Game Design as Cultural Practice Fall 2009

The Great American Satire

Grand Theft Auto IV as notorious of a game as it is, presents one of the best commentaries on modern American society to date, in a highly interactive and free environment. The game revolves around the values of the modern American Dream, bringing about phrases such as, "The money makes decisions, it's the American way" or "I'll do it as long as it pays." It strives to embody the insanity in which our consumer driven capitalistic in every feature it has to offer, as a means to mock "the American way".

Brenda Laurel in her book the Utopian Entrepreneur makes a valid and very intriguing point, "Values are everywhere, embedded in every aspect of our culture and lurking in the very natures of our media and our technologies" (Laurel 62). The most fantastic stories told are the ones that have the most impact on our values as a culture. In terms of GTA IV, the designers have modeled a similar representation of one of the most symbolized cities in America, New York, and filled it with what they perceive as our "values" everywhere throughout this place known as Liberty City. One of the most iconic figures is the Statue of Happiness on Happiness Island, a mockery of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York. The Statue of Happiness holds in it's hand a cup of Starbucks coffee, and a book of corporate law. It speaks for itself as an icon and satire on America. Another key medium in which our values as a culture are portrayed is within the radio station heard anytime the player's avatar is inside a vehicle. In particular the commercials poke some serious fun at our consumerist values, trying to get the player to almost go out and buy fake products advertised in a fake world. The player hears commercials like, "Did he really do it? That's not the question, it's are you going to win or are you going to go home! Watch the Science of Crime a crime show where scientists sit in a lab all day, while we watch with utter boredom. We are taking out the drama of from the crime show and making it forensically boring. The Science of Crime, only on CNT." This is obviously a mockery of CSI or other modern crime shows. The game also has an in game television that allows you to watch shows advertised on billboards, the radio, or even the in-game internet, one of which is called "I'm Rich", a show that mocks E!'s portrayal of Hollywood glamor and the over spending of wealthy Americans. One quote from the show is about a fake yacht a hotel heiress owns, the narrator states, "This is Chloe Parker's 9 trillion dollar yacht that costs 300 million dollars a day just to run." Though one can only laugh at the seriousness the in game characters use to present the culture of this fake world that mimics our own, it's all but frightening that some of these values have truth in their roots. 

The tortoise and hare story Laurel tells us, where the Hare wins the race due to his ability to do everything fast, from trading stocks on his handheld, to eating fast, and driving fast, is a grand example of the use of the story in relation to our cultural values. She states, "Okay, what's wrong with that story? It's cynical. It doesn't give good advice about how to live. We probably don't want our children to believe it, even though some of us may be afraid that it's true" (Laurel 65). This relates back to GTA IV's utter influence on culture, it aims not to grow our children in to consumer hungry adults bent on using any means necessary to make a dollar, but to show us how ridiculous our society has become. 

There are radio commercials in the game that are almost insane to think as real. For instance, "Babies Overnight," a company that sends you a baby of your choosing overnight in a box on your doorstep, in much the same manner couples who have trouble conceiving for whatever reason depend on 3rd party companies to receive children. The commercial can be played here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4XQzOrqPMA. After hearing an entire game full of advertisements and fake media such as the one just presented, we as American's are either angered at the deprecation of our culture, or wake up and realize how true this portrayal is of our culture. 

Laurel states optimistically, "Change the stories, and you change how people live" (Laurel 65). The most iconic trait of GTA IV is the mere fact it can only represent American culture. Perhaps if we stop emphasizing the importance of wealth in our stories our culture will change. GTA IV in the context of European or other foreign cultures causes it to make absolutely no sense, it is a an American phenomenon. Perhaps the story GTA tells isn't so harsh, but it's quite frightening to think a world where killing for money, helping corrupt politicians, and utilizing any form of violence as means to gain wealth, isn't so different from the one we currently dwell.

Batman as a Gender Unifier? I know, I was shocked too.

 

For many years the comic book industry hasn’t been treated as a boy’s club of sorts. Most male characters are oddly proportioned muscle bags and the women are all the fantasy of 15 year old teenagers. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the comic industry is even more gender segregated that the games industry. Fron characterized the game industry as,

” [a] adolescent male sensibility that transcends physical age and embraces highly stylized graphical violence, male fantasies of power and domination, hyper-sexualized, objectified depictions of women, and rampant racial stereotyping and discrimination.” [1]

It’s appropriate then that there is so much cross-over between the two, with the latest Endeavour being a new Batman game. At first glance the latest Batman game epitomizes what Laurel describes as “the chasing, shooting, fighting, exploding, hyper-male world of games” [2]. Sure there is one level of game-play where players are taking on 20 gang members at once, (handling them soundly I might add) in a combat system “focused on tactical agency and strategic exploitation of spatial constraints” [3]. Despite this masculine based game-play there is also another level to the Game. Throughout the game the Riddler is giving batman riddles. To solve the riddles players must explore that area, look for secrets, and uncover hidden alcoves. In other words, to complete this portion of the game, players must explore. Fullerton has said that while males tend towards more violent and action games, females are more inclined to play games with exploring [4].These exploring sections usually occur at a very slow pace. Since they are optional there are rarely any enemies and players can just focus on exploring the area. These sections slow down the pace and allow players to enjoy the expertly crafted visuals of the game. This section of the game-play actually reminded me the most of a game mode in Jenkins reading, “Secret Paths encourages us to stroke and caress the screen with our cursor, clicking only when we know where secret treasures might be hidden” [5]. Where the latest batman game truly shines is when it combines the action game-play with the exploration. There are numerous sections where the game puts you in a large room with a number of patrolling guards. The guards have guns so you can not take them head on. The players are encouraged to explore the area  at a slower pace in order to discover the various idiosyncrasies of that particular room. By exploring the room you are given easier and more interesting ways of clearing the room. In my opinion, this is the kind of game-play Laurel was calling for when she stated that “a change must be made to allow for males and females to inhabit the gaming community.”

