As a history major realizing I played the very first game, Myst, to have a HyperCard royally blew my mind. Digital History is something I have lived even before I knew what it was. Art, Science, and Religion came together to add to a social academic structure that eventually developed a complicated necessity of computers and the internet. I really hope to delve more into the influence of art and the humanities on Scientific and digital developments within the 1930’s. A modern miss conception is that the humanities and the arts are unimportant in the modern age, but the influence of art and the humanities remains prominent in the digital age.
“Pox and the City, the Game”[1] is an Exhibit written by Lisa Rosner. In this Exhibition she reviews the online game called Pox and the City. She timelines the events of this history game and gives an over view of the point of the game. The game itself is based more upon the history of the small pox vaccination. However, the game doesn’t put enough stock in the history aspect for the player to really care or read documents. The reviewer, Lisa Rosner, doesn’t put much stock in the history side of it either. In fact her over all analysis of the game doesn’t make it appealing to historians or gamers. To historians the game is a poor attempt to history analogies, and to gamers it’s a boring game surrounded by unnecessary history. her use of Blog gives more people a chance to see it. Her use of pictures does give the reader a good idea of what to expect in the game. Her focus on the life lead by your choices as the virtual doctor undercuts the whole point of the game, and the whole point is to understand the history and impact of the smallpox vaccine. The post and the game don’t do the historical significance justice or the gamer world justice. If the writer wished to create a more focused post she should have done her own timeline of the history of the smallpox vaccine alongside the game’s preexisting process. Then used the social doctor aspect of it to go in-depth on the social issues that doctors faced. Its sub-par in its use of history, digital culture, and analysis. Her sources need work, her process needs work, but how she presented it was appropriate to her targeted audience of a general internet reader.[2]
[1] http://poxandthecity.blogspot.com/
[2] http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/fall-2019/dh
Really interesting perspective on the failures/limitations of media projects and crossgenre indie games. I took a look at that blog myself– and good God, I know your pain. What an eyesore. For as much as the discerning gamer lauds and applauds indie endeavours, I have to wonder just how many indie games are actually polished pieces of work, at least compared to bigger budget titles. Could a more corporate game studio pull this smallpox premise off? How would that limit or advance the game?