Video Games and the Ludic Quality of Aesthetic Experiences Across Media
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Press Play: Video Games and the Ludic Quality of Aesthetic Experiences across Media by Jedd Hakimi Bachelor of Arts, New York University, 2006 Master of Humanities, University of Chicago, 2009 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2017 ii UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Jedd Hakimi It was defended on November 17th, 2017 and approved by Daniel Morgan, Associate Professor, Dept. of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago Jinying Li, Assistant Professor, Department of English Neepa Majumdar, Associate Professor, Department of English Randall Halle, Klaus W. Jonas Professor, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Dissertation Advisor: Lucy Fischer, Distinguished Professor, Department of English iii Copyright © by Jedd Hakimi 2017 iv Press Play: Video Games and the Ludic Quality of Aesthetic Experiences across Media Jedd Hakimi, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2017 Abstract This dissertation examines and disrupts the way key scholarly, technical, and cultural discourses distinguish video games as a medium from film by shifting critical attention to how these media are experienced during reception. This premise of this intervention is that a medium-specific outlook of video games suppresses significant dissimilarities among video games, and also overlooks video games’ lineage in relation to how other media are experienced as aesthetic expressions. This has also meant that the vast critical resources within film and media studies remains extensively underutilized within video game scholarship. Beyond noting crucial formal resonances between certain video games and films, this project enhances our understanding of both forms by critiquing the specific presumptions used to define video games in significant by powerful cultural gatekeepers including the United States Supreme Court and the Museum of Modern Art. The premises challenged include the notion that video games are all principally games, that video games have a computational materiality that warrants a distinct critical approach compared to film, that video games are designed to be interactive in way that other aesthetic forms are not, that video games provide a way of inhabiting fictional worlds that films cannot, and that video games lack a capacity to reflect our historical world back to us in manner comparable to film’s documentary capacity. The point is not to suppress distinctions between film and video games, but to understand overlooked facets common to the forms as experienced, thus better situating video games in relation to film studies. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .............................................................................................................................. IX INTRODUCTION: VIDEO GAMES AND FILM STUDIES ................................................ 1 0.1 PLAYING THE GAME: LINEAGES FOR VIDEO GAMES ................................ 2 0.1.1 Video Games and Gameplay ......................................................................... 3 0.1.2 Video Games and Playing a Record .............................................................. 8 0.1.3 (Inter)activity, Gameplay, and Film ............................................................ 11 0.1.4 Divisions among Video Games: (De)limiting Frameworks ....................... 17 0.2 CHAPTER SUMMARIES ...................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 1 VIDEO GAME MATERIALITY: THE SUPREME COURT AND THE CASE AGAINST MEDIUM SPECIFICITY .......................................................................... 28 1.1 DIFFERING OPINIONS ...................................................................................... 28 1.1.1 Cultural Precedents and Material Dissent .................................................. 34 1.1.2 The Material Video Game ........................................................................... 39 1.2 JUDGING INTERACTIVITY ............................................................................... 45 1.2.1 Affective and Material Dimensions of Interactivity .................................... 45 1.2.2 Video Game Trials ....................................................................................... 51 1.3 MEDIUM SPECIFICITY AND ITS DISCONTENTS ........................................ 59 1.3.1 Modes of (Game)Play .................................................................................. 61 CHAPTER 2 VIDEO GAME INTERACTIVITY BETWEEN ART AND DESIGN ......... 69 2.1 MOMA AND INTERACTION .............................................................................. 69 2.1.1 Framing Aesthetic and Design Discourses ................................................ 76 2.1.2 Locating Interactivity .................................................................................. 84 2.2 PLAYING WITH THE STANLEY PARABLE .................................................... 92 2.2.1 The Video Game Experience and Textual Agency ................................... 101 2.2.2 The Narrational Role of the Player and the Spectator ............................... 111 2.2.3 Realism and Interaction ............................................................................ 125 CHAPTER 3 PLAY-SPACES BEYOND VIDEO GAMES: PLAYING IN AND WITH FILM WORLDS .................................................................................................................... 129 3.1 AESTHETICS AND GAMEPLAY: RESONANCES ACROSS MEDIA ............ 129 3.1.1 Gameplay Guide ........................................................................................ 135 3.1.2 Experiencing The Truman Show .............................................................. 138 3.1.3 Dual Engagement and Ludic Space .......................................................... 151 3.2 LEARNING TO PLAY, PLAYING TO LEARN ................................................ 158 3.2.1 (Re)Cognizing the Glitch .......................................................................... 158 3.2.2 Critical Exploits ......................................................................................... 170 CHAPTER 4 VIDEO GAMES AND THE HISTORICAL WORLD .................................. 181 vi 4.1 EXPEREINCES OF THE MOVING IMAGE ..................................................... 181 4.1.1 “The Most Accurate Version of Los Angeles” .......................................... 182 4.1.2 LA or Noir? ................................................................................................ 188 4.1.3 “This is the City as it is” ........................................................................... 196 4.2 RENDERING FUNCTIONS .............................................................................. 207 4.2.1 “The Slightly Uncomfortable Space” ........................................................ 207 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 235 vii List of figures Figure 2.1-A. Distellimap (Pac-Man) by Ben Fry. ....................................................................................... 82 Figure 2.2-A. Menu Screen for The Stanley Parable................................................................................... 94 Figure 2.2-B. A fan-made chart mapping out The Stanley Parable's narrative branches. ..................... 99 Figure 2.2-C Tracking in to Stanley’s office door. ................................................................................... 113 Figure 2.2-D. Stanley working. ................................................................................................................... 113 Figure 2.2-E. Surveillance shot of Stanley working. ................................................................................ 114 Figure 2.2-F. From Halo’s opening cinematic, showing Master Chief, players’ soon-to-be avatar. 115 Figure 2.2-G. The following shot, as the player takes control of Master Chief’s POV. .................... 116 Figure 2.2-H Screenshot from The Stanley Parable’s opening cinematic sequence ........................... 117 Figure 2.2-I The moment players are given some control over the perspective ................................. 118 Figure 3.1-A. The Truman Show's opening shot. .................................................................................... 142 Figure 3.1-B. The Truman Show’s second shot, immediately after the cut. ........................................ 143 Figure 3.1-C. The second shot after zooming out ................................................................................... 143 Figure 3.1-D. Shot 1 of the sequence ........................................................................................................ 147 Figure 3.1-E. Shot 2 of the sequence ......................................................................................................... 147 Figure 3.1-F. Shot 3-a of the sequence ...................................................................................................... 147 Figure 3.1-G. Shot 3-b continued ............................................................................................................... 147 Figure 3.1-H. Shot 3-c continued ............................................................................................................... 147 Figure 3.1-I. Shot 4 of the sequence .........................................................................................................