Bolter & Grusin, pages 88-131

This reading takes us to computer games and photography, and their relationship with society. The section on the computer games was the most interesting to me. As we know, many of today’s computer games “promise transparent immediacy through real-time interactive graphics or text” (103). My twelve-year-old son plays an on-line game called Room Scape. This game allows hundreds of people to exist at the same time in the same fantasy game over the Internet. These types of games provide a socially shared space, in that the gamer can add, or change to the narrative structure of the game each time he logs on. While this game is played primarily by tweens, and young teens, there are other games, such as Second Life, that have a strong adult content. These role playing games may offer transparent immediacy, but are they allowing some of the players to disconnect themselves from the physical world? Are some individuals becoming so immersed in this transparent immediacy that it is harmful both mentally and physically? Should these games be censored? It is difficult to censor these types of games because they are available through the Internet. Yes, it is the parent’s responsibility to monitor their children’s activities, but Internet access is everywhere. I suppose it is the future that will determine how (if) these types of games can, will, or need to be censored.