Videospielkultur.org – Presenting the hero’s journey as a narrative strategy in video games

A month has passed already – time flies, it seems, at least in “real” life – since I had the honor of giving a presentation to our very own Videospielkulturverein e.V. here in München. My topic was the so called “hero’s journey”, a comprehensive abstraction of the structure of mythological narratives, which was defined by famed comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell (among others) and popularized with the success of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” movies. This structure has since become a failsafe dramatic blueprint for modern American cinema, and as such, also an influence on video game designers looking for ways to tell a story through their medium. Such is the case with 3D Realms’ first person alien shooter saga “Prey“, or at least that was what I was trying to show with my presentation.

All in all, I am happy with the way it went down, but I have to admit that it was not a good idea to demonstratively play the game while trying to elaborate on its mythological structure at the same time. Focus on the playing of it all tends to keep you away from the level of abstraction needed to properly analyse the game. Or so I have found, as my remarks became increasingly descriptive. Next time, I definitely need a demo player to help me out!

Anyhow, thanks to Tobias Wildner’s dedicated work, pictures of the event are now online. What’s more, the whole talk will be available for download – soon. So stay tuned for updates on that. Meanwhile, everybody thank Tobi very much!

CFP: International Studies Association Annual Conference, New York, USA, February 15th through the 18th of 2009

I realize that I should have put this up the day I received it, but my mind somehow did not process the information earlier. So, with two more days being, well, two more days, here you are:

CALL FOR PAPERS for panel entitled, “Gaming our Future? Time-Politics-Security in a Virtual World”

The space that digital games occupy in many people’s lives has grown exponentially. Research on the socio-political ramifications of digital games has not, however, and is only now beginning to catch up. This panel seeks to redress the theoretical gap between this world and a growing number of virtual worlds and welcomes therefore papers that explore the relationship between digital games and questions of time, politics/political agency, and security using insights gained from the Social Sciences as well as the Humanities.

If you would be interested in presenting a paper, please send us an abstract of no more than 500 words by Thursday, May 22. Do not forget to include a title for your abstract, your name, your affiliation, and your contact information.

Please contact the panel organizers if you would like more information:

Stephanie Buus,

Research Fellow, The Swedish Institute of International Affairs

Stockholm, Sweden

E-mail: stephanie.buus@ui.se

Maria Stern

Associate Professor, Department of Peace and Development Research

Gothenburg University, Sweden

E-mail: maria.stern@globalstudies.gu.se

The general call for ISA proposals can be viewed at: http://www.isanet.org/newyork2009/.

Edit: Deadline for panel paper proposals is now past. However, isanet.org says deadline is May 30, so other panels or sections of the conference are still open for proposals.

Edit #2: You don’t really need me to tell you that May 30 is now behind us – just know that in case you submitted a proposal that was not elected to the panel, you can join me in congratulating Rudolf who will be presenting in New York come February. Way. To. Go.

Violence and the morale of Justice

Apparently another music video was recently released that has been perceived as being scandalously provocative. So far, I’m afraid the only time I had heard of French group Justice before this here incident, was when they took home an MTV award for “Best Video” at the expense of Kanye West’s ego. So now their new video “Stress” has people up in arms: Numbers on YouTube views and responses are large enough to make Spiegel.de cover the whole issue. Apparently, most of the reactions deal with questions like: Are these real events documented in the clip? Is it carefully staged in order to attain utmost authenticity, which is then used for dramatic effect? And what about the violent nature of all of this – is it right to document or stage, respectively, acts of violence and use them for what appears to be a primarily commercial purpose?

After all, this video clip does want your attention – really, really bad. Yet, I wonder, why get into a moral argument about the motivation of its makers, which cannot move beyond a speculative level anyway? To me, the really interesting question is raised at the end of the clip, when the camera team accompanying the gang of youths becomes part of the action. It reminds me very much of the brilliant movie “C’est arrivé près de chez vous”, in which a team of documentary film makers accompanying a sophisticated serial killer slowly but steadily moves from repulsed fascination to morbid sympathy to active involvement in his profession. In lieu of the viewer, the film maker characters are vicariously forced to reflect upon their fascination with the violent nature of their documentary’s subject, who, they discover, might not be that different from themselves after all.

In my opinion, the same is the case with Justice’s video: In the way it evokes news coverage of the rioting in various Parisian suburbs two years ago (and again last winter), it aims at provoking us into reflecting about why we are so fascinated with watching depictions of violence. And not just in movies (or games, by the way) – it starts with the news already. Let’s face it – violence is obviously newsworthy. How come?

There ain’t no “y” in “death”: Thoughts on style in John Woo’s “Stranglehold”

As you know, there is no “I” in team. Nevertheless, the fact that videogames are a wholesomely collaborative experience from time to time takes a step back in order to enable a single player’s task: A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do, and sometimes, that just might be following the trail of the lone ranger, righteously rightening the wrongdoings of countless scoundrels – by shooting everyone in your trail/path/way, because, and that is the real beauty of games like John Woo’s Stranglehold, literally everyone you encounter in the course of the game is a bad guy. You can’t do wrong giving bad guys what they asked for.

So, once the morals are thus clearly and constantly out of the way, JWS expertly demonstrates how to make the death of bad guys solely a question of stylistics. In the realm of JWS, the gamer’s efforts in staging his vendetta in an aesthetically pleasurable way are constitutive for further progress, as they will be rewarded in the form of enhancement of the avatar’s abilities. So, as there is no “y” in death, the question can only relate to the “how” of it all. Thus the “h” in “death”…. obviously!

GTA IV will not play with cheaters

More than two weeks ago, News for gamers already had gamers reporting that cheating on in GTA IV blocks your achievements. Now, I am just coming out of an intriguing discussion with my esteemed neighbor Max, who has spent some 18 hours of game time with GTA IV and to whom I am indebted to regarding this information. It seems as though cheating affects not only your XBOX Live score, but gameplay elements as such: Upon cheating, vigilante missions, which by default can be taken on when capturing a police vehicle, are no longer accessible.

So first of all, there is an in-game consequence to cheating and second, it lies in something at least I have not yet heard of: Whole elements of the game will not be revealed to gamers who choose to use a feature of the game itself, provided by designers. In my opinion, this constitutes a moral judgment on the nature of cheating on the part of the game’s designers, the consequences of which the gamer has to suffer. Which I find precarious. What do you think?

Time slows when you’re having fun (playing Trackmania Nations Forever)

“Time flies when you’re having fun” – or so they used to say. Upon playing Trackmania recently, I’ve come to find the opposite to be true. Trackmania is such a fast-paced experience that I actually wound up being exhausted after what felt like hours of trying to beat gold medal times. Coming out of the game, only about half an hour of real time might have actually passed during any given session. I think that’s quite an achievement in immersive gameplay.

Hello. Welcome.

So I suppose the way things work calls for a disclaimer to start off this blog. I finally accumulated enough egotistical self-aggrandezza to justify making public my ramblings and musings on just about any form and medium of high, level or low culture. I am aware of the narcissistic possibilities of doing so, but I encourage anyone reading this and further posts to keep me from staring into the mirror by responding in kind. So thank you for indulging me and thank you furthermore for showing & sharing your interest(s) in all things media.

Be well & fillying eegras.

(My Nadsat is not what it could be, I suppose, so if anyone can let me in on correct grammar, you’re more than welcome.)