{"id":1940,"date":"2014-05-14T10:28:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T08:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/?p=1940"},"modified":"2014-05-23T13:44:26","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T11:44:26","slug":"what-do-games-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/2014\/05\/14\/what-do-games-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"Patch Wednesday #5: What do Games Mean? An Interpretation Matrix"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my fifth\u00a0Patch Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0post where I discuss a question about video games that I think is unanswered, unexplored, or not\u00a0posed yet. I will propose my own tentative ideas and invite comments.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The series is\u00a0called\u00a0Patch Wednesday to mark the sometimes ragtag and improvised character of video game studies.<\/em><\/p>\n

What do games mean?\u00a0There is a lot of good<\/a>\u00a0work<\/a> on meaning<\/a>\u00a0and values\u00a0in games<\/a>, of course, but I think there is a very simple question that has not been fully addressed. (When I talk about “mean” here, it is primarily in the sense of a game making a normative statement about what is good\/bad<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

If something is present in a game,\u00a0is that a statement to the effect\u00a0that what happens in the game is\u00a0good and\u00a0ought<\/a> to be present in regular life?<\/em><\/p>\n

Certainly, negative media commentary about video games tends to follow a very simple form, assuming that if something happens in a game (say, war), this is a ringing endorsement of war in general. In table form, it would look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nThis is good<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Event<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a0War<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

That is obviously too simple.\u00a0A\u00a0pro-war game will say that war is good, but an anti-war game will say that war is bad. That the endorsement view\u00a0is too simple\u00a0doesn’t let video games of the hook, it just means that\u00a0there is more to the discussion, as there are at least two different interpretations of\u00a0similar game events. The classic example is\u00a0<\/span>Monopoly<\/em>, where the game structure was originally designed to criticize land ownership (in\u00a0<\/span>The Landlord’s Game<\/em>), but in\u00a0<\/span>Monopoly<\/em>\u00a0this is usually interpreted as an endorsement of land ownership and capitalism. In\u00a0matrix form:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nThis is good<\/b><\/td>\nThis is bad<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Event<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a0Hoarding property<\/td>\n\u00a0Hoarding property<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

But there is an additional possibility. If we think of sci-fi games or any game which does not claim to represent the\u00a0world as it currently is, the game can also be making statements about possible futures (say, the fight between humans and machines). It follows that\u00a0a game can either say something about the current state of the world, or about a possible future (or the past). Consider the example of whether money buys political influence, and consider a\u00a0game in which this is the case. This could then be taken in four different ways:\u00a0Saying that 1) this is already the case (and it is bad), 2)\u00a0this is already the case (and it is good), 3)\u00a0this is not yet the\u00a0case (and it would be bad),\u00a04)\u00a0this is\u00a0not yet the\u00a0case (and it\u00a0would be good). (Remember that some people do believe that this is good.) This is the basic interpretation matrix:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nThis is good<\/b><\/td>\nThis is bad<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How it is<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a0Money buys political influence<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Money buys political influence<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How it could be<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a0Money buys political influence<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Money buys political influence<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The very hard question, then, is\u00a0how we interpret a particular game\u00a0such as\u00a0Grand Theft Auto V<\/em>.\u00a0I may\u00a0have sometimes been too keen on making\u00a0the\u00a0“it’s more complicated than that”-argument and leaving it at that. So let’s\u00a0go on.<\/p>\n

