Sunday, October 25, 2009
Everyday Resistance
This blog post is going to be somewhat different from the rest. Until now, I've mostly been talking about how mod websites commodify or 'monitor' content. There is a need to present the alternative view; that is how modders themselves use their agency to 'fight back'. I put 'fight back' in inverted commas, because direct conflict is seldom in the modding world. Quite clearly, it does not make sense to oppose game companies and risk lawsuits just for a hobby. Yet, modders do resist, but perhaps not in the overt way that one might typically associate resistance with.
I will be drawing from de Certeau's (1984) idea of 'tactics'. In essense, he describes everyday resistance to be nonoppositional, sometimes located within memory, working by stealth in its resistance.
One point I considered is why modders often work on games that are 'old'. For instance, Freespace 2, a flight simulation game released in 1999, still remains remains one of the most popular modded flight simulation game! Of course, one reason why FS 2 still has a strong mod following is that good flight simulations are kind of uncommon (I thikn X might be another...), and that FS2 has received a good platform for modding, especially with its source code released.
It is important, however, to also consider how FS 2 modding is kind of an 'obstinate' daily life practice that refuses to change. When players mod on FS2, it also connects to their past, given their history of 10 years. The past becomes a type of 'resistance' - a force to configure the present. If that sounds unconvincing, observe how many mods were made of past television programs or games: Battlestar Galatica, Wing Commander. Nostalgia, the connection with the past, is definitely an important aspect to the enjoyment of modding, resisting the rapid changes or alienation within modern day lifestyles.
Another kind of everyday resistance in modding is connected to the blog. I can see at least two ways in which blogs are sites of resistance. First, blogs allow you to be identified with your mod. We know that mods are usually 'faceless', you see the mod, you don't see it creator. What blogs do is that they reestablish this connect - even if nobody sees the blog, a blogger feels a deeper sense of connection with the mod created. The second aspect is with connecting to a broader audience. Modders have problems, dreams as well, what modding does is that it helps connect a hobbyist to an audience of fans, which in turn becomes a type of support or ranting group. Geohoria's blog quite clearly details a mix between daily life and how that ties in with his/her modding experience. The blog then, becomes a site of resistance, vying against the harsh realities of contemporary societies, and the appropriating forces of corporate game businesses.
In some ways or other, we have to resist discipline in our daily lives to maintain some kind of sanity. Otherwise each and everyone of us would lose our personalities and become obedient organisms. This applies to modding as well... Food for thought.
I will be drawing from de Certeau's (1984) idea of 'tactics'. In essense, he describes everyday resistance to be nonoppositional, sometimes located within memory, working by stealth in its resistance.
One point I considered is why modders often work on games that are 'old'. For instance, Freespace 2, a flight simulation game released in 1999, still remains remains one of the most popular modded flight simulation game! Of course, one reason why FS 2 still has a strong mod following is that good flight simulations are kind of uncommon (I thikn X might be another...), and that FS2 has received a good platform for modding, especially with its source code released.
It is important, however, to also consider how FS 2 modding is kind of an 'obstinate' daily life practice that refuses to change. When players mod on FS2, it also connects to their past, given their history of 10 years. The past becomes a type of 'resistance' - a force to configure the present. If that sounds unconvincing, observe how many mods were made of past television programs or games: Battlestar Galatica, Wing Commander. Nostalgia, the connection with the past, is definitely an important aspect to the enjoyment of modding, resisting the rapid changes or alienation within modern day lifestyles.
Another kind of everyday resistance in modding is connected to the blog. I can see at least two ways in which blogs are sites of resistance. First, blogs allow you to be identified with your mod. We know that mods are usually 'faceless', you see the mod, you don't see it creator. What blogs do is that they reestablish this connect - even if nobody sees the blog, a blogger feels a deeper sense of connection with the mod created. The second aspect is with connecting to a broader audience. Modders have problems, dreams as well, what modding does is that it helps connect a hobbyist to an audience of fans, which in turn becomes a type of support or ranting group. Geohoria's blog quite clearly details a mix between daily life and how that ties in with his/her modding experience. The blog then, becomes a site of resistance, vying against the harsh realities of contemporary societies, and the appropriating forces of corporate game businesses.
In some ways or other, we have to resist discipline in our daily lives to maintain some kind of sanity. Otherwise each and everyone of us would lose our personalities and become obedient organisms. This applies to modding as well... Food for thought.
