Interactive Ritual

I've been thinking about video games and their growth from other interactive mediums. Perhaps spurred by Alternative Ending's apology for RPGs and desire for more emergent narrative, although I'm not yet sure how much this discussion will have to do with her discussion.

Interaction has been and still is a part of human rituals. So far I have categorized these interactive rituals into three categories, defining a ritual as an action that is performed multiple times in the same way, usually with pre-scripted parts, and interactive where the participant does something. I feel like there should be another classification for where the participant can do multiple things which in turn affect the outcome of the ritual, but I don't know what that word is yet:

Social rituals (require more than one person):

-Oaths. The marriage oath, swearing into court, and the presidential inauguration all require the participant to accept or reject the situation, with different consequences either way. 

I really just wanted an excuse to put in a picture of a Russian orthodox church.

-Call-and-Response.  Common in camp songs and some Christian-type sermons. The leader says one part, and the audience answers theirs or repeat what has just been said. 

-Call-and-Action. Traditional storytelling that has the audience do actions in certain parts would fall here, as well as children's finger plays. Singing with actions, like jump-rope rhymes and clapping songs might also go here. If you say/do the wrong thing everyone else will probably keep going or stop. 

-Daily living. Includes greetings, exchange of goods, pouring a drink for someone else, etc.

-Other. Everything I haven't though of yet.

Individual rituals:

-Counting off. Including counting your money, plucking daisy petals, etc. to come to a conclusion.

-Bodily rituals. Going to the toilet, eating, etc.

-Daily living. Washing hands, Sometimes combined with social rituals for extra effect. Includes quirky things like you always put your keys in your right-hand pocket, read before bed, etc.

-This is getting ridiculous and I need to stop thinking about it.

We can think of video games as rituals. In Portal for instance (forgive my constant references to this game, but I'm writing my thesis on it so it's on my mind and readily available, mentally), the structure is that of call-and-action. GLaDOS says the same things every time you play the game. If you do something other than the scripted event of an action that leads to beating the game, you just can't continue. There is no way to complete the game and not fight with GLaDOS (well, short of modding the game I suppose). But an essential difference is that the first time you play a game, you don't know what's going to happen, so it doesn't feel like a ritual. It's only on replaying a game that you feel that it is a ritual and become comfortable with it. Most games with a linear flow follow this feel.

Games with multiple endings are still a sort of ritual, or at least a set of different rituals which you have to figure out. Creating a level in Little Big Planet seems like it's not a ritual, unless you're creating the same level over and over again. Open-world games have breaks from the structure of ritual, but still within the rules and confines of the game. I also wonder how ritual works in games with procedurally-generated content or in sandbox games. Certainly exploring the dungeon levels in Persona 3 time after time seems like a ritual, even if the floor pattern is a little different each time. When playing Minecraft with zombies the first day seems to play out the same: make shelter for the night by digging materials. And I don't think ritual is a bad thing; I think it's important to acknowledge that part of the experience of playing a video game is rooted in very old experiences. Gameplay elements which become ritualistic in one playthrough of a game (like grinding in RPGs or digging in Minecraft) hold a special quality which both bore and comfort us. I hope to follow this post up with some more awesome, but this might be as far as the idea goes.

Ah, grinding. Oh, I forgot to mention FF6. Here is this screenshot I stole off the internet anyway.

Edit: Because I'm a budding archivist, I'd like to link over to Digital Ephemera's further discussion of this post and interactive ritual in games. 

Handmade Minecraft Cookbook

I like fan art, especially unusual fan art. I took a bookbinding class last fall, and I made a Minecraft cookbook for my little brother to go along with a copy of Minecraft for last year's Christmas (it turns out my older brother was more interested, oh well). I used a coptic binding, which is the older type of binding we learned. I dyed the paper for the cover with a lemon teabag (rooibos is also great for dying, and it gives a redder color).

 For the inside paper I used a map harvested from BYU's map discards.

 I should have spent a little more time reviewing my calligraphy skills for the title page. Oh well.

 I ended up rushing to put in the recipies, so I did them in plain ballpoint pen with tic-tac-to type grids.

Not bad, for an amateur like myself. I put pictures of some other book projects I did on my personal blog. Now, if only I had a huge blade so I could cut binder's boards at home...

Video Games as Performance Art

Many people think of video games as a solitary, anti-social activity.  But 76% of game-playing teenagers play games with other people at least some of the time.  Most of this play is with people in the same room, and this figure does not take into account people playing a game while others are watching.

So, how is playing games with people different from playing alone?  In addition to the obvious social aspect, the game also becomes something of a performance art.  While this is readily apparent in games that already resemble traditional performance arts, such as Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution, it also holds true for other genres of games as well.

