Role-Playing Games and Postmodern Notions of Literature
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René Schallegger Joyful Games of Meaning-Making: Role-playing Games and Postmodern Notions of Literature DISSERTATION zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Philosophie Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften 1. Begutachter: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jörg Helbig Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt 2. Begutachterin: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Susanne Bach Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik Universität Kassel Dezember, 2012 Ehrenwörtliche Erklärung für Masterarbeiten, Diplomarbeiten und Dissertationen Ich erkläre ehrenwörtlich, dass ich die vorliegende wissenschaftliche Arbeit selbstständig angefertigt und die mit ihr unmittelbar verbundenen Tätigkeiten selbst erbracht habe. Ich erkläre weiters, dass ich keine anderen als die angegebenen Hilfsmittel benutzt habe. Alle ausgedruckten, ungedruckten oder dem Internet im Wortlaut oder im wesentlichen Inhalt übernommenen Formulierungen und Konzepte sind gemäß den Regeln für wissenschaftliche Arbeiten zitiert und durch Fußnoten bzw. durch andere genaue Quellenangaben gekennzeichnet. Die während des Arbeitsvorganges gewährte Unterstützung einschließlich signifikanter Betreuungshinweise ist vollständig angegeben. Die wissenschaftliche Arbeit ist noch keiner anderen Prüfungsbehörde vorgelegt worden. Diese Arbeit wurde in gedruckter und elektronischer Form abgegeben. Ich bestätige, dass der Inhalt der digitalen Version vollständig mit dem der gedruckten Version übereinstimmt. Ich bin mir bewusst, dass eine falsche Erklärung rechtliche Folgen haben wird. (Unterschrift) (Ort, Datum) “It is the time of the Conjunction of the Million Spheres and that means change – profound alterations in the nature of existence. Perhaps that was our function – to rid the Fifteen Planes of its silly gods and their silly schemes.” “But the Balance…?” “Let it swing up and down with a will. It has nothing to weigh now. You are on your own, mortal – you and your kind. Farewell. […] Now you can make your own destiny.” --- Michael Moorcock: Corum - The Coming of Chaos (1971) [A]ll three of them like symbolic characters from some irritatingly pompous morality-play whose original moral had somehow been scrambled and compromised and lost and was now, to audience and participants alike, anybody’s fucking guess. --- Richard Morgan: The Steel Remains (2008) Joyful Games of Meaning - M a k i n g | 1 INTRODUCTION: THE JOYFUL GAMES OF MEANING-MAKING ...................................................................... 3 PART 1 – WORDS OF POWER: UNDERSTANDING ROLE-PLAYING GAMES .................................................. 16 1 – HOMO LUDENS: THEORIES OF PLAY FROM HUIZINGA TO GAME STUDIES .......................................................... 16 1.1 – Huizinga: The Origin of Culture in Play ............................................................................................. 17 1.2 – Caillois: The Four Dimensions of Play .............................................................................................. 26 1.3 – Games People Play: A Brief Introduction to Game Studies............................................................. 34 2 – OF DICE AND (WO)MEN: WHAT ARE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES? ......................................................................... 53 2.1 – Dissecting the Medium: Definitions and Classifications ................................................................. 53 2.2 – Power Games: The Key Role of the Hub-player .............................................................................. 57 2.3 – Talk to Me: The Narrative Process in RPGs and the Question of Art .............................................. 78 2.4 – WYSIWYG: The Development of Theoretical Approaches to RPGs ................................................ 88 3 – GENERATIONS: THE ORIGINS AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF RPGS ........................................................ 108 3.1 – Are We There Yet?: Generation 0 of RPGs ..................................................................................... 110 3.2 – Dungeons & Dragons, What Else?: Generation 1 of RPGs .............................................................. 110 3.3 – I Beg to Differ: Generation 2 of RPGs ............................................................................................. 120 3.4 – MAKING Worlds and Making WORLDS: Generation 3 of RPGs ...................................................... 129 3.5 – And So It Begins: Generation 4 of RPGs......................................................................................... 141 3.6 – Neuromancer Publishing: Generation 5 of RPGs ........................................................................... 