Main Article - Video Games as Culture

Video Games as Culture

As this article will show “Video Games as Culture“ is a very broad topic which allows us to focus on different sub-categories influenced by this medium.  It seems to be self-explanatory that games and culture are linked: talking about video games automatically includes culture. A number of interesting effects this medium has on today’s culture will be discussed in this paper. The focus will be on the relationship of video games and the cinema, different marketing strategies in order to make games a mass-medium, as well as on the medium video games represented in other media like the Internet, smartphones and gaming consoles.

Video Games and the Cinema (Jessica Thon)

“[V]ideo games [..] are already beginning to influence other media, from cinema to music videos to performance art” (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 142). This quote from Egenfeldt-Nielsen’s book Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction, published in 2008, mirrors the diversity of “Video Games as Culture”. One interesting aspect of these influences is the relationship between games and cinema. Coming back to the idea of remediation it must be said that this process seems to work in both ways: video games remediate cinema as well as the movie industry remediates video games. Focusing on the statement that video games remediate cinema Geoff King writes in his essay “Computer, Games, Cinema, Interfaces” that a number of games borrow special effects or shots from action movies (King 149). Egenfeldt-Nielsen notes that movies also make use of video games by adopting particular special effects (143). Examples both authors mention are The Matrix (1999), Romeo must Die (2000) and Run Lola Run (1998). All of them borrow special effects from video games.

Matrix scene adopted from video games

Nevertheless, video games sometimes make use of movies as well. They adopt the plot or sequences of a movie and create a sophisticated video game: one example could be the James Bond games which are based on the action movies (King 142). King continues, however, that “narrative plays a less important or central role in games than it does in cinema” (147) showing a negative aspect of borrowing from films. This disadvantage is disproven by Egenfeldt-Nielsen’s statement explaining that most of the video games follow narrative structures. There is always a hero who experiences dangerous adventures. This plot or structure is similar to Hollywood movies (143).

This brings us to another interesting and maybe more obvious fact referring to the relation between games and cinema: making video games into films. Well-known examples of movies, cartoon series or anime based on video games are:

- Doom                                                  - Silent Hill                         - Alone in the Dark                         

- Final Fantasy                                   - Tomb Raider                    - Resident Evil                  

- Prince of Persia                               - Super Mario

- Sonic (cartoon series)                    - Devil May Cry (Anime)

The trailer of the video game based movie Devil May Cry: 

Now, the question is why movies are based on video games. One aspect is that this process works quite well because of the quality of games. They use sequences, views and three-dimensional effects similar to movies (King 142). Further, the digital technologies used in movie and game production, e.g. animations, overlap in both genres (King 144). They are on the same technical level.

The second reason is to use these movies or television series as a marketing platform. Marketing brings games to the public (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 138). Consequently, making video games into movies is kind of advertisement and pays attention on particular games. It is only one way to move video games from a sub-culture to the mass-market (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 139). 

Video Games Advertising and World of Warcraft (Isabella Langer)

Nowadays, video games are not only an occupation for people who are “in on the secret” anymore. In earlier days video gaming was not widespread, but progress and remediation greatly contributed to its rise in popularity. Video games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders were games that brought video gaming to people´s attention (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 139). Advertisements and promotions of Atari and Sega followed by Nintendo “brought the computer age home”, as Atari once claimed (139). Furthermore, video game popularity started to experience an upgrade from being described as a subculture to being on the mass-market (139).

Video games became even more widespread when they started being played and offered on the internet. A game that turned out to be well-known and well received is World of Warcraft (WoW), which was released in 2004. It is described as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that has become very popular, with the help of a lot of promotion and advertising. Extensive television, print and online advertising aided in the success of this game. There are several web pages and fan pages about World of Warcraft. There is a site called WoWWiki a web page like Wikipedia that is only dealing with game related issues. People who are interested in detailed information on the game have the possibility to look at photos, videos and to participate in a chat room to communicate with other fans.

The video platform YouTube provides many videos about World of Warcraft. There are songs, trailers and other information about the game and its characters. Furthermore, it seems as if many people post information that contains instructions, cheats, or more detail for people that are engaged in playing this game and who have faced difficulties. World of Warcraft can be defined as a game that “requires the user to engage in play”(Egenfeldt-Nielsen 139). Moreover, this video game can be described as being a “video game culture which is separated from a constructed mainstream culture, as something new, different, and more importantly definable” (Shaw 404). This quote shows that culture cannot only be applied to the “real” world but also to a virtual world. It is a world that is being placed in a video game where people from all over the world can meet in a virtual space with their self-created avatars. Members are able to talk to each other and to elaborate on new strategies while playing together by using microphones. In the end it can be described as a world that is different from the real world, but still, there are many people from the "real" world having a huge part in changing the virtual world as well as the one we are living in.

