Anthropology of Computer Games

I have got some devices in my body that the US government might recording my thoughts. I am not insane. I have a good evidence to say so. I was forced to stay in hospital and they did some experiements on my body. Later I was followed by the Department of Defense. I was only a foreign student in the US and they used me as a specimen... because I had a tendency of activists and wanted to stand against for ilogical discrimnations like sexism and racism.

Let me explain what I mean by antrhopology of comuter games. Anthropology has couple of sub categories -like visual anthropology, you now - and I want to claim this “anthropology of comuter games” is my idea. I don't like people taking my ideas for their careers. I have done anthropology of foods in California while I was in San Jose, CA. I spent breaks to study California wines (with my friend who studied enology) and local foods from Sonoma to San Diego area. In San Jose, we have Japan Town and Little Portugies. China Town was located near Market Street but was destroyed in the fire. You can see the sign on the hotel. However, you can try the best Chinese meals in Cuppertino Villege as it is almost entirely Chinese stripped shopping mall (with mainly Tiwanese and Hongkongese cultural influence). Anyway, this will be another story and I don't know if SJSU decided to work on any type of food culture since last year. What I have done already is around the Silicon Valley and Wine countries – Napa, Sonoma, Paso Robros, Temecula, and so on. I spent years for studying wine countries, though. Because I prefer to work individually, probably other American students and professors did not like me as they could not get any advantages from my works and ideas.

It was a quite long background information, huh? What is anthropology of Computer Games then? It is a type of cultural study of how computer games has been changed though times. I am sure some people in Silicon Valley love to know the result. I am about 78% done for the general understanding. I will probably post it in my blog as a result of my research. (I have no time to type up my ideas though. I will type some as bullet style in this week for the viewers interested about the subject. I do not mind to share the information with social scientists or other people who can respect the ideas of others and not stealing the ideas. What people have to do? Put a reference on their work! If you are interested, I can work for your company! I have a Swiss bank account!) Ok, here is the list of definitions:

1. Study of computer games through chronological change
2. Understand the influence of technology advance. i.e. 3D-graphic engine (Voodoo 3DFX to NVIDIA G-Force and Activision.), Sound system (beep to midi, and to Sound Blaster)
3. Competition with handheld and game-only devices like Nintendo NES, SNES to Play Station and XBOX.
4. Ideantity of PC-only computer games.
5. Impact of globalism and Internet.

Because of the advanced graphic, sound, and processing speads, we have a quite serious problem how to atract the consumers. Ultima and Ever Quest became off from the main stream. What I can tell is the future of the computer game trends. If you are interested, just keep an eye on my blog. Some PC game magazine writers might tell you the below things, but my idea is quite different now.

• There is a cycle of computer games; one time adventure games became boom, then next will be strategy, RPG, and so on.
• The game developers have strong influences from the hardware companies. It was true when Virtual Reality the synonium word for advanced computer technology. How about Play Station series? Consumers do not change their PS2 to PS3 not much. If people are satisfied with what they have and do not find the new one so attractive, they keep using the old stuffs. It is same for cars, right?

So, what I want to say is... I got Elder Scroll: Oblivion back!!! I was studying that game last summer for a week and then when I went out to get some food because I felt shortage in the stocks and found out my car was robbed. (Now I have the police reference number for the incident: 061999500 from SJPD) Probably, the student stalkers monitoring me playing the game for 24+hours was so frustrated and did the petit crime. What I am going to do is exercise the game method to see if the stalkers in Europe would get flustrated or not.

Actually, I tried to download Postal2 demo (3D game banned in several countries) to see if the people monitoring me get sickness from the 3D action. Too bad, before I could see the change in them, I felt sick from playing it.. If you are a gang stalking victim, you might want to try it.

There are antrhopologists trying to steal ideas from other people (including indigenous people) out there! Bewere of such thieves!!! I prefer to share my knowledge only for the improvement of the compture games and for the happniess of both game creaters and players!

German version of Oblivion seems quite interesting as I can add some other research parts – like the use of particular German words to explain English words. I still remember the original American version interface. I hope Germans do not mind me studying that lingustical part. I know many German gamers love simuration and strategy games as they try to import high-tech stuffs as soon as the product is availabe. One of the Silicon Valley and Germany connection, right?