Mapping the Digital: Cultures and Territories of Play [1 ed.] 9781848883390, 9789004374423

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Mapping the Digital

Inter-Disciplinary Press Publishing Advisory Board Ana Maria Borlescu Peter Bray Ann-Marie Cook Robert Fisher Lisa Howard Peter Mario Kreuter Stephen Morris John Parry Karl Spracklen Peter Twohig Inter-Disciplinary Press is a part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net A Global Network for Dynamic Research and Publishing

2016

Mapping the Digital: Cultures and Territories of Play

Edited by

Lindsey Joyce and Brian Quinn

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2016 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

ISBN: 978-1-84888-339-0 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2016. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction: This should be Flush Left Lindsey Joyce and Brian Quinn Part I

Games and Cultural Identities The Creation of a New Language: Videogaming Slang Giuseppina Zisa

Part II

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3

The Entertainment Applications of Home Computers and Their Early Extensive Household Appropriation (Spain, 1980s) Ignasi Medà

13

Rapid Design of Cutscenes for Serious Games Daniel Riha

23

In-Game Cultures Violent Encounters: The Hobbesian State of Nature in DayZ Tero Pasanen

31

Towards a Digital Humanity: Transhumanism and Cyber-Citizenship in Videogaming René Schallegger

41

Divergent Masculinities in Contemporary Videogame Culture: A Tale of Geeks and Bros Joe Baxter-Webb

51

Part III Game Systems Immersion and Gamer’s Experience Issues in Beyond: Two Souls Adam Flamma

67

Agency in Meaning and Intent: Limitations of Morality Systems in Interactive Narrative Games Lindsey Joyce

77

The Politics of the Representation of the Dandy in East-Asian Video Games Gaspard Pelurson

87

Part IV

Serious Games/Serious Gaming Serious Gaming, Serious Modding, a Serious Diverting: Are you Serious?! Caatherine Bouko and Julian Alvarez

103

CODE RED: MOBILE, a Live\Synthetic Test Bed for Firefighter Training Brian Quinn

115

Ghosts! A Location-Based Bluetooth LE Mobile Game for Museum Exploration Tommy Nilson, Alan F. Blackwell, Carl Hogsden, and David Scruton

129

The Nike Brand Embodied as a Playful Experience Vincente Mastrocola and Marcela Simão de Vasconcellos

139

Introduction Lindsey Joyce and Brian Quinn The annual conference ‘Video Game Cultures and the Future of Interactive Entertainment,’ hosted every year in Oxford, England, is a meeting that steps out of place and time. Removed from the hustle and bustle of busy academic lives, research ventures, keyboards and consoles, 25 individuals representing 15 different countries gathered at Mansfield College to discuss video games. Though we gathered to discuss video games and technology, the setting for the conference couldn’t have felt more removed from those things. A brown stone gravel pathway leads to Mansfield’s grounds where, to the left, sits a small stone cottage where the Porter greets guests and hands out the keys to dorms. For the lucky, a black and white spotted cat may also wait just outside the cottage waiting to offer another welcome. Just past the Porter’s cottage, the grounds open up into a round croquet field, it’s freshly trimmed grass mingling with the warm air to give off the perfect smell of a summer day. Placed around the field are three other stone buildings each resembling medieval castles. The grand setting lends an authority to the conference, and thus to its topic of videogames, a prestige not typically found surrounding the medium. One by one we arrived and, passing over the picaresque grounds, entered into one of its castles to check in and claim our name badges. Stepping into the meticulously preserved building, originally built between 1887 and 1890, is like stepping back into another time. The original scholars at Mansfield gathered to discuss law and theology. Our topic of discussion was notably different. We had purposely brought the digital age to Mansfield, unsticking it, if only momentarily from its austere past. Thus while we, the conference attendees, felt transported back in time, the building itself was modernized by our presence. Amidst the stone walls and wooden floors, our purpose was not actually to look back on the past, but instead of discuss our present and our future in the context of interactive entertainments. To challenge old conceptions and old philosophies, and to build, if only amongst ourselves and in our conversations, new places for our ideas to be constructed. For some of us, this meant discussing the ways video games and interactive digital mediums are changing current cultural and national identities. Several scholars discussed the ways in which games were changing specific cultures. Giuseppina Zisa analysed the ways Italian MMORPG players (specifically World of Warcraft) are acting as linguistic creators who, rather than adopting English words for game play or by translating those words into their Italian equivalent, have ‘transposed’ the language by creating new words that are neither intrinsically Italian or English. Alternately, Ignasi Meda offered insights into how the addition of computers into households in Spain helped to not only promote the ‘Golden Age of Spanish Games,’ but also the cultural concept that ‘knowledge was doing.’

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__________________________________________________________________ Approaching culture from the opposite direction, Daniel Riha discusses his use of Moviestorm in his classes to help students recreate characters and important scenes from Prague’s cultural history. Evidenced by these scholars is the depth to which videogames have become ingrained and inseparable from the cultures they help mediate and create, and that far from being niche cultures or micro-cultures, the impact of games is now, in many instances, affecting games on more national levels. That said, in-game and game-specific cultures still exists too, and other scholars present at the gathering were investigating the emergent cultural behaviours that exist in game spaces, and which either shape and transform the act of play or shape how we conceive of games and play. For instance, Tero Pasanen studied Day Z from a Hobbesian lens to find that while antisocial behaviour isn’t enforced by the game, players create it for themselves, thus altering styles of play in the game away from co-operative to intrinsically hostile. On the other hand, René Schallegger argues that games are helping to negotiate the movement from human to transhuman identities. Also discussing identity construction, Joe Baxter-Webb, analyses how games journalism creates and – sometimes to the disadvantage of games and play – perpetuates conceptions about games that are incongruent with actual game cultures. The analysis of game structures and systems was also a recurring subject at the conference. Adam Flamma, for example, analysed the structure of interactive drama games like Beyond Two Souls to argue that the experience of play in such ‘games’ is not only futile but also non-immersive. Approaching interactive narratives from a slightly different entry point, Lindsey Joyce discussed how many of the current conventions and systems employed in interactive narratives diminish rather than increase conceptions of player agency, especially in those games using morality systems. Gaspard Pelurson analysed the character of the dandy in games, arguing the dandies’ apparent asexuality and the significant threat he represents to hegemonic masculinity are the dandies’ most interesting characteristics in mainstream video games. At stake in each of these presentations were issues of representation and negotiation between and within narrative constructs and limitations. Serious games were also covered by several scholars at the conference. Creating a frame for these discussions, Catherine Bouko and Julian Alvarez discussed the difference between serious gaming and serious games. While serious games are developed with education in mind, serious gaming employs the use of commercial games for the purposes of learning. Brian Quinn discussed the development and learning outcomes of a serious game he created and used to train volunteer firefighters in Australia. Similarly, Tommy Nilsson Alan F. Blackwell, Carl Hogsden, and David Scruton discussed how his developmental team overcame environmental limitations to create a mobile-based augmented reality game for museum exploration. Finally, Vincente M. Mastrocola and Marcelo

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__________________________________________________________________ Simão de Vasconcellos analysed how brand experience functions in the purchase and use of exercise-tracking wrist bands such as the Nike+ Fuelband. In these discussions the potential for games to take on forms and purposes outside of typical conceptions of ‘play’ was revealed, and as a result leaves us to consider the limits of ‘game’ – its purpose, its function, its application, and so forth. As games more seamlessly integrate into daily lives and functions, the boundaries of what does and does not constitute game itself will continue to be negotiable. Through the course of our discussions, perhaps one thing became most clear: though more transient and less stable than the stone castles of Mansfield, digital environments and constructs are no less capable of establishing, altering, or impacting cultures. Games are now a pervasive part of the cultural landscape in many parts of the world. They are changing our language, our relationships to space, our interactions with our environments and with others, and our understandings of sociological, psychological, political, and educations spaces. In other words, and as evidenced through our discussions in Mansfield, videogames have certainly moved on from the conception of them as ‘fun and games’ and are now certainly worthy of discussion amidst the austere walls of academic institutions.

Part I Games and Cultural Identities

The Creation of a New Language: Videogaming Slang Giuseppina Zisa Abstract This work discusses the role of the English language nowadays, by analysing its consequences as the Lingua Franca of technologies and videogames. In order to understand this scenario, my study deals with the virtual world of videogames, and principally considers language use in one of the most popular MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing game) in the world: World of Warcraft. The research highlights the basic changes that a language undergoes when it is used in this context. Being a native Italian speaker, I am especially focused on the consequences that it has on the Italian community of players who seem to share a particular new kind of jargon or slang. This study is divided into two sections: the first deals with the role of English as a Lingua Franca in technology, the second shows the features of WoW and discusses the consequences the new slang used in this context has on young people’s everyday life. This research is not complete or exhaustive since it is an ongoing study, especially now that the game has been translated into Italian. The aim of this work is simply to prove the existence of a community of players both internationally and locally. I then investigated the new jargon the community is creating in order to satisfy the needs of its users, and I tried to understand the process of word formation in the Italian context. To conclude, I demonstrate that words are not translated into Italian but are simply transposed, thus creating an interesting scenario that is worth studying. Key Words: Videogame language, community of players, communication, international language, sociolinguistics, new jargon, transposition, Italian context. ***** 1. The Internet Revolution 1.1. The Language of the Technology New technology is all around us, and there is no going back.1 As Tim Shortis pointed out, thanks to technology, the Internet and new media, the English language has a leading role in current society becoming LF or L2 almost all over the world. Within this scenario, the world of videogames and especially its language create an interesting field of study. We do know that a language constantly changes and it does reflect the transformation of society. As Shortis affirmed: ‘There is a popular view that new technology is changing communication […]. Computer language is said to be different in terms of appearance and form’.2

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__________________________________________________________________ As Crystal also wrote: ‘technological changes alter the forms that a language takes’.3 As technology users in general are starting to use some of the lexis coming from these transformations. Since 1990 we have seen the proliferation of new terms that originated on the Internet. As a consequence, English has affirmed its role as Lingua Franca.4 As Shortis said: We can see a language associated with new technologies emerging […]. We are learning to write, read, speak and listen in new ways as different kinds of communication are made possible by technological development.5 1.2. English as Lingua Franca The role of the English language has become fundamental in our lives, especially after the Internet revolution that forced us to use common English words in various social networks, chat and videogames. Nowadays, in fact, as a consequence, colloquial lexis (even in the Italian context) often use technical terms deriving from English (lag, log, reset, etc…). In this way, a ‘global discourse community,’6 whose main feature is English, is created across the globe. Within these communities, a new jargon is arising that is often used by young people. As Kachru pointed out: ‘Being a global language, English and the English people seem to have lost the exclusive prerogative to control its standardization’.7 In fact, as Crystal admitted, if a language is a democratic institution, it means: To have learned a language is immediately to have rights in it. You may add to it, modify it, play with it, create in it, ignore bits of it, as you will. And it is just as likely that the course of the English language is going to be influenced by those who speak it as a second or foreign language as by those who speak it as a mother-tongue.8 This means that this language owns features of both regions where it is used as L1 and where it is used as LF or L2.9 Widdowson, however, makes an important distinction between the distribution and the diffusion of English. He considers, in fact, these two processes to be quite different. He states: ‘Distribution implies adoption and conformity. Spread implies adaptation and non-conformity’.10 In this way, every language is subjected to internal variation. 1.3. The Influence of the Internet Language The process that leads to the transformation and the use of Internet language is slow and gradual. Usually, words (mostly verbs) are modified slightly within a specific context before being imposed as the new usage norm. Then, used regularly they tend to be imposed as the norm. Single terms or entire sentences of a language

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__________________________________________________________________ become deeply rooted in the other language, creating constant code switching in the speaker. This phenomenon often spreads into young people’s lives that are usually, ‘the promoters of most linguistic changes and more’.11 Today’s youth, in fact, grow up within a technologic environment and are keen to use computers, the Internet and videogames as part of their daily lives. Since ‘new technologies soon become old technologies,’12 it is very difficult to foretell which elements will live through this revolution and which, on the contrary, will not survive. Having shown that an Internet language does exist,, we will focus on the virtual world of videogames. Although this analysis considers, players of MMORPGs, in particular, it can also be enlarged to include general online videogames. 1.4. The Communication in Online Virtual World While videogames have been analysed in social, empirical and technical studies, very few of these have paid attention to the language used within the context of virtual worlds. As Dana Driscoll stated: Surprisingly, few linguistic studies have considered the topic of Internet dialects. The studies that have been conducted focused on the Internet dialects as a whole and did not look at the diverse groups on the Internet that communicate differently. Studies in the communications field have focused on the main Internet dialect as well, although those studies did not look at the language from a linguistic point of view. Studies in sociology discussed Gamers overall, but did not linguistically analyse language.13 As Duke asserted: ‘Gaming is a future’s language, a new form of communication emerging suddenly with great impact’.14 I have tried to shine a light on these worlds. To do this, I took screenshots of the gameplay to analyse and interviewed players in order to understand their language and investigate it. Since we have referred to players as a community, we have tried to see how and if this group can be considered as such. If we rely on Swales,15 we can state the world of videogames clearly has all the potential to be considered as a community since we have a group of defined people with the same interests and aims who cooperate in doing the same activity and share a common language. 1.5. Conclusion In our analysis we will see a lot of words used in the gaming context come from the Internet language, while others are modified words of English or are neologism. The global context of new technologies, the Internet and mostly videogames allow new terms to enter the daily vocabulary. Most of these words are English, since it is the language used within these global contexts and it allows

The Creation of a New Language

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__________________________________________________________________ international players to communicate with each other, even if English is not their mother tongue. But this language is also modified according to the target language for which the videogame is released, and so words are adapted depending on the context in which they are used. The language of videogames is something completely new and something which is worth studying, especially from a sociolinguistic point of view. Studies are at their beginning in this field. By providing examples gathered from data and direct experience, I aim to investigate the consequences this new language has both on English and, in my case, on the Italian language. This is important work, for Crystal said: ‘I view each of the Netspeak situations as an area of huge potential enrichment for individual languages’.16 In order to do this research, I used a mixed methodology which is to quote Hymes: ‘a research method […] which is concerned with describing the lived experiences of people in particular social groups’.17 2. International Community 2.1. Community of Players In this chapter we will see how new terms are used within the game and within the community of players. Here is a list of the common international words used in WoW. -

Aggro Aoe Bg (battle ground) Buff – debuff Cast Cd: cooldown Dot Dps Equip (class shift: in Italian it is a verb or a noun and it is the equivalent of the English equipment) Gg (good game) Gz (congratz) Hot Hp (health points) Melee Mob Newbie/noob Op (ower powered) Party Pro player (professional) PvE

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PvP Raid Ranged Spell Tank (a videogame term) Taunt Xp (experience points)

These terms, along with many others, are commonly used in the international community of players. This means that they are well-known and well-established even in the Italian context. The different chat channels (whispers, party chat, guild chat, public chat, general…) used in a videogame use a lot of elements which are also used in CMC (Computer Mediated Communication, afk, lol, brb, etc…) plus additional specific words strictly related to the game itself (such as the spell name, the place names, etc…). This is why it is so difficult to fully understand the jargon of a videogame if you are an outsider or if you do not belong to the community of players. 2.2. An Ethnographic Research In this research, the player universe was observed and studied through screenshots, interviews, online questionnaires, and audio and visual material captured during the gameplay. I used a mixed methodology, both quantitative and qualitative, because as Zina O’Leary stated: Mixed methodology can help you capitalize on the best of both traditions and overcome many their shortcomings, allow for the use of both inductive and deductive reasoning; build a broader picture by adding depth and insights to numbers.18 My research is focused on understanding the social phenomenon of videogames and the language associated with it from player’s perspective and tries to investigate their direct experience of the game. 2.3. The Linguistic Component I tried to analyse some screens in order to investigate the language of the players, highlighting the peculiar features it has. Then I tried to understand the mechanism of transposition, modification and creation of this new slang, which is very unique. After this, I looked at the results of the online questionnaires submitted to both foreign and Italian people to verify how and when its users use this language. The results of my research show that many words are not translated from English, but simply transposed, containing parts of the source language (mostly the

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__________________________________________________________________ roots). The process of word formation I saw usually consisted of maintaining the root of the English term to which users usually add an Italian suffix thereby creating a new term in the target language which is understood only by its users. In this way, users assist in the creation of an Italian verb (log in = loggare, kill= killare, group = gruppare, full = fullare, set = settare, join = joinare, crash = crashare/ato). Some of these terms are neologisms since they are created and used only within the Italian community of players in order to communicate effectively. (For example mana break in English MB in Italian is reccare from the English word recover). I also analysed parts of a video made during a raid to see the efficacy and the “power” of the language used in these worlds. In the video, not only was written language integrated to enrich the communication by providing fast, clear, and direct ways for the player to complete an activity or task, but audio language was used complete the same goals too. The raid leader is the person who speaks and he gives instructions on what to do and what to avoid during the fight in order to succeed and kill the boss. As in a real face-to-face conversation, people have to follow certain rules to avoid confusion or overlaps. Once again, it is important to underline the socio-linguistic component of those environments to win the battle and to understand the other players. During the gameplay, players very often refer to the geographic places we can find in the game, which is also important. Thanks to these examples, we can notice that an international community of players who share the same jargon does exists. This slang, then, can be adapted by the local community of a certain country (in my case Italy) which in a very unique and fascinating way to create a new vocabulary containing new terms that can be understood only by those who belong to such a community. The online questionnaire I administered was composed of 100 different samples and it consisted of 10 questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Do you play videogames? What kind of videogames do you like? How many hours per day do you spend playing videogames? Are you aware of the slang you use in videogames? During your daily life do you use some of this jargon? If yes, please write down some of the common words you usually use in your everyday conversation. 6. Do you think using this new language could affect your communication skills? How? 7. Do you think gamers have a sort of their own code of speaking? Is it a ‘powerful’ one? 8. Age.

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__________________________________________________________________ 9. Sex. 10. Nationality. The data obtained clearly show that videogames are part of young people’s daily lives. The answers illustrate that players are quite aware of the slang they use both within these worlds and outside them. Some players think this new jargon can be a positive phenomenon for a language to evolve in society, since it reflects the changes such a society undergoes. Many believe this is an elitarian language which can spread its features. My humble opinion is that as it is a new language, it evolves and represents and additional diafasico factor that enriches our linguistic range and our experience. Players are acutely aware that they have a sort of code of speaking which is very rare. To conclude, thanks to these brief examples and data we can state that the Italian community of players, and in general international players, decided not only to adopt but in some cases to create a new language. In this way, players create a sort of code which is inaccessible to people who do not belong to their community. These new worlds are part of our lives and they represent a new way of living, socializing, learning and communicating. We cannot forecast how or if this new jargon will evolve, but this study clearly proves that if this community continues to grow, there will be more people who share this language and could extend its usage to other domains in order to optimize or simplify their conversation. As a new social phenomenon, it is important to classify and define these new usages as a new language since it has all the premises to be one, and can, as a consequence enrich our potential as social beings.

Notes 1

Tim Shortis, The Language of ICT (London and New York: Routledge, 2001). Ibid., 6. 3 Peter Stockwell, Sociolinguistics (London and New York: Routledge, 2007). 4 David Crystal, English as a Global Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). 5 Shortis, The Language of ICT, 2. 6 Barbara Seidhofer, ‘English as a Lingua Franca and Communities of Practice,’ Halle Proceedings, eds. Sabine Volk-Birke and Julia Lippert (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2007), 307-18 cited in Jennifer Jenkins, ‘English as a Lingua Franca: Interpretations and Attitudes,’ World Englishes 28.2 (2009): 200207. 7 Braj B. Kachru, ‘Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle,’ English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, eds. R. Quirk and H. G. Widdowson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 30, cited in Sandra Lee McKay, 2

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__________________________________________________________________ Teaching English as an International Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 51. ‘... native speakers of English seem to have lost the exclusive prerogative to control its standardization’, 30. 8 Crystal, English as a Global Language, 172. 9 By L1 we mean mother tongue, LF stands for foreign language and L2 second language. 10 Henry Widdowson, ‘EIL, ESL, EFL: Global Issues and Local Interests’, World Englishes 16.1 (1997): 140. 11 Ronald Wardhaugh, An Introduction to Sociolonguistics (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000). 12 Shortis, The Language of ICT, 3. 13 Dana Driscoll, ‘The Ubercool Morphology of Internet Gamers: A Linguistic Analysis’, Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences 1 (2002): viewed on 3 January 2016, http://www.academia.edu/1318311/The_Ubercool_morphology_of_internet_gamer s_A_linguistic_analysis. 14 Richard Duke, Gaming: The Future’s Language (New York: NP, 1974) cited in Steward Woods, ‘Loading the Dice: The Challenge of Serious Videogames’, Game Studies 1 (2004): viewed on 26 September 2015, http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/woods/. 15 John Swales, Genre Analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) cited in Rodney H. Jones, Discourse Analysis (London: Routledge, 2012). 16 David Crystal, Language and the Internet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). 17 Jones, Discourse Analysis (London and New York: Routledge, 2012). 18 Zina O’Leary, The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project (London: Sage, 2010).

Bibliography Crystal, David. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ———. Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Driscol, Dana. ‘The Ubercool Morphology of Internet Gamers: A Linguistic Analysis’. Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Science 1 (2002): np. Viewed on 3 January 2016. http://www.academia.edu/1318311/The_Ubercool_morphology_of_internet_gamer s_A_linguistic_analysis.

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__________________________________________________________________ Jenkins, Jennifer. ‘English as a Lingua Franca: Interpretations and Attitudes,’ World Englishes 28.2 (2009): 200-207. Mckay, Sandra Lee. Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. O’Leary, Zina. The Essential Guide to Doing your Research Project, London, Sage, 2010. Rodney, Jones H. Discourse Analysis, London and New York, Routledge, 2012. Shortis, Tim. The Language of ICT, London and New York, Routledge, 2001. Stockwell, Peter. Sociolinguistics, London and New York, Routledge, 2007. Swales, John. Genre Analysis, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990.Widdowson, Henry, ‘EIL, ESL, EFL: Global Issues and Local Interests’, World Englishes, 16/1, 1997. Wardhaugh, Ronald. An Introduction to Sociolonguistics, Oxford, Blackwell, 2000. Woods, Steward. ‘Loading the Dice: The Challenge of Serious Videogames,’ Game Studies, 1, 2004. Viewed on 26 September 2015. http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/woods/. Giuseppina Zisa, born in Ragusa, (Sicily), Italy, in 1987. Graduated in 2013 in Foreign Languages and Literatures in Catania with a MA dissertation on Gaming Culture.

The Entertainment Applications of Home Computers and Their Early Extensive Household Appropriation (Spain, 1980s) Ignasi Medà Abstract Some video game hobbyists and experts, curious and nostalgic video game players in Spain know and regularly use the expression ‘The Golden Age of Spanish Software’ to refer to an unknown but rather important set of episodes that took place in the country between 1983 and 1992: the beginning and later widespread use of home computers and video games in Spanish households. According to this, it is well known that a small but promising industry of video games was created during the early 80s, although it was not until the mid and late 80s that such industry grew to the point that some information sources noted that Spain had the second most powerful video game industry in Europe, just behind the UK’s. However, such a flourishing industry had almost disappeared in the early 90s, at the time when international video game industry was making the technological transition from 8-bit to 16-bit machines. Among the multiple perspectives, issues and research areas that this period offers to video game researchers, this chapter focuses particularly on the success of early home computers in Spain during the 80s. It is usually said that such a process was possible owing to the work, education and entertainment applications these devices introduced into Spanish households. In principle, home computers were to help adults with the toughest tasks of their jobs while allowing children to improve their school achievements. However, as I will show, the early commercial success of home computers was mostly related to their role as entertainment devices, leaving their working and educational uses in the background. Key Words: Video games, home computers, IT revolution, technologic discourses, Sinclair, ZX Spectrum, software, hobbyists, users. ***** 1. The IT Revolution in Europe: Naturalization and Consolidation of the Technologic Discourses From the 1950s to the 1970s, there was a growing common agreement in Europe and other industrialized countries, such as United States or Japan, that a new IT revolution was coming and would modify several human everyday tasks as never before.

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Image 1: Popular Science cover © October 1977. Courtesy of Popular Science Archives.