 

“Where the Fuck is Toadette?” A Reflection on New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Having recently purchased NSMBW— but lacking the time to actually play it for myself—it is perhaps unsurprising that it has been occupying my thoughts as of late. Of the few times I have actually experienced the game, however, it has always been while playing in four-player co-op (“co-op” is in air-quotes) mode. It was during this time that I realized a significant omission in the game: as the title of this blogpost suggests, the player does not have the option to play as Toadette. This is a particularly glaring omission as the only characters a player is allowed to choose from—besides Mario and Luigi—are two kinds of Toad (yellow and blue). That is, there is no reason as to why one of the Toads could not be a Toadette. Thus begins my foray into the arguments about gender (and, more specifically, the lack thereof) in this most recent canonical release by Nintendo.

I am almost always hesitant to express any strong opinion on gender, only because it is such a nuanced and tumultuous category to discuss. Jenkins’ article, “Complete Freedom of Movement,” offers an argument on which I can begin to speculate as he writes about “boy culture.” Through comparisons to the 19th century, Jenkins outlines qualities of boy culture that are as prevalent through its translation into digital games, specifically “energy, self-assertion, noise, and a frequent resort to violence” (337). Having played four-player co-op mode with three other males, it is not difficult to see how these characteristics are relevant, both for the male players and (interestingly) also through my own play experience.

NSMBW follows the conventional 2D side-scrolling platform mechanic usually seen with the Mario franchise; the introduction of multiplayer gameplay, however, is where boy culture is best exemplified. “Self-assertion” is an interesting quality insofar as it is usually results in “noise” and “a frequent resort to violence.” Along with new gameplay mechanics, there are many, many opportunities for treachery in NSMBW. For instance, players can carry the other, which (in my experience) inevitably leads to players throwing other players into enemies, pits, or other equally dangerous (and frequently fatal) situations. Similarly, in levels where Yoshis are present, a player riding a Yoshi can store another player in the creature’s mouth, where the player remains as such until the rider decides to release him or her. “Self-assertion” is particularly evident in levels with automatic scrolling, where one friend of ours is well-known for running ahead in the level (i.e. resorting to violence), thus killing off the rest of the players that get left behind off-screen. This, consequently, results in a noisy, vocal protest from the three, recently-dead players. In this way, aforementioned friend asserts his role as an individual (also as an asshole) playing through the level, which in turn sacrifices his comrades-in-play.

One way to explain the lack of Toadette is to look at the production environment of video games, as Ludica does in “The Hegemony of Play.”  As one quote states, “games are made by white males, for white males” (Ludica 3). This is not to suggest that the decision to leave Toadette out of the game (and, unsurprisingly, the decision to center the game around the kidnapping of Princess Peach) is a malicious one, intended to exclude the female population. Rather, there is a particular environment that tends to encourage and feed into its own existence, which in turn breeds hegemony. More importantly, however, this article raises larger questions (to me, anyway) of tradition and nostalgia, which are extremely prevalent in the contemporary video game industry. This is also suggested by another quote used: “Games either make it or don’t, then copy the ones that do” (ibid). By creating games according to established “industry standards,” this not only stifles creativity, but this also continues a pattern of male-, euro- and heterocentric practices that allow values to remain unchallenged. This is why such a seemingly benign decision—such as leaving Toadette out of a new Mario Bros. game—is so disconcerting to me, both as a gamer and as a female (albeit mostly the former).

The question of values in the industry is one that Laurel tackles in Utopian Entrepreneur. Though the book largely focuses on notions of economics, as well as the video game industry as a business, she writes about it from a female perspective. One particularly memorable passage in the text focused on the insidious banality of values: “Stories, movies, videogames, and Websites don’t have to be about values to have a profound influence on values. Values are everywhere… (Laurel 62). This, to me, is important because it is indicative of my own mixed feelings toward arguments about gender. My original reaction to my outrage about the lack of Toadette was that I was overreacting. The decision to leave Toadette out was a seemingly trivial one; I don’t doubt that many male gamers (and almost certainly those involved with the production of NSMBW) would make this same argument. However, it is this excerpt from Laurel that only serves to reaffirm my original sentiments. It is because values are so embedded in video games (among other media artifacts, of course) that it is all the more important to pay attention to (seemingly) frivolous decisions like this. When values become commonplace, this is precisely when people begin to stop questioning them.

