Ethno Post #5

Foucault’s account of disciplinary societies is characterised by “organizations of vast spaces of enclosure”. He has identified that these “disciplinary societies” are transiting into “societies of control” which has more diffused and mobile forms of control. I think this same progression from spaces of enclosure to diffused boundaries can also be seen from the evolution of the conceptualization of play. Huizinga’s original idea about play as a “magic circle” which is a separate and independent sphere of human activity matches the idea of “spaces of enclosure” of disciplinary societies. The ludification of today’s life means that boundaries are blurred between real world and game. Play is no longer restricted to the “magic circle”; play can occur within the context of real life e.g. Foursquare whereby players can be crowned “mayors” by checking into a location more than anyone else.

I feel that this chapter ties in extremely well with what we’ve learnt from previous chapters, especially Chapter 2 on play material. The networked bio-control society is analogous to the game world whereby all information is accessible to the designer/program which will make appropriate adjustments to the state of the game world based on the player’s actions.

If Daikoku City were a game, it would be a sandbox game. The glasses and the augmented reality platform provide the resources for the players to play with and the players set their own player objectives and create ad-hoc games such as hacker showdowns. Nonetheless, there are certain fundamental rules in this game. Glitches in the form of “obsolete spaces” and “illegals” are not tolerated and there are anti-virus systems in place in the form of “Saatchi enforcers” which will hunt down and eliminate or reformat the glitches. Nonetheless, “Saatchi enforcers” too has their glitches – they are unable to enter shrines and schools. And this glitch is exploited extensively by the children to protect their virtual pets.

The Megamass’ glasses are the key apparatus within Daikoku City which facilitates many unique actions and behaviours. For Agamben, “that which results from […] the relentless fight between living beings and apparatuses” (i.e. subject) is overdetermined by the apparatus and this leads to a constellation of human behaviour that is shallow “desubjectivity”. There are instances in which his argument is supported such as when the kids are so reliant on the glasses that they become unmotivated to do anything without their glasses or when children get into accident due to mistakes in the overlaying of digital data. Nonetheless, I find it an unfair comments because humans have the ability to choose to not use the apparatus (this choice was exercised by the parents when they took the children’s glasses) whereas the apparatus does not have the agency to choose not to be used.

The augmented reality of the Daikoku City offers an abundance of digital play material which can be modified or transformed, borrowed, customized or hacked. The use of “Kuro Bug Spray” is one instance of ludic mutation whereby the digital material of Daikoku City is hacked and deconstructed in order for the children to gain access to the “obsolete spaces”. Another example of ludic mutation can be found in the collection and combining of metabugs. Metabugs is a manifestation of software bugs (i.e. glitch) but they can be combined to form something new and beautiful. This creation process is an act of creative remaking. Metatags are not naturally occurring objects and has to be handmade from metabugs. The varied abilities and power of the metatags makes one in awe of the level of sophistication of the act of creative remaking.

Question: What exactly does the “manoeuvrability” refer to? >.< I think it's improvisation but I'm not sure.

Ethno Post #4

MacKenzie’s paper deals with the blurring of the line between “real world” and “game”. He wrote that the many areas of the “real world” are like games of agon whereby people compete with each other in other to attain higher value than others.
It gets a little confusing when he said the “reigning ideology imagines the world as a level playing field”. It is unclear whether the reigning ideology refers to reigning ideology of games or of real world. I would choose to go with the latter interpretation and therefore, I think he said that games are the “sole remaining ideal” because the premise of a game matches the reigning ideology of the real world. In a game, all players start off equal.

Also, due to the dramatic nature of his proclaimations, I feel that he tends to generalise. He wrote “Play becomes everything to which it was once opposed. It is work, it is serious, it is morality, it is necessity.” First of all, I do not believe that play and work/seriousness/morality/necessity are mutually exclusive. I feel that he has an extremely purist view of what play is and I do not agree with it. I believe that play and work can co-exist because play is a way of doing things with a certain attitude, the subject matter may be work, may be serious, may be moral, may be necessary but the approach can still be play-like.

