Part 1A
1.
How many different computer games do
you play? I only play on consoles. It depends, because sometimes I’m focused on
only one game and sometimes I’m being kind of variable. On average, I play at
least 2 different games per day. Some of the games I play mostly right now is:
Battlefield 4, Assassins Creed 4 and Grand Theft Auto V.
2.
How many hours a day (on average) do
you play computer games? I would say I play at least 5 hours per day. If I
don’t have homework of course.
3.
Why do you think video games have
become so popular in the last few years? Because it’s fun and it has really
become more than just a hobby now. I think it’s even some kind of sport now,
with tournaments all over the world. It’s called E-sport. It’s really important
for some people as well, because some Youtubers really need it for their videos
to keep their channels up.
4.
In what ways do you think video games
have changed in the last 30 years? They’ve become a lot more important and a
lot more complicated. The graphics has become a lot more enhanced. I think computer games have become a lot more
like a competition now.
5.
Is there a lot of violence in the
games that you play? Do you think the violence is excessive? I think there’s actually violence in every
game I play. Some people (parents for example) may think games are too
excessive and isn’t good for the person. I think the games I play are not too
excessive.
6.
Why is it important to think about
both the positive and the negative aspects of computer games? For me, there are
no negative aspects about computer games/console games. For some people there
may be negative aspects though. It may be important to think about it so that
you can get a clear view of how games affect people. One thing is maybe that
you play too much and you forget about other stuff.
7.
How does the computer game affect
your life? Positive and negative aspects?
I’ve gotten a lot faster in taking decisions faster and smarter. I react
a lot faster than before and my English has become a lot better. In fact, games
are actually the biggest source of my English studying. Games affect my life a
lot. There’s some negative aspects as well of course. One of those is: you may
forget about other important stuff you need to do in your life, like studying.
8.
Let us say that you are born in 1960,
before the computer games were invented. What social activities would you have
participate in, in your spare time? I would probably be with friends or play
sports all day. I mean, what else would you actually be able to do anyway?
Part
1B
1.
Positive aspects: you learn a lot of
English, you react faster in real life and you take decisions faster. There are
a lot more positive aspects.
Negative aspects: you may get
addicted to games very easy, you social life may decrease and your school
studies could become very bad.
Analyzing
a computer game.
I choose the game Grand Theft Auto:
V.
1.
How frequently do acts of violence (punching,
kicking etc.) and weapons (guns, knives etc.) feature in the game? Well, it’s
GTA so….Pretty much all the time.
2.
How are male characters in the game
portrayed? Are they portrayed as “hyper masculine” (i.e., males featured as
violent, dangerous, macho, and superior to women)? Why do you think they are
portrayed like this? Do you think these portrayals are fair (=rättvis) and
accurate (=riktig)? The male characters are portrayed as the priority
characters and women doesn’t have that much of a important role in the game.
They’re not featured in cut scenes as much as the men, you can’t use women in
the game, besides from the multiplayer though, where you can actually use females
as a playable character. I can’t say I think this is entirely fair, but that’s
how the GTA games have always been like so why change it now?
3.
How are female characters portrayed? (weak or
strong, heroes or villains, loud)? Why do you think they are portrayed like
this? Do you think these portrayals are fair (=rättvis) and accurate (=riktig)?
Well as I said in the question before this one, women are more casted as the
helpless characters that can’t defend themselves. Because in the game, you
always see the women as a non-important thing. Basically, they’re only used for
sex, and to kill in the game.
4.
Do you believe that the male and female
characters in the game are portrayed as stereotypes? Yeah, the males and
females are pretty much portrayed as stereotypes. Both of them got one role:
male needs to be the masculine man and the female needs to be the helpless, non-defendable
women.
5.
Pay
special attention to the way female characters in the game are dressed. Why do
you think they are dressed this way? There’s
three types of women in GTA V: the prostitutes, the trashy clothed ones
(rednecks) and then there’s the rich well clothed ones. I think Rockstar (the
developers of the game) made the women clothed like this because they wanted to
show how many types of women there are.
