Marc Arthur

The Sims Final

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:37:52 -0800

I wanted to do this project because I had been inspired by seeing other games like Pac Man in live performance. It was astonishing and hilarious to see such games played out in real life. By these means I wanted to "expose the violent cycles of capitalism”. Specifically by displaying the monotony of The Sims in real life. I don’t mean to say I think that people are not aware that this game is monotonous, but my motive was to highlight this fact and link it to the real world we are living in. I think that the performance was more effective at getting at to this point than the real game was because of the use of real humans. While controlling the characters during the performance I was suddenly hit with this really scary feeling. I felt, for a moment, like the characters were my slaves. There was something very obscene and sensuous about the way my classmates were suddenly acting on my command the functions of daily life. If the real The Sims goal was to evoke this kind of feeling I don't think the game would be so user friendly or popular. As well, with the advent of games like Second Life it is hard to believe that The Sims is not some how responsible for these virtual capitalist economies that only re-enforce our own. From this project and from this class what I have learned most is this: the game world is in dire need of real live human bodies. On one hand this is obvious- we play games to embody characters and to pretend like we are living their lives. Where I see the need for human life most is in the form of the games themselves. Why are the games completely virtual? What happens when virtual reality and real reality collaborate in an entire world that is not just a Wii controller? Could this be the path to more progressive, alive and aware games? P.S. I'm having trouble uploading the video to you tube. I will have it up ASAP thanks!

Interesting article on The Sims

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:03:28 -0800

http://www.gamestudies.org/0102/pearce/

Final Project Proposal

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:29:03 -0800

Technology and access to modes of alternative realities have improved exponentially over the last century. As more people are extolling the virtues of games in their daily lives they become a product of these realities rather than a critical participant. Through the form of an interactive performance Meagan and I will explore how various cultural and psychological modes of consumer life have been implicated by the popular game "Sim City". Our performance will expose the violent cycles of capitalism in this popular cultural phenomena. In the nave there will be a tall podium or block on which the player of the game will control the characters. Surrounding the podium, in chalk or duct tape, we will draw a "Sim City" including a house with rooms and appliances etc., as well as some streets, other houses and work places. There are two kinds of characters in the game: those controlled by the player and those not controlled by the player. Characters controlled by the player include: Father, Mother, Sister and Brother. Uncontrolled characters include: A robber, the neighbor and a Natural disaster character. All characters will dress up in typical "Sim City" costumes. It may be appropriate for the player to dress as a mouse. The player will be provided a set of actions similar to those in "Sim City" and communicate with the controllable characters through verbal communication. For example, on the player’s sheet of actions it may say "wash the dishes". The player could point at a character and tell them to wash the dishes. A person on a ladder known as the score keeper will move up and down the ladder with a bright red square according to the emotions of the characters in the game. The player's goal is to keep the score up. Uncontrolled characters may enter the game and do what they want. These uncontrolled characters are like the computer in the virtual "Sim City". As well, the people playing the characters will be "programmed' before game play to do certain things natural to their characters such as the famous blabber language that the characters in the virtual "Sim City" speak. Research for the game will include studying the game "Sim City" as well as the performance work of John Cage. This performance will most likely work similar to John Cages "Variations" piece.

