experience.

This article help me to realize how video games can almost be addictive. I play video games more than i should and its because i feel like i have to complete every stage in a short time spand. All devices such as cell phones, computers, electronics have games that you can play and they all have different meanings and objectives.  Games are new media because they help to improve your skills and your ability to think.

Donnell Williams

This weeks article, "Introduction", by Juul, explores the world of video games. Juul has decided that video games are very in-depth and complex. Also, video games must be seen as half-real because they incorporate both reality and imagination. Juul explains this further by discussing the slaying of a dragon on a video game. Even though the player can virtually kill the dragon on the screen in front of them, it is not a real dragon in the real world that the player has killed. After the game is turned off, there will be no real life effects from the killing that took place. Of course, there is much controversy over whether games involving violence will carry the same vicous mind set out into the real world. In fact, many of the games today have mush more realistic ideas portrayed such as stealing cars and killing people instead of only the very fictional dragon as Juul discusses.

Another way Juul looks at video games is as an example of a structure. Emergence and progression are the two main ways to consider video games as structures. Emergence is basically when a set number of simple rules are created to make interesting variations for the game. Progression involves individual challenges that must be followed in order to get to the end of the game. Today, progression is the more popular structure and creates more of an adventure.

Juul also describes the classic model used for the creation of video games. The model involves six features that work on three different levels. First, there is the level of the game itself with its set of perticular rules. Then there is the level of the player relationship to the game. The last level is the relationship between the actually playing the game and the rest of the outside world. The six features that go along with the modle include: A rule-based formal system, variable and quantifiable outcomes, different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity and optional and negotiable.

Juul also discusses the imortance of the rules in video games. It is important that the player will find the rules simple and easy enough to understand and remember. However, the tasks the player must overcome must be oppositely difficult to complete. Another words, the player wants a challenge, but they want to understand how they will win the game. If the rules seem to difficult to follow, the player may become too frustrated to continue. 

I have never been very interested in video games, except for the occasional mario party that is rediculously unrealistic. However, after reading this article I am beginning to realize how some people become so addicted to the games. Going along with the six features, it seems that the creators make the player become emotionally involved. The players probably begin to get lost in the mind set of the game and believe they are really the character on the screen. In fact, games these days seem to be getting even more realistic all the time. I just worry that some people waste there lives away living in a fictional world when they should be finding real adventure in the outside world.

-Jessica Swanner

This weeks article by Jester Juul focuses on video games. The first claim the author makes is the ability of a video game to exist as two things at once: a reality and a fictional world. He uses The Legend of Zelda as an example because the gameplay and the means by which you advance in the game is real as the story it could portray is a fictional account. Juul believes that the relationship between game fiction and game rules is one of the most important features of video games. The article switches focus for a bit to give a look at the history of video games. The first video game, Spacewar!, was created in 1961. Juul notes that this is significant because it has only been a mere 40 years since we saw the first video game, whereas creations such as the printing press and cinema have been around for over 100 years; this classifies video games as a new media technology. Also relating to the idea of new media, is the fact that games from early Egypt have been revamped to a more current form and are still being seen today (i.e. Parcheesi and backgammon). Conitinuing, Juul goes on to talk about how the video game is ultimately viewed as a learning experience in which users must continuously practice in order to improve their skill. There are two basic ways that games are normally structured in order to challenge players, emergence and progression. Emergence refers to a number of simple rules that yield a large variation of options for outcome. Emergence can be seen commonly in sports and various card/board games. The other set-up is progression, which refers a set of predefined actions that must be completed in order to advance. This is seen mainly in adventure games. The author finishes up this part of the text by describing the importance of fiction in games and its variation from game to game.

 Juul attempts to give some similarities in most games with the classic game model. The model has six key characteristics: a rule-based formal system, variable and quantifiable outcomes, different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player becomes emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable. While most games use this model for games, it has become apparent that games have changed and strayed a little form the model. Contributing to the statement that games have changed, Juul goes into discussion of games being used for purposes outside of pure entertainment. Games assisted Ludwig Wittgenstein in building his philosophy of languange and also aided in the formation of theories linking rules and representation. Games have prompted several studies and arguments of topics spanning from whether to focus more on players or the game itself to what was discussed earlier when discussing rules vs. fiction. The author spends time in the passage discussing what makes games fun as well. This, Juul describes, is because of the rules of a game. Without the rules, many of the actions of a game would seem pointless because the rules add meaning and enable different actions (games such as Chess would be completely pointless). Another aspect that the author contributes to the fun factor of a game is the gameplay itself, referring to the interactivity of a game, allowing the user to get completely immersed in the experience by using their mental capacity.

