Thank You For Playing

Besides completing the professed function of this post, I’d like to discuss a few things here that I’ve noticed about the video game blog circle. First of all it’s a circle. Well, more of a ball of yarn, but if you have a really big ball of very fine yarn and you observe a cross-section of the ball then it will appear to look very much like a circle. The name isn’t so important though, what I actually mean to observe is that they really like to link to each other and chat it up in the comment sections.

 

How do we get in on this action? We’ve got street cred. We were Chalktoid. Does one of us have to marry one of your daughters or something? Is there some initiation ritual? Will there be hazing? I’m not sure if I’m comfortable getting paddled in front of the other bloggers.

 

Or (and this brings me to my next point) do I link to all of your blogs so that you notice ours in the list of sites that link to you then, when you arrive, have quality content of our own worth discussing? Diabolical!

 

My second observation is that bloggers rarely post wordy responses to the other articles to which they are linking. I guess that’s what the comment section is for, but I dunno, I like the whole hegemonic “I have a URL, hear me roar” approach to discussion. It reminds me of academic discourse. I call the comments “peer review.” I also call my townhouse “Oxford” and wear tweed jackets as I sit around.

 

Wandering musings aside, I have a few pieces to discuss at great length. Sharp observers will note that all but one of these articles was linked by Level Up within the past two days. This is what prompted my “ball of yarn” diatribe, you see, because I actually found them independently while snaking around the community. It’s a small ball after all.

 

Computer games to get cigarette-style health warnings

 

We’ve all made the same counter-points before, comparing video games to other media such as movies, music, and comic books. Gaming is the new boogie man, and this will pass. Considering my audience, I don’t think I need to waste the energy to run through the entire bit again.

 

However, this particular development bothers me. Consider this: do you doubt that cigarettes are bad for you? There’s no reason why you should. They teach us all about the dangers of smoking in grade school, there are laws regulating its consumption; hell, there’s even a warning on the box. I assume that most of you have never done any research to confirm these supposed dangers, but more or less everyone has confidence in the organizations that present them.

 

You can probably see where I’m going with this. You readers and I, fellow gamers, know that video games aren’t going to make you shoot up the school. My brain has not been turned to mush, I’m not going blind from sitting too close to the TV, and there is not a single hair on my palms… Or am I thinking of something else with that last one?

 

Anyway, imagine now that a child is raised in a world where he or she is warned about the evils of gaming in school, their sale is moderated by law, and the boxes themselves carry a health warning. There’s only really two possibilities here: the children believe it or they don’t. If they do, they’ve been tricked by the moral majority into avoiding a form of expression that their elders did not understand; if they don’t (likely due to a lifetime of exposure – something these politicians and advocates sadly missed), then they will lose confidence in the organizations that regulate such things. Why believe the warnings about tobacco when they know from experience that the gaming warnings are false?

 

Copy Protection and the Brave New World

 

This article is written mainly in regards to music, but it applies, as the author notes, to gaming as well.

 

Call me an idealist…

 

Let’s take a look at Pixel, the guy made Cave Story. Alone. The one who distributes it for free. Then we can look at AGTP, a group that made the effort to translate the Japanese gem into an English classic and deliver it to the world’s Anglophones… for free. Why bother? Clearly, all those involved have a true appreciation for the art form. They do it because they love to game, create, translate, or do whatever it is that each did as an individual to contribute. They had a vision and they wanted to share it. They wanted to share it, not sell it.

 

Now I appreciate that a lot of work goes into all of game development and some people would like to be compensated for this, but look at Pixel. He is a model gamer and a model artist. He put five years of work into creating Cave Story and he’s just giving it away. There are countless others like him.

 

I pay for games, yes, but I don’t pay to play them without first knowing what experience I’m going to get. There are demos, there are friends, there is (we’ve got to get here eventually) piracy, but one way or another, I am going to play a game before I pay for it. Then, if I’m convinced that it’s truly worth it, I will buy it. If I’m convinced it’s not another run-of-the-mill cash grab dreamt up by Joe-in-marketing and jammed through the pipeline in order to make the Christmas rush, I will buy it. If I am convinced that the game has, as the academics say, artistic merit, then I will buy it. Even if I’ve already played through it, I will purchase the game and keep the box with my collection, a symbol of approval and respect for that which it represents.

