Nieuwe Media En Populaire Cultuur: Computergames

Nieuwe media en populaire cultuur: computergames (2009-2010)

College 1 (10 november 2009): Gamestudies, een introductie Joost Raessens

Wat gaan we doen vandaag? 1. Doelstelling en opbouw van de cursus 2. Huishoudelijke mededelingen 3. Ontstaan van een discipline (Game Studies, 2001) 4. Waarom games bestuderen? Why game studies now? (Games and Culture, 2006) 5. Voorbeeld game-onderzoek: docu-games

1. Doelstelling en opbouw van de cursus (zie overzicht)

1. Perspectieven (zie schema) 2. Vraag (probleemstelling): open of gesloten 3. Theorie: “A set of concepts used to define and/or explain some phenomenon” 4. Methode: benadering/strategie die leidt tot het beantwoorden van de vraag 5. Methodologische reflectie: zijn theorie en methode in staat vraag te beantwoorden?

2. Huishoudelijke mededelingen • Blog • Deelnemers staan op de lijst • Wijziging een van de werkcolleges, in pauze/na afloop ruilen

3.Ontstaan van een discipline (Game Studies, 2001) • Game Studies

• Aarseth, E. “ Computer Game Studies, Year One” (2001) • Aarseth, E. “ The Dungeon and the Ivory Tower: Vive La Difference ou Liaison Dangereuse?” (2002)

Computer Game Studies 2001 1. Eerste (?) tijdschrift: Game Studies 2. Eerste (?) congres over computer games: Computer Games and Digital Textualities (Copenhagen, 1 en 2 maart 2001). Zie ook Computer and Video Games Come of Age (MIT, 2000) 3. Eerste (?) collegereeksen over computergames 4. Academici nemen computergames voor het eerst (?) serieus

Aarseth (2001) 1. “…to force outdated paradigms onto a new cultural object…” 2. “…the very early stage we are still in…” 3. “…colonising attempts from both fields [cinema, literature] …”

Aarseth (2002) • Onderzoek • Bestuur/politiek • Onderwijs CV • Samenwerking academici en ontwerpers: Frequency 1550

4. Waarom games bestuderen? Why game studies now? (Games and Culture, 2006) • Playful Identities, or the Ludification of Culture (Raessens, 2006) • Games and Culture (SAGE)

Why game studies now? • • • •

Entertainment Software Association (ESA): Game Research Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau Kaiser Family Foundation: Zie: Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds, A Kaiser Family Foundation Study (March 2005).

Response to Innovation (Davis, 1976) 1. 2. 3.

Verdediging: geen kindervermaak, geen lage kunst, niet a-politiek Aanval: leiden tot agressie en verslaving Op academische wijze bestudeerd

Why game studies now? • Cultureel: identiteit • Sociaal: educatie, geweld/verslaving • Politiek: Games for change • Technologisch: computerinteractie • Mediatheoretisch, vergelijkend en historisch • Economisch: 20 miljard dollar • Esthetisch: kunst, formeel (gamespecifiek en/of verhalend)

Gamestudies is meer dan een discussie tussen (vooral Skandinavische) ludologen en (vooral Amerikaanse) narratologen. Wat gamestudies bedreigt is deze “fallacy of false dilemma”.

Ook moeten we de al te simplistische tweedeling doorbreken tussen Europese gamestudies - “an intellectual top-down perspective” waarin “definitional arguments” centraal staan - en Amerikaanse gamestudies die gebaseerd zijn op “a bottom-up dialogue with game designers, the game industry and fans.” Ook wij in Europa doen aan kwalitatiefempirisch onderzoek, participerende observatie, diepte-interviews, discoursanalyse, tekstuele analyse etc.

Why game studies now? “A game is a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity is negotiable” (Juul, Half-Real, p. 36). .

“We might call it a free activity, standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary' life as being 'not serious', but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner.” Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, 1955 [1938], p. 13.

Een computergame is “any forms of computer-based entertainment software, either textual or image-based, using any electronic platform such as personal computers or consoles and involving one or multiple players in a physical or networked environment” (Frasca geciteerd in Newman’s Videogames, 2004, p. 27).

pacman…pacmanhattan

http://www.pacmanhattan.com

Wat is de invloed van het game platform op de spelervaring? En wie speelt waar? Game platform: • Arcade (speelhal) • Console (spelcomputer) (PS II, GameCube, Xbox) • PC • Handheld (gameboy, ds, psp, mobiele telefoon)

arcade • Plaats: arcade hal Kenmerken: • Betalen per spel • Korte speelduur • Fysieke interface • Publiek

console Plaats: woonkamer of slaapkamer Kenmerken: • Eigendom • Samen spelen • Publiek • Langere speelduur

PC Plaats: werkplek of hobbykamer Kenmerken: • Eigendom PC • Solitair spel of online • Gratis online games of abonnement • Langere speelduur

handheld Plaats: overal Kenmerken: • Grafisch eenvoudige games • Integratie met telefoon

Why game studies now? • Jenkins: “If

they are smart, they change the tool to fit what they are looking at, if they are bad, it is a cookie cutter that only sees those things that their tool allows them to look at to begin with.” • Aarseth benadrukt het empirische bewijs dat narratologie is ”not really a good model for studying and understanding” computer games. We zijn, aldus Aarseth, getuige van een “transitional phase, a paradigm shift.”

• Plaatsen wij ons in de traditie van de geesteswetenschappen waarin het gelijktijdig bestaan van meerdere interpretatiekaders wordt bevestigd? OF • Thomas Kuhn is most famous for his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) in which he presented the idea that science does not progress via a linear accumulation of new knowledge, but instead undergoes periodic revolutions which he calls "paradigm shifts", in which the nature of scientific inquiry within a particular field is abruptly transformed.

5. Voorbeeld gameonderzoek: docu-games

Reality Play

Documentar y computer games beyond fact and fiction

Documentar y computer games !?

Docu-games between fact and fiction • • • • •

JFK Reloaded Docu-games Three examples Docu-games: fiction or documentation? Plea in favor of docu-games

JFK Reloaded (2004)

9-11 Sur vivor (2003)

Endgames: Waco Resur rection (2003)

Escape from Woomera (2003)

FICTION OR DOCUMENTATION? Fiction: 1. A docu-game creates its own object and by doing so, its own ‘truth’ 2. Since docu-games are simulations of reality, they would lack every kind of legitimization to a documentary status 3. In a docu-game historical ‘fact’ and ‘fixity’ give way to the

Documentation: 1. The docu-game must be seen as a “creative treatment of actuality” (Grierson)

2. Games that we call ‘documentary’ do not only contain textual but also contextual information that indicates that we must switch to a “documentarizing lecture” (Odin)

Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

3. Docu-games challenge the notions of ‘objectivity’ and ‘authority’

PLEA IN FAVOR OF THE DOCUMENTARY GAME 1. There seems to be no reason to exclude games a priori from the category of the documentary form

2. The four fundamental tendencies attributable to documentary practice: * To record, reveal, or preserve ( 9-11 Survivor ) * To persuade or promote ( Escape from Woomera ) * To analyze or interrogate ( JFK Reloaded ) * To express ( Waco Resurrection )

3. Docu-games are capable of opening the area of the historical documentary to a large audience and may become very popular 4. One of the biggest challenges of game design is precisely this difficult task: how to make maximum use of the opportunity to communicate with the audience?

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To describe these docu-games based on real historical figures and actual events (FACT), woven together with fictional game play (FICTION), one could use the neologism FACTION

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I can't get no SATIS-FACTION 'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try I can't get no, I can't get no

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How can we give the player the SATIS-FACTION