Transformation of Modernity in the Video Games
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Transformation of Modernity in the Video Games
1. Introduction
2. Brief History of Video Games
3. Modern Dynamics of the Video Games
3.1 Two Ways of Modernism: Production and Consumption
3.1.1 Production
3.1.2 Consumption
4. Transformation of Modern Gaming Dynamics
4.1 Flexible Mode of Video Game Production
4.1.1 Virtual Life: The Limits of Flexible Mode of Production
4.2 Hardly Changing Consumer: Still Modern Player
4.2.1 Modding
4.3 Additional Outputs of Flexible Age
4.3.1 Imitation & Kitsch Production
4.3.2 Emulation
5. Conclusion
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Transformation of Modernity in the Video Games
1. Introduction
The video games are one important component of the leisure industry and a wide profit market today. In addition being a huge economic and entertainment phenomenon, videogames have complex social and cultural impacts. Researchers suggest video games are becoming a social location in which new social relations, community networks, and new life- styles are formed (Humphreys, 2005) Furthermore, as a new and popular medium, video games have significant ideological and cultural influences on young people. The video games also function as an art form and a new venue for critical expression (Jenkins and Squire, 2002). According to Raven, 3D game engines can theoretically produce experiences that film, audio and the written word combined still fall short of; the interactive element is the key, producing a sense of emotional engagement that a “static” work cannot replicate (Raven,2009).
In this study, we identify video games, shortly games, as the personal computer (PC) games, console games, any type of online software games (network games and browser games) and arcade (including internet cafe) games. As being the consequence of the technological advances, the video games have a comparatively short history. However, they experienced a transformation process in this short life. By the born of first video game in 1970s, they had a chance of expansion in 1980s. By this expansion period, the games reached a “maturity”. In this period, there were certain trends for the game production. This period also created the modern game consumer. However, by the middle of 1990s, the multimedia revolution changed the philosophy of the video games. Connected with the changes of the global economic atmosphere, the video game production entered a different type of life. When considered with the unbelievable emerge of internet, the games gained extraordinary functions. This was the flexible age of games. And it was opened by the change of production ideas. Besides, this age affected the modern player. The player was still modern as a consumer. But s/he has an ability to change his individuality in this period.
2. Brief History of Video Games
The games are big business today. However, they were invented by the cold war computer programmers of the research centers such as MIT. Thus, the games were actually “stylish
2 hacks (Himanen, 2001; Levy, 1984; Wark, 2004). And they were spin-offs of military- corporate objectives. In 1962, the first video game emerged in the name of Spacewar!. It was allowing players to control a spacecraft across an oscilloscope and fire torpedoes to each other. According to the Stewart Brand (1972) Spacewar was “heresy, uninvited and unwelcome” that transformed computers from Cold War machines to play devices. By the time, the creations of hacker culture started to attract people. The operation systems came with some basic games installed such as the UNIX “Find the Wumpus”. In the university campuses, games started to be circulated as freeware.1 Same process shaped digital games when Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, the first commercial game company, adapted them first for arcades and then for consoles connected to television. In 1971, Nolan Bushnell together with Ted Dabney, created the first arcade game based on the earlier game of Spacewar!. The arcade game Pong was created a year later in 1972. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney started Atari Computers in the same year. In 1975, Atari re-released Pong as a home video game (Bellis, 2009). After 1984’s market crash Atari was destroyed and the US gaming sector was saved by two Japanese game companies, Nintendo and Sega (Coleman, Dyer- Witheford, 2007). The 8-BIT 2 game consoles of Sega and Nintendo marked the 1990s. The Nintendo NES and Sega Master System were successful machines which attracted huge mass of consumer. The legend characters of the games of Super Mario and Sonic were fashioned in this period. However, these firms could not achieve same success with the next generation 16-BIT gaming consoles. In the same period, an arcade culture spread to all over the western world. Street Fighter and Final Fight were the classics of this age’s beat’em up 3 games. Until the middle of 1990s, the PC games were following a similar line with the console and arcade game technology. With limited graphic and sound support, some of these games could gain popularity such as Prince of Persia and Wolfenstein. In the middle of 1990s, the multimedia revolution provided a launch for PC games. In ends of 1990s, a new player, Sony, came into the struggle with a next generation 32-BIT console: Playstation (PS). PS was the first multimedia based game console and it became the leader of the market by erasing Sega. However, the successful games of 32-BIT platforms were still imitating their
1 Freeware is a type of software which can be distributed in copies without any fee and license agreement. 2 A bit is a binary digit, taking a logical value of either "1" or "0". 8-BIT was the graphical capability of third generation game consoles. Although the previous generation of consoles had also used 8-BIT processors, it was at the end of this generation that home consoles were first labeled by their "bits". 3 Beat 'em up (also known as brawler) is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and large numbers of antagonists. 3 brothers of 1990s. Final Fantasy, Tomb Rider and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater were better in terms of sound and graphics but they had not brought a new wave for the industry. By the 2000s, Microsoft entered the game console market with XBOX. XBOX and the incoming series of Playstation were the internet/network supported models. At the same time, PC games gained the standard of multiplayer gaming abilities. This process also changed the arcade salons to internet-network supported internet cafes.