Posted by Ren at 8:32 AM
0 comments
Sunday, October 18, 2009
What Lies Beneath
Hiya, today I would be taking a closer look at a website to understand its underlying assumptions. The website I picked is: Moddb (www.moddb.com) a popular modding database site. I would be drawing from two papers: namely, the Guba & Lincoln(1984) and Creswell (2007); picking its description and use of critical theory to critique the website. Special attention would be paid towards the notion of power and the ideology which the website works around.Moddb is argueable one of the largest and most popular modding sites available. The "about" section quite clearly describes the origins of the website. Due to the sheer number of mods available, this becomes a good site to observe the interaction around modding.
Of course one area immediately evident is how ModDB sustains itself through advertising. In effort it uses content from modders (free) to commodify eyeballs from audiences. It claims to have 2 millions visitors each month, with 320,000 developers. In the press kit, ModDB appeals for commercial game advertisors. It offers companies "a one stop shop" providing tutorials and other related resources for game modders. Further it promises to "kick start" a mod community for the games. Once again, the commercial ties which moddb has - which on the surface appears to favor modders - prompt important questions.
The "mod of the year" challenge (MOTY) also prompt some interesting questions. Amidst the many mods available, surely ModDB would need a way to sieve the bad from the good. Ratings do part of the job, but MOTY challenges really seperate the best from the "cream of the crop". Think about it: if you were a modder and challenging for the MOTY, would you not devote signifiicant time and energy into the process, possibly more than otherwise? The commercial links MOTY has is again displayed in the press kit. It writes, "we empower our community to play, watch and nominate their favorite innovate games and mods. Your brands sit in-front of real people where interaction occurs and not on an obscure hidden subsite... Involvement in a naturally viral user created contest event."
I guess this really shows that there is a commercial reason behind these MOTY events - and the burden on modders is two-fold. First they are recreating a part of this 'viral event' for free, the second is that they devote much time to getting this MOTY award without awareness of this.
Of course this poses only one view towards how ModDB operate, but food for thought nonetheless..
Posted by Ren at 5:21 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Cultural Capitalism
Hello, my blogpost today might be a little esoteric but stay with me - I promise it would be interesting :DBerger and Luckmann discussed how knowledge shapes our society back in 1966. This idea is also captured somewhat in Gidden's (1984) idea of structuration. One of Gidden's point was domination, a description of how structures attempt to capture resources through the use of power. This leads to his two other points: legitimation and signification. I would use this ideas to explain what I see is going on with the professional gaming industry vis-a-vis modders.
We know that the professional gaming industry is one which is known to be a "supercreative sector". There is no doubt about it. But the emphasis on marketing now has pushed the cost of game production skyhigh. It is increasingly difficult to innovate and publish, without a huge risk of failure. This is also why games are constantly released with fixed formats, e.g. XX 1, XX 2.... and so on.
To legitatmite its existance as the creative institution, and to prevent negative feedback, there is a neccessity to bring out some forms of innovation that would not carry considerable economic risk. One of the ways devised is modding.
A number of scholars have discussed how modding is exploitative because it encourages 'free labour'. While these commercial imperatives are important, the cultural subsuming of the modding 'creative hive' is important as well. What happens is that the pro-industry uses its power to 'dominate' over the modding subculture, and absorbs its creative labor to legitmate its own existance. This can primarily happen because of a 'reading' (i.e. signification) that privileges the institution. In Mosco's words, only the commodity is seen, not the labor behind it - and to add to that - the commodity which is the 'core original product'.
For instance, the Lute Hero mod in Neverwinternights 2 (NWN2) is a very innovative mod that merges the combative RPG gameplay in NWN2 with the music type gameplay of Guitar Hero. Doing this sure is hard - clearly NWN2 (for those who played before) is not suited for a music-type gameplay, but Adam Miller did a super fabulous job I think. The Lute Hero mod, then becomes the innovation behind the core game 'NWN2', supplementing its creative logic.
What happens when a mod can 'outplay' its original? Defense of the Ancients could be used as a case study. DoTA, as it is more affectionately named, was just a strong form of innovation that it started to rival its original (Warcraft III) in popularity. Although commercially speaking, this was good for the company, the overwhelming success of mods - to the extent it can 'take over' the dominant game - could have implications on the cultural stronghold of institutions. Not surprisingly, the modders were roped in as full time staff, once again maintaining a hegemony of institutions.
