E-sports and spectatorship: Epic heroes and villains in football

I had an idea during the lecture on e-sports and spectatorship. As a person who watches a lot of football, I am very focussed on something emotional around the game and I think it involves some sort of narrative or “story” that my fellow spectators and I create around the game when we watch it and talk about it. I could explain it with one of Roger Caillois’s (2001) types of play, mimicry. In watching football me and my friends create characters and epic stories about much more than just being more able to kick a ball into a goal. I do not read much about football players’ personal life because to me it is not of importance. Of cause we have bad guys too. In my case, my heroes are Barcelona, a team of brave and kind men with the protagonist Messi in lead, against the villains, Real Madrid - whom my friends and I are applying archetypal villain trades like greed and coldheartedness. I can tell these are fictional stories and narratives that we, the spectators, are creating collectively in fan groups, because, whereas Barcelona fans views Ronaldo, the key forward of Real Madrid, as a hysterical and childish person, fans of Real Madrid consider him an honorable and hardworking character. It would be interesting to research more on the stories we as spectators are wrapping around a certain sport and its athletes.

Caillois, Roger. Man, play, and games. University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Social Norms: Virtual racism ≠ simulated racism

Virtual racism can be two very different things as far as I am concerned and it is significant to treat racism in games differently. As it is with Chinese gold farmers in Lineage l/ll, it might become damaging and it might just be a racist "mechanic" of the game, where those designing the game have been unaware of the problem - but presenting racism in a game in an active and critical way, to me, is beautiful and relevant. When game designers simulate racism, they force players to consider it.

I think an example of a beautiful build-in racist system is how Skyrim is portraying the lives of the "beats race" or Khajiit, the humanoid cat. This particular race was enslaved and oppressed by the rich families before it became illegal to “domesticate Khajiits” but they are still affected by their history and they are still viewed as second class citizens. They experience racial slurs (cats, carpets, rugs) and they are held in severe poverty because of their public image. Sound familiar?

If choosing to play as a Khajiit, the player will experience prejudice and troubles related to its race and that gives Skyrim a critical viewpoint on “actual” racism. Playing an oppressed race might just make players more critical in real life:

"A lot of Khajiit resort to smuggling and thievery to get by. A few bad apples spoil the bunch. You know how it is." (Ysolda (Khajiit) in Skyrim)

(Picture from: Elderscrolls Wiki)

Form and Order: What I learned about console controllers from users

We discussed gaming console controllers and how they are being ignored by game scholars and often overlooked. This puzzles me. Obviously it is difficult to pinpoint in gameplay what controllers do, but I think it is important to talk about.

I worked for Microsoft until last year where I represented them in electronic stores and demonstrated their products and guided and I remember how controllers meant the world for the choice of console. It really was an important part of their play experience and it was, for many, what made them buy a particular console. Because let us face it - Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox are not that different - they are game consoles, playing games, like dvd-players play movies. Now, as it is with dvd-players and game consoles, the screen is important, the chair you sit on is important, who is with you is important and - how do you know - something very important is physically present as well when it comes to games: The controller!

As far as I got to know in my everyday life as a Microsoft employee, there was no such thing as a "purely intuitive" (something everyone, being human beings, from the day we are born, can use as if it is the most natural thing) - no, the intuitive element lay in what the gamers were used to. What they had learned. I experienced how Playstation users considered the Xbox controllers to be clunky and they did not like, that they from one position could not reach all buttons. Xbox players, on the other hand, found Playstation controllers fragile and "puny" and they did not like the "standard position" as it is more "horizontal" (like a hand weapon) than the Xbox controllers (that I would more say resembles a car steering wheel).

(picture from: Brian Recktenwald) 

Aesthetics: Movies look like games that look like movies

Today I noted how computer games, in aesthetics, might have been influenced by movie theory and how movies are made interesting or compelling. The usage of different types of color grading, ”casting” of protagonists (example: Master Chief of Halo), camera movements and framing (birds-, humans- or worms eye view) of games use the same language as movies do. It is not unusual to be presented with a typical ”establishing shot” with typewriting, stating where and when you are located.  It also reminds me of all the times I am being aware that there is a cutscene as soon as my screen fades two black bars in, making it widescreen, to tell me, that a certain ”movie” will be shown where I won’t be able to act or play.

Now, while this is interesting, it made me consider how games have become more popular and mainstream and maybe this could well be an argument for something I mentioned in class: Games are now influencing movies and has done this for a while. An example could be Kill Bill (2003). The fight scenes looks like they are highly influenced by fighting games (example: Street Fighter)

The Matrix (1999) with its loading screens, indicating a change of level or scenery with the aesthetics of a computer game.  

The first person view in the newest Iron Man movies (2008), where we are perfectly able to understand the change of viewpoint and we understand the concepts of his interface in his helmet - maybe because of games?

It would be interesting to, though a bit narrow, research the progression of James Bond movies and how the aesthetics might have changed towards a more game-like product. The interesting discussion would be found in whether a rotating car, being presented, is something movies invented for car racing games to adapt or if it is a feature found in car racing games, that movies have embraced.

Technology and Politics: The SCOT analysis

Today in lecture, the correlation between users and technology in socio-political context was discussed as how they affect each other. I am not sure whether or not to talk about Design Archeology as a method or as a theoretical framework for research, but nonetheless it is interesting to discuss which one affects which. The chicken or the egg?

Looking at intentions, conditions of usage et cetera reminded me of one particular method, that fall into the category of Design Archeology: The SCOT analysis (Bijker, 2012).

Now, this method is looking at relevant social groups, being very social constructivist in its views on how development in technology takes place - but I wish it would take into consideration how the relevant social groups came to be. I think it is important to note how technology is not created in a vacuum. The bike, as Bijker (2012) uses as an example might have an impact on, how we perceive two wheeled transportation - being influential in the creation of the motorbike and the motorbike might just have an impact on how we perceive masculinity or something else and so creation upon creation is continuously influencing our future.

Bijker, Wiebe E., et al. The social construction of technological systems: New directions in the sociology and history of technology. MIT press, 2012.