Theories of post colonialism and video games

Theories of Postcolonialism in videogames

     Post colonial theory addresses the matter of post colonial identity (gender, race, racism) and their interactions in the development of a post colonial society and of a post colonial national identity, it looks into how the colonised's people cultural knowledge was used against them in service of the coloniser's interestes and it looks at how knowledge about the world is generated under specific socio-economic relations between the powerful and powerless.

Post colonialism is studying the effects the empires have left behind after colonising certain areas. the colonised people's cultures have been massively influenced by the colonisers and even their history was rewritten to a certain degree after the colonisation took place. Here's a map of the "Colonial possessions of World Powers in 1914".

http://hist106-2009spring.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/towards-europe-of-nations-and.html

This is just a simple but matter of fact example of how the world functioned at that time, when "colonising" meant bringing culture to the uncultured, and not invading a foreign territory.

Post colonial theory mainly began in relation to literature. From the point of view of colonised peoples, Western traditions of thought, art and literature have dominated world culture, marginalising or even excluding non-Western traditions and forms of cultural life and expression.

The founding theorist of Post colonialism was Edward Said, an israeli by birth, but who moved to the USA later in life. He wrote the book "Orientalism" where he talks in detail about the colonised Orient and the colonising west. 

When it comes to colonising nations, it creates a separation between the colonised and the colonisers, hence creating in turn the effect of "The Others". The colonisers become "The Others"for the colonised and in return, the colonised become "The Others" for the colonisers. All the Middle Eastern nation that have been colonised have been seen as"exotic", "different", being lovely places to go for a short period of time, while trying as much as possible to change them and make them more like "Us" in the process. This process is still happening today, whether admitted openly or not, there is always a certain degree of "colonisation" in the world from the part of world powers towards the least powerful (economically or socially).

A short history of game space

A short history of Game space

Video games can be built and have been built in a variety of game spaces. From their beginnings games have evolved enormously and they have gone through massive changes, evolving from a text based, imaginary game space, to 2D space and moving on to full 3D ones, where you feel totally immersed in the play.

The stages games have gone through are more or less as follows:
1.Text based games ( these are imaginary games where the space is created by describing the environment. a good example for this is Dundgeons and Dragons brought out in 1974)

Collosal Cave adventure - the original adventure game that inspired the Walking Dead  

2. Contained 2D space ( the screen limits your movement, you cannot move faster than the screen scrolls or further than the edge of the screen at any point in time). A good example fo this type of game is Space invaders where the screen is set in portrait mode to give the idea of height, and hence utilising the space to the best of its potential

Python Space invaders

3. Wrap around Space  - this gives the player more freedom of movement and creates the feeling of bigger space, as in PacMan (see image below), or it creates the feeling of infinite space, as in Asteroids( see image below).

Pac Man on Atari

Asteroids on Atari

4. Spaces that scroll around one axis (this game space used scrolling to give the impression of continuous  movement in a 2D space. Super Mario Bros used horizontal movement, while Spy Hunter privileged vertical movement 

Spy hunter on Nintendo

Super Mario Bros

5. Scrolling along 2 axes (as a player, you can now chose which direction to go across the x and y axes. Good examples from this category are again, the newer versions of Mario, Metal Slug, Sonic)

Sonic retro Casino night. There is a very interesting link here as well, if anyone would like to read more details about Sonic, seeing that it seems to have a come back. You can listen to the music as well. Casino night zone

6. Adjacent spaces ( "Games like Berzerk (1980)took place in multiple  rooms in which  users  were able to imagine that their characters  were invisible  to enemies in other rooms.  If a user's character was hidden from the enemy's view,  the user would not be seen and therefore not engaged. Thus the user would have to manoeuvre to stay hidden  and,/oraccomplish  desired tasks."Dariusz Jacob Boron - A short history of Digital Game Space)

Berzerk Berzerk Voice Enhanced is an impressive hack of Atari's Berzerk that adds speech from the original arcade game. Berzerk VE has, by far, the most speech of any Atari 2600 game, with the phrases "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!, "Chicken, Fight Like A Robot", and "Humanoid Must Not Escape" spoken during gameplay. Mike has also restored the original Arcade color scheme and reworked the artwork to more closely match the arcade original. Mike also created a high-quality label and manual for Berzerk VE, which was released at the 2002 Classic Gaming Expo where it quickly sold out.
atariage

7. Scrolling with multiple background layers (each layer of the background is moving at a different speed and therefore creating an impression of 3D space. This space was used in the game Double Dragon (1987) to create the impression of a deep and dense background, while at the same time, the front layer moving faster it gave the impression that it was a 3D space)

Double Dragon - King of the beat 'em ups

8. Limited 3D space (the impression of a 3D space is created here through the perspective lines, and the rules of perspective. When using a one point perspective, the player feels like he is "racing" into the distance, which is the case with "Knight rider"

Knight Rider 2 - PC game

9.Isometric 3D space (looking down on a space and by using shading and perspective, a 3D environment is simulated. Examples of games in isometric 3D space: Zaxxon and Paperboy

Zaxxon

Paperboy, released in 1991 by Tengen

10. Window to the outdoors The whole television screen was used as a window or a plane.                           Best example is Nintendo's Duck Hunt where the player's input devis was a gun and he had to shoot            ducks or clay pigeons  3D space was suggested by making the ducks/pigeons smaller and smaller as they flew away from player.