6.
How often are images of violence
found in the video game? Basically all the time. The GTA games are pretty much
made to create violence in the GTA world.
7.
Why do you think that computer game
designers include so much violence in games? Because that’s just the way it is
in the modern world these days. Otherwise, people would probably not like the
game that much. We need these kinds of games!
8.
Do you think that the violence in
computer games teaches young players that violence/aggression is acceptable?
There’s been a lot of cases where young kids have done some crazy stuff. One
kid actually admitted the crazy thing he did was from a GTA game. Of course
they think it’s acceptable, they’re just kids. At least some of them are.
9.
What message do you think images in
computer games send to players? (consider violence and the stereotypical female
when answering the question). That they are able to do what ever they want.
They’re free and everything is legal.
10. What
is the timespan (tidsaspekten) in the game? Is this possible to determine
(=avgöra)? The game is set in the presence time. With that, I mean 2013 of
course.
11. Select one image (scene) from the game that
you found particularly disturbing or offensive in regard to the manner in which
violence and gender was depicted (=framställt). In writing, describe this
image. Well, there’s one scene in Grand Theft Auto V which a lot of players
thought was very disturbing. In the scene, you play as the character Trevor and
you need to torture a person. A lot of players also asked the voice-over actor
of Trevor if he thought doing the scene was disturbing or hard to do.
Here’s a picture of the scene. 
New Words.
1.
Excessive = overdriven
2.
Aspects = synpunkter/sidor
3.
Timespan = tidsaspekten
4.
Determine = avgöra
5.
Soared = stigit
6.
Cause of concern = orsak till oro
7.
Prevalence = utbredning
8.
Gender portrayals = genus
framställningar
9.
Captivating = fängslande
10. Accomplishment
= utförande
4. Frequently used phrases. Frequent use of slang throughout the game.
1.
Nigger
2.
Fuck
3.
Shit
4.
Motherfucker
5.
Piece of shit
6.
Idiot
7.
Fucking
8.
What the fuck?
9.
What the hell?
10. Nigga
These were some of the most used swear words and slang
words in the game.
I would describe the language as very offensive and
disturbing for some people. They pretty much swear all the time. It’s not
formal at all.
Creating my own computer game.
1.
This is the cover for my game. It’s
called “Battleshield”.
2.
Game
introduction and summary: The main character is “Seargeant
Blackfirst”. The game starts out with an atomic bomb that creates major
disaster in a town called “Henderson”, which was Blackfirst’s home town. His
mission is to find the people behind this and get revenge. I want to produce
this game because it’s an really thrilling story. My target audience is people
who are at least 18 years old. The person on the cover is Blackfirst.
3.
Game
characters: It’s about Seargeant Blackfirst who’s hometown
gets destroyed by an anonymous mercenary group which is rumored to be called
“PDR”. When Blackfirst gets a hold of
this information, he sets out on a revengeful mission to take the PDR down. His
whole family was killed in the bombing of the atomic bomb.
4.
Game
settings:
This is the city called Henderson
which was destroyed by the PDR. Not the whole city was demolished by the atomic
bomb, but most of it. The parts which wasn’t destroyed was plundered by
survivors who still decided to live in the city. The game is set on Henderson
and the environment is mostly just demolished buildings and rubble.
5.
Game
rules: the singleplayer campaign of the game features a EXP
system which let’s you get points everytime you discover a new place of the
city or if you kill someone special/important. The multiplayer is a basic “team
deathmatch” and other playlists mode. With the EXP points, you can buy new
equipment and weapons for your character in both Singleplayer and Multiplayer.
6.
Reflection:
1. I
didn’t learn many new words but I did learn about the perspective a game
developers gets when creating a game. Kind of at least.
2. I
really didn’t find any negative parts about this assignment. The positive parts
was that I got to create an own game and decide myself.
3. Not
that much actually. This was a fun and great assignment.
