Whoindabushes's Weblog

final blog

whoindabushes — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:08:50 +0000

This was one of the most interesting classes I have had all year. It was so many familiar ideas that were tied together in ways that never previously occurred to me. It definitely showed me some new ways to think about things which I am grateful for. It forced me to think about the importance of interactivity and immersion in reference to games and films as the essential component of my ability to really experience those things. It also allowed me to explore the idea of violence in video games and film through a religious lens which I had never done before and that experience was definitely beneficial to my thinking. The class exposed me to a whole slew of interesting networks and games of which I may never have been aware of otherwise, so my free time has been a lot more heady and certainly more interesting than it was before the class. What I must do now I feel is to understand these ideas and use them as tools for analysis of my experience when I am not consumed in the fold of such experiences and make sure that my now more finely tuned cognitive processes do not interfere with the level of immersion and thus diminish the power.

class 4/15

whoindabushes — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:56:47 +0000

First of all, I thought Resistance: Fall of Man was an excellent game. It looked and felt so much like Call of Duty but you get to fight ALIENS instead of other people. How cool is that? I often fantasize about humanity having to unite in the face of destruction to fend off an alien invasion so this game was right up my alley. I only got to observe it being played for a brief time, but based on that my only gripe (which is my gripe with Call of Duty) is the strict linear flow of your progression in the game. As for the Manchester Cathedral issue with the game, I really don’t think that is offensive to Manchester Christians and I don’t think they have a legitimate claim to being upset. First, its a video game. An artificial reality inhabited by invading aliens set in a future that never happened. Beyond it being completely removed from the realm of reality in every way except the likeness of the Cathedral, a simulated violent shoot out with alien creatures does not offend Christian belief and does not belittle the teachings of the faith.

I thought that Kumawar was a really interesting intersection between different types of media as well as the real and artificial world. The fact that they have real soldiers talking about a real shootout that happened sometime in the past that you can “replay” just blows my mind. With updates every week and real footage and newscasters creating the context, it makes me wonder why we don’t just battle for real that way and decide the outcome of wars in that fashion.

games and films as ritual violence

whoindabushes — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:45:21 +0000

One issue in video games that gets discussed frequently especially in conservative media is the issue of violence. Usually, the discussion centers around whether or not video games actively encourage violence in the participants outside of the artificial realm. Something that gets no attention in this arena is the nature of human beings and more specifically, whether or not human beings are inherently violent creatures. To look at an artificial reality designed by human hands that is violent that is to be played by violently by people who readily consume violence and to still ignore this aspect of the discussion is purely preposterous. This discussion takes on new dimensions when video games are viewed through a religious lens and the violence is seen as ritual. From this perspective, it becomes permissible by most to assume a level of violence within human beings as violent ritual (eg sacrifice) is relegated to a place of cultural/religious immaturity and underdevelopment that removes it from the position civilization assumes. We can study violent ritual in indigenous, tribal cultures across the planet from the academic perspective of the outsider and draw distinctions between them and us that distills an illusory sense of superiority on our part. In American culture that among the “civilized world” is considered to be exceptionally violent, we can see various sublimated forms of violence (eg violent pop culture to poverty and racism) that function internally in similar ways that violent ritual does for other cultures. We like violence. We thrive on it. As a human being, you cannot tell me with a straight face that it doesn’t feel good in some way to inflict suffering and pain upon yourself, others, and the world. The next time you are animated with ferocity and anger to the point it consumes you, stop the processes of rationalization and let the instinct of violence swell within your chest and give yourself completely to it. It feels natural. It feels appropriate in this simian physical form. It fuses with you and becomes you. Violent video games appeal to that undeniable aspect of human beings but differ from other forms of violence because the violence in them is controlled. It is an uninhibited violence devoid of repercussion. If I were to brandish a blade on the street and start chasing people around trying to bury the metal in their flesh, the consequences might be violently reciprocated on my body. If I did that exact thing in Grand Theft Auto 4 (which I do from time to time) I could feel the full boon of such violence without it turning back on me. This is also true of violent ritual where I may observe (or participate if I am one of the elect) a man having his heart cut out at sunrise atop a pyramid without the violent principle scathing me. In films, this functions in a way that is far more congruent with violent ritual than in video games because you are always the immersed observer rather than the immersed agent of the violence.

In general, I think humans need to recognize and accept this integral piece of themselves as being something as natural as sexuality, empathy, or ecstasy. To ignore violence as a part of being human leads to misdirected and misunderstood violence and violent impulses and this is infinitely more harmful to humanity than pensive practice of this very real part of us.

class 4/8

whoindabushes — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:49:28 +0000

The dress up Jesus game we looked at it in class was interesting because it was purely offensive rather than being clever, inventive, or fun. All you could do was dress a two dimensional Jesus up in outfits offensive to him as a prophet. I remember thinking that if this was a dress up Mohammed game, the designer would probably have had his head sawed off. This gets into our discussion of linear points that create a recognizable progression and when someone veers off of that procedural format, it stirs uncomfortability and resentment. The example we used was Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ where he used the familiar progression of capture, torture, and crucification and then took his own course with the narrative. This I think is an acceptable practice permitting it is done well in a way that is tasteful and provoking in some way where as the dress up Jesus game was really no game at all and just kinda sucked as well as being offensive.

Games, Film, and Interactivity

whoindabushes — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:21:55 +0000

The narrow conduit through which video games are designed to function is a parallel for the human experience of reality. The pixels of the system can only display visually what they are designed to recognize just as the human eye is only capable of seeing what it can make sense of given its physiological structure. The controls of the game are narrowly defined to work effectively within the parameters of the game’s reality just as the human body has evolved in reaction to exist optimally in the environment of the natural realm given our genetic predispositions. The character experiences the reality of the game as the human being experiences the reality of the world in numerous ways that can be linked as parallel, but most interesting is the double barrier between the internal human and the avatar of the game. An individual playing a first-person shooter sees the screen with the filter of human eyes which then corresponds to the artificial vision of the avatar they are controlling on the realm of the artificial environment. What strikes me as especially noteworthy is the compulsion of people to experience this alternate reality with more intensity than the actual reality of their lives and to come away from the ordeal with a feeling that resonates with more vibrancy that the events they really do experience. This has to do in large part I think with the absence of real consequence and collateral factors (pain, inextricable fear, etc) in the simulated reality that makes it more appealing for them to live out their lives in the ways they are afraid to, but there is something else here that weighs significantly into their experience.

When you watch a film, you are interacting in the experience in so far as you connect with a character, story, idea, etc. and lose yourself in that. In a video game, you remain yourself, but a self refined in all the ways that you are afraid to push yourself to. Take for example, an assault on a bunker in a film where Private Cletus blows open the metal door, rushes through the smoke, and unloads metal rain upon a room of heavily armed men. If I were to watch that movie and be completely immersed in the experience of Private Cletus, I might walk away with a sense of duty, courage, and hardship linked to Cletus that I may reminisce on and call upon in the future in some marginal way. However, if that experience were one of interactivity in a video game, I would actually be Andrew Haag assaulting that bunker yet devoid of all the negative or personally-deemed deplorable qualities of my character. Video games allow for a freedom of role playing that is distinct from film not only in its availability of choices, but in its corresponding notions within the human counterpart. The assault on the bunker after the video game experience (if it was poignant enough) would begin to seep into my brain in ways that I might not even realize until some day in the future, I will be called upon to storm a building in a situation vaguely relating to that of the Private and because I have already DONE THAT versus vicariously experienced that and possibly extracted some measure of the other’s personality constellation with which to mortar the bricks of mine, I am solid in my autonomous self and need no one else. Just two nights ago for example, I had a dream in which I was flying through a dark, gothic city with buildings that stretched above the clouds. I had the power of electricity in my left hand and a club in my right and I had to fend off various madmen possessed by demon souls. So much of the style of the environment and the people came directly out of Bioshock. This happens to me quite often where I will have dreams that allocate various qualities of games that I have played to my life and thus render a new reality. I have never had a dream in which I was another person and never had a dream in which I was in the strict, linear format of a film.

class 4/8

whoindabushes — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:31:32 +0000

The humanpet website that we took at look at in class I thought was an interesting example of interactivity on the internet. It makes me wonder why more sites like that don’t exist or why people don’t interact with them more. Its like a video game but instead of controlling an avatar in some simulated reality, you are yourself attempting to solve a web of games to save a person from death. Though this person will obviously not really die, the website acts as if it were real and includes real video, subtle and interrelated facts and clues, and real time updates to maintain the illusion.

The video we watched about what happened to the Branch Davidians at Waco was evocative in a number of ways that we discussed. But what really struck me as telling was the video game in which you are David Koresh and the video convention in particular where the players donned Koresh masks and had to recite certain phrases of his at various points. This heightened level of immersion in a video game was something I had never seen before and it goes to show nothing is off limits or beyond the realm of possibility in this age of growing technological advancement.

Films and Games as Ritual

whoindabushes — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:37:51 +0000

I can see how the categories laid out by Catherine Bell may be helpful in understanding how films function as replacements for the traditional-ritual absent culture in which we live, but the depth of ritual surpasses film in a way that can seldom be imitated by cinema. Ritual, though it has been incorrectly belittled in comparison to myth in this regard, carries underneath the superficial appearance a substance of most profound gravity. A myth is a symbolic story embedded with ancient ideas, axioms , and beliefs and when that myth is adopted by the participant in the form of a ritual, the result is the dissolution of the individual into the pool of archetypal spirituality and complete immersion in the communal experience shared amongst the people tracing back to the beginning. Film functions in a way far milder and certainly less noetic than ritual practice, though they do share similarities worthy of some attention. A film like The Godfather for example which I would say is a uncontested classic of cinema and in particular American cinema, is ritual in so much as the viewer connects with the constellation of elements present in the film firstly, loses the self in that bridge of reciprocal relation, and comes out of that experience with an indelible sense of personal existence anchored in the movie. In other words, the viewer must be Don Corleone, Tom Hagan, etc. completely and live in that person during the film and thus retain a piece of that soul after the film is over for it to have been a ritual in the traditional, spiritual sense. This also plays into the communal, cultural sense of ritual as individuals may connect with one another on their shared, and uniquely American sense of the Godfather in the same way veterans of the same war may become personally unified.