When gamers play a game with a story while others are watching, they participate with the games creators in directing the cinematics of the game.  Recently I played Assassin's Creed 2 while my husband and a friend watched.  Our side comments added what we thought different characters was thinking or would say, something that's not usually possible in a movie without interrupting the flow of the movie.  The same holds true for other types of cinematic games.  Because a video game goes at a slower pace, it lends itself to this kind of commentary. 

"I find this is the best place to check out the local women"

LittleBigPlanet is one of the few games that allows this kind of dramatic improvisation in-character, even when players are not in the same room.  Because players can control their avatar's costume, hand movements, and facial expressions, players can add another dimension of drama and humor as they play the game.  Players might cast themselves as the aloof ninja, fearless cute slayer, or gallant rescuer as they traverse the games platforming levels, telling their own story through how their avatar reactions emotionally, waits for (or taunts) other players, etc.

How do you think video games relate to theatre and other performance arts?  What are some ways video games could make better use of these possibilities?

The Misleading Title of Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter

I just finished reading Tom Bissell's Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. It reads a bit like a series of extended and thoughtful blogposts on how games affect Bissell personally and how they can be better narratively. Even though his taste in games is almost the opposite of mine (every time I try to like a FPS, I fail), I found his discussion thought-provoking and insightful. I completely agree that video games should pay more attention to their writers and make conversations less barf-worthy. 


My main observation of this book is that the title leads readers to believe the book will be an organized treatise backed by scientific studies about video games (a book I would like to read), when it is rather a series of personal narratives about how video games are a personally meaningful art form that has the potential to be more awesome. Its best audience might be people who already love video games, not those who need convincing (those who need convincing should just go play a game, in my opinion). I especially enjoyed the little sneak-peaks into studios he described, such as how BioWare has a reference library complete with The Celtic Book of the Dead and an idiot's guide to world religion (for lore). Last I heard Bissell was working on a video game script (as in, dialogue trees), and I'm eager to see what he comes up with.


I'm becoming increasingly aware of the strange ghettoization of gamers. It comes up briefly in the book: "More than any form of entertainment, video games tend to divide rooms into Us and Them." At a women's group activity at my church, we played a game where we would say something about ourselves and other women who had that thing in common would raise their hands. I made some clarifying point that then, we should choose facts about ourselves that aren't too unique, and an acquaintance commented jokingly that I should "leave Mario out of it." Most of the other women in my neighborhood see my gaming as a guilty pleasure, which seems odd given that, supposedly, some 40% of women play video games of one kind or another. I think it might have to be something you grow up with, like sports or playing a musical instrument, but nerdier. I don't think it should be that way, though perhaps the hardware and time commitment demand it.

Video Games as Therapy: Ludotherapy?

I recently stumbled upon a new website, How Games Saved My Life. Today they (well, Ashly), published my story about how Persona 3 helped (is helping, I'm still playing) me think of social links as something I can make in my real life. Reading the other posts on the blog, I'm struck by this paradigm-shifting, anxiety-neutralizing power of video games. I think there's a lot of untapped potential here!

I did a little research, and I found out that at least one therapist has used video games in his therapy (I'm relieved, since it seems like a no-brainer). A dissertation by Kevin Boyd Hull entitled "Computer/Video Games as a Play Therapy Tool in Reducing Emotional Disturbances in Children" found that video games are an effective play therapy in helping children who suffer from emotional problems. I dug up the PDF and found this charming interchange about Transformers:

Therapist: So the Decepticons are bad guys? 

John: Yes, they are the bad ones trying to take over the world because they want to live here. Like, their planet is dying so they came here. 

Therapist: What makes them bad? 

John: They want to hurt humans and the Transformers want to help the humans. 

Therapist: Do you ever feel like you are battling Decepticons in real life? 

John: Yeah, like the people that make fun of me at school.  

Therapist: So, they feel like the Decepticons?  

John: Yeah, sometimes I hate them. 

 Another child discusses his experience with playing Runescape:

Therapist: Now, Marco, we’ve talked a little bit about how we are going to use the games, and I know that you know you are here because of the sadness issue,  but I was wondering if you could share what life is like for you in regards to the sadness. 

Marco: It is like a sense of futility. 

Therapist: Futility?

Marco: Yes, futility. That nothing that I do is going to matter. I mean, you know, you do well in school, then you pass to the next grade. And on and on. Finally you graduate and then you find a job. Then it’s the same thing over and over. Futility. 

Therapist: You’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this. So is this where the not going to school comes in? 

Marco: Exactly. It just gets to the point for me to where I don’t want to pretend anymore and it just seems pointless to go.  

Therapist: Yet the game brings you joy, a sense of purpose. 

Marco: Yes, smiley face. (This is his way of saying that he is experiencing happiness). It is the one place that I feel a sense of purpose.  

Therapist: What is happiness for you, and when was the last time you felt happy? 

