Nieuwe media en

populaire cultuur:
game-cultuur
(2008-2009)

College 1 (11 november 2008):

Gamestudies, een introductie
Joost Raessens
Wat gaan we doen vandaag?
1. Doelstelling en opbouw van de cursus
2. Huishoudelijke mededelingen
3. Ontstaan van een discipline (Game
Studies, 2001)
4. Waarom games bestuderen? Why
game studies now? (Games and
Culture, 2006)
5. Voorbeeld game-onderzoek: docu-
games
• Doelstelling
en opbouw van de
cursus

(zie overzicht)
1. Perspectieven (zie schema)
2. Vraag (probleemstelling): open of
gesloten
3. Theorie: “A set of concepts used to define
and/or explain some phenomenon”
4. Methode: benadering/strategie die leidt tot
het beantwoorden van de vraag
5. Methodologische reflectie: zijn theorie en
methode in staat vraag te beantwoorden?
2. Huishoudelijke mededelingen
• Blog
• Deelnemers staan op de lijst
• Wijziging een van de werkcolleges, in pauze/na
afloop ruilen
3.Ontstaan van een discipline
(Game Studies, 2001)

• Game Studies
• Aarseth, E. “
Computer Game Studies, Year One” (2001)
• Aarseth, E. “
The Dungeon and the Ivory Tower: Vive La Difference
ou Liaison Dangereuse?” (2002)
 Computer Game Studies 2001

– Eerste (?) tijdschrift: Game Studies

– Eerste (?) congres over computer games:
Computer Games and Digital Textualities
(Copenhagen, 1 en 2 maart 2001). Zie ook
Computer and Video Games Come of Age (MIT,
2000)
– Eerste (?) collegereeksen over computergames
– Academici nemen computergames voor het
eerst (?) serieus
 Aarseth (2001)

1. “…to force outdated paradigms

onto a new cultural object…”
2. “…the very early stage we are
still in…”
3. “…colonising attempts from
both fields [cinema, literature]…”
 Aarseth (2002)

• Onderzoek
• Bestuur/politiek
• Onderwijs CV
• Samenwerking academici en
ontwerpers: Frequency 1550
 4. Waarom games
bestuderen? Why game
studies now? (Games and
Culture, 2006)

• Playful Identities, or the Ludification

of Culture (Raessens, 2006)
• Games and Culture (SAGE)
 Why game studies now?

• Entertainment Software Association (ESA):

• Game Research
• Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau
• Kaiser Family Foundation: Zie: Generation
M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds, A
Kaiser Family Foundation Study (March
2005).
 Response to Innovation
(Davis, 1976)

1. Verdediging: geen kindervermaak, geen lage

kunst, niet a-politiek
2. Aanval: leiden tot agressie en verslaving
3. Op academische wijze bestudeerd
Why game studies now?
• Cultureel: identiteit
• Sociaal: educatie, geweld/verslaving
• Politiek: Games for change
• Technologisch: computerinteractie
• Mediatheoretisch, vergelijkend en
historisch
• Economisch: 20 miljard dollar
• Esthetisch: kunst, formeel
(gamespecifiek en/of verhalend)
Gamestudies is meer dan een
discussie tussen (vooral
Skandinavische) ludologen en (vooral
Amerikaanse) narratologen. Wat
gamestudies bedreigt is deze “fallacy
of false dilemma”.
Ook moeten we de al te simplistische
tweedeling doorbreken tussen Europese
gamestudies - “an intellectual top-down
perspective” waarin “definitional
arguments” centraal staan - en
Amerikaanse gamestudies die gebaseerd
zijn op “a bottom-up dialogue with game
designers, the game industry and fans.”
Ook wij in Europa doen aan kwalitatief-
empirisch onderzoek, participerende
observatie, diepte-interviews, discours-
analyse, tekstuele analyse etc.
 Why game studies now?

“A game is a rule-based system with a

variable and quantifiable outcome, where
different outcomes are assigned different
values, the player exerts effort in order to
influence the outcome, the player feels
emotionally attached to the outcome, and
the consequences of the activity is
negotiable” (Juul, Half-Real, p. 36).
.
“We might call it a free activity, standing quite consciously
outside 'ordinary' life as being 'not serious', but at the same
time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an
activity connected with no material interest, and no profit
can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper
boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and
in an orderly manner.” Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A
Study of the Play-Element in Culture, 1955 [1938], p. 13.
Een computergame is “any forms of computer-based
entertainment software, either textual or image-
based, using any electronic platform such as
personal computers or consoles and involving one
or multiple players in a physical or networked
environment” (Frasca geciteerd in Newman’s
Videogames, 2004, p. 27).
pacman…pacmanhattan

http://www.pacmanhattan.com
Wat is de invloed van het game platform
op de spelervaring? En wie speelt waar?

