Building on foundations

While I am not very familiar with the TV show referenced in this week’s readings, it’s obvious that the character is supposed to fit the stereotype of a geek who would be the type who would seek out ‘classic text based computer games’ using the ‘worlds most powerful graphics chip – imagination’. This is typically how books have worked for so many years, relying on the imagination of the reader to visualize.

In my short lifetime I have gone from being an undergrad studying English with a focus on bibliography to studying new media in a class where nary a book was to be found. Eisenstein’s piece was a refreshing read and certainly squelches the panic and doomsday scenario that preaches the end to all things biblio. As she points out in her paper, there have been fears from the time of Voltaire that the publications were in fear of being commercialized and compromised. As I was reading Eisenstein I thought of the recent events in France and the murders of the Charlie Hebdo staff.  France has long been a staunch defender of freedom of expression whether it is via literature, books or journals. New media is the newest form of this expression.  

How does this all relate to the YouTube piece? The character Sheldon is obviously portrayed in the show as somewhat of an eccentric who would be just the type to seek out old text based games such as Zork or Colossal Cave Adventure. He is fully engaged with the program, even fascinated.  When games such as these were created at MIT1 it was breaking new ground.  Yet what was once ground-breaking is, in today’s world, retro.  In a study of the influence of games such as Zork, Barton compares Zork to the Illiad in terms of influence arguing that the game Zork laid the foundations for games that came after it.  Sheldon was experiencing the computer game as it was originally conceived, in a way that Barton claims can 'simulate a rich virtual environment' and Sheldon's reaction is fitting.

What I did find rather interesting is in the background of the room where Sheldon is located there is a book shelf filled with…BOOKS!  Clearly this debate will continue to be played out with the advent of each new technology and in the interim we will continue to embrace new technologies while clinging to those that we have come to trust from the past.

As an aside I found a current site where you can go in and play the game that Sheldon was playing in the TV show.




http://www.amctv.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire/colossal-cave-adventure/landing

References

1 Barton, M. (2007) .The History of Zork. Gamasutra. Retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/129924/the_history_of_zork.php?page=6


2 Eisenstein, E. (1995). The End of the Book? Some Perspectives on Media Change. American Scholar, 64, 541-555.