VIDEOGAMES

ANDPOMO

Old School Games

Though all games could be argued to be postmodern, a lot of original video games were no ‘win’, only accumulating points through harder and harder levels of gameplay.

And some interesting trends…

Over a process of years, new more challenging games were created, moving through to puzzle, maze, shooter, beat em up, RPG, strategy etc.

An early game that was very PoMo was Monkey Island. Watch a few minutes of the clip, and identify two things that are typically PoMo.

Games and the PoMo Audience

Audience is the first step to how they are postmodern, but is not the only reason.

Postmodern audiences do not read the text in the same way.

Modern audiences seek reassurance from their text.

Postmodern audience is seen to be ‘waning from effect’ (Fredric Jameson) – we are no longer affected by what we see (or we don’t experience the intended effect)

Rules

Video games have sets of rules – they are often not given to us outright, and we are expected to work them out as we go, pushing the boundaries of reality (blurring of reality) in order to discover them.

In some games (usually online multiplayer) players can and do create their own rules, e.g. who can die the best, which guy can sleep with the most hookers, and how many police cars can I get to follow me?

Meta-reflections

In postmodernist novels, writers wanted to confront the reader with the fact that they were reading a book and did this with meta-reflections. In some texts they told the reader that what they were reading now was just black ink on a white piece of paper. This is called a meta-reflection, a text reflecting on the fact that it’s a text.

In some videogames you can easily find examples of meta-reflections. Just think of sentences like “game over”, or “round one fight” that appear in the screen of the player.

GTA 5

For those of you who have not played GTA at all

GTA

GTA Vice City - main character is Tommy (voiced by Ray Liotta).

Ray played Harry Hill in Goodfellas

Vice City is a parallel text – the journey of a young gun working his way up through a gang.

Blurring of genres – GTA is part adventure game, part role play, part simulation, part shooter – blurring the genres of video games.

It is also blurring genres in terms of being a videogame –at times we are fed cut-scenes (short ‘film-like’ moments, giving us context) which belong to Film and TV genres.

Intertextuality

• Liberty City is based on New York City

• Vice City is a counterpart to Miami

• San Andreas is based on San Francisco

• Capital City is based on Washington DC

• Use of brands (Ferocious cars = Ferrari, Jugular = Jaguar), (Apple Mac in GTA5)

• Radio stations playing real top 40 hits

GTA

Cut scenes also serve to separate micro-narratives, which create a confusion over time and space.

In GTA 5, you play as three characters, using a compass (see below) to negotiate. You can switch to start new missions that can only be initiated through that character, to use character’s special abilities, or just for fun.

The bottom quadrant is for your online character.

Micro-narratives in GTA

There are multiple micro-narratives in GTA, the three main characters that you can play as have separate narratives, as well as narratives that link to each other. There are many smaller missions and micro-narratives to explore in GTA.

- Trevor murders a gang who ransacked his trailer

- Franklin rescues Michael from Triad members

There are even smaller ‘side-quests’. Only 20 of them are needed for 100% completion of the game.

GTA

Celebrity obsessedRay Liotta, Jenna Jameson, Debby Harry, Ice TMust have a high degree of pop culture knowledge in order to ‘get’ these references

Moral AmbiguityRay Liotta reminds the player they are inhabiting ‘another person’ therefore their decision making processes are perhaps different to reality. We are given expectations of how to play the game, and usually fufil these expectations. We release subjectivity.But Rockstar chose not to use celeb voices in GTA 5.

GTA

GTA has gained a reputation for being overtly violent, bridging on ‘pornoviolence’. Critics of this believe GTA are following influence from popular films, e.g. Quentin Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppola.

GTA IV took this conversation INTO the game. On one in-car radio station in the game, you can listen to ‘republican radio’ dispute the evils of violent gameplay.

GTA

GTA San Andreas implies crime is a great choice for African American males in order to succeed in the media-saturated material world we live in –Challenging Dominate Ideology/ Truth/ Meta Narrative

We are playing as CJ, an anti-hero, he lives a gang life, exploiting people, killing, drug dealing etc. in order to achieve the American dream (but isn't this a Dominate Ideology/ Truth/ Meta Narrative).

Audience Interactivity

Fan Art

Game walkthroughs

Level editing

Modding

Cheats

Tapped Out – The Simpsons

Tapped Out – The Simpsons

• Comments on society

• Is self-aware

• Contains Pastiche/Parody

• Hyper-reality

• Confusion over time/space

Bioshock Infinite

Read your ‘fill in the gaps’ handout.

What about Bioshock Infinite is Po Mo?

What argument is central to this reading?

The full narrative

PoMo Features in Video Games

We have already talked briefly about …

• Self-reflexivity/self-awareness

• Inter-textuality

• Audience interaction

• Confusion over time/space

• Celebrity obsessed nature

• Micro-narratives

• Mixed genre

Your turn

Choose a video game you suspect to be PoMo, find gameplay online via YouTube and find ways in which it is PoMo.

You can work in groups but you need to do different games.