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__________________________________________________________________ ‘Low-cost models can change your life-style’ says this magazine’s cover. Certainly, a new generation of home computers was beginning to emerge and, with them, a new set of promises and expectations had begun to pave the way to present them as necessary consumer goods. For instance, in 1978 the BBC channel aired the television documentary ‘Now the Chips are Down’, as part of its Horizon series, which broadcast the values and influence of microprocessors within the British economy. Such documentaries has been socially understood as a tool that raised general awareness within the UK about microprocessors,1 although I would say that its implicit message wound up overcoming other national barriers, as was the case in Spain. There, for instance, policymakers, banking elites and the largest public and private businesses were absorbed in the 80s mostly with issues concerning the necessary modernization of the country. And that, it was said, could only be possible by adopting the advantages and developments already reported in other countries with electronic and digital computation, that is, by the IT revolution. Yet, some criticism has also been made, regarding such form of presenting all the benefits coming from the new electronic devices and microchips. For example, Carl Gardner and Robert M. Young pointed out that: The ways in which such programmes are presented separates the substance of knowledge and technology from the process of origination and prioritization which would make explicit the values involved. These topics are precluded by the breathless form of presentation which operates at an expository pace and conveys a sense of inevitability rather than one of social choice.2 In any case, it is important to highlight that these technologic discourses that helped to form the so called IT Revolution, were represented in Europe by important key figures such as Clive Sinclair or Alan Sugar, who became the popular visible faces of ‘Spectrum’ and ‘Amstrad’ micros, two of the most popular home computers sold in Europe in the 80s. This did not go unnoticed by some social groups. On the contrary, they took advantage of this and, as Margaret Thatcher did, used Sinclair’s image and his entrepreneurial success as an icon for society to follow by: ‘Clive Sinclair was known to be Thatcher’s favorite entrepreneur and, for a period, he was viewed as the British ‘David taking on the Goliaths of industry’.3 In this respect, is not surprising to find distinguished people such Ronald Reagan, Sir Clive Sinclair, Margaret Thatcher or even the musician Mick Jagger as the main characters of an 8-bit video game such as Split Personalities.4 In some manner, such illustrations show us the acceptance of the new IT entrepreneurs in the 80s, wherein they could share visual and ‘digital’ space with other important people. Seen from this perspective, Maureen McNeil notes:

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__________________________________________________________________ Hence, the popular engagement with IT entrepreneurs in the early 1980s was an important moment in the education for popular capitalism […]. Seen in this light, Sinclair (and somewhat less obviously, Sugar) were ideal English heroes. More accurately, they were picked up and widely circulated by British media because they embodied this forging of the Victorian self-made man and the IT entrepreneur of the future.5 2. ZX Spectrum: A Machine Initially Designed to Work, Learn and (Play)6 1982 was a crucial year. Sir Clive Sinclair released ‘ZX Spectrum’, the predecessor of ZX80 and ZX81 models, under great popular expectation. This micro became the best-selling computer in Europe7 and, above all, turned out to be the basic tool for many people to start using and programming computers.8 In this sense, Spain was no exception at all, although it would take at least one extra year for the ZX Spectrum to become popular there. Despite this, ZX Spectrum helped the arrival of home computers in Spanish households and brought, above all, the possibility for many people to tinker with and theorize over all microprocessor issues, otherwise inaccessible at that time.9 It is important to remark that, initially, Sinclair wished to sell a machine for educational purposes,10 and that is why Sinclair’s home computers ran with ‘BASIC’ programming language,11 to make it the easiest to use. One of its most distinctive characteristics, besides its capacity for displaying colours on TV screens whenever these were not black-and-white, was that it enabled programmers to introduce instructions into their home computer through associated computer keys, instead of programming key by key, as it was till then with other computers. Essentially, the low prices and technological convenience of Sinclair’s devices, as compared to other micros, would end up creating a new set of technologic necessities which were related to a big question that characterized home computers in Spain as consumption goods during the 80s: what exactly can they be used for?. Those who could answer such a question, would definitely dictate what necessities home computers could meet and whom for. Consequently, ‘software’ became a valued electronic commodity, essential, on the one hand, for the manufacturers to sell their electronic computers and, on the other hand, for users and home computer buyers willing to begin to use or maximize the use of their micros at home. Software is also what defines our relationship to the computer. It is what we experience when we interact with de machine […]. We might not know what kind of computer we are using or who manufactured it, but we definitely know what software we are currently running.12

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__________________________________________________________________ Therefore, it was clear that home computers had the flexibility to be programmed via software to serve an almost infinite number of purposes. This made the electronic digital computer such a powerful and compelling technology.13 As above mentioned, Clive Sinclair had initially conceived his digital computers for educational purposes. Thus, several educational programs should have been ready to be used in order to cover the multiple necessities that users and buyers would demand in the future. Nevertheless, and despite the manufacturers’ wishes, ZX Spectrum and other home computers such as Amstrad CPC or Commodore 64, began to be used for other purposes, mostly for entertainment uses. In this respect, Rafael Gómez argues that this might have happened because software with educational purposes was not, indeed, abundant.14 However, as he also points out, ZX Spectrum became one of the most notorious entertainment platforms in the middle eighties which in turn enabled the circulation of related literature, particularly specialized publications that were selected mostly by Spanish teenagers to start learning computer programming.15 Driven by curiosity, soon these young hobbyists put into practice what they had learnt while tinkering with their computers at home and, as a result, early simple video games took place and this, in turn, would also be the mainstays for the more complex video games to appear.16 3. Redefining the Uses of the Early Home Computers Leslie Haddon claims that in the early 80s, in the UK (and I argue that such thing occurred in Spain as well), there was a momentous appropriation of home computers by youngsters. Within a few years, teenagers who had received the early computers as gifts provided a further source of games programmers. Although this software industry was relatively small, the national press carried stories of successful entrepreneurial schoolboys and this fuelled further interest.17 The same stories were carried by the Spanish press in the 80s. For instance, the weekly Spanish magazine ‘El País Semanal’ published a report18 wherein personal stories about the success of the first video game developers were highlighted and promoted: An army of self-taught teens breaks into the computer with their very first creations made entirely in Spain. Yesterday’s waiter is becoming today an expert in programming, and those kids who began in a garage two years ago, run now a prosperous corporation that is the only Spanish video games exporter so far. Computer whiz kids are becoming 20-year-old CEOs while other

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The Entertainment Applications of Home Computers

__________________________________________________________________ 15-year-old kids have already won their first couple of million pesetas.19 Juan Manuel Pérez’s [...] is the story of a boy from a modest family, whose circumstances forced him to work in catering services from a young age. In the evenings and though at leisure, Juan Manuel had been studying accounting and digital electronics on his own until, one day, he started hearing about computing. Then, his mum, gave him a ZX81, the cheapest microcomputer in the market at the time when he was only 16 years old. Juan Manuel locked himself at home after work in front of the keyboard. Since he could not afford buying video games, he borrowed them from his friends and, instead of playing, he preferred to crack them to learn their secrets.20 I have already explained that software defines our relationship to the computer. This significantly means that no matter what initial aims manufacturers and home computer industries had in mind to sell their products, what mattered was how users would finally utilize them. Regarding this point, computing advertisements in the national media may be used and selected by the historians and game researchers to highlight the common discourses in that time, concerning different uses whereby home computers would be purchased by the consumers. For instance, a 1983 ad from LaVanguardia –a traditional Spanish daily newspaper– presented the ZX Spectrum through the headline ‘Everyone’s Computer for Everything’.21 Even though this title suggests that this computer could be used by all members of the family, we have to look at the small print to realize whom this ad was actually aimed at and the kind of uses it was intended for: The father may use the computer for the most complex mathematical operations of his company as well as to manage the most strict house accounting. […] The mother may save her cooking recipes, the list of her friends’ phone numbers, or keep a rigorous diet.22 What follows next is a large message describing the benefits to the kids: And for the youngest, we reserve the most powerful calculator into ZX Spectrum’s heart, for their studies, or the funniest and cleverest games.23 Putting aside –only for the purposes of this chapter– gender discourses regarding fathers’ and mothers’ domestic tasks, it is also worth to note that almost

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__________________________________________________________________ twice the space of this ad was used to describe ZX Spectrum’s applications for kids than that reserved for parents. Moreover, almost at the end of the ad, the following is written: ‘Ask for a demonstration without any obligation and bring along your children, since they are the ones who will enjoy it the most’.24 There were of course other examples which seemed to be aligned with the messages that personal computers were valuable tools, especially for children. For instance, a 1986 Commodore64’s advertisement25 had in its headline what comes next: ‘You can give me records, a ball, skates, a watch or an electric train… but what I do need is this Commodore 64’.26 In this one, advertisers described Commodore 64 as the best present for children, not only because it could replace the most popular and traditional toys, but because it was actually a necessity. Again, the small print of this ad acknowledges that Commodore 64 is necessary because the hardest part of the school year was approaching and ‘Well, I want to get some fun with its video games in my leisure time’.27 Here too, it is significant that the message is written in the first person, as if it was a kid who was doing the advertisement request. However, it was deliberately written like this because advertisers knew well who bore the last decision when buying home computers: parents. The 1980s in Spain were characterized by a widespread idea among parents, gamers, hobbyists and whoever was involved with using electronic computers: in the near future, although nobody knew exactly whether this meant a month, a year or a couple of decades, whoever did not know how to master computers would become illiterate.28 This was a result from a social process that consisted in offered the computer as key to the future.29 And, already in the 80s, these discourses were mostly represented by parents who wanted their children to learn computing, because it was supposed to be an indispensable skill to them in the future. Therefore, any distraction that deviated children’s attention from educational purposes –this might be the case of video games–, began to be considered a sort of wasting time that had to be avoid. The following quote describes very well this situation from a hobbyist programmer’s viewpoint: The problem was that playing with a computer was not very well considered in the 80s, although at least not that bad as it is today, to tell you the truth. You could spend all day long watching the TV and melting your brain with authentic rubbish; you could kill time in the streets while scratching cars or smoking around but what the majority of right-minded parents at that time could not tolerate at all was that their sons enjoyed playing video games, those unequivocal devices responsible for turning kids into brainless slackers, immature delinquents and, still worse, greengrocers.30

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The Entertainment Applications of Home Computers

__________________________________________________________________ Despite bad perceptions that video games sometimes awake among parents, they actually contributed to the spread and diffusion of the first home computers in Spain. At a time when the micros were presented for the industry and manufacturers as the newest and revolutionary tools ready to be used by all family members and for multiple purposes, in reality they were particularly used by the users as entertainment devices.

Notes 1

‘Now the Chips Are Down’, Wikipedia, viewed 30 July 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_the_Chips_are_Down. 2 Carl Gardner and Robert M. Young, ‘Science on TV: A Critique’, Viewed 14 May 2014, http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/paper54h.html. 3 Maureen McNeil, ‘The Old and New Worlds of Information Technology in Britain’, in Enterprise and Heritage Crosscurrents of National Culture, ed. John Corner and Sylvia Harvey (London and New York: Routledge, 1991), p.125. 4 The video game Split Personalities was released in Spain in 1986. Its cover can be seen in the website of The Centre for Computing History, viewed 9 September 2014, http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/big/11076/Splitting-Images/. 5 McNeil, The Old and New Worlds of Information Technology in Britain, 125126. 6 It is difficult to establish a linear and accurate story related to the success of micros in the mid-80s. Whilst the UK and many other European countries happened to be idyllic for the spreading of Spectrum ZX and Amstrad CPC home computers, Commodore led the market in the United States and MSX did likewise in Japan, to give just a few examples. Besides this, it should be noted that each country and territory had, in turn, their own local story such as Spain, wherein MSX model performed quite well in the market sales, besides ZX Spectrum’s leadership. 7 ‘ZX Spectrum’, Wikipedia, viewed 29 July 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum. 8 Rafael Gómez, ‘El legado de un visionario autodidacta’ [The Legacy of a SelfTaught Visionary], Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar, 3 (Spring 2007): 311. 9 Francisco Portalo Calero, ‘Bugaboo, un Hito en la Historia del Software Español’ [Bugaboo, a Hit in the History of Spanish Software] (Cáceres, 2009), 18. 10 Gómez, Legado de un visionario, 309. 11 Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. More info in ‘Basic’, Wikipedia, viewed 29 July 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC. 12 Nathan Ensmenger, ‘The Digital Construction of Technology: Rethinking the History of Computers in Society’ Technology and Culture, 53.4 (October, 2012): 761. 13 Ibid.

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Gómez, Legado de un visionario, 311. Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Leslie Haddon, ‘The Development of Interactive Games’, in The Media Reader: Continuity and Transformation, eds. H. Mackay and T. O’Sullivan, (London: Sage, 1999), 13. 18 ‘Genios del ordenador’ [Computer Whiz Kids], El País Semanal, 512 (February 1st 1987), 30-38. 19 El País Semanal, 512 (February 1st 1987), p.3. 20 Ibid., p.32. 21 ‘El ordenador de todos… para todo’ [Everyone’s Computer… For Everything], LaVanguardia, 28 September 1983, p.52. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Commodore World Magazine (España), number 30, October 1986. Accessed 9 September 2014, http://scans.bytemaniacos.com/es/commodore_world/Commodore_World_30.pdf. 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. 28 Gómez, Legado de un visionario. 29 James Sumner, ‘Today, Computers Should Interest Everybody’. The meanings of Microcomputers, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, Online-Ausgabe, 9 (2012), viewed 10 February 2015, http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/2-2012/id%3D4725 30 ‘El día que me convertí en un crack del BASIC’ [The Day I Became a Master User on BASIC] El Spectrum Hoy, viewed 17 May 2014, http://www.elspectrumhoy.es/el-dia-que-me-converti-en-un-crack-del-basic/. 15

Bibliography ‘Basic’. Wikipedia. Accessed 29 July 2014. Accessed July 29, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC. Commodore World (España). Number 30. October, 1986. Accessed 9 September 2014. http://scans.bytemaniacos.com/es/commodore_world/Commodore_World_30.pdf. ‘El ordenador de todos… para todo’ [Everyone’s Computer… For Everything]. La Vanguardia. September 28th, 1983.

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__________________________________________________________________ Ensmenger, Nathan. ‘The Digital Construction of Technology: Rethinking the History of Computers in Society.’ Technology and Culture 53.4 (October, 2012): 753-776. Gardner, Carl and Robert M. Young. ‘Science on TV: A Critique’. Viewed 14 May 2014. http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/paper54h.html. Gómez, Rafael. ‘El legado de un visionario autodidacta’ [The Legacy of a SelfTaught Visionary]. Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar, 3 (Spring, 2007). Haddon, Leslie. ‘The Development of Interactive Games.’ In The Media Reader: Continuity and Transformation, edited by H. Mackay and T. O’Sullivan. London: Sage, 1999. McNeil, Maureen. ‘The Old and New Worlds of Information Technology in Britain.’ In Enterprise and Heritage Crosscurrents of National Culture, edited by John Corner and Sylvia Harvey, 113-132. London and New York: Routledge, 1991. ‘Now the Chips Are Down’. Wikipedia. Viewed 30 July 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_the_Chips_are_Down. Portalo, Francisco. ‘Bugaboo, un Hito en la Historia del Software Español’ [Bugaboo, a Hit in the History of Spanish Software]. Cáceres, 2009. Sumner, James. ‘Today, Computers Should Interest Everybody’. The meanings of Microcomputers, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, Online-Ausgabe, 9 (2012), Viewed 10 February 2015. http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/2-2012/id%3D4725. ‘The Centre for Computing History’. Accessed 9 September 2014. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/big/11076/Splitting-Images/. ‘ZX Spectrum’. Wikipedia. Accessed 29 July 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum. Ignasi Medà is a PhD student in the Center for the History of Science (CEHIC) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. He is currently doing research and writing about the social and cultural impact of home computers and 8-bit videogames in Spain during the eighties and early nineties.

Rapid Design of Cutscenes for Serious Games Daniel Riha Abstract This short chapter will briefly discuss the potential of pre-visualization software for the rapid development of in-game cinematics as required for the design of quick-production time documentaries and newsgames (serious games). Specifically, design issues related to the multimedia work of students in the frames of academic coursework will be presented. Further, sample animations designed in the rapid 3-D animation tool Moviestorm for academic coursework and which reflects on the cultural history of Prague in the 1990s will be discussed and visually presented. Key Words: Cutscenes, Machinima, Videogame Design, Rapid Prototyping, Documentary Videogames, 3-D Animation, Interactive 3-D Environments, Newsgames, Virtual History. ***** 1. Introduction This short chapter will briefly discuss the potential of pre-visualization software for the rapid development of in-game cinematics as required for the design of quick-production time documentaries and newsgames. Specifically, design issues related to the multimedia work of students in the frames of academic coursework will be presented. Further, sample animations designed in the rapid 3-Danimation tool Moviestorm for academic coursework and which reflects on the cultural history of Prague in the 1990s will be discussed and visually presented. 2. The Role of Cutscenes in Serious Games Cutscene (in computer games) is defined as ‘a scene that develops the storyline and is often shown on completion of a certain level.’1 Cutscenes are often described by the players as an annoying element breaking the game-flow. Rune Klevjer defends the role of cutscenes in computer games stating, cutscenes are understood as ‘an integral part of the configurative experience. Even if the player is denied any active input, this does not mean that the ergodic experience and effort is paused.’2 Klevjer argues that a cutscene is ‘serving gameplay functions that cannot be taken care of through other means.’3 Hugh Hancock lists the following utilization categories of cutscenes: conversation scenes, information dump, scene and mood setting, reward, introduction of plot or gameplay elements and pacing.4

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Rapid Design of Cutscenes for Serious Games

__________________________________________________________________ Cutscenes might have other functions in the game design. Løvlie proposed that active performance of meaning might be supported by the role of estrangement. The experience of estrangement in computer game design offers the distance needed for reflection: When the tools provided by the game are not appropriate for solving the problems presented, this experience breaks down, and the potential for meaningful gameplay is denied. This is a kind of mock agency; a broken promise of agency. If this situation is appropriately contextualized, it might create the distance that is necessary for contemplation and reflection on serious themes.5 So, in serious games, cutscenes might have a different role than in commercial computer games. The design of serious games attempt to transfer atmosphere and meaning. Cutscenes designed for such a computer game help the player to deconstruct a built-in meaning and to reflect and contemplate. 3. Rapid Prototyping of Cutscenes Animation rapid prototyping software is often expected to increase the productivity in serious small-size computer game productions, including design of cutscenes. Some software applications, like iClone or Moviestorm promise to shorten the production time up to 1/10. These software applications, despite a lack of movie quality rendering, allow small-size game production teams to realize projects at an acceptable production quality not possible even a few years ago. I will discuss the authoring of some sample cutscenes for documentary computer games made using the rapid movie production tool Moviestorm. All sample cutscenes were designed for a documentary computer game production about Prague in the 1990s and are the result of academic coursework on Prague´s cultural history of the 1990s, in which students were asked to design a cutscene reflecting a particular cultural phenomenon instead of writing an essay. In this academic course, the novices in machinima multimedia production attempted to produce animated reflections of the movies and literary work studied in the course. As the multimedia part of the lecture series had been granted only 20 work hours, this impacted the selection of the software application implemented for the development of sample cutscenes that might be used as quick time events (QTE). For this academic course, the software application Moviestorm was selected as the optimal platform. Moviestorm software features the first attempt to deliver an all-in-one and easy to use option for the machinima production pipeline:

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__________________________________________________________________ • • • • • • • • •

Interactive Script Global Lighting and Terrain Set-up Interactive 3-D scene and Room Set-up Avatar Design Module Animation and Interactions Set-up Sound, Voice and Lip-sync Video Editing Effects and Filters Rendering and File Export Options6

Moviestorm might be understood as a sort of metaphor for an animation pipeline, so the novices in interactive multimedia production might easily learn about multimedia authoring principles. Moviestorm allows its users to work with a relatively wide variety of embedded content and flexible templates for further customization, including object libraries, facial and body animation libraries, video-filters and particle effects libraries, quick lighting set-up, easily set-up lip-sync avatar face emotions, and customizable terrain. ‘This very easy-to-use interface and rich multimedia libraries extremely decrease the time needed for establishing simple and semi-advanced animation scenes.’7 But Moviestorm also has several disadvantages: the inability to allow its users to easily modify avatar costumes and customize the body parts except avatar heads. Import options for personalized 3-D models and animations drastically increase the production-time needed for the accomplishment of this task. Customization of avatar costumes requires knowledge both of 3-D modelling and how to import from the other software animation packages, and may constitute a barrier to the less experienced authors. In the academic course on the cultural history of Prague in the 1990s, these shortcomings of Moviestorm did not create a major obstacle for the accomplishment of the students’ task to reflect on a particular topic of their preference from the movies and literature studied in class. The students were able to quite efficiently improvise in their animation designs. For example, Image 1 shows how the customizable models of the buildings from Moviestorm’s object library have been implemented to portray a destroyed city block in Sarajevo. Image 2 shows how the U.S.-looking building blocks of Moviestorm might be adapt to create the illusion of Prague´s clubbing nightlife and its after-party velvet mornings.

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Rapid Design of Cutscenes for Serious Games

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Image 1: Screenshot from the animated visualization reflection of poem on Sarajevo siege life © 2013 Image courtesy of the author.

Image 2: Screenshot from the animated visualization reflection of movie about Prague’s nightlife © 2013 Image courtesy of the author

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__________________________________________________________________ 4. Conclusion The experience raised from teaching several academic machinima and interactive media design courses in the Czech Republic and Germany for more than a decade has proven that although the above listed disadvantages of rapid prototyping software tools and applications might not be ignored, when making decisions about the production platform for a small scale computer game project, these applications should still be taken into serious consideration. Novices to interactive multimedia design benefit from learning game production principles by the mentioned metaphor of animation and interactive design pipeline. The presented visuals resulting from the mixed course on cultural history and machinima animation production prove that even in a limited time, the novices might produce interesting and valuable multimedia content.

Notes 1

‘Cutscene,’ Oxford Dictionary, viewed on 15 October 2014, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/cutscene. 2 Rune Klevjer, ‘In Defense of Cutscenes’, in Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, edited by Frans Mäyrä (Tampere: Tampere University Press, 2002), 195. 3 Klevjer, In Defense of Cutscenes, 199. 4 Hugh Hancock, ‘Better Game Design through Cutscenes,’ 2002, viewed on 15 October 2014, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3001/better_game_design_through_.php. 5 AS Løvlie, ‘End of Story? Quest, Narrative and Enactment in Computer Games’, Proceedings of DiGRA ´05 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play (2005), 5. 6 Daniel Riha, ‘Cutscenes in Computer Games as an Information System’, in DUXU 2014, Part II, edited by A. Marcus (Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 2014), 666. 7 Daniel Riha, ‘Cutscenes in Computer Games as an Information System’, 666.

Bibliography Hancock, Hugh. ‘Better Game Design through Cutscenes.’ 2002. Viewed on 15 October 2014. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3001/better_game_design_through_.php

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__________________________________________________________________ Klevjer, Rune. ‘In Defense of Cutscenes.’ In Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings, edited by Frans Mäyrä, 191-202. Tampere: Tampere University Press, 2002. Koster, Ralph. Theory of Fun for Game Design. Scottsdale, AR: Paraglyph Press, 2005. Løvlie, A. S. ‘End of Story? Quest, Narrative and Enactment in Computer Games.’ In Proceedings of DiGRA ´05 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play. 2005. Riha, Daniel. Frontiers of Cyberspace. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2012. Riha, Daniel. ‘Cutscenes in Computer Games as an Information System.’ In DUXU 2014, Part II, edited by A. Marcus. LNCS 8518, 661-668. Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 2014. Daniel Riha, Ph.D. Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. His research includes issues on Serious Games, Interactive Documentary Production and Multi-user Virtual Environments Design. He is as well an award winning artist - Kunst am Bau (Art on Construction) International Art Competition, Constance, Germany.

Part II In-Game Cultures

Violent Encounters: The Hobbesian State of Nature in DayZ Tero Pasanen Abstract In his seminal work on social contract theory, Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes described the anarchic pre-societal condition of the state of nature. In this predicament – aptly named as ‘the war of all against all’ – people lived poor, short and brutish lives. The dystopian world simulated in the survival horror game DayZ mirrors this natural state of man. The game invites players to roleplay survivors of a zombie apocalypse. The present chapter examines the factors contributing to the pervasive violence, moral ambiguity and degeneration of human condition, which are all prominent features of DayZ’s gameplay. The article will situate DayZ into the context of a Hobbesian state of nature and explicate elements that render this hypothetical condition perpetual. .

