Reading 3 - Truc Le

In the first chapter of his book, “Gaming : Essays on Algorithmic Culture”, Galloway, Alexander R. (2006, page 1-38) categorizes gamic actions into four stages: the Ambience act, the Setup act, the Movement act, and the Disabling/Enabling act of the machine. While Galloway critically analyzes the four stages, he fails to relate any user experience to the overall act of gaming. I believe that with an addition of the user experience, Galloway can make a better impact on his readers.

According to Galloway, the definition of playing video games is “an activity that is (1) free, (2) separate, (3) uncertain, (4) unproductive, (5) regulated, and (6) fictive” (Caillois, Man, Play and Games, 43) and this activity is “embedded inside algorithmic game machines” (Galloway, 21). While I do not fully understand what algorithmic game machines mean, I agree with Caillois as I used to be a dynamic gamer myself. My summer days in middle school used to be filled up with computer games, which I think is not much different from video games. I would sit on the computer all day trying to improve my character’s skills and popularity whether it was in “Hot Step”, “Ghost”, or “The Sims 1, 2, 3”. The whole activity was fun, unproductive, and, sadly, separated from the real world. The beautiful graphics of games in the Ambience and the Setup acts tempted me into the online virtual worlds, and eventually, they confused my reality with the Movement and the Disabling/Enabling acts. Although it is true that “Without the active participation of players and machines, video games exist only as static computer code” (Galloway, 2), most gamers like myself could not resist the urge to engage in the lively world of actions that games bring to our eyes.

It was only when my parents told me to stop that I regained my awareness of the real world. However, that sudden feeling of being detached from the virtual reality always made me feel confused: I knew I was wasting time, but I also knew that I enjoyed the fanciful feeling of being another character. Now, after four years of not being a keen gamer, I found somewhat an answer to my confusion: “Play is a symbolic action for larger issues in culture....It is an aesthetic, enacted vehicle for “a powerful rendering of life”” (Galloway, 16). I interpret this statement as: people who are having problems in real life come to games to clear their minds and/or to live the identities that they want but have not had. If I look at gaming this way, I think it both has good and bad sides. As long as people have enough self control, gaming can do them good as it allows them to escape the social pressure.

To sum up, gaming has four stages of actions that, when combined, can be very tempting to people, especially those who are trying to get away from the daily stress. However, each person should have their time limits on gaming so that they will not get stuck in a virtual reality.