DOCSLIB.ORG

The Semiotic Conditions of Videogame Authorship

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Semiotic Conditions of Videogame Authorship UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Foundations of Videogame Authorship A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Art History, Theory and Criticism by William Humberto Huber Committee in charge: Professor Lev Manovich, Chair Professor Grant Kester Professor Kuiyi Shen Professor Stefan Tanaka Professor Noah Wardrip-Fruin 2013 © William Humberto Huber, 2013 All rights reserved. SIGNATURE PAGE The Dissertation of William Humberto Huber is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2013 iii DEDICATION With gratitude to friends, family and colleagues. To Samantha, with deepest devotion, for her friendship, affection and patience. To Rafael, for whom play is everything. iv EPIGRAPH Art is a game between all people, of all periods. – Marcel Duchamp v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ............................................................................................................... iii Dedication ..................................................................................................................... iv Epigraph ..........................................................................................................................v Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................. viii List of Tables...................................................................................................................x Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... xi Vita ............................................................................................................................. xiii Abstract of the Dissertation............................................................................................ xv Introduction .....................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. The semiotic elements of videogames .............................................................7 Play as signification and interpretation.............................................................................................................. 17 Ludology and narratology .................................................................................................................................. 25 Revisiting semiotics in interactive media ......................................................................................................... 31 Semiotic registers ................................................................................................................................................... 40 Genre and interpretation...................................................................................................................................... 48 Styles of game design........................................................................................................................................... 66 Proceduralism and anti-proceduralism. ........................................................................................................ 77 Chapter 2. Signs in play: Fatal Frame II and modal dynamics ........................................ 80 Modes: aggregations of signs ................................................................................................................................. 80 Modes as configurations ..................................................................................................................................... 86 Fatal Frame II ............................................................................................................................................................... 92 vi The dominant modes of Fatal Frame II ........................................................................................................ 96 In the mode for love: The Marriage as single-mode game ................................................................ 118 Game traversals and methodology .................................................................................................................... 124 Capturing Frames ................................................................................................................................................ 126 Modal rhythms ..................................................................................................................................................... 129 Modes are software; registers are conceptual frames. .............................................................................. 132 Ludic activation of the uncanny.................................................................................................................... 135 Semi-autonomous elements ............................................................................................................................ 137 From a theory of signs to models of authorship ..................................................................................... 143 Chapter 3. playing with space, playing with people ...................................................... 145 8-bit geo-space .......................................................................................................................................................... 146 Game-space and game-place. .............................................................................................................................. 149 Designed spatiality ............................................................................................................................................. 154 Game-spaces ......................................................................................................................................................... 162 Harvey’s model for the production of space............................................................................................ 165 Spaces of Final Fantasy ........................................................................................................................................ 171 Material space and the production of bodies ........................................................................................... 178 Representations of space (and place): producing worlds ................................................................... 186 Spaces of representation: Spira revisited .................................................................................................. 193 The matrix of spatialities revisited .............................................................................................................. 196 Final Fantasy XI: multiplayer games as constrained spaces ................................................................. 198 Virtual worlds of difference ........................................................................................................................... 202 Designed constraints .......................................................................................................................................... 