Week 5 Wiki Boos and Zomplegangers - Revised

Postcolonialism, as explained by Wikipedia, reviews the binary opposition structures that were instituted in colonized countries and continue to exist past the fall of colonization. Particularly, the power structure of the superpower colonizers vs. the “colonized as a perpetually inferior people, society and culture.” Wikipedia claims that this binary opposition structures the way we view others.

An interesting side note is that a reaction of colonized peoples is to review their own cultural heritage and write it in the language of their colonizers. This is called “writing back to the center,” and although certainly an effort to retain heritage and dignity, it is still less than a perfect attempt because it is presented in different linguistic framework, and some meaning will be lost and some will be distorted. (Aside: editorial bitching: Wikipedia spelled a word two different ways in their article "colonisation and colonization.")

Video games often represent a postcolonialism mind set when they display a clear cut difference between two sides, especially in cases where there is a language difference, for example in World of Warcraft, the two main sides, Alliance and Horde are by game structure, almost absolutely unable to communicate, except by gesture. Of course spys come to mind, and many players will have at least one spy available to take an inventory of what is happening on the other side of the server. On a side note, I have been led into an Alliance ambush by a “helpful Horde player.”

However, I think that postcolonialism is a “soon to be dated” ism. Though, not quite an “ism” yet, globalization is a rising concept that needs attention. I believe its issues will surplant postcolonial issues. The Global Policy Forum, which monitors policy making at the United Nations, recognizes that globalization “creates new markets and wealth, even as it causes widespread suffering, disorder, and unrest. It is both a source of repression and a catalyst for global movements of social justice and emancipation.” I think that video games are likely to ride the tide of globalization and to be a vital part of the globalization of culture. Game developers will have the opportunity to draw from multiple cultural bases for artistic and literary material. This process has been initiated and is evident from the mix of Asian and Western culture in video games today.

The Game Developer Demographics Report alluded to globalization in its closing remarks, and cautioned that “The game industry will be blindsided by these trends in the coming years if they are not factored in to the core of our strategic thinking.” The report itself showed that game developers were predominantly male, white, and heterosexual. They had an average age of 31 years and a university level education (would Highline Community College count?). A significant opinion held by 60% of respondents was that obtaining diverse applicants was challenging. Finally, the report concluded that that games are dominant forms of art, expression, and culture in 21st and that a more diverse creative pool would benefit the industry.

It occurred to me that if anyone was developing a game, which has to be a creative pursuit, they would only be able to develop one that they wanted to play. This is paralleled by Adrian’s response to Craig’s question last week. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think it went like this. Craig: “Did you think of your players while you developed your game?”Adrian: “I was very much focused on the creation of the game and did not think much the response of the players in the creative period. I became more aware of the players' response after I released the game.”

In consideration of other creative pursuits such as music composition, creation of art and literature, etc., there has been an undercurrent of commercial efforts vs. “what the artist wants to create.” However, artists must please at least some audience to survive, creating a profound ongoing conflict between what is aesthetic for the creator and what is aesthetic for the consumer. No doubt, this is true for game developers as well.

Still, it is most likely that, in order to reach more diverse audiences it will be necessary to find more diverse creators. Only they will be able to create the game they want to play.

I was disappointed in the Wikipedia Critical Race Theory (CRT) article because though it presented the essence of CRT as an analysis of racial inequity as the social construction of race and discrimination (what does that mean anyway?) it basically dismissed the functionality of CRT within the article, particularly when it noted that only one judge ever cited CRT (Twyman, 2005). Apparently within a legal framework, CRT does not survive; however, I do not believe that it should therefore be dismissed as unusable, since its viewpoint can be used to inform culture and a more diverse viewpoint. I think that the Wikipedia article should have mentioned this and that by not doing so, revealed its own bias.

