Nieuwe Media En Populaire Cultuur: Game-cultuur

Nieuwe media en populaire cultuur: game-cultuur (2008-2009)

College 1 (11 november 2008): 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: docugames

• 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 – –

– –

Eerste (?) tijdschrift: Game Studies 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) Eerste (?) collegereeksen over computergames 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 “…to force outdated paradigms onto a new cultural object…” 2.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 imagebased, 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.

6. Voorbeel d gameonderz oek: docu- games

Real it y Play

Docume nta r y c omputer games b eyond f act a nd fic tion

Docume nta r y computer g ames ! ?

Docu-game s b etwe en fa ct and f ic tio n • • • • •

JFK Rel oaded Docu- gam es Three exam ples Docu- gam es : ficti on or documentat ion? Pl ea in favor of docu-gam es

JFK R elo aded (2 004)

Wate r Coole r G ame s F orum Three types of reacti ons (Turkl e) : 5. 6. 7.

Si mul ati on resi gnation Si mul ati on deni al Si mul ati on understandi ng

“But one can imagine a t hi rd response. T his w ou ld t ake the cult ural pervasivenes s of simulation as a challenge to develop a more sophisticat ed social crit icism . T his new cri ticism would not lu mp all simulations toget her, but would discriminat e among t hem . It would take as its goal t he development of simulations t hat actu al ly help players challenge the model’ s built -in a ssumptions. This new criticism wo ul d try to

9-1 1 Su r viv or (2 003)

Endgames: Waco R esur rection (2 003)

Escape from W oomera (2 003)

FIC TION OR DOCUME NT ATIO N? Fi cti on: 4. A docu- game cr eates i ts own obj ect and by doi ng so, its own ‘t ruth’ 5. Si nce docu-gam es ar e sim ul ati ons of real ity, they woul d lack every ki nd of legit imi zati on to a document ary status 6. In a docu- gam e hi stor ical ‘fact’ and ‘f ixi ty’ gi ve way to the

Docume nta tio n: 1.

The docu- game must be seen as a “creati ve treatment of actual ity” (Grier son)

2.

Games that we cal l ‘docum entary’ do not onl y contai n textual but al so contextual inf or mat ion that indicat es that we m ust swit ch to a “document ari zi ng lecture” (Odin)

Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

2.

Docu- gam es chal lenge t he noti ons of ‘ obj ecti vity’ and ‘aut hori ty ’

PLEA IN FA VOR OF THE DO CUMEN TA RY G AME 1. T here seems t o be no reason to excl ude gam es a pri or i from the category of the documentar y f orm

2. The f our fundam ental tendenci es at tri butabl e to documentar y pract ice: * To recor d, reveal , or preserve ( 9-11 Sur vivor ) * To persuade or prom ote ( Escape from Woom era ) * To anal yz e or i nter rogate ( JFK R el oaded ) * To express ( Waco Resur rect ion )

1.

Docu- gam es are capabl e of openi ng t he ar ea of the hi stori cal docum entary t o a large audi ence and may become very popul ar

3.

One of the bi ggest chal lenges of game des ign is pr eci sel y thi s di fficul t task: how to m ake maxi mum use of the opportuni ty to communi cat e wi th the audi ence?

•

To descri be these docu- gam es based on real hi stori cal f igures and actual ev ent s (FA CT) , woven together wi th ficti onal game pl ay (FI CTI ON), one coul d us e the neol ogi sm FA CTI ON

•

I can't get no SA TI S- FA CTI ON 'C ause I t ry and I tr y and I try and I t ry I can't get no, I can't get no