 

In response to this article, what I am paying for, essentially, is the privilege to display it as a part of my collection. A while ago, Tycho from Penny Arcade* asked why gamers would pay for a game they could get for free online. I say, that should be the only business model utilized. If any of my favorite indie games that I have played entirely through ever start to sell hard copies (and I wish they would), I will be there to buy them on launch day.

 

In fact, I’m going to make a mental note right now. Before I buy another retail game, I’m going to send a donation to whichever indie developer I want to thank at that particular moment; probably Nifflas, or Pixel if I can figure out how. I’ll ask them to send me something I can put on display in return… A copy of their game burned on a CD-R and signed or screen shot printed on glossy paper… Anything really, I just want a token.

 

For me, gaming is an art form and you should never have to pay to experience art. When I purchase any game, it’s not for the ones and zeros. I’m sending off my money as a small thank you to the developers for enriching my life in whatever way they have. If that clashes with some tight-ass businessman’s notions of intellectual property, well then so be it.

 

On that note, I’d actually love to hear retail developers’ official stance on piracy. If any disagree that it’s acceptable for me to play a game first and buy it only if it’s meritorious, then I will never pirate one of their games again. And I sure as hell won’t buy one either.

 

*At the time of publishing, penny-arcade.com was down, so no link… sorry. He was talking about Zoo Keeper and later retracted his statement. I promise.

 

Who’s “Hardcore” Anymore?

 

Whew… After that long, angry rant it’ll be nice to enter friendly territory.

 

In this piece, Leigh Alexander explores the meaninglessness and complexity of categorizing gamers. Her observations are keen and accurate, but although the particular monikers she discusses are as vague as she presents, I disagree with her assertion that, “it’s almost pointless to identify yourself with a label anymore.”

 

I suggest the opposite: that the growing diversity within the gaming market makes the generic identification “gamer” useless; that saying, “I play video games” isn’t saying much at all; and that, as such, we need to develop an understanding of what makes us unique within the community as well as a lexicon to describe it.

 

Just as in other media, this does not apply to people who do not self-identify as members of the gaming scene, so to speak, but consider music. What can you tell about someone who claims to be a fan of music? Not much, but what if they called themselves a punk? A mod, a hipster, a headbanger? Would they say, “I’m in a band,” or would, “I’m a musician” be preferred? Perhaps none of these terms is entirely descriptive, but they go a long way in describing a person’s tastes and lifestyle.

 

Similarly, such terms will develop, through self-identification, as the spectrum of gamers expands and its constituents seek community.

 

I’ve got a friend who is entirely obsessed with music. He listens to music, creates music, hangs out with other musicians, follows music news, and is active in the music scene. He’s an audiophile. I’m more or less the same way with gaming. I’d call myself a ludophile.

 

Aristotle’s Super Poetics Bros.

 

As a graduating English major, I’ve grappled with the idea of applying “established forms” to gaming for the last four years. I understand the author’s need to validate the medium, but this line is very telling: “The videogame is a new medium, and unlike theater, which has had centuries to develop, it lacks established forms.”

 

The sentence accurately implies that gaming will have to develop forms of its own and that the “established forms” do not apply. And after much thought, I’ve settled on this theory as to why: traditional modes of thought, analysis, and form within a storytelling context do not account for agency on the part of the consumer.

 

Watching a person play Super Mario Bros. is a fundamentally different experience from playing it one’s self. The story arc, as analyzed in this article, would be exactly the same; however, the mental, physical, and emotional (and spiritual?) reaction to any game would be drastically different between the player and observer. And ultimately, those reactions are what the implementation and analysis of form is all about.

 

There are other art forms that involve agency, certain types of non-western theater for example, but, to be honest, I don’t know a thing about them. Perhaps if we looked into how these are approached for analysis and deconstruction, we would gain a better understanding of gaming than through Poetics.