Yasso (2005) discussed the concept of community cultural wealth and characterized CRT as a framework to theorize and challenge the ways racism impact social structures, practices and discourses. Yosso, an educator, seeks to use CRT as a framework to challenge the impact of race and racism on social structures. Her article was too long for me to read for this blog, but I liked it better than the Wikipedia article because it explained CRT better and used it for its best virtues. I believe that the gaming industry could also use it to access the "community cultural wealth." I did see a blog however, where it was questioned whether or not a white female feminist could even do CRT from her framework. By inference, I think they would also question a white male even more.

If we apply CRT to the games Grand Theft Auto (GTA): Chinatown and Resident Evil 5, I believe we would have inconclusive results. In addition, the articles we read showed a mixed result of opinions about whether these games were racist or not. While Parungo (2006) highlighted the negative Asian stereotypes in video games in his paper, he stated that “I don’t think there is much racism in video games to begin with, and wherever it may exist I think overall, video games balance out whatever stereotypes they create for various ethnicities.” Kuroiwa (2009) choose a cerebrate criticism of GTA: Chinatown, basically that the game did not offer any new content and that he was not interested. This criticism is interesting because it made me wonder if he found the Asian stereotype content as off putting in some way but interpreted it as disinterest.

Jones (2006) article was mainly a reprise of Lin’s (2006) article about Parungo. However, she also incorporated the opinion of Richard Smith. His most important comment was that the most insidious thing about racism is when people accept it. I would add that the worst thing is when people don’t notice it. Smith thought that Parungo’s study was important because this type of study would help create consciousness.

As such, these two video games might have helped raise consciousness by producing a backlash and subsequently, a discussion. I don’t think they intended to do this though. Still I think that the worst feedback is no feedback. And the worst criticism is being ignored.

When I read Cross’s opinion on Resident Evil 5, I wondered what difference it would make if I created a new zombie monster. I reasoned that one who looked exactly like the protagonist could not be assumed to be racist or anti feminist. I invented a "zompleganger," a portmanteau
for zombie and doppelganger though I should have spelled it "zompelganger" to be more correct.

The theory is that, when a human is infected with Z Virus , a zompleganger “clone” leaves the human body to range on its own. Barely senient, the zompleganger is the fleshy incarnation of that particular human’s worst dark desires.

What a zompleganger looks like:





In order to eradicate the zomplegangers and the Z virus, it will require pinpoint shooting accuracy and flawless targeting. When shot with the antiZviral, the zompleganger will return to its particular human and inhabit that human once again, causing that human some particular grief at knowing the full potential of her evil capacity and requiring that human to control that capacity. If any human (either infected or not) is shot with the antiZviral, they will have an immediate, and graphic reaction of profuse vomiting and color change accompanied by human sounds of distress (there are more graphic possibilities). If anyone is vomited on by an infected human they will receive the virus. There will not be antiZviral protective gear in all the scenarios. There will be some unavoidable exposures.

Needless to say, the chances for infection will be increased by story lines that include infected friends and significant others and their zomplegangers.



For fun I found the Resident Evil 5 Machinima Trailer

Video Games are Feminist

I am having trouble with a consise definition of feminism. Wikipedia's explaination required understanding that there were three waves and a post wave at that. Each wave had a different agenda. But basically I think the main idea is that woman should be treated as being the same as men and that women and men are clearly different in many ways. That statement sounds obvious in our current context.

I find myself wanting, at this point, to enter in the phrase "back in the day . . .blah blah blah" and proceeding through my personal view and journey through the transition to equal opportunity. I will, however, resist the temptation.

When I read Sherman's (1997) article on the Perils of the Princess, I was most impressed with her reference to the monomyth, which can be summarized as a hero's adventures and personal development. This literary pattern can be seen ad nauseum everywhere you look. As soon as I could read, I made it my personal venture to read every book of fairy tales in my little town library. After reading quite a few books, I realized that there were no new fairy tales, just different countries and different names. Most of them had a similar theme, a protaganist, male or female, would overcome a certain number of obstacles and would then wed the partner of their dreams. (Insert a monomyth shadow here, heehee.) I found later that most autobiographies had a similar pattern. These two examples are only the tip of the iceberg. My point is that I think that the monomyth comes from inside humans. Specifically, I think it is something that is hardwired in the genetic code that drives humans to grow and develop. I think this is the only explanation for it's ubiquity. Others have similar viewpoints. At least one scholar, Erik Erikson defined human development as a series of stages in which individuals must overcome struggles. Thus it is no surprise that video games incorporate monomyth themes. Humans will recognize and relate to struggles over obstacles as a path to personal development.