156 4 – CONSTRUCTING UNDERSTANDING: RPG THEORY ........................................................................................ 165 4.1 – Of Ham Actors, Munchkins, and Rules-lawyers: The Threefold Model ......................................... 166 4.2 - Size Does Matter!: The Big Model................................................................................................... 175 4.3 – The Flow-Charts of Wrath: The Meilahti School and the Process Model ..................................... 188 5 – REFRAMING: ALTERNATIVE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON RPGS ................................................................ 204 5.1 - RPGs as Spaces: Henry Jenkins’s Narrative Architecture ............................................................... 205 5.2 – RPGs as Rituals: Dark Dungeons and Victor Turner’s Liminality ................................................... 217 5.3 – RPGs as Discourse: Homi Bhabha’s Third Space ........................................................................... 233 5.4 – RPGs as Systems: Narrative Self-organisation and Learning Systems ......................................... 245 PART 2 – THE POWER OF WORDS: UNDERSTANDING POSTMODERNISM .............................................. 259 6 – WHAT’S IN A NAME?: THE TERMINOLOGY OF POSTMODERNISM .................................................................... 259 6.1 - The ‘Post’-Problem: Constructing a Terminology of Postmodernism........................................... 260 6.2 – The Past of the ‘Post’: A Terminological History of Postmodernism ........................................... 267 7 – POST/MODERNISM: THE DIFFICULTY OF DRAWING THE LINE ......................................................................... 286 7.1 – Cutting-edge Gothic Cathedrals: The Historical Dimension of the Debate ................................... 287 7.2 – Lyotard: A Radical Dualistic Break – Or not? ................................................................................ 290 7.3 – Sarup: Dual Dichotomies - One That Is and One That Is Not ........................................................ 293 7.4 – Hutcheon: On Irony’s Edge, or Postmodernism is Both and Neither ........................................... 296 7.5 – Lash: De-/Differentiation and the New Bourgeoisie ..................................................................... 300 2 | Joyful Games of Meaning - M a k i n g 7.6 – Best and Kellner: In Search of the Postmodern ........................................................................... 304 7.7 – Kellner: Hysterically Seeking Postmodernism .............................................................................. 308 7.8 – Anderson: Irony of Ironies – The Postmodern Truth About the Truth ......................................... 311 7.9 –Jencks: How Postmodernism Began at 3:32pm, or Not After All ................................................... 315 7.10 – Zima: Dialogical Postmodernism, or Talking About It ................................................................ 319 7.11 – Hassan: The Indetermanence of the Glocal Postmodern ............................................................ 322 8 – CACOPHONY: A REVIEW OF THEORIES OF THE POSTMODERN ........................................................................ 326 8.1 – Lyotard: The Postmodern Condition ............................................................................................ 327 8.2 – Derrida: Writing and Differance ................................................................................................... 335 8.3 – Baudrillard: Simulacra and Simulation ........................................................................................ 344 8.4 –Hutcheon: The Poetics and Politics of Postmodernism ................................................................ 357 8.5 –Barth: The Exhaustion and Replenishment of Literature ............................................................. 375 8.6 – Zima: Between the Universal and the Particular ......................................................................... 386 8.7 – Best and Kellner: From Postmodern Theory to The Postmodern Adventure .............................. 392 8.8 – Lash: The Sociology of Postmodernism ....................................................................................... 407 8.9 – Moments of Truth in Two Collections and One Exhibition: Anderson, Jencks, and the Victoria and Albert Museum ....................................................................................................................... 415 CONCLUSION: MAKING CONNECTIONS ...................................................................................................... 441 10 – FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION: THE POSTMODERN FORM OF RPGS .................................................................445 10.1 – The Medium: Oral