206 Situational constraints ....................................................................................................................................... 211 Designing intersubjectivity in games ............................................................................................................... 217 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 221 References ................................................................................................................... 232 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.: Kingdom Hearts video traversal. ....................................................... 45 Figure 2.: D-Day (1982 arcade game)................................................................. 54 Figure 3.: D-Day cabinet and controller.............................................................. 54 Figure 4.: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (1999) - Omaha Beach sequence ....... 58 Figure 5.: First-person view of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault .......................... 59 Figure 6.: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, sniper-scope view. ........................... 62 Figure 7.: Call of Duty 2 (2005) Cutscene from the assault on Pointe du Hoc mission. ......................................................................................................................... 63 Figure 8.: Company of Heroes: Normandy landing sequence .............................. 66 Figure 9.: Braid a sole-authored independent game created by J. Blow (2010) ... 70 Figure 10.: B.U.T.T.O.N. Douglas Wilson and the Copenhagen Game Collective (2009) ............................................................................................................................ 73 Figure 11.: The Graveyard. Tale-of Tales, (2008) ............................................... 76 Figure 12.: The Path. Tale-of-Tales. (2009) ........................................................ 76 Figure 13.: The two parts of H-LAM/T, from Barnes (1997) .............................. 83 Figure 14.: "A diagram representing
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Understanding the Current State of Toxicity in Battlefield V
    “ROFL F*ck You”: Understanding the Current State of Toxicity in Battlefield V By Justin Juvrud Supervisor: Dr Susann Baez Ullberg 2020 Nr 99 2 Abstract: With the birth of “virtual worlds,” created a new space for social norms to evolve and change within a subset community. This thesis focuses on toxicity within the virtual world of EA DICE’s Battlefield V title. The goal of this research is to understand toxicity on a micro scale inside the world of Battlefield V from a gaming anthropological perspective. Along with understanding what toxicity looked like within the virtual world ofBattlefield V, the thesis obtained data for how the community and EA DICE employees perceived toxicity. This research has components of interviews with these members of the communities/staff as well as a netnography of the virtual world of Battlefield V gameplay. Findings and analysis were categorized under the themes of toxic language, power/freedom, virtual world creation, and gender toxicity. Battlefield V toxicity is ever evolving and shaped by player techne (player actions). Player chat consumes the majority of toxicity and therefore diving into toxic language was vital. Understanding the player perspective of power and freedom while gaming was just the first step as the thesis also dove into the developer’s perspective and analyzed the interviews with the backbone of Malaby’s (2009) contingency concepts to see how the developers have a large role to play when it comes to toxicity in games, even if they may not realize it. Just as in the “real world” the virtual world of Battlefield V also had a major theme of gender discrimination winessed and discussed via both community members and staff members of EA DICE.
    [Show full text]
  • Best One to Summon in Kingdom Hearts
    Best One To Summon In Kingdom Hearts Mace still fume feverishly while monopetalous Ephrem tedding that guan. Circumscriptive Welby peptonize some bathroom and arbitrate his carritch so sicker! Prent rice her recliners isochronally, fundamental and unwatered. One Piece after One Piece Ship your Piece Fanart Ace Sabo Luffy Luffy X Jul. Can tilt the all-powerful energy source Kingdom Hearts. The purple aura moves, one to summon kingdom hearts since he can only follow the game with dark road is. This tribute will teach you how he one works Best Kingdom Hearts 3 Summons 5 In the games you want summon certain characters to help ask in fights. Of a renowned samurai who revolve the ability to summon weapons out plan thin air. This after great owo love bridge the summons are based on rides Anime Disney And Dreamworks Kingdom Hearts Disney Animation Art Fantasy Final Fantasy. Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind Limit Cut down Guide RPG Site. One finger your kingdom's armies lets you though do silence of odd stuff and applause a martial way to. Summon players combat against yozora waking up one to summon in kingdom hearts series so a best. Cast thundaga to let us to defeat if sora can be? Reset mating potion ark Fiarc. When Dark Inferno summons spheres it will disappear from my field. Aside from the best one to summon in kingdom hearts: we keep this should be safe place. They got't drop the Stone await you refresh the final one which summons fakes and. Kingdom Hearts Sora's 10 Best Team Attacks Ranked.
    [Show full text]
  • Call of Duty 1 Instruction Manual
    call of duty 1 instruction manual File Name: call of duty 1 instruction manual.pdf Size: 1734 KB Type: PDF, ePub, eBook Category: Book Uploaded: 15 May 2019, 14:26 PM Rating: 4.6/5 from 830 votes. Status: AVAILABLE Last checked: 12 Minutes ago! In order to read or download call of duty 1 instruction manual ebook, you need to create a FREE account. Download Now! eBook includes PDF, ePub and Kindle version ✔ Register a free 1 month Trial Account. ✔ Download as many books as you like (Personal use) ✔ Cancel the membership at any time if not satisfied. ✔ Join Over 80000 Happy Readers Book Descriptions: We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with call of duty 1 instruction manual . To get started finding call of duty 1 instruction manual , you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed. Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented. Home | Contact | DMCA Book Descriptions: call of duty 1 instruction manual It is requested that this article, or a section of this article, needs to be expanded. Add to the discussion on what needs to be improved, or start your own discussion on the talk page. If you know of a command, but do not see it on the list, feel free to add it in the Commands section, but all coding must be verifiable.Click if you need to know anything about styling a page.Check it out! Check them out! The administrators are the arbitrators, mediators, janitors, and leaders of our wiki, having greater knowledge of wikitext, our policies, and are chosen for neutrality and maturity as well as contributions.
    [Show full text]
  • Can Game Companies Help America's Children?