Reading back on this blog post i realized how much I used the word variation, a term that is closely related to variablity which we have repeatedly discussed in class. Video games perhaps provide one of the best examples of variability because of fact that each attempt at completing a task in a progression style game is essentially different. Though there is a set way of completing an action, the way by which a player does it is different each time. Additionally, the article has definitely made me realize how games can be looked at as a fiction and a reality at the same time, which I found interesting. Also, again we are presented with that recurring theme of new media that we see each week in these posts. Games have been around nearly as long as humans but video games have not been around very long. The fact that old games are able to be transmitted through a monitor turning it into a "video" game has solidified its title as a form of new media.

The article, “Introduction” by Juul, discusses video games. He begins by discussing how video games are in a sense half-real. This is because video games are real in that they consist of real rules, and winning or losing the game is a real event. They are not real however, in that the player wins by slaying a dragon, and a dragon is not real but fictional. Juul discusses how this interaction between real and non-real worlds makes for an interesting game because the player has to follow real rules by also creating a fictional setting.

Juul then discusses the history of the video game. The very first video game was “Spacewar!” He discusses that instead of asking whether video games are old or new, but how video games are games, and what characteristics they take from non-electronic games, and how they are different from traditional game forms.

Juul uses one section to describe video games as rules. He says that rules provide the player with challenges. He talks about Emergence, which is the primordial game structure, where a game is specified as a small number of rules that combine and yield large numbers of game variations, each one requiring the players to design different strategies. Juul then talks about progression, which is the historically newer structure of video games in which the player has to perform predefined actions in order to complete each level or task.

Juul describes that a game consists of 6 basic things; 1) a rule-based formal system, 2) with variable and quantifiable outcomes, 3) where different outcomes are assigned different values, 4) where the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, 5) the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and 6) the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.

This made me think back to the class discussion we had about Myst. Myst was the first major video game to become very popular in the US. This videogame is a clear example of how the player must follow certain rules in order to complete levels, eventually getting to the end of the game. Also, it proves that each player can have a completely different experience while playing the exact same game, and that depending upon which rules you follow, the end results of the game can be totally different.

This weeks reading, by Juul, was entitled “Introduction.” This article describes video games rather in-depth and describes them as being “half-real” in that they are a mix of reality and imagination. An example of this is given by the concept of slaying a dragon. Although the gamer kills the dragon on the screen, it is not actually a dragon that he or she has killed in real life. According to Juul there are two basic ways in which games are structures: emergence and progression. “Emergence is the primordial game structure, where a game is specified as a small number of rules that combine and yield large numbers of game variations for which the players must design strategies and handle…Progression is the historically newer structure that became part of the video game through the adventure genre.” The classic model of a game consists of six features that work on three different levels: “The level of the game itself, as a set of rules; the level of the player’s relation to the game; and the level of the relation between the activity of playing the game and the rest of the world.” The six features are as follows:

1. a rule-based formal system

2. with variable and quantifiable outcomes

3. where different outcomes are assigned different values

4. where the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome

5. the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome

6. and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable

All in all, this article talks about how creators of a video game must establish a defined set of rules in order for the gamer to advance in the game to meet the required objective.  Juul even says that “the rules of a game provide the player with challenges that the player cannot trivially overcome. It is a basic paradox of games that while the rules themselves are generally definite, unambiguous, and easy to use, the enjoyment of a game depends of these easy-to-use rules presenting challenges that cannot be easily overcome.

I am very fond of video games and I would estimate playing video games somewhere around 5 hours a week (sometimes more sometimes less, depending on what video game I am playing at the time.) My boyfriend and I just finished playing “Lego Indiana Jones” on our Xbox 360. As Jull describes, there is always a set of rules or guidelines that you must follow in order to get to the end of the game. In addition, some of the sequences that are completed in the game must be completed in a sequential order, in order to progress to the next series. For instance, there was a scenario where a bridge was broken and 2 characters must cross the bridge in order to get across. Indian Jones carries a whip and was able to swing across the gap, with little effort. The problem was getting the female character to the other side. In order to get her across, Indiana Jones must first swing across the gap and fix the bridge from the other side and then the girl could safely cross.

-Tara Wakeley

Juul begins this weeks readings by stating that “Half-Real
refers to the fact that video games are two different things at the same time:
video games are real in that they consist of real rules with which players
actually interact, and in that winning or losing a game is a real event”.  So by stating this Juul is emphasizing that
playing a video game is an interaction of real rules in a functional
world.  Video games are a new technology in comparison to other things like television which came out seventy-five years ago, film which as been around for hundreds of years, as well as the printing press which has been around for about five hundred years.  The first video game, Spacewar, only came out in the year 1961 so the technology of video games is pretty new.  With this being said, Juul believes that video games are a continuation of games throughout history.  He states that "the Egyptian board game, senet, found in the 2686 BC tomb of Hesy-re is a precursor of contemporary backgammon and Parcheesi, games that are commonly played using computers today".  Juul then points out that it is important to too understand how video games borrow from non-electronic games, as well as how they depart from traditional game formats.  The current technology allows individuals to play old games in new ways, and allows for new types of games that would previously not have been possible to be played.

