Philip Thesis 3Nd Final Version

WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/research/westminsterresearch Global gamers, transnational play, imaginary battlefield: encountering the gameplay experience in the war-themed first-person-shooter, Call of Duty Philip Lin School of Media, Arts and Design This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © The Author, 2012. This is an exact reproduction of the paper copy held by the University of Westminster library. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Users are permitted to download and/or print one copy for non-commercial private study or research. Further distribution and any use of material from within this archive for profit-making enterprises or for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: (http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] Global Gamers, Transnational Play, Imaginary Battlefield: Encountering the Gameplay Experience in the War-Themed First-Person-Shooter, Call of Duty Philip Lin A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University of Westminster, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication and Media Research Institute University of Westminster Thesis Title: Global Gamers, Transnational Play, Imaginary Battlefield: Encountering the Gameplay Experience in the War-Theme First-Person-Shooter, Call of Duty Candidate: Philip Lin Supervisors: Director of Studies: Professor Daya Thussu Supervisor: Dr. Alessandro D’arma External Examiner: Professor Jean K. Chalaby Internal Examiner: Dr. Anastasia Kavada Chair: Dr. Anthony Mcnicholas Date of Submission: 1/Oct/2012 I Declaration I certify that this thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree at the University of Westminster is my own work. II Abstract During the post-9/11 era we have witnessed the rise of war-themed digital games, which are increasingly produced and distributed on a massive global scale. This new form of 'militainment' re-formulates ‘the military-entertainment complex’ industrial model, and by repeatedly simulating historical/present/fictional war events and adopting militaristic stories, creates an adrenaline-pumping interactive gaming experience that the global gamers find very difficult to resist. Before 2011 the most iconic war-themed first-person-shooter (FPS) digital game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, achieved a new milestone of more than 20 million copies sold globally. After the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops , the Facebook COD group became one of the top 20 fastest growing Facebook communities in 2010. At the time of writing this thesis, this network community had already attracted more than 10 million fans worldwide. Besides the well-known Call of Duty series, other FPS titles like Medal of Honor , Fallout , and Battlefield series are all fed into the global gamers’ growing appetite for this so-called ‘shoot’em’all’ genre. Within academia, scholars from different research disciplines also realized the importance of gaming and have been trying to approach this conflict-based digital game culture from various angles. The war-themed genre FPS is frequently challenged by people’s negative impression towards its unpleasant essence and content; questioning its embedded political ideologies, the violent sequences involved in the gameplay and its socio-cultural influences/effects to individual and community etc. However, the wide range of critical debates in this field has reflected the growing interest of scholars in the complex political relationship between military and entertainment sectors and industries, and the embedded P.R. network that is running behind the games’ industrial structure and cultural production (see Wark 1996, Herz 1997, Derian 2001, Stockwell and Muir 2003, Lenoir and Lowood 2005, Leonard 2007, Turse 2008, Ottosen 2009). Despite widespread academic interests in the subject, few researchers have paid attention to the gamers who are the ones truly engaged themselves to this genre. If we look at the research within game studies today, less analysis is primarily focused on this unique shooter-gamer culture. In this regard, this research adopts qualitative research methods to explore the gamers’ feelings, attitudes, and their experiences in the war-themed FPS genre . In terms of the research methods used, an online questionnaire was launched to collect responses from 433 gamers across different countries, and 11 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a community of COD gamers were also conducted in III Taiwan between 2010 and 2011. The data which has emerged from the two research methods reveals gamers’ perceptions about war games’ time narrative and realism. Based on the interviews, the research analyses East Asian gamers’ construction of meanings in this ‘western genre’ and provides some theoretical reflections about their transnational FPS gameplay experience. IV Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Director of my PhD study, Professor Daya Thussu, and my second supervisor Dr. Alessandro