Poetics of the Videogame Setpiece ARC by MA OF TECHNOLOGY Sonny Sidhu MAY 2 0 2013 B.A. Film and Media Studies, Swarthmore College, 2009 LIBRARIES SUBMITTED TO THE PROGRAM IN COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY JUNE 2013 ( 2013 Sonny Sidhu. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature of Author: Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing 10 May 2013 Certified by: D. Fox Harrell Thesis Supervisor Associate Professor of Digital Media Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Accepted by: Heather Hendershot Professor of Comparative Media Studies Director of Comparative Media Studies Graduate Program Poetics of the Videogame Setpiece by Sonny Sidhu Submitted to the Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing on May 10, 2013, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Comparative Media Studies ABSTRACT Many of today's most popular single-player videogames contain short, semi-interactive sequences of tightly scripted, visually spectacular action gameplay, which-despite being generally unrepresentative of a game's 'normal' functions-tend to receive prominent placement in the marketing campaigns that produce desire for the games they appear in. As prevalent as they have become, these setpieces (as they are called in gamers' parlance) are often critically dismissed as mere eye-candy-proof, perhaps, of the skewed priorities of an industry that would sacrifice the interactive substance of games in favor of surface qualities that enhance only their commercial appeal. This thesis attempts to place the technique of AAA videogame setpieces within a series of wider technical, aesthetic, commercial, and cultural problematics relating to the contemporary games industry. It seeks to address the question of the setpiece's artistic merit directly, by understanding the design principles that inform setpieces' creation, and-for the sake of critical context-the aesthetic, cultural, and commercial imperatives these principles exist to serve. Following a historical poetics approach that relates practices of media exhibitionism to the perpetual innovation economy of digital games, this thesis argues that the setpiece is a meaningful site of fluid agency play within games, enabling complex narrative expression as well as selfreflexive comment about a game's own relationship to a continuously reimagined technological state of the art. Thesis supervisor: D. Fox Harrell Title: Associate Professor of Digital Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the generous contributions of a great number of brilliant people. Foremost, I wish to thank my thesis supervisor, Fox Harrell, for his insightful advice, thoughtful critiques, ceaseless encouragement, and tireless advocacy on behalf of this project I could not have asked for a brighter star to guide me along this journey. I also thank David Thorburn, for his rigorous eye, incisive intellect, and propitious enthusiasm regarding my early explorations of the themes at the heart of this thesis; Christopher Weaver, for his keen interest, wide-ranging expertise, and never-failing generosity of time, intellect, and spirit, andJim Bizzocchi, for his theoretical savoir-faire, his detailed and trenchant feedback, and his wonderful ability to project a warm, encouraging presence, even across a great physical distance. It has been an honor to work with-and present my work to-this group of inspiring thinkers. I also wish to thank the intellectual community at MIT that motivated and sustained me throughout this process in myriad ways, whether in the form of mind-opening pedagogy, panic-alleviating logistical support, or countless impromptu discussions about games, technology, media, storytelling, and spectacle. In particular, I owe a debt of gratitude to Ian CondryJunot Diaz, Clara FernAindez-Vara, Todd Harper, MikaelJakobsson, Shannon Larkin, Konstantin Mitgutsch, Nick Montfort, Scot Osterweil, Michael Rapa, Jeff Ravel, Philip Tan, Jessica Tatlock, T.L. Taylor, and Andrew Whitacre. I am deeply thankful for the leadership, vision, energy, and enthusiasm of Heather Hendershot, Jim Paradis, and William Uricchio, under whose guidance I gained a fuller sense not only of this project's potential, but also of my own potential in the field of media studies. If this thesis is able to reflect even a fraction of the vibrancy, ambition, industriousness, and intellectual fortitude of the community that surrounded me during its creation, it will have been a success. I am deeply indebted to my fellow graduate students, Denise Cheng, Rodrigo Davies, Erica Deahl, Julie Fischer, Alexandre Gongalves, Jason Lipshin, Eduardo Marisca, and Lingyuxiu Zhong; my lab-mates Chong-U Lim and Dominic Kao; and especially my cohort-mates Amar Boghani, Katie Edgerton, Elyse Graham, Ayse Gursoy, Sun Huan, Rogelio Lopez, Chris Peterson, Molly Sauter, Steven Schirra, Abe Stein, and Jia Zhang, who have been a delightful (and necessary) source of inspiration, motivation, commiseration, procrastination, and elation throughout this experience. It has been a privilege to work alongside this group, and I can only hope that I have managed in some small way to help them along their own scholarly paths, as they have helped me along mine. I also wish to thank the talented and insightful designers Richard Lemarchand and Manveer Heir, who- during an important ideational stage of this project-generously took time out of their busy schedules to talk to me about the process of AAA setpiece development, demonstrating through their thoughtful comments the same level of care, skill, and attention to detail that has always been evident in their work. I am grateful as well to Guilherme Marcondes, who contributed to this project through his constant willingness to discuss with me, at length, highly abstract ideas regarding spatiality and place in life and in videogames. I also wish to thank Bob Rehak, who encouraged my interest in computer-graphical spectacles while I was an undergraduate at Swarthmore and has continued to serve as my personal model for scholarship in this field, and Henry Jenkins, whose heartening comments gave me much-needed confidence, in the initial planning stages of this thesis, that my exertions might eventually bear worthwhile fruit. Finally, I give heartfelt thanks to all the friends and family who have supported me both spiritually and materially throughout this process, particularly Preety Sidhu, Madhu and Satinder Sidhu, and Nancy and Martin Schiller. Most of all, I thank Allison Schultz-my editor, proofreader, sounding-board, and partner- for her patience, her support, her tireless exertions on behalf of this thesis, and her unwavering belief in my ideas and my ability to commit them to paper. My humble and heartfelt thanks go out to you all, and to all whose names I was not able to list in this limited space. I can only hope that the subsequent work is worthy of the support I have received from each of you. Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................... 5 Chapter ewor ............................................................. 12 2.1: H istoricalpoetics.............................................................................................................................. 12 2.2: The perpetualinnomtion economy of ideogames............................................................................ 19 2.3: Media exhibitionism: attractions& /:jpermedia ....................................................................... 32 2.4: Immersion and agency in interactive media.................................................................................... 38 2.5: Ana yicalframework: agenyplay &playerinvolvement............................................................ 48 Chapter 3: Analysis.................................................................................... 63 3.1: Proceduresand m aterials................................................................................................................... 64 3.2: Shared insights on selpiexs and sequel culture ................................. 70 3.3: Uncharted3: "Stowaway"............................................................................... 73 3.33.a.ay A na y i..s....... .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 3.4: Modern Waifare 3: 'HunterKiller".................................................................... 92 3.4.1: De tin and close rea ng..................................................................................................92 3.5 Battefeder 3: re3-n "Huntein "......92............0 3.4.2: A nay is.................................................................................................................................99 3.5. 1: Desciption and close reading ...................................... 107 3.5.2Anayis....... ................................................................................................... 114 Chapter 4: