The tittle may be a bit confusing, but let me explain. In the abstract of Chapter 31 of “How to play Video games” a platform is defined as followed:

“The platform is the particular configuration of hardware and software that underlies a computer program like a video game.”[1]

What I am trying to convey is how a platform (the software and hardware) allows the player to interact with the elements of the game.(say a platformer) Games in all their simplicity is nothing more than a bunch of pixels flashing different colors in such a way as to give us an experience. Yet we feel for these pixels, we engage with them, want to see them succeed (or fail), we want to interact with them and their world. But why is that?

The basis of any game begins with the code, a bunch of 1s and 0s used to tell a computer or game counsel what to do and when to do it. Inputs by the player are used to make certain things happen within the code and make the game work. And that’s it! That’s all to it. But of course that isn’t the real answer to why we are so engaged with the video game media we consume. The answer is creating reliability to those 1s and 0s. We play as Mario, not as some ominous blob of data that crudely looks like a man. Some part of us relate to the struggles and plights that Mario faces on his journey and want him to succeed.

That is the reason why we can’t be completely objective to the games we play. There is always an idea, a representation of something within those pixels. Such is the reason why representation overall in games is important. The creators is putting a bit of themselves and their ideals into the game they produce. If there are element that are being misrepresented, it could lead to a negative connotation within that media and crate a unneeded roadblocks between gamer and creater.

[1] Huntemann, Nina B. How to Play Video Games (User’s Guides to Popular Culture) (p. 261). NYU Press. Kindle Edition.