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CFC Day 3 Game Culture

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Emma Westecott
Emma Westecott

This document discusses games culture and the concept of games as cultural representations. It addresses how games both reflect and can transform culture. Games are considered as cultural texts that can be interpreted. The concept of play culture is introduced, where play enhances social life and early culture had play-like qualities. Different views on games and media are presented, including how games can be seen as art forms through modding, machinima, and independent game development. The concept of the player character is discussed as the representation of player agency in games.

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Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 1 Games Culture Emma Westecott Assistant Professor: Game Design, OCAD ewestecott@faculty.ocad.ca
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 2Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 2 What is culture? There are many definitions of culture. Most of them directly or indirectly involve what people think, what they do, and the material products they produce. Games culture refers to the surrounding context of game-play itself.
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 3Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 3 The broader picture Considering games as culture entails moving beyond the borders of the magic circle to consider how games interact with the contexts that lie outside the game itself. When we consider a game as a cultural representation, we are considering game as a cultural text, allowing for an interpretative reading of a game.
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 4Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 4 Reflections and transformations All games reflect culture, reproducing aspects of a cultural context. Some games also transform culture, affecting genuine change. In addition to understanding that games can represent and that they are representations we can frame them as cultural representations reflecting the meanings of the contexts of where they are produced and played.
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 5 Conceptual debates Media Studies The effects of technology are socially determined Active audiences Interpretation Spectatorship Representation Centralised media Consumer Work New Media Studies The nature of society is technologically determined Interactive users Experience Immersion Simulation Ubiquitous media Participant/co-creator Play
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 6Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 6 Play Culture Social life is endowed with supra-biological forms, in the shape of play, which enhance its value. It is through this playing that society expresses its interpretation of life and of the world. By this we do not mean that play turns into culture, rather that in its earliest phases culture has the play character, that it proceeds in the shape and the mood of play. (Huizinga 1955: 46)
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 7Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 7 Brian Sutton Smiths 7 Rhetorics of Play
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 8Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 8 Co-creative media & critical play The old rhetoric of opposition and cooptation assumed a world where consumers had little direct power to shape media content and where there were enormous barriers to entry into the marketplace, whereas the new digital environment expands their power to archive, annotate, appropriate, and re-circulate media products. Jenkins, H. 2003
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 9Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 9 The Art Of The Game Where The Art Is Located? Not what games look like but what game flow offers, the art of the game is about the player, and provides a kinesthetic poetry of performance. What Type Of Art Are Games? Time-based Performative
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 10Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 10 The Art Of The Game The game experience results from the collision of game world; game rules and game play in a given moment in time. The palette that the game artist holds consists a toolbox that creates these multiple media moments that have the potential to emotionally resonate with a future player. The intent of this form of choreography is to create a synthesized player experience where the visuals, sound and interaction converge to immerse the player within the flow of an emotional moment.
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 11Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 11 The Art Of The Game Tiffany Holmes has used the term art game to define an interactive work that challenges cultural stereotypes, offers meaningful social or historical critique, or tells a story in a novel manner (Holmes, 2003).
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 12Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 12 The Art Of The Game the lively arts digital games are coming out of the entertainment closet e.g. political, educational, social applications of form. the dance between technology and art spawns multitudes of new form e.g. locative experiences, convergent media, etc. applying the lens of art history e.g. effect of photography to liberate older forms from realism, what might drive digital game form to escape current aesthetic?
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 13Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 13 modding - subverting the rules Waco Resurrection (2003) http://waco.c-level.cc/
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 14Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 14 The Art Of The Game MODDING - subverting the rule Waco Resurrection (2003) http://waco.c-level.cc/
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 15Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 15 The Art Of The Game MACHINIMA - recording the engine Dance Voldo Dance (2002) Chris Brandt http://www.bainst.com/madness/voldo.html
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 16Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 16 The Art Of The Game INDEPENDENT GAME DEVELOPMENT - building games with other intentions
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 17Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 17 The Art Of The Game INDEPENDENT GAME DEVELOPMENT - building games with other intentions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEI9a2nedEs
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 18Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 18 Engagement in games is manifest through the players representation of agency. Our main mechanism for engagement in game is through direct control of our player character, or representation of action in game. A player character acts out the movements of the player and marks her progression in game. The Player Character
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 19Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 19 The Player Character
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 20Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 20 The Player Character http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/zero-punctuation-bayonetta/338786
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 21Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 21 The Player Character
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 22Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 22 GAME ACTOR : Lara Croft GAME AVATAR : World of Warcraft Horde ICON : LocoRoco The Player Character
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 23Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 23 Mirrors Edge The Player Character 1st Person Camera
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 24Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 24 Prince of Persia The Player Character 3rd Person Camera
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 25Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 25 We tried not to give him [Snake] too much character because we want players to be able to take on his role. Snake isnt like a movie star. Hes not someone you watch, hes someone you can step into the shoes of. Playing Snake gives gamers the chance to be a hero. (Kojima, 1998: 43) The Player Character
Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 26Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 26 '... The fascination with puppets reaches so far back into human history that it must be regarded as a response to a fundamental need or needs. It is, clearly, a projection of the obsession of human beings with their own image More profoundly, it reveals a yearning to play god, to master life.' (Segel, 1995: 4) The Player Character as Puppet