Finally, Banks and Humphreys made an arguement that the relationship between producer and modders are dialogic as opposed to resistive. Jenkins also mentioned that such work tends to be affective rather than ideological. I would agree to them to some extent. Some of the blantant display of resistances are overstated, generally, modders do their craft just because they like it. However, I would also like to argue that resistance in modding exists, but is of the subtle, invisible, daily life sort. de Certeau claims that resistance in daily life is as such; a woman cooking for instance, could bemoan the work of her labor but the smells of her cooking, brings forth a sense of nostalgia and love that transports her, at least momentarily, out of the banality of cooking. In other words, the escape from alientation is a form of resistance, and this resistance 'dialogue', becomes the key capital of 'innovation' that is captured and used by institutions. Modders also, get transported out of the labor of their craft through the flow of fantasy and creative pleasures. None is clearer perhaps than the Lute Hero mod... what is more resistive than an effort to change the game for yourself?
Long post here, hope it makes sense :)
Posted by Ren at 7:24 PM
1 comments
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Why do Indie Game Creators Do What They Do?
Simple question: Why do indie game creators do what they do?There are many types of indie game creators right now. Upon observation, I found three types of game-makers:
1. The bulk of creators are people who produce one or two indie games using game-making engines (e.g. Game Maker) to satisfy their curiousity.
2. Commercial indie makers - There are actually two variants to this. The first is the individual who uploads his game for pay on Xbox Live or PS3. The second group are those that set up companies to make games.
3. The ardent freeware indie game maker. These guys spend long hours (sometimes taking them as full time jobs) to release the games for free.
Question for #3: Why?
Jason Rohrer is one indie game producer I admire for the dedication to the craft. He details clearly on his blog how he cuts back on his expenses to maintain his work. I would quote an extract here:
Our life right now is an experiment: how much we can trim our spending, consumption and ecological footprint while still surviving in relative comfort. Each day, we trim a bit more. Here is what we have done so far...
From interviews, I also recognize Edmund Mcmillen to be such an individual.
In some sense, this could be become a debate on conventional/unconventional lifestyles; passion/reality, etc... That is not my intention. Nobody needs to justify their lifestyle choices (unless of course, they break laws); my question stems from a real deep curiousity - a curiousity that may be challenging, but hopefully not overbearing. Beyond this, there is also a point of reality check - with even games online becoming commoditized (see post 1), what kind of commercial independence can we reasonably expect?
Do commercialization of the Kongregate kind help developers, does it harm them? What kind of future can be expected if these sites model after them?
I am passionate about some things, but I would be less inclined to make major lifestyle shifts to accept these passions. Are indie game creators #3 different?
Labels: indie games
Posted by Ren at 4:23 AM
0 comments
How I became interested in the indie
Thought I'll just share about how I came to be interested in indie games. I had my try in indie games about 4, 5 years back and it really did not happen for any other reason that I was becoming increasingly bored with commercial games.About that time was when all the major commerical game companies were being absorbed. Ultima, on my my fav games, was takenover by EA. In short, the commercial scene was starting to change to ones more commonly associated to media these days, strong ogliopolies. With that shift more games started to become cookie cutter.
I wouldnt say commercial games arent fun, but somehow there is an absense of ambition and invention to them. In more recent years, I see successful indie or mod games, those that break the mould, become changed into commerical pieces. Hence the invention originates at the 'amateur' level due to the high costs of marketing and production.
For those interested in DoTA, observe how Demigods is also an entirely commercial reproduction (it didnt fly because there was really nothing much added to it). Counterstrike, of course, is a commercial classic now. Anyone knows Portal? That was a mod too.
Check out Portal's cool vid here.
I digress. So my interest in indie was sparked by a lack of innovation in commercial products. The early games I played was Dwarf Fortress and Nethack - really cool ACSII games. I would say ome of the contemporary games I feel particularly endearing would be Auditorium: If you haven't tried it before I urge you to try it.
I am also continually amazed by the amount of innovation that goes into indie games. For instance, I am not a specific fan of platformers but Edmund's Time Fcuk drew me in. The mix of weird, smart dialogue with strange pin-button men - Whoo hoo!
It is this interest in games, as well as, my hope for innovation that I wish the indie scene would continue to do well. Let's play on!