Juul then moves on to explain games as rules within video games.  He explains that the rules of the game must be simple and easy to understand, but the tasks of the game must be difficult for the player to overcome.  Juul emphasizes that the games take one of two basic outlines, one is emergence in which a number of simple rules combine to form interesting variations in the game; the other is progression in which separate challenges are presented serially to the player.

Next, Juul discusses the components of a game and explains its six features and they are as follows: a rule-based formal system, with variable and quantifiable outcomes, where different outcomes are assigned different values, where the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.  He states that these features are necessary for something to be a game, and that having these six features is enough to constitute a game.  Later on, Juul continues to discuss video games and elaborates on the study of video games.  He examines the history of games, and looks at factors, such as strategy building, that lead to their success. He then talks about the fun of games.  He mentions that it's difficult to determine why games are so fun because various players find different types of enjoyment for different reasons.

 I found this weeks reading to be interesting.  I have always wondered why people find games so exciting and thought provoking.  Constantly I complain to my boyfriend that he spends too much time playing video games, but after reading about the strategies and meanings and actions behind games I can understand how he can spend so much time playing.  I also find it interesting to see how quickly games developed.  They have only been around for a few decades but there are thousands of games to choose from, all offering different functions and challenges.  I find it a bit funny to see how quickly games have expanded compared to telephones when they were first introduced.  Current culture is very concerned with entertainment that video games seem like a necessity to the general public. 

Games date back to the Egyptian era and have been an overlooked part of cultures that has continued to appear in each era proceeding. In today's culture video games have become a very popular source of new media and entertainment that have borrowed the idea of centuries past board games, and has provided a way to play old games in new ways. Video games also have combined fictional worlds along with sets of rules for users to interact with and create the video game experience. This article looks at the interaction between game rules and game fiction. Juul states "To play a video game is therefore to interact with rules while imagining a fictional world, and a video game is a set of rules as well as a fictional world" (pg. 1). Video games stray away from traditional games in the sense that they rules are used at the players discretion. Players can follow the set of rules, but also they are able to use the rules to better understand the game, and improve their skills in navigating the fictional world. Juul describes the two main structures of games, emergence and progression. Emergence being that the game holds a small number of rules, but allows for numerous ways of game variation, such as cards. Progression, which is what we see in video games today, is where the player must follow a particular set of rules and actions in order to win the game. This structure lends more control to the game designer and the order of events for players to complete the game. There is a six feature model that most games follow. This model allows for variation in games, and for users to be more in control of how they play the game. This is similar to the online books where one decision would lead you to one ending and other choices to different endings. Video games adapted this same theory, applying it to visual aspects and allowing more control of characters by the players rather than the game designers.  

Games are seen as intricate problems for people to solve. As discussed in this introduction, people solve problems in many different ways, and this same concept applies to that of video games. They are structured for players to solve, but players use different methods to solve problems, not every player completes the game by using the same steps. In class we talked about with the first computer video games it was necessary to keep a detailed log of each step taken to ensure that you would be able to finish the game. This is no longer important because games have been formed for people to utilize the rules and fictional world to navigate their own path to the finish, there is no longer just one way to complete each game.  Video games have just recently become a more popular phenomena, and thus have only sparked the interest of researchers in later years. Researchers have looked at the players and the fictional worlds, their stories and the culture of video games. The primary discussion became that of narratology (games as stories) versus ludology (the uniqueness of games). The resting compromise of this argument consisted that the uniqueness of games is undeniable, as well as the stories and fiction of games is also ascertainable in discussions. 

Half the fun of games and winning is overcoming the problem and beating the rules to the game. The rules allow for games to be played and won, and make them more challenging and exciting. Just as football and basketball would not be as exciting without the penalties, the same goes for video games. The rules of the fictional world make it more exciting to players, and also provide a challenge for players to learn to both use and overcome while playing. People enjoy all types of games for various reasons, and video games are no exception to this. We have all played both games and board games and all for different reasons, some are for entertainment and others for the thrill of the problem. Video games are still a growing new media that I believe has just began to take shape, games have been around for centuries, and video games helped to progress this theme in our culture and will continue to shape the way players interact with games. 

This intrduction by Juul was interesting in opening up many ideas of video games without presenting a bias argument. Video games have become an adaptation of games that people have always loved to play. My brother is a huge "gamer", and watching him play and relating back to this reading, I am able to identify the story and fiction of these games, but also see how players become emerged into the worlds and rules. These video games are a source of entertainment and media, but the problems and strategies which players use to complete stages in games is extremely important. This game world, which my brother will only leave if necessary is based on him working with other teammates to solve the problem and reach their goal to the next. It may seem silly, but they are more intricate than they appear, and in my experiences, I have failed not understanding the games and therefore not being able to complete it. The rules and fiction are both an important part, and video games will continue to be more researched as a new media in the future.

Lauren Lopez-Ibanez