Task 5

Participatory Culture has become the popular thing for online gaming in the recent years. Based on the reading by Sotamaa, participatory culture plays a huge role in character modification. The article also talks about rendering gameplay maps and modifying how weapons are used in online games. The most popular aspesct of particpatory culture is that the gamer has conrtol of what he or she wants to do in the game. For example with online games, players can create any character they want to, with choosing different skin tones and from a range of different types of clothes. This ties into our recent discussions of online identity. The reason being is that the characters which people create using different skin tones, weapons, etc. are creating their online identity with this character.

However this is not entirely the case in the article that talks about fantasy baseball. The only similarity between the two is that the gamer still has control over what he/she wants to do in the game. The gamer chooses the baseball players he/she would feel are the best players for their team and then manage the team through the season.

Task Two:

Another serious game I found under the same heading as Ayiti is Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City. The gameplay in both of these games are completely different. In Ayiti the gamer controls a family of five and can choose what to do with any member of the family, whether it is to send them off to work, or become educated. Whereas in Hurricane Katrina the gamer can only be one person and has to go through the game in a certain pattern. Unlike Ayiti, the gamer has no control over the objective of the game. Both games raise the issue of social awareness but I would have to say that Ayiti is the better game overall based on the style of gameplay. It is more strategic than Hurricane Katrina and there is more action going on that the gamer has to be aware of.