The enjoyment of bad things<\/strong><\/p>\n

The problem with GTA V probably is\u00a0that\u00a0while it on some level can be seen as\u00a0making social commentary about violence, race, gender, and politics, arguably placing it in the how it is \/ this is bad<\/em>\u00a0square (given that all characters are anti-heroes), it just does that in an uncomfortably leery, consistent and celebratory fashion. So the\u00a0interpretation matrix is rather like this,\u00a0where the game\u00a0at least part of the time seems to be signaling the right thing, but that it is hard not to feel that there is\u00a0a voice in the game\u00a0screaming “AWESOME!”\u00a0at the in-game violence, sexism and racism. Matrix:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nThis is good<\/b><\/td>\nThis is bad<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How it is<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a0GTA V world<\/td>\n\u00a0GTA V world
\n(“IT’S ALSO AWESOME!<\/strong>“)<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How it could be<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a0GTA V world<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0GTA V world<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This doesn’t quite end it though. In reception studies (say Janet Staiger’s\u00a0Perverse Spectators<\/em>) one discussion concerns what we can call\u00a0interpretation-by-proxy<\/em>. I.e. “I\u00a0<\/em>am a good person with all the right morals, critical faculties and so on, but the actual\u00a0audience<\/em> for this movie\/game\/book obviously lacks these qualities and will be brainwashed and interpret things very differently. And I will make judgments based on my prejudices\u00a0about that naive audience “.<\/p>\n

What we\u00a0can\u00a0<\/em>say about\u00a0GTA V<\/em> is that a suspicious amount of energy and care has gone into\u00a0making a particular game world with events that we would at any time say we are against,\u00a0but which are also meant to be enjoyable (in a broad sense) when we play the game.\u00a0Of course, this is a criticism to be leveled at any kind of art or discussion about unpleasant subjects – that they end up aestheticizing what they are\u00a0supposed to be against. (See also the PPPS below.)<\/p>\n

So how can we tell if\u00a0there is such an “AWESOME!”\u00a0model player of GTA V, <\/em>and that it isn’t just us being prejudiced about a game audience in the same way that academics\u00a0have traditionally been prejudiced about the television, romance novel, game audiences? The short answer is that we\u00a0cannot simply assume that we are\u00a0personally superior to the\u00a0imagined audience of a given game\/movie\/novel.<\/p>\n

In the end, then, I think the problem with GTA V\u00a0is that it seem to show too\u00a0much love for\u00a0its own present\/dystopian world. And this\u00a0is what\u00a0makes us skeptic about the meaning of the game; about what value the game is assigning to its content.<\/p>\n

This is\u00a0what the interpretation matrix is for:\u00a0by\u00a0looking at the meaning of a game as\u00a0an\u00a0interpretation matrix, we can to take a step back and\u00a0think more broadly about possible, and sometimes conflicting, meanings.<\/p>\n

***********<\/p>\n

PS. I don’t think I have\u00a0seen these interpretation matrices before, but it seems like an obvious idea, so I may be wrong.<\/p>\n

PPS. In\u00a0A Year with Swollen Appendices<\/em>, Brian Eno describes\u00a0the impossible futures<\/em>-game, where participants have\u00a0to describe futures that\u00a0can never take place. One example is people with different astrological signs waging war against each other. This is the “how it could not possibly be”-variation, which is quite rare.<\/p>\n

PPPS. \u00a0Susan\u00a0Feagin talks about (“The Pleasures of Tragedy<\/em>“) that we may enjoy tragedy for the fact that it makes us feel good about our own moral standing,\u00a0“We find ourselves to be the kind of people who respond negatively to villainy, treachery,\u00a0and injustice.\u00a0This discovery, or reminder, is something which, quite justly, yields satisfaction.”\u00a0We probably associate this with the too keen and PR-minded celebrity who is into good causes, but of course it could also be\u00a0that we are like that ourselves. In matrix form:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nThis is good<\/b><\/td>\nThis is bad<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How it is<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a0Violence<\/td>\n\u00a0Violence
\n(“<\/em>This belief makes me a good person!”<\/strong>)<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How it could be<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a0Violence<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Violence<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my fifth\u00a0Patch Wednesday\u00a0post where I discuss a question about video games that I think is unanswered, unexplored, or not\u00a0posed yet. I will propose my own tentative ideas and invite comments.\u00a0 The series is\u00a0called\u00a0Patch Wednesday to mark the sometimes ragtag and improvised character of video game studies. What do games mean?\u00a0There is a lot … Continue reading “Patch Wednesday #5: What do Games Mean? An Interpretation Matrix”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games","category-patch-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}