However, I found Sherman's (1997) analysis of gender and genre to be difficult. To me it felt like she just kept giving examples and information about the game. I do not believe she adequately explained the concept of liminality and I do not know how that affects gender anyway. I think her explanation of how boys and girls play video games differently is interesting, but I am not sure that it is substantiated.

Perhaps the other thing to draw from this reading, is the reiteration that females and males are different in their preferences, responses, and perhaps in the very way they experience anything at all.

Frasca was concerned with some of the qualities of "Peach," specifically that she wore pink and was blonde, and that her attacks were named as "emotional." Perhaps this suggests that this is the way women operate, but when I questioned an experienced gamer about this, his response was "What? Peach can kick your ass. She will whomp you over the head with a frying pan or whack you with a golf club. They should play Smash Brothers." Then he added, "You want to play Smash Brothers with me?" Frasca was right to point up these "female conventions," although I am not sure how damaging they are to females. Specifically, emotional attacks continue in other video games and not necessarily related to females. For example a common, and feared attack in World of Warcraft, is "Howl of Terror." It sends everyone running away from the warlock in total disarray.

That said, I will now mount the feminism soapbox in favor of videogames.

To start, I don’t know if there is any law or directive (or government money) that requires video games to be equal opportunity for women and men. I think they fall under the umbrella of entertainment in the legal sense of the term. One driver for video game design, and certainly the most influential, is economic; i.e., designers are going to try to make games that capture their audience. A second driver for video game design is designer/company global goals for a better world. Although this is probably a minor motivation, it is still valid because ethical, equal opportunity entertainment is less likely to offend and therefore, more likely to sell.

For this week, I first read the articles on feminism to see if I could get a concise and consistent list, of “what it wants.” I reasoned that I could just rate video games on their compliance to these issues. Oh my gosh, the Wikipedia article went on and on about different variants and waves of feminism. But that is all right. I made my own choice about what is the worst problem for woman in the world, and it is violence. I also believe that the worst problem men have in the world is also violence, and not to put it down . . .it is really worse, because it is the organized and mandated as legal, violence of war.

However, this week is just going to be about feminism, so I will just keep to that. According to statistics at feminist.com , many incidents of violence and rape in the United States are not reported, and of note, 64% of those who reported being raped, assaulted, or stalked (after age 18) say it was by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, or date. Perhaps the most hopeful thing about the situation, is that the situation in much of the rest of the world is chillingly worse for women than it is in the United States, leading me to believe that a change is possible, after all.

Third, I personally believe that video games are feminist.

To the point:

A. You don’t have to be male to play them.
B. You don’t have to have special skills to play them.
C. You don’t have to have special equipment to play them.
D. You don’t have to have special education to play them.

Most importantly, video games teach you not to accept the role of a victim. Video games teach this because no games make you just stand there and be target practice. You learn to hit back, kick back, make a killing blow, or get out of the ring. Whining and complaining about problems in video games gets you nothing.

The following video shows Ms Pac Man as a strong female protaganist.

Video games teach you that you have to pay the price to reach excellence. You can’t just do some half baked job and win. You aren’t going to get the reward if all you do is run in place watching the scoreboard. You need to gather the information and know it in your heart and hands and you need to use it.

Video games teach you not to be easily offended. Did someone just call your mother a “h…..”? So what? It is trash talk, meant to distract you. Look at the heart of the matter, size up the situation, and watch the inside games as well. If someone is wearing scanty clothing or sporting big avatar boobs, well, it is just a distraction (kinda puts the whole argument about breast enhancement to rest). Keep focused on the goal. Always.

Video games can teach you team building skills and help provide you with a lifetime team of support. One of my WoW friends is a female college teacher of Egyptology. Another one is a young woman who works in a games store and makes art. Another one is a locksmith from England who now lives in the USA and used to work in security. Once when one of his female friends was threatened in game, he found out who the man was (on the other side of the country), then he sent him a pizza with a cautionary threat within 45 minutes. (As an aside, the female didn’t even know the real name of the male who threatened her). These people may or may not be in my guild, but they are part of my team, and I am safer in the world because of them. In addition, I can be pretty assured that any time I log in to WoW (24/7) there will be someone to chat with and if I need it, help me with venting or emotional difficulties.

Finally, you learn what is really important. People really can’t hide in a video game. By the time they text you back and forth for a day and you see how they act in a team situation, you have a pretty good grip on who they really are. Sure you don’t know if they are 70 or 12, except by the way they act. It doesn’t matter what car they have, it doesn’t matter whether they are male or female, it doesn’t matter how much money they have, or any other exterior thing.

So how do video games help against violence against women? What I was trying to show was that stronger women will be less likely to be victims and that they can play video games and be stronger. The problem with this argument is that women aren’t choosing the games as much as men are. The solution is for game designers to learn how to capture the female audience as well as they have captivated the male audience. Unfortunately, this is a somewhat of a joke at the moment.

The following video is basically a joke about how some video games relegate womans roles to housekeeping, etc. It is not appropriate for children and has some graphic content, and swearing.

Are Video Game Aesthetics Important?

• Game experience, interactive and complex, may be understood and evaluated from a framework of game aesthetics. Historically, aesthetics referred to studies of sensory values. More concretely, Wikipedia states that “Aesthetics studies new ways of seeing and of perceiving the world.”[1] ,Seif El-Nasr, et al. noted that there are two current clusters of meaning for game aesthetics, one being the in game sensory phenomena, and two being the in game experience of pleasure or emotion. This concept is elusive, nebulous, and subjective. Nevertheless, game experience is a critical factor for gaming, and an aesthetics framework will help us to understand that experience.


• Seif El-Nasr, et al. studied the aesthetics of dynamic lighting for tension in games. Drawing from film and theatre, they determined that certain lighting state changes either increased tension or decreased tension. Patterns that increased tension were low contrast images, followed by high contrast images and low color saturation followed by high color saturation. Patterns that decreased tension were the opposite state change as those that increased tension. A static pattern that increases tension is one that increases a state of player vulnerability by the means of visual obscurity, for example, darkness, atmospheric phenomena, or occlusion.


• Some of these dynamic lighting state changes can be seen in the following video:

• When Seif El-Nasr et al. studied the responses of gamers to a prototype game that used dynamic lighting changes to signal danger, they found two separate viewpoints. Some long term gamers thought that the changes made the game too easy and others were disturbed by more information. In contrast, many players new to the first person shooter genre, liked the dynamic lighting. The important thing about these reactions was not that they were different, but that there were specific reactions to the dynamic lighting changes that impacted the game experience.


• Although, games are not generally considered as art, the fact remains that there is an aesthetic experience as games are played. Whether it is positive or negative is secondary to that fact. As such game aesthetics should also be part of game analysis and critique.


• I wanted to share some examples of games that incorporate aesthetics into their design. To start, Passage, a game by Jason Rohrer, shows fine attention to aesthetics from a minimalist viewpoint:



• And Rohrer recently released Primrose, an iPhone game. Again a minimalist application, but elegant.



• Finally, The Game Developer Choice Awards awarded Braid in the categories of writing, design, debut, innovation, and downloadable. Jonathan Blow, designer, and David Hellman, artist, worked on the game art to remove art elements that would be seen as aesthetic and yet keeping aesthetic elements that would be generalized by the player as non-functional parts of the level. http://store.steampowered.com/app/900816/


• In summary, I believe that the aesthetic experience can enhance game experience. I believe that in game aesthetics are more than style or preference, and actually refer to how the gamer experiences the game and how the gamer plays the game.
  