That being said, I am still not completely convinced that arguments over gender in video games are always necessarily fruitful. My hesitation comes from what I perceive to be a catch-22: in arguing that spaces are gendered, there is an implication that there is something of a stable notion or understand of what “gendered” is which, to a certain degree, necessarily plays into ‘gendered-ness.” While I have always been ‘that girl’ arguing against this, I—by the same token—cannot deny that spaces (particularly in video games) absolutely, very clearly gendered. This tension with the paradoxical became especially evident when reading the other Ludica article, “A Game of One’s Own.” In it (among other publications), there is a claim of what is and isn’t ‘female.’ One such claim is that secrets in levels tend to lean more towards male-gendered game spaces (Ludica 3). To a certain degree, I completely agree with this insofar as it does require a particular level of skill and exclusivity, which are typically traits associated with masculinity. Secrets are not, of course, an uncommon appearance within the Super Mario franchise. By the same token, however, I can also argue that secrets are a way of encouraging more exploratory gameplay, which is typically associated with female gamers (you, yourself, outlined this in one of your lectures this year). Even a cursory analysis (like this one) begins to reveal the various layers of ‘gendered-ness,’ which is why I find it so frustratingly impossible to form any single argument about the topic.

To return to the title of my blogpost—that is, Toadette herself—my experience playing NSMBW raised one other question that is more specific to this game, specifically. For the majority of time spent playing, Brian and I were debating the gender of the two Toads. He argued that the yellow one was not Toadette, but rather a generic female member of the Toad species. I disagreed. He claimed that the pitch of the Yellow Toad’s voice was slightly higher than that of the blue Toad, thus making ‘her’ female. It wasn’t until we noticed that both Toads were shirtless that we agreed on the gender of both Toads. We also agreed that Toad, as a character in general, is fairly sexually ambiguous, which is and of itself an argument that is as powerful as the lack of Toadette in the game. This is not to say, of course, that ambiguity is a negative trait with respect to gender, only that it certainly complicates the process of thinking and writing about it—especially when it comes to an already tumultuous realm, such as video games.

Works Cited:

Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (Fullerton et al) (2007). "A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space." In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia, September 2007.

Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (Ludica) "The Hegemony of Play." In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan, September 2007.

Jenkins, Henry. "Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces" The Game Design Reader, ed. Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman.MIT Press:Cambridge, MA, 2006. 330-363.

Laurel, Brenda. (2001). Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.

Final Fantasy VI and the Rhetoric of Identity

The identity in which we inhabit a game is a profound rhetorical element. It has one of the greatest capacities for personal interaction with storytelling and is easily one of the most overlooked and assumed narrative devices. In considering the hegemony of games, we look at what is the status quo and what profound examples break it. I believe the best example of this is a game known as Final Fantasy VI.

The first in the extremely popular Final Fantasy series to have a female main character, Final Fantasy VI had the most developed storyline of any in that series to date (or any game to date, for that matter). It was originally developed and released in Japan by Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) in early 1994. It was then translated to English and released within the United States near the end of that same year. Structured like other role playing games of that series, Final Fantasy VI consisted of dungeons, playable characters, events, towns, and battles.

The game opens with an unfamiliar kind of lead character immediately under player control. A young, mechanical armor controlling woman named Terra is trudging through the snow during the opening credits. This is done through an, at the time, impressive use of mode 6 perspective movement. We grow familiar with Terra as her soldier partners begin to discuss her vague origins because Terra is completely unfamiliar with who she is or what she is doing. The player, also unfamiliar with Terra’s (and, subsequently, their own) origins begins to slowly grapple with who they are. And thus, the theme of emergent identity clings hold of Final Fantasy VI and does not let go.

And what is it about emergent identity that has so much to do about gender under the current paradigm for game development? The answer: just about everything. The “empowering role of male super-soldier” is not present in this game. Players are not immediately thrust into the super killing shoes of Master Chief and sent off into the fray to win a decisive battle for the fraternity of space marines, no. Instead, players are wiped of identity, and to a small extent, definitive purpose. They then spend the remainder of the game developing their own reason for existence. Up until the last dictated event of the game, Terra never feels truly secure as to who she is. It is not until the final sequence of the game that she somberly declares, “I know what love is” where she refers to the children she had taken care of for the past year but was forced to abandon. I believe it is this self-attributed identity that is so important for a game to become an open and fair play environment for all potential players. Taking a very confident step away from the typical game archetype of conquering hero, this game takes a major risk by alienating, or at least challenging, its audience. In doing so, however, the roles that players create or interpret become as numerous as their own opinions of Terra, the opinions as themselves as Terra, and Terra’s opinions of herself radically change and become open to analysis.

The importance of this identity practice becomes even clearer when it is compared to the most successful wide-audience games. Myst, one of the highest selling games of all time, presented a nameless protagonist that may or may not have any objective at all. The Sims, one of the most prolific games among female audiences, is an exercise in developing interrelationships and character identity.

The cultural impact of emergent identity is irrefutable. This approach seems to be the perfect foil to Henry Jenkins’ sense of narrow identity development in regards to 19^th and 20^th century boy culture. Here, we have a game that does not embrace “mastery and self-control” but instead embraces personal realization. Final Fantasy VI even challenges the Jenkins’ girl culture by pulling Terra from her maternal domestication so that she can continue on in the game.

Your personal identity is not the only aspect of the game that requires an emergent appreciation. Half way through the game the entire world itself is wiped into apocalypse, with almost every linear narrative device being ripped from existence. The game does not end here, though. Instead, the game populates the ruined world with characters that have been part of your party and you must slowly see how they have populated the dead planet. This strongly supports the character’s personal development as they begin to revive and personalize the dead world with their presence. Brenda Laurel once said “at the heart of core content is environment”, she could have more accurately have said “at the heart of personal attribution is environment”. (Laurel 85) Here it is perfectly true, but to such a degree that is becomes a narrative device. Not only are players relating to a flamed and barren environment, the characters that populate the game are.

The question still remains, how does this break the hegemony that currently dominates the game industry? The answer is clear, the players’ role and environment are neither simple to understand or easy to accept. In doing so, the player is faced with a unique kind of challenge that in many ways is a challenge of literacy. By removing themselves the typical and conservative choice many developers at the time had been making, they neither label the character as one that should be feminized or masculanized, but instead create a character that must be explored.  I believe this would come as a welcomed solution to those that fight the hegemony of the game industry. The Lucidia Culture that warns of the “masculine universe” in their cooperative work, The Hegemony of Play, will find that this universe is instead an empty one, wait for an avatar to find meaning inside of it.

 

Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) "The Hegemony of Play." In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan, September 2007.

Jenkins, Henry. "Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces" The Game Design Reader, ed. Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman.MIT Press:Cambridge, MA, 2006. 330-363.

Laurel, Brenda. (2001). Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.

The Curse of Monkey Island

I am going to be discussing The Monkey Island series in this blog post, specifically "The Curse of Monkey Island". A lot of my female friends have liked this game and I always wondered why they found this game particularly intriguing. I have a few theories on this issue which I will share by drawing on particular topics from the readings.

In the "Hegemony Of Play", the authors ask - "Is it possible that the difficulty in producing 'games for girls' or games for adults, or games for 'everyone' lies in the inherent properties of the technology of digital games themselves?" (Fullerton et. al. 2007, p.4). I think for this particular game, I have noticed that my friends were more intrigued by how endearing the experience was going to be in terms of story telling. They were hooked to the game because they felt attached to the characters as the story progressed. This might seem like a trivial and already discussed notion but I think it's significant to note that a lot of other adventure games (that say are intended for "everyone") underestimate the effort female gamers will put into the game if they feel that it's worth it to see the entire story through. In the paper, "Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Digital Space", the authors have specifically addressed this idea as "Narrative Environments" and "Navigable Environments" (Fullerton et. al, p.6). They also go on to explain that exploring plot lines is an essential aspect in these games and that "the game becomes a space imbued with story and mystery to be discovered and uncovered".

Jenkins mentions that "The persistent images of blood-and-guts combat and cliff-hanging risks compelled boys to keep reading..." and that "Such stories provided fantasies that boys could enact upon their own environments" (Jenkins 1998,p.347). In "The Curse Of Monkey Island", a lot of the sword fighting scenes are substituted by a battle of wits by using funny phrases and amusing curses to out "diss" the opponent. My friends found this level of literary substitution to enact a fight scene very endearing. They were glad that they didn't have to go through a typical sword fight all the time and they thought the use of such literary techniques was integral to them being enamored by the characters of the story in this fantasy world.

Brenda Laurel has enunciated these concepts of story telling and its significance in games for female players is very familiar to me. My friend would often describe her experiences to me while playing this game and a lot of those thoughts were resounding in my mind while reading her book. She explains that "Storytelling is a nurturing art and not simply the transmission of narrative material" (Laurel 2001, p. 59). This is a crucial aspect that I find is often lost in adventure games. 'The Curse of Monkey Island' has a seamless story telling process that does not seem to be compromised by the consideration of player gender or intelligence. 

Laurel also touches on better advertising techniques that should not lie to people or be disrespectful to them (Laurel 2001, p. 94). I think companies should take this a step further and think of the real aspects of media that would capture the interest of female gamers, be it story telling, fantasy characters etc. and, build games that would be in line with their advertising strategy. I am sure my friends would play more games if they were presented to them as story telling mediums to other worlds rather than an another interactive medium that has "rewards". I think female gamers are more intellectually acute when it comes to recognizing good games and game makers should use that to their advantage instead of compromising on it.

References:

Fron, J et. al. (aka Ludica).  "The Hegemony of Play."  In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan, September 2007. http://lcc.gatech.edu/~cpearce3/PearcePubs/HegemonyOfPlayFINAL.pdf

Fullerton, T. et. al. "A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space." In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia, September 2007. http://lcc.gatech.edu/~cpearce3/PearcePubs/LudicaDAC07.pdf

Jenkins, Henry.  1998.  “Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces.”  In K. Salen and E. Zimmerman (Eds.), The Game Design Reader.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.