Julian Dibbell’s article offers interesting insights as to how people function in a world where the lines between working and playing games are blurred. His observations of the Chinese gold farmers provide evidence that play and work can co-exist. One of the gold famer said: “[The work] can be boring, but I still have sometimes a playful attitude”. Another case was when one of the gold farmers continued playing in WoW after working hours to build up his own character.
Gold farmers came into existence because the virtual items within the game are valued by the players in the game. Therefore, this presents a business opportunity for gold farmers who can play the game to collect the virtual items in the game and sell them to other players.

Compared to other MMORPG, Endless Forest does not have an in-game economy. I feel that this happens primarily due to the game design of Endless Forest itself. MacKenzie wrote of games reward players who can best intuit and internalise the game algorithms and mechanics. In Endless Forest, this reward takes the form of spells that can be cast on the player’s avatar to alter the appearance. However, unlike most MMORPG, the game does not support trading. Therefore, while there may be demand for certain spells, there is no easy solution to supporting that.

Another aspect that contributes to the lack of in-game economy is the game design of Endless Forest itself. The peace and freedom advocated by the game design of Endless Forest does not weld well with commercial aspects as revealed in one player’s comment on the game forum in response to the fact that the creators of the game faced financial difficulties funding new features of Endless Forest.

The player said, “I can't say that I really would want to have to PAY to play here... I might consider it if it was a small amount and would keep things going... but I think it would take away from the feel of things in our world, it would destroy some of the feelings of peace & freedom that we have now.”

Seminar question: Where was the philosophical basis for thinking that play and work are mutually exclusive?

Ethno Post #3

In the context of this week’s readings, a serious game is a game which bridges the play sphere with the real world through its play mechanics. It is not enough that game digitally simulate lively processes such as traffic and weather changes. A core play mechanic is defined as something that advances the progress of a game. This core play mechanic should exist both within and outside the game and may be significant action/issue.

A core play mechanic, by itself very definition, suggests that the interaction is repeated by the player in order to advance in the game. This can lead to a state of flow, therefore accounting for the claims of practical movement exerting a “mesmerizing pull”. This is because flow can be induced by direct and immediate feedback of actions. The act of performing a game action which directly advances the player in the game can be considered to fulfil this criterion, thus resulting in players being in a state of flow. Bogost calls this “procedural rhetoric”. This may be problematic for the game if the game aims to be critical of a real-world issue. Players’ enjoyment of the game may diminish the critical impact of the game on them e.g. in the case of the McDonalds game.

However, at the same time, if managed properly, the mesmerizing pull of the core play mechanics can make the game and its message powerfully compelling e.g. Under Ash. The core play mechanics of the game repeatedly reinforces the sense of powerlessness of the protagonist and helps to generate empathy for the plight faced by the people in the real world who are in the same position as the main character of the game.

In cases when the procedural rhetoric of the game mesmerizes the players instead of inducing critical thinking or reflection on the part of the player, the reading suggests that this can be rectified by an interruption in the flow of play. This can be intentionally though a sabotage installed by the designer or an unmaking of the game initiated by the players.

I feel that Endless Forest is arguably a serious game but a unique case of serious game without a core play mechanics. Its “seriousness” comes from the “sabotage” installed by the designer.

Although the creators of Endless Forest may not have intended it to be so, I feel that Endless Forest can be viewed as a critique of verbal communication in games and perhaps even in real life. The lack of a chat function in Endless Forest and the deer’s lack of speaking abilities is the “sabotage” installed by the designer to forces player who wishes to communicate to rethink interactions and how to craft meaningful interactions which communicates their intended message. Attempting to communicate non-verbally in Endless Forest and being misunderstood by other most of the time has made me more appreciative of the value of words as a means of communication. The real world issue that Endless Forest could have been critiquing might have been the abuse of chat functions in games which is flooded with spam or other types of inappropriate messages.