Key Words: social contract, moral ambiguity, zombie apocalypse, first-person shooters, permadeath. ***** 1. Welcome to Chernarus You spawn at the eastern sea shore of Chernarus, near the woods and quite uncertain of your location. You seek cover in the forest and wander aimlessly for a while, before arriving on a clearing. You spot a small rural village in the distance. As you move closer, you notice a group of zombies roaming around the buildings. A zombie spots you as you try to sneak pass them, giving a high pitched shriek. You rush toward the nearest accessible buildings with the aggroing zombie on your heels. The racket attracts more zombies that join the chase. You reach a two-storey house in the village centre. As you stumble through the doorway one of the pursuing zombies manages to hit you and you start to bleed. The zombie follows you slowly as you move upstairs. In one of the rooms you find a pistol. The zombie enters the room as you equip it. You fire a few rounds from the hip, until you take an aimed shot to its head. The zombie falls dead. Its companions have lost their sight of you, but you have also used almost all the ammo. Shaking from the pain you quickly bandage the wound to stop the bleeding. Your vision is tinted grey. You scour the house for more loot. Suddenly you feel the presence of another player behind you. He has heard the gunshots. He shouts ‘I’m friendly, I’m friendly!’ on the direct voice chat, only to shoot you at point blank range. The world goes black. The screen tells the obvious: ‘you are dead.’ The aforementioned scenario is quite common for those taking their first steps with the open world survival horror game DayZ (2012/2013). Albeit the attempt

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Violent Encounters

__________________________________________________________________ was short, it taught a harsh, yet a fundamental lesson about trust in this online environment. The bleak, dystopian world simulated in DayZ mirrors the state of nature, described by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan (1651).1 The DayZ project initially started off as an Arma 2 (2009) modification,2 before being developed into a standalone title.3 The game invites players to roleplay survivors of a zombie apocalypse. It is a nihilistic sandbox, set in a fictional post-Soviet state of Chernarus,4 where the lines between gameplay and griefing are constantly blurred and renegotiated. This article offers a Hobbesian reading of DayZ by explicating gameplay conventions and design elements that render this hypothetical condition perpetual.5 The chapter treats both the community-build mods and the standalone game. 2. DayZ DayZ revolves only seemingly around the traditional survival horror paradigm, challenging the horizon of expectations when it comes to contemporary design conventions. It does not favour short learning curve or instant rewarding, and goes against the grain with its small margin for error and lack of balance. Unarmed fresh spawns are pitted against well-armed survivors, and only a small slip may cost the player hours of progress and investment that cannot be restored from a save point. The game has no specific winning condition, pre-defined subgoals or achievements. The sole objective is to survive as long as possible. The means to accomplish this are undetermined, left for players to sort out amongst themselves. The only operational rule is to quell thirst and hunger. Furthermore there are no rules for governing social interaction, which highlights the importance of establishing trust through communication. Perhaps the most prominent feature in DayZ is the permanent death (permadeath) system: when a character dies it is lost for good.6 This approach is unique in online first- and third-person shooters with persistent servers. The singlespawn mechanic has been previously utilized in session-based shooters. The system has been praised – sometimes justly, sometimes idealistically – for underlining consequences made by players, for instance by invoking moral dilemmas.7 However it is painstakingly obvious that players indulge themselves with rampant acts of violence and morally questionable behaviour. This is seen in emergent use of different game features that are combined to act, for instance, as torture methods.8 The fragility of life is underlined by complex simulation of health, physical trauma, physiological needs and psychological effects. Death may be instant or prolonged, occurring when the health level drops to zero due to injuries, infection, hunger or thirst. The only solution to postpone the inescapable death is to scavenge for resources. The loot is versatile, ranging from provisions, utility items and medical supplies to weapons and vehicles.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. The Self and the Other There are two types of alterity present in DayZ: zombies and other survivors. The zombies – otherwise known as walkers or zeds – are of twenty-first century variety. They are fast, untiring and ferocious.9 Zombies symbolize the end of mankind. They represent the posthuman condition, simultaneously being subjects and objects.10 Although possessing human features, zombies are totally stripped of individuality or virtues of humanity. These things are devoid of empathy and cannot be reasoned with. Zombies are driven only by the most primitive of priorities, the necessity to feed. Yet, as adversaries, they are relatively weak, predictable and easily evadable.11 For more experienced players, the zeds hardly offer any challenge, even in larger groups.12 Furthermore, zombies only spawn as a player comes within 200-300 meter radius of settlements or other loot sites. Thus, they mainly act as indicators of the presence of other survivors. The human is the apex predator. In contrast to zombies, the threat posed by survivors is constant. Survivors do not represent any power structure or governmental entity that would have monopoly on the use of violence. They are individuals who try to survive the apocalypse to the best of their abilities. Survivors can be situated into the extremities of hero and bandit. All players spawn as normal survivors, but their actions alter the character state. The rule of thumb is that heroes help other survivors, whereas bandits prey on survivors. This dichotomy, however, is not fixed in stone. Depending on the situation, a hero will murder a survivor just as easily as a bandit. Some players have allowed themselves to be robbed or kidnapped to preserve their virtual lives.13 These cases, however, are quite artificial as players willingly adopt the role of the victim for the sake of immersion and role-play. The kidnappings continue only as long as the victims allow them to continue.14 4. The State of Nature In his seminal work on social contract theory, Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes defined the state of nature as ‘war of all against all’15 (Lat. bellum omnium contra omnes) in which the life of man was ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.’16 In this hypothetical pre-societal condition there were no rights, only natural freedoms. Hobbes’s view of human nature was quite pessimistic. The fate of natural men was to destroy each other in a restless pursuit for power. In this context, force and fraud were considered as cardinal virtues.17 Hobbes’s resolution to the state of nature was to form a commonwealth – symbolised by the Leviathan – ruled by a sovereign authority wielding absolute power.18 Hobbes argued that humans ceded some of their natural freedoms to the head of the Leviathan out of fear. The lawless dystopian circumstances simulated in DayZ mirror the Hobbesian state of nature. The absence of predefined factions (i.e., teams) and codes of conduct result in moral ambiguity. Social interaction is governed only by implicit

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__________________________________________________________________ rules. There is no right or wrong as players constitute their own relative moral guidelines. In this case, ‘the natural condition of mankind’19 is post-societal, following the collapse of civilisation. 5. The Frames of Violence Similarly to Leviathan, the source of competition and conflict in DayZ can be derived from the appetite for power. In a game without winning conditions, defined subgoals or achievements, the meaning of power is multifaceted; it can refer, for instance, to control of specific map locations, building strongholds, possessing of vehicles or valuable resources. However the use of violence is the most apparent form of power. In theory, the lack of comprehensive operational rules has potential for complex social interaction, but in reality the gameplay is too often reduced to simple deathmatching and murder for sport. As DayZ gained popularity, a behavioural pattern – aptly termed as the kill-on-sight mentality (KoS) – emerged and established its position as the preferred gameplay convention.20 The KoS is a self-feeding cycle. Those killed without an apparent reason tend to repay the favour to other players. Arbitrary acts of violence have become the pervasive form of social interaction as players assume that everyone they encounter is hostile by default. This has created an atmosphere of constant paranoia, in which others are killed for precaution rather than of spite. Firefights may erupt even if there are no initial hostile intentions as players open fire on random survivors to protect themselves. At first glance, the all-encompassing violence may seem wanton and gratuitous, but this behaviour should be situated to certain cultural frameworks that influence the player conduct. There are also design choices and technological aspects that afford this type of antisocial gameplay. Social decay and degeneration of human condition, popularised by George Romero’s Night of the Living Death (1968), are generic tropes of modern zombie fiction.21 This established scheme creates preconceptions that steer DayZ’s gameplay in specific directions, in which nihilistic, self-serving and confrontational behaviour are expected and accepted. The end-of-civilization scenario that players are invited to role-play requires both villains and victims to work. These roles are not fixed, but reverse quickly as predators become prey. The first-person shooter (FPS) genre has been player-versus-player (PvP) oriented (deathmatch or team deathmatch) since its conception. This genre convention is so deeply rooted that players seem to abide by it, even when it is not forced on them. Furthermore, the ample amounts of available firearms – especially in the community-build mod versions – guide gameplay into PvP combat. Sniper rifles are not required for protection against zombies, but to ambush other survivors.

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__________________________________________________________________ Perhaps the most fundamental reason for habitual player killing is the lack of a considerable common enemy that would force players to cooperate. Zombies cannot fulfil this role as they do not offer necessary challenge. Their presence as adversaries is relatively indifferent. The zeds mainly act as a reference that ties the game events to the background story. This has direct effects on the meaningfulness of play i.e., on actions that yield purposeful outcomes.22 DayZ does not reward for killing zombies; on the contrary, they only notify other survivors of your presence. They rarely carry valuable loot, compared to well-armed and equipped survivors. In addition, the core mechanic of DayZ, which revolves around scavenging, is extremely repetitive and cannot maintain entertainment value for longer periods of time. Players find the essential accessories needed for survival quite quickly, and if they have already explored the map, their attention will be directed towards additional challenges, posed by other players. Manhunt is the ultimate sport in DayZ. Waylaying others – as well as evading and surviving ambushes – is a testament of skill. Scheming and committing murder is undoubtedly the single most challenging and rewarding activity, requiring patience, timing and guile. It is an example of exercising power and asserting dominance over others. 6. Conclusions DayZ is a gaming phenomenon with tremendous potential to revolutionise and reinvigorate the shooter genre, which is currently suffering through a period of stagnation, represented by the generic modern military shooters (MMS) favouring instant rewarding and non-stop action. The game draws much of its allure from a delicate balance of challenge and frustration. The project is naturally laden with expectations that it cannot deliver, but it has sown a seed that can usher the genre into a new, more mature era. One of these promising elements is the permadeath system. Military shooters have been traditionally reprimanded for downplaying consequences of violence; death is a punishment from failure, but the penalty is relatively minor as characters respawn almost immediately, or the lost progress can be backtracked from savepoints. In DayZ the permadeath mechanic and complex simulation of health foreground the results of physical aggression. The system can be considered as a way to eradicate the Lazarus syndrome i.e., the possibility to respawn endlessly, and counter its effects on gameplay. Along with the absence of rules that govern social interaction, the permadeath system has potential to introduce genuine moral dimension to digital gaming.23 Interestingly, the deeply rooted social Darwinism is not scripted to the game, but seems to be inherent part of the gameplay itself. This demonstrates fundamental flaws in players’ abilities to communicate and resolve conflicts without the use of violence. It also illustrates the power of genre conventions. One can argue that it is the prevalent egocentrism and antisocial behaviour that makes DayZ so appealing. The game can be read as a procedural social commentary24 on

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__________________________________________________________________ human nature, but perhaps more accurately it illustrates how people conduct themselves in online games. The commentary is not conveyed through the in-game narrative, but through collective player behaviour, resulting from the absence of social contract. The prominent kill-on-sight mentality can also be interpreted as a form of griefing, but for large segment of players it is a natural part of the game, apt to the zombie apocalypse theme. It is an inevitable consequence that follows the lack of operational and social rules. In DayZ the perpetual state of nature is imperative as it maintains tension, enables meaningful play and creates unique atmosphere. It also situates responsibility of ethical agency on players. The emergence of a sovereign that would unite all the players under a common cause would be devastating to gameplay. The game thrives on incessant anarchy made possible by the absence of extensive social contract. The server encompassing cooperation would be the most rational way to fulfil the objective of survival, but at the same time harmonious coexistence would also be destructive to the overall experience. This is of course not to claim that all the players attempt to survive in solitude or that there is no cooperation of any kind. Like other games, DayZ involves clan activity, smaller inner groups of players and even casual ad hoc social formations. There is obvious safety in numbers, but pervasive player behavior makes cooperation extremely precarious. Furthermore, the design choices and genre conventions do not support harmonious coexistence. The argument is that cooperation is not desired on the server level. DayZ exemplifies the paradoxical logic of game controversies. The game has not generated polemic, although premeditated homicide is perhaps the most central game mechanic. It has not been dubbed as a murder or torture simulator, regardless of its realistic simulation of ballistics and physical trauma or morally questionable player behaviour. The reason for this is the fictional setting, which offers more leverage and enables certain creative choices not permitted to games situated into real-world contexts.25 It remains to be seen how long DayZ can thrive on its novel game. The lack of goals and objectives, which sets the game apart from its peers, may ultimately become a burden that must be resolved in one form or another. In the end, scavenging or manhunting may not be enough to maintain long-term interest. The chosen Minecraft-like development model may prove flexible enough to allow the developers to react on arising challenges as they surface. DayZ is about the freedom of choice. At the moment the freedom to ‘do what thou wilt’ manifests itself in violent encounters.

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Notes 1

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan or the Matter, Forme and Power of Common-Wealth and Civill (Project Gutenberg, 2009), viewed 1 December 2014, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm 2 The initial impetus behind DayZ was to design a digital training application for the New Zealand Army. However as the idea did not stir interest in the military, it became an ‘entertainment-only’ game. 3 The original mod was developed by Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall in 2012. In August 2012 Hall announced that DayZ would become a standalone game. The mod became a community-based effort with the release of update 1.7.3 in October 2012. This change resulted in a plethora of modifications based on the original mod. The standalone version was released in December 2013 by Bohemia Interactive with Hall working as the lead designer. In February 2014 he announced leaving the project in the end of the year. The current build of DayZ: Standalone is still in alpha stage and it is quite rudimentary compared to the community-build mod versions. 4 Chernarus offers 225 km² of playable area that breathes gloomy post-Soviet atmosphere with rural landscapes in autumn colours, populated with villages, towns and larger cities that celebrate Soviet architecture. Certain mods contribute further to the prevailing ambiance. For instance the DayZ: Taviana mod features huge statues of Lenin, billboards with communist imagery and a museum exhibiting Social Realism and communist heroes. The mod also has a Ferris wheel, which is a reference to the iconic symbol of desolation, found in the city of Pripyat at Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. 5 The observations made in this article are based on extensive participatory observation that allowed systematic experimentation with different gameplay tactics and strategies. Furthermore user-generated content, such as let's play videos, online blogs and forum discussions, were analysed. 6 We can liken the permadeath system to the one-session game of narration (OSGON) model proposed by Gonzalo Frasca (2001). Similarly to the mechanic adopted by DayZ, death in the OSGON model was irreversible. However in an OSGON dying would be difficult as it is a single-player game that can only be played once. 7 Marcus Carter, Martin Gibbs and Greg Wadley, ‘Death and Dying in DayZ,’ Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death, Article No. 22 (New York: ACM, 2013), 3. 8 Handcuffed players are being force fed with disinfectant to cause chemical poisoning, which can lead to death if not cured. Initially handcuffs were design as a non-lethal method to pacify players, whereas force feeding can save unconscious players from starving or dying of thirst.

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__________________________________________________________________ 9

Kyle Bishop, ‘Raising the Dead: Unearthing the Non-Literary Origins of Zombie Cinema,’ Journal of Popular Film and Television 33.4 (2006): 24. 10 Sarah Juliet Lauro and Karen Lauro, ‘A Zombie Manifesto: The Nonhuman Condition in the Era of Advanced Capitalism,’ Boundary 2 35.1 (2008): 85-108. 11 Zombies can be easily evaded by moving in crouch or crawl position as these stances lower character’s visibility and audibility. Even aggroing zombies can be eluded quite effortlessly by escaping through buildings as a technical limitation of the game engine forces running zombies to walk indoors. Breaking the line of sight causes zombies to abandon the chase. 12 The community-build mods, DayZ: Origins and DayZ: Mercenary, have increased the level of challenge and need for cooperation by implementing wellarmed AI survivors that patrol the map and hunt for players. 13 Adam Ruch, ‘Stockholm Syndrome: How Six Men Kidnapped Me in DayZ,’ Games on Net, 5 July 2012, viewed 16 May 2014, http://games.on.net/2012/07/stockholm-syndrome-how-six-men-kidnapped-me-indayz/ 14 In terms of rationality the players who have lost all their valuable belongings have nothing to lose. It would be the same to respawn. Therefore players tend to fight to the end or try to flee rather than surrender. Also bandits prefer killing their victims rather than robbing them, because it less risky and faster. 15 Hobbes, Leviathan, XIII.8. 16 Hobbes, Leviathan, XIII.9. 17 Hobbes, Leviathan, XIII.13. 18 Hobbes, Leviathan, XVII.15. 19 Hobbes, Leviathan, XIII. 20 In the early alpha stages of the mod players were generally more trusting towards each other, but as the kill-on-sight mentality became the norm the community grew more suspicious. There was evident clash between the conventions of cooperative- and player versus player (pvp) -oriented FPS traditions. Arma 2 was a cooperative military simulator, but DayZ replaced teamwork with pvp. 21 Todd K. Platts, ‘Locating Zombies in the Sociology of Popular Culture,’ Sociology Compass 7 (2013): 547. 22 Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2003), 37. 23 Across the genres moral decisions have been implemented to enhance narratives. Most of the games employing morality as plot device are single-player games, in which the effects of the choices made are more controllable. Often these choices are not dynamic, but reduced to few predefined possibilities. They tend to be

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__________________________________________________________________ artificial with little impact on how the game actually continues, for instance scripted to cutscenes that limit player agency. 24 Ian Bogost (2007) coined the term ‘procedural rhetoric’ to describe rhetoric that is conveyed through running processes, rules and mechanics. 25 Spec Ops: The Line (2012) has adopted similar approach in its treatment of potentially controversial theme.

Bibliography Bishop, Kyle. ‘Raising the Dead: Unearthing the Non-Literary Origins of Zombie Cinema.’ Journal of Popular Film and Television 33.4 (2006): 196-205. Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Video Games. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2007. Carter, Marcus, Martin Gibbs and Greg Wadley. ‘Death and Dying in DayZ.’ Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death, Article No. 22. 1-6. New York: ACM, 2013. Frasca, Gonzalo. ‘Ephemeral Games: Is It Barbaric to Design Videogames after Auschwitz.’ In Cybertext Yearbook 2000, edited by Markku Eskelinen and Raine Koskimaa, 172-181. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2001. Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan or the Matter, Forme and Power of Common-Wealth and Civill. Project Gutenberg, 2009. Viewed 1 December 2014. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm Lauro, Sarah Juliet and Karen Embry. ‘A Zombie Manifesto: The Nonhuman Condition in the Era of Advanced Capitalism.’ Boundaries 2 35.1 (2008): 85-108. Platts, Todd K. ‘Locating Zombies in the Sociology of Popular Culture.’ Sociology Compass 7 (2013): 547-560. Ruch, Adam. ‘Stockholm Syndrome: How Six Men Kidnapped Me in DayZ.’ Games on Net, 5 July 2012. Viewed 16 May 2014. http://games.on.net/2012/07/stockholm-syndrome-how-six-men-kidnapped-me-indayz/. Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: The MIT Press. 2003.

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__________________________________________________________________ Tero Pasanen is a Ph.D student at University of Jyväskylä (JyU), Finland. His forthcoming dissertation examines how game-related controversies and moral panics have shaped the societal status of digital games.

Towards a Digital Humanity: Transhumanism and Cyber-Citizenship in Videogaming René Schallegger Abstract Starting from a brief discussion of whether the currently experienced fundamental socio-cultural changes triggered by an increasing permeation of life by technology are best described as Trans- or Posthumanist in nature, this article focuses on the effects they have on the notion of citizenship. The practice of a cyber-citizenship, based on Gray’s ‘cyborg citizen’ and contextualised with Hughes’ Democratic Transhumanism, is constructed and offered as a viable model for politically active participation under the given circumstances. Videogames are understood as a deeply transhumanist form of artistic expression, since they are multi-media artefacts whose design, as well as the experience they provide for players, can be characterised as defined by a logic of distributed authority, and they reciprocally shape and are shaped by their participants. The potential for a reinvigoration of the democratic process the medium might hold is assessed using Lerner’s catalogue of what the medium has to offer, as well as the insufficiencies it (still) suffers from, and a qualified positive conclusion is given. Finally, the investigation into how videogames interrelate with the collective, cultural changes in contemporary societies is taken to the more general level of culture, when the Digital Humanities postulated by Burdick et al. are transformed into a possible Digital Humanity that might emerge from the growing interpenetration of primary and digital secondary realities. Videogames are established as the form of cultural expression most perfectly suited to the needs of Transhumanity and as a medium with great potential to educate the cyber-citizens of the future in terms of conceptual, systemic thinking, engagement, responsibility, self-control, and active participation in iterative, evolutionary, and democratic processes. Key Words: Transhumanism, Posthumanism, citizenship, cyber-citizenship, game design, distributed authority, democracy, Digital Humanities, agency, immersion, engagement, participation. ***** 1. Transhumanism, or Posthumanism? The Transhumanist Declaration, detailing the cornerstones of this school of thought, was first compiled in 1998 by an international group of authors, and the World Transhumanist Association was founded the same year by Nick Bostrom and Daniel Pearce. In 2008, the society underwent a rebranding and was renamed into humanity+ as an expression of its central idea: the enhancement (‘+’) of humanity through ‘emerging and speculative technologies.’1 Beyond a purely

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__________________________________________________________________ philosophical aspect, there is also a political one to the movement, since it aims to guide policy makers by a moral vision ‘respecting autonomy and individual rights, and showing solidarity with and concern for the interests and dignity of all people around the globe.’2 As the name Transhumanism implies, it is an extension of classical Humanism, and this is why it shares its central values with its precursor: ‘rational thinking, freedom, tolerance, democracy, and concern for our fellow human beings’.3 Humanity here is not seen as the end of evolution, but rather as an early stage of what it can become, especially since we have added technology to the equation. The Transhuman is an in-between-state, it signifies that we have left the classical Human behind, but not yet arrived at the Posthuman, a world of ‘possible future beings whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards.’4 For N. Katherine Hayles, however, we have already reached that state, and this is her central argument in How We Became Posthuman (1999). At the core lies a ‘significant shift in underlying assumptions about subjectivity’5 that has led to a paradigmatic reorientation from a metaphysics of presence and absence towards a new logic of pattern and randomness. ‘[M]eaning is made possible (but not inevitable) by the blind force of evolution finding workable solutions within given parameters,’6 the author writes, and this is already the first glimpse at how the formal and structural nature of videogames echoes in the socio-cultural changes addressed. Hayles refuses key ideas of Humanism – individual agency and teleology – and moves her philosophy beyond it towards a Posthumanism of emergence and distributed cognition. While this seems a tempting way to go, it might also have been a little bit premature, especially considering that the text was already written in 1999. The cultural shift, the process of social and technological change Hayles convincingly identifies and analyses, is not over yet, if it ever will be. It is still ongoing all around us. Then there is the inherent logical problem of refusing Humanist teleology on the one hand, but advocating a ‘post-‘state on the other. If there is no aim to evolution, how can humanity have moved into a final – i.e. a Posthuman – state? Finally, Transhumanists correctly point out that by its very nature the Posthuman might be so utterly inconceivable to the still-human mind that we have no way of knowing it. Considering these problems with Hayles’ terminology, the Transhuman appears to be a more helpful und viable way to think about the changes currently experienced. But the two readings are still not fully irreconcilable. Transhumanism focuses on the individual within a network based on solidarity and manifest in democratic processes and institutions. Posthumanism in turn is centred on the role of the system, while inscribing the role of the individual as an essential element to it. Therefore, both are inherently about renegotiating the relation between the individual and the collective in a time where technology fundamentally impacts on

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__________________________________________________________________ human nature and societies. This immediately brings up questions of participation or citizenship, and considering the central role of technology in the changes experienced, the term ‘cyber-citizenship’ could me more appropriate. 2. Of Citizens and Cyborgs The definition of what it means to be a citizen has expanded over the millennia, and while it originally only referred to an inhabitant of a city, today it is mostly understood as designating a member of a larger polity ‘having certain rights, privileges, or duties.’7 Additionally, citizenship is not a passive concept, it requires active participation, or ‘engagement in the duties and responsibilities of a member of society.’8 For P.E. Matheson, the specifically English development of a diffused, representative citizenship based on the sovereignty of Parliament managed to overcome the faults of earlier, classical notions of citizenship, i.e. the excessive individualism of the Greek, as well as the excessive universalism of the Roman model respectively.9 Individual responsibility is here intensified through indirect participation in government. This citizenship that relies on self-control as well as law and order10 oscillates between the private and the public, the local and the national, the individual and the collective as it ‘pervades our life.’11 Politics are no longer something abstract that happens elsewhere, Matheson argues, ‘politics are not mechanical, but human’.12 In an age of cybernetic transhumans this would mean, that we have also entered a world of cyber-citizenship. Chris Hables Gray in his Cyborg Citizen argues that the definition of citizenship is slowly ‘freeing itself from gender-, race-, and class-based criteria and becoming an issue of competent participation in […] a community.’13 Both technology and globalisation considerably affect our conception and practice of citizenship. It becomes increasingly diffuse, proactive, and conscious, at the same time the access to, understanding and control of technology become deeply political issues. Yet, for Gray, this is not seen as a problematic development, and he even encourages his readers to enjoy their status as cyborgs as ‘liberating and empowering.’14 We need to assume the power to construct our own identities, and in this process, technologies are useful not only to ‘inspire people to action and thought’, but also ‘to improve communication among the disempowered.’15 Cybercitizenship, according to Gray, has the potential to make for more active, more critical, and more empowered individuals. James Hughes’ investigation of the interrelation between technology, individual, and society in Citizen Cyborg is a direct reaction to earlier critiques of Transhumanist philosophy. Since it originally was perceived to be ‘more attractive to affluent, well-educated men, many with libertarian leanings,’16 he wants to reclaim Transhumanism for what he holds to be the latent majority of the population: the people who believe in ‘social justice, a caring society, technological progress.’17 He calls his approach Democratic Transhumanism in contrast to the Libertarian Transhumanism he wants to distance himself and the

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__________________________________________________________________ philosophy from. Both schools of thought share a central core of ideas, however: a personhood-based concept of citizenship unrelated to biological categories, a reliance on the values of Humanism, and the essential position of individual liberty. But Democratic Transhumanism clearly opposes the laissez-faire ideology of its Libertarian counterpart. In order to safeguard the well-being of a maximum number of human beings, technology and the markets must be regulated, technology must be universally accessible, the environment must be protected, there must be an end to work, and a global democratic governance must be installed to negotiate, to install, and to constantly watch over all of these rule-sets.18 Hughes’ is therefore a deeply democratic philosophy, built entirely upon citizen participation and empowerment: ‘As we liberate and unkink our personalities,’ he writes, ‘we will also be liberating the world.’19 3. The Transhumanist Art of Game Design One of the central means of individual and societal liberation in human history has been art. So, what then is transhumanist art? Following the Transhumanist FAQ, the definition reads as follows: Thee [sic] concept of transhumanist art would be to say that it is multi-media arts creative works produced by transhumanists, […] coupled to a notion of the centrality of technological means. […] [T]he key is to solve problems through creative endeavors. In this regard, the field of design is consequential […].20 Natasha Vita-More, the current chair of humanity+, adds to this in her Transhumanist Art Statement, originally drafted in 1982 and reworked in 2003: ‘Our aesthetics and expressions are merging with science and technology in designing increased sensory experiences.’21 Taking a look at these definitions and the criteria they bring up, the question arises whether videogames are not the form of transhumanist art. In Designing Games, Tynan Sylvester develops an understanding of the medium that closely echoes Transhumanist concepts. Videogames here emerge as ‘engine[s] of experience,’22 with the author defining experience as ‘an arc of emotions, thoughts, and decisions inside the player’s mind.’23 Sylvester suggests a system of distributed authority for game design to replace older, Taylorist (i.e. centralised) procedures of decision-making. The complex processes of the Information Age overload the central mind by the sheer volume of knowledge required, and an added problem is that tacit knowledge cannot be communicated. Spreading authority throughout the team will guarantee that all individuals participating in the design are equally engaged and that full use is made of localised knowledge. Successful communication becomes the lynchpin of this system; the leader informs participants of the ‘higher-level intent,’ while

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__________________________________________________________________ participants ‘handle problems and seize opportunities’ to fulfil it.24 This design philosophy can also be metaphorically transferred to the experience of play: The designers become the ‘leaders’ communicating goals and intent, and the players participate actively and creatively to achieve the set goals. ‘Author/-ity’ is therefore distributed between designers and players alike. ‘Games are mental models for pieces of life,’25 Sylvester concludes in his book, and participating in the secondary realities they create affects us profoundly: ‘I am the games I’ve played.’26 In an interactive, reciprocal process, players shape a possibility space that in turn ‘reshapes part of our mind.’27 Videogames as systems of distributed authority are multi-media artefacts that teach problem solving, selfawareness, and self-responsibility, based on the philosophy of design. Since we are the games that we play, we therefore become transhumanist cyber-citizens. But can videogames also reach beyond the individual and affect the social and cultural level of our lives? 4. Videogames to the Rescue: Fixing Democracy? Democracy is currently broken on two fundamental levels, Josh Lerner postulates in Making Democracy Fun. First of all, there is the demand side, and the problems here are well known and oftentimes lamented in the media and in academia alike. Civic participation is declining, technological advances make leisure and information ever more private. While an increase in available information affects the general attitude towards political authority, demographic changes disrupt our communities, and the lowering of the voting age gives exactly that segment of the population who do so the least, the chance to participate: our youth.28 The second and often overlooked side, however, is the supply side. Neoliberal ideologies dominate politics in North America and Europe, dismantle the state and denigrate democratic institutions as a matter of principle or tactics, while – and this is Lerner’s main claim – democratic participation is, at the same time, inherently unappealing: it is boring and provides little of interest for the general public, it is painful, since it is about conflict and defeat, and essentially it is experienced as pointless, as there is no intrinsic pleasure to it and rarely does a citizen see concrete outcomes of their engagement.29 Lerner’s argument is that games could change all that. ‘Games are inherently democratic in some key ways: they always, he writes, involve participation and decision-making, by design,’30 and both – political systems and games – are designed structures of experience used by players/citizens to actively actualise elements and thus create individual and collective experiences. Starting from this general premise, Lerner goes on to define five ways in which games could contribute to democracy: (1) they attract and enable mass participation, so their reach and appeal make participation attractive; (2) they mobilise very diverse participants, and especially those who have disconnected from political life are the ones playing the most; (3) they even develop our capacities to participate,