The game production had a rapid change by the multimedia revolution and internet support. Today the market is controlled by Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and game producer software firms.
3. Modern Dynamics of the Video Games
In the 1980s the world met with a new phenomena: Video games. They were actually the toy of western world. Video games were new markets for profit making. They were a new industry for consumption. Video games were already modern products. They were promising a different life which is far from the streets, gardens and sports centers. In this respect, they were artificial and unnatural. However, they appealed to modern individual which was already constructed as artificial. By the mostly known video game system Atari slogan declared the transfer of “aura of the streets” to the “halo of the screens” in 1980. The slogan was “Atari, now the streets are empty.”
Video games were already modern products. They appealed the people’s individualism and competition. They included individuality other than solidarity. Few of them contain mutual playing. Most of the games appealed the people’s primitive ego and barbarism. Most of them idealized the combat. There was always a serious threat of violence. Some corporations such as Nintendo tried to avoid the violence but even Nintendo could not escape from this. 4
Video games were already modern products. The most popular comment on computer games is to say that they are non-linear / multicursal, meaning that they differ from narratives because they can be different sequences (Juul, 1998). However, the games were extremely linear, in the beginning. They cared the binary logic of mathematics. Most of them
4 Nintendo removed bloody scenes from the violent game of Mortal Kombat. However, it was finally a fighting game. 4 were the pure form of a binary arithmetical system.5 Some of them were YES/NO games. Mathematical language was dominating everything. In these games, building skills need time but they were generally controllable. There were no certain scenario and a constructed end. Most of these games used a ranking system based on pointing and time attack, they were actually never reach ending, they were just getting harder and harder.6 The binary system was not only about the programming but the idea was based on binary oppositions as well: The box of 1984’s Neoclyps game says: “You are the good guy. Your mission is to destroy the bad guys” (Juul, 1998).
The incoming generation was the era of “mature of modernity” for games. The years from 1985s to 1995s were the creator of modern games. These games were based on certain scenarios. In these products, the player had to live a scenario which is constructed by the producer. There is a clear reality of goal and the aim is to achieve the end through the scenario. All the acts of a player were considered as calculable by the programmer. Many times, these scenarios were crystallized by a visualized map. 7 This map provides a control and it reflects the totality of the game. “There are certain ways and methods to finish.” The scenario is limited but it used all available technology to satisfy the player. These modern games provided very little initiation for players. The atmosphere was completed by a background music which generally formed by the sample sequencing techniques such as General MIDI. 8 Therefore there was a story, and from the title screen we know all of it: Earth attacked, Earth freed from the alien menace. This is the basic mode of the classical action game: A clicheed story with a well-known ending (Juul,1998)
At this time, the corporations built their identities by using images like Super Mario, Sonic or Alex Kidd. Thus, the games built heroes and they let players to equate themselves with these heroes. 9 Sometimes, these heroes were taken from other modern products such as Hollywood cinema: Superman, Spider Man, Ninja Turtles, Batman, Michael Jackson...it was the time of rise of subjects and all these subjects were artificially constructed since they
5 Binary arithmetical system contains 0s and 1s. It is the base form computer science. 6 Look at the Appendix A for the first generation video game examples of binary logic. 7 Look at the Appendix B for the visual maps of modern classics. 8 MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is a standard for music file format which does not actually consist the real sound, but the permutation of certain sample sounds. These samples are imitated by the MIDI libraries in different computes. MIDI is mostly used in electronic keyboards. 9 Look at the Appendix C for the constructed images of known companies. 5 served for surplus, promotion, and marketing. The player was rational, there were certain skills to learn and after a learning curve, the games were routine. The mature modernity was a renascence and it tended to create its individuals as players. Gaming software oligapols tried to build their own consumer supporters & fans as well as home markets. By the structure of the cartridge based system 10 , they were able to make profit by the games. However, this route was drawn by trial and error: The compact discs have become a mass product in 1990s. However, some companies failed to convert the game systems to CDs. This was a strategy to prevent the game copying. But it revealed the loss of customers. Sega lost a certain ratio of it’s market after the launch of inflexible cartridge based Dreamcast consoles.
