Everything is an Illusion

A few comments on the Comprehension – Interpretation – Experience thread and Mulholland Drive

I think our discussion about how a lot of the effect of the film is lost if a viewer attempts to decipher the “meaning” of Mulholland Drive as if it were a puzzle film with one solution was right on target. After viewing, I read the dream interpretation of the film and was satisfied enough with that. There are lots of clues that point towards that, and you could interpret the non sequiter scenes as dream-logic depictions of Betty’s internal psychology. But even with subsequent viewings (and this was probably time 5 or 6), I don’t really think about comprehension or interpretation nearly as much as I like to enjoy the visceral experience Lynch affords his viewers. Scenes like the subliminally terrifying diner scene, the coffee/producer scene, or Betty’s audition with the dirtbag actor work on such a gut level that they remind me of the Quatsi-films in terms how they make me feel…I can watch them time and time again (I put on at least one of these three scenes several times a semester on my projector without watching the rest of the film). For Lynch, especially in Mulholland Drive, content takes a back seat to feelings, empathy, and experience. Audiences exhibit nervous laughter and inexplicable emotion, unsure of how to digest a particular scene or performance. The film is successful in that Lynch can make you feel very uncomfortable, happy, terrified, etc. without any backstory. Many of the scenes stand alone.

Mulholland Drive reminds me a lot of Perfect Blue, a really good Satoshi Kon (director of Paprika and Toyko Godfathers) anime and similar puzzle film. Its plot revolves around a Japanese female pop icon who abandons her group and music career to pursue a future in film. However, she can only land a sleazy role in a trashy sitcom and feels violated by her role in the show. Soon, her grip on reality begins to slip as she loses herself in her character and its unclear what scenes happen in the show versus in her real life. Furthermore, a stalker is posting intimate details of her life on a blog, which she then obsesses over and reads – taking everything she reads as fact about her life. The veil between reality and fantasy is utterly confused as her coworkers begin to show up dead, often brutally murdered.

Both these films are definitely a step in the right direction in terms of representing dream worlds with their style and narration. If you were to think of dreams as film, an individual has an unusual role as both narrator and audience. My favorite part of the diner scene is how the action imitates the nervous guy’s dialogue moments earlier – often in dreams, you are explaining events as they happen because your brain already knows where they’re going. Audiences leave these films confused about their feelings, and that’s the desired effect – dreams often don’t have a causal relation between events, there exists non sequiter motivations for “scene changes” or action, and tone is implied on the most base, visceral level.

Gotta Catch ’em All

Psyduck, my favorite Pokemon

I just played a listing Pokemon game on this great list site (try naming all the countries in the world in 15 minutes)…only got 84 out of the original 151 Pokemon…not bad for a game I played 9 years ago…videogames really teach kids how to learn systems of interaction, the rules that govern a fictive world, etc. A lot of games are exercises in memory and cause/effect simulation…players learn how to learn and engage in exercises based on trivia and systems not directly applicable to the real world; it’s basically the same thing as a lot of liberal arts classes.

One of my favorite games of all time – DOTA, in particular, demands a tremendous amount of memory and game knowledge of its players. DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) is a third-party custom map for Warcraft III in which two teams of five compete in a mini war to destroy each others bases. Players control a single Warcraft hero (a powerful unit with four unique abilities) and push lanes of attack accompanied by waves of computer-controlled soldiers. Gameplay is both individual and team-oriented – players must focus on building their character effectively and efficiently throughout, using the gold and experience gained from killing waves of enemy troops to buy stat-enhancing items and learn new abilities while staying alive long enough to coordinate effective team attacks on the opposing base. An average game takes a little over an hour.

An artistic depiction of DOTA

The game is so popular that more players on battle.net (Blizzard’s online gaming server) are playing DOTA than any other game (including stock Warcraft III), and the game is responsible for many innovative and creative third-party plugins and programs that enhance Warcraft III online gaming. There exist player-created and monitored competitive leagues and a stringent rules/regulation system that punishes bad players by banning them – some of these players are so serious they only want really talented competition.

In line with the memorization of 151 pokemon (and their countless abilities, evolutions, and types), DOTA has 91 unique heroes…each with four unique abilities. There are 110 items to pick from; many of which have to be created by combining a number of more basic items with a recipe. Anyone who is good at DOTA (and the game has a very competitive community) must have complete knowledge of every aspect of the game. Successful play requires this expansive knowledge in order to both maximize your hero’s efficiency in item builds as well as adapt to enemy hero and item strategies. In hero fights, there’s no time to guess what spell an enemy just cast or what item they’re using–action must be instinctual and reactive, based on specific animations or effects…and there’s no forgiveness from your teammates if you make a mistake. There is usually an effective counter to any hero, play style/strategy, or item build: it’s basically the most complicated game of rock-paper-scissors ever invented.

