Phenomenology

Phenomenology

“Select your preferred use motion or traditional controls” a statement presented to the player at the beginning of Sony’s first party game ‘Until Dawn’. As a player wishing to forget about all of the surrounding world and to be totally ‘immersed’ within the environment and storytelling presented, choosing traditional controls seemed correct right? Leave the body the player is confined to and experience everything inside the perspective of each key actor. Yet after reading this week’s articles I’ve soon came to the enlightenment that maybe they weren’t for me; even for as ironic as it may seem, that the able bodied person wishes to lay dead still in bed using very little motive functions to operate the game. Yet for some these very simple motive functions are complex and sometimes impossible feats made easier by such an option that maybe Until Dawn was offering straight out of the gates.

              After reading about the encounter between Voelker and a mystery father wishing to play with his son yet being prohibited by the loss of his finger on one hand and the intense reaction he had to such a simple option being offered. The increased awareness of such a feature hit me, I returned to the title and tried out a chapter with these functions only using one hand to see if such a thing was possible.

               Which for most part was near impossible with the motion controls being somewhat useless and janky and really requiring two hands to operate with over extended motions needed to help emphasis which option I wished to pick. And so the intentions behind the motion controls became clear they aren’t really intended as a subtle way of disabled gamers to check on accessibility features without diving deeply into the menus which in some cases is hard enough for these gamers. No it’s for the abled body gamer who wishes to try something else, to experience the game with the full awareness of the player’s body. This really does seem like a missed opportunity to make this set of controls a way for disabled gamers to jump straight into a game without the hesitation of menu diving for options which as stated in the Polygon article can be a feat in itself.

              These settings however do succeed in making the player aware of its body and helps amplify the intensity of the decision making with the timer making you fill as if your tripping over yourself with the shoddy motion controls, purposefully crafted or not. However I can’t help but feel that this was a missed opportunity by developers to really push accessibility in games, offering motion controls to people who precession thumb stick aren’t an option. 

References;

Polygon,(2016)Why game accessibility matters[Internet] Available from: <http://www.polygon.com/features/2014/8/6/5886035/disabled-gamers-accessibility>

Cyborgology,(2016)Games Design and Digital Duelist Ableism[Internet] Available from:

<https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2013/06/07/game-design-and-digital-dualist-ableism/>

SupermassiveGames,(2015) Until Dawn. Playstation, San Mateo: Sony Computer Entertainment. 

Ludo-narrative resonance

Ludo-narrative resonance;

A game I recently finished that present’s game mechanics as an enhancement to its overall story arch is Helldivers. This may come as an odd choice as the game doesn’t put an emphasis on story but on gameplay. However Helldivers uses this to its advantage, the idea behind the game is that you are part of the ‘Helldivers’ division for Super Earth a “…satirical dystopian future where mankind is ruled by a managed democracy.” You are tasked with keeping the peace and fighting for Super Earth against the perpetual threat delivered by the three alien species in the game. You take your ‘Gears of War’ inspired character on mission’s to eradicate the aliens, set up coms links and retrieve technology.  

              The Ludo-narrative resonance comes in to play with the brutal games mechanics that are usually reserved for hard-core settings in the average game. This includes always on friendly fire, personal turrets that’ll mow you down if caught in the line of fire; drop pods that’ll crush you if on the landing mark. These mechanics reflect the story of the bitter and desolate planets you land on with only the aliens for company.

               This game is best enjoyed online due to the fact that when in orbit of the planet you’ve been tasked with you can see other players who are also playing on this planet within a different instance, reinforcing this idea of Super Earth’s army is slowly conquering the galaxy. Also when playing the campaign online, or as ArrowHead Studio’s like to call it “…the Galactic Campaign” your contributions are sent in and added to an in-game meter showing the progression of the entire globe, in that particular galaxy. Really adding into the campaigns idea of you fighting for the “…safety of Super Earth.” Finally Arrowhead studios really focuses on making each mission feel like an uphill battle that once accomplished make you feel like you’ve spent the last hour on that planet as the marine fighting for the cause. All the brutal mechanics incorporated into this game add to the overall story plot although not the most complex story arch, the studio has accomplished Ludo-narrative resonance with this game.

References;

Arrowhead Studios. (2015) Helldivers. PlayStation. Sony Computer Entertainment.

Arrowhead Studios, (2008) Helldivers [Internet] Available from: <http://arrowheadgamestudios.com/games/helldivers/>[Accessed April 2016].

Are you truly naked in your skin?

John Berger’s documentary ‘Ways of seeing’ looks at the true meaning behind being naked and being nude. I found this to be a very informative perspective on the female image in the present and past human culture. He describes a nude as being a disguise, in which woman put on when being looked upon naked an disguise that cannot be taken off an disguise to last a life time.  Yet to be truly naked he said is to simply be one’s self. Which for me is what video games can be, both a nude and naked experience. As video games allows me to be myself to enjoy all the activities offered and to be naked with one’s identity and also allows me to disappear in to a world that doesn’t exist and put on the disguise of the hero or heroine within.

              Video games have been some of the worst offenders when offering “Nakedness for the people who are dressed” an clear example being the original Tomb Raiders where the camera seemed to locked to the height of Laura’s butt as shown and described during feministfrequency’s strategic butt covering video on YouTube. Putting the player at “butt height” throughout the game. However with games progressing in age and maturity this kind of blatant sexualisation of characters is slowly falling into the history books. In favour for more diverse and interesting female characters that bring more than their bodies to the story. A game that I played recently that uses a females body in nude for story plots was the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. They made the nudity of Keira Metz part of the woman’s disguise and not the woman’s being nude for the people who are dressed. As she used her nudity as a diversion for Geralt the hero of the story to get what she really wanted which in turned showed us the player Keira naked, with her true intentions. This use of the meanings of being nude and naked in storytelling for me is satisfying as it gives the character depth and that she was using her body as a disguise to get what she wanted. Thankfully games are becoming more adapt to presenting the female image as naked rather than nude, where we get to develop feelings and relationships for the heroine in question.

              Yet the Witcher does present one feature controlled by the player in which Geralt the male hero of the story can decide who he has sex with and in turn has a future with. You can have sex with all the female characters presented to Geralt throughout the game this does however have a impact as by the end he has no one to have his future with but this does however feel like the judgement of Paris presented in the documentary. That you are lucky to be picked by Geralt the hero and that you will now have a happy and successful future because of this. “…how she appears to others and particularly how she appears to men is of crucial importance as it is normally thought of as the success of her life.” Words of John Berger during the opening of his documentary words that couldn’t fit better with this particular feature and narrative direction. Although games still have some way to go when presenting the female image to the consumer in art and in play I believe we’re on the correct tracks to see some incredible female protagonists and characters.

References;

Tw1975, (2012) John Berger / Ways of Seeing , Episode 2 (1972). [YouTube video] Available from:< <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1GI8mNU5Sg&list=PLlhSx0L1hpaGKfq1qXe1vWUhG1EgIN9Yf&index= >[Accessed March 2016]

feministfrequency, (2016) Strategic Butt Coverings - Tropes vs Women in Video Games. [YouTube video] Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujTufg1GvR4> [Accessed March 2016]

CD PROJECT RED. (2002) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Playstation 4. Łódź, Poland.