Vianney, one of our classmates, briefly mentioned the participation in games that Bogost talks about in his chapter about Texture. In the beginning of this semester, we learned about how almost all games (not just the electronic ones) involve pretending to a certain extent. It’s what makes games enjoyable, whether it’s a kid running around the house and pretending to be a superhero, or one of us pretending to be in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. At the end of her post, Vianney asks if a common hardcore game could be altered into a casual one and, if so, what elements would need to change. I believe that in order to achieve such a transformation, the elements of a hardcore game that would need to be changed (or even removed) are exactly the texture and participation. The texture could be changed by replacing the visual details with simple, cartoon-like images, and the sound effects by a playful background melody. The participation could be changed by making it difficult for the player to pretend to be the main character. One way this could be done is by making a 1st person game into a 3rd person one. If you don’t believe that a hardcore game can be made into a casual game, you should play the Flash version of Portal.
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