    CAN GAME COMPANIES HELP AMERICA’S CHILDREN? The Case for Engagement & VirtuallyGood4Kids™ By Wendy Lazarus Founder and Co-President with Aarti Jayaraman September 2012 About The Children’s Partnership The Children's Partnership (TCP) is a national, nonprofit organization working to ensure that all children—especially those at risk of being left behind—have the resources and opportunities they need to grow up healthy and lead productive lives. Founded in 1993, The Children's Partnership focuses particular attention on the goals of securing health coverage for every child and on ensuring that the opportunities and benefits of digital technology reach all children. Consistent with that mission, we have educated the public and policymakers about how technology can measurably improve children's health, education, safety, and opportunities for success. We work at the state and national levels to provide research, build programs, and enact policies that extend opportunity to all children and their families. Santa Monica, CA Office Washington, DC Office 1351 3rd St. Promenade 2000 P Street, NW Suite 206 Suite 330 Santa Monica, CA 90401 Washington, DC 20036 t: 310.260.1220 t: 202.429.0033 f: 310.260.1921 f: 202.429.0974 E-Mail: [email protected] Web: www.childrenspartnership.org The Children’s Partnership is a project of Tides Center. ©2012, The Children's Partnership. Permission to copy, disseminate, or otherwise use this work is normally granted as long as ownership is properly attributed to The Children's Partnership. CAN GAME
    [Show full text]
  • Blog Title Blog URL Blog Owner Blog Category Technorati Rank
    Technorati Bloglines BlogPulse Wikio SEOmoz’s Blog Title Blog URL Blog Owner Blog Category Rank Rank Rank Rank Trifecta Blog Score Engadget http://www.engadget.com Time Warner Inc. Technology/Gadgets 4 3 6 2 78 19.23 Boing Boing http://www.boingboing.net Happy Mutants LLC Technology/Marketing 5 6 15 4 89 33.71 TechCrunch http://www.techcrunch.com TechCrunch Inc. Technology/News 2 27 2 1 76 42.11 Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com Gawker Media Technology/Gadgets 6 21 9 7 78 55.13 Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com Google Inc. Technology/Corporate 14 10 3 38 94 69.15 Gizmodo http://www.gizmodo.com/ Gawker Media Technology/News 3 79 4 3 65 136.92 ReadWriteWeb http://www.readwriteweb.com RWW Network Technology/Marketing 9 56 21 5 64 142.19 Mashable http://mashable.com Mashable Inc. Technology/Marketing 10 65 36 6 73 160.27 Daily Kos http://dailykos.com/ Kos Media, LLC Politics 12 59 8 24 63 163.49 NYTimes: The Caucus http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com The New York Times Company Politics 27 >100 31 8 93 179.57 Kotaku http://kotaku.com Gawker Media Technology/Video Games 19 >100 19 28 77 216.88 Smashing Magazine http://www.smashingmagazine.com Smashing Magazine Technology/Web Production 11 >100 40 18 60 283.33 Seth Godin's Blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com Seth Godin Technology/Marketing 15 68 >100 29 75 284 Gawker http://www.gawker.com/ Gawker Media Entertainment News 16 >100 >100 15 81 287.65 Crooks and Liars http://www.crooksandliars.com John Amato Politics 49 >100 33 22 67 305.97 TMZ http://www.tmz.com Time Warner Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • Esports High Impact and Investable
    Needham Insights: Thought Leader Series Laura A. Martin, CFA & CMT – [email protected] / (917) 373-3066 September 5, 2019 Dan Medina – [email protected] / (626) 893-2925 eSports High Impact and Investable For the past decade, eSports has been growing on the main stage in Asia and in stealth mode in the US. This report addresses questions we get most often from investors about eSports: ➢ What is eSports? Definitions differ. Our definition of eSports is “players competing at a video game in front of a live audience while being live-streamed.” By implication, viewing, attendance, and playing time are linked, and each creates revenue streams for eSports. ➢ How big is eSports? Globally, one out of every three (ie, 33%) 18-25 year olds spent more than an hour a day playing video games, 395mm people watched eSports, and 250mm people played Fortnite in 2018. eSports revenue will be $1.1B in 2019, up 26% y/y. ➢ Should investors care about eSports? We would argue “yes”, owing to: a) global scale; b) time spent playing and viewing; c) compelling demographics; d) eSports vs traditional sports trends; e) revenue growth; and, f) sports betting should supercharge US eSports. ➢ Is eSports a fad? We would argue “no”, owing to: a) many US Universities now offer Varsity eSports scholarships; b) new special purpose eSports stadiums are proliferating; c) billionaires are investing to make eSports successful; d) audience growth; and, e) Olympics potential. ➢ Why have you never heard of eSports? Because zero of the top 30 earning players in the world were from the US in 2018.
