🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 09 Nov 1999 14:59:10 -0800, Justin Liew <jzl...@NOSPAMsfu.ca>
wrote:

>Hi all,
>
> I am a fourth year Computing Science student at Simon Fraser University
>
>
>List your 5 favorite games, and reasons why they are your favorite.
>
>Describe each game in one sentence.

F4.  Modern jet aviation/combat sim taking place in a fictional
conflict over Korea.  Current fave because it is new (to me),
simulates the operation of an aircraft very well in a very complex and
challenging manner, and has an excellent "what if you were really
there" feel due to the dynamic campaign.

Grand Prix Legends.  A faithful 1967 grand prix racing simulator.
Fave because it is an excellent simulator of notoriously
difficult-to-drive cars. The physics are so good that it is again like
"being there" for real.

European AIr War.  A WWII aviation/ air combat simulator.  
Fave because it models my favourite area of aviation in a good manner,
and the way the aerail battles play out it is again like "being
there", like taking part in one of the old History channel
documentaries.

Red Baron II/3d.  A WWI air combat game, of which the flight model
unfortunately is too poor to merit the "aviatiion simulator" moniker. 
Still a fave, as it also gives a "being there" impression, mainly
because of its good campaign mode.  

Air Warrior III.  An on line aerial combat sim using WWII aircraft.
This is not however a WWII simulator as there is no historical
context.
Intense dogfights, camaraderie.  However I have not played in months!




>
>What factors do you think make games so popular? ie. What factors would
>persuade you to buy a certain game?

>From the above you can conclude that I am prolly not a typical gamer.
Historical (whether real or imaginary-real, ie a fictional but
possible war over Korea counts but Luke Skywalker against Captain Kirk
does not ;-) is a factor that I prefer. I like aviation, mainly WWI
and WWII ac, and do not care much for modern jets.  I also like old
cars but only take a passing interest in motorsports.  However the
quality of "immersion" both in F4 and GPL have me totally hooked. So I
guess that execution of the game, especially the quality of the
simulation, and the dynamic campaign factors, can draw me in even if
the subject is not my premier interest. 

>
>Would you let your children play your 5 favorite games?  Why or why not?
>

None of the games described above contain material that I would
consider problematic for  children.  

>How does the perception of the impact of violence in games differ from
>that in other mediums? (ie. TV, movies, music).
>
More gratuitous, no story, no consequence.  A good story on TV or at
the moviehouse has a place for violence.  The people that suffer under
or commit the violence in a good story do not come out unscathed.  The
usual revenge story never leaves the avenger without lumps, bruises
and mental scars.  However the violence in a computer game just leaves
behind heaps of gore and a good laugh. 

>Do you think violence in computer games affects children/teenagers, and
>to what extent?
>

With children and with TV/video images most certainly.  When I was in
my early school years my little brother and I used to watch old Tarzan
movies, hardly cutting edge stuff these days.  The first thing we did
after themovie was over was get our plastic toy knives out and have a
go at eachother.  The better we imitated the movie scenes the happier
we were.  After an Ivanhoe movie we got the plastic swords out, and
after a western movie we got our toy guns out.  The way we reacted as
children was to act out the scenes in these movies. However the images
of these movies involved real (if imaginary) people in real (if
imaginary) contexts.  I am not sure about computer games.  Much
violence in computer games is obviously animated or cartoon like, and
not scary or intimidating to even the smallest of children, and has
obviously no bearing on real life.  The context of "here you are on an
alien planet, all these aliens just abducted your mama and your
sister, go blast them away" is usually only remotely present in the
actual gameplay.  I am not familiar with combat games that have a more
real life context, and do not know if these games, where you fight
"real people" in a possibly more real-world like context have an
effect. However my impression is that the "immersive" factor of that
type of game is just not up to snuff in order to create real problems
of separating reality from imagination.  

To illustrate: i have not heard from small children having nightmares
from computer games.  Of course we all know that small children can
easily suffer nightmares from watching TV, movies or even the news or
reading books.

Perhaps i am not sufficiently informed.

Good luck

Dolle Dolf

>Do you think violence in computer games affects adults, and to what
>extent?
>

No. 

>Any other comments.
>
>Thank you for your time,
>Justin Liew (please respond via email, and remove NOSPAM)
>