For this week of classes, were adventuring into platforms and interfaces. Throughout my history of gaming, the platforms that I used were mainstream; platforms such as the Playstation, and Xbox were the machines that took up much of my time, but occasionally playing PC as well. I would like to argue that I was even involved in various sub-platforms as well. I believe that the Call of Duty, and Halo series could be argued as platforms as well. Even though it is not the underlying the hardware and software of a computer or a PlayStation, it is the thought  of the brands such as PlayStation and Xbox that helps them accomplish their goal by having people play on their system, nasically being part of the motivation of the companies. Games like Call of Duty and Halo are sub platforms that attract players to certain systems, and not the other. I believe games like the Halo and the God of War series are some of the pinnacle platforms for brands to really separate themselves from the others. God of War is a platform for PlayStation, while Halo is a platform for Xbox. Both games create a community and a sense of culture that helps define the type of system that those games are played on.  The specific games that come out for a certain system help with sales, popularity, and control of the market. The better “platforms” available can be make or break for certain players.

After reading Bogost’s chapter on Platforms, I understand that the representation and restrictions of the Atari is what made him form a bad opinion of the game Pele’s Soccer. However, I believe that can be related to my sense of platforms ranging with certain gaming systems, and the idea of sub-platforms. “Every computer contains a central processing, or CPU, which performs the operations and calculations to operate the rest of the computer-reading and writing it’s memory, it’s controls, and it’s display” (Bogost, 264). The CPU in this sense for PlayStation could be how God of War runs on someone’s PlayStation in their living room. Just because someone really enjoyed playing tht specific game in a setting that they enjoyed, and on a system that ran the game smoothly, their opinion of PlayStation is going to relatively stronger than their opinion of Xbox.

“Queering the Controller” was an interesting read in my opinion. I understand that video games do not truly immerse the player into a situation, but how could they (excluding VR). I do not know how companies are going to create controllers to emulate real world feeling for the corresponding event within a game. They compared this feeling with the sensation received after using sex toys. I do not think, without having something being inserted into someone’s body, video games will ever truly create that immersive of an experience. It is a very interesting and complex topic to dive into, but as time goes on, I believe new features are going to be introduced to the public by gaming companies to create a truly immersive experience for gamers.