Modding the Apocalypse: (Re)Making Videogames As Post-Structuralist Free Play Samuel Jackson Fuller Clemson University, [email protected]
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Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations 8-2018 Modding the Apocalypse: (Re)Making Videogames as Post-Structuralist Free Play Samuel Jackson Fuller Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Recommended Citation Fuller, Samuel Jackson, "Modding the Apocalypse: (Re)Making Videogames as Post-Structuralist Free Play" (2018). All Dissertations. 2219. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2219 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MODDING THE APOCALYPSE: (RE)MAKING VIDEOGAMES AS POST-STRUCTURALIST FREE PLAY A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design by Samuel Jackson Fuller August 2018 Accepted by: Dr. Jan Rune Holmevik, Committee Chair Dr. Cynthia Ann Haynes Dr. Beth Lauritis Dr. Brian Malloy Abstract This dissertation is about seeing videogames, and videogame design, through the lens of Gregory Ulmer’s electracy apparatus theory. Videogame modding is emphasized an electrate approach to intervening in existing media. Mods have the potential to make potent rhetorical arguments, but they are little-understood in the field of rhet-comp, and there are numerous obstacles to carving a space for them in academic curricula; nevertheless, they are an increasingly common form of participatory engagement that make use of a broad digital skillset. Modders fit into Gregory Ulmer’s electracy apparatus as egents—agents of change in the Internet age—and their playful appropriation of objects from various archives resembles the electrate genre of MyStory (personal alternative-history). By positioning modding as electrate composition praxis, a new gateway for academic game study and production is opened, one where “play” is integral to the process of knowledge formation. Fallout 4 (2016) serves as an example of a moddable game whose rhetorical affordances can be adapted to craft MyStories and MEmorials. ii Acknowledgements Many thanks to: my cohort, Dan, Eda, Nathan, Josh, and Firasat—you’ve each inspired me in a special way; my committee, for standing by me; my parents, who’ve been endlessly supportive; and my sister, Miranda, who is super cool. iii Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................... iv Notes to the Reader ................................................................................................vii Preface: A Brief MyStory as Vita Minor ..............................................................viii a. Growing up with videogames, and my first experiences modding ......... vii b. Living in the South, and the Names of Things ......................................... ix c. Learning about Composition and Rhetoric .............................................. xi d. Thinking about Rhetorical Game Modding; an Anecdote ...................... xii e. Intervening in Contemporary Games—War and the Atomic Bomb ...... xiv Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 a. Topic.......................................................................................................... 1 b. Dissertation Overview ............................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Modding as MyStory............................................................................. 5 a. Towards a Definition of Modding ............................................................. 5 b. Videogame Studies as an Academic Field ................................................ 6 c. Intersections of VGS, Composition, and Modding ................................. 12 d. Introducing the Electrate Apparatus ........................................................ 18 iv e. Play as Electrate Learning ....................................................................... 30 f. MyStories and MEmorials ...................................................................... 47 Chapter 2: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Modding ......................................... 59 a. Modding in Computer Science ................................................................ 59 b. Modding as Artistic Expression .............................................................. 64 c. Modders and the Hacker Ethos ............................................................... 73 d. Value Chain Configuration and Modding as Labor ................................ 79 Chapter 3: History of Modding ............................................................................. 85 a. From Spacewar! to “Castle Smurfenstein” ............................................. 85 b. id Software and Doom............................................................................. 90 c. Valve, “Counter-Strike,” “Day of Defeat,” “Team Fortress,” and Steam 93 d. Sid Meier’s Civilization II ...................................................................... 97 e. “Defense of the Ancients” for Warcraft III ............................................. 99 f. Nintendo, Game Genie, and the “Rijon” series ..................................... 103 g. Infiniminer and Minecraft ..................................................................... 112 h. Modding Today: Software Engines, Monetization, and Built-in Modding 115 Chapter 4: Modding in Practice .......................................................................... 122 a. A Modding Process ............................................................................... 122 b. Invention................................................................................................ 133 v c. Research ................................................................................................ 159 d. Organization .......................................................................................... 170 e. Drafting ................................................................................................. 171 f. Testing ................................................................................................... 174 Chapter 5: Videogames as Electrate Expression ................................................ 177 a. A Modding-based Pedagogy ................................................................. 177 b. Course Description, Outcomes, and Rationale...................................... 179 c. Class Projects ........................................................................................ 186 d. Sample Readings ................................................................................... 189 Chapter 6: Conclusions ....................................................................................... 193 Glossary of Jargon .............................................................................................. 199 Works Cited ........................................................................................................ 200 vi Notes to the Reader • All bold emphasis added by me, including in direct quotations, to highlight key terms. • Titles of videogame mods are in “quotes,” while unmodded videogames are italicized (i.e., “Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes” is a mod of Chrono Trigger), except in direct quotations where other authors use alternative styles, which are preserved. • The brand names of electronic devices are italicized (i.e., Game Genie, Nintendo 64). • A glossary section is provided, starting on page 215, to define jargon and abbreviations that are frequently used or do not merit in-text definition. • The Preface section uses inverted italics to designate text in the MyStorical style, which is written from a first-person perspective; this is opposed to the predominantly third-person, academic style of the rest of the document. vii Preface: A Brief MyStory as Vita Minor a. Growing up with videogames, and my first experiences modding [A 1991 tv commercial opens on the entrance to a closed-down, dilapidated drive-in theater. A ruin from another era.] [In strides a young man (played by a 22-year-old Paul Rudd), wearing a long, black coat. He takes out a grey cartridge and plugs it into a Super Nintendo, and begins playing games on the drive-in’s big screen.] Narrator: When you decide to step up to this kind of power, this kind of challenge, this kind of flying, crashing, feeling… when you decide to get serious, there’s only one place to come. The games of Super Nintendo. No one else creates this kind of experience, because no one else creates these kinds of games. Now you’re playing with power—SUPER POWER! (VHSDemos, 2017). *~*~*~* My first videogame console was the SNES. My dad, a lover of Marvel comic books, got it for me, perhaps having seen a commercial for it on TV. Some of my clearest early memories are of us playing Super Mario World (1990) on our big-old, cube-shaped TV. That was about 26 years ago. I still have the SNES, and it still works just fine. Picking up the controller,