Mass Effect is a multi-award winning sci-fi action-adventure video game trilogy by development company Bioware. In many gaming circles Mass Effect is regarded as one of the best story driven games ever created. In “Why Mass Effect is the Most Important Science Fiction Universe of Our Generation”, Munkittrick makes the argument that due to the themes it forces upon players and its reflection upon humanity as a whole, it is the greatest piece of sci-fi of our generation. Munkittrick does a great job presenting his argument often citing how in Mass Effect humans are the perceived minority. Throughout the article he builds his credibility with the audience through using numerous specific references to sci-fi and gaming pop culture. Munkittrick’s …show more content…
Lovecraft to define what the Mass Effect philosophy, called Cosmicism is. He describes Cosmicism as “not merely the idea that there is no meaning in the universe. It’s far worse. Instead, the argument is that there is meaning, but it is so far above and beyond human understanding that we can never attain meaningful existence.” Using this philosophy, he makes several more appeals to logos to show how the lore of Mass Effect, demands a player ask the question “Why fight for survival in a meaningless universe?” Munkittrick argues that this question guides the player to realize that it’s not about humanity at all. The player must then question themselves immediately as a result; What value does galactic civilization bring to the universe; What value does humanity bring to galactic civilization, and What value do I, as the player, bring to humanity? This continuing back and forth never stops throughout the entire …show more content…
The article seems to have a never ending quest to appeal to the ethos and pathos of sci-fi fans and gamers while making a poor attempt of including readers outside of those communities. This would be perfectly acceptable if Munkittrick’s true intention was to tailor this article to focus mostly on the gaming community and sci-fi nerds and only including the general reader parts “just in case”. However, I would argue Munkittrick would have ultimately been better served by refraining from including a paragraph explaining the basis of video games. To further add to this flaw in effectiveness, later in the article Munkittrick also includes unnecessary descriptions of many of the species a player encounters within the Mass Effect universe. I would submit that if the reader had previously played Mass Effect, then these long winded dossiers simply serve no purpose as the reader would already have a familiarity with the Mass Effect species. Alternatively, if the reader is not a gamer or sci-fi fan at all, I believe the article, unfortunately, would have lost the reader much earlier and they would have moved on before ever getting to this section anyway. All of that aside, and in spite of its flaws, I
It is often believed that children are better off spending more time reading books and less time zoning out in front of their video games. People claim that video games sanction and promote aggression and violent responses to conflict; and that most games are an immense waste of time. Steven Johnson, the author of “Why Games Are Good for You,” appreciates the virtues of reading books, but argues that playing video games may not be a complete waste of time. His purpose for writing this essay is to explain the impact of cybertechnology on human perception and communication, in which he defends the value of computer games. In his essay, Johnson fluctuates between the pros and cons of reading versus gaming to appeal to skeptics who believe video
In this story, a boy named Jeremy decides to live out his life in a virtual world rather than the real one. I thought that it was a relatable story, but it just didn't strike my interest as well as Bradbury's did. I think that everyone has felt lonely, abandoned and awkward at some time in their lives, but I don't think any of us would give it up for an unrealistic, virtual world. The thought of an awkward boy leaving the real world and fleeing into what seems to him to be a bright, new world makes me think his is a coward and makes me lose all respect for him. I understand that the real world can be difficult sometimes, but you just have to find some good friends and stick it out with them. I think that video games can be a good way to escape the horrors of the world for a minute and focus on a place where the world is perfect and everything happens just the way you want it to but I also believe that video games need to be 'respected' and should only be played for at most a couple of hours a day. However, I do not believe that video games should be looked at a world that you could live in, and they certainly should not be looked at as a new, brighter future for
Humanity’s technological progressions have separated us from other species, but what are the motives of this progress? And are they truly for the better good? In this passage from What Are People For?, Wendell Berry argues that technology is motivated by greed for money and ease when it should be focused on improving communities and loving God, our families, and our country. But does a desire for money mean that people don’t love these things? No. On the contrary, it is often motivated by the fundamental trait of humanity to care for their family and community.
Grand Theft Auto IV promotes hetronormative hierarchical distinctions between feminity and masculinity through its framing of female and male bodies, its presentation of females as objects of the male gaze and its encouragement of players to adopt and act out a hypermasculine role. It is of vital importance that we do not exclude race, gender or sexuality from discussions of videogames, because as Leonard (2006, pp. 84) asserts, doing so ‘contributes to problematic, if not faulty, understandings of video games and their significant role in contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural organization.’ Instead as players we must engage in discussion regarding videogames and, as Jenkins writes, we must ‘find a way to move beyond our existing categories and to once again invent new kinds of virtual play spaces’ (1999, pp.
