Being a videogamer since I was a wee little kid, it was really nice to read about the scholarly merits of computer games as a true form of "new media". Manovich writes how "In short, the computer database and the 3-D computer-based virtual space have become true cultural forms- general ways used by the culture to represent human experience, the world, and human existence in this world" (215). It is amazing to me how technologically advanced "cultural forms" have come from it's early days of sticks and stones. I wonder though how far this form, especially in the form of video and computer games, has come in the academia. I believe that the current academic culture has deemed videogames as a form that is meant only for children and teenagers as a form of leisure and fun and not so readily acceptded by the academia. Yes, I played "Oregon Trail" as a elementray student, but I have yet to play an appropriate computer game since highschool or coming to college for class. One would not likely see a history class playing a game of "Age of Empires" or "Civilization" or "SimCity" for economics class though the benefits and "the human experience of being in the world," would be tremendous. I would not likely play a game of "Zelda" or "Final Fantasy" to learn about the narrative structure for an English class, though I have been just as awe-struck and amazed by the beauty of their stories as much as "The Odyssey" or "Romeo and Juliet".

I haven't made it through all of the Lev Manovich reading yet, but some parts of what I've read are pretty exciting (mostly because, I admit, they are relevant to things I'm thinking about for my thesis). I'm really interested in what he's got to say about the narrative v. database argument, and the position new media is in to play on both teams. And the projects he describes on page 226 sound incredible...

Manovich (so far) has described the narrative & database sythesis available to new media developers as also being available to cinema and video games. He may touch on other subjects further on in the article, but I'm guessing because of some of his previous statements that he's planning on leaving literature out for good. I'm not sure, though, I think differently: what about Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities? In fact, I think that text is a great example of a synthesis between narrative and database-- Marco Polo presents descriptions of cities in a loose order to Kublai Kahn, and every 5-15 cities or so the descriptions are interrupted by short conversations between Marco Polo & Kublai Kahn which again relate only loosely & sometimes not at all to the descriptive database of cities. In addition, each city is categorized as cities & memory, cities & signs, cities & desire, thin cities, cities & eyes, etc.