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__________________________________________________________________ transferring practical, contextualised know-how; (4) they promote critical, systemic thinking, as players learn how to understand a system and criticise, or even actively change it; and (5) they provide increasing cultural impact, with videogames already being the financially most successful creative industry.31 The reason the author nevertheless sees the (already fading) trend towards serious or educational games as not exclusively positive is that there are also several problems or dangers attached to the use of games for non-gaming purposes. Again, Lerner puts together a list of five: (1) the violence issue that is – unfortunately – still prevalent in videogames in spite of the growing number of intelligent, non-violent games that are being made; (2) the trivialisation issue, or the tendency in game design to oversimplify complex circumstances of real life and the absence of real-life consequences to in-game actions; (3) the manipulation issue that is expressed very succinctly by Lerner in ‘No design choice is neutral’32, warning his reader that it is always the designers who provide options to choose from and who at the same time strongly influence player behaviour through the aesthetics, mechanics, and narratives of their games; (4) the unfairness issue, as ‘games privilege certain players over others,’33 such as hard-core gamers constantly winning against casual gamers; and, last but definitely not least, (5) the fun issue – the constant bone of contention between supporters and detractors of so-called ‘serious games’ – that questions whether empty or superficial participation or even the use of the purely compulsive functions of games (gamification) can create meaningful experiences.34 These two catalogues will undoubtedly energise future discussions of gamification and serious games as tools for education and social or even behavioural engineering, but for Lerner the emphasis cannot be on videogames for affecting social change, but instead on non-digital games: ‘Videogames,’ he warns, ‘are a valuable tool, but they are not our salvation. If anything, they are supportive additions to – rather than replacements for – in-person meetings.’35 Beyond the financial, social, and formal constraints of the medium, he also finds the quality of current videogames lacking. The political and economic players seem to benefit from a lack of engaged citizenship in people, which is why they support and produce trivial and shallow games ‘that give the illusion of power’36 rather than those that would truly empower the masses. But maybe that reluctance, or even (self-)censorship, that pervades the industry is merely a tacit acknowledgement of the (still mostly) slumbering power of the medium… 5. Towards a Digital Humanity With Digital Humanities, Anne Burdick and her co-authors identify the issues and concepts central to a necessary paradigmatic shift in the cultural production of our societies: ‘material composition, authorship, meaning-making, circulation, reading, viewing, navigating, embodiment, interactivity and expressivity.’37 The ever increasing interpenetration of the physical world and human and cultural

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__________________________________________________________________ knowledge, they argue, will ‘enhance engagement with the real’ and ‘provide solace, consolation, companionship, and fellowship through communicative exchange.’38 Digital performances, such as the playing of videogames, blur the ‘lines between reading and authoring,’39 contributing to the real world and affecting change in it. In pedagogy, the increased processing power and connectivity of state-of-theart hardware makes videogames today the ‘natural’ medium to teach Digital Natives in ‘highly engaging forms of immersion and simulation.’40 In design, the ‘narrative complexity, play strategy, and game ‘feel’ […] become more developed, culturally significant, and even world-enriching,’ as designers explore new ‘ways of critically grappling with the human experience.’41 And on the more general level of culture, processes of knowledge formation have significantly changed as ‘critique manifests as versioning, and thinking, making, and doing form interactive feedback loops.’42 Cultural creation in distributed networks immediately raises questions of regulation, accountability, and ownership traditional models of understanding and historically grown laws can no longer satisfyingly grasp. And the very concept of authorship is fundamentally destabilised by a ‘plurality of creative design, open compositional practices, and the reality of versioning.’43 The classical comprehensive models of knowledge and knowledge formation collapse. ‘Design emerges as the new foundation for the conceptualisation and production of knowledge,’44 multi-media literacy and a deep understanding of the principles of design have already become key cultural competences. And yet, beyond the Digital Humanities of Burdick et al., are we entering the age of a Digital Humanity, or even Transhumanity? Evidence to support that claim is rising, and it seems as if videogames, as an inherently transhumanist form or art, can teach us to live successfully in this new era. They help us to understand complex systems, so they can teach us conceptual, networked thinking. They give us the opportunity to experience agency through participation, so they can teach us engagement. They allow us to anticipate the effects of our actions, so they can teach us responsibility. They show us how to manage the power of emotion in immersion, so they can teach us self-control. And finally and most importantly, they train us to work within a given structure to affect meaningful change, so they can teach us how to negotiate and navigate through our lives in iterative, evolutionary, and democratic processes. It is therefore up to academics, designers, and gamers alike to create and play games that will take us towards a Digital Humanity worthy of that name, and that will educate and entertain the critical and engaged cyber-citizens of tomorrow.

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Notes 1

‘Mission’, on Humanity+. Accessed 5 August 2014. http,//humanityplus.org/about/mission/. 2 ‘Transhumanist Declaration’, on Humanity+. Accessed 5 August 2014. http,//humanityplus.org/philosophy/transhumanist-declaration/. 3 ‘Transhumanist FAQ 3.0’, on Humanity+. Accessed 5 August 2014. http,//humanityplus.org/philosophy/transhumanist-faq/. 4 Ibid. 5 N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman, Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1999), 3. 6 Ibid., 285. 7 ‘Citizen’, on OED Online. Accessed 5 August 2014. http,//www.oed.com/view/Entry/33513. 8 ‘Citizenship’, on OED Online. Accessed 5 August 2014. http,//www.oed.com/view/Entry/33521. 9 P. E. Matheson, ‘Citizenship,’ International Journal of Ethics 8.1 (1897): 30. Accessed 5 August 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2375346. 10 Ibid., 36. 11 Ibid., 38. 12 Ibid., 35. 13 Chris Hables Gray, Cyborg Citizen, Politics in the Posthuman Age (New York and London, Routledge, 2002), 22. 14 Ibid., 31. 15 Ibid., 44. 16 James Hughes, Citizen Cyborg, Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future (Cambridge/MA: Westview Press, 2004), 72. 17 Ibid., 216. 18 Ibid., 217–219. 19 Ibid., 200. 20 ‘Transhumanist FAQ’. 21 ‘Transhumanist Arts Statement’, on Transhumanist Arts & Culture. Accessed 5 August 2014. http://www.transhumanist.biz/transhumanistartsmanifesto.htm. 22 Tynan Sylvester, Designing Games, A Guide to Engineering Experiences (Beijing, Cambridge: O’Reilly, 2013), 44. 23 Ibid., 34. 24 Ibid., 345. 25 Ibid., 375. 26 Ibid., 376.

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Ibid. Josh Lerner, Making Democracy Fun, How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics. (Cambridge/MA and London: MIT Press, 2014), 12–13. 29 Ibid., 13–14. 30 Ibid., 16. 31 Ibid., 17–18; my emphases. 32 Ibid., 21. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid., 19–22; my emphases. 35 Ibid., 206. 36 Ibid., 207. 37 Anne Burdick et al., Digital_Humanities (Cambridge/MA and London: MIT Press, 2012), 29. 38 Ibid., 50. 39 Ibid., 51. 40 Ibid., 52. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid., 75. 43 Ibid., 83. 44 Ibid., 117. 28

Bibliography Burdick, Anne, Johanna Drucker, Peter Lunenfeld, Todd Presner and Jeffrey Schnapp. Digital_Humanities. Cambrigde/MA and London: MIT Press, 2012. ‘Citizen’ OED Online, June 2014. Viewed on 5 August 2014. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/33513. ‘Citizenship’ OED Online, June 2014. Viewed on 5 August 2014. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/33521. Gray, Chris Hables. Cyborg Citizen, Politics in the Posthuman Age. New York and London, Routledge, 2002. Hayles, N. Katherine. How We Became Posthuman, Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

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__________________________________________________________________ Hughes, James. Citizen Cyborg, Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. Cambridge/MA: Westview Press, 2004. Lerner, Josh. Making Democracy Fun, How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics. Cambridge/MA and London: MIT Press, 2014. Matheson, P. E. ‘Citizenship,’ International Journal of Ethics 8.1 (1897), 22–40. Accessed 5 August 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2375346. ‘Mission.’ Humanity+, no date. Viewed on 5 August 2014. http://humanityplus.org/about/mission/. Sylvester, Tynan. Designing Games, A Guide to Engineering Experiences. Beijing, Cambrigde: O’Reilly, 2013. ‘Transhumanist Arts Statement.’ Transhumanist Arts & Culture, Viewed on 5 August 2014. http://www.transhumanist.biz/transhumanistartsmanifesto.htm. ‘Transhumanist Declaration.’ Humanity+, Viewed on 5 August 2014. http://humanityplus.org/philosophy/transhumanist-declaration/. ‘Transhumanist FAQ 3.0.’ Humanity+, Viewed on 5 August 2014. http://humanityplus.org/philosophy/transhumanist-faq/. René Schallegger works in the fields of British and Canadian Studies with a strong focus on Game Studies at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt/Austria. He is interested in intersections between past and present, canon and popular cultures.

The ‘Bro Gamer’: an (Imaginary?) Intruder in Videogame Culture Joe Baxter-Webb Abstract This chapter investigates the use of the phrases ‘bro shooter’, ‘bro gamer’ and ‘bro game’, which entered regular usage on English-language gaming websites around 2010. The author analyses a series of discourses surrounding these terms, and their role in the maintenance of a subcultural gamer identity in the face of newly emergent markets of more mainstream players. By concentrating on journalistic representations of an imagined subgroup of male players and comparing it with empirical research on player cultures, the chapter also illustrates how social class mediates the values involved in being the ‘geekier’ type of gamer to whom much videogame journalism is addressed. Existing research on gaming and social class in Europe finds that working-class masculinity is often associated with a preference for communal play of predominantly Anglophone sports, racing and military shooting genres. This relatively narrow set of tastes contrasts with the enthusiasm toward ‘geekier’ game genres (e.g. single-player RPGs, games from Japan, and narrative-heavy games in sci-fi or fantasy settings) often expressed in articles and related gaming media. However, in American journalistic accounts, the former set of preferences is more frequently associated with a middle-class (or upwardly mobile) university ‘frat boy’ identity; possibly a misleading association which stands unchallenged by most voices within online videogame journalism. Through an application of sociological theories of taste, I argue that the tension between subcultural ‘geeky’ and mainstream ‘dude-bro’ game preferences is key to understanding the social dynamics at work in the faction of videogame culture currently expressed and catered to within popular games websites. Key Words: Videogames, bro gamers, games journalism, Bourdieu, taste, subculture, social class, masculinities. ***** Over the past decade, games have undergone a period of integration into mainstream popular culture. This phenomenon is often associated with new casual gaming technologies including smartphones and motion controllers, which have served to broaden the collective audience for games beyond what was initially a niche subculture of hard-core gamers.1 During this time, however, the target market for traditional hardcore games - such as first and third-person shooters - has also diversified. Violent games have enjoyed a gradual normalization2 just as online play has moved from a PC-gaming niche, into the bedrooms and lounges of a wider console audience. This chapter explores the sometimes hostile reception

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__________________________________________________________________ the new mainstream audience has received from the enthusiast press in recent years. The ‘bro gamer’ discourse which became visible on English-language gaming websites between around 2009-2011 is identified as an attempt to maintain a subcultural gamer identity in the face of this newly emergent mainstream audience. From this investigation, the following three themes emerged. Firstly, videogame critics, journalists and satirists usually position themselves and their readers as possessors of superior taste. Conversely, the bro gamer (nearly always imagined as male) is defined not entirely by what he plays, but by the narrowness of his taste. Secondly, because he represents a large and profitable market segment, his narrowness of taste is seen as threatening to homogenise the industry’s output. Lastly, the (dude) bro is associated with mainstream American pop culture in general, and also with homophobia and sexism. In Distinction, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argues that this conflation of undiscerning cultural consumption and undesirable social attitudes supports and conceals cultural elitism; snobbery is justified by a post-hoc portrayal of its targets as immoral. In addition, journalistic imaginings of the bro market serve to explain away the more problematic elements of gamer culture, including the narrow representation of gender in most AAA games with hyper-masculine male heroes and overtly sexualized or absent female characters. Although the bro gamer is usually imagined as a white, middle-class university ‘frat boy’, research indicates that the tastes described as belonging to ‘bros’ are most often those of male players from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The current stereotype should, therefore, be viewed with suspicion. By integrating the sociology of taste with research on gaming and social class, I argue that bro gamer discourse exposes the more longstanding gamer geek subculture as one imbued with middle-class tastes and values. 1. Sociological Theories of Taste Most scholarship on videogames and social exclusion has focussed on salient issues of gender and ethnicity.3 The (dude) bro, however, represents a break from what Erica Kubik has termed the ‘hardcore-casual dichotomy’ often used to describe (and to gender) types of players. As such, understanding it/him requires a different set of concepts. Recent studies in Western Europe4 have shown that men from working-class backgrounds tend to prefer sports, racing and shooting games, with narrower tastes than middle-class players. These cases support Peterson and colleagues’ cultural omnivore thesis, which posits that broad cultural consumption became a new ‘standard of good taste’ among privileged sections of society during the second part of the 20th Century, replacing the traditional snobbery towards popular culture documented by Bourdieu. The idea that working-class male gamers show the strongest preference for realistic aesthetics, hyper-masculine

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__________________________________________________________________ themes/characters and communal play, are echoed in ethnographic studies with young African American gamers from low-SES backgrounds5 (a comparison which illustrates the frequent difficulty of disentangling ethnicity and social class). In reality, practices characterised as ‘bro gaming’ may actually be representative of a much larger and less privileged group than the (dude) bro stereotype implies. The easy ridicule of this demographic is based on the imagining of it as always white, male and wealthy. As such, it sits relatively comfortably alongside current critiques of racism and sexism within videogame culture. However, the stereotype of a privileged, upwardly mobile (yet stupid and immoral) university frat boy conceals how material/economic restraints prevent many from fully participating in videogame culture – or from becoming ‘geeks’ (arguably a less gender-specific term now, although games journalism remains largely dominated by men’s voices). There exists a minority of journalists who have criticised their peers’ use of this terminology,6 not to mention dozens of forum users who similarly identify it as a vehicle for elitist snobbery. 2. Research Methodology As a methodology, critical discourse analysis sees language as ideological, foregrounding how spoken and written accounts of the social world stem from speakers’ beliefs and values. As James Gee argues, discourses convey viewpoints which are used to mediate the distribution of social goods and status (including, in this case, insider status within videogame culture). This chapter is, therefore, a study of discourse within what Mia Consalvo describes as ‘gaming paratexts’; the media which constitute the remainder of mediated videogame culture minus the games themselves. The terms ‘bro gamer’, ‘bro shooter’, and ‘dude bro’ were searched on a number of high-profile game-related websites during 2013, and data was collected and grouped according to emergent themes. Websites specific to videogames represented the largest data source.7 These represent the enthusiast press, sharing an informal, personal tone; a ‘for gamers, by gamers’ mode of address. Use of the terms was also noted on technology and pop-culture sites8 as well as websites by and for producers of games (Gamasutra and developers’ personal blogs). The inclusion of this last category gives a sense of the proximity between the tastes and sensibilities of developers, journalists and gamers (none of whom necessarily represent the majority of players of videogames). The discourse was also shown to extend to webcomics and independently developed games. These are included within the analysis because they play a similar role in cultural intermediation. Cultural intermediaries are those in the ‘taste-making’ professions (such as journalists, satirists and critics) responsible for producing the needs which define individuals as consumers.9 They are also the professional group most likely to be cultural omnivores, because a broad knowledge of media has specific job benefits for them.10 As cultural

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__________________________________________________________________ intermediaries, videogame journalists mediate knowledge about games and the value of different franchises/genres, defining, as Rebecca Carlson puts it ‘how to appropriately be a video game fan’. Wanting and possessing this kind of insider knowledge is closely related to whether or not one is included in the address of videogame paratexts.11 3. An Undiscerning Majority It is not always possible to separate the bro gamer figure from the games they supposedly play. Greg Miller used ‘bro shooter’ in a 2011 IGN podcast to describe multiplayer-focused war-games. Other accounts focus more on the imagined player. For example, videogame award shows have been lampooned for targeting a frat boy demographic with celebrity cameos, snack endorsements and a brash, macho tone of address. At the time of writing, Urban Dictionary’s entry on ‘bro shooters’ connects player and game, reiterating Millers’ definition while stating ‘sometimes, it’s the only type of game they play’. Elsewhere on Urban Dictionary, definitions of American (dude) bros refer to a white, muscular masculinity, and to the consumption of mainstream rock and rap music; certain beer brains; ‘tribal’ tattoos and ‘trucker’ hats. These definitions are reiterated within the gaming press, where ‘bro gaming’ is associated with more general (dude) bro culture. Bros are viewed as an undiscerning majority whose narrow preferences encourage the industry to churn out risk-adverse, uncreative games. Julia Lepetit’s webcomic Call of Duty: Modern Bro-Fare reduces bro gamers’ interests to ‘guns’, ‘explosions’, ‘bad guys’ and ‘graphics’ while Angry Bros shows two men criticising a casual game as ‘generic’ and ‘over-hyped’ (the intended irony being that these are common criticisms of bro-shooters). In a 2008 article, Gamesradar editor Tyler Wilde describes American frat boys as ‘the undiscerning gamers that lazy publishers wish we all were’12 while developer Josh Brycer argues that game creators are forced to ‘sell out’ to this ‘lowest common denominator’ with money and ability to buy age-restricted games.13 A talk from Troy Skinner of Warner Bros. Games14 describes the challenge of designing for both the bro and the ‘connoisseur’. Connoisseurs constitute just 15% of consumers and their tastes mirror those of developers, valuing innovation and complexity. The bro is more selective, only plays the most popular games, and requires in-game guidance because ‘he will not go outside of the game to figure out how to play’. According to Skinner, bro gamers represent 65% of console buyers, making them a potentially lucrative demographic (albeit challenging to capture because they don’t identify as a gamer and have no preference for videogames over other forms of entertainment). From this industrial perspective, the bro is a persona – an imagined archetype who ‘embodies the desires and needs of the target audience’ for whom the game is consciously designed.15 These accounts depict a consumption/production feedback loop, wherein a mainstream majority’s narrow tastes become a major economic driving force

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__________________________________________________________________ behind game development. As cultural intermediaries, members of the gaming press frequently eschew these mainstream tastes, seeing them as a negative influence upon the industry. This is evident, for example, in the generally poor critical appraisals received by otherwise popular movie and sports-based games.16 Bourdieu argues that cultural objects are viewed less favourably by specialist critics when they transgress their field’s boundaries - when their production is too obviously influenced by outside forces (economics, politics etc.) as opposed to being ‘art for arts’ sake’.17 Just as music magazines sell industrial products alongside a contradictory critique of artistic ‘sell outs’, gaming paratexts position their authors and readers in a critical relationship with the industry itself, promoting (and profiting from) a subcultural ethos of decommodification (‘games for games’ sake’). 3. The ‘Bro-Ification’ of Beloved Franchises Concerns about industrial ‘dumbing down’ are most visible when bro-targeted design appears to undermine an existing franchises’ original appeal, as with survival-horror series like Dead Space and Resident Evil. For example, in a 2012 article (‘who put this dudebro shooter in my Dead Space?’) Chris Kohler suggests that these are examples of how economic pressures ‘shift gameplay toward something more lowest-common-denominator in the hopes of making it even more popular’.18 In one 2013 game-design article, Brycer compares the (dude) bro game mechanics of cooperative shooting to reality TV, in that an audience majority drives seemingly repetitive content creation. A 2012 article in Play magazine made similar criticisms about the direction of character designs in the Mass Effect franchise.19 Similar criticisms were levelled at the pre-release marketing of Bioshock: Infinite. The game’s box art – which foregrounded a chiselled, white, gun-wielding protagonist – was viewed by many fans as catering to a (dude) bro audience and departing from the series’ emphasis on fantastical settings and characters. The offending cover was described as ‘bro-tastic’ in MTV Multiplayer20 and compared to wrestling and bro-shooter box art in Kotaku.21 Game Informer magazine printed a parody review entitled ‘Bioshock: Infinite: Bro Edition’,22 describing sarcastic ‘improvements’ which could be made to the game from a bro’s perspective (most of which were puerile, sexist and adverse to any kind of thematic seriousness which might be construed as geeky). In an interview with Wired,23 the game’s director Ken Levine described this marketing decision in terms of an attempt to appeal to the ‘uninformed’ demographic; those who do not read the gaming press, and who would otherwise not have heard of the franchise. For many journalists (and their audiences) pandering to the uninformed is viewed as a sort of betrayal. While it may be easy to dismiss such sentiments as elitist entitlement, they are perhaps unsurprising given that the ‘hardcore’ minority are defined by having invested more money in the industry as individuals (if not as a total group). Similar

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__________________________________________________________________ trends have been identified in patterns of music consumption,24 with the most invested and enthusiastic fans representing an audience minority who nonetheless account for a disproportionately high amount of total sales. 4. Canonical Injokes and Insider Status Some comics, articles and videos present fictional bros as their protagonists or commentators, such as Mega64’s yearly Todd and Aaron’s Game Awards videos on YouTube.25 In one 2012 Gamesradar piece, a fictional bro offers criticisms and suggested improvements to non-mainstream games (i.e. Japanese, indie and art games).26 In a Dorkly article from the same year,27 humour is drawn from the incongruity of a stereotypical bro enthusing over obscure Japanese titles, while a 2009 VG Cats webcomic28 humorously juxtaposes bro reviewers alongside imagery from beloved non-bro game Zelda. These in-jokes draw on a disparity of insider knowledge between the satirical texts’ intended audiences and the imagined gamers they ridicule. Canonical in-jokes and deliberately ‘gamey’ aesthetic preferences coalesce in a niche of independently produced (or ‘indie’) games which lampoon bro games and bro gamers (e.g. Dudebro: MSIFUSIGTSSY2; Bromancing Saga; BroForce). As niche titles circulated via the internet and developed initially for PCs, these games speak about bros but rarely to them. Whether for technical, economical or aesthetic reasons, their lo-fi graphics hark back to the medium’s earlier years, positioning their producers and consumers as subcultural originals by intertextuality referencing older game series (Contra, Metal Slug etc.), while directly challenging mainstream gaming’s emphasis on graphical fidelity. DudeBro is the most forceful with its parody; its fictional protagonist’s Twitter account29 stating that the game ‘parodies the games industry’ while posting sarcastic praise for Microsoft’s marketing of the Xbox One as a general entertainment system (perfect for his ‘bros and dawgs’). Through hyperbolic exaggeration, the Dudebro brand attempts to critique console developers for selling out to the medium’s less committed newcomers. 5. (Dude) Bro Homophobia and Sexism: Post-Hoc Justifications of Snobbery In contrast to DudeBro’s industrial critique, Bromancing Saga 2 targets (dude)bro homophobia. Designed with deliberately awkward two-player controls which force touching, BS2 plays with the theme of repressed homosexuality between both on-screen characters and real players.30 This marks another common theme in game sites’ discussions of (dude)bro culture. While the homosocial bonding of ‘fist bumps’ and ‘high-fives’ is described by some journalists as a sociable ‘guilty pleasure’, the (dude)bro is often represented as a masculinity whose homophobia and misogyny threaten to collapse into homosexuality. One Gameological article jokingly describe co-op games as ‘one muscle-bound gunman showing his probably-not-homoerotic love for his partner in arms’ while the 2009

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__________________________________________________________________ VG Cats webcomic features a character blurting out ‘I love you bro!’ followed by awkward denial. Tyler Wilde’s Gamesradar article is perhaps the most explicit, associating (dude)bros with not only repressed homosexuality, but also with the celebration of date-rape and poor educational achievement. The association between bro gaming and socially regressive attitudes reiterates Bourdieu’s observation of a frequent slippage between ‘easy’ (in terms of simple or easily digested culture) and ‘easy’ (in terms of immoral behaviour). This slippage, he argues, serves to lend weight to elitism.31 Cultural intermediaries in videogame culture often associate the (dude)bro with undesirable attitudes in ways which strengthen their own taste judgements. 6. Conclusion: Gamer Geeks as (Middle-Class?) Cultural Omnivores In a 1998 consumer research article, Douglas Holt argued that omnivorous consumption among the American middle-classes was ‘structured by a confluence of tastes – cosmopolitanism, self-actualizing leisure, exoticism, decommodification [and] connoisseurship’. The present study offers examples of each of these tendencies. Throughout the chapter, a normative ‘gamer’ is identified as having wide-ranging taste in games, both old and new (connoisseurship) and often celebrating non-Western titles (cosmopolitanism and exoticism). Normative gamer identity also involves negative reactions to industrial practices viewed as profitdriven. This exemplifies what Holt terms decommodification; the desire to disassociate cultural objects from their commercial origins by repositioning them as artisanal or cultural authentic (e.g. through the derision of inauthentic ‘sellouts’). From a sociological perspective, the critical practices associated with ‘geeky’ subcultures might be read as manifestations of this new set of middle-class values, rather than, as Henry Jenkins’ more celebratory account puts it, as ‘transgression[s] of bourgeois taste and disruption of dominant cultural hierarchies’. The ‘geek’ (of which the normative gamer is one kind) is not an aberration of middle-class values, but represents a specific formation of middleclass tastes – the cultural omnivore. Given the existing research on gameplay and social class, the urge to attribute toxicity in American gaming culture to a socially privileged ‘frat-boy’ masculinity should be viewed with suspicion. The bro gamer discourse speaks about, but rarely to, a large demographic of ‘non-geek’ gamers, and embodies a set of cultural values which are better understood within a broader picture of patterns of cultural consumption within Western societies.