Anyways, that pokemon list game just reminded me of DOTA, and since I’m writing my paper on ludology/narratology, I thought I’d write a post explaining it. Replayability is a big thing in videogames, and on the scale from pure narrative to pure ludology, it’s the difference between replayability and re-experience. DOTA has massive replayability because its game mechanics rely on interaction…dynamic and unique matches with infinite opportunity for change. Obviously, every game feels familiar, but you’d never play the game the same way twice.

Paper Topic

Edit:

Oof…so I’m back into World of Warcraft after like…8 months. Don’t know how that happened, but there’s an expansion with a new area and a new level cap of 80. Blizzard is really just printing money by now, but I’m enjoying the new level cap, my guild welcomed me back no questions asked, and the new areas are beautiful.

I played a demo for Left For Dead, a new survival horror game by Valve. The game is certainly applicable to our class because of its unusual choice of narrative layers…something I believe is innovative in the videogame genre. It’s pretty difficult for me to explain, but Left For Dead is a cooperative survival horror game with the action always portrayed as very cinematic—the scenarios are explicitly scenes from a horror film, the camera angles are all shots, the instructions are given by a director, and the characters are all actors. Players are controlling a actor in a zombie horror film, but since it’s a videogame, the gameplay is still real…it’s pretty interesting

So – now, a more fleshed-out paper proposal….

My paper is about how video game immersion, agency, internal logic, gameplay mechanics, etc. (and now advertising, paratextual community and creations, and marketing) affect the Ludology vs. Narratology debate.

My essay will address issues I’ve always had concerning the binary nature of classifying or categorizing anything in media studies…I’ll write about how there’s a ludology/narratology spectrum upon which games lie.

An example of the scale:

“Pure Narratology”

Storytron

Façade

Fallout 3

Psychonauts

Final Fantasy

Metal Gear

Halo series

Defense of the Ancients

Unreal Tournament/Counterstrike

Mirrors Edge

Soul Caliber, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter

Katamari Damachi

Rez

Pure Ludology”

Another genre I’m considering adding is historical fiction games like the wave of WW2 shooters and how they teach players to reimagine/renarrate historical events.

In terms of answering how where a game lands on the spectrum affects engagement or consumer digestion, I might address how games are evolving into a more complicated medium – perhaps the medium is on the verge of splitting into two distinct styles?

Ludology points will include the importance of gametime (comparison to episodic tv, discussion of pause/save features), multiplayer game logic (complicated strategies of DOTA, MMOs, first person shooters) zero-story games (and whether they actually exist…even Katamari Damachi goes to the trouble of providing backstory and unique aesthetic style), gameplay clichés (boss fights with repetition and weakness, level building, etc). Gameplay and grahpics often seem to be a primary focus of game developers…moreso the plot direction and size.

Narratology points will include immersion, interaction, and empathizing with character, cyber dramas and meta-narratives (videogame conventions, universal, shared human truths and language and their connection to storytelling), backstory and creation of believable fictive worlds, the difference between interactive storytelling and interactive fiction, and the meta- and micro- narratives of multiplayer and massively multiplayer games. Games always seem more pleasurable when they have “something to say.” Developers go to great lengths to create complicated and interwoven backstories and motivations for fighting and shooting games.

Some sources:

Books –

First Person-New Media as Story, Performance, and Game.

Persuasive Games-The Expressive Power of Videogames.

Internet –

Wikipedia for each of the games

http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2008/08/a-time-for-mani.html

http://www.ludology.org/articles/Frasca_LevelUp2003.pdf

http://www.ludology.org/articles/ludology.htm

http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/vigilant

Primary Research – Games played extensively (to completion) include Metal Gear Solid series (and their evolution from a balance between narrative gameplay to more-narrative), Final Fantasy series (especially FFVII’s narratology), Psychonauts (playful, inventive story over gameplay), Storytron (http://www.storytron.com/ an example of pure interactive storytelling), Facade (Narratology/interactive Storytelling), and WoW (player-created stories in a pre-conceived fictive world), fighting games (Soul Caliber IV, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter), multiplayer shooters (Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament, Halo series)

I have also observed a friend interact with the various forking branches of Fallout 3 (Narratology/interactive fiction)