Aside from procedural rhetoric, the creation of a tranquil environment may also reduce the critical impact of the game as in the case of Endless Forest. Its tranquil environment and lack of core play mechanic results in some players being unmotivated to interact with other players. They explore the game world to relax and may have thus missed out on the critical dimension of the game.

Seminar Question: In the reading, a serious game bridges the play sphere and the real world and tends to attempt to make a critic of some aspect of the real world. However, if there is a self-reflexive game which critiques the nature of game itself, can it be considered a serious game?

Ethnographic Post #2

Play material is any aspect of the (game/play)world that can be modified or transformed, borrowed, customized or hacked. In Endless Forest, the appearance of the deer avatar is a form of play material which can be transformed through the use of in-game spells. There are also fan-art posted in the forum about possible future appearances of masks, pelts and antler. In addition, there are fan photography and other types of creative works that pay homage to Endless Forest.


A fan-photo on Deviantart

Play material transmits persistent gendered or ethnic stereotypes along with other cultural bits. In Endless Forest, the magical elements are reflective of a shamanic or aboriginal origin such as the use of eroded stone statues as representation of the gods of the game-world.


Twin God Statues of Endless Forest

There are a variety of different approaches and tactics to ludic mutation such as an opportunistic openness towards glitches and accidents. In Endless Forest, there is an invisible barrier that prevents players’ deer avatars from jumping into the water. However, a glitch was discovered and exploited to allow deers to walk freely on water.


Watch The Endless Forest - Waterwalking

Ludic mutation can be destructive e.g. hacking, cheating, accidents, ruptures, modulation, unmaking but can also be constructive e.g. creative rebuilding, remaking.

Artists have remade games such that the original gameworld is no longer recognizable or playable as a game. Unmaking of a game can partially be attributed to a joy of paidia whether the structure of a game is broken down into creative unknown variability. The unmaking of a game also serves as a critique of the game itself and makes the players more aware of the mechanics of the game itself. The gameworld of Endless Forest was once trolled by the Goon Ckrew who “made it their goal to annoy the hell out of all the people that took the "game" seriously”. They abused the moo-ing command within Endless Forest and filled the gameworld with endless deer moos. This has led a burst of outrage on the forums in which players expressed their underlying assumptions of how they expect Endless Forest to be even though Endless Forest seemed like a paidic “sandbox” game with no rules.

This incident partially proves Raph Koster’s comment that padia activities do have rules that are derived from a vast array of cultural assumptions such as what constitutes acceptable behaviour.

Bateman wrote that “paidia is fun but is a short lived kind of fun and eventually gives way to ludus and other kinds of fun”. I feel that this is true. In the beginning, when I played Endless Forest, the fun came from exploring a novel and beautiful gameworld and this fun was piadic. Later, I begin to set my own tasks to be accomplished such as tracking down the necessary item to change my appearance and this give structure to my fun and transforms it into ludic play.

Gameplay behaviour can become work-like if the level design discourages players from exploring the gameworld and deviating from the given objective while rewarding and encouraging players to complete directed tasks in the most efficient manner e.g. Mirror’s Edge. Games can also become more work-like when it serves external economic or vocational interests. Sometimes a digital economy evolved out of play whereby digital objects are traded and sold for money.

The creators of Endless Forest blur the line between host and parasite by openly solicit suggestions on future features to be implemented in the game. It was a interesting case of the hosts "leeching" off the parasites when they approached the fans for funding for the game. These funds were generated through the sale of fan art.


Fan Art Calendar

Seminar question: Are trolling incidents considered an artistic unmaking of the game-world or should trolls be viewed as nilhists that denounce the game?

Ethnography Post #1

In this week’s readings, Roger Callois listed the defining characteristics of play:

1. Play needs to be free and non-obligatory otherwise it would lose its joyous qualities as diversion.

2. