The Form of Media

So with my top 10 mainstream anime list I think I hit on a larger media idea. The idea of media representation. Okay I'm a black guy so I've heard and on some occasions made another angle of this argument but that's not where I'm going.

Nope. This is not about racial diversity in pop culture.

Going somewhere completely different. Ready.

I love media. I love reading it, watching it, playing it, and listening to it. I LOVE MEDIA. But I can't experience every piece of media out there. So the bits I do experience color the my view of what their respective medium is.  For instance while I played and liked video games the first game I really loved and had at my disposal to fully take apart. was Soul Caliber the Dreamcast. I had Sonic 2. I liked Sonic 2, I never beat Sonic 2. Damn Aquatic Zone.


But I played the hell out of, challenged my friends to, beat, and re-beat Soul Caliber and it colors my perception of other games because it was one of the games most economically but more importantly experientially accessible to me.  It has become entrenched my archetype of game. And my perception of what is a game is largely effected by that.

But the concept of game is artificial. It's something that is determined by the games that are available which in turn is determined by the games people create.

My point is that the games people are exposed to...Extra Credits did it better.  The games people are exposed to affect the games they create and affects what people consider a game.

But its not just games.  I'm a movie guy. And I've only really been exposed to about maybe 15 plays independent of film adaptation. Reading a script, or going to the theater.  And because of that my idea of what is a play is basically amounts to Shakespeare. I know that's a shame. And I should dive head first into Tennessee Williams. But it is what it is.

And if I on a lark were to try to write a script for better or worse by the shear draw of the medium I would be trying to emulate Shakespeare more than anybody else merely because he's what I had the most access to.

I'm not saying its good or bad but its a media phenomena worth studying, worth thought. How does access affect the form, the intrinsic charactaristics of media.