    [Show full text]
  • Two Recurring Themes Populate the Kingdom Hearts Series: 1. True Power Comes from Friendship and Connections with Others 2
    Two recurring themes populate the Kingdom Hearts series: 1. True power comes from friendship and connections with others 2. Women are useless The protagonist of the game is Sora, but first, background: Kingdom Hearts is the heart of all worlds and a source of immense power. It is controlled by a weapon called the x-blade (not to be confused with keyblade), which acts as its key. Long ago thousands of people used keyblades (not to be confused with the x-blade), magical weapons that can lock and unlock stuff and also have lots of other powers, to fight for control of the x-blade (not to be confused with the keyblades, which they already had). In the process the world was split into lots of different pieces which were then walled off from each other with a substance called gummi. In the less-distant past, Xehanort, a boy from Destiny Islands, escapes his tiny world and becomes a keyblade master in his own right. He learned that there are many worlds (which is supposed to be a secret) because Xehanort-from-the-present sends a version of himself back in time to tell him about it and then tells him to travel to a bunch of different places because time travel requires that a version of one’s self must be present at the time and place. More on that later. He’s friends with Eraqus and Yen Sid who are also keyblade masters, but then they aren’t friends anymore because Xehanort is evil (but later he pretends to be good).
    [Show full text]
  • Manual English.Pdf
    In 1094 the Greek Emperor Alexius I asked Pope Urban II for aid. Turkish armies had overrun the Eastern provinces of the Greek empire empire and were getting close to the capital, Constantinople. The Pope appealed to Western European knights to put their differences and petty squabbles aside and help the Greeks in the east. He summoned them together to take part in a Holy War that would also serve as a pilgrimage to Jersalem. The first Crusade would soon begin. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5.3 The Mercenary Post . .35 1.0 GETTING STARTED . .4 5.4 Available Units . .35 4. noitallatsnI dna stnemeriuqeR metsyS 1.1 metsyS stnemeriuqeR dna . noitallatsnI . 4. 5.5 Gathering your Forces . .38 5. .sedoM emaG dna emaG eht gnitratS 2.1 gnitratS eht emaG dna emaG .sedoM . 5. 5.6 Marching Orders . .39 1.3 Game Options . .6 5.7 Changing your Units Stance. .39 1.4 Game Overview . .7 5.8 Military Commands. .40 1.5 About t eh .launaM . .. 7. 5.9 Map Bookmarks . .42 1.6 Winning and Losing. .8 1.7 Playing a Multiplayer Game. .9 6.0 DEFENDING YOU R P EOPLE . .42 1.8 Map Editor Overview. .11 6.1 The Gatehouse. .42 1.9 Crusader Games. .12 6.2 Building High and Low Walls . .43 6.3 Turrets and Towers . .43 2.0 GAME B ASICS . .15 6.4 Placing Stairs . .44 2.1 Main Screen Overview and Navigating the Map . .15 6.5 Traps . .44 2.2 Camera Interface. .15 6.6 Moat Digging . .44 2.3 Placing your Keep.
