This is the first post of my Digital Culture Notes series! Right now I am taking a really cool subject at college called "Digital Culture", where we study videogames, animation, digital art, social media, etc. We take all kinds of nerdy stuff and try to make it sound intelligent. I will be posting some notes I took in theory classes.

Note: The interesting stuff is after "random stuff" because there are some -reallly- niche stuff. (the kind of stuff you learn at uni).

Really old games you can play today

Click the links to play the games.

Videogames were born in the 50s. Some of the first ones are:

Much later came interactive text adventures. In these, the player uses the keyboard to enter commands like "grab the rope" or "go west" and the computer goes describing what happens and how the story progresses.

Check out the slides to learn more about the history of videogames.

What type of player are you?

We can broadly categorize all videogames into 4 main genres:

But did you know we can also categorize players into 4 types?

There are too many subgenres...

Japan is where a lot of subgenres are born. (There is a lot of crossover inside these genres)

1.2.3. Casual VS realistic games :

1.2.4. Black mirror chapters about videogames:

1.3. Storytelling in videogames

Mechanincs --> Dynamics --> Aesthetics

Rules of the game

Origins --> board games and popular fiction, also literature

Choose your own path

Critique of culture of decision:

Alternative storytelling

Videogames and film

Films about videogames: usually doesn't work Videogames about films: can be pretty good!

Machinima: using videogame engines to produce a movie

1.3.1. Videogames and social critique

1.4. Random stuff

1.5. Lore and transmedia

Videogames are expanding to other platforms. We now see movies.

1.6. Rules and game abilities

A Beautiful Mind: movie about game theory. Biopic of John Nash.

Game theory has been applied to economics, wars, etc. But also to videogames.

Some creators start manipulating the rules of the game, which leads us to...

1.6.1. Mods: breaking the rules

Modifications of the rules of videogames. Most famourly, Minecraft mods, The Sims 4.

FUN FACT: Counter Strike comes from Half-Life mod that made the world more realistic.

1.7. Creative thinking

Solving problems in a creative way. Examples:

1.8. Games about resilience

1.9. Experimental videogames

1.9.1. Adapting to different technologies: games for phone and tablet

1.9.2. VR and AR games

Virtual Reality vs Augmented Reality

1.9.3. Audiogames

1.10. Authors

1.11. Videogames and activism

Games For Change and Molleindustria: critical of capitalism and the videogames industry. Sarcastic tone

These kinds of games usually have simple mechanics:

1.11.1. Gender roles

Anita Sarkeesian is a famous activist. LaTurbo Avedon: is an avatar. Cereated a community of artists and videocames Panther Modern, digital museus

videogames

1.11.2. Racism

all of this cames are cancelesd af:

1.11.3. Empathy games

1.11.4. Activism in violent videogames

1.11.5. Dystopias

1.11.6. Serious games

To train for jobs:

1.12. Newsgames

They talk about real life events.

2. Gamification

2.1. Gamer identity

There's more and more ppl playing games.

2.2. Steamers and community

there are videogames themed around this!

2.3. Playbour

Labour + play Videogame streamers have to play for a living.

2.4. E-sports

Fusion between videogames and sports. There are classes, summer camps to practice e-sports, just like sports. Huuuge events and LOL tournaments.

2.5. Games to pass the time

To play on the subway

3. Metagaming

FIFA is very realistic

3.1. Bugs

3.2. games that Stretch the limits of games

4. The End

4.1. Games at UPF

4.2. Interesting YouTube channels

4.3. My videogame recommendations

Other people reccomended: