I have a problem.
Words are slippery and messy.
- Computer or Video Game?
- Player or Gamer?
- Theatre or Drama?
I have to make these decisions, and others about other words, soon.
Author: Ellen
Novelist and experienced game developer
missing post
I’ve been so busy reading up on everything for my first essay, which is meant to examine the theoretical approach to my thesis.
So far, have a page of notes that I hope ends up happily translating to 2000 words. The main thrust of my essay is to highlight the failings of the Narratology vs Ludology divide, presenting the concept of identity performance and specifically Performativity as devloped by Judith Butler (springboarded from Foucault’s notion of discourse) as a viable alternative to both.
I’m so busy scouring every possible source and trying to distill it into something workable that I’m just not able to produce anything here as often as I’d like. Expect more at the end of this week 🙂
Review: Rethinking Agency and Immersion, Gonzalo Frasca
Frasca, Gonzalo. “Rethinking Agency and Immersion: Playing with Videogame Characters.” N-Space (2001). <http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/gallery/S01/essays/0378.pdf>.
Frasca proposes a design for a game for social change based on the writings of Drama theorists Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal, using a variation of Will Wright’s popular “Sims” line. Frasca argues that gamers aren’t actually concerned about the personal lives of their player-characters, instead desiring a inobtrusive puppet for them to play through (1-2). He notes that Will Wright’s Sims games separate gamers from their characters; thus, the perfect method of character exhibition is found (4). Using the game’s potential for user generated content, Frasca proposes a game where players can create, edit, and upload their own Sims characters to create virtual situations they can observe and ideally learn about (4-5). He describes his design as being a “meta-simulation […] a simulation that allows simulations,” and counts this as directly inspired by Boal’s Forum Theatre, one part of the Theatre of the Oppressed (6).
The biggest flaw in Frasca’s design is one which he notes himself: that user generated content allows for the inclusion of a variety of sometimes good, often inappropriate content (7). Frasca does not, however, look at the shortcomings from a Dramatist perspective—that is, the failures of Brecht, the inspiration for Boal and thus Frasca. In his short essay, drama critic John Gassner mentions Brecht’s emphasis on epiphany without empathy, which gives the epiphany no grounding and thus causes the failure of his plays to educate the audience (Gassner 113).
Also Cited:
Gassner, John. “Catharsis and the Modern Theatre.” Aristotle’s Poetics’ and English Literature : A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Elder Olson. vols. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr, 1985. 108-13.
Nietzche wrote on Tragedy?
I recently found out that Nietzsche wrote a book dealing with Tragedy. So I started reading generally about the guy, having only gained a passing glance at his life in Alain de Botton’s “The Philosophy of Happiness.”
“God is Dead,” and then we’ll become Ubermensch? Totally feminist, practically, and yet, at the same time, Mysogynist? He’s seriously got the worst case of “nice guy syndrome” I think I’ve ever seen.
I think… I think I may have found my man. I mean, I’ll be looking to other men, too… Aristotle is a good start. And I kinda like some of those Structuralist guys.
But he’s my muse. I think I want to base my tragic hero on him. Poor Walrus man.
March 09 Perth Games Industry Survey – Results!
Recently, I gave some suggestions to a friend and colleague who was putting together a survey for the Perth game development community.
The survey went out, and many people filled it in. Today, the results are out 😀
Please visit LetsMakeGames.org for the report.
Two things that bug me in this industry
I apologise in advance to anyone who I may offend in writing this. It’s just my opinion, which I’m entitled to, but you’re also allowed to disagree 🙂
The first thing is this “Women in Games,” thing. Don’t get me wrong, I want more women in the games industry. Two of the most important books that I’m referring to for my Honours project are both written by women (I’ve also noticed that women who write on games are likely to have a background in theatre too, oddly enough!). But the very idea that somehow girls need to have an equal representation in games sickens me. That’s not gender equality. That’s gender bias. I do not want to see a wave of women and girls entering the industry and being given positions because they are female. I also don’t want to see the same happen to men. Are interviewers so incapable of guaging whether a person is capable, seperate to their gender? I agree that people may have skills that happen to align with the assumed traits of their gender- I know I do. So what’s the big deal? I certainly shouldn’t therefore be “female” and only do “female” things. But I shouldn’t not do “female” things, just because I am “female.” I’m not against networking with other women or anything like that, but I just hate that we have to segregate in order to integrate.
The other thing that annoys me is this, “Serious Games Movement.” Okay, I get it. Developers have an ethical responsiblity for what they produce. But that doesn’t mean we should neuter the fun, indulgent side of games. There’s been a lot of discussion on this lately, a lot of which I agree with. It’s not like I’m not doing anything that will challenge the gamer’s morality. It might! It might not! Maybe it has another purpose… But whatever the purpose of Tragedy, I will find it. But back on Serious Games… I just find the whole thing so navel-gazing. They all tend to be activities, not games. And the ones that are games seem to be kinda… ranty. You know, like they’re making sure you’re aware you’re learning something. Same thing with “Edutainment.” Obviously you’re going to learn from the entertainment! So why do we have to make it obvious, the focus, which only serves to turn us away from how much we’re enjoying things?
Game Developers: Stunted Adolescents
Oh, and I forgot. I also want to mention this.
I’m too tired to say much about it. But, me being me, I find the comments left on this blog almost (if not more!)as interesting as the actual report.
Tragedy
So I’ve been happily going about my Honours research and preparation, talking about catharsis, games, films, plays, etc etc etc, and suddenly, today, it hits me. I talk to my supervisor and then to one of my tutors, and they both say the same thing, “It sounds like you’re more interested in Tragedy than Catharsis.”
They’re right! I feel like I’ve taken the longest route to get there, and I’m not throwing out any of my ideas.
But now, instead of thinking, “What causes Catharsis, specifically Aristolean Katharsis?” I am thinking, “How can I make Tragedy playable?”
What is even more exciting for me is reading the transcript for the Friday 27th March morning panel at GDC 2009, focusing on The Role of Games in Personal and Social Change.
It seems like my research is going to be very timely, and hopefully very relevant. No pressure or anything! 🙂
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern did it for Stoppard
On Friday, I was telling my friend Kristov and his lively wife about my Honours topic. Kristov brought up a play that I’d forgotten about, which I had to go pick up in order to revise it and think about how it could help me.
I was telling Kristov and his wife about the Postmodern Literary convention that states: there are no new stories, only new ways of telling them; this is often evidenced by a typical story being told from the opposite persoective, for example, Pride and Prejudice from Bingley’s perspective. Immediately, he said, “Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead!”
Rosencrantz and Duildenstern are incidental characters in Hamlet, and in 1967, playwright Tom Stoppard saw fit to reveal their story. The characters’ lack of self-knowledge is played up more than I would ever want to, but the play reveals how even an minor role is often fleshed out in an actor’s mind. It also shows how little is needed to create a “character.”
Brenda Laurel: Why didn’t girls play video games?
Found: A talk by Brenda Laurel from 1998, entitled Why didn’t girls play video games?
She discusses her research methods, outcome, and reception, including explaining the 4% who gave her negative feedback.
I’d just like to contrast this with Gonzalo Frasca’s comment on Super Princess Peach.
I personally think that Super Princess Peach sounds like a lot of fun. She’s a princess, not a regular little girl. Like in the Princess and the peach, where the poor Princess was identified because she couldn’t sleep while there was a single pea placed under all those mattresses. What do Frasca and Bogost really expect Princess Peach to do? Suddenly grow balls and turn into the female version of Mario? Turn into animals like Mario does, only to have it suggested that she is dressing herself up in a sexual way by making herself “animalistic”? I’m sure if there was a game called, “Super Princess Daisy,” you could do all those things. She’s a saucy, tomboyish brunette. Just listen to the differences in their voices in Mario Party DS.
I think what I’m trying to get at is that men who are interested in Serious Games shouldn’t try and judge what effect a game like this will have on a young girl. We like to role play much more than boys (anyway, the boys would just come in pretending they had a gun to kill something with… but you don’t see anyone crying about that stereotype in FPS games targetted to adult men), and we certainly understand that Princess Peach is a certain idea of a character. We’d rather be our own selves, our own unique Princess.
Ellen Jurik 