Notes 1

For contrasting historical accounts of videogame mainstreaming see: Jesper Juul.

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__________________________________________________________________ Juul, Jesper, A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and their Players. Massachusetts: MIT Press. (2010) Mikolaj Dymek, ‘Videogames: A Subcultural Industry’, The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future, ed. Peter Zackariasson and Timothy L. Wilson London: Routledge. (2012): 34-56. 2 Gerald Voorhees, ‘Monsters, Nazis and Tangos: The Normalization of the FirstPerson Shooter’, Guns, Grenades, and Grunts: First-Person Shooter Games, ed. Gerald. A. Voorhees, Joshua Call and Katie Whitlock London: Continuum International. (2012): 89-112. 3 For example; Jennifer Jenson and Susan Castell, ‘Theorizing gender and digital gameplay: Oversights, accidents and surprises’, Eludamos Journal for Computer Game Culture 2.1 (2008): 15-25. Kishonna Gray, ‘Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live’, New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 18.4 (2012): 261-276. 4 Hovden and Klevjer surveyed 2367 University students in Norway while the Ludespace project bu Rufat and colleagues surveyed 2542 French citizens. See: Jan Hovden. and Rune Klevjer, ‘Game space and social space’. Paper presented at Norsk Medieforskerkonferanse. Author’s English translation (2012); Samuel Rufat, Samuel Coavoux, Hodvig Ter Minassian, Manue Boutet, ‘Situating play cultures. A survey of videogame players and practices in France’. Findings of the French National Research Agency Ludespace survey. (2012). 5 See, for example Ben DeVane and Kurt D. Squire ‘The meaning of Race and Violence in Grand Theft Auto’. Games and Culture 3.3 (2008): 264-285; Betsy DiSalvo and Amy Bruckman, ‘Race and Gender in Play Practices: Young African American Males’. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (2010): 56-63. 6 One 2013 Kotaku article; ‘Misunderstood Bro Culture and Their Obnoxious First Person Shooter YouTube Videos’ by Patricia Hernandez criticised ‘bro gamer’ discourse as classist elitism. 7 Kotaku, Destructoid, Play, Gamesradar, Dorkly, VG Cats, Gameological and IGN. 8 Wired, The Verge, Geek and MTV Multiplayer. 9 For further definitions of cultural intermediation: Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. MA: Harvard University Press. (1984); Keith Negus, ‘The Work of Cultural Intermediaries and the Enduring Distance between Production and Consumption’. Cultural Studies 16.4 (2002): 501-515; Sean Nixon, and Paul du Gay, ‘Who Needs Cultural Intermediaries’. Cultural Studies 16.4 (2002): 495-500.

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__________________________________________________________________ 10

Argued by Alan Warde, David Wright and Modesto Gayo-Cal. ‘Understanding Cultural Omnivorousness: Or, the Myth of the Cultural Omnivore’, Cultural Sociology 1.2 (2007): 143-164. 11 Mia Consalvo, Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames. London: MIT Press. (2007): 36. 12 Tyler Wilde, ‘The Top 7… Stereotypical Gamers We Hate’, gamesradar.com, March 24, 2008, viewed on June 12 2014, http://www.gamesradar.com/the-top-7-stereotypical-gamers-we-hate/. 13 Josh Brycer, ‘Examining Dude-Bro Game Design’, game-wisdom.com, July 18 2013, viewed on June 12 2014, http://game-wisdom.com/critical/dude-bro-design. 14 ‘Video: Selling to both the ‘bro gamers’ and the ‘connoisseurs’. Gamasutra, June 3, 2013. 15 Quote from Jonathan Sykes, ‘A player-centred approach to digital game design’. In Understanding Digital Games, ed. Jason Rutter and Jo Bryce,. London: Sage. (2006): 75-92. 16 On Hollywood games: Alberto Alvisi, ‘The economics of digital games’. Understanding Digital Games, ed. Jason Rutter and Jo Bryce, London: Sage. (2006): 58-74. On sports franchises: Steven Conway. ‘‘It’s in the Game’ and Above the Game: An Analysis of the Users of Sports Videogames’. Convergence 16.3 (2010): 334-354. 17 Pierre Bourdieu, ‘Field of Power, Literary Field and Habitus in the Field of Cultural Production’. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, New York: Columbia University Press. (1993): 161-175. 18 Chris Kohler, ‘Hands-In: Who Put This Dudebro Shooter in my Dead Space 3?’, wired.com, June 4 2012, viewed on June 10 2014, http://www.wired.com/2012/06/dead-space-3/. 19 Play Mag, ‘Mass Effect 3 – Dudebro Shooter 3000’, play-mag.co.uk, January 31 2012, viewed on June 14 2014, http://www.play-mag.co.uk/general/mass-effect-3dudebro-shooter-3000/. 20 Clint Mize, ‘Bioshock Infinite’s Bro-Tastic Cover Explained’, multiplayerblog.mtv.com, December 11 2012, viewed on June 14 2014, http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2012/12/11/bioshock-infinites-bro-tastic-coverexplained/. Blog. 21 Owen Good, ‘Bioshock Infinite’s Box Art is for ‘Frat Boys’ or ‘People who Aren’t Informed’, kotaku.com, December 9 2012, viewed on June 12 2014, http://kotaku.com/5966896/bioshock-infinites-box-art-is-for-frat-guys-or-peoplewho-arent-informed.

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__________________________________________________________________ 22

A scanned image of the ‘BioShock Infinite: Bro Edition’ parody piece from December 2012 was available at http://i.imgur.com/5GtQPXH.jpg at time of writing August 24 2014. 23 Chris Kohler, ‘Ken Levin Explain’s Bioshock Infinite’s Bland Box Art’, wired.com, December 8 2012, viewed on June 12 2014, http://www.wired.com/2012/12/bioshock-infinite-box-art/. 24 The Phoenix Project’s research on music consumption is summarized in David Jennings, Net, Blogs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: How Digital Discovery Works and What it Means for Consumers, Creators and Culture. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. (2007). 25 E.g. Mega64, ‘TODD AND AARON’S GAME AWARDS 2014!!!!!!’, December 13 2013, viewed on June 12 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6StE3jRHy4 26 David Houghton, ‘How to ‘improve’ non-mainstream, non-bro games for the enjoyment of the bro audience’, gamesradar.com, May 18 2012, viewed on July 13 2014, http://www.gamesradar.com/how-to-improve-non-mainstream-non-bro-gamesenjoyment-bro-audience/. 27 ‘Brody Brock Brodgman’, ‘The 10 Chillest Bro Videogames of the Year’, dorkly.com, December 19 2012, viewed on August 5 2014 http://www.dorkly.com/post/47671/the-10-chillest-bro-videogames-of-the-year. 28 Scott Ramsoomair, ‘Bro Gamers’, vgcats.com, 2009, viewed August 15 2014, http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=285. Webcomic. 29 See https://twitter.com/TheRealDudebro. Twitter Account. Active as of August 2 30 See John Polson’s interview with Bromancing Saga 2 creator Daniel Remar at indiegames.com. Polson, John. ‘Freeware Game Pick: Bromancing Saga 2 (Daniel Remar), indiegames.com. July 24. 2012. http://indiegames.com/2012/07/freeware_game_pick_bromancing_.html 31 Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. MA: Harvard University Press. 1984. 488.

Bibliography Alvisi, Alberto. ‘The economics of digital games’. In Understanding Digital Games, edited by Jason Rutter and Jo Bryce, 58-74. London: Sage. 2006. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. MA: Harvard University Press. 1984.

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__________________________________________________________________ Bourdieu, Pierre. ‘Field of Power, Literary Field and Habitus in the Field of Cultural Production’. In The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, 161-175. New York: Columbia University Press. 1993. Josh Brycer, ‘Examining Dude-Bro Game Design’, game-wisdom.com, July 18, viewed on 12 June 2014, http://game-wisdom.com/critical/dude-bro-design. Blog. Carlson, Rebecca. ‘‘Too Human’ verses the enthusiast press: Video game journalists as mediators of commodity value’. In Transformative Works and Cultures, volume 2. 2009. Consalvo, Mia. Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames. London: MIT Press. 2007. Conway, Steven. ‘‘It’s in the Game’ and Above the Game: An Analysis of the Users of Sports Videogames’. In Convergence, volume 16, number 3, 334-354. 2010. DeVane, Ben. and Squire, K. D. ‘The meaning of Race and Violence in Grand Theft Auto’. In Games and Culture, volume 3, number 3-5, 264-285. 2008. DiSalvo, Betsy. and Bruckman, Amy. ‘Race and Gender in Play Practices: Young African American Males’. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 56-63. 2010. Dorkly.com, ‘The 10 Chillest Bro Videogames of the Year’, 19 December 2012, http://www.dorkly.com/post/47671/the-10-chillest-bro-videogames-of-the-year. Dymek, Mikolaj. ‘Videogames: A Subcultural Industry’. In The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future, edited by Peter Zackariasson and Timothy L. Wilson, 34-56. London: Routledge. 2012. Fairclough, Norman. Critical Language Awareness. New York: Longman. 1992. Gee, James. P. ‘Discourse Analysis: What Makes It Critical?’. In An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education, edited by Rebecca Rogers, 19-50. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2004.

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__________________________________________________________________ Owen Good, ‘Bioshock Infinite’s Box Art is for ‘Frat Boys’ or ‘People who Aren’t Informed’, kotaku.com, December 9 2012, viewed on 12 June 2014, http://kotaku.com/5966896/bioshock-infinites-box-art-is-for-frat-guys-or-peoplewho-arent-informed. Gray, Kishonna. ‘Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live’. In New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, volume 18, number 4, 261-276. 2012. Patricia Hernandez, ‘Misunderstood Bro Culture And Their Obnoxious First Person Shooter YouTube Videos’, kotaku.com, January 2 2013, viewed on 12 June 2014, http://kotaku.com/5972426/misunderstood-bro-culture-and-their-obnoxiousfirst-person-shooter-youtube-videos Holt, Douglas. ‘Does Cultural Capital Structure American Consumption?’ In Journal of Consumer Research, volume 25, number 1. 1998. Hovden, Jan. and Klevjer, Rune. ‘Game space and social space’. Paper presented at Norsk Medieforskerkonferanse. Author’s English translation. 2012. Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television fans and participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. 1992. Jennings, David. Net, Blogs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: How Digital Discovery Works and What it Means for Consumers, Creators and Culture. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. 2007. Jenson, Jennifer. and Castell. Susan. ‘Theorizing gender and digital gameplay: Oversights, accidents and surprises’. In Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture, volume 2, number 1, 15-25. 2008. Juul, Jesper. A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and their Players. Massachusetts: MIT Press. 2010. Chris Kohler, ‘Hands-In: Who Put This Dudebro Shooter in my Dead Space 3?’, wired.com, June 4 2012, viewed on 10 June 2014, http://www.wired.com/2012/06/dead-space-3/.

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__________________________________________________________________ Chris Kohler, ‘Ken Levin Explain’s Bioshock Infinite’s Bland Box Art’, wired.com, December 8 2012, viewed on 12 June 2014, http://www.wired.com/2012/12/bioshock-infinite-box-art/. Kubik, Erica. ‘Masters of Technology: Defining and Theorizing the Hardcore/Casual Dichotomy in Video Game Culture’. In Cyberfeminism, edited by Radhika Gaijala and Yeon Ju Oh, 135-152. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. 2012. Clint Mize, ‘Bioshock Infinite’s Bro-Tastic Cover Explained’, multiplayerblog.mtv.com, December 11 2012, viewed on 14 June 2014, http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2012/12/11/bioshock-infinites-bro-tastic-coverexplained/. Blog. Negus, Keith. ‘The Work of Cultural Intermediaries and the Enduring Distance between Production and Consumption’. In Cultural Studies, volume 16, number 4, 501-515. 2002. Nixon, Sean. and du Gay, Paul. ‘Who Needs Cultural Intermediaries’. In Cultural Studies, volume 16, number 4, 495-500. 2002. Peterson, Richard. ‘Understanding Audience Segmentation: From Elite and Mass to Omnivore and Univore’. In Poetics, volume 21, 243-248. 1992. Peterson, Richard. ‘The Rise and Fall of Highbrow Snobbery as a Status Marker’. In Poetics, volume 25, pp75-92. 1997 Peterson, Richard. and Kern, Roger. ‘Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore’. In American Sociological Review, volume 61, 900-7. 1996. Peterson, Richard. and Simkus, Albert. ‘How Musical Tastes Mark Occupational Status Groups’. In Cultivating Differences: Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of Inequality, edited by Michèle Lamont and Marcel Fournier, 152-186. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1992. Play Mag, ‘Mass Effect 3 – Dudebro Shooter 3000’, play-mag.co.uk, January 31 2012, viewed on 14 June 2014, http://www.play-mag.co.uk/general/mass-effect-3-dudebro-shooter-3000/.

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__________________________________________________________________ Scott Ramsoomair, ‘Bro Gamers’, vgcats.com, 2009, viewed 15th August 2014, http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=285. Rufat, Samuel. Coavoux, Samuel. Ter Minassian, Hodvig. Boutet, Manuel. ‘Situating play cultures. A survey of videogame players and practices in France’. Findings of the French National Research Agency Ludespace survey. 2012. Sykes, Jonathan. ‘A player-centred approach to digital game design’. In Understanding Digital Games, edited by Jason Rutter and Jo Bryce, 75-92. London: Sage. 2006. Vanderhoef, John. ‘Casual Threats: The Feminization of Casual Games’. In Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology, issue 2. 2013. Voorhees, Gerald. ‘Monsters, Nazis and Tangos: The Normalization of the FirstPerson Shooter’. In Guns, Grenades, and Grunts: First-Person Shooter Games, edited by Gerald. A. Voorhees, Joshua Call and Katie Whitlock, 89-112. London: Continuum International. 2012. Warde, Alan. Wright, David. Gayo-Cal, Modesto. (2007) ‘Understanding Cultural Omnivorousness: Or, the Myth of the Cultural Omnivore’. In Cultural Sociology, volume 1, number 2, 143-164. 2007. Tyler Wilde, ‘The Top 7… Stereotypical Gamers We Hate’, gamesradar.com, March 24, 2008, viewed on 12 June 2014, http://www.gamesradar.com/the-top-7-stereotypical-gamers-we-hate/ Joe Baxter-Webb is a researcher at Canterbury Christ Church University in England. His interests include youth subcultures, videogames and digital media, cultural hierarchy and cultural reproduction.

Part III Game Systems

Immersion and Gamer’s Experience Issue in ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ Adam Flamma Abstract It’s been said for some time now, that the line between video games and films has been narrowing more and more. In a large part, this is due to technology such as motion capture. It allows for video game characters to take on the images of real actors; replicating their shapes and movements. A considerable influence is also the trend of steering away from a linear plot, thanks to which the player has a greater influence on the development of a virtual history – a history that focuses increasingly on the plot rather than simply on the process of playing. In effect, such a game resembles a real film, differing only when at certain moments the player must complete a task. That which until recently seemed only a gradually growing tendency, in 2013 reached its pinnacle. Namely, Quantic Dream studio presented the world with ‘Beyond: Two Souls’, deemed a new form of video game called interactive drama. However, this new form of virtual entertainment received some criticism from players as well as researchers. Questions emerged as to the point and sense of this ‘new genre’, as well as the type and possibility of immersion, which in the case of ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ gave rise to many reservations. Moreover, the controversy also has to do with the players’ experience and the process of playing, which at times seems redundant. The aim of this chapter is to present the controversy and scepticism that surfaced around Quantic Dream’s studio, as well as to analyse the new phenomenon of interactive drama and its status in the world of video games. Additionally, there will be an attempt to answer the question of whether this latest model is simply an innovative experiment, or possibly a new path for video games. Key Words: Immersion, Interactive movie, Gamer’s experience, Beyond:Two Souls. ***** 1. Game or Some Kind of Movie? Sometimes the world of video games becomes an issue of scientific reflection about game genres. This research area is related to the meaningfulness of attachment of specific titles for genres. It is strongly associated with genre definition (as a part of video game theory) which – in the case of such a dynamically evolving medium –is able to change very quickly, sometimes even rapidly (i.e. case of action RPG genre)

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__________________________________________________________________ However, the video game industry (similar to game studies or platform studies) is usually stimulated to such a reflection by extraordinary occurrences or events, for instance the release of a new title. Analogical situation occurred after premiere of first interactive drama, which as a definition has started to exist after David Cage Heavy Rain1 release. This concept was invented by developers of the game as it was referring to the ideas of ancient drama (in terms of appearing fate and episodic form similar to acts in drama) and the interactivity. And although references to antiquity were quite sketchy and non precise, the type of interactivity presented in this game caused a lot of confusion. Originally Heavy Rain was described as an adventure game but pretty soon it turned out this concept is basically misleading and insufficient considering the essence of the game. Or at least that term could indicate a different form of entertainment usually associated more with the active participation of the player than passive observation interrupted by QTE (Quick Time Event) sequences. Now it seems that the problem of proper identification of interactive drama (often also called interactive film) is closely associated with the evolution of the player’s experience. Namely, the more the game (in meaning known from Johan Huizinga2 or Roger Callois3 works or - in the case of the video games - purely ludic forms - based on repetitive activities or mini games) has a more complicated narrative structure, the more player’s experience effects a deeper immersion in the world presented in game. Nowadays the idea of deeper immersion is the aim in developing video games of each genres. But sometimes it creates a problem when games with developed narrative structure exceeds a borders of a game form. In other words when video game evolve into narrative structure without any mini games or repetitive activities (like mentioned above). In simple way this game starts to remind one of a movie more than a game. Even if theoretically it is still a video game, in practice we can call it a movie with interactive features (which can dominate the ‘game elements’) so even if the title was created as a narrative structure, a full departure from ludic character results in the appearance of a narrative structure almost identical to cinema. Somewhere on the border between game and interactive movie we can find the experience of the player, which evolves to the point where he is more participant and creator of actions in the game than just an observer. For interactive drama this is reversed: the player is primarily an observer and to a lesser extent involved in the events. Furthermore because of the linear plot rarely can the player be a creator of events and actions. These observations about the player experience guides us towards a more detailed analysis in which the main topic is interactive drama or an interactive movie. Polish researcher Andrzej Pitrus suggests that – based on the example of Heavy Rain – games belonging to this genre are on the border4 - between the

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__________________________________________________________________ worlds of game and film.5 Film because of aspects like technical or graphic. And game from decision-making sequences. The last thing can be compared to typical grammar exercise called ‘Fill the gaps’ but in this context players fill empty spaces in plot by his actions. Hereby the player can more or less affect the shape of the game or story. At a particular stage in the game they are a variant solutions but quite often it doesn’t mean the possibility of choice disturb the linearity of the gameplay. Of course it can be discussed whether too big player’s influence on plot could disturb also the cinema character of those games. In effect it could bring it back to the ‘typical’ video game (in ludological meaning). Naturally the appearances of similarities between video game and movie is nothing completely new in scientific reflection. But seems to be more interesting the process of approaching game to film. As a root or beginning of this tendency we can see the presence of real actors (in the early stages of PC game development such as in the late 80's and 90's – even without motion capture system). Furthermore an important thing is an episode form in video games (especially in horror games) brought from popular TV series. Also it is worth to remember about sequences which originally were a type of attraction feature in gameplay but their character and number had changed with passing time. From number of just a several in whole game to occurring after each bigger playable sequence, cutscenes are the effect of our action i.e. in dialogue with characters or - especially popular in nowadays games - as a consequence of romance option presented in game6. Finally we can find various games where cutscenes are longer than playable sequences. In effect gameplay reminds one of watching a story interrupted by QTE sequences rather than consisting of player’s activities (actions, mini games etc.) An important element is the phenomenon of structural similarity and analogical idea between interactive movie and film which is based on making games ‘more like movies. This contains presentation of game’s framework division into sections the same like episodes in series. What is more quite often the structure of these sequences are constructed on the model of popular TV series: with flashbacks and summary retrospections at the beginning (for reminding what has happened in last episode - for instance Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake7), protagonists monologues etc. It is necessary to mention the role of motion capture systems which let make the video game more like a movie with the hiring of real actors who can lend their faces, postures and way of moving to virtual characters. In addition sometimes in a tutorial the player is presented as someone who is directing the game (such as in David Cage’s Fahrenheit8 video game). Naturally it is something different because the gamer is supposed to be a creator of actions in video game not only the observer or viewer (like in cinema). But playing as a director is still a game, so it makes a a good example presenting video game as a ‘movie’ perspective.

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__________________________________________________________________ Another important element is the elimination or shortening of presence on screen of any kind of rates (like life/health, ammunition, power or mana) or the absence of the map. It reduces the exploration possibility of the world and in practice often leads to a certain linearity which player can slightly modify (in the aforementioned empty gaps in the plot, which are supplemented by his decisions). Very often, what brings the film similar to the game, is a non-dying protagonist casus (except the end of movie or game). In a video game, when the player fails to take the common solution, it is not a typical ‘game over’ ending, but a retry of a problematic activity or sequence/mission. In interactive movies mostly the main character does not die, but he can fail some tasks. This can affect the plot but predominantly it has not so large impact on the world presented in the game as in non-linear titles. In practice it means that the sequence - episode - continues and in case of failure the player does not have to start everything from the beginning (as is realized in the system presented in Heavy Rain). Moreover promo strategy resembles that one known from the cinema promotion mechanisms. A great example is David Cage and Quantic Dreams’ Beyond: Two Souls, whose announcement was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013. This game probably is a milestone in interactive movies because in global awareness Beyond: Two Souls is treated like a position in filmography of Ellen Page and Willem Defoe, actors who were cast in this game.9 2. Mission Immersion: Is There Any Problem? Immersion is one of the most significant and moot topics related to interactive drama. The problem of player’s immersion into a presented world can be described as a player’s physical (or real) presence in the virtual world. There are different types of immersion depending on the types of players or skills which a player has to use while gaming: a) tactical – activating when player performs tactile operations that involve skill and has a successful results b) strategic – basing on mental challenge i.e. chess players experience it when choosing a move among a lots of possible moves. c) narrative – mostly occurs while players become submerged in a story10 But regardless of the type of this phenomenon it is strongly connected with player’s consciousness into the game world and focus around the events in which he takes the active participation. It is related to observation combined with an active participation in the game’s world. This generalization is important because only from this point of view (not from detailed perspective) we can clearly select elements important for the immersion process in a game. In case of specific types

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__________________________________________________________________ of immersion (described by Frans Mäyrä or Ian Bogost) each element11 must be adjusted to the characteristics of specific games or players. In terms of those elements we understand presence (or lack of it) and form of game interface, all kinds of rates and indicators, map with objects, places and all kinds of cutscenes. For those things it is worth to adding survival horror games or zombie slasher horror warning mechanisms: physical (controller movements, for instance pad vibrations), visual (sight of an important event in the game) or sound (onset or change in music etc.). Of course QTE sequences are also an immersion tool. Their task is to drive players into the presented story and to give him an opportunity to intervene in the plot. The ideas described above have a place in the video game Beyond: two souls, another interactive drama by Quantic Dream and David Cage. The game tells the story of Jodie Holmes, a girl endowed with a specific gift – she is constantly accompanied by a supernatural creature named Aiden, with whom she is inexplicably linked. The existence of Aiden means for Jodie a series of complications which affects her life and causes such actions as cooperation with U.S. federal services, secret scientific research and serious existential dilemmas for example stopping death. In addition, Jodie must confront evil supernatural beings, save the world, and above all try to live so as to eventually find the meaning of her life and true identity. The role of Jodie is performed by Ellen Page, while a scientist who takes care of her is Nathan Dawkins, whose role is performed by Willem Defoe. The game is divided into sections as in the episodes of the series. Importantly, they are not presented chronologically. A kind of turning point is a prologue in which we see Jodie as an adult. Next, playable sequences do not necessarily happen after the prologue and therefore we have the opportunity to see a Jodie at various stages of her life - during childhood, adolescence or her adulthood. The player can - when controlling Jodie or Aiden - interact only with selected objects or persons, which is indicated by a dot or as QTE sequence which sometimes occurs during slow motion scenes. The game is devoid of almost any interface - no maps, rates of anything, health bar, equipment, hints or journal. Practically most of gameplay is based on QTE and passive observation of the actions presented on screen. Exceptions are those moments in which the player has to go somewhere, or find an item. Events are interrupted with Jodie’s monologues and her dialogues with other characters or Aiden. The structure of the game represents the narrative type of game with the addition of controlling and moving Jodie or Aiden (quite intuitive - without a map, directions, inventory and within a boarded area). What is more there occur the sequences of pressing buttons at the right time. Moreover the player takes serious decisions only in the dialogue options not by his actions.