The video game World of Warcraft has become popular, to an extent that even some famous people like Ozzy Osbourne, Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme, William Shatner and Mr. T from the A-Team have recorded commercials for World of Warcraft that were shown on television and are accessible via YouTube. There is even a Spanish advertisement by Willy Toledo. 

The presence of celebrities associated with this video game contributes to the promotion for it and draws more attention to the game to solicit new members. It is possible that many people just start to play World of Warcraft, because they see these commercials and can also be a contributor to the virtual world. 

The Cultural Influence of Online Games (Sandra Müller)

During the last decade, the development of video games into an important part of culture experienced a great boost through the emergence and rapid evolution of online games, such as World of Warcraft, Defense of the Ancients (DotA), or even Facebook’s famous browser game FarmVille. While the cultural influence of the video game industry certainly cannot be denied in this day and age, since, as Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen puts it, “video games are one of the world’s most explosive examples of new media” (133), the overall public perception has been rather controversial ever since the early 80s when classic games such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders were published (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 139).

The main focus of negative criticism and the reason for various countries to establish a set of rules in order to enforce limits on video games (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 140) might be the sometimes too realistic depiction of violence and sex. Another reason for critics to argue against video games may mainly refer to the field of online gaming. Here we are talking about the danger of excessive addiction and thus complete withdrawal from one’s social relationships within the real world. Due to these dangers proven more or less justified by, for example, the extreme case of the South Korean online gamer Kim Kyung-jae who “died […] of exhaustion after playing online for eighty-six hours” (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 140), the advantages and positive effects online games can have on the player are likely to be overlooked.

For example, take someone who is socially very reclusive in the real world and uses the platform of online gaming as a way to communicate with people, to build relationships all around the world. Online games encourage players to form parties of several different characters in order to achieve goals which would be hard to impossible to reach all alone. After some time, the members of such parties tend to organize meetings in the real world to deepen their relationships even beyond the virtual world. This social interaction through online games has the power to blend various cultures by bringing the most different people together, creating a “community that exists inside and outside the synthetic world at the same time” (Castronova 121), which shows the most important difference of online games as opposed to regular video games. Furthermore, online games have established a subculture which merges regular team-sports and online gaming into what is now known as eSports (electronic sports). On a more or less regular basis players and fans of certain online games, such as StarCraft II or DotA 2, are presented tournaments which range from small local contests to huge international competitions and also offer greatly varying prices reaching up to one million dollars for the winning team. These tournaments are streamed and in order to watch them live one has to purchase a virtual ticket or actually attend the main event, which is only possible in some cases, for example The International, one of the most famous tournaments of DotA 2.

The International

The Dutch scholar Johan Huizinga describes games as creating a “magic circle” which is explained by Egenfeldt-Nielsen who says that “playing a game […] means setting oneself apart from the outside world, and surrendering to a system that has no effect on anything which lies beyond the circle” (24). As demonstrated earlier, this does not apply to online games, since they clearly have impact on the outside world and thus increase the cultural value of video games even further. In addition, there are cases where the real world directly influences the virtual world. Several culturally important holidays, such as Christmas or Halloween, are celebrated within the game by the community and games like World of Warcraft or DotA 2 even present the players with special events which offer different additional activities. All these facts clearly show the cultural value of video games not least due to them being seen as entertainment, which, according to Egenfeldt-Nielsen, “plays a crucial […] role in contemporary life” (147) and in the end this is the most important role of games of any kind.

The Growing Reach and Influence of Mobile Gaming (Andrew Wisenberg)

Mobile games are not a new fad or idea. In fact, "mobile phones have been game-enabled since 1997. However, it seems that mobile phone games are only taking off now, in the 2010s. With mobile phones and, specially, smartphones, reaching critical mass games, in their mobile form are accessible to more and more people, young and old, men and women" (Bouça 1). The advancement in the technology found in our phones is what has allowed this growth, with Chan noting “Games are becoming part and parcel of the contemporary mobile phone that is no longer just a phone by dint of its seemingly compounding multiple Short Message Service, Multimedia Messaging Service, MP3, e-mail, and camera functionality and Internet connectivity” (13).

Video of Snake 1997, game designed to replicate the classic mobile game Snake.

In 2008, before the real explosion of mobile gaming, Egenfeldt-Nielsen stated “the number of people who have never played a video game, from first graders to retirees, seem to be inexplicably dwindling” (134), and I believe that this number is drastically lower five years later, as mobile gaming has taken off with games such as Angry Birds, launched in 2009, and Temple Run, launched in 2011. Games such as Angry Birds can be played by children as young as four or five, and by adults in their eighties and nineties, as it is designed, as are many mobile games, to be for short sessions of play and with controls that can be understood and mastered by all ages.