The modern games were safe. They presented an entertaining world for the players in a safe world. The modern player likes to live terror in a safe world. Even the terror can be presented in an aesthetic form in the games. When the 11 th of September terrorist attacks emerged the multiplayer game of Counter-Strike was one of the best played games in the world. This game was based on a simple counter-terrorist combat. And this form of game is mostly appealed the egoistic world of human.
The modernity critic of video games is not very common. However, some discussions can be found in the blogs and forums. One topic states the question in the 2009:
The term Postmodern is a loaded and somewhat debated subject. Literally, the word means "after the modern." The postmodern genre is one generally of rebellion against the established norm or the modern style, whether it be in architecture, writing, or cinema. Most postmodern works defy conventional assumptions by question the basic laws and conventions themselves. Video games, however, seem to be stuck in the modern era. Sure, we have new pretty graphics and capability, but the way in which these stories are told is rigid, repetitive, and conventional. All other forms of art and entertainment have made progress in defying the norm, but the video game industry seems to have been left behind.11
10 A game cartridge is a removable cartridge that contains read-only memory devices and, commonly, flash memory devices to allow some read-write capability. After multimedia revolution the cartridges were replaced by more flexible CD-ROM discs which were easier to be copied. 11 Cited from the internet web site: http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Mar+Vell/call-for-a-postmodern-video- game-125900.phtml
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Several answers have been given to this topic. Most of them try to criticize the problems of the conceptualization of “modern”. One answer constitutes a structured form:
Postmodernism undercuts the structuralism, claims to objectivity, and dualisms that define modernism. It questions the assumptions that lurk behind media constructions, and it levels hierarchies. Seemingly straightforward things like language, meaning, symbolism, and perception are muddled, interrogated, ripped wide open and left to bleed out on the dirty concrete. A strictly postmodern piece of art would not sell well to a mainstream audience. Now, the PC indie crowd has more tolerance for conceptual games, but they will have lower production values, shorter play times, and smaller scopes... Greg Costikyan gravitates toward what could be called postmodern games. Ian Bogost's initiative for "Games for Change" could likewise be seen as postmodern with an activist bent. Perhaps the epitome of postmodern gaming is a game that isn't fun because it implicates the player in a demeaning/destructive/corrupt mindset or methodology necessary to succeed at the game. One could argue that Bioshock achieved something like that by taking the autonomous act of gaming and perverting it into a form of mental enslavement. However, its conclusion reverts back to the safe, modernist assertion that a human agent can regain autonomy (or that autonomy was ever possible) 12
Actually, the concept of modernism cannot be easily applied to the issue of video games. Besides, it is not so easy to identify the transformation process as the “post modernism”. However, this paper tries to include the modernism by using several perspectives. On the other hand, there is need to clarify some concepts and use some variables to state the question. Because, the critique of modernization is a complex issue and it must be undertaken by creating some unit of analysis. On the other hand, postmodernism is hard to define, because it is a concept that appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study, including art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion, and technology. It's hard to locate it temporally or historically, because it's not clear exactly when postmodernism begins (Klages, 2007).
3.1 Two Basis of Modernism: Production & Consumption
There are two trends which create the phenomenon of video games as a reality of the modern life. One is the video game production and the other is the side of demand: The consumer as the individual force. The modernism is about the twentieth century Western
12 Cited from the internet web site: http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Mar+Vell/call-for-a-postmodern-video- game-125900.phtml
7 ideas about art. Modernism is the movement in visual arts, music, literature, and drama which rejected the old Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed, and what it should mean. In the period of “high modernism,” from around 1910 to 1930, the major figures of modernism literature helped radically to redefine what poetry and fiction could be and do: figures like Woolf, Joyce, Eliot, Pound, Stevens, Proust, Mallarme, Kafka, and Rilke are considered the founders of twentieth-century modernism (Klages, 2007). On the other hand, Harvey identified a modernism from the perspective of the production. According to him, the modernism to postmodernism was a process of flexible accumulation. He mentions about the sub contracting systems, the organization of the labor and the industry. New type of working models such as tele-working as well as informal and black markets (Harvey, 2003:177-180).
Simmel and Weber both concerned that modernism is increasingly characterized by formal and objectifying systems of administration, control and calculation by quantification, methodocity and rules. According to Weber, the methodological calculation of world takes the form of instrumental rationality in which everything can be treated as calculable object rather than as meaningful, intrinsically subject (Slater, 1997:117).