Indigo Prophecy Response

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:55:31 -0800

The developers choice of branding Indigo Prophecy as an "interactive film" rather than an adventure or third-person action title says a lot about the game for me. The strengths of the game are not in its action- the "action" in the game falls flat compared to any number of shooter games. And while the game utilizes a lot of "adventure" game techniques I wouldn't necessarily say that adventure- the kind of adventure found in a game like Zelda or Kings Quest- is one of its strengths either. "Interactive film" is a perfect fit. What Indigo Prophecy does that no other games that I have played can do is tell a compelling story. Like a good film, the story is the driving force. Indigo Prophecy has employed all the essential techniques to story telling from forms like the monomyth to the classic Hollywood action story arc filled with on point character development and Freytag's dramatic structure. The characters are interesting enough for the story move, and what’s even more exciting is that to some effect you can control them. I'm not sure that Aarseth’s concept of “ergodic literature” is applicable to this game. The game does succeed in not being a book or a movie in that the text must be activated extranoematically as Aarseth says: "The performance of their reader takes place all in his head, while the user of cybertext also performs in an extranoematic sense. During the cybertextual process, the user will have effectuated a semiotic sequence, and this selective movement is a work of physical construction that the various concepts of "reading" do not account for”. As a player of Indigo Prophecy you prompt questions, the player is responsible for the health and well being of characters the player "fights” other players. But all of those actions, as exciting as they are, still work at the service of an already written plot. Aarseth's concept of cybertext does not account for such an already existing plot: "cybertext shifts the focus from the traditional threesome of author/sender, text/message, and reader/receiver to the cybernetic intercourse between the various part(icipant)s in the textual machine. In doing so, it relocates attention to some traditionally remote parts of the textual galaxy, while leaving most of the luminous clusters in the central areas alone." Just because the game is not opensource does not make it a bad game. The game would fail if it were open source, in the same way it would fail if all the characters were doing was shooting each other. The game takes the already existing form of film and translates into interactive media. Rather than having elements lost in translation, the game makes film immediate and almost real. I feel like I really know Lucas Kane. I feel closer to him, because I have lived as him, and I do things for him. I have taken a shower with him. In the same way New York feels even more real in this game then it would in a movie because I get to traverse the landscape rather than just look at it. With out the story I think I may get bored after a while. Say this were an opensource game, and I was exploring looking for things and people to network with after a while I would have to make up my own story that the system probably could not support. Indigo Prophecy allows space for the player to be involved yet enough structure to keep them interested.

http://www.hf.uib.no/cybertext/Ergodic.html

Mid Term

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:38:50 -0800

Here are some notes on the game "Torn City" I've been playing. a link to the article I referenced on electronic poetics: http://www.ubu.com/papers/andrews_electronic.html Here is the interview with a player of "Torn City" As a game player, what would you say keeps you coming back to "Torn City"? boredom Do you ever use tactics or concepts from "Torn City" in real life? yes, if I'm ever in jail or hospital I just refresh until Im out What has been the most exciting moment in "Torn City" for you? there was this hot boy who tried to sell me vicodin and kept talking about his penis What has been the most dull? getting to level 25 Do you consider yourself existing as a rebellious outsider or someone who fits into the mold of "Torn City"? Please explain your grounds. I am succeeding in my goal to be a low class two-bit hoodlum, while others are real capos. Are your goals in "Torn City" congruent with your goals in life? What is lost in between? How do you compensate? yes in that it's small goals easily attained. time is lost. I have a big penis.

Archaic Cybertext

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:58:42 -0800

"Even if important insights can be gained from the study of extraliterary phenomena with the instruments of literary theory, it does not follow that these phenomena are literature and should be judged with literary criteria" (11, Aarseth). I think it is important to establish terminology to describe changes in the medium of a text. Aarseth seems to be getting caught up in the exciting capacity of new media like digital computing. This medium changes the form of a text dramatically. I agree that when looking at the form, digital text should be considered "ergodic" or "cybertext". I'm not so convinced that these texts are not literature or should not be at least "judged with literary criteria". Some of the greatest insights into culture and politics have come out of literary theory. Even when the "literature" or "text" was not a narrative novel some of the greatest insights have come from literary theory. Literature comes with a lineage centuries back, to blatantly ignore this is juvenile and stupid. If anything, computer games are receding back into a form of literature that old and boring compared to some of the more "traditional (in form) literature being produced today. For example, while playing Kings Quest, I felt like I was reading King Arthur. As exciting as it was to participate in the game, to be able to "traverse the text" (1, Aaseth) I still felt like I was being read a children's story- moral, giants et all. I am in no way convinced that the actual story was different from what has been being written for decades. To generalize, I would say the same is true of most video games. Though the medium has become more exciting, the people writing the stories for these games are the same people who are writing for Hollywood films. The industry of writng for entertainment hasen't thought critically of itself for a while now. I think what is more important than distinguishing the form of a text is to be able to critique a text out of our cultural lineage of literature. The discussion of form should come after this.