Game platform:
• Arcade (speelhal)
• Console (spelcomputer) (PS II,
GameCube, Xbox)
• PC
• Handheld (gameboy, ds, psp, mobiele
telefoon)
 arcade
• Plaats: arcade hal

Kenmerken:
• Betalen per spel
• Korte speelduur
• Fysieke interface
• Publiek
 console
Plaats: woonkamer of
slaapkamer

Kenmerken:
• Eigendom
• Samen spelen
• Publiek
• Langere speelduur
 PC
Plaats: werkplek of
hobbykamer

Kenmerken:
• Eigendom PC
• Solitair spel of online
• Gratis online games of
abonnement
• Langere speelduur
 handheld
Plaats: overal

Kenmerken:
• Grafisch eenvoudige
games
• Integratie met
telefoon
 Why game studies now?
• Jenkins: “If they are smart, they change the tool
to fit what they are looking at, if they are bad,
it is a cookie cutter that only sees those things
that their tool allows them to look at to begin
with.”
• Aarseth benadrukt het empirische bewijs dat
narratologie is ”not really a good model for
studying and understanding” computer games.
We zijn, aldus Aarseth, getuige van een
“transitional phase, a paradigm shift.”
• Plaatsen wij ons in de traditie van de
geesteswetenschappen waarin het gelijktijdig
bestaan van meerdere interpretatiekaders wordt
bevestigd? OF
• Thomas Kuhn is most famous for his book The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) in
which he presented the idea that science does
not progress via a linear accumulation of new
knowledge, but instead undergoes periodic
revolutions which he calls "paradigm shifts",
in which the nature of scientific inquiry within
a particular field is abruptly transformed.
6. Voorbeel d game-
onderz oek: docu- games

Real it y Play
Docume nta r y c omputer
games b eyond f act a nd
fic tion
 Docume nta r y
computer g ames ! ?
Docu-game s b etwe en fa ct
and f ic tio n

• JFK Rel oaded

• Docu- gam es
• Three exam ples
• Docu- gam es : ficti on or
documentat ion?
• Pl ea in favor of docu-gam es
JFK R elo aded (2 004)
Wate r Coole r G ame s F orum

Three types of reacti ons

(Turkl e) :

5. Si mul ati on resi gnation

6. Si mul ati on deni al
7. Si mul ati on understandi ng
 “But one can imagine a t hi rd
response. T his w ou ld t ake the
cult ural pervasivenes s of
simulation as a challenge to
develop a more sophisticat ed
social crit icism . T his new
cri ticism would not lu mp all
simulations toget her, but would
discriminat e among t hem . It
would take as its goal t he
development of simulations t hat
actu al ly help players challenge
the model’ s built -in a ssumptions.
This new criticism wo ul d try to
9-1 1 Su r viv or (2 003)
Endgames: Waco R esur rection
(2 003)
Escape from W oomera
(2 003)
FIC TION OR
DOCUME NT ATIO N?

Fi cti on:
4. A docu- game cr eates i ts own
obj ect and by doi ng so, its own
‘t ruth’
5. Si nce docu-gam es ar e
sim ul ati ons of real ity, they
woul d lack every ki nd of
legit imi zati on to a document ary
status
6. In a docu- gam e hi stor ical ‘fact’
and ‘f ixi ty’ gi ve way to the
Docume nta tio n:

1. The docu- game must be seen

as a “creati ve treatment of
actual ity” (Grier son)
2. Games that we cal l
‘docum entary’ do not onl y
contai n textual but al so
contextual inf or mat ion that
indicat es that we m ust swit ch
to a “document ari zi ng lecture”
(Odin)
Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
2. Docu- gam es chal lenge t he
noti ons of ‘ obj ecti vity’ and
‘aut hori ty ’
PLEA IN FA VOR OF THE
DO CUMEN TA RY G AME

1. T here seems t o be no reason to

excl ude gam es a pri or i from
the category of the
documentar y f orm
2. The f our fundam ental
tendenci es at tri butabl e to
documentar y pract ice:
* To recor d, reveal , or
preserve ( 9-11 Sur vivor )
* To persuade or prom ote
( Escape from Woom era )
* To anal yz e or i nter rogate
( JFK R el oaded )
* To express ( Waco
Resur rect ion )
1. Docu- gam es are capabl e of
openi ng t he ar ea of the
hi stori cal docum entary t o a
large audi ence and may
become very popul ar

3. One of the bi ggest chal lenges

of game des ign is pr eci sel y
thi s di fficul t task: how to m ake
maxi mum use of the
opportuni ty to communi cat e
wi th the audi ence?
• To descri be these docu- gam es
based on real hi stori cal f igures
and actual ev ent s (FA CT) , woven
together wi th ficti onal game
pl ay (FI CTI ON), one coul d us e
the neol ogi sm FA CTI ON

• I can't get no SA TI S- FA CTI ON

'C ause I t ry and I tr y and I try
and I t ry
I can't get no, I can't get no