Death of the Gamer: Why the Term ‘Gamer’ Matters

Posted October 6, 2016

External Article: Forbes

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in “Death of the Gamer: Why the Term ‘Gamer’ Matters” by Forbes.

Excerpt:

Ian Bogost, in the conclusion to his book How to do Things with Videogames, remarks that “we must face a humbling and perhaps even disturbing conclusion about the media forms we love: they’re just not that special” (pg. 148). It seems a strange conclusion for someone whose career is largely built on videogame studies. Why bother with all that research for a medium you don’t think is all that special? And yet, Bogost makes a crucial point.

 

It is part of a process he calls demystification. All mediums begin in the form of some innovative, strange, captivating technology. You can use a machine to print endless copies of exactly the same text?! You can use a device to instantly paint a highly-realistic image of whatever it’s pointed at?! You can takes thousands of these images and play them in quick succession?! You can use a joystick to control and change what happens on-screen?! As a bewildering progression of technology, the newest step carries a degree of intrinsic wonder. The act of playing a videogame is in itself just a really cool, interesting thing to be able to do.

For the full article, read here