"A Fource More Powerful" Response

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:56:41 -0800

While I find the game well intended, it seems to be lacking in the most basic of qualities a game should possess: emotion. What is exciting about "serious" games is the marriage of entertainment and education. AFMP seems to have completely thrown out any emotion from an extremely rich emotional content. The game is dealing with liberating oppressed people... where are the oppressed people? Working on the form would be the place to start. It is completely unclear who the player is in relationship to other players in the game. What makes 1rst person games compelling are the complexities of the character you are entering into, the choices you have to make and the relationships you have with other characters. Like a good literature, character arcs or story arcs in a game can make or break a game. There are no story or character arcs in this game other than the structure of the game itself, which feels extremely hopeless most of the time. It is amazing how much power a character really has in engaging the player. The moment where I really quit was when one of the members of my faction told me "People really hate our message and aren't going to be willing to help us." AFMP is am example of how dry a game can be with out an interesting and developed 1rst person character.

Show & Tell #5

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 12:28:33 -0800

Until last class, I had never heard the term "serious games." Wikipedia defines them as "...a software application developed with game technology and game design principles for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment" (WIKI). It makes sense that this shift in conciseness occurred during the 90's at a time when all technology was becoming a utilitarian commodity. Now, I think it would be more difficult for me to distinguish the differences between a "serious" game and a not "serious" game. Although games may be intended for pure entertainment, it is difficult to believe that they are not also capable of functioning as subversive education or literacy, especially with the high quality graphics being produced. It seems like deeming a game "serious" or not "serious" is the same as choosing to define yourself as a pacifist or not. Everything has a latent content that will affect a person, especially games which are so involved and participatory. The game I have chosen this week is a prime example of the kind of pacifism I am describing. It is Kuma Games "Kuma War". A game where headlines are literally torn from the real world and then made into a war gaming scenario where one must fight the enemy. Whether gamers and the industry consider this a "serious" game is unclear to me. This very issue has raised much controversy and praise in the media. Is it possible for such a game to be purely entertainment? Can any game, or art, ever be pure entertainment?

http://www.kumagames.com/ http://www.gamesfirst.com/index.php?id=884 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game

Show & Tell #4

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:31:57 -0800

"Superschmoozio, The Game of the International Art Market is an interactive online game. Played and/or simulated, live and/or archived. It replicates the aggressive drive of climbing the ranks of a career in high profile top dollar art from the perspective of the "professional artist". Superschmoozio is currently being workshoped via utilization of visual chatware. In collaboration with DestopTheater this improvisational approach challenges concepts of hierarchy through the exploration of the myths surrounding 'art', 'advancement' and 'success'." -Jack Waters (Creator/Artist) The programming for this game (Desktop Theater) is very dated, and makes it frustrating to play. The games concept is what really works for me. With some better software and more funding I think the game could be more complex, accrue a larger audience be and a huge hit. Now that the art world has also jumped on the boat of online social networking with online artist networks like Saatchi Online, or more non-commercial sites like Wooloo Productions, there seems to be a facade of democracy or at least a sense of agency for artists with in these online art worlds. All of these sites seem to blatantly ignore the notoriously vampiristic and money driven social aspects that control the art world. "Superschmoozio" uses online social networking as a medium to critique and potentially change rather than just become part of the fascist art machine. Check it out: Superschmoozio

The Wealth and Power of "America's Army"

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:45:46 -0800

Halter describes many recruitment efforts in From Sun Tzu to Xbox, all of them directed by huge corporate media giants. It's as if joining the army and buying Kraft cheese were the same thing. This article speaks to our cultures lack of literacy to things other than ourselves. So often it seems that TV commercials are the final answer. I used to think this had something to do with the "couch potato" attitude. But now with the advent of video and computer games people still have this attitude even while they are being proactive and "thinking" within a game like America's Army. The precautions the army took in presenting their game with out an aura of propaganda is evidence that most Americans don't read into video games any more than what's at face value. All the Army seemed to need to do was write a few paragraphs in the "parents section " of the game and have philosophical vision of unity in the ad campaign for people to take to it. One of the most troubling aspects of the article was learning about "TTTS" or Takin' It To The Streets. America's Army's audience are people who have computers. The African American high-school students probably don't have access to computers based on the the fact that the army must bring an "interactive arena" to the campus for them to play on. Is joining the army the only way for these students to access media? How can people at a disadvantage have a chance at using the media in interesting ways if it is controlled by wealth and power?

