Case study

(Over the following week and half term, make a case study of the dreamcast game Shenmue using the Postmodernism case study sheet for reference.

Create an essay explaining why it is postmodern and create a video presentation explaining these ideas with the actual references using clips captured whilst playing the game (for instance, this is a simulation, shows Ryu picking up an apple).

Maybe compare it to other open world games such as Grand theft auto.)

Shenmue Case Study

Shenmue was a revolutionary video game that was to debuted on the Sega Saturn, but was shifted to the Dreamcast to accommodate the increased complexity of the game.
To summarise the type of game that Shenmue is difficult. Whilst at first glance the audience see a third person action adventure game, deeper and more immersive game play lingers around every door in the game. The attention to detail in this game provides some of the fun in itself, for instance, the ability to walk up to any element of your house and inspect it and rotate it for nothing more than curiosity (such as picking up an apple from a fruit bowl), whilst other objects can be added to your possession.
The interesting thing about this detail and the players experience is that it can get the player so involved they can literally waste a day of in game time wandering around their home! The game plays in real time and so each day in the game is different (providing different possibilities of people).

One section near the beginning of the game, just as you’ve entered the street you come across the first set of quick time events. However, never has a quick time event pulled my heart strings as much as this that I’ve been forced to replay the section all over again. You see, you come across this little kitten in a basket and a little girl. The little girl explains that her mother will not let her keep the kitten, and the kitten’s mother was killed by a car that was driving really fast a few days ago. The event sees the player choosing the kitten’s meal, crushed tuna or tofu. The option I picked first was the tofu, which the kitten cried at. Whilst it isn’t necessary to redo this section to progress, I felt emotionally inclined to do it as I actually felt I let the kitten down.
That is the interesting thing about this game, your main goal is to hunt down and kill the man who killed your father the other day (the same man who ran over the kittens mother). The main element of game play would appear as a detective mystery, yet events like this distract so much that the lines become very blurred.

The amount of commercial and product referencing in this game is insane!
The first room I went in my house after my bedroom was the living room. Taking a focused look at the TV cabinet, I pulled it open and found what appeared very much to be a Sega Saturn. This is of course not only Sega referencing itself in the game, but literally referencing the routes of the game, and further denoting this is the way it is secretly tucked away in a draw (like an old idea).
 Another interesting advertisement reference came when I got to the first shop and found a vending machine selling what was obviously cola and sprite. Then I could spend money on any of the drink I wanted, watch my player drink the can (making a noticeable wink whilst drinking) and enjoy it. The purpose of drinking the can had no other purpose other than for my own immersion. The same goes for the added collection game involving vending machine toys ( literally dozens and dozens to collect).

This is further illustrated by the video game arcade located in the main town district. The arcade lets you play a variety of past Sega arcade games (such as a on rails shoot em up and a speed bike racer) as well as some very addictive QET type arcade games ( a rhythm game and a punch out type game). What does this offer the player in terms of game completion? Nothing really, but it offers the player so much more, it offers the player video games within a game. The game makes real life fun, and that’s something allot of people say about this game!
The game is an experience more than a game, an experience which the player has ultimate control over crafting. The story is what you make of it and whilst it does lead you down the rabbit hole, you get a lot of branching room to move around in-between.

The argument as to how this game demonstrates postmodernism is this, the setting is a real life place in China, the time is referenced (1980’s with appropriate dress style and technology). There’s no real erosion of history as the events are so insular that on the history of the player is important. The experience offers a simulation, detective, fighting game, mini game, jobs and even having a mother who worries about you being late home.

(To do:

Add clips from youtube to show examples of gameplay etc.
Make a list of reasons how it is postmodern as a simple and clear conclusion at the end.
Make it clearer what the game is actually about.
Compare it to theorist theories.
Write up factsheet on why its postmodern and how it relates to theory to be given to each member of the class
Possibly create it into a flowing presentation if time.

Video Games and why there Postmodern media

Take things from other mediums and incorporates in the game i.e films, tv and music.

Simulation - War games being a version of events.

Interactive - Relationship between player and text  puts "us" in the text, becoming highly IMMERSIVE.

Erosion of History - Taking events and modifying them.

 Call Of Duty as postmodern text 

Objective :

*Answer the following questions in relation to Call of Duty.



1. How do games like CoD change the relationship between audience and text?


They allow the players to interact in movie like depiction's of wars based on events that happened. The games story lines draw heavily from past war movies such as saving private Ryan. They further increase this interactivity by allowing the players to engage in mini fictional online wars with each other. The games are interactive simulation parodies of war movies which are simulations in themselves.
It should be noted that by having the game in a first person point of view allows for the player to become more immersed in the experience there by blurring the boundary of reality and forcing the player to become more connected to the experience. Highly detailed focus on the mise en scene. There is an increased focus on the diegetic sounds. You have to be playing the text to experience it properly.


2. How can we apply Baudrillards theory of "hyperreality" to CoD?


"Argued that distinctions between reality and media representations of reality have become blurred."
The first person point of view crossed with highly realistic appearing graphics and a real world basis for the events happening in the game (War in the East, mimicking of Groilla type warfare).


We become someone else, are re-spawned when we die and have control of events.


Hyperrealism is a liberating experience for the player.