3.1.1 Production
The video game production started as an amateur hacker job. In a short time, this work became a gate for commodification. By the time small companies emerged especially in the US. The games of 1980s were completely amateurish or they were created by small companies which included few of personals. Through the mature modernity time, in the 1990s, some of the firms were transformed to bigger ones and many of them disappeared. As a consequence of relative simplicity of the games, generally a game was being created by one firm. The professionalization was based on game types. While Electronic Arts was creating sports games, 3D Realms and ID Software was working on the development of a 3D motor and Blizzard & Westwood was trying to make strategy games. There were the leader companies of game types. 13 Besides, the firms were trying the control the whole process of marketing. A firm was able to build a game, besides they were testing, distributing as well as they were trying to keep the property rights. On the other hand, there were strict contracts
13 Look at the Appendix D for the mature modernity classics and their creators. 8 between corporations. Some software corporations made games for certain hardware corporations, such as console producer Sega. By the time, especially by the success of some hit games, these rules got more flexible and several games could be produced by a bunch of firms. However, the mature modernity age was a “Fordist” time for both software and hardware corporations as well as games.
On the other hand, the programming of these games based on very clear rules. Arguably, with each subsequence experience of a game, book, art work, the gamer and the audience are much more aware of the structure. 14 Introducing a narrative reduces the number of times you play the game. The literary qualities, usually associated with depth and contemplation, actually makes computer games less repeatable, and more “trashy” in the sense that you won't play Myst again once you've completed it (Juul, 1998). In this respect, Tetris and River Raid are the endless works those can always be replayed.
I terms of structure, the video game is composed of two different layers. The material; the graphics, sound, narrative frame. The other level is the program, which is perfectly formal, it works on a purely electrical level and coding of computer languages (Juul,1998). These two levels were handled by similar units until the ends of mature modernity.
Source: Juul,1998
3.1.2 Consumption
The consumer is actually player of the video games. Thus, s/he has a certain interaction with the games. First mass players emerged in the 1980s. They were the derivatives of the mass
14 Cited from http://fromthegutter.org/?p=956 9 video gaming machines and arcades. Thus, they have been mostly determined by the game supply.
The first age of gaming was simple and binary. Since the players were the only consumers of this supply, they were simply adopted this binary logic. Basically, this modern player has been related to the core modern values of reason. The simple logic of playing computer games was to satisfy materialistic desires. The consumer reflects the aspirations of modern western citizens to be free, rational, autonomous, and self-defining. But also, this consumer is a candidate for being slave of his/her desires. From this perspective, the consumer is a schizoid. On the other hand, the consumer is a hero of modernity when considered with the demands of bourgeois culture. The individuals most banal desires could be discerned the heroic will and intelligence that could transform nature and society. The consumer is heroic because s/he rational and autonomous. His/her self defined needs gives legitimacy to the economic institutions (Slater, 1997: 33).
The reasons for playing are completely different. The frame stories that most computer games have are ridiculously shallow and clicheed. The computer game is rather based on two different types of desire. The first is the desire for a structural understanding of the game; to understand how the game works. In Doom this would be knowing how the monsters move, which buttons to push to open a door. The second is the desire for having the performative skills needed to actualize this knowledge (Juul,1998).
The modern age of games has not been born by human needs and wants, however, these desires became a motor for the advance of the industry. The games have been developed under the demand of rational self interest. Arcades became the public spaces of the realization of this interest. The modern player emerged in 1980s and s/he could keep her/his personal preferences for incoming decades in a definite form.
4. Transformation of Gaming Dynamics 4.1 Flexible Mode of Video Game Production
After multimedia revolution, the video game sector entered to a new path. The revolution brought a bunch of inventions to the world. By the combination of CD-ROMs, powerful
10 graphic adaptors, faster CPUs and stereo sound support, the games could be produced in more realistic ways. The programmers could do whatever else they could imagine before.
Due to the technology, the new games had to be more complex. There were opportunities to use real video graphics, multi language support, real time speeches, stereo music and network support. Thus, there emerged an extreme demand for professionalization. As a consequence, the games have been started to produce as a common production of different firms. The real cinematic videos were being recorded in Westwood Studios, modeling was done by Eidos Interactive and coding belonged to Activision. Many times, the customer support and internet services were provided different companies as well. Some of the corporations developed monopolies for the distribution market and property rights started to be kept by professional umbrella organizations.
The two layers of a video game structure, “program” and “material” now belong to distinctly different traditions. The material belongs to the traditional media. This is what the aesthetic faculties of universities know how to handle. And the program was based on the skills and electronics.
