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For Media Analysis Essay #2, I have decided to observe my mom
and dad playing a video game called, “Super Smash Brothers.” The age
of my mom is 51 and the age of my dad is 53. Both of my parents are
Koreans; they were born in South Korea and they moved to United
States about 10 years ago. My parents can understand and speak in
English to some degree but they are not fluent in English. My mom has
never played a video game before but my dad has played video games
when they were first introduced to the public in South Korea. My mom
is not very good with technology; she sometimes shows fear towards
using and learning about new technology. Both of my parents work in
grocery stores as clerks.
Secondly, I observed my parents playing the video game for about
three hours and recorded their reactions, behaviors, conversations, and
gestures. When my parents first began to play the video game, there was
interaction between my mom and dad. For example, my mom asked my
dad questions and he was willing to respond to her. During the first
few minutes into the game, he showed her how to use the controller
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and he informed her how to choose the characters (although that was
his first time playing the game as well). During the second round of the
game, he even informed her about which buttons were for which
fighting skills.
But the level of interaction between my parents was reduced after
the first few games. My parents stopped talking to each other; my mom
asked no more questions and neither of them started a conversation.
Additionally, when they first started playing the games, my mom and
dad laughed a lot; they seemed to enjoy the game together. During the
first few games, they made eye contact with one another and talked to
each other. But as they spent more time playing the game, the
interaction between them was rapidly and largely reduced. About 40
minutes into the game, my mom asked my dad a question but he did
not respond. He was so focused in the game that he didn’t even turn
sideways to see her face. After 30 or 40 minutes into the game, they no
longer made eye contact with one another and their focus was on the
TV screen.
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Furthermore, after an hour into the game, both of my parents
began to heavily focus on points and winning. As soon as they figured
out how to play the game, they began to agonize over different
characters, especially about the characters’ abilities, and tournament
locations. My mom began to talk about how some characters were better
at fighting. She also mentioned how some locations were considered
“easy.” She even switched controllers with my dad because she wanted
to try out the Mario character, which she thought was a great fighter.
There were occasional moments when my dad was angry and frustrated
because he lost to my mom, who never played video games before. After
few losses, he angrily shouted, “What’s going on?” I noticed that in the
video game, there were many sections that were devoted to separating
losers and winners. During the game, at the bottom of the page was
percentage of one’s points. My mom was obsessed with the percentages;
she kept talking about how she was losing her points. Also every time
my dad lost the game, he lost interest to continue on but whenever he
won, he quickly moved onto the next round. Due to her winnings, most
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of time, my mom was very happy and she wanted to continue playing
the game. Much of my parent’s reactions, interactions, conversations,
and behaviors were largely affected by their focus and desire to win
the games. Their aspiration to win reduced interaction between them
and caused them to become so focused on winning.
A few questions were asked after my parents played the video
game. First question was “What about this video game was fun and
why?” My mom thought that it was fun to win against the other
person; winning produced a desire in her to do even better the next
round. Also she mentioned that winning gave her a sense of thrill. My
dad said that it was fun to find hidden weapons in the video game
because doing so gave him enjoyment. The difference between the
answers was that my dad thought a part of the game was fun whereas
my mom thought the process of winning the game was fun. I think the
difference in the answers was due to winning or losing. Compared to
my mom, my dad didn’t win a lot of the games so he did not gain the
sense of thrill that my mom heavily received from winning. Because he
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didn’t receive the thrill and excitement from winning, he did not
mention winning as one of the fun aspects.
Second question was “Did you consider winning as more
important than having fun when playing video games?” My mom said,
“Winning was more important”. She said that winning “made her feel
good” and motivated her to continue with the game. My dad said that
it was more important to have fun with the other person. I think that
the answers differed because my dad was trying to make up for his
losses from the video game; he didn’t want me to see or think of him as
the “loser” thus he downplayed the importance of winning when
answering such question. Because he lost most of the games, he did not
wish to admit that winning was considered important. On the other
hand, my mom was willing to admit that winning was more important
than having fun because she won most of the games and winning gave
her satisfaction.
Third question was “What was the main reason why you wanted
to keep playing the game?” My mom said that she wanted to fix the
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mistakes that she made in previous games. She wanted to do better and
she wanted to use the skills that she learned to win more games. My
dad said, “I didn’t really want to continue playing the game”. He
admitted that he wanted to win more of the games. Due to his losses, he
did not want to continue with the game. But for my mom, her desire to
continue was increased due to her winnings. Thus, winning was the
key factor that compelled both of my parents to want to continue
playing the game. I think the reason why winning was considered
crucial to both of my parents was because winning gave them
gratification; as my mom indicated in her response to the second
question, winning “made her feel good.”
The cultural studies perspective is most helpful when explaining
how my dad and mom interacted with the video game. In the video
game, winning was considered very important. In our society, there are
cultural ideologies about winners and losers; winners are valued and
considered important whereas losers are not. The video game did not
create such ideology but it helped to reinforce the already existing
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cultural ideology about importance of winning. For example, after each
game, the video game took the time to praise the winners by displaying
the winning character as happy and joyful whereas the losing
character was in the corner, congratulating the winner. Such
reinforcement influenced the way my parents interacted with the video
game. At first, they were interactive with each other; they engaged in
conversations and often laughed with each other. But after few games,
they no longer interacted with one another but became so focused in
the game, especially about winning the games. They took time to think
about which character and tournament places to choose, in order to
increase their chances of winning. My mom, who won most of games,
wanted to continue with the games but my dad, who did not win most
of games, showed little desire to continue on except for few occasions
when he won. This was also apparent in their answer to the three
questions; both admitted that they wanted to win and winning was a
crucial determinant of whether or not they liked the video game and
wanted to continue playing.
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