Time spent playing sees us ignore reality.


It is also a simulation of war and indeed a simulation of a simulation (the images we have seen of war on the news or from films such as Black Hawk Down). 


"Media representations are not based on reality but instead are based on existing representations thus  __creating - hyperreality. People then start to believe this hyperreality.+  Reality > Simulation (heightened and exaggerated) > Simulacra ( a copy of a copy, big brother house for instance) > Hyperreality."
The games copying largely from films, the newspaper media etc whilst researching largely in the factual elements of gameplay such as the sounds and the sights (gun fire noises and weaponry specifically modeled in replicata to the original). The effect of crossing a fiction with a studied element created what the above quote explains, by having a setting that is highly tangible but a basis that is completely (or near completely) made up.


3. How does CoD change a players identity (thus creating a postmodern identity)


The player takes on the role of a military solider who can use guns and kill there friends online. This is the complete opposite of the norm of reality, the player can become a violent sociopath but as it is a simulation it is acceptable... However, as you take on the role of the character your playing in the game, that makes the character in the game your playing actual you, meaning the actions you do in the game is you.
The player can become detached from who they really are whilst playing, for instance the anonymous nature of online play allows for people to converse with each other in a far harsher way and yet it not become a problem as the player only has to leave the game to get away, where as in real life they would have to possibly move house.
 
We are not ourselves but soldiers.

You can choose which and sometimes within the game become different people.

Female players become men.

Online play creates different (gamer) identity and you can join a group.

You can swap, invent and multiply identities.


4. How does the "gamer" become author of the text?Or how does CoD relate to lyotards theory of micro-narratives?

""Micro narratives" - criticism of society, unpredictable, mixing of genres."
The player creates his own story each time he plays the game. (To take CoD 5 may be the easiest example).
  The game has a mode in which you can fight off hordes of Nazi Zombies with fellow solider survivors. The setting not only gives a version of events but incorporates elements of eroded history (i.e nazis becoming zombies). It gives a representation version of the Nazi party from second world war Germany/Japan as being like zombie hordes, the satirical idea that they are just going with the crowds, parodying the phrase "I was only doing my Job".
When the player goes online with
 
Different routes or ways of doing things symbolise micro-narratives.

Freedom to explore.

Several missions not one overarching goal.

Online and multiplayer - different options, choose any weapon etc.


5. Why is CoD a postmodern text?

Micro-narratives

Hyperreality and simulation

Audience/ text relationship

Audience as Author

Changing Identities.

Erosion of history

Intertextual references to other media etc.

 
6. Why is studying a videogame in itself postmodern?


Blurring of cultural boundaries high/low

Video games have low/pop cultural status even within postmodernism.

Media lesson 4 -Dead Set overview

HyperReality and Simulation - Big Brother itself is a simulation of reality and a simulated environment. Dead set is therefore a simulation of a simulation.
The show is heightened and exaggerated form of reality (the zombies coming into the big brother house).
It is a blending of reality and fiction e.g Davina Mcall from big brother plays herself, although only a version of herself.

- Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007)

+  Argued that distinctions between reality and media representations of reality have become blurred.
+  Media representations are not based on reality but instead are based on existing representations thus  __creating - hyperreality. People then start to believe this hyperreality.+  Reality > Simulation (heightened and exaggerated) > Simulacra ( a copy of a copy, big brother house for instance) > Hyperreality.
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Pessimistic dystopian view of society - Zombies take over , everyones dead.
Society as we know doesn't exist criticism "our" society and obsession with celebrity culture.
 Dark and Grey - look e.g dull and bleak reflecting the feeling.
Characters out for themselves, ones who aren't get done over.
Criticism of Postmodern society in that it is a satire of obsession with tv culture, disregarding other things.

Hybridity and Bricolage - Fictional Reality thriller with elements of satire and themes of urgency in the style drawn from skys 24.

Active Audience - Intertextual references such as referencing zombie movies like dawn of the dead.
Conventions of zombie movies, Big Brother and reality TV, House mates which are recognizable. Contemplating the deeper meaning of what the program represents, such as the critique it gives on modern culture - recognizing different means other than the face value of it being about a zombie apocalypse.

Michel Foucault (1926- 84)

+  Critiqued "Panopistcalisation" - Gaining power through observation. Observation technologies are used __to gain knowledge and therefore power in society cctv, Facebook, google street maps etc.

DeadSet - about zombies, about tv, about having no choice, could referrer to the people watching are the dead ones eg the audience are the DEADSet etc.

Derrida - Deconstruction to illicit meaning, multiple meanings. critique of society.

Blurring of Boundaries - Real and fiction
Horror with reality tv
Davina (real personalities playing themselves)  with actors on a fictional narrative.
Satire and Critique - Conventional horror narrative.
Juxtaposition - Zombie attack/ Mika "Why don't you like me?" Ironic.

Lyotard - "Micro narratives" - criticism of society, unpredictable, mixing of genres.

Jameson - Some audiences may not understand the meaning without deconstruction of the text, criticisms of modern texts not being original - recycling of used ideas. Could criticize this idea as it offers a new critique on celebrity culture.
Pastiche of both reality TV and zombie films.

Charlie Brookers - how TV ruined my life