Halter, Ed. From Sun Tzu to Xbox. Thunder's Mouth Press

Show & Tell #3

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:48:23 -0800

What happens when games are removed from virtual reality and placed in the real world? Although this Pac-man game takes place in the real world it still relies on cell phones, wi-fi and custom designed software to play. If this kind of game play is anticipating more game play in the real world I would be very excited. As amusing as "Pacmanhatan" is, I'm sure it gets boring at some point in the same way the real Pac-man does with it's monotony. It would be really fun to play a game like World of War Craft or Halo 3 in the real world. The obvious answer to why people play in virtual worlds and not in the real would be that the graphics and interface makes it much easier to truly slip away into another dimension. One does not have to be pro-active. Our initial instinct to play a game is one where we create these realities ourselves in a hope to be pro-active and change the reality we exist in. The complex and sophisticated games of "House' I would play as a child come to mind. The advantage of a game like Pac-man in the real world is that the player can use their whole body and really deal with the violence of being chased by ghosts and they have more creative input. A player of Pac-man in the real world is forced to conceptualize and deal with the real environment rather than leaving it totally up to the designer.

Half Life Response

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:36:16 -0800

It was exciting to play half life because it mimicked reality so well. It felt a times that I could just continue to wonder around the world on some kind of post apocalyptic derreve. That was not the case, and if it was I may have become bored. The truth of the game is, after you beat the game a few times it would probably be pretty boring to play again. What makes the game for me, more than the graphics or violence, is the narrative. Like a good story the game seems to uphold the traditional arc. In theater there is a Brecht's device called the ""Chinese scroll" in which the title of the scenes were displayed to the audience as a mechanism to alienate them from the play. Brecht was trying to alienate the audience so that they could be aware of their role as an audience an not get lulled into believing the characters of the play were real. In Half life the titles seem to function in the same way. The presence of the title not only alienates the game player but it makes them feel like they have some kind of history or meaning or lineage to live up to.

Show &Tell #2

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:11:19 -0800

The game spore is really interesting to me for all the reasons that it is interesting to everyone else. It is a hybrid of all gaming forms and as well its narrative covers time from it's beginning and into the future. The game also illustrates peoples inherent desire to act as god. Spore seems like the ultimate video game version of an omniscient Greek play to me. Regardless the quality of the game once it is released there is a good chance that it will do well. I am interested in the way that these games are marketed similar to movies. A blockbuster film, regardless how good the actually movie a actually is, is marketed in such a way that the film draws in a certain audience on its opening night. Like a Mathew Barney film, spore just continues to teas its audience about the game so as to a crew a larger audience when they actually release it. From what the blog world says, the game has already been pre-ordered by over a million people on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FKBCX4/

Mid-Term Proposal

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:01:46 -0800

For my midterm I will continue play the online game "Torn City". I am interested in how violence can manifest in such a static online forum.

Desire for Multi-Media Games

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:13:33 -0800

While I was playing “Battlezone” on the computer last week I couldn’t help being extremely frustrated by the controls of the game. The Mac keyboard I was using was so efficient that it did not leave any room for nuances. As I recall when playing arcade games, it is the nuances of a controller that can often help one win a game. This made me aware of how essential the design of the console is in the illustration of a game's content. As I sat in front of the computer playing I reminisced of the pleasure of sitting down at a “Pac-Man” table looking down at the screen with my competitor across from me. For me, what made many of the games like “Battlezone” or the ones that Wolf describes in his essay “Abstraction in the video game” so abstract are the consoles themselves. Through an art world lens, the sculptural and interactive qualities of the console for “Star Wars” would still be considered cutting edge even today’s art world. Wolf attributes the movement from experimental and abstract video games towards realist video games to the market audience’s desires. Still, I wonder why there has not been more multi-media creativity in game design. Wouldn’t it be cool to interact with a variety of real objects as well as virtual ones to win a game? It would be like the way one must interact with a Rauschenberg painting to begin to understand its meaning.

Wolf, Mark J.P.. "Abstraction in the Video Game" Chapter 2.