chapter 34

I think that players play the video games. To say that a game “plays” a person would indicate that the game itself is doing something for amusement. An inanimate object such as a game cannot feel emotions or be amused. While I understand what the book is saying about where the message is and who is the sender and receiver in a game, I don’t actually think this theory applies to video games. There is a message being conveyed of course, but it is through the game to the person and the creator of the game is the sender and the player is the receiver. The messages more come through the advertisements in the game and not the game itself. While we of course get a somewhat message from the violence or competitive nature of these games, this is not a textual message being conveyed. It is true that video games can tell a story and the player can alter this story by how they play the game and thus determine the outcome. However, there is always a path or paths the player will end up following and there are only a certain number of possible general outcomes.