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__________________________________________________________________ Decisions are fairly stereotypical because the player has only simply described options such as ‘truth’, ‘lie’, ‘honesty’, ‘distance’, or a ‘kiss’ (one of a few options connected with some activities). They are not precisely formed so we have no influence on their importance. Moreover they are not typical moral choices for instance similar to those showed in BioWare studio games (Dragon Age or Mass Effect series) where our decisions also determine the fate of other people or races, and planets. In this aspect Beyond Two Souls despite the possibility of making decisions still seems to have a fairly linear storyline. As a result it is more like the creation - by the players – of a version of the movie scene which we would like to watch. However this version does not have a major impact on the general story frame. What is more, even the ending looks similar but it can have four final options. In this way there is an interesting paradox where the linearity of plot construction is actually... non linear. In comparison with other interactive dramas this paradox can be considered as one of the distinguishing marks of this genre. Furthermore according to those mechanisms (which is functioning in the game) immersion and player experience are strongly outlined research topics. Both of these issues are contrasted around the question: is it still a game or is it not? Some sort of answer could be found with a simple experiment. Firstly let's play Beyond: Two Souls. Then watch the Let’s Play Beyond: Two Souls made by someone else and compare impressions. Obviously results will be subjective, but we can turn our attention to specific issues that allow (or not) to qualify this game to a particular medium. From personal perspective I can confirm that this experiment underlined a big problem with lack of interface. Especially in playable sequences where Jodie has to follow some direction and reach some place. Without a map it is hard and not always clear what we have to do or where go to. Another problem of intuitive controlling is connected with Aiden and finding things that he can interact with. The second and much more problematic fact were numerous, long moments without any interaction suddenly interrupted by a demanding rapid response QTE sequence. It was disturbing my concentration on the action. In the opposite situation – from an observer perspective – it is possible to have an impression that watching Aiden is just watching the game, while the sequences in which Jodie was shown reminded one of emotions known from watching the movie. My attention was distracted by the appearance from time to time of icon buttons that the player has to press at the current moment. I repeated the experience with a group of students and their experience also coincided with mine. It follows that immersion can be disturbed by the gameplay. But on the other hand gameplay, playability and player’s experience can be interrupted by too many movie features in the game.

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__________________________________________________________________ Conclusions To conclude it is necessary to underline that lack of equipment and (or) facilities of the interface help the player plunge into the story. What is more it doesn’t turn our attention from the plot. The opposite situation can exist because of QTE sequences which are attracting our attention. This element, however nowadays very popular, can distract our attention and pull us out from the whole plot, especially in cutscene (the ‘movie’ part of a game) time. Actually in almost all video game genres everything is orientated on playable sequences. But it has to be noticed that this fact makes a kind of paradox, because thing intended to provide the player’s experience can disrupt immersion. It seems like a psychomachy mechanism: where video game and movie are struggling to at once to be a player and once to be a viewer. This ‘fight’ affects dissipation because of QTE and playable moments. They appear mostly while player became a viewer. Thus, the immersion in the game Beyond: Two Souls becomes inconsistent and difficult to clearly define. Mainly because it could totally remind us of immersion which we know from cinema by the process of movie watching. But the ability of interaction ‘viewer’ complicates everything. The example of this game is not typical even for interactive drama/movie genre, because it differs significantly from its predecessors - Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain. First of all, because it contains more cinematic sequences, less playable and QTE sequences. What is more, David Cage’s production is definitely much more like a movie than a typical game. Mainly because of its structure and mechanisms of promotion. Moreover, this production exceeds the boundary between the film and the game. Thus the question of whether Beyond: Two Souls sets new trends in the video game industry does not seem to have a clear answer. Even if it is, a lot of video game still continues to be a ‘classic’ game model. It is important because that genre may soon become a troublesome variation of the game and quickly start to be treated as a movie. Probably in near future it will liquidate whole problem.

Notes 1

Despite of less popularity and frequency I will alternatively use terms interactive drama and interactive movie. It is also worth underlining that interactive drama is a name invented by Heavy Rain developers and it is not connotation with other video games except Quantic Dreams productions, while interactive movie is a wider definition which can be used also in context of other video games. 2 Huizinga Johan, Homo ludens: A study of the play-element in culture, Beacon Press, Boston 1955. The author has not formatted this section to house style. 3 Callois Roger, Man, Play and Games, trans. Meyer Barash, Free Press of Glencoe, New York 1961.

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__________________________________________________________________ 4

Pitrus Andrzej, ‘Heavy Rain. Move Edition. Narrative in Rain v1.1,’ in Giant in a Shadow. Video Games in Audiovisual Culture, ed. Andrzej Pitrus, (Jagiellonian University Publishing, Kraków 2012), 218. 5 It seems to be an interesting opinion which somehow denies that Heavy Rain can be named an interactive movie. A similar statement is shared by Ian Bogost in his Persuasive Games: The Picnic Spils the Rain, Accessed 8 May 2014, http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4412/persuasive_games_the_picnic_.php. 6 In this point Amiga games casus could be interesting. Especially in titles where gameplay was often focused on watching picture sequences with subtitles (as and typical gameplay interruption or as a introduction or game outro). Obviously they can’t be called movies but maybe this technique was a type of that times equivalent for aims which now are implemented in interactive movies. As an example of that type of game we can consider for instance Fascination or individual character’s endings presented in Amiga version of Street Fighter. 7 Alan Wake, Remedy Entertainment, Microsoft Game Studios 2010. 8 Fahrenheit, Quantic Dream, Atari 2005. 9 It is worth to mention that even British Academy Video Game (as a part of BAFTA) invented a special award for this type of taking part in video games (category Performer since 2011). 10 This typology was presented by Ernest W. Adams (2007). Similar one was presented by Jussi Holopainen and Staffan Björk in Patterns In Game Design. Charles River Media Press 2004. 11 It can be described as use of individual player’s skills or his predispositions which are needed for fluent and effective gaming. It means that player is able to manage with game’s demands (aims, quests, control) in a way which let him to stay concentrated and focused on world presented in video game or on each quest.

Bibliography Adams, Ernest W. Postmodernism and Three Types of Immersion, 2007. Accessed 9 May 2014. http://designersnotebook.com/Columns/063_Postmodernism/063_postmodernism.h tm. Astle, Randy. Beyond: Two Souls at Tribeca Film Festival. Accessed 9 May 2014. http://filmmakermagazine.com/69613-beyond-two-souls-at-the-tribeca-filmfestival/#.U3TQ73byLRI. Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The Picnic Spils the Rain. Accessed 8 May 2014. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4412/persuasive_games_the_picnic_.php.

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__________________________________________________________________ Filiciak, Miroslaw. ‘Technical Hybridization – Machinima and Interactive Movie.’ In Media, a Beta Version. Film and Television in the Days of Computer Games and the Internet, 107-15. SWPS Publishing: Gdańsk, 2013. Fuller, Margaret, Henry Jenkins. ‘Nintendo and New World Travel: Writing a Dialogue.’ In CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, edited by S. G. Jones, 57-72. Sage: London, 1995. Frans, Mäyrä. An Introduction to Game Studies. Games in Culture. Sage: London, 2008. Oso, David. ‘Interactive Drama, Is It Really a New Genre?’ Gamasutra. April, 17 2011. Accessed 7 May 2014. http://gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidOso/20110417/7447/Interactive_Drama_is_it_re ally_a_new_genre.php. Blog. Pitrus, Andrzej. ‘Heavy Rain. Move Edition. Narrative in Rain v1.1.’ In Giant in a Shadow. Video Games in Audiovisual Culture, edited by Andrzej Pitrus, 217-229. Jagiellonian University Publishing: Kraków, 2012. Adam Flamma, PhD candidate at University of Wroclaw (Poland). His research area is focused on popular culture with strong emphasis on video games culture and female characters in video games.

Agency in Meaning and Intent: Limitations of Morality Systems in Interactive Narrative Games Lindsey Joyce Abstract The complexity of integrating agency into a digital game containing a narrative has been a key concern of games scholarship for years. Attempts to balance agency and narrative have proceeded largely in two ways: By increasing ludic and environmental agency by presenting the player with an open world and free spatial navigation, or by incorporating morality systems into the game as a method to give the player more control over the narrative outcome. Unfortunately, either solution constructs new limitations on player agency; the player may be free to move about the space but cannot interact with the narrative, or the player is stuck within the linearity of a branching linear narrative. I argue the greatest system design flaw isn’t one of ludology or narratology, but of feedback. It is possible to engage players and to give them the perception of control over the narrative as well as a fuller sense of immersion by reducing the amount of feedback-oriented systems included in the game experience. I argue such changes will also innately create more ethical game designs and experiences. An examination of recent and popular AAA games, such as Mass Effect 2 and Catherine, show some of the biggest obstacles currently restraining narrative agency are player interfaces, feedback systems, and tracking menus. These tools, meant to increase the ease with which the player can interact with the system, diminish meaningful choice by eliminating many of the processes inherent to decision making; fracture the player’s connection to the character by limiting the player’s narrative purpose and, therefore, the purpose of their choices; reinforce the game’s authority over the narrative and, thus, over the player, negating the need for moral principles of deliberation; and present easily decipherable and binary choices that eliminate the need for analysis and evaluation. Key Words: Agency, Morality systems, Feedback, Dialogue, Videogames. ***** Many definitions of agency exist within the field of game studies, and the differences in definitions stem, in part, from the ways the digital game space restricts agency. The differences also reflect the continued evolution of games and of how player interactions in games are understood. As games continue to evolve and as developers push the boundaries of what was previously thought possible, game studies scholars and theorists must analyse whether the understandings we possess of these systems and of the player’s interaction within those systems is still complete. A recent development in games, the inclusion of morality systems,

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__________________________________________________________________ merits a reassessment of agency. The inclusion of morality systems in games, specifically action RPG games, attempts to give the player more agency in the outcome of the narrative, but players have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with these systems. These systems are failing because the understanding of agency applied to the systems is inadequate. By reassessing current understandings of agency and by questioning why morality systems fail to provide it, a new understanding of agency emerges that, if applied to future game designs, would create more meaningful interactions and opportunities for agency in games containing morality systems. In the broadest sense, agency is the human capacity to make choices, and can be considered to be synonymous with free will.1 This understanding of agency is complicated by digital game spaces because the systems used to create the game space are scripted and closed.2 Within the game space, the player cannot experience the same un-prescribed freedoms of choice that she can in reality; only what has been programmed into the game can be chosen or experienced. Therefore, the design of the system directly impacts the level of agency the player has within the system.3 To describe agency within these closed systems, Janet Murray, seminal author of Hamlet on the Holodeck, defined agency in digital spaces as, ‘the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices.’4 While Murray’s definition is useful, it is also limited by its focus on ‘action.’ She correctly links agency to choice, but incorrectly implies that choices are actions. Action, if it happens, is what happens after a choice has been made, and the result of a choice, but not the choice itself. The failure of game design to recognize the inactive elements of choice limits the ability of the game to offer the player satisfying power. Karen and Joshua Tanenbaums’ definition of agency, though not perfect either, recognizes that much of what constitutes agency isn’t active. They define agency broadly as a ‘commitment to meaning’ that ‘shifts the emphasis in an interaction away from the outcome of a choice and toward the intent which underlies that choice.’5 The Tanenbaums imply that agency is present when the player’s choices have meaning and intent. Combining these two definitions by Tanenbaum and Tanenbaum, and Murray, I define agency as the ability to commit to meaningful choices within a closed system. While choice is an important component of agency, defining the difference between meaningful choices and meaningless choices is also necessary. In games we must avoid the circular reasoning that assumes we have agency if choices are meaningful, and that choices are meaningful if the player has agency. A meaningful choice allows a person to engage in the process of decision-making. This process involves seven steps, most of which are latent: identification of the purpose of the decision, information gathering, analysis of the different choices, evaluation of the alternatives, selection of the best alternative, execution of the decision, and the evaluation of the result.6 If a choice in a game is to be meaningful, the game must provide the player enough information to make a

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__________________________________________________________________ choice, but must do so without diminishing the meaning of that choice; the choice should neither provide oversimplified alternatives nor outcomes. Choice becomes meaningless when the decision-making process is curtailed by an unambiguous or heavy-handed system that does the thinking required in the decision-making process for the player. To compound the issue of agency further, providing player agency in relation to morality is inherently tricky because morals are socio-culturally constructed and mediated. When morality systems are included in a game, the game must ‘provide meaningful [choices] mediated through the structure provided by the computation system as well as the socially situated interpretation of [choices] rendered by the user.’7 Given this, the system should act as a mediator of moral decision-making, rather than as a dictator of moral decision-making. The player should perceive that she was able to engage in the decision-making process, and should not feel as though the choice was made for her or made to be too easy for her. When the systems used to provide moral agency are too overt, and when the player feels as though her choices are restricted, diminished, or negated by the system, the meaningfulness of her choices, and thus her agency in the game, is impaired. Unfortunately, Games that have included morality systems and attempted to provide the player with more input in the game’s narrative outcome have actually decreased player agency by diminishing the purpose of choice, by providing too much or too little context for players to make meaningful choices, and by providing oversimplified alternatives and outcomes that eliminate the need for analysis or reflection. For these reasons, games that contain morality systems, such as Bioware’s Mass Effect 2, and Atlus’s Catherine, have been frequently criticized for failing to deliver the satisfying power of agency to players. In each of these games the morality systems incorrectly equate choice to action, and so negate or seriously limit the other important processes of choice that allow for satisfying player agency. Specifically, the use of dialogue systems to provide morality-based choices, and the use of visual feedback systems to report the outcome of morality choices significantly inhibit player agency. Both dialogue and visual feedback systems, when incorporated with morality systems, fracture the player’s connection to the character and the story she is meant to inhabit and decrease the player’s sense of purpose within the narrative. According to Samantha Moffat, ‘The black and white view of the world that so many morality systems create simplifies and detracts from a game’s immersion.’8 The player’s sense of immersion in the character and in the narrative connects her to a moral purpose in the game, but often the dialogue systems reduce moral purpose to over-simplified moral alignments instead.9 These obvious alignments negate purpose and the need for the player to identify the need of a decision. Without a purpose that helps the player identify the intent and meaning of her moral choice, no choice--regardless of whether it alters the outcome of the narrative--can be meaningful in regard to the player’s sense of agency.

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__________________________________________________________________ Additionally, the dialogue systems disrupt the narrative flow of the game. As Marie-Laure Ryan observes, ‘the price to pay for dialogue trees’ is ‘a loss of fluidity, since narrative time must stop until a choice is made.’10 The player’s sense of suspense is paused because the dramatic element of the scene is suspended. Conversations are put on hold, and the characters wait on screen with blank expressions waiting for the player’s input. The dialogue systems fracture the player’s sense of purpose by making the player too aware of the system. As Emma Westecott explains, ‘part of the seduction of gaming lies in the knowledge that it is not ‘real’ without compromising the ‘believed-in’ nature of the play act.’11 When a system suspends a conversation and compromises the nature of believability, the feeling that choices carry weight and meaningfulness can be diminished. The player is no longer immersed or committed to her character in the story, but is instead aware of herself as a player, selecting from a menu option in a game. As Marie-Laure Ryan observes, this interruption ‘takes a toll on the player’s immersion in the fictional world’ and reinforces the player’s role as player rather than as character.12 This awareness not only harms immersion but the meaningfulness of choices created by that immersion. Additionally, the dialogue systems display limited dialogue options to the player and do not allow the player to assess the need for or to acquire further information before making a choice. In both Mass Effect 2 and Catherine, the player can only scroll through a limited set of speech options, and while both of these dialogue systems allow the player to analyse the choices she is given, the player does not have the option to gather further information that might help inform her decision. While the solution would be to offer the player the option to exit the conversation and return later, the system presumes that the player has enough information to make a decision and does not allow the player to exit the dialogue screen and acquire more information. Some might argue that the inability to leave a conversation to seek more information is similar to real-world conversations, but because the system itself limits the ability of the player to seek further information even through dialogue, something a player could do in a realworld conversation, the player is still restricted by that dialogue system. By stifling the player’s ability to continue a dialogue through which to gain more information or to exit the conversation and seek it on her own, the player’s agency and commitment to meaning are reduced both ways. While the dialogue systems fracture the player’s connection to character, feedback systems further decrease the player’s perception of purpose. After the player has selected a dialogue option, the visual feedback system reports to the player the moral weight and outcome of that option. In Mass Effect 2 the player will be told if a selected dialogue choice is Paragon or Renegade and to what degree, while in Catherine the player will be shown a scale with an angel on one end and a devil on the other with an indicator marking where her choice scales between the two. This feedback reduces the level of meaning and purpose the

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__________________________________________________________________ player feels by eliminating the player’s ability to evaluate the results of her choice meaningfully. The player does not have to worry, as the game continues, how good or bad her choice was or what impact it might have later in the game because the system immediately tells her how her choice scaled. This feedback not only reduces the player’s ability to evaluate the immediate results of her choice, but also of her ability to evaluate the results of those choices over time. When the feedback system reports that the player is making good choices, the player becomes more assured that her choices will lead to a positive outcome because unambiguous and binary moral system of the game equates good choices to good (or at least less bad) results. As the player becomes more acquainted with the dialogue system, such as where good and bad choices appear within that system (Paragon at the top and sometimes blue and Renegade at the bottom and sometimes red), and as the player continues to receive feedback to reinforce her understanding of the dialogue systems, there becomes less and less risk for the player in consideration of her choices and also less need for her to deliberate over the choices presented to her. Over time, the player’s need to analyse choices and evaluate alternatives decreases. The player’s sense of purpose within the narrative is not only decreased by this repetitiveness of the feedback, but also by the fact that this feedback, which is supposed to be linked to the narrative, is given only to the player and has no impact on the narrative character. While the character remains immersed in the drama of the moral choice and its repercussions, the player is unable to share a similar narrative immersion because she is told what the impact of the choice is before the character knows. The use of dialogue and feedback systems in these games also reinforces the game’s authority in ways that inhibit the decision-making process and opportunities for player agency. Morality systems are supposed to ‘[generate] player involvement and immersion’ by allowing the player to ‘choose to react to the games choices based on…a created set of moral rules,’ but the morality systems do more than merely create a set of moral rules: they enforce the rules by limiting player options through the dialogue system.13 The player is meant to perceive herself as having agency in game, but cannot because the choices provided to her do not allow her to brainstorm or contemplate different choices. Instead, the player is given a distinct set of choices, and though the player might conceive of alternate solutions via the decision-making process, those solutions are not available to her. The dialogue menus, which visually present a very finite number of choices, are a direct reminder to the player that her role is scripted, and that any choice she makes is not really her own, but one predetermined by the game. These limited choices indicate that commitment to meaning in the narrative is still finite and controlled by the system, and thus the player’s commitment to meaning is only validated insofar as the player is willing to consent to and commit to the limited choices with which she is presented.14 When the player realizes how finite her choices are, her ability to deliberate over the meaning of those choices is

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__________________________________________________________________ similarly reduced. In a sense, the decision, as a product of the dialogue system, is not the player’s to make at all. The player is making a selection, but is not engaging in the thought process that leads to meaningful choice. The narrative is given priority over the player, and while the narrative’s purpose is maintained, the player’s choices within that narrative lose purpose. The feedback systems are also a reminder that the player’s choices are not as meaningful. After the player has made a choice, the feedback system reports back to the player whether the choice she made was a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ choice, and thus the system asserts itself as the authority on the moral value of the player’s choice. The player is not given the ability to assess and evaluate the moral outcome of her choice because the system decides it for her. To further compound the problem, the dialogue and feedback systems present easily decipherable and binary choices, eliminating the need for analysis of choices and the evaluation of those choices. Because the morality systems in the game run along a clear binary of goodness and badness, the choices presented by the dialogue system are unambiguously good or unambiguously bad, and there is very rarely a ‘grey’ choice between. Instead of providing the player with complex moral choices that require an analysis of risk and ambiguous outcomes, the games ‘include moral choices that…present a watered-down version of moral choice that ultimately results in players having to choose between good and evil.’15 The player is given three game-play options in regard to morality and potential narrative outcomes: play the good guy, play the bad guy, or switch back and forth between good guy and bad guy options in an attempt to be a more realistic character. Regardless of which way the player chooses to play, she does so at the expense of narrative immersion and agency. Because the morality systems operate along a strict moral binary, the ‘choices end up disappointingly consistent and devoid of any real consequences’ for the player.16 The system doesn’t allow for complexity and as a result, the choices the player can make lack meaning. Instead, the player is hyper-aware of the moral outcomes of her choices, and this awareness allows the player to game the system in such a way that she plays to receive a specific outcome. In other words, rather than maintaining meaningfulness and purpose, the player is abusing the predictability of the system in order to gain a preselected outcome. The player is left to make a flat and visibly scripted choice with obvious moral repercussions. The use, then, of dialogue systems to present morality choices to players is counterproductive to agency. The systems hamper moral ambiguity, and as a result also hamper the ability for the player to commit to the meaning of those choices in the narrative. By coming to an agreement on what qualifies as agency, we can assess games that do and do not provide it, interrogate where and why previous attempts to provide player agency failed, and ensure that future games that intend to provide it do so adequately. Our understanding of agency must also continue to advance and adapt as games themselves progress. The effort is collaborative. As game

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__________________________________________________________________ developers continue to push the boundaries of player interactivity and agency by adding new systems like the morality system, game critics and game theorists must continue to question whether current understandings of agency are still adequate and applicable. No definition need be permanent, as language and understanding are themselves always evolving, and thus the conversations must continue. The argument is worthwhile if it urges the evolution of games and our understanding of games further. What is at stake is simultaneously the improvement of games and the theories through which we interpret, understand, and urge them to be better.

Notes 1

Ineke Buskins, ‘Agency and Reflexivity in ICT4D Research: Questioning Women’s Options, Poverty, and Human Development,’ Information Technologies International Development Journal 6 (2010): 19. 2 Jan Simons, ‘Narrative Games and Theory,’ The International Journal of Computer Game Research 7.1 (2007): 2-3. 3 Karen Tanenbaum and Joshua Tanenbaum, ‘Commitment to Meaning: A Reframing of Agency in Games.’ Plenaries: After Media – Embodiement and Context, Digital Arts and Culture (2009): 2. 4 Janet Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace (New York: The Free Press, 1997), 126. 5 Tanenbaum and Tanenbaum, ‘Commitment to Meaning,’ 7. 6 ‘Decision Making Process,’ UMass.edu, viewed 15 August 2014, http://www.umassd.edu/fycm/decisionmaking/process/. 7 Fox Harrell and Jichen Zhu, ‘Agency Play: Dimensions of Agency for Interactive Narrative Design,’ Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Symposium (2009): 47. 8 Samantha Moffat, ‘The Problem with Morality Systems,’ Newark PC Game Examiner (2009), np, viewed on 15 August 2014, http://www.examiner.com/article/the-problem-with-morality-systems. 9 Ibid. 10 Marie-Laure Ryan, ‘From Narrative Games to Playable Stories: Toward a Poetics of Interactive Narrative,’ Storyworld: A Journal of Narrative Studies 1 (2009): 49. 11 Emma Westecott, ‘The Performance of Digital Play,’ Forum: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts Special Issue 2 (2008). 12 Ryan, ‘Narrative Game to Playable Stories,’ 49. 13 ‘Moral Decisions,’ Giantbomb, viewed 15 August 2014, http://www.giantbomb.com/moral-decisions/3015-93/. 14 Simons, ‘Narrative Games and Theory,’ 2-3. 15 Laura Parker, ‘Black or White: Making Moral Choices in Video Games,’ Gamespot (2009), np, viewed on 15 August 2014,

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__________________________________________________________________ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/black-or-white-making-moral-choices-in-videogames/1100-6240211/. 16 Ibid.

Bibliography Buskins, Ineke. ‘Agency and Reflexivity in ICT4D Research: Questioning Women’s Options, Poverty, and Human Development.’ Information Technologies and International Development Journal 6 (2010): 19-24. ‘Decision Making Process.’ Umass.edu. Viewed 15 August 2014, http://www.umassd.edu/fycm/decisionmaking/process/. Harrell, Fox and Jichen Zhu. ‘Agency Play: Dimensions of Agency for Interactive Narrative Design.’ Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Symposium (2009). Moffat, Samantha. ‘The Problem with Morality Systems.’ Newark PC Game Examiner (2009). np. Viewed 15 August 2014, http://www.examiner.com/article/the-problem-with-morality-systems. ‘Moral Decisions,’ Giantbomb. Viewed 15 August 2014, http://www.giantbomb.com/moral-decisions/3015-93/. Murray, Janet. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York: The Free Press, 1997. Parker, Laura. ‘Black or White: Marking Moral Choices in Video Games.’ Gamespot (2009). np. Viewed 15 August 2014, http://www.gamespot.com/articles/black-or-white-making-moral-choices-in-videogames/1100-6240211/. Ryan, Marie-Laure. ‘From Narrative Games to Playable Stories: Toward a Poetics of Interactive Narrative.’ Storyworld: A Journal of Narrative Studies 1 (2009): 4359. Simons, Jan. ‘Narrative Games and Theory.’ The International Journal of Computer Games Research 7.1 (2007).

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__________________________________________________________________ Tanenbaum, Karen and Joshua Tanenbaum. ‘Commitment to Meaning: A Reframing of Agency in Games.’ Plenaries: After Media – Embodiment and Context, Digital Arts and Culture (2009). Westecott, Emma. ‘The Performance of Digital Play.’ Forum: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts Special Issue 2 (2008). Lindsey Joyce is a PhD Candidate in the Arts and Technology School at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is currently studying player agency in interactive narrative systems. She is also a contributor and curator at CriticalDistance where she catalogues scholarly and critical works in game studies.

The Politics of the Representation of the Dandy in East-Asian Video Games Gaspard Pelurson Abstract This chapter serves as an introduction to the issues that video games displaying dandy characters raise among Western gamers. It is common for the latter to look at characters displayed in East-Asian games through a Western lens only and to therefore, misinterpret their identities. This highlights the clear difference between Western and East-Asian masculinity tropes as well as the necessity to apply the concept of Orientalism to video-games and gamers. Orientalism is not only a way for Westerners to encapsulate the East in a set of pre-conceived ideas, but is also is now used by East-Asian developers who, taking Western bias into account, play on it and self-exoticize their own product. One could, in that case, write about reversed Orientalism, or even maybe Westernalism. This chapter would not be complete without mentioning Western games and how their characters disrupt gender norms. Interestingly, their strategy seems opposite. Key Words: Dandyism, queerness, Video-games, Orientalism, masculinity, gender. ***** 1.Introduction Dandyism is a slippery term. First defined by Barbey D’Aurévilly1 and then altered by several other authors (Baudelaire,2 d’Hamilton,3 Carassus,4 etc.), the concept of dandyism lost some of its original coherence. Judging and asserting that someone is a dandy can be a very difficult task indeed. According to Carassus, it is almost impossible to spot a dandy without someone challenging the discovery5. Theoreticians in the past such as d’Hamilton differentiated between romantic and classic dandies while others introduced a difference between British and French dandies. In general, and despite distinctions that can be made between them, the Dandy always performs; he is ‘a theatrical being’.6 While his appearance and behaviour are extravagant and disruptive, the dandy is also regarded as a charming, refined, and elegant person. His presence as a disruptive gender figure is important and helps situate him as a queer and progressive character whose transgressions are a means of resistance against disciplinary normativity. The dandy is also queer because he does not take for granted what constitutes a ‘normal being’ and challenges it by celebrating the anti-normal and even, sometimes, the monstrous.

