Videogames by James Newman
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1111 2 3 VIDEOGAMES 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8111 James Newman’s lucid and engaging introduction guides the reader 9 through the world of videogaming, providing a history of the videogame 20 from its origins in the computer lab to its contemporary status as a global 1 entertainment industry, with characters such as Lara Croft and Sonic the 2 Hedgehog familiar even to those who’ve never been near a game console. 3 Videogames explores: 4 5 • Why study videogames? 6 • What is a videogame? 7 • A brief history of videogames, from Pac-Man to Pokémon 8 • The videogame industry 9 • Who plays videogames? 30111 • Are videogames bad for you? 1 • The narrative structure of videogames 2 • The future of videogames 3 4 James Newman is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at 5 Bath Spa University College. In 1998 he completed the first UK PhD 6 examining videogames as a socio-cultural phenomenon. He has published 7 articles on videogames in New Media and Society and Game Studies. 8 39 40 41 4211 ROUTLEDGE INTRODUCTIONS TO MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS Edited by Paul Cobley London Metropolitan University This new series provides concise introductions to key areas in contem- porary communications. Each book in the series addresses a genre or a form of communication, analysing the nature of the genre or the form as well as reviewing its production and consumption, outlining the main theories and approaches that have been used to study it, and discussing contemporary textual examples of the form. The series offers both an outline of how each genre or form has developed historically, and how it is changing and adapting to the contemporary media landscape, exploring issues such as convergence and globalization. Videogames James Newman Brands Marcel Danesi Advertising Ian MacRury Magazines Anna Gough-Yates Youth Culture Bill Osgerby News Jackie Harrison Cyberspace Mikle Ledgerwood 1111 2 3 VIDEOGAMES 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8111 James Newman 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 39 40 41 4211 The only legitimate use for a computer is to play games Eugene Jarvis, videogame designer First published 2004 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2004 James Newman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized 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. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A Catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-64290-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-67467-7 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–28191–1 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–28192–X (pbk) 1111 2 3 CONTENTS 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8111 List of tables viii 9 Series editor’s preface ix 20 1 1 Why study videogames? 1 2 Taking games seriously 1 3 Why study videogames? 3 4 Why have academics ignored computer games? 5 5 6 2 What is a videogame? Rules, puzzles and simulations: 7 defining the object of study 9 8 Super Mario, Tamagotchi, Furby and AIBO 9 9 Classifying videogames 11 30111 Ludic context: coin-op vs home systems 13 1 What a videogame isn’t 15 2 Why do players play? 16 3 Rules, winning and losing: videogames as games 18 4 Paidea and ludus in videogames 20 5 Types of game 22 6 Videogames and interactivity 26 7 So, what exactly is a videogame? 27 8 39 3Manufacturing fun: platforms, development, 40 publishing and creativity 29 41 Videogames in transition 29 4211 Videogames and technology 30 vi CONTENTS Scrolling, exploration and memory: producing and storing videogame spaces 31 Complexity and diversity 33 The modern development studio 36 Divisions and roles 37 Management and design 38 Quality assurance 41 Videogame platforms 43 Finance, publishing and risk 46 4 Videogame players: who plays, for how long and what it’s doing to them 49 The continuing myth of the videogame audience 49 Generation PSX, mainstream and hardcore: targeting the audience 50 Boys only? Audience demographics 53 Just five more minutes . measuring audience behaviour 58 Game panics: ‘effects’ research and the inscribed audience 61 Assessing the research 66 5 Videogame structure: levels, breaks and intermissions 71 Non-interactivity in the interactive videogame 71 Level differentiation 77 Between levels 82 Save-die-restart: maintaining challenge in multi-session games 84 The durability of inter-level breaks 87 6 Narrative and play, audiences and players: approaches to the study of videogames 91 Ludology and narratology 91 PlayStation, CD-ROM and the