Making Sense of Video Games: a Textual Analysis of Tomb Raider II
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Making Sense of Video Games: A Textual Analysis of Tomb Raider II Patrick Sunnen Dissertation submitted in full-time fulfilment of the MA in ICT in Education Institute of Education, University of London This dissertation may be made available to the general public for borrowing, photocopying or consultation without the prior consent of the author. 2 Abstract This dissertation is a textual analysis of the hard- profile computer game Tomb Raider II. After reviewing and discussing the literature related to computer games and associated action movies, I shall outline Dowling's social activity theory and apply it exploratively to a range of computer game texts. I shall then apply the language of description more thoroughly to a sample of Tomb Raider II and a related walkthrough in order to analyse how they construct author and reader positions and to describe the nature and mechanisms of the distribution of practices between these positions. My work also includes an account of my personal engagement with the game. Finally, in my conclusion I shall give suggestions for further research. 3 Acknowledgements This dissertation had a period of gestation of about one and a half-year. During this time a certain number of individuals have given me intellectual inspiration, academic and literary advice, and emotional support. I have been particularly fortunate to work with Paul Dowling as my supervisor and I would like to thank him for his encouragement, patience and expert advice. Furthermore, I would like to thank the following: Andrew Brown and his son for providing me with helpful computer game magazines; Cathy Fisch and Elsy Zanen for proofreading my dissertation; Annick Sunnen for doing some typing and public domain research; and finally many thanks go to my friends all over the world and my family who have supported me through my research. Last but not least I have to acknowledge my gratitude to the local council of Sandweiler for granting me an unpaid leave of absence of one year and the British Council for offering me a generous scholarship. 4 Table of Contents ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................. 4 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 7 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................... 11 2.1 THE AUDIENCE .................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 PLAYER-GAME INTERACTION.............................................................................................. 12 2.2.1 The Appeal of Video Games ...................................................................................... 12 2.2.2 The 'Rules' of Video Games....................................................................................... 14 2.2.3 Learning the Game.................................................................................................... 15 2.3 THE CONTENT OF COMPUTER GAMES ................................................................................. 17 2.3.1 Violence..................................................................................................................... 17 2.3.2 The Portrayal of Women ........................................................................................... 18 2.3.3 Identification ............................................................................................................. 20 2.3.4 The Gender Issue....................................................................................................... 22 2.4 NARRATIVE STRUCTURES.................................................................................................... 23 2.4.1 Hollywood Narrative................................................................................................. 24 2.4.2 Narrative in Computer Games .................................................................................. 26 3 METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES ............................................................................................... 30 4 A LANGUAGE OF DESCRIPTION FOR COMPUTER GAMES ...................................... 34 4.1 SIGNS AND TEXTS ................................................................................................................ 34 4.2 METAPHOR AND METONYMY .............................................................................................. 37 4.3 TEXT .................................................................................................................................... 39 5 4.4 THE ACTIVITY OF COMPUTER GAMING ............................................................................... 40 4.5 THE STRUCTURAL LEVEL .................................................................................................... 42 4.5.1 Practices: Domain and Gaze..................................................................................... 42 4.5.2 Practices: Discursive Saturation............................................................................... 45 4.5.3 Positions .................................................................................................................... 45 4.6 THE TEXTUAL LEVEL........................................................................................................... 47 4.6.1 Voices and Positioning Strategies............................................................................. 47 4.6.2 Message and Distributing Strategies ........................................................................ 49 4.7 RESOURCES.......................................................................................................................... 52 4.7.1 Icon............................................................................................................................ 53 4.7.2 Index .......................................................................................................................... 56 4.7.3 Symbol ....................................................................................................................... 57 5 DESCRIPTION OF THE EMPIRICAL DOMAIN SETTING ............................................. 59 5.1 THE NARRATIVE .................................................................................................................. 59 5.2 LARA CROFT........................................................................................................................ 63 5.3 OPPONENTS.......................................................................................................................... 67 5.3.1 Animals...................................................................................................................... 67 5.3.2 Humans...................................................................................................................... 69 5.4 TRAPS AND PUZZLES............................................................................................................ 71 6 THE TEXTUAL LEVEL........................................................................................................... 73 6.1 VOICES AND POSITIONING STRATEGIES............................................................................... 73 6.2 MESSAGE AND DISTRIBUTING STRATEGIES ......................................................................... 79 7 THE DISCOURSE OF THE WALKTHROUGH................................................................... 82 8 MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: A CASE STUDY .............................................................. 88 9 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 96 6 10 REFERENCES..................................................................................................................... 103 10.1 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 103 10.2 MOVIES.............................................................................................................................. 111 10.3 SOFTWARE......................................................................................................................... 112 APPENDIX A: MORPHOLOGY OF THE FOLKTALE........................................................ 113 APPENDIX B: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC ...................................................................... 115 APPENDIX C: THE MOVES OF LARA CROFT ................................................................... 116 APPENDIX D: LARA CROFT'S BACKGROUND ................................................................. 121 APPENDIX E: STELLA'S WALKTHROUGH........................................................................ 122 APPENDIX F: MORE SCREENSHOTS FROM TOMB RAIDER II ................................... 134 7 1 Introduction The final decades of the twentieth century have witnessed a fundamental change in human communications. New forms of generating and retrieving digital information are now at our disposal and have become