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Proquest Dissertations UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Realizing the Real: The Evolution of Immersion in Videogames by Theron Davis A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2011 ©Theron Davis 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-81420-8 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-81420-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada Abstract: Through the work of Jean Baudrillard this thesis proposes a poststructuralist argument to conceptualize and understand immersion in videogames. Looking towards areas that have been openly described by leading games scholars as underrepresented, the project engages in a thorough dissection of videogames as a unique medium with unique concerns. Tracing the medium's evolution, several critical junctures are identified and examined. These junctures are compared to BaudriUard's three orders of simulation and demonstrate that BaudriUard's work, in particular his work as a response to Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics, exhibits interesting parallels with how videogames developed and function. The significance of BaudriUard's commentary on signs and simulation is most clear when conceptualizing new augmented reality videogames. These hyperreal videogames, incongruous with structuralist binaries of oppositional difference, reaffirm the need for a postructural exposition. n Acknowledgements I would like to extend many thanks to my supervisor Bart Beaty for allowing me the freedom to write my own project, the guidance to ensure it was well articulated, and for the friendly encouragement along the way. I'm happy to thank my parents, Randy and Elaine Davis, for not only giving me a brain, but also for showing me how to use it... I won't say who was responsible for which. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the friends and loved ones with whom I have shared this experience. I am indebted to them for their care and support. in TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv List of Figures v Introduction P.l Thesis Outline P.7 Chapter I - Literature Review P.10 Videogames P. 12 Immersion P. 17 Saussure & Baudrillard P.20 Conclusion P.30 Chapter II - Games, Realism, and Representation P.32 The Nature of Play P.36 Narratology vs. Ludology (a brief note) P.48 Genres & Aesthetic Qualities P.50 Representation & Realism P.61 Conclusion P.68 Chapter III - Three Orders P.69 A Brief Flirtation with Structuralism & Baudrillard P.76 First Order P.78 Second Order P.81 Third Order P.85 Revisiting Presence & Immersion P.89 Conclusion P.91 Chapter IV - Augmented Reality P.92 Augmented Reality P.95 Conclusion P. 105 Conclusion P. 106 References P.l 11 IV List of Figures: Figure 1.1 - Call of Duty: Black Ops in Game Screen Shot (P.3 5) Figure 1.2 -Angry Birds in game Screenshot (P.35) Figure 2 - Alien Tripod looms over head in Half Life 2 (P.51) Figure 3.1 -FIFA 2004 (P.53) Figure 3.2 - Championship Manager 4 (P.53) Figure 4.1 - In game screenshot of Grand Turismo 5 (P.57) Figure 4.2 - Madden NFL 9 in game screenshot (P.58) Figure 4.3 -Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (P.59) Figure 4.4 - Classic Tetris on the Nintendo Gameboy (P. 59) Figure 5.1 - Wacraft: Ores and Humans game play screen Shot (P.69) Figure 5.2 - War craft II: Beyond the Dark Portal game play screen shot (P.71) Figure 5.3 - War craft III game play screen shot (P. 72) Figure 5.4 - Felquina, Level 85 Blood-Elf Hunter perched on a cliff in Strangle Thorn Vale (P.74) Figure 6 - Quake (P.83) Figure 7 - Picture of players congregating in Animal Crossing: City Folk (P.84) Figure 8.1 - Fifth and Sixth-Generation Console Sales (P.92) Figure 8.2 - Seventh-Generation Console Sales (P.94) Figure 9 - WorkSnug Visual Interface (P.99) Figure 10.1 - Mobile Computing System (P. 101) Figure 10.2 - Game screenshot (P. 101) v 1 Introduction As this project was being written, a performance studies PhD graduate named Jane McGonigal saw a short lived rise in popularity as her first book Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they Can Change the World was published. She seemed to have timed her publication on the crest of a wave of public interest: accolades rolled in from Oprah Winfrey's O magazine; she found herself on the Colbert Report in February, 2011, and only a month after her book had been released it landed on the New York Times best seller list. While her project sought to answer different questions, and went about doing so in an altogether different way, it drew my attention by starting from a point of great interest. The opening line of McGonigal's (2011) book reads as follows, "Gamers have had enough of reality. They are abandoning it in droves - a few hours here, an entire weekend there, sometimes every spare minute of every day for stretches at a time - in favour of simulated environments and online games" (p.5). As McGonigal continues it becomes apparent that her intention is not to reduce the amount of time gamers invest in games, but rather to refocus gaming so as to deal with real world problems. This kind of "if you can't beat them, join them" attitude ultimately shows an attempt at refurbishing the medium in such a way that it could solve problems that are "worth it." The part of McGonigal's thinking that sticks out, and highlights a primary interest in this project, is the immediate assumption that videogames and simulated environments are separate from reality. McGonigal echoes the work of Edward Castranova's Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality (2008) when she makes the sensational claim that gamers are "abandoning reality in droves." This alarming proclamation affirms little more, however, than a lack of consideration made in perceiving the medium. Whether it is fear or, 2 as McGonigal proposes, excitement this "exodus" is a concern that pervades many institutions in our contemporary society. It is not my intention to deny McGonigal the righteous authority of her statistics. In fact reviewing some of them may serve to highlight the true significance of videogames in today's global community. For example, in the United states alone there are 183 million active gamers; individuals who, in surveys, report that they play computer or video games "regularly" (Newzoo, 2010). In the global community there are more than "4 million gamers in the Middle East, 10 million in Russia, 105 million in India, 10 million in Vietnam, 10 million in Mexico, 13 million in Central and South America, 15 million in Australia, 17 million in South Korea, 100 million in Europe, and 200 million in China" (McGonigal, 2011, p.4). These numbers are impressive, and speak to the seriousness of having a proper understanding of a medium being heavily invested in by so many people. No matter how you conceive the situation, with so many people playing, there are an enormous number of hours being spent on, or in, videogames. Moreover, the video game industry is growing at an exponential rate and has become a juggernaut in the marketplace; rivalling and even surpassing motion pictures in revenues. Even as early as 1999 videogames equalled motion pictures with domestic revenues of $7.4 billion (Graser 2000). The industry hasn't slowed down and continues to play a major part in the global economy. From 1998 to 2001, the videogame industry became "the fastest growing segment of the entertainment industry with a growth rate of 15 to 25 percent" (Williams, 2002). Today, the sales of major systems and games such as Grand Theft Auto IV (developed by Rockstar Games), which took in over $500 million in sales during its opening week (Ritchell, 2008), produce some of the largest returns in the 3 entertainment world.
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