References:

Aesthetics (2009).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetics

Braid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_(computer_game)

2009 Game Developers Choice Awards
http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/winners/index.htm#nom

Rohrer, J. (2007) Passage. Videogame.
http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/index.html

Rohrer, J. (2009) Primrose. Videogame.
http://primrose.sourceforge.net/.

Seif El-Nasr, M., Neidenthal, S., Knez, I., Almeida, P., and Zupko, J. (2007). Dynamic Lighting for Tension in Games. Game Studies:The International Journal of Computer Game Research.
http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/elnasr_niedenthal_knez_almeida_zupko

Correction

There are 3 possible outcomes for a 2 person game:

A wins B (A is greater than B).

Tie (A equals B).

A loses to B (A is less than B).


(I could not get this to post correctly in the blog below.)

I Promise to Follow the Rules

• "We need real emotional and intellectual experiences," is a plaintive cry made by William Vitka (2004) in his article, Once Upon a Time. He made the apt point that while video games offer a superb vehicle for storytelling, that the current attempts at such are only mediocre when compared to the best authors and directors of our time. He tells us that what we need is more powerful narratives.


• Currently, video game narratives draw heavily from a multitude of sources including mythology, science fiction, horror, film, etc. These are well identified by Douglas C. Perry in his article The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames. One problem is that instead of relying on the power of the narrative itself, video games seek to amp up the response by increasing the shock value. Unfortunately, I think this likely degrades the shockability of the gamer overall. A more powerful solution would be to increase the value of the the narrative itself.
  
• When video games draw narrative from other sources, it is like pulling threads from one piece of cloth and weaving it into another; bits and scraps of popular and ancient culture are excised, bleached, colorized, felted, sized, recut, and resewn for another man's suit (read: video game).
  
• I submit that in the very excision of the "narrative piece" from its original setting, something is lost. The homogenization of material for general audience acceptance reduces its power to invoke emotional response and intellectual reflection. Neither narrative nor culture occurs in a vacuum. Both rely on context for meaning.
  
• A specific example of the downgrading of emotional response can be shown with the incorporation of the "Scarlet Crusade" on World of Warcraft. This is an early theme in the game and reminiscent of the Inquisition. As the quests go, it serves as a reminder that tolerance is a virtue and we should be vigilant against intolerance in general. But the absolute horror of the Inquisition (and intolerance) is really lost in the game.
  
• Another perfect example of this phenomenon is demonstrated by following Monty Python sketch.
  

While I believe that video games have the power to deliver powerful narrative in context, I do not believe that the industry is headed in this direction. I have seen no indication that they envision video games as being transformative and as such they will not likely move in that direction.

**********

As for what is and is not a game? I believe that Kongrugates's 4 learning games with the little blackboards of game concepts are important. I played the 4 games, etc. but off the top of my head, I can't remember them very well. They remind me of checkers. Tit for tat, ping for pong. This is not unpredictable. There are only 3 possible outcomes for a two person game: A>B, A=B, and A . No surprise. Something else is necessary for interest.

For example, what about the poor loser who overturns the checker board just before he is about to lose? Not that I recommend it, but it is still conceding the victory. Is that a rule? Yes, but unwritten. Some people may not know it. Some people may never know it. Is it subject to change at short notice? Yes, depending on who the players are.

In light of that, if I ever get the opportunity to design a video game, I promise to look at the Kongrugate game rule set again. For sure, I promise.

Just Thinking ???

The Tie that Ties - Trivia

Billy Mitchell's daily tie? Is it further evidence of his role identification with Donkey Kong? Clearly, the producers of The King of Kong thought so when they asked Billy what his initials were. Billy Mitchell's response was ambiguous, making reference to wearing a tie with the USA flag on it on the previous day.