88 The Politics of the Representation of the Dandy in East-Asian Video Games __________________________________________________________________ The dandy seems to be a recurring figure that has appeared through different disguises. First officially embodied by Brummell, dandyism has come to be associated with the flâneurs, elegant Victorian gentlemen, the lions and lioness, the teddy boys, new romanticism, the hippies, punk, steampunk, East-Asian fashion, etc. This chapter’s aim is to approach how dandies are specifically represented in East-Asian video-games, and how this representation differs from Western videogames. Video games are still seen as a ‘boy thing’7 and it can be difficult to see them as a progressive medium. Nevertheless, one cannot help but notice that some video games stand out by displaying challenging characters that can be regarded as digital dandies. This chapter serves as an introduction to how video-games could have an impact on gender norms with the use of dandyism. I will begin by analysing the presentation of subversive characters in East-Asian games and how Western players react to these characters in ways that raise issues about reading East-Asian masculinity through a Western lens. Following this, I will underline that Western game dandies do not, paradoxically, strongly differentiate themselves by their appearance, but instead by openly introducing LGBTQ content into the game. 2.Extravagant Japanese Dandies Japan saw the birth of the video game industry in the 1970s and became a major exporter throughout the end of the XXth century. Still, since the mid 2000’s, the Japanese game market has been shrinking due, in part, to the different tastes between Western and Eastern audiences.8 The games used in this chapter (Final Fantasy IX, X and Soul Calibur II), however, were widely known by gamers, as they came out during the ‘golden age’ of the Japanese video game industry (late 90s and early 2000s) and made up about 50% of the global market.9 A. Three Dandies: Kuja, Seymour and Raphael There is no need to explain why Kuja (image 1)10 stands out as a noticeable individual in Final Fantasy IX. Although the game is full of quirky and surprising characters, Kuja is the only one who is clearly gender disruptive. Indeed, he is strongly androgynous and the now aged graphics of the game make this even more noticeable as the reduced fidelity makes it hard to clearly identify Kuja’s sex. Kuja’s personality makes him a typical dandy as, just like Dorian Gray, Kuja delightfully mixes sadism and refinement. Seymour (FF X) is slightly less flamboyant than Kuja (image 2).11 Still, he is a very powerful mage who is held in high regard in his country. In his interactions with the main female character Yuna, Kuja is only interested in her for her rank and powers. He does not acknowledge her beauty and cleverness. Cold and calculating, his clothes and mannered speech make him a memorable character.

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__________________________________________________________________ Raphael Sorel from Soul Calibur II is a playable French character with a tragic background (image 3).12 He uses a rapier and strikes more poses than his fellow challengers. His art of sword fighting and speech distinguish him from many other male characters who only seem to count on brute force. While his outfit stays stylish but simple in SC II, it becomes much darker and aristocratic in the following releases. Interestingly, his transformation gives him a much stronger vampire aspect that increases his queer aspect by making him less human and more monstrous.13 These three characters can be labelled as dandies for several reasons. First, they are all theatrical, especially Kuja who regards the world as a stage and his life as a play. They distinguish themselves through fashion and stand out with details. Seymour wears a large gown and has an eccentric haircut and Kuja blatantly mixes masculine and feminine clothes. They are, therefore, dandy fashion icons according to Carassus14 who writes that dandies dress up like everyone else, but better, by adding a pinch of imagination. These characters are also ‘dandiacal’ because they are queer. Indeed, as seen earlier, they are gender disruptive and their performance could also be read as queer since their acts challenge heteronormativity. Moreover, these characters are a celebration of the anti-normal as none them is human (Seymour is half-human, Raphael becomes undead and Kuja is the prototype of a new race). This aspect is, according to Watson, undeniably queer as she argues that abnomarlity and monstrosity are, by definition, part of queerness.15 Finally, this queer dimension is reinforced by the strong link that these characters keep with death. They indeed seem to nurture an obsessional death wish and a will to purge the world of humanity that strongly echoes Edelman’s No Future16 and the attempt to end the heteropatriarchal continuum based on reproduction. Nevertheless, this becomes even more interesting when one looks at Western gamers’ reactions about these characters. B. Thread Reactions A short look at general forums (Neoseeker, Dandooru, Final Fantasy Forums) about these characters shows that they are fairly popular among gamers. Still, it is worth noting that recurring judgemental comments about their appearance, femininity and, above all, sexuality always rise at some point. One has to keep in mind that the posts shown in this section are not reflective of the entire gaming community, but which still some recurring concerns amidst a portion of the gaming community, and should also, therefore, not be regarded as isolated. Most of these posts reveal that some gamers feel uneasy, or at least do not know how to react in front of East-Asian dandy characters. This results in a very common confusion between sex and sexuality. Hence, the dandy’s appearance,

90 The Politics of the Representation of the Dandy in East-Asian Video Games __________________________________________________________________ voice, and relative androgyny were often invoked by the gamers to justify the character’s potential homosexuality. Seymour: No seriously, forget the whole marriage to Yuna thing, is he actually gay? I mean what the hell is his voice about, and is it my imagination or is he wearing a skirt?! Im telling you this is Square-Enix’s version of Michael Jackson.17 Raphael: I liked Raphael better back when he was a gay frenchman rather than a pedophile vampire.18 Kuja: ‘its still pretty funny though... the most powerful person on Gaia, wears womens clothing and dresses up like a girl... worst part is no one can tell him not to...’. Kuja is gay. I could have sworn that he was a woman the first time I saw him. He wears this robe thingie that exposes his legs. .. And then he has his gay little white dragon. .. But aside from being gay, Kuja is pretty cool. Kuja would kill his opponent with his homosexuality, like rip their nuts off or something. Ouch.’ 19 3. Western Readings of Eastern Characters While some posts clearly show that the poster just wished to be provocative, they clearly reflect that the appearance and, in particular, the attire and behaviour of these dandies struck the gamers most. Of course, these threads confuse a lot of concepts, such as sex and sexuality. This is highly problematic and should be analysed elsewhere in detail. This chapter, however, seeks only to understand what they mean on a broader scale and what significance they give to video game dandies. A.Japanese Masculinity First, it is necessary to bear in mind that representations of gay men in specifically Japanese gay magazines reject this ‘feminine’ image and instead portray gay men as hyper-masculine figures, moving in a strictly homosocial world

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__________________________________________________________________ from which women and their concerns have been banished.20 Therefore, the posters’ obsession about seeing the characters previously mentioned as homosexuals clearly shows the gamers’ misreading homosexuality in Japanese culture. Rather than displaying what Westerners wrongly interpret as homosexual presentation, the design of the three characters seems to use an aesthetic close to that of Visual kei, a music genre that often displays cross-dressed male band members and that puts a strong emphasis on androgyny. McLeod argues that ‘the male impersonation of female characters ... extends beyond visual kei and can be found, for example, in Japanese video game culture’.21 It is, therefore, important to keep in mind as a Western gamer is that ‘beauty does not equal femininity’22 in the mindset of most Japanese people. B. Orientalism The assumption of some Western gamers about a character’s sexuality based on the character’s manners and dress is a form of reducing the values promoted by an East-Asian video game to one’s own point of view. Still, even when gamers take into account that they are not playing a Western game, they often mix up Eastern and Western values. This phenomenon is a result of Orientalism that is defined as ‘a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western experience’.23 The issue that Orientalism raises, according to Tucker, is that the East first needs to be exoticised in order to be ‘encapsulate[d]’ by the West that assembled a framework of ideas about the East over the years. He argues that ‘this cultural imperialism presents the ideas of the East as interpreted for the casual reader through a Western mediator’.24 This easily applies to the Eastern video games that are marketed to the Western audience and read by Western gamers. On the one hand, reading a character as gay just because he does not stick to the codes of Western hegemonic masculinity is obviously culturally imperialistic and not right. On the other hand, simply assuming that it is okay for Japanese video game characters to be feminine, without taking into account the subtleties that this process involves, is also culturally imperialistic and a form of Orientalism. Interestingly, the acceptance of masculine refinement and beauty does not exclude the possibility of gender disruption. Indeed, Orientalism is also triggered on purpose by East-Asian countries. Essentially, Orientalism acts as a two-way relationship in which the West consumes a fetishized version of the East and in which the East internalizes that fetishization and markets it to the West. ... the Oriental subject in turn allows an auto-exoticizing Japan to use cultural tropes and stereotyped icons to market themselves to

92 The Politics of the Representation of the Dandy in East-Asian Video Games __________________________________________________________________ a Western audience and to enforce a culturally imperialistic policy for Asia.25 Interestingly, the video game dandies previously mentioned are not directly referring to East-Asian cultures, but are representing fantasy worlds that seem more Western than Eastern. Kuja, for instance, is from a Steampunk universe mixed with Western Middle-Age elements and Raphael is clearly identified as a Renaissance French man. Still, several aspects of the games previously mentioned, such as the extravagant clothing or their complicated plot immediately reminds the gamer that he is playing a Japanese game. This way, it could be argued that Soul Calibur and Final Fantasy are using Orientalism in a complex way that exoticizes the West for a Western audience by using Eastern tropes. At the same time, this phenomenon could be seen as reversed Orientalism, or Westernalism, that shows the West for an Eastern audience. While the length of this chapter does not allow me to explore this aspect in more detail, Orientalism supports the thesis that dandyism, as a Western concept, can be used to describe video game characters, even though they are from Japanese video games. Looking at East-Asian characters through a Western lens makes these characters more gender disruptive than they should be. However, simply asserting that these games must not be read through a Western point of view is another way of encapsulating the game and, therefore, displaying another form of Orientalism. Finally, there is no certainty that these characters do not appeal to a queer EastAsian crowd. 4.The Question of Western Dandies Unfortunately, this chapter does not allow me to spend as much time on dandyism in Western games, but it will give perspective to the previous analyses by enriching the dandy representations. There clearly seems to be no equivalent to the East-Asian dandies in Western video games. It is all the more paradoxical when one takes into account that dandyism is a Western concept. Nevertheless, many characters are strongly challenging heteronormativity on many levels in Western games. A. Visible Sexuality Western games’ dandies seem to be the opposite of East-Asian dandies. They are common-looking, but blatantly sexually disruptive in a medium that is still widely regarded as hypermasculine and heteronormative.26 Interestingly, these games are thus disruptive by being highly progressive in terms of LGBT content. Western games’ characters are generally less extravagant, and a quick look at the main blockbusters of the last five years (Grand Theft Auto, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty) shows that most universes depict everyday life, the military, or historical

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__________________________________________________________________ settings. It seems, however, that some games managed to depict nonheterosexuality. The developing studio Bioware and two of its franchises, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, include the possibility heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual interactions with some characters. Mass Effect even included the option of having alien sex with one of the protagonist’s squad mates. The games themselves are disruptive because they allow ‘alternative’ sexualities to express themselves, and the characters used are symbols and landmarks of this disruption and could therefore be dandies. B.Queering Science-Fiction and Fantasy One of the most striking achievements of Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Fable is to ‘‘queer’’ mainstream Science-Fiction and Fantasy. It is true that many literary works from these genres allowed a lot of queer readings in the past, but one cannot help but notice that most masterpieces (Dune, The Lord of the Rings) do not make much room for LGBT characters. This applies even more for the video game industry. Because of this, characters such as Zevran, Kelly Chambers or Liara T’soni (image 7, 8)27 stand out as LGBTQ symbols in video games. Mass Effect was rightly criticised for its visual presentation of the Asaris (a hermaphrodite race) as a male gaze’s fantasy as the race is meant to be gender neutral. Despite this flaw, one cannot help but notice that many of the powerful females in the game are Asari (considering that the Asaris are all female). Moreover, the Mass Effect games allow the players to choose the protagonist’s sex. This was seen as a progressive and necessary gesture, especially because less than 10% of game characters are female.28 The possibility of having alien/elven sex in Mass Effect and Dragon Age is also a clever way of metaphorically introducing non-heterosexuality. This might explain why it turned out to be a very popular choice among gamers.29 It seems that Western games are not expected to be disruptive the same ways East-Asian games are. The former openly deal with sexuality, but they display less striking characters, even though they evolve in fantasy or futuristic worlds. Claiming that Mass Effect and Dragon Age promote bisexuality and homosexuality in Science-Fiction and Fantasy faces one significant obstacle: nonheterosexual in-game interactions are still just optional. Bioware and Lionshead’s wish to explore new possibilities and give the gamers more in-game options can be praised, but it also limits the fact that LGBT content is only an option and automatically tones down the games’ gender politics. While these games are generous in their visual representations of LGBT sex, they also underline the lack of LGBT representations among video games as a whole as well as the complete absence of any specifically (non-optional) LGBT-identified protagonists.

94 The Politics of the Representation of the Dandy in East-Asian Video Games __________________________________________________________________ Finally, although the progressive aspect of these games might be seen as limited by LGBT gamers, the reactions and concerns they triggered within the media show how political they are.30 5.Conclusion To conclude, this chapter shows that dandy characters and the games that represent them are more political than they seem. However, there is a clear division between Western and Eastern dandies and the way they disrupt normativity. EastAsian dandies’ aesthetics are a mix of Renaissance and faux XIXth century dressing style and are the most disruptive when they are read through a Western lens. They also highlight issues raised by Orientalism and the intricacy and fragility of globalised products. Paradoxically, Western dandies look nothing like XIXth century dandies. They stand out simply by openly embodying minorities in the video game world and the real world. These characters face, however, several limitations. Gamers from different parts of the world are likely to read them differently. On the one hand, Western dandies are characters that reveal themselves, most of the time, through optional interactions. On the other hand, East-Asian dandies tend to be antagonists and could be simply be seen as ‘queer terrorist’31 that would need to be defeated to restore the heteropatriarchal continuum, an argument that strongly undermines their political potential. Therefore, queer characters in mainstream video games are necessary to challenge the overwhelming machismo that still reigns within this medium, nevertheless, there seems to be a long way to go before seeing characters clearly promoted as queers in a mainstream game. Note: Due to copyright issues, the images used in this chapter were removed. Please don’t hesitate to check the links provided or look at the characters mentioned online by yourself.

Notes 1

Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, Dandyism, trans. Douglas Ainslie (New York: PAJ, 1988). 2 Charles Baudelaire, Le Peintre de la vie moderne (Mille et une nuits: Paris, 2010). 3 Chevalier D’Hamilton, ‘Dandyism: Beyond Fashion’, Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild, Viewed 18 May 2014, http://www.gbacg.org/costume-resources/original/articles/dandy.pdf.

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__________________________________________________________________ 4

Emilien Carassus, Le Mythe du Dandy (Colin: Paris 1977). Carassus, Le Mythe du Dandy, 13. 6 James Eli Adams, Dandies and Desert Saints (Cornell University Press, 1985), 22. 7 Helen Thornham, ‘It’s a Boy Thing’, Feminist Media Studies 8:2 (2008): 127142. 8 Marc Cieslack, ‘Is the Japanese Video Game Industry in Crisis?’ BBC News, 2010, Viewed 18 May 2014, ; Aleks Krotoski, ‘Tokyo Game Show Day 2: The State of the Japanese Industry’, The Guardian, 2008, Viewed 18 May 2014, . 9 Cieslack, ‘Japanese Game Industry’. 10 Kuja in Dissidia, Viewed 26 August 2014, http://de.finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Datei:Kuja_Render_Dissidia.png 11 Seymour Guado, Viewed 26 August 2014, http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Seymour_Guado 12 Raphael Sorel, Viewed 26 August 2014, http://thefightingconnection.com/picture/raphael-sorel-soul-calibur-ii-picture 13 Katherine Watson, ‘Queer Theory’, Group Analysis 38.1 (2005): 67, 73. 14 Carassus, Le Mythe du Dandy, 101. 15 Watson, ‘Queer Theory’. 16 Lee Edelman, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (Duke University Press 2004). 17 Irvine, ‘Is Seymour Gay?’, Final Fantasy Forums 2007, Viewed 18 May 2014,

18 Popebug, ‘Comment’, Danbooru, 2010, Viewed 18 May 2014,

19 Unspoken and Youthmonkey, ‘Kuja Most Kick Ass Homosexual’, Neoseeker 2004, Viewed 18 May 2014, . 20 Mark McLelland, ‘How to Be a Nice Gay: The Stereotyping of Gay Men in Japan’, Journal of Asian Studies 1.1 (June 1999). 21 Ken McLeod, ‘Visual Kei: Hybridity and Gender in Japanese Popular Culture’, Young 21.4 (2013): 318. 22 Ibid, 319. 23 Elmer Tucker, ‘The Orientalist Perspective: Cultural Imperialism in Gaming’, Gameology.org, July 2006, Viewed 18 May 2014, 5

96 The Politics of the Representation of the Dandy in East-Asian Video Games __________________________________________________________________ . 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 Thornham, ‘It’s a Boy Thing’. 27 Zevran and Male Protagonist, Viewed on 26 August 2014. http://thebacklot.mtvnimages.com/uploads/images/dragonage-zav2.gif; Aria and Female Shepard, Viewed 26 August 2014, http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ETmc9HBBSb0/0.jpg. 28 Keza McDonald, ‘Video Games Need More Women: And Asking for that Won’t End the World’, The Guardian, 2014, Viewed 18 May 2014, . 29 ‘Poll: Mass Effect Trilogy: Who Is Your Favourite Romance?’ The Escapist 2014, Viewed 18 May 2014, . 30 Vinod Yalburgi, ‘Mass Effect 3 Gay Sex Controversy: EA Defends Itself against Anti-Gay Campaign’, International Business Times, 2012, Viewed 18 May 2014, ; Paul Tassi, ‘Mass Effect Gay Debate Shows Gamers Have Growing up to Do’, Forbes, 2012, Viewed 18 May 2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/02/mass-effects-gay-debateshows-gamers-have-growing-up-to-do/. 31 Jasbir Puar, Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (Next Wave) (Duke University Press, 2007).

Bibliography Adams, James Eli. Dandies and Desert Saints. Cornell University Press, 1995. Barbey d’Aurevilly, Jules. Dandyism. Translated by Douglas Ainslie. New York: PAJ, 1988. Baudelaire, Charles. Le Peintre de la vie moderne. Mille et une nuits: Paris, 2010. Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. Taylor & Francis, 2004. Carassus, Emilien. Le Mythe du Dandy. Colin: Paris, 1977.

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__________________________________________________________________ Cieslack, Marc. ‘Is the Japanese Video Game Industry in Crisis?’ BBC News, 4 November 2010. Viewed on 18 May 2014 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9159905.stm D’Hamilton, Chevalier. ’Dandyism: Beyond Fashion’. Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild. Retrieved 6 May 2013. http://www.gbacg.org/costumeresources/original/articles/dandy.pdf Edelman, Lee. No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Duke University Press, 2004. Irvine. ‘Is Seymour Gay?’. Final Fantasy Forums, 5 May 2007. Viewed on 18 May 2014. http://www.finalfantasyforums.net/threads/8435-Is-Seymour-Gay/page4. Krotoski, Aleks. ‘Tokyo Game Show Day 2: The State of the Japanese Industry’. The Guardian, 8 October 2008. Viewed on 18 May 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2008/oct/08/games.japan. McDonald, Keza. ‘Video Games Need More Women: And Asking for that Won’t End the World’. The Guardian, 19 February 2014. Viewed on 18 May 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2014/feb/19/video-gamesneed-more-women-female-characters. McLelland, Mark. ‘How to Be a Nice Gay: The Stereotyping of Gay Men in Japan’. Journal of Asian Studies, 1.1 (June, 1999): 42-59. McLeod, Ken. ‘Visual Kei: Hybridity and Gender in Japanese Popular Culture’. Young 21.4 (2013): 309-325. ‘Poll: Mass Effect Trilogy: Who Is Your Favourite Romance?’. The Escapist. 2013. Viewed on 18 May 2014. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.824256-Poll-Mass-effect-trilogywho-is-your-favorite-romance. Popebug. ‘Comment’. Dandooru, 2010. Viewed on 18 May 2014. http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/498357.

98 The Politics of the Representation of the Dandy in East-Asian Video Games __________________________________________________________________ Puar, Jasbir. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (Next Wave). Duke University Press, 2007. Tassi, Paul. ‘Mass Effect Gay Debate Shows Gamers Have Growing up to Do’. Forbes, 3 February 2012. Viewed on 18 May 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/02/mass-effects-gay-debateshows-gamers-have-growing-up-to-do/. Thornham, Helen. ‘It’s a Boy Thing’. Feminist Media Studies 8:2 (2008): 127-142. Tucker, Elmer. ‘The Orientalist Perspective: Cultural Imperialism in Gaming’. Gameology.org, July 2006. Viewed 18 May 2014. http://www.gameology.org/essays/the_orientalist_perspective_cultural_imperialis m_in_gaming. Unspoken and Youthmonkey. ‘Kuja Most Kick Ass Homosexual’. Neoseeker, 2014. Viewed 18 May 2014. http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/844/t340098-kuja-most-kick-ass-homosexual/. Watson, Katherine. ‘Queer Theory’. Group Analysis 38 (2005): 67-81. Yalburgi, Vinod. ‘Mass Effect 3 Gay Sex Controversy: EA Defends Itself against Anti-Gay Campaign’. International Business Times, 2012. Viewed 18 May 2014. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/mass-effect-3-gay-sex-romance-controversy-325808.

Ludography Bioware. Dragon Age: Origins. Electronic Arts: Redwood City, 2008. Bioware. Mass Effect. Microsoft: Redmond, 2007. Bioware. Mass Effect 2. Electronic Arts: Redwood City, 2010. Bioware. Mass Effect 3. Electronic Arts: Redwood City, 2012. Lionhead. Fable: The Lost Chapters. Microsoft: Redmond, 2005. Squaresoft. Final Fantasy IX. Sony: Minato, 2001.

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__________________________________________________________________ Squaresoft. Final Fantasy X. Sony: Minato, 2001. Square Enix. Dissidia. Square Enix: Tokyo, 2009. Gaspard Pelurson is a PhD student in Media and Cultural Studies in the Media, Film and Music department at the University of Sussex. He is interested in gender, sexuality and video games. More specifically, his work examines dandyism in video games and the ways Western and East-Asian cultural products represent masculinity. His final aim is to investigate the political dimension of the games which differ from the hypermasculine and heteronormative tropes of this medium.

Part IV Serious Games/Serious Gaming

Serious Gaming, Serious Modding and Serious Diverting… Are You Serious?! Catherine Bouko and Julian Alvarez Abstract In French-speaking research, the expression ‘serious gaming’ is used in English in order to refer to the practice of diverting videogames aimed at three new, functional purposes: the diffusion of message(s), training and data collection. ‘Serious games’ are thus distinguished from ‘serious gaming’: while the end result may appear similar (combining games with educational purposes), serious gaming applies new functions a posteriori. To highlight the phenomenon of diversion, we propose the expression ‘serious diverting’, which therefore constitutes a type of serious gaming, as it is understood in English. Beside ‘serious diverting’, we also identify a second category of serious gaming in the broad sense of the word, for which we coin the concept of ‘serious modding.’ In this chapter, we present several examples of ‘serious diverting’ taken from the education and health sectors, emanating from teachers, professors, researchers, medical teams or companies. Key Words: Serious games, serious gaming, serious modding, serious diverting, health, education. ***** ‘Don’t tell my mother I’m a game designer, I’m training the doctors, firemen, IT technicians… of tomorrow.’1 This statement from Guardiola et al. humourously reminds us that videogames are not viewed as a particularly politically correct cultural object. In the French domain, Dauncey has highlighted the way in which the progressive recognition of videogames as a cultural object, rather than mere software, has tweaked the effective framework of the typically French ‘cultural exception’: ... the videogaming industry in the late 1990s and 2000s fought to obtain the support of the state as culture rather than leisure, as art rather than technology, and thus to benefit from the measures afforded to activities deemed to contribute to France’s cultural specificity and cultural diversity. Despite the gradual drift of policy towards recognising the validity of popular culture […] videogames have often struggled to overcome the enduring elitism of the French cultural establishment.2

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__________________________________________________________________ The use of videogames in the context of education is contributing to the political legitimising of videogames in general, a fact reinforced by the example of the French authorities who in 2009 allocated 30 million Euros to encourage French video gaming production.3 This financial aid for such a precise sector of videogames led producers to fear a new, counterproductive distinction between two levels of legitimacy: ‘videogames “deserving” of support, and by default, other games, to be pejoratively classified as “leisure”.’4 Nevertheless, different approaches to videogames enable us to move beyond this elitist distinction. One such approach consists of what is referred to as ‘serious gaming’ in Frenchspeaking research. 1. ‘Serious Gaming’ in French-Speaking Research, or ‘Serious Diverting’ An alternative to the use of serious games consists of what certain Frenchspeaking researchers, trainers and teachers label ‘serious gaming’ in their research or academic work.5 They use the expression in English in order to refer to the practice of diverting videogames aimed at three new, functional purposes: the diffusion of message(s), training and data collection. However it goes without saying that commercial videogames do not need to be diverted in order to serve as learning materials. Indeed, this point of view is in line with general classifications of playful objects, such as the ESAR© system. Based on psycho-educational criteria and inspired by the work of Jean Piaget, this system aims to classify and organise games and toys according to five standards: cognitive skills, functional skills, types of social activity, language skills and emotional behaviour. The ESAR acronym refers to four types of game: exercises, symbolic games, construction games and games with rules. For the most part, videogames can be categorised as symbolic games (in particular simulation games) and games with rules. More specifically, James Paul Gee6 has presented us with the now famous thirty-six learning principles enabled by gaming. This approach to serious gaming can be referred to as diversion in the sense that its purposes are not those put forward by the game’s designers. This diversion can involve commercial games as well as serious games, to which we attribute a new learning function in addition to, or independent of, their initial pedagogical purpose. Thus we distinguish between ‘serious games’ and ‘serious gaming’: while the end result may appear similar (combining games with educational purposes), only serious gaming applies new functions a posteriori. The use of the English expression in French research aims to distinguish between the gaming experience and the artefact. In French, the expression ‘jeu sérieux’ does not allow us to distinguish between the activity in progress and the object which enables the activity. It must also be noted that the same ambiguity exists in English: the notion of serious gaming as opposed to serious games acts as a generalisation; it refers to all practices in education through games, without distinguishing between the practice and the game itself. Therefore the notion of

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__________________________________________________________________ serious gaming has a much more restricted scope in French than in English. In order to move past this contrasting terminology and highlight the phenomenon of diversion, we propose the expression ‘serious diverting.’ ‘Serious diverting’ would therefore constitute a type of serious gaming, as it is understood in English. ‘Serious diverting’ is a form of ‘catachresis’. That notion was first used in linguistics to refer to misuses of words ( ‘alibi’ instead of ‘excuse’) or to figures of speech which use existing expressions and give them a new meaning. The concept of catachresis has been transferred to the use of tools, to describe the use of a tool instead of the proper one, or the use of tools for functions they were not made for. For example, using an adjustable spanner to hit something, instead of a hammer is a catachresis. This notion has also been transferred to the ergonomics of technologies to describe the difference of use between that originally imagined and the real function.7 Beside ‘serious diverting’, we can also identify a second category of serious gaming in the broad sense of the word, for which we coin the concept of ‘serious modding.’ The diversion of use which characterises ‘serious diverting’ can be distinguished from serious modding by the software modifications which the latter involves. The act of modifying an existing game in order to circulate different versions is widespread in gaming culture; this can even be seen as one of the cornerstones of the success of certain titles, such as Doom or Half-Life. The difference between a variation on a given game and a ‘mod’ lies in the fact that the latter is not autonomous, and needs the original game in order to function. In most cases, modding is limited to the adaptation of games for entertainment purposes. Nevertheless, certain mods transform games for entertainment into serious games. For example, Escape from Woomera modifies the game Half-Life by using the latter’s playful structure to draw the public’s attention to living conditions in Australian refugee camps. This example illustrates the explicit presence of both playful and serious dimensions. It is also important to note that level design, i.e. the creation of levels within a game via the editorial software in order to create a utilitarian element, is also present in serious games. Thus in our opinion, for example, the creation of a map game in Warcraft III by using items and resources to teach mathematics, can be categorised as serious modding. Let us consider several examples of ‘serious diverting’ taken from the education and health sectors. Indeed, these are the sectors in which we can identify the most examples of this practice of purpose appropriation.

