Response: Zagal, Mateas, Temporal Frames

 

Early in this research in timing, it is made clear to the reader that player of games on electronic platforms are not sensitive to the changes in state of the computational hardware. I accept their point of view, qualified by elaborating that game's events and procedures trump processing power for enthralled gamers. Through programming various tasks to be accomplished in a game, timing can shift. There is no need to include material representations of time for this phenomenon to occur. Simply completing prescribed exercises denotes time's passage in relation to the other activities around you. While this is true, many games opt to represent time in more literal ways. In some cases, this makes the game a more believable experience. As players partake in the conceived environment, time is explicitly conveyed during their activity. Whether identified through the player's interaction with a game or as a continuously changing beat, temporal frames follow time's most significant characteristic. The cyclical nature of time is omnipresent in video games, possibly owing to programming techniques. Programming in loops is common and efficient. In many ways, this methodology is a reflection of our worldly behavior.

 

Changing the labels, as is said in the article, of a game's levels and progression helps convey the expected level of play at any given moment. Like any part of screen-based gameplay, time is a tool that can be called upon to serve a specific purpose. That is not to say that it is possible to expressly remove it from our lives. Biological cycles, cultural movements and the addition of cut sequences all enact timing in video games. While they do not necessarily depict time's passage, our activities and behaviors are subject to this part of our reality. It is even possible to mix time frames. Music, layering battles and button combos are all ways of making timing and periods apparent to the player.