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Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 The Dark Side of Game Play “This book is a richly diverse examination of the ways that games situate players in their perpetration of unconscionable and transgressive virtual acts. The essays in this collection are in different ways sensitive to the medial and cultural context of games and the means by which ludic context and attitudinal frames transform players’ relationships to such acts. The book broadens our understanding of the complex and easily misinterpreted pleasures that games offer and engage us in.” —Tanya Krzywinska, Falmouth University, UK Games allow players to experiment and play with subject positions, values, and moral choice. In game worlds, players can take on the role of antagonists. They allow us to play with behaviour that would be offensive, illegal, or immoral if it happened outside the game sphere. While contemporary games have always handled certain problem- atic topics such as war, disasters, human decay, post-apocalyptic futures, cruelty, and betrayal, lately even the most playful of genres are introducing situations in which players are presented with difficult ethical and moral dilemmas. This volume is an investigation of dark play in video games or game play with controversial themes, as well as controversial play behaviour. It covers such questions as: Why do some games stir up political controversies? How do games invite or even push players towards dark play through their design? Where are the boundaries for what can be presented in a game? Are these boundaries different from other media such as film and books, and if so, why? What is the allure of dark play and why do players engage in these practices? Torill Elvira Mortensen is Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen. She studies multi-user games and digital media culture. She is a board member of Norsk Tipping and the author of Perceiving Play: The Art and Study of Computer Games (2009). She was a founding member of the editorial group of the online jour- Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 nal Game Studies (gamestudies.org). Jonas Linderoth is a professor at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has published several peer- reviewed journal articles about perception, learning, and cognition during game-play and is a contributor to the Routledge volume Sports Videogames. Ashley ML Brown is a lecturer in Game Design at Brunel University London, UK. She is a board member of the Digital Games Research Association and the author of a chapter in Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy, as well as her recently com- pleted thesis entitled “Sex Between Frames: An exploration of online and tabletop erotic role play”. Routledge Advances in Game Studies 1 Video Games and Social Competence Rachel Kowert 2 Sexuality in Role-Playing Games Ashley ML Brown 3 Gender, Age, and Digital Games in the Domestic Context Alison Harvey 4 The Dark Side of Game Play Controversial Issues in Playful Environments Edited by Torill Elvira Mortensen, Jonas Linderoth, and Ashley ML Brown Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 The Dark Side of Game Play Controversial Issues in Playful Environments Edited by Torill Elvira Mortensen, Jonas Linderoth, and Ashley ML Brown Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 First published 2015 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Taylor & Francis The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The dark side of game play : controversial issues in playful environments / edited by Torill Elvira Mortensen, Jonas Linderoth, and Ashley ML Brown. pages cm. — (Routledge advances in game studies ; 4) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Video games—Psychological aspects. 2. Video games—Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Violence in video games. I. Mortensen, Torill Elvira, editor of compilation. II. Linderoth, Jonas, 1970- editor of compilation. III. Brown, Ashley M. L., 1986- editor of compilation. GV1469.34.P79D37 2015 794.801’9—dc23 2015003960 ISBN: 978-1-138-82728-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-73868-0 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 Contents Acknowledgements vii PART I Introduction 1 Dark Play: The Aesthetics of Controversial Playfulness 3 JONAS LINDEROTH AND TORILL ELVIRA MORTENSEN PART II Discourses of Dark Play 2 Analyzing Game Controversies: A Historical Approach to Moral Panics and Digital Games 15 FALTIN KARLSEN 3 Of Heroes and Henchmen: The Conventions of Killing Generic Expendables in Digital Games 33 RENÉ GLAS 4 Don’t Forget to Die: A Software Update is Available for the Death Drive 50 EMILY FLYNN-JONES Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 PART III Dark Play or Darkly Played? 5 Killing Digital Children: Design, Discourse, and Player Agency 67 BJÖRN SJÖBLOM 6 Little Evils: Subversive Uses of Children’s Games 82 FRANS MÄYRÄ vi Contents 7 Darkly Playing Others 100 MIGUEL SICART PART IV Dark Play and Situated Meaning 8 Three Defences for the Fourteen-Inch Barbed Penis: Darkly Playing with Morals, Ethics, and Sexual Violence 119 ASHLEY ML BROWN 9 Exploring the Limits of Play: A Case Study of Representations of Nazism in Games 137 ADAM CHAPMAN AND JONAS LINDEROTH 10 Keeping the Balance: Morals at the Dark Side 154 TORILL ELVIRA MORTENSEN 11 Fabricated Innocence: How People Can be Lured into Feel-Bad Games 171 STAFFAN BJÖRK PART V Designing for Dark Play 12 Massively Multiplayer Dark Play: Treacherous Play in EVE Online 191 MARCUS CARTER 13 Dark Play in Dishonored 210 KRISTINE JØRGENSEN 14 Sonic Descents: Musical Dark Play in Survival and Psychological Horror 226 ISABELLA VAN ELFEREN Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 15 Boosting, Glitching and Modding Call of Duty: Assertive Dark-Play Manifestations, Communities, Pleasures, and Organic Resilience 242 ALAN MEADES Contributors 261 Index 267 Acknowledgements Part of the editorial work with this volume was sponsored by The Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communica- tion in Contemporary Society (LinCS) and the project Rules of fiction, both funded by the Swedish Research Council. It was also sponsored by the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Their financial support and the sup- port through providing an infrastructure for the process was invaluable. The editors gratefully acknowledge the productive collaboration with the consortium partners, Kristine Jørgensen and René Glas, who both par- ticipated in the initial process of creating this anthology, and who acted as editorial advisors through the entire process. Their input and support was vital for this work. Thank you also to our authors, whose work makes up this anthology. It is a pleasure and a privilege to see a collaboration like this come together. Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 Part I Introduction Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:04 01 October 2016 1 Dark Play The Aesthetics of Controversial Playfulness Jonas Linderoth and Torill Elvira Mortensen In the 1991 movie remake of The Addams Family (Sonnenfeld), there is a scene where Gomez and Morticia are visiting their children’s school. They meet a worried teacher who points out that when assigned to make a poster about someone they admire, Wednesday, their daughter, has written about a witch who was burnt to death. The teacher points out other children chose people such as ‘the president’, in this case George H. W. Bush. After meeting with the teacher, they go to see the students’ talent show. After an act where children dressed up as flowers sing and dance, the Addams family children go on stage and perform the fencing scene from Hamlet. Their version is a hilarious over-the-top splatter scene. While reciting Shakespeare, the chil- dren hit each other with swords and blood sprays in fountains all over the stage, splattering shocked teachers and parents in the first row. In these scenes from The Addams family, our notions of childhood and vio- lence are put to the test as director Barry Sonnenfeld juxtaposes the macabre against the stereotype of the white American middle class. In doing this, he makes the Addams family seem as the sound alternative, the healthy subver- sion of reactionary values. The Hamlet scene is laminated with layers of mean- ings that speak to the audience’s ability to read figuratively. The scene begs the viewers to add context themselves, to trust in the meta-communicative signals. Not only is this scene taking place in a movie, the scene as such portrays the portrayal of violence on a stage. It is a frame within a frame that speaks to us, saying that even though we face the dark, horrible reality of someone piercing a human body with a rapier, there are so many layers of transformation added that what the audience sees here and now on the screen is play, dark play.

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