A. Education

This is without doubt currently the sector in which ‘serious diverting’ is the most evident. Gee8 and Schaffer9 have drawn several noteworthy examples, to name but a few. Second Life certainly stands out as one of the most diverted

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__________________________________________________________________ games: it is used to teach information technology, media studies and even classical music. It is also worth mentioning initiatives based on less well-known games. Lucas Gillispie of Pender County Schools, Northern Carolina, United States, has headed the WoWinSchool project since 2009. Based on a diverted version of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, the project’s aims include helping 7th and 8th grade pupils in difficulty to better get to grips with reading, writing and mathematics. Due to the programme’s success, Mrs Edie Skipper, the head teacher, has suggested extending the initiative to the whole student body. Today, tens of schools in the United States and Canada are taking the same approach. Other games have been the object of similar diverting, such as Guild Wars 2 and MineCraft. For his part, John Burk, a ninth-grade physics teacher at a private school in Westminster, Atlanta, uses Angry Birds in his Physics classes to teach mechanics in particular.10 Donna Beth Ellard, a professor and researcher in higher education, uses the role play game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to teach Scandinavian mythology at the Rice University in Texas.11 The technique consists of first asking students to read extracts of texts drawn from mythology, before then taking part in quests which refer to the texts. The aim is thus to understand how these myths have influenced other cultures, in particular that of the United States. We can also identify lessons given by Samantha Allen who uses the third-person shooting game Halo12 and the fighting game Wrath of the Gods13 to evoke issues linked to transexuality. In France, the Ludus network, created by Yvan Hochet and Denis Sestier from the Caen academy, brings together teachers using games (both videogames and games) for pedagogical purposes. This network highlights the use of Sim City in Geography classes and Lords of the Realm II for History.14 Moreover, the French Pedagame collective has edited a report bringing together a range of experiences using videogames taken from the entertainment industry for teaching purposes, such as Sing Star to improve English proficiency. B. Health ‘Serious diverting’ is also used in the health sector. In the United States, for example, since 2006, Wii games consoles have been introduced into Riderwood (Maryland) retirement homes belonging to the American Erickson group, with the aim of stimulating elderly people whilst offering something which is both occupational and socially-based. This phenomenon has since been observed in similar establishments around the world. In Japan, the business Namco-Bandai, which notably produced the Pacman game, now offers senior citizens in their eighties the chance to visit their offices.15 A dedicated area, for which you have to pay, now acts as a sort of day centre. The idea is to offer them the chance to play with different arcade games in order to maintain their health capital. The aim of the game is to hit crocodiles or frogs with

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__________________________________________________________________ a rubber mallet in order to stimulate blood flow to certain parts of the brain and body (arms, legs…). It is interesting to note that some of these games have been adapted to correspond with the physical needs of the target audience.16 In the French health sector, we have particularly focused on the work of Michael Stora. In the volume Guérir par le virtuel,17 this clinical psychologist explains the manner in which he uses the game ICO by modifying its initial aim of ‘mere entertainment.’ In therapy sessions with children, he uses a specific section of the game. The player is asked to hold a princess’ hand, by holding down a button, in order to lead her to the exit. However, once the destination is reached, the player must release the button and allow the princess to leave. Some children refuse to accept this strategy and become distressed. The therapist therefore tries to establish a dialogue by linking the child’s family experience with the situation presented in the game. As for Yann Quintilla, he uses The Sims 3 for behavioural rehabilitation with people suffering from mental disorder. The technique consists of asking them, via the game, to go home from the cinema. In order to do so, they must carry out a series of tasks such as getting dressed, preparing money, taking the bus… This technique particularly requires the patient to question in which order he should carry out the different tasks. In France, these examples are referred to as serious gaming, which has, as said earlier, a more precise meaning than in English. Let us now examine more specifically the English approach to the notion of serious gaming. 2. ‘Serious Gaming; in English, or Learning ‘Outside the Box’18 While lots of researchers use the notion of serious gaming in their English work to refer to serious video gaming practices in general, we will our examination on the work of Jenkins et al. in order to somewhat refine the concept. As with lots of terms which experience a certain amount of success, the notion of serious gaming is losing its specificity as it becomes more widely used. In the opinion of certain researchers, it can be summarised as the general practice of using videogames for serious means, regardless of the activity or the artifact. Thus, different serious gaming practices are sometimes grouped together, which does not allow for their specific nature to be taken into account. In the article ‘From Serious Games to Serious Gaming’, Jenkins et al. put forward a more specific approach to serious gaming; they focus primarily on the learning process instead of the software as a technology to convey information and tasks: A hallmark of our serious games projects is that we factor the context and process of play into our game design, insisting that much of the learning takes place outside the box as the experience of gaming gets reflected upon by teachers and learners in the context of their everyday lives.19

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__________________________________________________________________ This vision of serious gaming corresponds with the third generation approach to education via videogames highlighted by Egenfeldt-Nielsen. Thus, following a first behavioural, and then a second cognitive and constructive period, it is now time for a constructionist approach which pays particular attention to situated learning and the socio-cultural dimension: Instead of conceiving content, skills and attitudes as residing with the user, knowledge is transferred to culture, tools and communities. […] You learn new things by participating in these communities and appreciating and negotiating what counts as knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is worth stressing, that in this perspective the educational use of computer games ties much closer to the surrounding culture.20 For Jenkins’ team, focusing attention on serious gaming rather than serious games allows us to underline the challenges of learning activities through gaming, which go much further than the interaction between the player and the software. The technical and individualistic approach of the game gives way to a more collective approach, through which the player is counted as a member of a cultural community. Meta-gaming, or reflecting on learning by the game, are central to serious gaming. The game therefore becomes a support for exchanges and collective problem solving, which themselves are an integral part of the learning process. In conclusion, we use the notion of serious gaming following Jenkins et al.’s focus on the meta-pedagogical, cultural and collective aspects of learning. Serious gaming in English refers to the use of serious games, to serious modding and to serious diverting. In French research, only the latter is considered as serious gaming. ‘Serious diverting’ can be a particularly interesting means of achieving pedagogical aims while focusing on their cultural and collective aspects. Its various advantages enable us to dismiss the criticism sometimes directed at serious games. While learning through serious games has its supporters thanks to stimulating projects, there are still some obstacles to overcome. Indeed, certain researchers are sceptical as to this form of edutainment. Egenfeldt-Nielsen has drawn particular attention to the following disadvantages: little intrinsic motivation, no integrated learning experience, drill-and-practice learning principles, simple game play, small budgets. The fact that ‘serious diverting’ involves diverting existing games, which are often known to and appreciated by players, means that it does not have the disadvantage of provoking little intrinsic motivation, in particular due to simple game play. Jenkins’ team have demonstrated that serious gaming on the basis of third generation serious games could and should lead to the development of integrated learning experiences rather than drill-and-practice learning principles.

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__________________________________________________________________ The same applies to ‘serious diverting’, which could provoke experiences of metalearning, whereby the learning conditions are situated at the heart of the videogame experience. Moreover, rather than having to spend time getting to know the gameplay of an unfamiliar game, ‘serious diverting’ enables the player to immediately concentrate on the educational aspect for which the game is merely a support, and we know that teachers are leery of committing precious class time to time-consuming activities. The game is an integral part of the popular cultural practices which ‘serious diverting’ takes pleasure in deciphering. This certainly explains in part why some e-virtuoses awards21 were attributed to serious diverting experiences in 2013.

Notes 1

Emmanuel Guardiol et al., ‘Du jeu utile au jeu sérieux (SG) Le Projet Jeu Serai’, Jeux Vidéo, Quand Jouer C’est Communiquer,’ ed. Jean-Paul Lafrance, Nicolas Oliveri (Paris: CNRS, 2012), 85. 2 Hugh Dauncey, ‘French Videogaming: What Kind of Culture and What Support?’ Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 18.4 (2012): 389. 3 Dauncey, ‘French Videogaming,’ 400. 4 Nicolas Gaume, ‘Interview Bilan 2009 avec N Gaume (SNJV),’ GameKult.com, 7 January 2010, viewed on 25 November 2010, http://www. gamekult.com/actu/interview-bilan-2009-n-gaume-snjv-A0000081941.html, quoted in Ibid. 5 Julian Alvarez et al., Introduction Au Serious Game (Paris: Editions Questions Théoriques, 2012); Thomas Constant, ‘De Angry Birds à Mécanika: Serious Game et Serious Gaming,’ JeuxSerieux.ac-Creteil.fr, 28 September 2011, viewed on 11 December 2011, http://jeuxserieux.ac-creteil.fr/?p=862; Florian Denys, Ouali Chabi, ‘Panorama et Problématique du Serious Game,’ Ide-Edu.net, 21 November 2011, viewed on 15 April 2014, http://ide-edu.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/PANORAMA-ETPROBLEMATIQUE-DU-SERIOUS-GAME-une-conf%C3%A9rence-d-OlivierMauco.pdf. Blog. 6 James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). 7 Pierre Rabardel, Les Hommes et les Technologies, une Approche Cognitive des Instruments Contemporains (Paris: Armand Colin, 1995), 100. 8 James Paul Gee, What Video Games. 9 David W. Shaffer, How Computer Games Help Children Learn (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmilan, 2006). 10 John Burk, ‘Angry Birds in the Physics Classroom,’ Fnoschese.wordpress.com, June 16, 2011, viewed on 20 February 2014,

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__________________________________________________________________ http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/angry-birds-in-the-physics-classroom/. Blog. 11 Pia, ‘Skyrim enseigné à la Fac,’ Journaldugamer.com, October 22, 2012, viewed on 13 December 2013, http://www.journaldugamer.com/2012/10/22/skyrim-enseigne-a-la-fac/. Blog. 12 Samantha Allen, ‘All Skulls On: Teaching Intersectionality through Halo,’ Borderhouseblog.com, April 23, 2013, viewed on 15 March 2014, http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=10617. Blog. 13 Samantha Allen, ‘Wrath of the Gods: Teaching Intersectionality through Bastion,’ Borderhouseblog.com, October 2, 2013, viewed on 15 March 2014, http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=11456. Blog. 14 ‘Nos productions : les fiches de jeu’, http://histgeo.discip.accaen.fr/ludus/sommfiche.htm, viewed on 8 April 2012. Website 15 Anon., ‘Japon : les jeux vidéo comme thérapie pour le troisième âge,’ LeMonde.fr, 6 March 2014, viewed on 9 March 2014, ‘http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/video/2014/03/06/japon-les-jeux-videocomme-therapie-pour-le-troisieme-age_4378900_651865.html.. 16 Belga, ‘Et ça rigole, et ça fait des "oups!", des "ouaiiis!",’ LeSoir.be, 6 March 2014, viewed on 9 March 2014, http://www.lesoir.be/487175/article/actualite/fil-info/fil-info-styles/2014-0306/japon-jeux-video-au-secours-du-troisieme-age-un-marche-prometteur. 17 Michael Stora, Guérir par le virtuel (Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, 2005). 18 Henry Jenkins, ‘From Serious Games to Serious Gaming,’ Serious Games: Mechanisms and Effects, ed. Ute Ritterfeld et al. (New York: Routledge, 2009), 449. 19 Ibid. 20 Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, ‘Third Generation Educational Use of Computer Games,’ Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 16.3 (2007): 275. 21 The e-virtuoses awards are attributed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Grand Hainaut (France). The fifth ceremony took place in 2013. For this edition, in addition to the existing categories of ‘training’, ‘communication and awareness’ and ‘health’, two other categories awarded games related to education, namely ‘serious gaming’ and ‘gamification’. In 2013, the game Arcadémie, which uses Little Big Planet 2 to teach the basics of physics, won the ‘serious gaming’ award.

Bibliography Allen, Samantha. ‘All Skulls On: Teaching Intersectionality through Halo.’ Borderhouseblog.com, April 23, 2013. Viewed on 15 March 2014. http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=10617. Blog.

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__________________________________________________________________ ———. ‘Wrath of the Gods: Teaching Intersectionality through Bastion.’ Borderhouseblog.com, October 2, 2013. Viewed on 15 March 2014. http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=11456. Blog. Alvarez, Julian, Damien Djaouti. Introduction Au Serious Game. Paris: Editions Questions Théoriques, 2012. Anon. ‘Japon: les jeux vidéo comme thérapie pour le troisième âge.’ LeMonde.fr, 6 March 2014. Viewed on 9 March 2014. ‘http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/video/2014/03/06/japon-les-jeux-videocomme-therapie-pour-le-troisieme-age_4378900_651865.html. Belga. ‘Et ça rigole, et ça fait des "oups!", des "ouaiiis!".’ LeSoir.be, 6 March 2014. Viewed on 9 March 2014. http://www.lesoir.be/487175/article/actualite/fil-info/fil-info-styles/2014-0306/japon-jeux-video-au-secours-du-troisieme-age-un-marche-prometteur. Burk, John. ‘Angry Birds in the Physics Classroom.’ Fnoschese.wordpress.com, June 16, 2011. Viewed on 20 February 2014. http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/angry-birds-in-the-physics-classroom/. Blog. Constant, Thomas. ‘De Angry Birds à Mécanika: Serious Game et Serious Gaming.’ JeuxSerieux.ac-Creteil.fr, 28 September 2011. Viewed on 11 December 2011. http://jeuxserieux.ac-creteil.fr/?p=862. Dauncey, Hugh. ‘French Videogaming: What Kind of Culture and What Support?’ Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 18.4 (2012): 389. Denys, Florian, Ouali Chabi. ‘Panorama et Problématique du Serious Game.’ IdeEdu.net, 21 November 2011. Viewed on 15 April 2014. http://ide-edu.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/PANORAMA-ETPROBLEMATIQUE-DU-SERIOUS-GAME-une-conf%C3%A9rence-d-OlivierMauco.pdf. Blog Ducrocq-Henry, Samuelle. ‘Apprendre ensemble en classe via des jeux vidéo populaires: le modèle du LAN pédagogique.’ CJTL/RCAT 37.2 (2011): np.

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__________________________________________________________________ Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Simon. ‘Third Generation Educational Use of Computer Games.’ Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 16.3 (2007): 263281. Ferreira, Alcino. ‘Jeux Sérieux et Langue de Spécialité: Trois Exemples de Ludification pour l’Apprentissage de l’Anglais Naval.’ Cahiers de l’APLIUT 33.1 (2014): np. Gee, James P. What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Guardiola, Emmanuel, Stéphane Natkin, Delphine Soriano, Even Loarer, Pierre Vrignaud. ‘Du jeu utile au jeu sérieux (SG) Le Projet Jeu Serai.’ Jeux Vidéo, Quand Jouer C’est Communiquer, edited by Jean-Paul Lafrance and Nicolas Oliveri, 85-91. Paris: CNRS, 2012. Jenkins, Henry. ‘From Serious Games to Serious Gaming.’ Serious Games: Mechanisms and Effects, edited by Ute Ritterfeld, Michael Cody and Peter Vorderer, 248-268. New York: Routledge, 2009. ‘Nos productions: les fiches de jeu.’ Viewed on 8 April 2012. http://histgeo.discip.ac-caen.fr/ludus/sommfiche.htm. Pia. ‘Skyrim enseigné à la Fac.’ Journaldugamer.com, October 22, 2012. Viewed on 13 December 2013. http://www.journaldugamer.com/2012/10/22/skyrim-enseigne-a-la-fac/. Blog. Rabardel, Pierre. Les Hommes et les Technologies, une Approche Cognitive des Instruments Contemporains. Paris: Armand Colin, 1995. Shaffer, David W. How Computer Games Help Children Learn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmilan, 2006. Stora, Michael. Guérir par le virtuel. Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, 2005. Catherine Bouko is Associate professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). She works on communication and culture, on cultural semiotics and on media literacy. She published Théâtre et réception. Le spectateur postdramatique (Brussels, Peter Lang) in 2010 and Corps et immersion (Paris, L’Harmattan) in 2012.

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__________________________________________________________________ Julian Alvarez is part-time Professor at the CIREL-lab at Université Lille 1 (France). He is also the manager of the Play Research Laboratory (Valenciennes, France). Julian Alvarez has contributed so far to the design and development of over 150 Advergames, Edugames and Casual games

CODE RED: MOBILE, a Live\Synthetic Test Bed for Firefighter Training Brian Quinn Abstract Country Fire Authority (CFA) firefighters trialled the prototype exercise CODE RED: MOBILE at Hanging Rock. The exercise was in two parts: the Information Phase (Phase 1), where participants learned about the bushfire viewing media delivered in the 7scenes (7scenes.com) game framework on the iPad 3, and the Decision Making Phase (Phase 2), where participants made decisions based on their knowledge of this bushfire. Phase 1 and Phase 2 were in separate areas of the Hanging Rock Reserve. Participants were divided into two groups and received either static media or dynamic-static media about the bushfire. Both groups also viewed the same maps and text about the fire. Movies of the bushfire were made in the Sandbox2 game editor of Crysis Wars (crytek.com). A wind change moved the direction of the bushfire, and threatened several of four virtual houses. Participants had to correctly choose the three houses of the four that would probably burn down and one that would not burn. Group 1 saw annotated screenshots of movies made in the Sandbox2 editor, termed static media. Group 2 saw dynamic–static media which were annotated screenshots spliced into the same movies. There was no significant difference found between Group 1 and 2 for their performance in decision making and thus learning. This revealed that the media treatment had no detectable effect on their decision making. Spatio-temporal analyses, including heatmaps and fractal analysis, of participants’ GPS tracks were undertaken. The mean Fractal D of 19 participants, at the spatial scales of 10-250m, reflected the layout of paths, large spaces, and barriers in the Phase 2 game area, and five spatial domains were found. This provided a metric for analysing the game layout of the mobile training exercise. Key Words: Live\Synthetic training, static and dynamic-static media, spatiotemporal analysis, heatmaps, fractal analysis. ***** 1. Introduction Code Red: Mobile a Live/Synthetic1 test bed is a mobile training exercise for firefighters. Live indicates that participants are real. Synthetic indicates part of the exercise is virtual. Fire spread data for the Hanging Rock Reserve, where the exercise took place, was calculated with Phoenix Rapidfire.2 The author is a Fire Behaviour Analyst in Country Fire Authority of Victoria Incident Control Centres and a former volunteer firefighter.

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Image 1: View of Hanging Rock created with Sandbox 2 © 2014. Courtesy of Patrick Brian Quinn. The author’s conceptualisation of a bushfire at Hanging Rock in Image 1 was made in the Sandbox23 editor.4 This 3D model was used to create media viewed during the exercise in the 7scenes5 mobile game framework. This provided information about the stages of the virtual fire at the real world locations. Participants were tracked by the in-built GPS on an iPad3. Their tracks were also recorded with Trimble Juno SB GPS handhelds. 2. Bushfires In the Linton fire, in 1998 five firefighters died in a firetruck burn-over incident after a wind change. Wind changes often result in the long flank of a bushfire becoming a new, very wide, fire front. This sometimes catches fire crews unawares in what is termed the Dead Man Zone.6 Training of firefighters for this is difficult; as it is hard for crews to imagine where a virtual fire is located. CODE RED: MOBILE is designed to overcome this difficulty. 3. The CODE RED: MOBILE Test-Bed Field Trial The CODE RED: MOBILE exercise was carried out to answer a question for the author’s PhD research at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia: Q.1 ‘How can a conceptualisation of a bushfire, as visualisations in a game framework on a mobile device, best assist with the understanding of a virtual bushfire and enable decision-making about its behaviour in the real world location?’ An experiment, using the CODE RED: MOBILE test-bed compared the use of dynamic-static (Group 2) and static media (Group 1) for learning and decision making. This answered the research question: Q.2 ‘Are dynamic-static

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__________________________________________________________________ visualisations superior to static visualisations for learning about a bushfire, in a mobile, Live/Synthetic, training exercise?’ Group 1 participants saw static screenshots from the movies, Group 2 the movies, hereinafter termed dynamic-static media.7 These illustrated three stages of the same fire. In addition both groups viewed the same set of additional text and maps. These two sets of media were delivered to the two groups in the field in order to test which version of the media produced better decision making about which virtual houses would burn and a better memory of the events in a debrief test after the exercise. The media showing these changes were viewed by participants at three real world locations that were in temporal sequence. Group 1 and 2’s set of media locations were either side of a lake within the racetrack (Figure 2). The media was delivered in the 7scenes game framework on iPad3s.

Image 2: The Information Phase: Phase 1 is blue for Group 1 and yellow for Group 2. The Decision Making Phase: Phase 2 for both groups is the green area of the CODE RED: MOBILE exercise. The blue dot near the bottom was the start and finish. © 2014. Courtesy of Patrick Brian Quinn.

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__________________________________________________________________ Ten iPad3 were lent by the Apple University Consortium of Australia. The media viewing, learning part of the exercise, was called Phase 1. The decision making part was termed Phase 2. In Phase 2 participants did the House Task. For this they located, and got close to, four virtual houses and answered a question on whether the house burnt down after the wind change. Participants did a paper based Debrief Test after the exercise where they sorted a jumbled list of events into correct order. The scores on the Debrief Test and the answers on which houses would burn were added and averaged, to give the Total Score. Participant’s GPS tracks, from Phase 2 of the experiment, assisted in answering two further research questions: Q.3 ‘How can we record, visualise and analyse participants’ movements, in a mobile, Live/Synthetic, training exercise?’, and Q.4 ‘Can fractal analysis of participants’ GPS tracks assist the geospatial analysis, of Phase 2 of the CODE RED: MOBILE exercise?’ 4. The Field Experiment for CODE RED: MOBILE 4.1 The Participants In total 33 firefighters attended, on the various days, with 30 actually undertaking the experiment. They were aged between 18 and 70+ and were from local Mountain Group fire brigades in Central Victoria, Australia. They had passed the basic firefighter course and many had further, more advanced firefighter qualifications. 4.2 The Field Sessions Of the original thirty participants, four were eliminated from the experiment for looking at the other group’s media. This was detected using the recordings of the participant’s activities on the 7scenes server. A participant reported he was colour blind and his results were not used. Two participants had no recorded scores. A total of seven were eliminated, leaving twenty three. Eleven were in Group 1 and twelve in Group 2, of these eight in Group 1 and eleven in Group 2 had good GPS recordings. 4.3 Analysis A quantitative approach to the statistical analysis was used. The inclusion criterion was that participants were over 18 and no other inclusion or exclusion criteria were incorporated. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used as the data violated the assumption of normality meaning that a two-sample t-test could not be applied. The Mann Whitney test ranks scores from lowest to highest for each of the dependant variables and finds the mean of each. The α error probability of 0.05 was used and indicates that five out of a hundred times the analysis will falsely reject the null hypothesis. The Mann Whitney test ranks scores from lowest to highest for each of the dependant variables and finds the mean of

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__________________________________________________________________ each. The dependant variable with the highest mean rank has higher scores and participants in that group scored higher on that test. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was carried out for the Total Score (House and Debrief Score averaged and converted to a percentage, combining the two dependant variables). The result of this test comparing Total Score between groups was not statistically significant, z = - .062, p < .950. This is an indication that the use of static as against dynamic-static visualisations does not affect participants’ performance in the House and Debrief Test. They are equally effective. Group membership (i.e. media treatment) was compared to the time taken or Path Time in Phase 2 and the Path Length or distance travelled in Phase 2. The result of this test comparing Path Time in Phase 2 between groups was statistically significant, z = -2.613, p