Response to Glenn's Question

1. Bolter uses the term hybrid media to describe a conglomeration of different medias. How is a video game such as Gears of War or Little Big Planet an example of a hybrid media?

Gears of War is a sick game -- in both the colloquial and new-age meanings of the word. Since I've, ahem, beaten it on its hardest difficulty, ahem, I know a thing or two about different medias let me tell you LET ME TELL YOU!

The two main structural medias are gameplay and cut-scenes, which isn't very different from past video games. There's also a whole slew of different sounds based upon the weapon you wield, the spatial relations on a battlefield (where the bullets slam into -- near or far), and other things going on in the gameplay world that make it come to life. One of the noteworthy aspects is the way the chainsaw attack goes to a cutscene that splatters the screen with the instant-kill blood of the opponent unlucky enough to get cut in half.

So yes: hybrid media is HUGE to making an enjoyable gameplay experience. In fact, if we could do a regression analysis, I think we'd find a positive correlation between how hybridized the media of a game are and how that game is received by reviewers and the public.