Half of the early command

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Delivering his keynote paper to the International Game Cultures Conference, Espen Aarseth identified 001 as the first year of video game studies. His statement was confirmed in many ways by the grandiose scale of the event, bringing together an international community of video gamers and academics to discuss this new and exciting discipline.

For Jesper Juul, Aki Jarvinen and Espen Aarseth the terminology of video game theory had to be drawn from the language of 'play'. However, the concept of theory being intertwined with play/pleasure appeared unexpectedly problematic for some academics. Even the field of ludology in which Juul and Jarvinen situated themselves was new and unfamiliar to many at the conference. Although not entirely incompatible, the narratological perspective adopted by Henry Jenkins and Greg Smith did not sit well with ludology. Similar tensions arose where methodology was called into question. Ethnographic studies presented by T.L. Taylor, Kirsty Horrell, David Buckingham and Julian Sefton-Green emphasied the benefits and the limitations of conducting empirical research into video games.

Henry Jenkins's opening keynote address was a productive enterprise in applying film-theory to video games. Using the phrase, 'an art of narrative architecture', he described the relationship between games and cinema as a two-way process where both media share aesthetic devices along with a similar cultural status. As vessels of a so-called 'popular aesthetic', cinema and video games exist somewhere in between a continuum of pure convention and pure invention. Jenkins argued that they are both in a constant process of movement between the conventional and experimental, and between urban and technological worlds.

As objects of comparison, Jenkins selected two texts of 'pure invention', namely Sergei Eisenstein's cinematic masterpiece Battleship Potemkin (15) and the critically acclaimed computer game The Sims (001). Both texts were united by the presence of what Jenkins termed 'micro narratives'. A still from the famous Odessa Steps sequence of Battleship Potemkin is composed of a number of micro-narratives. A revolutionary waving a flag or a defeated Tsarist lying dead on the ground, both tell a simple story and also threaten to undermine the importance of any unifying narrative. In The Sims, micro narratives dominate as simple events adjust and change according to the actions of the player. This kind of narrative is termed 'emergent' because it has no predetermined outcome. On the opposite side there are 'embedded' stories; narratives that cannot be manipulated by the player. This second definition seems slightly problematic given that most games will have at least two possible outcomes dependent upon success or failure. If this is true, then why is there any benefit from making such a distinction? Furthermore, the absence of textual examples from the 'conventional' end of the spectrum perhaps signified the privileging of invention and innovation. This was just one example at the conference where one could observe the transference of a high culture/low-culture hierarchy from cinema to videogames.

Espen Aarseth's initial argument that 'game theory' should be separated from film theory, psychology and physiology seemed far from pragmatic. This is not to say that Aarseth believes games theory can exist independently from other academic fields. Arguably it is the 'fear of playing' implicit in these disciplines that leads him to reject them.

Another significant tension between Jenkins's and Aarseth's papers was the importance of narrative. Presenting examples of games without narratives such as Tetris (18), Furby (1) and Anarchy Online (001), Aarseth questioned the valorising of games that attempt to tell stories. But arguing that the agendas of games and stories are incompatible is more difficult than might be expected. Arguably, it is not an over-reliance on narrative that makes a game like Myst (1) awkward and lacking in playability, but rather an over-reliance on cinematic convention and mise-en-scene. Myst might have been an excellent game had it maintained the same storyline but improved its storytelling techniques (i.e. game engine).

Similarly, it is possible to argue that games with only an abstract relation to the real world still possess a kind of basic narrative. As a critic observed in the closing questions, even the simplest of actions such as a block falling in a game of Tetris can constitute a kind of micro-narrative. Perhaps Aarseth could have made a more conclusive argument had he considered why other communicative methods (film, literature, word-of-mouth, etc.) might be more appropriate for storytelling than video games. Arguably, no story exists in isolation from the means by which it is communicated and whilst video games change the nature of storytelling they are perhaps no less effective tools than the spoken word.

The paper delivered by Jesper Juul represented a compromise between ludology and narratology. In a refreshing attempt to define what we mean by 'games', he used the step-by-step development of a simple program like Pac-Man as an example. Drawing from existing theories by Chris Crawford, Juul argued that games are 1) a means of representation delineated as 'unreal' or separate from the material world, ) rule-based, ) loaded with criteria for evaluating performance and 4) lacking in any material outcome. In terms of the development of Pac-Man, the eponymous hero is a somewhat abstract representation of the player, occupying a simple representation of space (i.e. a blue box). Pac-Man can move around this space freely but cannot move outside it. However, this does not yet constitute a game. Juul added a system of rules by including a maze for Pac-Man to move around. It was only with the final addition of 'Ghosties' and 'power-pills' for Pac-Man to eat that the game attained criteria for success or failure and thus became complete.

It is the absence of a material outcome and the representation of physical space that aligns a game like Pac-Man with narratological theory. On the other hand, the concept of rules and goal-orientated play seems largely incompatible with traditional story-telling. One of Juul's most important observations is that as a player becomes more focused on a particular game, narrative and representation can often become subordinate to an awareness of rules and performance. This argument appears sound, however, more empirical work into the act of game-play needs to be done before such an observation is confirmed.

If a general lack of empiricism could be considered one of the weaknesses of the conference, then another would have to be an occasional absence of self-reflexivity, particularly when it came to the theorists' own experience as games-players. Although largely anecdotal, evidence of a 'fear of playing' could be observed during a Pac-Man tournament on the first day of the conference. Out of nearly eighty delegates, only three were willing to participate in the game. It is conceivable that more would have played the game had there not been such a large group of spectators. Other delegates might have been simply demonstrating their gaming preferences by avoiding Pac Man. Indeed, it is important to question whether it is essential that games theorists should experience the act of playing.

During Greg Smith's narratological analysis of the role-playing-game Final Fantasy 7, he made several claims about the relationship between audience and text. With particular reference to emotion and pleasure he cited Noel Carroll's work on horror film audiences. According to Carroll, the emotional responses of horror audiences are supposed to mimic those of the on-screen 'victim' in a kind of empathy. Arguably, Smith's detailed knowledge of Final Fantasy 7 was largely drawn from his personal experience of playing the game. It appears that one not only attains deeper knowledge of the video game text through playing but one is also able to relate the experience with a greater sense of enthusiasm and passion.

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