Laurel, Brenda.  2001. Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

I Play Girly Games

My name is Chris Wiggins, and I was addicted to Harvest Moon 64. I’m not embarrassed of the fact, but many “hard-core” gaming buddies of mine would probably be had they played the game as much as I did. There was no killing, there was fishing; there were no guns, there were gardening tools; you weren’t apart of an elite tactical squad, rather, you hoped to marry and support a family. Harvest Moon 64 places the player in the shoes of a nameless boy who inherits a farm from his dying grandfather. You start with a plot of land, a lone shack, 200 dollars, a barn, and of course, your trusty dog. You’re expected to fix up your land, grow high-yield crops, raise cattle, care for your dog, participate in town events, meet with the local ladies, get married, and discover secrets - and all of this should be completed in a matter of two years (game time).

Even as I was playing Harvest Moon, it occurred to me that this was one of the “girliest” games I’d ever played (that would later be trumped by Animal Crossing, a similar game to which I was addicted). To prove my point, here are a few points Brenda Laurel makes regarding girls’ preferences in games: “In terms of computer games, girls didn’t mind violence so much as they disliked the lack of good stories and characters,” (40). On a similar note, Laurel touches on girls’ social structure and how it relates to game play, “[In contrast to boys’ social hierarchy,] a girl’s social status among her peers Is likely to be influenced more by her network of affiliations than by any explicit measure,” (41). Basically, popularity is a common scale used by girls to grade themselves – this is a struggle that would be an appealing challenge but isn’t usually represented in games. Your overall success in Harvest Moon is in part determined by your popularity with the townsfolk, and especially the ladies. Want to impress the baker’s daughter? Give her a stone you found in the mountains. Found out that Karen, the winemaker’s daughter, loves strawberries (why do I remember all of this?!)? Grow a good bunch and surprise her! Your reputation with the individuals will grow, and as long as you participate in town events (like new years, etc) the townsfolk will begin to enjoy your company.

Aside from the gameplay, the technical aspects of the game favor a wider range of players. For starters, there is little skill needed to plant a garden or feed your cattle; simply select your desired item, stand in the correct spot (which is easy to do because of the “snap-to-grid” positioning of your character), and press the use button. Your level of dexterity is insignificant, but on the other hand, you must be organized enough to keep track of all that needs attention. Another aspect that caters to a broad spectrum of players is the view-point by which you play. “Recent studies have shown that due to cognitive differences between males and females, games that demand a high level of certain types of spatial rotation skills, such as First Person Shooters, are actually more difficult for women and girls to master,” mentions Ludica (4). Almost opposite of first person view, Harvest Moon utilizes an isometric, above-head camera which allows for easy placement of the character in relation to the world, and also gives the player a good sense of what’s around.

Games like this beg the question: Why does everyone believe there are little to no games for girls? According to Ludica’s Hegemony of Play, it’s reported that only 38% of gamers are female (3). I wouldn’t consider this a lack of audience, just a lack of interest. There are games out there in the “boy world” that would certainly appeal to girls (an example being Harvest Moon 64). “Girls need to learn how to explore ‘unsafe’ and ‘unfriendly’ spaces… Girls need to be able to play games where Barbie gets to kick some butt,” Jenkins boldly states. I, as a boy, play games that would seem very girly, so why not the other way around?

Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) (2007). "A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space." In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia, September 2007.

Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) "The Hegemony of Play." In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan, September 2007.

Jenkins, Henry. "Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces" The Game Design Reader, ed. Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman.MIT Press:Cambridge, MA, 2006. 330-363.

Laurel, Brenda. (2001). Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.

A game for everyone: Final Fantasy

    In today’s world of digital gaming, there is a clear segregation in the demographic that’s being appealed to.  “Real-time strategy games conceive of space as a domain to be conquered; first-person shooters create labyrinthine battlefields in which space becomes a context for combat.” [Fullerton et al.]  Each of these game types are geared towards the male gender.  Fron et al. label this as the “Hegemony of play” developing games for the dominant gaming population and ignoring “minority players such as women and non-gamers.” [Fron et al.]  This mind-set continues despite the fact that “inclusiveness has produced some of the best-selling games in history, such as Pac-Man, Myst, and The Sims” [Fron et al.]

 

    One game series I’ve found to break out of the Hegemony of play and still consistently do well has been Final Fantasy (Square/Enix) (I know, I know, I’m obsessed with Final Fantasy).  If we look at Final Fantasy X2 in particular (Square/Enix), we first notice that the three main characters are female.  Although the game does incorporate the “Barbie kicking butt” notion mentioned in Fullerton et al’s A Game of One’s Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Digital Space it also provides a game space that, while linear and goal oriented, offers sub goals, and secrets, and its plot revolves around a love story that across time and space. 

 

The game appeals to both male and female genders.  It offers a battle system encouraging fight or flight scenarios and “their protagonists struggle across an astonishingly eclectic range of landscapes—deserts, frozen wastelands, tropical rain forests, urban undergrounds” [Jenkins 346] providing relentless action in an effort to appease the male psyche, but also surrounds itself around a love story with secrets to be unlocked and extensively emotional character development to satisfy females.

 

At the end of the day, the gaming industry still boils down to producing games that will make money.  Most of those games conform to the Hegemony of play.  Games like the Halo and Call of Duty series, Borderlands, and Madden series are all proven gold mines and all target a heavily male based demographic.  That doesn’t mean however, that a gender neutral game like the Final Fantasy series can’t also be cash cows.  It’s interesting to note that the game was developed as a last gasp for Square Enix (Squaresoft at the time) and its instant popularity saved them from bankruptcy.  Today with over 85 million copies sold, the series has become one of the best selling game franchises in the market.

