Response For Sleeper Curve

Through my experience in this class for the Quarter, I have spent quite a good chunk of time review and discussing Johnson's Sleeper Curve. I choose Resident Evil 4 for my study of Johnson. I have yet to beat this game, but for what I have finished it has been an extremely telling game. As I wrote in my essay, "This game relies heavily on the aspect of making the gamer probe through their environment. When you kill one of the infected in this game they may drop a little bit of money or some ammo, but it is never enough for you to survive on. Instead you have to look around for barrels or crates to find more ammo and money for you to use. There are also hidden chests and other secrets behind things like paintings and dressers. Probing also helps you to avoid traps such as bear traps and explosives. If you look around the floor before you walk into a wooded area, you will be able to see the bear traps and disarm, them and when you look at the trees you will be able to see the two explosive boxes with a trip wire between them." The aspect of finding secrets in the game also ties in nicely with Johnson's idea of the reward system.

The reward system is important for understanding the aspect that video games are good for us. “A strong case can be made that the power of games to captivate involves their ability to tap into the brain's natural reward circuitry.” (Johnson 34) The release of Endorphins into the brain help to make a solid tie in for the gamer with solving problems or finding secrets and feeling rewarded. I have noted Johnson's ideas in the aspects of my playing. They seem to be around in all of the other aspects he mentions in his book too. I notice the amount of multi-threading in shows such as House. I have noticed the complexity of Webshows such as Homestar Runner. When I get bored of righting for my class most of the time I will go onto Wikipedia and start to research different things. I am anxious to see what the rest of my classmates think.