Videogames have been an important part of our culture for several decades. In this day and age, videogames (hereafter referred to as simply "games") are able to utilize advanced technology in order to craft stories that are -- or have the potential to be -- emotionally engaging. The time when electronic gaming was in its infancy, however, was one where games were ostensibly made for a sole purpose: entertainment. This statement is, to put it bluntly, false. Although games had no way to properly convey a story back when they were a budding medium, they instead expressed themes and ideas through gaming's centrifugal force: interactivity. Stories and messages were told through gameplay. Drawing on Bogost's (2007) theory of procedural rhetoric, this study analyzes the relationship between the disparate styles of gameplay mechanics (ludic) and stylistic (thematic) elements of Pong, Pac-Man, and Tetris. Videogames are a complex medium worthy of insightful analysis.
Pong is a classic example of adversarial battles. The premise is simple: two blocks repeatedly hit a ball back and forth until someone misses. Its sheer simplicity is what makes it so brutal: the game is a stark analysis of the human desire to compete. In actuality, the ball that the two blocks continuously hit back and forth doesn't exist: it is merely a physiological axiom of everything. Pong attempts to express an analysis of the human condition; it presents anything and everything as a field of competition. The "ball" (or bullets, or technology; however you wish to interpret it is fine) is bounced back and forth endlessly, or until someone loses. It's a critical view of the world in its perpetual state of conflict. Us humans view everything as a field of competition: the Cold War was a war fought through bullets, espionage, technology, and sports.
The story of Pac-Man is the textbook definition of a tragic hero. In this scenario, the desire of the avatar, Pac-Man, and the player are one in the same; one may have noticed that Pac-Man had made its fortune around the theme of addiction. The game represents the epitome of drug abuse: the mechanics are centered around collecting all the pellets -- or drugs -- in order to proceed to the next level. All pellets must be collected in order to advance -- the same is true for drug abusers who can't have enough. Finally, collecting a power pellet allows one to eat the ghosts who are chasing him, symbolic of how too much drugs can lead to one going on a rampage and harming those around him. In this case, the ghosts -- or rather, the police -- are harmed. However, there is an endless stream of ghosts who will chase after the player, ensuring that justice will always prevail in the face of crime.
As one might have guessed, the game Tetris, which was made by a Russian developer, is all about Communism (no offense to Russians out there, just making a joke!). The game involves dropping variously constructed blocks in a way that will form a straight (horizontal) line across the screen. Doing so will clear the blocks and prevent the player from filling up the screen, in which case the game is over. As one may have inferred, the blocks are representative of people, who come in all shapes and sizes. Individually, each piece is unable to do anything; however, when working together, a line is cleared and points are earned. If one doesn't clear lines and adds blocks vertically, the game ends. What Tetris is trying to suggest is that standing on top of one another -- Captialism -- will lead to failure, while standing beside each other -- Communism -- will lead to success. A political agenda could not be more apparent.
Videogames are complex, yet simple; a strange paradox, but a paradox nonetheless. Games which are heralded as some of the pioneers of modern gaming are done so not only due to their well-crafted gameplay, but also because of the deep meaning that each possessed in its ludic elements. Pong, Pac-Man, and Tetris are all fine examples of this. Videogames have the power to entertain and educate through procedural rhetoric, and that's what gives the medium its complexity.
No comments:
Post a Comment