With mobile network enabled tablets and smartphones becoming ever more popular, mobile gaming can take advantage of the casual online gamer, such as those who play FarmVille on Facebook, all the way to the serious gamer. Be it playing a Facebook game via your phone or tablet, or utilizing an app created by Activision for World of Warcraft to auction items or communicate with your guild, the technology now available on mobile devices has allowed gaming to grow both with demographics who were already regular users and those who had never touched a game.

New users, be it on the computer, a console or a smartphone, result in more revenue. And while "apps (particularly gaming apps) are often derided as little more than fluffy distractions, the financial potential of applications used for games with millions of players will not be ignored by the companies that own or run these games" (Christensen and Prax 738). As Weber notes in his article on Forbes.com, “digital sales of games and general spending on mobile and social games rose seven percent to $7.24 billion in 2011”, showing the financial rewards this segment of the industry holds, and spurring a virtual gold rush to try and profit from this expanding segment.

Illustrating the reach of mobile gaming, and further supporting the ‘gold rush’taking place, we can look again at Angry Birds which is “a worldwide phenomenon that is now going transmedia, with a feature movie in production and merchandising of all kinds being sold all around the world” (Bouça 2). It’s even gotten intertextual, creating a version for the movie Rio (2011) and the Star Wars universe, and created cartoons seen on television that incorporate these intertextual links.

Trailer for Star Wars Angry Bird cartoon

Remediating everything from comics and movies to television series and board games, video games have evolved over the past thirty plus years to permeate popular culture and become more ubiquitous in our lives. Celebrities and sports stars now promote games, online gaming has created new ways of playing and interacting, innovations such as the Wii have allowed for consoles to transform into exercise machines as well, and mobile gaming has vastly expanded the user base and reach. No longer do we think of ‘gamers’ as people who live in their parent's basements, but as a mosaic of people of different ages and gender. With smartphone use continuing to grow, new game consoles being released and ongoing innovation (such as Google Glass); video games are likely to play a growing role in our culture.

Having discussed all the ways video games affect our culture, we’d like to leave you with an intriguing question: What would contemporary culture look like if video games didn’t exist? (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 146)

Bibliography

Bouça, Maura. "Angry Birds, Uncommitted Players." Proceedings of DiGRA Nordic 2012 Conference: Local and Global – Games in Culture and Society, Tampere, Finland, 6-8 June 2012. Tampere: University of Tampere, 2012. Web. 13 June 2013.

Castronova, Edward. “Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Video Games.” Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005. PDF file.

Chan, Dean. "Convergence, Connectivity, and the Case of Japanese Mobile Gaming." Games and Culture 3.1 (2008):  13-25. Web. 13 June 2013.

Christensen, Christian and Patrick Prax. "Assemblage, adaptation and apps: Smartphones and mobile gaming." Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 26.5 (2012): 731-739. Web. 13 June 2013.

Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Simon. “Video Game Culture”. Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction. New York: Routledge. 2008, 132-147. Print.

Garciacolon, Christian. “Movies Based on Video Games”. IMDB. 26 Aug 2011. Web. 13 June 2013.

King, Geoff and Krzywinska, Tanya. “Computer Games, Cinema, Interfaces”. ed. Frans Mäyrä. Proceedings of Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference. Tampere: Tampere U P. 2002, 141-153. Print.

Marlick, Jonathan. “List of Films Based on Video Games”. IMDB. 8 Feb 2012. Web. 13 June 2013.

Shaw, Adrienne. “What is Video Game Culture? Cultural Studies and Game Studies.” Games and Culture 5.4 (2010): 403-424. Web. 13 June 2013.

Weber, Robert. "7 Predictions for the Mobile Gaming Market for 2013." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 24 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 June 2013.

YouTube. “Angry Birds Star Wars ‘Boba’s Delivery’ animation trailer.” YouTube. YouTube. 11 June 2013. Web. 14 June 2013.

YouTube. “DmC: Devil May Cry Cinemaric Trailer.” YouTube. YouTube. 24 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 June 2013.

YouTube. “Dota 2 Documentary - Esports Documentary - Professional Gaming Trailer.” YouTube. YouTube. 17 Aug. 2012. Web. 17 June 2013.

YouTube. “Matrix: The Matrix Neo Dodging Bullets.” YouTube. YouTube. 22 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 June 2013. 

YouTube. “Snake 1997 for Android.” YouTube. YouTube. 14 Aug. 2011. Web. 13 June 2013.

YouTube. “ WoW Commercial: Willy Toledo.” YouTube. YouTube. 20 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 June 2013.