Week 3

This week had a strong focus on video games. In the reading from Janet Murray about Agencies I learnt the difference between the terms interactivity and agency. Murray states that interactivity is “vague and pervasive” and is more the mere ability to “move a joystick and click a mouse”. The agency comes down to the thought process of the audience member and the various decisions they have which may lead to different outcomes or conclusions. Agency is all about “the satisfying power to take meaningful action”. One day I sat down and watched my brother play Grand Theft Auto 5, a game that has an enormous terrain for various main characters to explore, or as Murray says, “orienteer”. The incredibly intricate details of the Los Santos/Los Angeles area make for endless outcomes depending first upon which character you choose to play as (you can even play as Chop, the dog!) and then get thrown into various challenges. Even so much as just driving down the LA streets in a stolen car, and making the choice to cause some kind of trouble will lead to wild police chases and so forth. For every action there is a series of reactions.

Reference: Murray, Janet H. (1997). ‘Chapter 5: Agency.’ In Hamlet on the Holodeck. Cambridge, USA: The MIT Press.