The Art of War: Fighting Games, Performativity, and Social Game Play A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Todd L. Harper November 2010 © 2010 Todd L. Harper. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled The Art of War: Fighting Games, Performativity, and Social Game Play by TODD L. HARPER has been approved for the School of Media Arts and Studies and the Scripps College of Communication by Mia L. Consalvo Associate Professor of Media Arts and Studies Gregory J. Shepherd Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii ABSTRACT HARPER, TODD L., Ph.D., November 2010, Mass Communications The Art of War: Fighting Games, Performativity, and Social Game Play (244 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Mia L. Consalvo This dissertation draws on feminist theory – specifically, performance and performativity – to explore how digital game players construct the game experience and social play. Scholarship in game studies has established the formal aspects of a game as being a combination of its rules and the fiction or narrative that contextualizes those rules. The question remains, how do the ways people play games influence what makes up a game, and how those players understand themselves as players and as social actors through the gaming experience? Taking a qualitative approach, this study explored players of fighting games: competitive games of one-on-one combat. Specifically, it combined observations at the Evolution fighting game tournament in July, 2009 and in-depth interviews with fighting game enthusiasts. In addition, three groups of college students with varying histories and experiences with games were observed playing both competitive and cooperative games together. The themes and experiences identified at these sites fell into three broad areas: the environment in which games are played, normative ideas about how those games are played, and the ways in which gamers play socially. Beyond the actual computer code of the game, and its story, the play experiences of the gamers in this study involved socializing and exchanging play information via online forums, attendance at social events focused on play, and the creation and maintenance of a very specific way of playing. These paratextual elements iii extend from social activities to specific, preferred technological interfaces for gameplay. This research argues that a game is defined as much by the ways it is played as by the formal aspects that make it up. Future research is needed to identify if these behaviors are limited to fighting game players or exhibited in other gaming communities, as well as to continue to explore the intersectional construction of identity inside those gaming communities. Approved: ______________________________________________________________ Mia L. Consalvo Associate Professor of Media Arts and Studies iv Acknowledgments It's impossible to count all of the people who had some sort of influence on this work. Perhaps first and foremost, I would like to thank my family for supporting what often sounded like my insane quest to finish a doctorate. Whether it was simply moral support, or even a place to live while I finished my master's degree (thank you, Lisa), without them I likely would have abandoned this road a long time ago. Thank you to my mother especially, for being the Pollyanna that, now and them, I very likely needed. Thank you to all the faculty I had the privilege to work with at Ohio University, for helping me reach this point and to develop the necessary skills that would bring this research to this point. My great thanks go to Paula Carpenter and Janet Williams, without whose great, inexhaustible, and invaluable assistance none of this would have been possible. It's my hope that perhaps I paid you both back in laughs and smiles some small fraction of what you've given me in return. My thanks also go to Roger Cooper, who has supported me in and out of the classroom since minute one back in 2006. No other professor I know would have thought to say so much simply by putting a small toy pony in a glittery gift bag. I will treasure that for many years to come. So many friends kept me sane over the past two years. Thank you especially to Nate Dutton and Cynara Medina, the other two members of our little trio, for being my co-conspirators, reality checks, and most importantly my friends. Thank you to Kristen Smirnov, who every day was there to keep me company and keep me sane. To Art Doler, Michael Simon, Merilan Qi, and many many others: you friendship and conversation were more valuable to me than you might ever know. v To the members of my committee, my deepest thanks. Thank you to Jenny Nelson, who did her level best to keep me honest and always remind me of how important the ways you look at something really are in this sort of research. Bernhard Debatin's vast knowledge of theory and research provided perspectives on the study that without him, I would have remained ignorant of. Christine Mattley always had a new direction or thought that helped to add depth to the end result. Beyond that, though, there were always interesting conversations to be had where the dissertation was only a starting point. Thank you all for a list of things that I can't begin to enumerate. Finally, thanks are due to Mia Consalvo, thanks that I'm not sure I can properly express. For four years you've put up with my neuroses, answered my IMs, guided my hand, and probably most importantly, believed in me even when it was clear that I didn't believe in myself. You've been a mentor, a friend, and the best advisor I could have asked for. Any success this dissertation represents is as much yours as mine. vi Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Ways of playing and performativity in digital games: an introduction .............................. 1 Encountering hardcore play: driving me up the Brawl ................................................... 4 Conceptualizing playstyles: casual, hardcore, and performance ..................................... 6 Key terms, constructs, assumptions, and research questions .......................................... 8 Chapter development..................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1 - Explicating "fighting games" ......................................................................... 15 The fighting game genre ............................................................................................... 15 A brief history of fighting games .................................................................................. 19 A working definition of fighting games ........................................................................ 22 Games at the Evolution 2009 tournament ..................................................................... 24 Chapter 2 - Rules, performance, and social play: a review of relevant literature ............. 31 The rules of the game .................................................................................................... 31 Social play and gamers as social actors ........................................................................ 39 Performing identity ....................................................................................................... 46 Player types, player performances? ............................................................................... 53 Research questions ........................................................................................................ 59 Chapter 3 - Methodology and research frameworks ......................................................... 61 Phenomenological inquiry............................................................................................. 62 Data gathering: observation and interviews .................................................................. 66 The Evolution 2009 fighting game tournament ............................................................ 67 In-depth interviews: EVO attendees and fighting game enthusiasts ............................. 70 Social play, experience, and competition: local gameplay observation ........................ 74 Chapter 4 - The environment of play ................................................................................ 77 Basics of the arcade setting ........................................................................................... 78 Lag, nerdrage, and you: the ups and downs of online play ........................................... 84 Into the fold: entry into the community via the arcade ideal ........................................ 90 vii Under control: the arcade stick and the influence of technology on play ..................... 95 Summarizing the arcade ideal ..................................................................................... 102 Chapter 5 - Social play .................................................................................................... 104 The central conceit: fighting games as multiplayer rather than single-player ............ 106 EVO as gaming social event ....................................................................................... 108 Iconography,