This was a production model which is based on sub contracting. Due to the internet, many firms had the opportunity of employing programmers from different countries especially from India and Far East.
Harvey points another side of the transformation of video game productions. He bravely adopts the term “post modern”. According to him, one of the key variables of the capitalist production is turnover. The turnover has a tendency of increase by the usage of new technologies and new organization models. However, the real boom of turnover can be created only by recreation of consumption. For instance, a Fordist product has a-5 to 7 years of half-life generally. However, flexible accumulation decreased this (increased turnovers) to half in some sectors. Besides, in some special sectors such as “thoughtware” industry, which is video game production actually, it became less than 18 months. Thus, the flexible accumulation provided special forces for the new fashions and culture who asks for a new one in any moment. Thus, according to him, the relatively stable modernist aesthetics are replaced by the instable, fleeting postmodernist aesthetics (Harvey, 2003: 180).
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The end of modernity was also observed by vanishing of the certain scenarios. Doom, Quake and Duke were the three examples of the transformation of modernism in the video games. They damaged the idea of the dualism of gameplay and narrative. Two of the most popular games in recent years, Doom and Quake are justly famous for their lack of storylines. Legend has it that ID Software only refer to the concept “story” as “the s-word”.15 In a recent interview, ID head John Carmack says of the upcoming Quake III that it will have “The best graphics, the best networking, the best gameplay - but no plot” (Juul, 1998).
4.1.1 Virtual Life: The Limits of Flexible Mode of Production.
When the multimedia revolution was combined with the broadband mass internet, the modern age of the video games reached their limits. By the rapid advances in the telecommunication infrastructure, the massively multi player online games (MMOGs)16 emerged as the accessible and playable options. In 1997 Electronic Arts launched the first MMOG Ultima Online, a neo-medieval fantasy world in which players looted, pillaged, hacked, slashed, crafted and traded. Plagued by problems from server crashes to mass killing of novice players, Ultima suffered both virtual peasant revolt and a real-life player class action suit (Kline et al., 2003).
Flexible games were risky since they were contingent. You can do anything without limits, you can earn and lose real money and there is no actual end for these games. They provided great self realization for real players. Despite the all advances in gaming technology, the artificial intelligence had not achieved to the abilities of human brain. However, new age games brought real human intelligence to the game by the online gaming experience. There was no clear aesthetics of these games. There was no best, no goal even no end. Common rationality had been disappeared. While someone was seeking a friend for chat the other was trying to attack people for barbarism. There were different benefits and goals. There were different considerations of visuality. Flexible games gave a priority to the human will. They supported relativism. Although, the motor was profit making.
The final games promise more than games. Not only they are simulating life but also they are taking parts from the life. In the real time life simulations such as Ultima Online the people
15 Look at the Appendix E for the first symptoms of new age games. 16 The title of “massive multiplayer online game” is used by Yong Cao and John D.H. Downing. 12 can live a total life experience. In these games, people can find a job, build a house, go shopping, join guilds. The game of “Second Life” provides a freedom for the character design and real structuring of world places. Like in the second life, it is possible to buy a character or sell in Knight Online. Every credits that you earned in the game can be converted to real money by a certain conversation rate (For instance: 300 Second Life credits = 1 Euros)
The designers gave up building a total construction and they left the games to a free flow. The games for unformulated and they were open for contingency. This was the best way to simulate real life since the life is basically a real phantasmagoria. You can do everything in any time which is limited by your prestige and budget. On the other hand, the ways of profit making had been changed. There emerged better ways other than selling games in millions of copies: Building internet portals and collecting people for online play opened new possibilities for profit making.
Grand Theft Auto, Halo, The Sims, Pokemon, Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft are quintessential high-technology products, icons of consumer culture and the basis of a global $28 billion industry. As Kline (2003) have suggested, videogames seem the ‘ideal commodity’ of post-Fordist capital, exemplifying its digital production practices, marketing techniques and consumption habits (Coleman, Dyer-Witheford, 2007). Due to the MMOGs, there were unlimited abilities for the new age. Coming as the commercialization of the internet gained momentum, this change laid the basis for commodification. Played on the internet, these “synthetic worlds” (Castronova, 2005) allow thousands of players to interact in persistent virtual environments. A decade later, however, there are some 70 operating MMOGs. Early successes such as EverQuest, Ultima and Asheron’s Call are being displaced by new arrivals such as World of Warcraft, which alone has some 8 million subscribers. Globally, MMOG ‘populations’ are reckoned at about 10 million (Castronova, 2005) and growing, particularly in Asia. 17
MMOGs are far from free. Games usually require not only purchase of initial software, but also monthly subscriptions, as well as expansion packs and addons. The economics are risky. Successful MMOGs cost between $30 million and $50 million to launch (Mulligan, 2002), with ongoing costs for staff to maintain, tweak and troubleshoot. But if a game attracts
17 Look at the Appendix F for the screenshots of most popular MMOGs. 13 sufficient player base, revenue streams are impressive. It is estimated that, in 2005,World of Warcraft alone was bringing Blizzard, its developer, over $700 million a year, while worldwide. MMOG revenues were over $1.5 billion (Schiesel, 2005; Woodcock, 2005).