   

Works Cited

Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) (2007). "A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space." In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia, September 2007.

Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) "The Hegemony of Play." In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan, September 2007.

Jenkins, Henry. "Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces" The Game Design Reader, ed. Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman.MIT Press:Cambridge, MA, 2006. 330-363.

Laurel, Brenda. (2001). Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.

 

Gender, Race & Representation: Overlord II

It may be a mistake to try to do any serious analysis of Overlord II (2009), a game that aims to be a caricature of role-playing games and of the whole epic-fantasy genre, a game that is self-conscious parody from start to finish.  It makes not the slightest effort to take itself seriously, and is completely unapologetic in its crassness, which is part of why it’s so much fun.  Nevertheless, it’s not what one would call “socially progressive” in terms of its game mechanic and representation of gender!

 

O2 takes place in a magical fantasy realm full of elves, gnomes, halflings and all the usual trappings of epic fantasy in the Tolkien tradition.  And of course there is a massive epic battle for power going on, but the difference is that you play as the evil Dark Lord seeking to cover all the lands in darkness.  To help you are hordes of psychotic pintsized minions who rather closely resemble Gremlins in appearance and manner(s).  With this army of oddly endearing creeps following you around, you journey across the land, slaughtering whiny elves, dominating human simpletons, clubbing gooey-eyed baby seals and collecting all manner of shiny treasure.

 

O2 takes place in a male-dominated world, by which I mean not that male characters outnumber female ones (although they do), but that those doing the domination are male.  The Overlord and all his minions are unambiguously male.  When women make an appearance, they are usually in passive roles, or they are enemies who get destroyed.

 

One symptom of what Fron et. al. (2007) call the “hegemony of play,” and one common complaint about role-playing games, is that the available avatar choices are ridiculously hypergendered, even hypersexualized bodies dressed in what Pearce refers to as “kombat lingerie” (Fullerton et. al. 2007: 3).  The Overlord – the only type of “avatar” available in O2 – is not really hypersexualized, but is arguably hypergendered as an imposing figure who takes up a lot of space, but who remains hidden and mysterious.  He’s certainly big, strong dude, but he has no visible muscularity.  He’s clad from head to toe in big, heavy, spiky amour that reveals only his glowing yellow eyes peering out underneath his helmet from a blackness that might be some kind of deep shadow, or might actually be the colour of his face.  He doesn’t really seem quite human (maybe he’s more like a big humanoid gremlin in amour).  He also has no expression and no dialogue.  Despite being the game’s namesake and main character, the Overlord seems to have no real identity of his own.  Yet, while it would be possible to cast such an identity-less Overlord as either gender, since we never really see the body underneath, the game narrative is quite clear on this point: the Overlord is male.  Perhaps the designers could not imagine what a female Overlord would look like, swinging a giant axe in the heat of battle to cleave unicorns in half.  Perhaps they felt that a female ought to have more form-fitting, less fully-covering amour than their male counterparts, as is the convention for avatar design in MMOGs like EverQuest.  While male characters can be big, ugly and hidden under layers of metal, designers seem to feel that females need to be properly proportioned, attractive and visible.  It’s also possible that the designers just didn’t think women would enjoy going around smiting stuff very much.

 

The most active women in the game are the Overlord’s three mistresses, whom he picks up over the course of the game and brings back with him to the Dark Tower.  And they’re pretty passive.  Kelda, the Overlord’s childhood sweetheart (yes), still acts like a little teenage girl with a crush on him, but at least she dresses modestly, something that can’t be said of Juno, the vain, self-involved daughter of a Senator from the Glorious Empire.  She likes to shop, expects gifts of jewelry, and attempts to use seduction to get her way.  Finally, Queen Fay, a fairy queen and defender of all magical life, has the most active female role in the whole game, as she is for a time the Overlord’s arch-nemesis.  Then, they make an uneasy alliance against the Glorious Empire, which ultimately leads to her sacrificing her power and coming under the corrupting influence of the Overlord.  After this point, she takes a wholly passive role, returning to the Dark Tower and wandering around like a pretty ornament, making the occasional self-important remark.  Even as she leaves the Sanctuary, her former domain and a safe-haven for magical creatures, she points to the Overlord and tells the dumbfounded elves, “He is your ruler now.”  Although she’s become evil, like the other women, she seems incapable of being a free agent, becoming instead one of the Overlord’s hangers-on.

 

Space is strongly gendered in the O2 universe.  On the one hand, there are the ugly, chaotic spaces that are the domain of the male Overlord.  One such space is the Dark Tower, made of black, angular stone with waterfalls of lava cascading down the side (they don’t seem to bother the Overlord any when he steps in them).  Then there’s the hostile, zombie-infested wasteland, a blackened, blasted region that was corrupted by some past “magic cataclysm.”  These are the sorts of spaces that Fullerton et. al. suggest are preferred by male players and keep appearing in video games (2007: 3).  The magical sanctuaries, full of unicorns, fairies, dryads, flowers, sparkly gems and effeminate hippie elves, are the female domain belonging to Queen Fay.  The Overlord’s task is ultimately to build up his (male) space, while utterly destroying the sanctuaries.  In Jenkins’ model, 19^th and 20^th century boys inhabited hostile, adventurous play spaces, while girls sought out the secret paths and gardens (Jenkins 1998: 348).  But the point of this game is that the boys go out and destroy the secret gardens (literally)!  It is as if they are symbolically fighting against the very ability for girls and women to have a place—or game—of their own (Fullerton et. al. 2007).

