In the article Understanding Baseball Consumption Via In-Home Gaming, authors Gawrysiak, Dwyer and Burton question whether video games based on sports are good for them or bad in terms of consumption and interest. Their topic has been barely touched as the realm of real life video games has only come about in recent years. Sport games like MLB: The Show are important because if they appeal too much or too little to the market out there, the teams and the organization of baseball suffers in terms of sales and profit to the sport. Being a baseball player, I was intrigued by this article because it hits home. Playing the game and the video game, I see no way that video games could have someone not want to partake in watching a game in real life or playing. But the article looks into a possibility of this happening. The article tells two sides of possibilities that could happen through the use of video games by either strengthening the love of baseball or making people stray from the game. It is important to know this because if organizations can track down how well video games influence players to either partake in watching, they can advertise or improve gameplay to attract more people to attend real games. With a sport called America’s pastime, the turnout to games has declined over the years. So finding a way to attract younger people is crucial for the league and the teams in order to keep up the flow of money. While the article does not give a definitive answer, by looking at the graphs and examples the authors give, being able to maximize the effect of in-home games for sports especially baseball will good for sports in general. There will always be kids who rather play the video game version than go out and play but reaching out to kids with the video game will likely pique their interest in the sport of baseball. Also by having a video game, it reaches out to kids from foreign countries who would not normally watch baseball. By having this platform to reach out to kids outside of the United States, the MLB can make more of a case to introduce the sport and hopefully get new talent from other countries. This would get more viewership from other countries as citizens can rally behind players from their country.

http://search.proquest.com/docview/1730029456?pq-origsite=gscholar

Gawrysiak, Joey, Brendan Dwyer, and Richard Burton. “Understanding Baseball Consumption Via In-Home Gaming.” Journal of Applied Sport Management, Fall 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

When I played Skyrim, I felt like I was transported to a whole new world with endless possibilities. Roaming the large map destined to save the world from dragons and finishing quests along the way. From the beginning of Skyrim to the end, when I put in the disc and pressed continue, nothing else came to my mind completing quests was all that mattered. Having to learn about the abilities my character had, unlocking the best equipment and weapons and upgrading my skills was so absorbing. Being able to sit in my dorm at boarding school on weekends and play without interruption to battle dragons, killing deceased nords called Draugr in caves, finding the best armour, making the best weapons and deciding which items to drop when the weight limit was reached. Everything about the game was so great, from the graphics to the storyline, it felt like you were in a new world. Absorbed into a world of medieval times where there were no cars or electronics and soldiers in metal armour telling tales of getting an arrow to the knee. Starting out with nothing and having to build yourself up in the game made it all worthwhile in the end even though that meant the game was done. After finishing Skyrim, leaving the world full of caves with Draugrs and no more Trolls that chase after you, it leaves an open space in the mind that once had a feeling like you were able to live in medieval times with a little twist of fantasy.

Here are links to a few interesting patents and historical photos.

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https://www.google.com/patents/US3120955?dq=playground&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjP7NKTmrHPAhXFHT4KHXiHBU84ggEQ6AEITDAH

https://www.google.com/patents/US4084812?dq=playground&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivt_j3mbHPAhXDZj4KHQLxDPE4WhDoAQhTMAg

The second floor of Union is a space of many functions. It has tables near the Cafe, couches to sit around, a stage like setting in room 900, and areas to play pool and foosball. While looking around, I saw that the space provided does not give the option to do much rather than just sit and talk. There is not enough room to kick balls around, or have a good game of tag. The area was designed to get people to have conversations rather than engage in activities, even with the pool and foosball tables, you can stand around and have a conversation while beating your opponent. The space also makes room for people eating at the Davis Cafe. People use this room to sit, eat and either discuss homework in groups, or just talk about their day. I observed people sitting around with laptops or textbooks either by themselves or in groups to get homework done. The space influences a place where people can work but not get too bogged down with homework as the background noise of conversations ring in the ears of people hard at work.
The second floor makes it difficult to do anything active. The stage area is set up to give people some form of entertainment. As I was observing, it was Live Thursday and a band was playing some songs. This made it difficult for anyone to really carry a conversation because the music was pretty loud. So while the main function of the space is for having conversations, at times it throws that out and brings on a different theme. The other side of second floor has a couple of couches and a TV. This further cements the use of Union as a place of hanging out and either watching the Patriots shutting out the Texans or just getting comfortable and relaxing. Near the couches, the pool tables are around. This area is really the only place that people can play of some sorts. While it limits what type of games you can play, it is enough to exert whatever energy you have. Overall though, the design of the second floor of Union guides people to have conversations and homework discussions rather than any other kind of interactions. No play can be around other than games that have strict ways of playing. It is a space for relaxed people with no intention of doing any physical activities.

Last week, San Fransisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided not to stand during the national anthem. While he did this before actually playing the game, his stand, or rather not standing was broadcasted to the nation. Author Miguel Sicart writes how politics can be explicitly or implicitly in a game or when people are playing. He uses soccer player Maradona as an example of that. While he was not purposefully showing up the English during the 1986 soccer match, it could be interpreted with a political view as the Falklands War was still a touchy subject.

Kaepernick not standing however, was very explicit. He went out with purpose to not stand, because he does not believe he can stand for the flag and the anthem when it does not represent what America is to him. As Sicart says, “play has the capacity to remain play while giving the actions performed political meaning”. When Kaepernick sat down, he did not disrupt the game, it even happened before it started. He just played it off, like it was part of the game.

Kaepernick protesting, had no effect on the game at all. Sicart writes that political play does not have to be out there or noticed, rather it can be done so elusively for everyone to see, but without stopping the game.

Colin is not the only person to do this, many protests have been held on the sport stage. In 2014, players on the St. Louis Rams also explicitly protested. In the aftermath of Ferguson, MO, several players held up their hands as a sign of protest towards police and the shootings that were happening. Using games as a platform of politics is always an effective way to show people’s feelings on a subject. The people of the U.S. and the world watch sports. When they see something like that happen, they do not brush past it. It is on their TV screens. Athletes can also do it while carrying on with their jobs as players of the sport. When Kaepernick and the Rams’ players protested before the game, they were carrying on with their same routines without any interruptions.

Sicart writes in his chapter of politics that games are ways people can be allowed to express their opinions to a whole audience and still be allowed to play as if it were a simple way to have fun.