What complicates the analysis is the role of players in creating MMOGs. While developers program the initial parameters of such games, the interaction of the players provides the substance of their virtual worlds, creating behavior patterns, social rules and collective institutions. The vibrancy of the online community determines whether a game persists and becomes profitable. Since MMOGs depend on the multiple interactions of thousands of inhabitants, all of whom use the game but none of whom own it, they have in a very general sense, a commons component. (Coleman, Dyer-Witheford, 2007). These games are working like “post modernism generators”.18 The story/discourse pair is in other words meaningless in these video games. These video games simply doesn't have an active dualism like that and they were completely isolated from narratives. In a game, you are not able to first play a scene in the present, and then jump to an earlier point on the time line and have interactivity there. Because the first scene would then be determined by whatever the player does earlier on the time line. This would be to a classic time travel paradox. It then appears that trying to add a significant story to a computer game invariably reduces the number of times you're likely to play the game (Juul, 1998).
These games could be considered as the end of modernism because, they were different in many aspects. But, the most important thing is that while modernism was seeking to create
18 Dawkins notes that the Post Modernism Generator is a literally infinite source of randomly generated, syntactically correct nonsense, distinguishable from the real thing only in being more fun to read. You could generate thousands of papers per day, each one unique and ready for publication, complete with numbered endnotes. Manuscripts should be submitted to the 'Editorial Collective' of Social Text , double-spaced and in triplicate. Every time you visit it, at http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/postmodern , it will spontaneously generate for you, using faultless grammatical principles, a spanking new postmodern discourse, never before seen. I have just been there, and it produced for me a 6,000-word article called "Capitalist theory and the subtextual paradigm of context" by "David I. L.Werther and Rudolf du Garbandier of the Department of English, Cambridge University" (poetic justice there, for it was Cambridge that saw fit to give Jacques Derrida an honorary degree). Here is a typical passage from this impressively erudite work: “If one examines capitalist theory, one is faced with a choice: either reject neotextual materialism or conclude that society has objective value. If dialectic desituationism holds, we have to choose between Habermasian discourse and the subtextual paradigm of context. It could be said that the subject is contextualised into a textual nationalism that includes truth as a reality. In a sense, the premise of the subtextual paradigm of context states that reality comes from the collective unconscious.”
14 and destruct, these games opened a stage based on the human intelligence. So, this was not a new product, but a monotonous product which is always evaluating in itself.
On the other hand, according to some people, this transformation process can be titled as postmodernism in the gaming. From this point of view, there are some proofs to find out post modern games: The increase of the realism in the games, emerge of uncategorizable games such as a car racing game including romance, the games with no more heroes and without a certain, unambiguous ending as well as without clear goals. 19
4.2 Hardly Changing Consumer: Still Modern Player
The player is still modern. It is still seeking for ego satisfaction and violence. Any soft man/women can be found while playing a violent game such as raping games. Sometimes, the games appeal to people’s sadistic demands openly. If we take Marx’s critique of alienation and commodity fetishism seriously, the consumer, who chooses amongst a selection of ready-made objects and who acts on that choice through a disposal of abstract quantities rather than through making and doing, must represent for Marxism brutalization and indignity of individual (Slater, 1997:115). The video games mostly work for the account of making people consumers. This has not been changed since the emergence of mass games in 1980s.
As Raven argues, we’re still a little too comfortable with enjoying everything we play. Any stretches of sadness in this medium tend to be restricted to self-indulgence or vapid tearjerker fare, and even they invariably make way for happy endings and bunny fluff (Raven, 2009).
The creator of the Civilization series, Sid Meier, argues that the fundamental qualities that make a good game have remained unchanged and elusive. Consumers still flock to buy original, addictive, and fun games, leaving many flashy products with million-dollar budgets languishing in the $9.99 bin. These costly failures demonstrate that the consumer does not desire a cinematic experience, but rather a quality gaming experience (Juul,1998).