I was wondering if that made his initials B.U.M. but I don't think that is what he meant.

Mirrored Roles

In the film documentary, King of Kong, there were roles of a hero, Weibe, a villian, Mitchell, and a secondary female in slight distress, Mrs. Weibe. In addition the game itself operated as a type of villianous character. This was alluded to by the comment that some thought the game was "possessed." In some ways this mirrors the highly structured roles of the video game, King Kong, itself. Weibe possesses clear qualities of the game protagonist, both being likable and hardworking, ever attempting to overcome obstacles, working diligently to overcome Kong, and in addition, being slightly rounded . Mitchell, as portrayed, was like Kong in many ways, in that he was aloof at the top of the ladder, somewhat menacing with his furrowed brow and hirsuitism, and not above throwing a last minute disruption to displace his opponent. Mrs. Weibe, though not contested or carried away by Mitchell, as was the female in game; was certainly upset and stressed by the general disruption of the situation. Certainly her encounter with the gentlemen who inspected her garage was portrayed as such. As an aside, why didn't she call the police? Was she that helpless? The game itself was clearly some type of demon to be conquered in that it ruled over the operant qualities of the lives of Weibe, Mitchell, Mrs. Weibe, and the multitude of secondary characters.

Whether or not it is true, it needs to be asked if living in the game or with the game so long shaped the personalities of Weibe, Mitchell, and Mrs. Weibe. Or whether the reverse is true? And while it is likely true that the documentary makers shaped the footage to highlight these roles, there is certainly still an element of truth to the idea that at least in this case, game roles and real life roles interchange and influence each other to some degree.

Ollanna Finds Kong in Dalaran

The King of Kong, a documentary of the competition between Mitchell and Wiebe for the world championship of the the arcade version of Donkey Kong, shows not only the intensity of the gaming environment, but also the influence of this game in real life (IRL). In particular, the men extrapolated the experience of competing against Kong, to an intense competition between each other.

I believe that the spirit of competition is, at the very least engaging, and at the very worst, addicting. For the purposes of this discussion, in honor of game Donkey Kong, I would like to denote an archetypal "Kong" as a physical representation of the spirit of competition.

And to diverge just a bit, I wanted to say that after viewing The King of Kong I was very excited to come home and share some thoughts on the game Donkey Kong, specifically, and video games in general. But before commenting, I decided to get a screen shot of Ollanna, from World of Warcraft, for the blog header, just as a point of interest.

When I logged onto Ollanna to get a current screenshot, somehow, as if to make a point, I (as Ollanna) was standing right next to Kong himself. I asked Olarian (another player) if I could get a photo with his pet, Kong, and Olarian was more than pleased to oblige. I felt the fountain would provide a contrasting background and asked Olarian if he would send Kong down to stand by me. In a matter of seconds we composed the photo and I asked Olarian if it would be all right if I posted Kong in my blog. Olarian was more than agreeable.

I did not take the time to ask Olarian why he had named his pet Kong. But I can tell you that this pet type is a formidable companion warrior pet and that it is likely that the name Kong is a title of honor. It this is indeed the case, we might assume that the the archetype of "Kong" as a competitor, has a reverential status.

Another example of a gamer revering "Kong" in the spirit of competition is demonstrated by the generation of a pseudo religion, "Kongism," started several years ago by my boyfriend's brother. The rules of Kongism are:

1. Technically you should try to play video games every Sunday (Holy Monkey Sunday) or at least once a week.

2. A Kong Totem, a physical representation of an ape or monkey, should be placed at the highest point in whatever room you want, but usually the video room.

3. More Kong Totems please Kong, and he will look upon you with favor.

This is a tongue-in-cheek example, of course, but the fact remains, that competition is central to gaming.

And that fact points to a parallel fact that in literature, when there is no conflict, there is no story. (This is a handed down quote, which I attribute to the ex wife of my ex husband). Literature is boring if you know how it is going to end. And the same is true for games. If you know how it is going to end, it isn't really a game is it?

Hello!