cut-scene 92 The trouble with cut-scenes: ‘active’ and ‘passive’, ‘stories’ and ‘instructions’ 94 The (inter)active audience 94 The function of cut-scenes 98 Narrative and new media 100 Game time 103 1111 7 Videogames, space and cyberspace: exploration, 2 navigation and mastery 107 3 Adventures in space 107 4 Videogames and cyberspace 109 5 Spaces to play in and with 111 6 Videogames as spatial stories 113 7 Spatial typologies 115 8 Navigating cyberspaces 118 9 Space and gameplay 121 10 11 8 Videogame players and characters: narrative 2 functions and feeling cyborgs 127 3111 The videogame character as cultural icon 127 4 The lives of Mario 129 5 Developing characters 132 6 Player preferences 134 7 Experiencing at first hand: being and watching the Hero 139 8111 Behind the visual 141 9 20 9 Social gaming and the culture of videogames: 1 competition and collaboration on and off screen 145 2 The myth of the solitary gamer 145 3 The videogame as social space 149 4 Videogame culture 152 5 Sharing strategy 157 6 Fans as media producers 159 7 8 10 Future gaming: online/mobile/retro 163 9 From Pong to PlayStation 163 30111 Have we played the future? Retrogaming and emulation 165 1 Continuity 168 2 Where next? 168 3 4 Bibliography 171 5 Index 193 6 7 8 39 40 41 4211 CONTENTS vii TABLES 2.1 The elements of a videogame 11 3.1 Videogame development roles and divisions 38 8.1 Propp’s spheres of action 131 8.2 Actant relationships in Super Mario Sunshine 132 8.3 Character comparison chart for (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) Street Fighter II Turbo 136 1111 2 3 SERIES EDITOR’S 4 PREFACE 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8111 There can be no doubt that communications pervade contemporary 9 social life. The audio-visual media, print and other communication tech- 20 nologies play major parts in modern human existence, mediating diverse 1 interactions between people. Moreover, they are numerous, hetero- 2 geneous and multi-faceted. 3 Equally, there can be no doubt that communications are dynamic and 4 ever-changing, constantly reacting to economic and popular forces. 5 Communicative genres and modes that we take for granted because they 6 are seemingly omnipresent – news, advertising, film, radio, television, 7 fashion, the book – have undergone alarming sea changes in recent years. 8 They have also been supplemented and reinvigorated by new media, new 9 textualities, new relations of production and new audiences. 30111 The study of communications, then, cannot afford to stand still. 1 Although communication study as a discipline is relatively recent in its 2 origin, it has continued to develop in recognizable ways, embracing new 3 perspectives, transforming old ones and responding to – and sometimes 4 influencing – changes in the media landscape. 5 This series of books is designed to present developments in contem- 6 porary media. It focuses on the analysis of textualities, offering an 7 up-to-date assessment of current communications practice. The emphasis 8 of the books is on the kind of communications which constitute the 39 modern media and the theoretical tools which are needed to understand 40 them. Such tools may include semiotics (including social semiotics and 41 semiology), discourse theory, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, queer 4211 theory, gender analysis, political economy, liberal pluralism, positivism x SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE (including quantitative approaches), qualitative methodologies (including the ‘new ethnography’), reception theory and ideological analysis. The breadth of current communications media, then, is reflected in the array of methodological resources needed to investigate them. Yet, the task of analysis is not carried out as an hermetic experiment. Each volume in the series places its topic within a contextual matrix of production and consumption. Each allows readers to garner an under- standing of what that communication is like without tempting them to forget who produced it, for what purpose, and with what result. The books seek to present research on the mechanisms of textuality but also attempt to reveal the precise situation in which such mechanisms exist. Readers coming to these books will therefore gain a valuable insight into the present standing of specific communications media. Just as import- antly, though, they will become acquainted with analytic methods which address, explore and interrogate the very bases of that standing. 1111 2 3 1 4 5 6 7111 WHY STUDY 8 VIDEOGAMES? 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8111 TAKING GAMES SERIOUSLY 9 20 1962 was an auspicious year.