19 Cited from http://fromthegutter.org/?p=956
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Source:Arda Deniz Aksular,2009
However, the player has more sovereignty on the games in the flexible age. Today, thanks to the internet, the player can intervene to a game by creating his/her styles. Now “You can create art and beauty on a computer” (Brand, 1972). However, according to Lukacs, the rationalization process was a cause of alienation and isolation in the modern time gaming (Slater, 1997: 119). The additional tools in the internet provide the ability of editing games or even they help people to create their own games without any coding. “Modding” is one example of the reflection of the strong consumer influence on the games.
4.2.1 Modding
Modders aim to expand games: changing characters’ “skins”, adding weapons, creating scenarios, levels or missions, building new games out of old engine. Such practices can be seen as a version of fan-artists’ “poaching” of literary and cinematic work (Jenkins, 1992, 2002). But it also stems directly from the hacker tradition of digital tinkering that incessantly “improved” versions of early games (Law, 2002). A Canadian computer science student adapted the Valve’s Half Life to create Counter-Strike, a terrorist/anti-terrorist game played by networked teams. Half-Life was a smash hit, but Counter-Strike became the most popular
16 online game in the world. “Mods” are circulated for free, with or without the cooperation of developers. Modding provides a chance to people to escape from being merely consumers and it open new paths for human creativity. However, since the modding contributes the life of a game, it reveals the emergence of new commodification areas. Witnessing their success, some companies “buy back” successful mods, hiring the teams that created them. Others host competitions with lavish cash prizes for modifications to their games. If the financial profits of modding do not transferred to the corporations, the modding act could be sued as well(Todd, 2003). On the other hand, the modding is considered as kind of post modern form since it provides a response to traditional story telling. As Paul Raven argues, “Dear Esther” is a Half-Life mod that’s a sort of first-person virtuality narrative with a degree of interaction but no “traditional” game play goals (Raven, 2009).
4.3 Additional Outputs of Flexible Age
4.3.1 Imitation & Kitsch Production
The new age of video games has not only created the flexible games but also they lead imitation, emulation and kitsch production. Some software corporations tried to imitate early productions with the new possibilities of technology. Most of time, the kitsch products were emerged.
Now, the video game culture is on sale. The market is forcing the companies to make more profits and this generally leads to monopolization. In this competition, the tiny successful firms are disappearing or they are being the subcontractors of bigger firms.
The Westwood Studios, who built legend strategy games such as C&C Red Alert, Dune and Tiberan Sun series, was bought by the Electronic Arts. All these successful series were inspired by a scenario and novel. However, the final releases of Red Alert and Tiberian Sun series reflected the point of Electronic Arts monopoly: Two games of kitsch which only made for more profit making: The warriors of composed of most known film stars, easily playable without any strategically thinking and over lightning war atmosphere. The war is supported by an electronically amplified Soviet music in the background. The final releases of C&C used the popularity of final decade and it created a kitsch hit. People bought it because, the C&C had already become a gaming fetish. It was a big halo with an unlimited exchange value. But
17 the player was still modern who loved kitsch. The scenario has been summarized into exciting videos and it made ready for visual demands. It destroyed the mythical character of C&C and build an all-men’s-game. 20 The most widely accepted games are clearly those exhibiting the most traditional aesthetics. They also tend to be considered actual culture and be reviewed by traditional-media reviewers (Jules,1998).
On the other hand, the imitation trend has also been seen in every successful games. After the effect of the first era first person shooter game Doom, the creator ID Software sold the codes and unlimited imitations was created. Very least of them were successful. The imitation process has been seen in the complex games from Doom to simple ones such as Pac-Man and Mario. Besides, the legend machines of Nintendo and Atari has been cloned by firms. Of course, this was a good since the modern individual likes to idealize his/her lost.
4.3.2 Emulation
The second phenomena emerged with the flexible age were the emulation systems. These systems were based on the making the old classics playable in the new age game systems. By this way, final consoles such as Sony Playstation Plus are supported with emulator software technologies. Most of these consoles could emulate the ROM 21 files of old classics. Thus, like the MP3 music files, old classic games of 80s and 90s (especially arcade ones) can be played in new age machines. A Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator software (MAME) could run nearly 6500 games of all ages, and these games can be kept in an ordinary SD Memory card with 10GB of free space. Of course, this was a great opportunity to live a nostalgic pleasure. However, this was also a great space for a flighty individual. These classics had been created under certain competitive conditions in 1980s and 1990s. People spend on coins and they had to wait long queues in the arcades to play them. The console classics were rare and extremely expensive in those times. However, these games are in SD cards, they can be achievable and playable free of coin now. The notice of “Insert Coin” is only nostalgia for now. Briefly, the emulation provided discrete gaming experiences for the modern individual. But, SD was never a permanent memory. It was a voluntary memory to reconstruct games in a form of halo. SD can be used in many kinds of mobile devices. Disk technology also
20 Look at the Annex G for the “all men’s kitsch” of final C&C Red Alert. 21 ROM stands for “Read Only Memory”. ROMs are the old game files taken from the microchips of game game cartridges. Thousands of ROMs can be found in internet sites. 18 provided saving & loading options for the games which made them easily consumable. Modern player may consume games in anywhere such as in a toilet of a shopping mall. Thus, all parts of the daily life are filled by discrete pleasures. The emptiness was a source of fear for that modern individual. ROMs were lack of totality of a console system or arcade machine, they were just consumable. They are known all-time-hit-games and when they are played they make people feel a standardized taste. Even thought, many times, this halo could be attractive for most people since several imitations of 1990s systems have been produced to make people live in nostalgia. These systems and games can be considered some type of “commons”. 22 Such recollection of the ROM games sometimes romanticizes the commons.
On the other hand, for some people, replaying games can also be deconstructive: When we replay Super Mario, for example, we know what’s coming - 8 different worlds with 4 levels, the last of which is a castle with Bowser. Yes, we know - Peach is another castle. And then you have gamers who invent new ways to play the game in a way that wasn’t intended. Replaying games almost seems inherently deconstructive, taking apart the known and taking it less seriously. Briefly, we know that playing that game, reading that book, or watching that movie again won’t be the same, maybe similar but not the same. Often, though, we’re not looking for the same because we know what’s coming. Instead, we want to focus on the unfolding of what’s to come, largely because we believe that the unfolding is a rich process, containing things we might have missed before, like looking for the door images and their meanings in the Godfather. 23
5. Conclusion
The video games were already the products of modern world. Even thought they have been invented by trial and error, they mostly served for the profit of modern consumption society. On the one hand, they provided the firms great profits on the other hand they satisfied the pleasure of individuals. In the beginning they were purely binary. After 1980s, due to the consumer demand and technological advances, the video games reached a mature form. This was the “mature modernity” of the video games. Furthermore, modernity created the
22 Commons are resources that all in a specified community may use, but none can own (Coleman and Nick Dyer-Witheford, 2007). By the expire of the license rights of the ROM games, they will be “abandonware”. Thus, they have a potential to be the commons.” 23 Cited from http: http://fromthegutter.org/?p=956 19
“modern player”. The mature modernity was ended with the multimedia revolution. After the revolution, the internet came into the equation as a new variable. By the end of mature modernity, the production methods changed rapidly. In this period, the game production sector lived a two folded evaluation process. In some examples, the corporations created a new type of flexible games. These were the online versions of old games as well as totally new ones. The common point was that they were always open for a new online players and a real life simulation. The second trend was the imitation and kitsch production. These second type of outputs were some kinds of “plagiarism”. The profit making was the motor but the systems of profit making had been changed. End of modernism, not only created the flexible games but also it revealed kitsch production and imitations. However, it also romanticized the past by building the commons.
Modern player of the games were created by the mature modernity. In the period of flexible games (today and into the near future), the players seem as they are still modern. The player still demands in certain ways. The player became only a consumer and it could not gain any transformer & protest power. It is still seeking for EGO satisfaction and violence. In contrast, the production systems were evaluated in a more flexible way. The new games are providing a contingent and multi identity based opportunities. Probably, this will be a motor for the transformation of the modern player. Maybe, it is not easy to name this production process as post-modern but it does not seem that it stays in the limits of modernity. Even if the gaming could have a sui generis culture, the all trends followed a commodified way and there has not been a strong trend for the games who are not seeking for real consumption. Like the other commodities, the video game culture was produced, exchanged and consumed in the form of commodities.
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Appendix
A: Binary logic
Spacewar!, 1962 Pong, 1972 Mystery House,1980
B: Visual map C: Images of companies
Super Mario 3,1988 Sonic of Sega and Mario of Nintendo
D: Mature Modernity
Fifa International Soccer ,1993 Warcraft,1994 Wolfenstein 3D ,1992
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E : A break of from the narratives.
Doom,1993 Duke Nukem 3D,1996 Quake,1996
F: MMOG Revolution for real players, real identities and virtual lifes.
Ultima Online,1997, Second Life,2003 and World of Warcraft, 2005
G : All men’s kitsch: Combat strategy or a beauty show?
C&C Red Alert 3, 2008
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