D’arma. Without their careful guidance, suggestions and comments on my ideas and thoughts, this thesis would not have been possible. I also want to delicate this thesis to my lovely parents and my wife Mia. Their spiritual and financial support gave me more courage, confidence and freedom to develop my academic interests and enjoy the whole process. During this long PhD journey, there have been many close friends who kindly shared my struggles and encouraged me to finish my study. For example, Chih-Wen, from Providence University has always supported my decision to explore digital games. My colleague, George Da-Wei from CAMRI has also been a good listener when I was trapped into certain theories. I am also grateful to Neil who generously gave his time to patiently read large parts of my manuscript and provided thoughtful comments. Finally I would like to credit every gamer involved in the project who willingly spent time answering my questions online and/or agreed to be interviewed. Their passion for this medium is what really sparked this thesis. During four years of research I have traveled to many places and attended various conferences focusing on digital games, gamers and game cultures. It has been a pleasure to meet so many experts and academics who share my interest and passion about the development of digital games. Without the CAMRI and Westminster University’s support for PhD students, all these trips would not have been possible. V Contents DECLARATION II ABSTRACT III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V LIST OF PICTURES, FIGURES AND TABLES IX INTRODUCTION: THE RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND THESIS STRUCTURE 1 THE RESEARCH BACKGROUND 1 THE RESEARCH IN SUMMARY 4 THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS 6 CHAPTER ONE: THE GLOBAL DIGITAL GAME CULTURE 8 1.1 RECONFIGURING THE GLOBALITY IN DIGITAL GAME CULTURE 8 The Meaning of ‘Digital’ in Digital Games 8 The Flowing Gameplay Experience in the New ‘Global Space’ 10 The Transnational/Transcultural Experience of Digital Gameplay 16 The Hybridity of Digital Game Culture and Industry 20 The Rise of the Global Gamer (Fan) Communities 22 The Global Fantasy in Reality: The Global Pokémon Phenomenon 24 1.2 THE GLOBAL DIGITAL GAME INDUSTRY 28 1.3 MAPPING DIGITAL GAME GENRES 36 1.4 THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF GAME PRODUCTION : DIGITAL GAME GENRES IN THE GLOBAL WEST AND EAST 39 1.5 THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF FIRST -PERSON -SHOOTER GAMES 43 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GAMERS AND GAMEPLAY 52 2.1 OVERVIEW : DIGITAL GAME STUDIES 52 2.2 GAMERS AS FANS 62 2.3 GAMEPLAY AS ‘I MAGINATION PRACTICE ’ 70 2.4 RECENT RESEARCH ON GAMERS AND GAMING PRACTICE /E XPERIENCE 72 2.5 REVISITING THE GAMER STEREOTYPES : CULTURAL MYTHS ABOUT NEGATIVITY 77 CHAPTER THREE: THE EMERGING GLOBAL MILITAINMENT SPHERE AND THE WAR-THEMED DIGITAL GAME SCENARIO: TOWARDS CONFLICT-GAMING 87 3.1 THE FIRST WAVE OF THE VIRTUAL WAR CRITICS IN THE 1990 S 90 3.2 THE ALLIANCE OF MILITARISM AND ENTERTAINMENT 93 3.3 THE MILITARY ENTERTAINMENT ESTABLISHMENT IN THE WEST 100 VI The MEC 1.0: the Pre 9/11 Hollywood War Cinema 102 The MEC 2.0: the Post 9/11 America’ Army (AA) and War-Themed Digital Games 106 3.4 NATIONAL IDENTITY IN (W AR ) GAMEPLAY 115 3.5 CONCEPTUALIZING ‘C ONFLICT -GAMING ’ 118 CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODS 128 4.1 RESEARCH AIMS 128 4.2 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS 130 4.3 THE RESEARCH DESIGN 131 Method One: Qualitative Online-Questionnaires with Global COD Gamer Community 132 Method Two: In-depth interviews with Taiwanese COD Gamers 138 4.4 DIFFERENTIATING SOLDIER -GAMERS AND ORDINARY -GAMERS 143 4.5 ON THE GAMERS -INTERVIEWEES ’ SELF -REFLEXIVITY 145 CHAPTER FIVE: THE FEELINGS AND EXPERIENCES OF THE GLOBAL CALL OF DUTY GAMERS: PERCEPTIONS AND MEANINGS 149 5.1 FPS AS IMAGINATION INTO PLAY 150 5.2 THE COMPOSITION OF THE RESPONDENTS : GAMING AND EVERYDAY LIFE 156 Mix Occupations 157 Years of Gaming 158 Weekly Gameplay Time 163 Self-Identification: Casual, Hardcore or Professional Gamers? 167 Gaming Platforms 170 Gameplay Online and Offline 171 5.3 RE-ADOPTING BARTLE ’S TYPOLOGY ON COD GAMERS 179 The COD gamers focus on achieving certain goals: 180 The COD gamers focus on exploring new elements: 180 The COD gamers focus on socializing with others: 181 The COD gamers focus on conflict-building and killing (in Bartle’s phrase, imposition upon) others: 182 5.4 BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT : THE COD GAMERS ’ SELF -CONSCIOUSNESS TOWARDS THE WARTIME NARRATIVE 184 5.5 NEGOTIATING THE REALNESS AND UN-REALNESS : THE COD GAMERS ’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT FPS REALISM 195 The Realistic-ness of the audio-visual representation (graphical realism) 198 The Social Realism 201 The Behavioural Realism 204 CHAPTER SIX: THE CONFESSIONS OF THE TAIWANESE CALL OF DUTY GAMERS: A TRANSNATIONAL EXPERIENCE 212 VII 6.

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