Video+Game+Structure

=Video Game Structure= Marcott Bernarde toc

Purpose
This concept map is a visualization of the basic interaction between the game, the players and the machine. Each component breaks down into smaller segments to show the complexity and the relationships that are formed when playing a video game.

Research Summary
Simply put, //a video game is an interactive game operated by a computer circuitry// (Encyclopedia Brittanica). The development of the video game gained its momentum after Atari released "Pong" in 1973 and from then on games became more complex, both in graphics and objectives, and boomed into a grand money making industry. The impact of the video game is also evident in our culture as it affects our language and how we socially interact with each other, therefore making it a great media to explore and analyze visually.

Initial Maps & concept
I started the project by listing out what a video game is and what it is made up of. Displayed here is the initial map I've made showing the basic video game interaction and its social impact.

Final Concept
Seeing how complicated the topic can get, I decided to focus on the most basic definition of a video game (see research summary) and decided that this was the best way for me to simplify and organize information. One of the challenges I faced was the lack of development on how I'm going to break down the players and the computerized machine. This just meant that I had to do more research. Displayed below is the final concept map I referred to:

Visual Organization
Shown below are initial concepts for visual organization. The first one resembled the cmaps and the second one illustrated the different levels of the video games' structure. It seemed like a feasible approach but as soon as I started making links, it ended up looking messier than I wanted. I decided to do a circular graph to show the relationships between the three components because the nature of how I organized my information seemed to fit, given that I'm showing the breakdown of the video game's interactivity (I imagined that I'm cutting a pie into smaller pieces). The colours I chose was inspired by Super Mario and was kept pale so the information was the focus.

Visual Map
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**Resources**
"electronic game." __Encyclopædia Britannica__. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 10 Jan. 2008 <[|http://www.search.eb.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/eb/article-9001562>.] Miller, Toby. "Gaming for Beginners." __Games and Culture__ 1 (2006): 5-12. __CSA: Illumina__. York University, Toronto. 10 Jan. 2008. Berger, Arthur Asa. __Video Games: a Popular Culture Phenomenon__. Transaction, 2002. Demaria, Rusel, and Johnny L. Wilson. __High Score! : the Illustrated History of Electronic Games__. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2004. King, Lucien. __Game on : the History and Culture of Videogames__. St. Martin's P, 2002. "Video Games." __Wikipedia__. 10 Jan. 2008 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games>.] "Video Game Culture." __Wikipedia__. 17 Jan. 2008 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_culture>.]