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CFC Day 3 Game Culture

  • 1. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 1 Games Culture Emma Westecott Assistant Professor: Game Design, OCAD ewestecott@faculty.ocad.ca
  • 2. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 2Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 2 What is culture? There are many definitions of culture. Most of them directly or indirectly involve what people think, what they do, and the material products they produce. Games culture refers to the surrounding context of game-play itself.
  • 3. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 3Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 3 The broader picture Considering games as culture entails moving beyond the borders of the magic circle to consider how games interact with the contexts that lie outside the game itself. When we consider a game as a cultural representation, we are considering game as a cultural text, allowing for an interpretative reading of a game.
  • 4. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 4Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 4 Reflections and transformations All games reflect culture, reproducing aspects of a cultural context. Some games also transform culture, affecting genuine change. In addition to understanding that games can represent and that they are representations we can frame them as cultural representations reflecting the meanings of the contexts of where they are produced and played.
  • 5. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 5 Conceptual debates Media Studies The effects of technology are socially determined Active audiences Interpretation Spectatorship Representation Centralised media Consumer Work New Media Studies The nature of society is technologically determined Interactive users Experience Immersion Simulation Ubiquitous media Participant/co-creator Play
  • 6. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 6Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 6 Play Culture Social life is endowed with supra-biological forms, in the shape of play, which enhance its value. It is through this playing that society expresses its interpretation of life and of the world. By this we do not mean that play turns into culture, rather that in its earliest phases culture has the play character, that it proceeds in the shape and the mood of play. (Huizinga 1955: 46)
  • 7. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 7Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 7 Brian Sutton Smiths 7 Rhetorics of Play
  • 8. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 8Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 8 Co-creative media & critical play The old rhetoric of opposition and cooptation assumed a world where consumers had little direct power to shape media content and where there were enormous barriers to entry into the marketplace, whereas the new digital environment expands their power to archive, annotate, appropriate, and re-circulate media products. Jenkins, H. 2003
  • 9. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 9Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 9 The Art Of The Game Where The Art Is Located? Not what games look like but what game flow offers, the art of the game is about the player, and provides a kinesthetic poetry of performance. What Type Of Art Are Games? Time-based Performative
  • 10. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 10Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 10 The Art Of The Game The game experience results from the collision of game world; game rules and game play in a given moment in time. The palette that the game artist holds consists a toolbox that creates these multiple media moments that have the potential to emotionally resonate with a future player. The intent of this form of choreography is to create a synthesized player experience where the visuals, sound and interaction converge to immerse the player within the flow of an emotional moment.
  • 11. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 11Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 11 The Art Of The Game Tiffany Holmes has used the term art game to define an interactive work that challenges cultural stereotypes, offers meaningful social or historical critique, or tells a story in a novel manner (Holmes, 2003).
  • 12. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 12Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 12 The Art Of The Game the lively arts digital games are coming out of the entertainment closet e.g. political, educational, social applications of form. the dance between technology and art spawns multitudes of new form e.g. locative experiences, convergent media, etc. applying the lens of art history e.g. effect of photography to liberate older forms from realism, what might drive digital game form to escape current aesthetic?
  • 13. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 13Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 13 modding - subverting the rules Waco Resurrection (2003) http://waco.c-level.cc/
  • 14. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 14Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 14 The Art Of The Game MODDING - subverting the rule Waco Resurrection (2003) http://waco.c-level.cc/
  • 15. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 15Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 15 The Art Of The Game MACHINIMA - recording the engine Dance Voldo Dance (2002) Chris Brandt http://www.bainst.com/madness/voldo.html
  • 16. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 16Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 16 The Art Of The Game INDEPENDENT GAME DEVELOPMENT - building games with other intentions
  • 17. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 17Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 17 The Art Of The Game INDEPENDENT GAME DEVELOPMENT - building games with other intentions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEI9a2nedEs
  • 18. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 18Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 18 Engagement in games is manifest through the players representation of agency. Our main mechanism for engagement in game is through direct control of our player character, or representation of action in game. A player character acts out the movements of the player and marks her progression in game. The Player Character
  • 19. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 19Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 19 The Player Character
  • 20. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 20Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 20 The Player Character http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/zero-punctuation-bayonetta/338786
  • 21. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 21Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 21 The Player Character
  • 22. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 22Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 22 GAME ACTOR : Lara Croft GAME AVATAR : World of Warcraft Horde ICON : LocoRoco The Player Character
  • 23. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 23Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 23 Mirrors Edge The Player Character 1st Person Camera
  • 24. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 24Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 24 Prince of Persia The Player Character 3rd Person Camera
  • 25. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 25Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 25 We tried not to give him [Snake] too much character because we want players to be able to take on his role. Snake isnt like a movie star. Hes not someone you watch, hes someone you can step into the shoes of. Playing Snake gives gamers the chance to be a hero. (Kojima, 1998: 43) The Player Character
  • 26. Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 26Friday, January 30, 2015 Emma Westecott 26 '... The fascination with puppets reaches so far back into human history that it must be regarded as a response to a fundamental need or needs. It is, clearly, a projection of the obsession of human beings with their own image More profoundly, it reveals a yearning to play god, to master life.' (Segel, 1995: 4) The Player Character as Puppet

Editor's Notes

  1. The study of play pre-dates games, whose humanist theorists (notably Huizinga (1955) and Caillois (1961) offer ways of understanding the relationships between play and culture.