“Last Day” and the Future of Videogames as Interactive Cinema

A bit of a random point, but Matt and I both were discussing a new(ish) Gears of War 2 tv spot (watch it-it’s only a minute) that we both really liked for its cinematic quality. Games are obviously getting increasingly cinematic in their presentation, realism, and storytelling, and it’s nice to see a trailer that depicts this leap on prime time TV. Matt recalled a friend being perplexed at such cinematic presentations of a video games show more pervasively on television, but the industry is growing and maturing so rapidly, I certainly welcome it. On the other hand, I could see this trend going a little far, for it’s important to not completely abandon gameplay possibilities when marketing one’s game. I’d like to see a balance of the two (not split inside a commercial, but rather a balanced depiction of the game within a marketing campaign). I’d still like to see what a game’s play is like when watching an advertisement.

I really recommend watching the trailer – the subtle animation and interactions between these brutish soldiers as they plummet in the pod is really well done. It takes several viewings and a little extra-textual knowledge to fully appreciate their refined interactions, emotions, and motions-one solider looking dejectedly out the window when there’s nothing to see, the other looking vacantly at the ground as they get jostled around (very convincingly). There are moments of wordless understanding and subtle emoting, just as there is in the real world. Combined with an emotive and reflective song, this trailer really did it for me. Even though Valve claims “graphics have topped out” (that’s ridiculous, by the way), I look forward to strides in realistic graphical depiction of the intricacies of human behavior. Gameplay matters, but I think there might be a split in the future between pure gaming and interactive cinema. Games like Metal Gear Solid have really made strides in elaborate and filmic storytelling and suggest a trend of extremely long, episodic, and interactive storytelling.

Paper topic incoming, I promise…

Are You Watching Closely? (and some fair-use/copyright complaints)

Here’s Kyle and my Prestige video. I think the video went over well in class.

This assignment initially seemed quite daunting, but once Kyle and I actually sat down and started to brainstorm, the ideas came quickly and developed even more rapidly as we came across more clips scouring the film for appropriate quotes and shots.

We had very little trouble with SnapZ, but I can complain about free use and copyright all day (A Fair(y) Use Tale comes to mind immediately). I’m pretty sure everyone agrees that this assignment (and any academic assignment in general, especially if it uses shortened clips) fits under fair use clauses, but it’s difficult to make exceptions to bypass copyright laws. I think we’re in a bit of an awkward stage in which enforcing agencies don’t fully grasp how futile their struggle against new technologies is, and the people that suffer are the ones that want to follow the rules. Technology is advancing at a much more rapid pace than marketing. If one were to fill their 80GB (it’s the smallest size now) iPod with .99 cent songs, it would run them approximately $20,000! The only people who are forced to sit through FBI warnings on DVDs are those who buy the actual film instead of ripping the “operation prohibited by disc” features off their pirated DVDs, the people who earnestly pay their hard-earned money for a game like Spore get trapped by ridiculous DRM policies, and the poor people still buying CDs are paying through the teeth. Although a lot of distributors have not grasped the scope and continue to fight new technologies, some creators are embracing the digital revolution and acting intelligently and accordingly. Radiohead and Trent Reznor of NIN come to mind…release free lower-quality music and make profits off donations, concert sales, CD art/collectibles, and higher-quality music releases (NIN has released 3 free albums this year alone).

The Slip, one of NIN’s multiple free albums

Alright…back to Kyle and my project…As stated in class, we wanted to explicitly analyze the relationships between the two “Bordens” (Borden and Fallon in Borden guise) and their respective love interests. To do so, we initially come up with the idea of showing the 2×2 grid of each interaction (Borden, Olivia, Fallon, and Sarah), intercutting with an applicable quote from the movie. We then decided that in order to more obviously signify which brother is which to a naive audience (which certainly changes the nature of the text and presentation), we would employ a powerful stylistic technique (we thought about a few things before we came to the idea of black & white vs. color). Finally, after we got the four scenes in their appropriate color, we wanted to bookend the stylistic theme with scenes that contained a transition between the two colors (and brothers). I think starting with a transition like this really primes the audience to be cued into color for subsequent scenes and the dubbed clips over black answer a lot of the questions. We ended on a somber note with a clip of Sarah hanging herself, depicting the aftermath of these two brothers’ decision to share each other’s lives so intimately.

I really enjoyed working with Kyle and the assignment proved more fun that I initially believed it could be. In the future, perhaps showing an example from previous classes could get students’ creative juices and motivation levels flowing sooner.