 

To briefly address mechanics, this is a combat game that, as Fullerton et. al. (2007: 9) might say, is “focused on tactical agency and strategic exploitation of spatial constraints.”  The good player mobilizes minions effectively and takes advantage of the environment (e.g. stationing fire-throwing minions on high ground) to get the upper hand in battle.  According to Fullerton et. al (2007: 3), these sorts of skills are the province of male fantasies, but are “not necessarily ‘indigenous’ to the way that women and girls experience space… .”  Fullerton et. al. also describe the notion of progressing through power acquisition and geographic domination as part of the male fantasies.  In the case of O2, the power acquisition and domination is not metaphorical, it is quite literal.

 

When Laurel (2001: 60) asks, “What stories will shape our future?” she hopes it will be stories that are inclusive and motivating, rather than exclusive and alienating.  These should be stories from the “androgynous mind of game design” (Fullerton et. al. 2007: 9), stories like Myst, The Longest Journey, and The Sims.  Overlord II tells precisely the kind of story that fueled and emerged from the hegemony of male-dominated play narratives.  My hope would be that it does so with enough self-consciousness and over-the-top gimmickry that it either subverts the hegemonic narrative, or at least renders itself harmless.  Besides, if O2 does reinforce the hegemony of play, then getting more women into the male-dominated world of game design (Fron et. al. 2007: 3) isn’t necessarily the solution, as the O2 narrative was written by Rhianna Pratchett, a woman.

 

In any case, I’m inclined to defend the game, because I enjoyed it so thoroughly.  When it comes down to it, I find that smashing and destroying things is plain old good fun.

 

But maybe that’s just because I’m a man.

 

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

Fron, J et. al. (aka Ludica).  "The Hegemony of Play."  In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan, September 2007. http://lcc.gatech.edu/~cpearce3/PearcePubs/HegemonyOfPlayFINAL.pdf

 

Fullerton, T. et. al. "A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space." In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia, September 2007. http://lcc.gatech.edu/~cpearce3/PearcePubs/LudicaDAC07.pdf

 

Jenkins, Henry.  1998.  “Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces.”  In K. Salen and E. Zimmerman (Eds.), The Game Design Reader.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.

 

Laurel, Brenda.  2001. Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

 

SAmer Ead - Blog 4: Gender, Race & Representation.

“Morrowind Elder Scrolls 3” emphasizes gender in its space, representation, and game mechanics in a very particular and intriguing way. Not to digress off of reality, the game was intended for and marketed to the expected regular male age group that are technically considered hard core gamers, yet the game seemed to have broken some very interesting gender boundaries appealing to females of the same age group but were not expected to even enjoy the graphics of the game. In order to preserve the producer’s point of view I would like to quote Fron et al “… we are trying to call attention to the power structures that surround game technologies, game production and game consumption. These power structures perpetuate a particular set of values and norms concerning games and game play, which tend to subordinate and ghettoize minority players and play styles.”(Fron et al). In other words, these games are directed to a market that already exists and is known to provide certain amounts of profits as long as certain enjoyed requirements – sometimes ethically wrong or demoralizing to other genders or races – are provided. Morrowind appeals to males for all the obvious reasons it provides “role-playing and mastery of self-control, violence, and recognition for daring stunts” (Laurel) if put Laurel’s terms. But interestingly Morrowind also offers intriguing features that successfully attracted female players. Referring to Jenkins, he reveals some the things that made Morrowind attract girls. “Discovering secret things … [and] uncovering things that were supposed to be hidden.”(Jenkins) or in Fullerton’s terms “a key pleasure for women is exploration” (Fullerton) Interestingly enough Morrowind has tones of secret and hidden items, and even though just about the whole game is occupied by precarious and challenging spaces that Fullerton et al. states women don't typically enjoy, they seemed to take pleasure in collecting those artifacts and jewels [even within the game!]  more than playing the role playing game itself. To add to that, those hidden items tend to be special and stronger, which enabled those girls to power level their characters instead of wasting their time and doing silly quests that only lead to more ridiculous quests, in turn granting them a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. When I observed and compared female versus male friends, when we competed to show off what we had achieved, it seemed to me that females had a greater sense of ownership over their characters, to the guys all that mattered was stats and brute force, whereas the girls would outfit their avatars with stylish armor and cloth of the finest possible set. The only thing missing from my perspective was to turn the game into an MMOG and those girls would have gone for fashion show sprees. I personally feel that Morrowind, even though unintentionally, provided its some sort of unexpected satisfaction for those few women that played the game. My favorite part of it all was that players were always capable, to some extent, to control the fate of the game, and how to play, you were never forced to do something and winning was strictly based off of satisfaction, because even you completed all the quests in order to achieve the basic state of triumph, there are always more things to discover, and try, and there are always hidden tasks to complete and weird quests that could be done over and again in different ways.