Though games are far more personal in that they require active participation in the evolution of the plot, they are not necessarily a better example of transmuted ritual than film. The video game The Godfather (which I played extensively) was far less immersive for me than the film ever was or ever could possibly be no matter the number of times I experienced each. I think this has more to do with the film being based on a fantastic piece of literature and generally being laden with disproportional points of emotional power than the video game (which almost had none). But that said, film has always been a much more powerful conduit for my personal immersion than video games and I think this is due to the fact that when I watch a film that touches me in the way I am attempting to outline, I experience the events and emotions of the characters as if they were me and I was them simultaneously whereas in a video game I still have a relatively complete sense of autonomous self in relation to the avatar that I am controlling. To give an example that may help clarify, a movie that functions as a ritual for me I experience as a dream – where my thoughts, emotions, and actions may not necessarily bear any resemblance to my waking thoughts, emotions, and actions they never the less are my thoughts, emotions, and actions. While during a video game, I retain these natural thoughts, emotions, and actions and see the avatar as an extension of my individual personality within an alternate reality (so it appears more like a game of chess where I project my unadulterated consciousness onto the pieces of the board rather than lose myself in the consciousness of another.

visual and procedural rhetoric in film and video games

whoindabushes — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:40:43 +0000

Visual and Procedural Rhetoric in Film and Video Games

Film and video games present us with two entirely different ways of interacting with a story that until very recently in human history, were not possible at all. The days of orally-transmitted, generational story-telling around a fire where the listener could imagine the story in any way that made sense relative to who they were individually has been done away with by the technological advancements of the twentieth century. This has had a tremendous impact upon the way we perceive stories in ways entirely unprecedented and begs certain questions not about group ideas, cultural archetypes, etc but rather about the individual and their specific experience.
In film, visual rhetoric is set in certain contrived images whose purpose is to elicit a specific emotion from the viewer based on common human themes and ideas. Obviously the subjective experience may be one entirely different from another if certain reflexivity is brought to the viewing. But generally speaking, when a human is shown the image of a wailing kitten rolling in a pool of its own blood in some dark and decadent alleyway, the impulse will be one of pain and empathy. Though visual rhetoric is set in this way, procedural rhetoric can shape our experience of the visual in a tremendously powerful way. If say the evolution of the plot of the film was such that this kitten was shown to be the antichrist incarnate and through every scene the viewer was molded to despise the demon cat and its most profound evil, the image of its agony and death would bring about an entirely different emotion.
In video games because of the inherent interactivity, the experience of visual rhetoric is far more involved and complicated. If this same image of the bleeding cat were shown to the player of a video game in the absence of procedural rhetoric to make sense of the image, the result might be more intense that the film because of the individual’s involvement. If that same image in a video game was presented in the context of procedural rhetoric, that is decisions and actions based around controlled plot evolution, the product might also be far more intense than if experienced through the rigid and exclusionary format of a film. I know if I was battling the forces of darkness and the culmination was the murder of a satanic feline, I would have a much stronger attachment to that action because of my involvement.

class 3/25

whoindabushes — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:24:40 +0000

When we were talking about films being linear versus video games being non-linear in our experience of each, it made me think of the movie Memento. The whole film is backwards in sequence and each scene is jumbled in correlation to one another. Though it still appears to be linear to the viewer as it follows a set path that cannot be influenced, to the protagonist the evolution of the plot is wrapped in upon itself and it is only through the substance he brings to each moment (questing after his wife’s killers) that meaning is found. This connects to the idea of reflexivity we also talked about in class and given the viewers understanding of the film (after the first time viewed), the film changes in substance and can be experienced in an entirely different way, each scene unlocking a fragmented plot piece revolving around a locus of meaning.

Something else I was thinking about was the idea of ritual catharsis through film. When we were talking about people who obsessively watch certain movies over and over again and how that is indicative of a certain meaning for the given individual, the two examples from my life that came most readily to mind were The Beach and Fight Club during my early years in high school. When I watch them now, they don’t have quite the same gravity they once held for me and I think this is due to the time and place in which they came into my life. The Beach was a rejection of the State as well as capitalism and a waxing philosophical account of the darkness that underlies the human experience. Fight Club was also a rejection of the authority and economy considerations of my life but invoked a self-destructive and feral element that I have always felt close to the core of my character.

Hello world!

whoindabushes — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:26:08 +0000

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