Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Video games aren't a topic that most people would think to study, but it's a field that some have put some serious thought into. The field is often divided into two approaches: ludology and narratology. Ludology focuses on video games as a construct based upon rules while narratology focuses on video games as narratives. The term "narrative" is also known by what other term in the academic world?
2. Put simplistically, ludologists believe video games are a series of rules, which if followed, result in winning. They argue that early video games best illustrate this idea because they fail to carry narratives. In their arguments, they often use the examples of which games to illustrate the point that video games are dominated by rules and not storylines?
3. In video game theory, narratologists are often adamant that video games have earned the right to be considered as significant as books and film when it comes to their potential as art. After all, aren't many video games simply interactive movies or interactive books?
Video games sometimes even tackle philosophy itself, which is what some argue is the purpose of art. In the 2007 game "Bioshock", which "selfish" Ayn Rand-inspired philosophy is challenged?
4. It would be incorrect to say that ludologists are anti-video game, but they insist that video games and literature cannot be studied as though they are the same.
True or false: When ludologists are asked to explain why some video games seem to follow narratives, they would argue that video games are simply interactive books.
5. A popular area of research in video game theory is the societal effects that video games play. Like violent movies, violent video games come under the radar when violence is perpetrated in society. The shooters at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, and Newtown were all known to play violent video games.
A 2012 study done by Brock University tried to explain this connection and claimed that playing violent video games increased which of the following traits?
6. Fact number one: The media have noted a trend amongst perpetrators of mass shootings that they tend to be young, male, and play violent video games. Fact number two: A Harvard study found that 97% of American teens play video games and 66% consider the games they play to be violent.
Considering the two facts above, proponents of video games would use which of the following famous logical arguments to state that video games should not be blamed for mass shootings?
7. Legislation of the video game industry in Western nations in the late twentieth century was lax for several reasons. Some say that this is because video games were considered art and Western nations were hesitant to censor it, but is that the most likely explanation for the lack of legislation?
8. The art debate in video game theory is to question whether video games are or are not indeed art. A game of chess on a board or a sport (such as baseball) played on a field may not always be considered art. Yet, an intricately carved chess set or the unique architecture of a baseball field may qualify those two as art in some sense. This idea follows that the aesthetics of a game can make that activity artful.
What would be considered the aesthetic equivalent in video games?
9. The nineteenth century pointillists showed us that paintings can be brought down to their most basic elements, and Georges Seurat was famous for his painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" which was featured in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Small dots, or "points" mean nothing when they stand alone, but together they paint us a picture.
While not seemingly artful, what might game programmers consider to be the equivalent of a pointillist's "points"?
10. Of course, a quiz on video game philosophy would not be complete without a mention of some dead ancient Greek guy. Plato, and his Platonic theory, believed that art came from deep within its creator, that it is untouchable, and that its true meaning is to understand the creator's soul. All could understand the creator's soul if we just looked hard enough within ourselves.
Plato's beliefs make it difficult to reconcile video games as art; after all, a video game is hardly untouchable as it is interactive. What other reason would Plato likely give to show that video games are not art?
Source: Author
trident
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
kyleisalive before going online.
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