Works Cited:

Fron, Fullerton, Morie,  Pearce, (Ludica): "The Hegemony of Play" (2007). In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan.

Laurel, Brenda: Utopian Entrepreneur (2001). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.

Jenkins, Henry: "Complete Freedom of Movement” (2006) The Game Design Reader, ed. Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman.MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.

 Fullerton, Morie, Pearce:  "A Game of One’s Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space" (2007). In Proceedings, Digital Arts and Culture 2007, Perth, Australia.

 

 

Assassinations: something both boys and girls can enjoy? (In a game that is)

The game I chose to analyze for this blogpost is Assassin’s Creed II.  The game is a third person action-adventure platformer, set in the near future but the main brunt of the game is played in a virtual machine called “Animus” which, in turn,  is set in 15th  - 16th century Italy.

One thing I noticed early on in the game is the role of females. The women do not play the usual stereotyped female roles: the strong, sexy, dominating types nor are they portrayed as weak, frail, and in need of rescue. If anything, the game shows a couple aspects of realistic female roles in the set time period. During Renaissance era Italy, the woman’s role was limited.  Since pursuing the arts and sciences was off-limits, the only real job for them is to become a nun. But if all else fails, they sell sexual services. In the game, the protagonist, Ezio, can stumble upon prostitutes on the street and ‘hire’ them to protect you and distract enemies. Although this may at first seem like an obvious hegemony of play as described by Fron et al, remember that in a cultural standpoint (in that time and setting) prostitution was commonplace. But instead of having Ezio sleep with the women to increase health (like in some of the GTA games), the game designers transformed them into a helpful mechanic that made them act more as fellow party members than as, say, bottles of potion. They aren’t even wearing revealing clothing. There are a number of strong-minded female NPCs in the game as well, and general civilians walking about.

The cultural and racial details of the game are primarily there for a sense of immersion into the gameplay.  From the smallest details – like different Italian dialects – to historical facts, you can just tell that the game makers put a lot of research into the setting. While Assassin’s Creed II does not use this cultural implementation to “shape values and inform citizenship” as Laurel tried to do with her Purple Moon project, it does portray game space in a slightly different mindset than the traditional “Western, Cartesian, and male” (Fullerton et al). It also has a good bit of accurate history, so the culture can be there for an educational purpose. Of course, not the whole game is immersed in Renaissance Italian culture. Elements of pop culture are still retained to keep the audience interested in the plot, keeping with Laurel’s belief in the “power of popular culture to shape values and inform citizenship” in games.

What about the play space of Assassin’s Creed II? Being an exploration game, it would need a large, intricate map. Using Jenkins’ comparisons between “Traditional boy culture” (a name for the cultural expectations of a boy’s idea of play) and contemporary game culture, the gamespace in Assassin’s Creed II employed four out of his eight “boy culture” game mechanics.  The game shows “recognition for daring stunts”, “mastery of self-control”, “violence”, and “role-playing” aspects of “boy culture”. Does this tell whether the game is male-oriented? Probably not.  Jenkins continues to analyze play spaces that are more geared toward girls:

“Play spaces for girls adopt a slower pace, are less filled with dangers, invite gradual investigation and discovery, foster an awareness of social relations and a search for secrets,  center around emotional relations between characters. Both allow the exploration of physical environments, but are really about the interior worlds of feelings and fears”.

In this game, our exploration of the physical environment plays like it’s purely for the sake of discovery. There might be a complex series of rooftops to navigate with hidden treasure or something. The danger level in this game is actually surprisingly low. Unlike certain FPS games where enemies can jump out from any corner, you play in an open town with a few patrolmen hunting you down… and countless hiding areas. Finally, early on in the game the player feels an intimate connection with Ezio. When you witness your parents being murdered, you feel the bitterness of revenge; this allows you to justify your actions throughout the rest of the game.

Personally, Assassin’s Creed II has a lot of appeal to me. I do like how the game does not fall into the hegemony of play trap that popular console games so often do.  Also, the protagonist’s persona does not strictly fall into the “third gender” category of stereotypical video game males [Fron et al].  What we see in this game is not a fully male-dominated game, nor is it specifically designed with women in mind. In my opinion, it falls more closely to an androgynous game with aspects both males and females can appreciate. This androgynous mindset is promoted by Fullerton, who hopes more games will be able to draw from “a number of cultural practices, literary sources, and existing games in order to pave the way for a playground that is more open to female players”. In this way he can “encourage designers to think in terms of ‘androgynous space’ that engages all aspects of all persons” [Fullerton] . Jenkins agrees: “To be gendered is to be constrained; to escape gender is to escape gravity and to fly above it all.”

Works Cited
Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (Fullerton et al) (2007). "A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space." In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia, September 2007.
Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (Ludica) "The Hegemony of Play." In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan, September 2007.
Jenkins, Henry. "Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces" The Game Design Reader, ed. Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman.MIT Press:Cambridge, MA, 2006. 330-363.
Laurel, Brenda. (2001). Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.