Duck Hunt, first released in Japan on April 21st 1984, for Nintento  Entertainment System (NES)

  11. Two Spaces on one screen Best example for this game space is Spy vs Spy, a multiplayer game where one has to find the enemy while searching through a labyrinth of rooms, so the payers would have to master mental mapping skills

Spy vs Spy - a two person game, based on a long running cartoon from MAD  Magazine,  it was forst released in  1984 for Atari 8bit, Commodore 64 and Apple II computers. 

  12. Video Capture Each costumed actor  was video recorded  punching,  kicking  and  so on.

The  short, flowing  animations  were then played  back in the game  at the speed  of the fast-paced action.  Rather than controlling bitmapped,  drawn  characters,  players could experience  manoeuvring a real actor. Mortal Kombat was a very popular arcade game using this space brilliantly.

Mortal Kombat II - Arcade game

Mortal Kombat 4 - First title form the series to use 3D computer graphics

  13. Mapped space - Prerendered panoramas Every animation was pre-recorded. and every viewpoint was precalculated. The computer did not need to run a game engine  that would calculate  its visuals in real time: it needed only to store the information  that was needed for each particular  scene.  This way,the animation  was smoother  and more realistic. (D J Boron). Example of a game using this space is Myst.

Myst Island game map

 Best known image for the game Myst

 14. Early 3D space - one horizontal plane In Wolfenstein 3D, the player was placed in a first person view mode and had to explore a series of dungeons in an immersive world. The ground level was on one level with the corresponding horizon, so aiming could only be done from left to right, while up/down direction could not be taken into consideration. The next stage in this category was created by Doom in 1993 where the ground had different heights, and player was engaged from above and below. This was a 2.5D game space

Wolfenstein 4 - originally released in May 1992 for DOS

Doom, released in 1993, shortly after Wolfenstein, again, for DOS, but this time,  the player will have a much larger arsenal of weapons as he will have to deal with non human enemies.

 15. Full 3D space In this game space, players are allowed full freedom of movement. Most first person shooter games that exist today are based in 3D spaces. Some examples are Far Cry, Call of Duty, Quake.

Image taken from Far Cry3. The scenery created was just amazing, and this is just a sample of the high end artistry displayed in this game.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 - the attention to detail in this game is amazing, all scenes are very cinematic, and have got a really realistic fee to them.

Quake III, the first in the Quake series focusing on multiplayer action

Theories of fun - lecture and notes

Theories of Fun

In this lecture we discussed Johan Huizinga's take on games, play and theories of fun.

Huizinga was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of the modern cultural history.
In his book, Homo Ludens (1938),  he discussed the possibility that play is the primary formative element in human culture.
Huizinga talked about Homo Ludens as the "man who plays", while Homo Sapiens is the :man whi thinks". 

That's how we got to know about the science called Ludology. The Oxford Dictionary defines Ludology as "the study of games and gaming, especially video games:ludology, like the games it studies, is not about story and discourse at all but about actions and events"

At the same times we discussed Narratology in the lecture, which is:" the branch of knowledge or criticism that deals with the structure and function of narrative and its themes, conventions, and symbols." according to Oxford Dictionary again. 

There is a big debate going on in the modern society regarding which of these two sciences is more important: Ludology or Narratology. And, I believe that the debate is well founded, as the controversy is just as the one with the chicken and the egg. If there is no game play (i.e. actions and events), the narrative wouldn't exist, but at the same time, a good game needs to have a good story behind it, otherwise, it will not be enjoyable and hence will not be played. I think that the perfect "marriage" between narrative and game play ( narratology and ludology) is what makes games what they are, and gives them their status in today's society. By their status, I'm referring to the fact that games play a very important role in education, learning social skills, etc, and they are and should indeed be, sitting alongside books, films ( documentaries or fiction) and all other media used by our society in order to collect information and develop culturally.

Johan Huizinga summarises the definition of play as a "primary animal and human drive", "play is older than culture - animals played before humans taught them how to". 

These are two very relevant statements that Huizinga has made and stood the test of time, when referring to play. Children play on their own, they find various ways of entertaining themselves, wether it is just simply looking at their hands and moving their fingers, as babies, or making up complicated rules for new and innovative games as they get older. They do not need anyone giving them lessons in how to play, in fact, it is better when they are being left alone with their imagination. As adults intervene in children's play, the fun seems to disappear as common sense tends to take over and spoils the whole make believe environment. If you watch a small child playing, while pretending sticks are swords and friends are wild animals, or carpet is the ocean and a nappy box is the Jolly Rodgers, is very easy to see how play is free, voluntary, never a task ans is done at leisure. There is never a time limit (unless set by the adults), it doesn't have to follow common sense rules (if need be, the ship CAN be bigger than the ocean).

