These are just some examples that I felt represented the
ambiguity of Structuralism and Semiotics.
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1.They got exactly what they wished for, but only in the literal sense of the words.
____________________________________________________________________ 2.What do birthdays truly signify?
____________________________________________________________________ 3.How do symbols mean different things to different people?
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____________________________________________________________________1. Structuralism
A form of systematic and 'structured' thinking, structuralism is a certain frame of mind that people use to approach a subject or topic with.
From my understanding, Structuralism is exactly as the word of origin represents; Structured thinking, the study of each systems structure in both literary and scientific theory.
It started from a movement originating in the study of linguistics by Ferdinand De Saussure. Eventually finding itself being applied to more than literature. Anthropology, Sociology, Literary theory and criticism, and a few other areas of studies.
From these studies, Structuralists formed a few common beliefs with regards to 'intellectual trends'. Firstly, the structure determines the position of each element that form a whole. Secondly, every system has a structure. Thirdly, structuralists mostly study the 'structural' laws of the elements coexistence with one another. Lastly, the structures are the essence and truth of what lies behind the meaning of a system.
Currently, the extent to which Structuralism can go is not so significant for me, but rather its essence of mindset is almost tailor-made for how games are made.
Firstly Games nowadays have different genres and sub-categories, each which can be said to be a system of a game. By structuralist thinking, each game genre has a certain structure. Which is exactly right, because game genres are defined by the structure of gameplay.
Next, each and every factor or 'element' plays a role that coexists with every other 'element' in order to form a whole system of a game, which we would refer to as game mechanics.
Lastly, although within each genre the games will differ completely in style and taste, it is the genre of gameplay that determines the true intent of the games appearance.
Puzzle games such as Portal or Tetris are completely different in style, but both are structured to make one think logically.
The same can be applied to all games, and this much taken from structuralism helps me to systematically understand games as a whole.
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The rest is continued in the next post...