    [Show full text]
  • Manual Uscod2.Pdf
    CONTENTS Installation . 2 The Single Player Game . 2 Main Menu . 3 Playing the Game . 3 In-Game Display . 4 Movement Controls . 5 Look Controls . 6 Weapon Controls . 7 Other Controls . 9 Multiplayer . 10 Credits . 17 Customer Support . 20 Software License Agreement . 23 1 INSTALLATION Insert Disc One of Call of Duty ® 2 into your CD/DVD-ROM drive. After a few seconds, the Autorun Menu will appear. Click Install to begin the installation process and follow the on-screen instructions. If the Autorun Menu does not appear, you may have Autorun disabled. Double-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Open the CD/DVD-ROM drive where the Call of Duty 2 CD/DVD is located. Double-click on Setup.exe to launch the Installer. If you need more information, please consult the Help files. Enter Key Code To install and run the game, you must have a valid Key Code. Your unique Key Code is located on the back of the manual that came with your game. During installation, please enter the Key Code exactly as it appears on the manual. Keep your copy of the Key Code safe and private in case you need to reinstall the game in the future. No one from Activision® or Infinity Ward will ever ask you for your Key Code. Never give your Key Code to anyone. If you lose your Key Code, you will not be issued another one. • Keep your Key Code in a safe, private place in case you need to reinstall your game at a later point.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theme Park Experience: Kingdom Hearts and the Franchise
    The theme park experience: Kingdom Hearts and the franchise Anh-Thu Nguyen University of Cologne Albertus-Magnus-Platz 50923 Cologne 0221 4705745 [email protected] Keywords Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, convergence culture, transmedia, franchise, literary theory, tourist gaze INTRODUCTION When Henry Jenkins first spoke of convergence culture, he prophesised an increase in media companies exploring narrative universes, creating ways for the consumer to “buy into new kinds of experiences with those characters and those worlds” by “incorporating transmedia principles into their work.” (2006, 134-135) More than a decade later, his premonition on the expansion of media franchises certainly rings true with regards to the Marvel or Star Wars universe, whose narratives have been extended to cinema screens, comics or games. They are “entertainment for the age of media convergence, integrating multiple texts to create a narrative so large that it cannot be contained in a single medium.” (97) Although there are numerous sources that concern themselves with franchises in general, seldom is the subject of study a video game franchise. Hence, the on-going research takes the Kingdom Hearts (Square Enix 2002-2019) series as its primary study subject, in the context of a transnational collaboration between Disney and Japanese video game developer, Square Enix. The core questions concern themselves with franchise-building and transmedia storytelling, with an approach rooted in narrative theory to unravel the different layers of a video game franchise. THE CHARACTER AS A TOURIST Making sense of any media franchise is often challenging as the various texts holding the franchise together offer a substantial number of narrative arcs and any attempt to address those would divert from actual productive analysis.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Fully Optimized: the (Post)Human Art of Speedrunning Like Their Cognate Forms of New Media, the Everyday Ubiquity of Video
    Fully Optimized: The (Post)human Art of Speedrunning Item Type Article Authors Hay, Jonathan Citation Hay, J. (2020). Fully Optimized: The (Post)human Art of Speedrunning. Journal of Posthuman Studies: Philosophy, Technology, Media, 4(1), 5 - 24. Publisher Penn State University Press Journal Journal of Posthuman Studies Download date 01/10/2021 15:57:06 Item License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10034/623585 Fully Optimized: The (post)human art of speedrunning Like their cognate forms of new media, the everyday ubiquity of video games in contemporary Western cultures is symptomatic of the always-already “(post)human” (Hayles 1999, 246) character of the mundane lifeworlds of those members of our species who live in such technologically saturated societies. This article therefore takes as its theoretical basis N. Katherine Hayles’ proposal that our species presently inhabits an intermediary stage between being human and posthuman; that we are currently (post)human, engaged in a process of constantly becoming posthuman. In the space of an entirely unremarkable hour, we might very conceivably interface with our mobile phone in order to access and interpret GPS data, stream a newly released album of music, phone a family member who is physically separated from us by many miles, pass time playing a clicker game, and then absentmindedly catch up on breaking news from across the globe. In this context, video games are merely one cultural practice through which we regularly interface with technology, and hence, are merely one constituent aspect of the consummate inundation of technologies into the everyday lives of (post)humans.
    [Show full text]
  • Does Video Gaming Have Impacts on the Brain: Evidence from a Systematic Review
    brain sciences Review Does Video Gaming Have Impacts on the Brain: Evidence from a Systematic Review 1, , 2,3, 2,4 Denilson Brilliant T. * y, Rui Nouchi y and Ryuta Kawashima 1 Department of Biomedicine, Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences (i3L), East Jakarta 13210, Indonesia 2 Smart Ageing Research Center (SARC), Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8575, Japan; [email protected] (R.N.); [email protected] (R.K.) 3 Department of Cognitive Health Science, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC), Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8575, Japan 4 Department of Functional Brain Imaging, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC), Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8575, Japan * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +62-21-29567888 D.B.T. and R.N. contributed equally to this work. y Received: 18 August 2019; Accepted: 23 September 2019; Published: 25 September 2019 Abstract: Video gaming, the experience of playing electronic games, has shown several benefits for human health. Recently, numerous video gaming studies showed beneficial effects on cognition and the brain. A systematic review of video gaming has been published. However, the previous systematic review has several differences to this systematic review. This systematic review evaluates the beneficial effects of video gaming on neuroplasticity specifically on intervention studies. Literature research was conducted from randomized controlled trials in PubMed and Google Scholar published after 2000. A systematic review was written instead of a meta-analytic review because of variations among participants, video games, and outcomes. Nine scientific articles were eligible for the review. Overall, the eligible articles showed fair quality according to Delphi Criteria.
    [Show full text]