There are various theories as to why animals are playing:

• to discharge of superabundant vital energy (same as children)
• trying to use their imitative instinct (same as children)
• it helps them develop physical and social skills (same as children) (It has been discovered through studies that Chimps have a "play face" to let the others know they are just playing)
• "play is about power (Raph Koster -  A Theory of Fun) - there are always winner s and losers 
• "play is an innate desire to compete" (Johan Huizinga) (however, we mainly like to compete against someone of the same ability)

However, for people, as well as the previous reasons given to play, there are others as well, specific for humans as homo sapiens (man who thinks), therefore play will have other meanings and implications, slightly different and more elaborate in comparison to the animals. 

• Play is cathartic, whether it is real or digital games, play is definitely a way of releasing ideas and emotions in a constructive way.
• Play is central to the way man and animals develop, as play is by all means educational. 
• Play is different from ordinary life
• play is seen as the direct opposite of seriousness, but play can definitely be serious as well (when a game is spoilt, it becomes serious)
• play is not foolish
• there are set rules and unspoken rules when it comes to play
• play is not necessary but is needed at the same time
• play equals freedom, it frees us from ordinary life
• play is never a task, it is done at leisure, during "free time"
• play is necessary to society and it naturally contributes to the well being of the group
• play is fixed in time and space ( "a game plays itself to an end" - Johan Huizinga)
• play promotes the formation of social groupings

Any game played is pleasurable because we know the rules and it is nice to play within them. Once the rules are broken, the play ceases to exist, or the enjoyment vanishes, and just the same, as game with no rules, cannot really exist.

Orientalism in the digital age

Orientalism in the digital age

Video games inherently provide a schematized image of the world.
From this point of view, we can say that games depict only certain aspects of a culture, and base the whole scenery/theme around them. This might mean that some cultures are depicted in a false way, not true to reality, but true to the perception the we ( the world in general, and the western nations in particular) have about that specific culture. This is the case when it comes to especially the oriental cultures.

"Edward Said's classic work has analysed the Orientalist discourse of the 19th and early 20th century, which recreates Islamic society as a timeless and exotic entity". To create a "Middle Eastern impression" in games, the creators have used certain motifs, which are commonly accepted as describing the "Orientals", such as headscarves, turbans, tiles and camels. The characters are mainly caliphs, bedouins, belly dancers.

"Games portraying a contemporary and a historical and fantastical Middle East, constitute separate categories, mostly using different imagery, narrative and gameplay."

"Roland Barthes gives a diagnosis of how imitative arts comprise two messages: a denoted message, which is the analogon itself and a connoted message, which is the matter in which the society, to a certain extent, communicates what it thinks of it."
So, I think, that, even though, games are built around oriental cultures, trying to depict reality as much as possible, most game developers are based in the west, and they might have a distorted vision of this reality. Also, messages sent out through the games are mixed as well, depending who plays the game and what cultural background they have. In most games, the narrative is very similar - a girl (daughter, sister, princess) is being kidnapped by the evil (vizier, caliph, demon), and the hero is on a quest to save her. But these narratives are typical for common medieval, fantasy settings, such imagery being particularly dominant when relating to the 'Middle East', reinforcing stereotypical notions of arbitrary cruelty and barbarism. This what I am referring to when I'm saying "mixed messages". For the western cultures, the 'Middle Eastern' are seen as barbaric and cruel, because the way we were brought up, and the values we were taught and accept as "normal",  but I'm pretty sure that looking at the same set up from a middle eastern point of view,  the same "barbaric" situation is seen as just"normal", this for them is ok, if they are fighting, they are probably doing it to defend honour, to make sure the good prevails, etc.

And this introduces the concept of "Others". This is a very complex concept, which in video games is being simplified by the fact that, even though most action games have got as a preferred virtual battle ground the Middle East, "generally, the player controls ( in a first person shooter game) the American or coalition forces, while enemy units are controlled by the computer. Usually playing for the other side is not allowed" "In many cases, the in-game narrative links the elements used to describe the enemy (head scarves, dark skin colour, loose clothes) to international terrorism and/or Islamist extremism"

A different example id Delta Force : Land Warrior which  "presents a scenario in which Arabs from several countries have banded together into a terrorist organization bent on undermining the activities of the US. Full Spectrum Warrior is set in the fictional but overtly Muslim country of 'Tazikhstan', 'a haven for terrorists and extremists' (Leonard, 2004). While the US or coalition soldiers usually are humanized and individualized by their nicknames or specific visual characteristics, the enemy is collectivized and linguistically functionalized as 'various terrorist groups', 'militants' and 'insurgents' (Machin and Suleiman, 2006). At the same time, the moral mission, professionalism and courage of the forces controlled by the player are emphasized by the in-game narrative and scripts. However, the enemies are presented in a way that suggests they are not 'real' soldiers, thereby removing the legitimacy of their actions (Machin and Suleiman, 2006).