Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community
skip navigationCommentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community.
Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community.
Last 5 entries . . .
Last 5 reviews . . .
Last 3 essay abstracts . . .
Japanese video game titles represent a significant portion of the U.S. video game market. With such widespread representation of Japanese made games in the video game market, this presentation asks ‘What kinds of ideas are formulated by Western consumers of Japanese games?’ More specifically, what does the consumption and digestion of this media reveal and conceal about Japan to Western consumers? These questions directly address Edward Said's conceptualization of Orientalism both in the Western consumption of Japanese games and in Japanese games' depictions of Japanese-ness in the games.
Even when not actively perpetuated, Orientalism persists as the default framework through which gaming depicts Eastern cultures. This presentation will cover three dominant forms of Orientalism found in gaming today. The first form is the exoticization of the East by the West, as from a fixed Orientalist perspective that can be found in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, which tells a tale of the exoticized Middle Eastern Other through the Westernized Prince. The second form of Orientalism frequently found in games is the East's internalization of the Orientalist's fetish and its own production of Orientalism. Essentially, Orientalism acts as a two-way relationship in which the West consumes a fetishized version of the East and in which the East internalizes that fetishization and markets it to the West. Because the Oriental subject is founded on the exploitation of Otherness, the Oriental subject in turn allows an auto-exoticizing Japan to use cultural tropes and stereotyped icons to market themselves to a Western audience and to enforce a culturally imperialistic policy for Asia. Japan's continuance of the commodification of Japanese icons, specifically seen with the Samurai and Ninja figures, reveals the use of Orientalist perspective in selling games such as Onimusha and Tenchu that rely on distinctly Japanese archetypes. The third form of Orientalism found in gaming relies on both prior forms. This form is the imperialist and Orientalist stance that Japan takes in regard to other Asian nations. This form can be seen in the Japanese view of Chinese pseudo-history as represented in the Dynasty Warriors series. The series serves to illustrate the dominant position Japan establishes for itself within the Orientalist hierarchy.
After establishing a working framework for the types of Orientalism frequently found in gaming, this presentation will illustrate the role of Orientalist perspectives in the playing, marketing, and creation of current games on the international market. Working from an examination of the recursive Orientalism of fetishized Japanese stereotypes in games made in Japan, I also explore Orientalism as a force for subjugation and the implicit meaning this gives in regard to Imperialism, which highlights the privileged position Japan occupies vis-à-vis other Asian nations. As gaming continues to develop, the cultures which create, market, and consume games become increasingly important and this presentation will serve as one entry point into that discussion.
Posted by Elmer Tucker, Mon, Jul 17, 2006 - 09:38:33 AM.The cyborg is a prevalent figure in modern fiction and science fiction as authors explore the implications of the continued development and integration of technology into the human experience. The concept of the cyborg itself presents a hybrid of organic and machine, two familiar elements that are fused into new, variable constructs. These cyborg constructs are ultimately alien in a nature, as the familiarity of the opposing components comes into conflict with their inherent differences, forcing the individual observer to re-evaluate their perception not only the cyborg, but the individual components as well. Essentially, the cyborg figure makes its familiar components--that of flesh and machine--each othered through the cyborg's hybrid form.
For video games, which rely on traditional narrative devices within their interactive, visual format, the cyborg is commonly used in the game narratives as well as in descriptions of the player-game relationship. Particular games have capitalized on this troubling double relationship of game avatar to game narrative and player to game as with the Marathon and Halo series. Cyborgs and cyborg identity are common themes in the Marathon and Halo series produced by Bungie Studios. Keeping with a central concept of Donna Haraway's "The Cyborg Manifesto," that the cyborg is representative of our collective ontology, Bungie's cyborgs fuse not only the organic and the technological but also seek to create new philosophical hybrids of religion and science for those with cyborg identities. This paper will explore the implications of Bungie's techno-religious cyborgs in relation to the game narrative and the game design. I examine these in terms of the player-avatar relationship and the player-avatar experience within game worlds that depict cyborg creatures and cyborg philosophies.
Posted by Justin Laufer, Mon, Jun 26, 2006 - 07:08:51 PM.
Recent comments