Gameplay Journal Entry #1
In the world of Contra (1987), it is 2633 AD and the player characters have been sent on a mission to weaken the forces of an evil, militant alien organization stationed on earth and unravel their motives. This week, I played through the entire game in multiplayer co-op (with the aid of an admittedly large number of extra lives through cheat codes). While I find Contra to be pretty difficult, my Player 2 does not. I believe a certain degree of familiarization with the varying enemy types (infantry soldiers, stationed turrets, flying aliens, and more) and gameplay modes (including a variety of perspectives) is greatly beneficial, but it requires practice; I haven’t played this game half as many times as Player 2 has. Most people would not have the patience to memorize the locations of every enemy spawn point, but you can reasonably get accustomed to how the enemies operate and eventually have the ability to predict how they will move and where their bullets will land.
Technicities can be defined as identities explicitly influenced by or facilitated through modern technology. This term is helpful for labeling some of the complex collectives that have emerged beyond social constructs and physical limitations and are enabled by technology in some way (Dovey & Kennedy, 2011). In the context of Contra, technicity is simply demonstrated through skill and while in two-player mode, cooperation. Each player must adapt to the either’s pace and remain somewhat synchronous to avoid the chance of one being pushed by the edge of the screen into enemy lines or worse, getting stuck in a game-freezing spot (this happened once during my playthrough). Playing cooperatively also just makes the game a bit easier, and therefore skills have more room to develop faster. Less frustrating gameplay improves overall incentive, or at least for me.
References
Dovey, J., & Kennedy, H. W. (2011). Chapter 4: Networks of Technicity. In Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media. Maidenheard: Open Univ. Press.
