GAMING!!! Narrative and Identity.
SO, i had two thoughts while I was sitting in tutorials yesterday.
1. Games don't have a narrative even when someone is navigating their way through the database because they are so difficult and boring to watch!Sometimes I am subjected to watching my brother play that grande theft auto game (is that what it's called? - the one where you go around stealing cars and you can have sex with hookers to give you health - thats about the extent of my knowledge...) when i'm having breakfast. Anyway I find it really difficult to watch because a) My brother skips the information about the mission parts - so I don't know what is going on and b) when he dies he has to go back to a certain point and starts again so I have to watch repeated material. It is certainly not like watching a film or a television programme. Also if you wanna watch till the end to get some type of resolution then you have to watch for days and days... I was thinking also that watching someone play a 1st person game would be a 3rd person perspective but watching someone play a 3rd person game (like grande theft auto) would be like a 5th person perspective. The most distance you can get away from the character in the game.
2. I was thinking about consequences - like that terrorist game - it's your choice to shoot, but then again you could bring in the same argument as we did for chat rooms and MUDs. It's better for my brother to go round stealing cars, shooting people and picking up hookers in a game than in real life, right? So maybe video games give people a chance to experiment with thier identities just like chat rooms and MUDs. Plus, I think that the consequences thing is a little far fetched - games aren't that immersive that they cross the boundaries between real life and a game! - you shoot in a game because you know that the consequences of real life don't apply. I don't feel bad if I shoot someone in a game.. because IT'S NOT REAL!! Especially if thats the aim of the game - to shoot people. I can see how some people think it's sick that someone would make a game where the aim is to shoot people though. killing shouldn't be a game/fun. But it really is fun in video games. If I think that killing "someone" in a video game is fun am I morally corrupt?
1. Games don't have a narrative even when someone is navigating their way through the database because they are so difficult and boring to watch!Sometimes I am subjected to watching my brother play that grande theft auto game (is that what it's called? - the one where you go around stealing cars and you can have sex with hookers to give you health - thats about the extent of my knowledge...) when i'm having breakfast. Anyway I find it really difficult to watch because a) My brother skips the information about the mission parts - so I don't know what is going on and b) when he dies he has to go back to a certain point and starts again so I have to watch repeated material. It is certainly not like watching a film or a television programme. Also if you wanna watch till the end to get some type of resolution then you have to watch for days and days... I was thinking also that watching someone play a 1st person game would be a 3rd person perspective but watching someone play a 3rd person game (like grande theft auto) would be like a 5th person perspective. The most distance you can get away from the character in the game.
2. I was thinking about consequences - like that terrorist game - it's your choice to shoot, but then again you could bring in the same argument as we did for chat rooms and MUDs. It's better for my brother to go round stealing cars, shooting people and picking up hookers in a game than in real life, right? So maybe video games give people a chance to experiment with thier identities just like chat rooms and MUDs. Plus, I think that the consequences thing is a little far fetched - games aren't that immersive that they cross the boundaries between real life and a game! - you shoot in a game because you know that the consequences of real life don't apply. I don't feel bad if I shoot someone in a game.. because IT'S NOT REAL!! Especially if thats the aim of the game - to shoot people. I can see how some people think it's sick that someone would make a game where the aim is to shoot people though. killing shouldn't be a game/fun. But it really is fun in video games. If I think that killing "someone" in a video game is fun am I morally corrupt?
posted by Anonymous at 4:44 pm
4 Comments:
on your first point - i feel these games also hang on a fine thread in a narrative form, but i also concede (with regret) that some story lines are actually really interesting and the narrative makes gaming what it has become today.
Everything has a story.. Quake has a story.. Half Life has a story... they all need a sense of fulfillable goals and a beginning, middle, climax and end.. so in a way, their narrative is there, although disjointed severly.
Take Final Fantasy, which I have never played, but I enjoy being told the story... and there's a mythalogical one my girlfriend's brother plays all the time which is really interesting, you are some demi-god who will die in two weeks and has to battle Hades or something, it's all about Greek Mythology and fairly consistent with powers, myths etc. except ripping off Medusa's head and using it as a weapon...
Rose - whilst I'm not disagreeing with you, I thought I'd throw something back at you to think about. You say that the repetition makes it different from watching films or television. Whilst I don't include myself in this (too old, methinks), there is a sense in which the culture of television and film viewing is shifting towards a less linear model that may in some ways resonate with gaming culture. One of the ways that the television and film industries have so successfully leveraged the economic opportunities of DVD is by playing into that sense that a film or tv drama is not something you consume only once in strict linear order. Increasingly obsessive fans buy up DVDs so they can watch again and again, often darting between different segments or 'chapters', and frequently seeing something new that they had missed the last time they watched it... just like every time a gamer repeats a segment or scene or level they gain a new experience. So I guess I want to question your distinction between the temporal rhythms of 'true' narrative (in ostensibly linear media like film and tv) and the repetitious cycles of games. What do you think?
Forgive me in advance if I offend you and blah blah...
First of all, thankyou Luke for pointing out the way dvds are often viewed in non-linear manners, you beat me to it.
"Ahhh well if I buy the dvd of a film or a television programme I have liked the way the narrative is presented in a linear format - like start of the programme to finish even if it isn't in a chronological order... then I will play around and watch eposoides out of order (Although I still watch them from start to finish of that particular eposoide)" - Rose
Ok, I think I know what you mean but what you're saying is even though you like a film/programme, you will play around and watch itt out of order. This means that even you consume the text in an alternative way. Just because your brother doesn't consume games for the narrative, doesn't mean they don't have one.
Also, the only reason you can watch a film out of order is because those who designed that dvd provided you the option to skip chapters. This "agency" has become a popular theme that runs through most media. Imagine having to listen to every track on a cd before getting to the one you want. The same freedom is true in games and most will allow you to skip cut-scenes, (particularly good for those who have already played before, or in your brothers case just wanna play). Alternatively you can skip to the back and find out that Dumbledore dies, but this doesn't mean the narrative is not there.
For great games with a good "narrative", play Metal Gear Solid, Max Payne, XIII, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Prince of Persia just to name a few.
You say games are so difficult and boring to watch. I don't blame you if the only ones you try are Grand Theft Auto or ones you Brother plays. Maybe you just haven't found your kind of game. If you want a hand let me know.
-Caleb (shot the sherrif)
PS: Why do you concede (with regret) that some story lines are actually really interesting and the narrative makes gaming what it has become today, Ben?
Certainly not, just like I wouldn't enjoy reading a book or watching a stage show the same way I'd enjoy watching a film or television programme. They're different texts, it's like comparing apples and bananas. But each have text specific elements of narrative however.
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