Cinematic Gaming and Immersive Participation - Essay Example

Introduction

If one takes a close look at the history of the development of the mankind, one will be able to see that technology has played an important role in it. Indeed, from the very dawn of the society people have been inventing new ways to achieve goals and this has become the driving force of progress. However, what is really interesting about this phenomenon is that technology also influences the manner in which people entertain others or themselves. That is why the world of contemporary entertainment is significantly different from something that could be witnessed in the past. At the present moment, it would not be a mistake to suggest that media has become more interacting and expects the consumers to participate. This paper will explore how the concept of the taste for reality and the emergence of the users who produce content is reflected in cinematic gaming and immersive participation.

Historic background

To begin with, it may be quite interesting to explore the relationship between visual entertainment and the development of technology. Schwartz (1995) notes that in the nineteenth-century people of Paris were particularly interested in entertainment which consisted of visual stimuli and that portrayed an unusual aspect of reality. A good example is the popularity of Paris Morgue. It is obvious that today people are able to educate themselves about virtually anything, including anomalies in bodies, using the Internet, but at the time going to the Morgue was regarded as one of the most popular entertainments. In addition to that, wax museums were also quite highly praised because they allowed people to capture a particular moment and analyze it from different perspectives which is something that can hardly be achieved in real life. Finally, one should also mention the popularity of panoramas which could be seen as the early version of virtual reality.

Entertainment without a body

It has already been established that visual stimuli play an important role in the field of entertainment; nevertheless, the further analysis should focus on a rather peculiar relationship between one's body and one's vision. Friedberg (1993) suggests that the modern culture contributes to the separation of one's point of view as well as one's body. This can be easily explained if one explores the manner in which people have been looking at the world throughout the history. One can hardly argue that originally vision and one's body were closely connected because people used their eyes exclusively to view the world. Later when different tools, for example, binoculars, appeared people who could see further while staying at the same place. Today, technology allows a person to enter a completely different world of virtual reality, making one's physical location not important at all.

The subcultural aspect

There is one last aspect that should be mentioned while considering the role that cinematic gaming as well as immersive participation play in the contemporary landscape of media. One should keep in mind that the interest towards these phenomena is mostly found within a limited group of gamers. Therefore, following the words of Warner (2002), it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that cinematic gaming and immersive participation should be regarded as counterpublic entertainment. Indeed, it one can hardly argue that the conventional forms of entertainment, for example, cinema, are less popular than games. Nevertheless, many people many people watch the development of gaming industry closely and already enjoy the new achievements in it. In other words, if there were a revolution in this particular aspect of entertainment, then it could have been overlooked by the population that was not paying attention to it in the first place.

The taste for reality

One of the two concepts that are able to explain the development of new forms of media is the desire to taste the reality of the entertainment. Indeed, the first game that was ever created literally feature no graphics at all: people were using their minds. Later visual stimuli were added and today one may have a hard time distinguishing between computer generated picture and an actual picture. Therefore, it is obvious that there is a general trend that can be found in the entire gaming industry to make the users as close as possible to the reality of the game through improving the images. That is why resolution in the games has been gradually becoming higher and higher and may have reached its pinnacle today. In other words, the desire to taste the reality of the other world encouraged the developers to make the virtual world as real as possible.

Secondly, one should also note that immersive participation allows people to feel the other reality in many ways. Consider the first console games: display was the "window" into the virtual world and the position of it was fixed. However, the users today are able to interact with the virtual world in many ways, including changing the position from which they view it. The importance of the latter should not be overlooked since it should be regarded as the fundamental aspect of everyday reality. Indeed, people move around the planet, not vice versa. That is why it essential that the users could experience the virtual world from a different perspective so that they will be able to believe that it is real to a certain extent. Immersive participation allows the users to gain this outstanding experience using the latest advancements in technology.

With all this in mind, one should admit that cinematic gaming, as well as immersive participation, should be regarded as the next phase of the development of this field of entertainment. After all, this was conditioned by every step which the industry took along the way. If one carefully analyzes all the improvement which were made to the games even beyond the era of electronics, one will be able to see that people were not interested in performing certain simple tasks: they were interested in recreating the world and making its virtual counterpart as real as possible. It is obvious that the major emphasis was placed on the visual stimuli which developed the trend of the modern culture to dissociate vision and one's body. Another point that should be mentioned is that all these advancements were warmly accepted by the subculture of gamers who saw that there is a kind of entertainment that is oriented at their needs.

The emergence of the users who produce contents

By far, the modern technology allows people to create a considerable amount of content and liberates them from the passiveness that is associated with the audience. This can be witnessed in immersive participation rather clearly. Thus, the contemporary games often encourage the users to make decisions that would influence the game to a large extent. Indeed, today games are not about achieving a simple goal: they make the players value every their decision since they know that they will influence the end of the game. As a result, it seems that the developers are responsible for the designing the world and the rest is up to a user. By any measure, this makes the work of game designers extremely hard since they have to think about different possibilities and anticipate different actions of the people.

However, the result of this can be outstanding: immersive participation completely customizes the game through giving the users the maximum amount of freedom. Indeed, if people have only two options, they will choose one of them; however, if they virtually have an infinite number of options every game experience becomes unique. That is why the attention of the game designers is now shifted to creating an open world that follows strict rules, but do not limit the freedom of the players. This leads to a peculiar situation when no two gamers can say that they have had the same gaming experience. In other words, entertainment as such as become more personal and it has become a new topic to share. Therefore, it goes without saying that cinematic gaming as well as immersive participation provide users with almost an unlimited amount of freedom that and allow them to generate their own experience and understanding of the virtual world.

Conclusion

Having examined all the points which were mentioned in the paragraphs above one is able to come to the following conclusion: the concept of the taste for reality as well as the emergence of users who are able to produce content have had a significant impact on the field of entertainment and this can particularly be seen in the case of cinematic gaming and immersive entertainment. Indeed, throughout history, people tried to make gaming as close to reality as possible and today this may be achieved to a certain extent. Moreover, the ability to alter the point of view of the virtual world makes it extremely real. Another point that should be mentioned is that today more than even in history the actions that the users perform in the age influence the outcome of the game which leads to a customized gaming experience.