The author primarily appeals to the audience using logos. He brings statistics and data from research studies throughout the essay. He either provides background information on why the studies are misleading or just presents a fact. For instance, “According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General 's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure” (Jenkins, “Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked”). He provides data like this through the essay. He is strongly trying to appeal to the audience’s sense of logic and
Mass Effect is a series of three games with a sprawling universe to explore in every game and a massively immersive storyline. The games are set in the around year 2183, and everyone now has the ability to travel through space at ease, communicate with other alien races, and settle on other planets. Only the first two games of the trilogy have come out so far. The focus of this paper will be on the second of the two. One of the unique things about the Mass Effect series is that you are able to customize your character when you start the game and depending on the choices you make in the games the story will change dramatically. For the sake of this paper I will be assuming that the protagonist is a male, and the player has played through making good moral choices. John Shepard is the hero of these games. He also has a crew that help him along comprised of Jacob, Miranda, and Mordin to name a few. The villains of these games are the Reapers, an extremely advanced race of synthetic/organic warships, whose main goal is to harvest every living organic being in the galaxy. In the second Mass Effect game there is a second villain that comes into play, the Collectors. The Collectors are being directly controlled by the Reapers to harvest humans. The mystic guide for the first Mass Effect was Captain Anderson, and in the second game it is a man known only as "The Illusive Man."
Video game playing has become an increasingly popular interest for many people. Every video game is unique in its own way and how it is shaped to the audience at hand. With all the video game playing, this gives rise to possible concerns as to how the media portrays such aspects in a game. One debate about video games that is an increasingly popular subject to talk about is how gender is portrayed in video games for both men and women. In many video games, women are shown as having a passive role, while men hold a more dominant role. In the video game Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is a character this is being talked about because she is the main character and is a female. Previous video games have created the media representation that females are
... sources of media accelerating the world’s decline into aggressive stupidity. Does a seven year old child really need a game about blowing the heads off of rebel soldiers to make them happy? Is it going to help them relate to the other seven year olds in their class at school, or help them learn how to take a math test? No. Fact is, the damage of exposing developing children to violence at early ages outweighs the advantage of giving them easy entertainment. If anything, it makes one wonder what the video game world will have disintegrated to in ten years if this is what the kids are playing now.
“Most reported effects of videogames – particularly in the popular press – appear to centre upon the alleged negative consequences… Research has consistently shown that playing computer games (irrespective of genre) produces reductions in reaction times, improved hand-eye co-ordination and raises players’ self-esteem,” (Griffiths p. 47), states Mark Griffiths in his article, “The educational benefits of videogames”. When people think of video games, they often tend to think about the negative side effects that video games can have on a person. Will Wright in his article, “Dream Machines” also defends video games by providing positive effects that video games have on those who play them. Wright presents
This journal article is entirely credible and written by two women who know what they’re talking about. This article discusses how video games form stereotypes about both genders and that they impact both gamers and non-gamers. Men are portrayed as aggressive and women are unsurprisingly portrayed as sex objects. A main issue with this is that video games are mostly played by the younger generation meaning these are the ideas being imbedded into the youth of the world. The...
The final conclusion to the fantastic story of Mass Effect comes to an end in the last game of the franchise, Mass Effect 3. As always, the Mass Effect shines in it 's choice based story and its diverse and detailed characters. The game picks up after the second, with Shepard, the main protagonists of all the games, trying to convince the universe that an evil threat known as the reapers are coming to kill all life in the universe and with the help of his/her 's crew, and the vast alien civilizations that choose to help you, stop them from killing all life. Can Shepard stop the infighting between civilizations and say the universe, the final ending all depends on your decision.
Science fiction never ceases to amaze me as I take great enjoyment in exploring these creative universes. I have always had a great interest in military science fiction for its take on technological innovation and critical analysis. Military science fiction in general is very speculative about future of technology and warfare. The military science fiction genre also serves as a critique of contemporary politics as it deals with many of the same issues that go on today. This has made military science fiction one if the most well respected genres of science fiction for it ability to indirectly criticize modern society. My Integrated Project explores the relationship between how technology that has arisen from war has been some of the most innovative and why war has become an unshakeable aspect of human existence.
For example, the author mentions that Lanza liked non-violent video games like Dance- Dance Revolution, yet she was responsible for the Newtown incident. On the contrary, several news articles have reported that Lanza was addicted to violent video game like Call of Duty and Gears of War (Bates & Pow, 2013; Sheldrick, 2012). Maybe Lanza also liked Dance-Dance Revolution, but the author’s use of hasty generalization in ignoring the truth is misleading his audience. Moreover, the author uses oversimplification in the last few paragraphs. Gilsdorf explains clearly that people are becoming more civilized and that they need some place to release their stress and aggression. I completely agree with the fact that we need adrenaline rich experiences but I can’t agree to his idea that video games are a good outlet for aggression. There are various other sports that do the same thing like basketball, badminton, etc. Overall, the article would have been more meritorious if he had limited the use of logical fallacies in his
3. “Video Games” by Chris Jozefowics. Published by Gareth Stevens Publishing 2010. Pleasantville, NY 10570-70000 USA. Produced by Editorials Directions Inc.
Dystopian video games merit the same critical analysis as their literary and film counterparts; providing meaningful site in which questions about the future of technology play out against the logic of dystopian alternative histories. Irrational Games’ video game series Bioshock represent an important example of video games that have the potential to be thought-provoking and complicated texts. This essay will address the alternative histories that the Bioshock series presents, understanding these alternative histories through scholarly exploration and ?. Bioshock is an exceptional exemplification of a video game that simultaneously celebrates and investigates dystopian notions of technological progress and free will.