Marco: Happiness for me is the absence of worry. When I was small, like, early  elementary school I remember feeling happy. It was like going to school and getting good grades made me feel like I had some sense of purpose. Now, there is none. 

Therapist: Now, I’m noticing as we play the game here that you have things that you must accomplish, what are they called again, quests? 

Marco: Yes, quests. You gain enough items and then embark on the quests and it’s a  challenge to see if you can complete the quests.  

Therapist: I’m thinking that life is sort of like that, you know, that you have things that you must accomplish at this stage and then you move on to the next thing. Life is like a quest. 

Marco: I suppose it is, yes it is

It's interesting to see how in the context of therapy, the games are used as metaphors for real-life conflicts. The games provide a medium where these conflicts can be satisfyingly resolved, which I think is responsible for diffusing some frustration in players (if it's a good game!). I hope more therapists can use video games to talk to children about their problems, and in the meantime, it looks like video games can be pretty good self-medication.

P.S. Take a minute to check out Dream with Portals, a collection of remixed and extended Portal 2 tracks that helped this guy overcome insomnia.

The Backloggery: The Goodreads of the video game world

I like to keep track of the things I do, even the things I do for fun. That way, when I start thinking "I haven't even done anything this week!" I can look back and say, "well, at least I read three books this summer." That's what Goodreads is for. Now, there exists a similar site for video games, which I just found out about, called The Backloggery.

You can keep track of what games you have and which ones you've beat, and you can follow what games your friends are playing. Neat, huh? Currently it allows reviews and various completion categories. However, there are a few things it lacks before it reaches Goodreads's level of awesome (still, it's an impressive site, given that it's one coder's side project):

-A catalog of games to search from and add from. Maybe they could team up with mobygames or the Sisimizi catalog for a start. With the games cataloged, it would reduce title typos and allow tracking of how many people own the game. It would also let users see other reviews of the game.

-Partnerships with game companies to enter users in giveaways. Seems like a good way to sponsor getting the cataloging stuff done.

That said, it does a few things better than goodreads. It shows system stats, like how many registered unfinished games there are by console, etc. It also allows reasonable customization of one's profile page and display defaults. Sure, by not resizing your banner automatically it makes it less user-friendly, but it also allows more freedom to make a banner that isn't the exact same size as everyone else's. And for the most part, it looks like users have good taste (not too many animated gifs).

I think it's a great idea, and I think it will probably get more popular as time goes on. Let me know if you decide to join--I'm signed up as Whistler.

Humble Indie Bundle 3

You've probably heard about the third Humble Indie Bundle. You choose what you want to pay for five indie games (you could even just pay $0.01, though I think they're worth more than that). I love this idea; my problem is that I can never tell what kind of games are for sale. Well, fear no more. I'll do a quick rundown of each game in the bundle here (informed by 10 minutes to a few hours of play).

Crayon Physics Deluxe

The main gimmick of this game is that you draw things and they act like real-world objects (there's a kind of Scribblenautish quality, only more primal because you don't have to name it). I quickly solved a puzzle the day after it stumped me, which I consider a sign of a good game. I still haven't figured out why some shapes seem to weigh more than others, but I like the idea and have enjoyed playing so far.





Cogs

A steampunk puzzle game without a narrative, only the repeating missing-piece-shifting puzzles which are often frustratingly satisfying to solve. They get into 3D and double-sided, which makes my brain hurt, but in a good way.







VVVVVV

A retro-styled platformer where you change gravity to proceed with the level. It sounds like it should be a puzzle game, but it quickly turns into a battle of reflexes (in the screenshot here, the rectangle in the upper right-hand corner is a platform that moves side-to-side, which you must touch on three times to get to the thing you probably don't really need). The graphics and sound effects are way cute, but I admit that I suck at this game.


Hammerfight

It's hard to tell from the screenshot, but this is a fighting game. You control this flying thing with your mouse that has a big weight on the end, which you use to hit other, similar flying things. It's set in some kind of fantasy middle eastern setting? It has some pretty cool art. The gameplay is kind of bizarre; it's like throwing around a ball and chain (but I think it makes use of mouse movement in a way few other games do).




And Yet It Moves

Along the same lines as VVVVVV, you control which direction is up. However, you must choose between four options instead of two (basically you can rotate the world 90 degrees whenever you want). Velocity is preserved over screen shifts, making it more of a puzzler than VVVVVV. Kind of cool to play around with, kind of frustrating to get stuck on a puzzle.




Along with these games comes Steel Storm, an overhead shoot-'em-up with stealth elements (you're a fighter plane). And, if you pay more than the average price (currently $5.35), you get the previous indie bundle too, which includes the tower defense game Revenge of the Titans. It is currently kicking my butt, and my husband is reminded that Plants vs Zombies is an easy tower-defense game. Maybe more about that later.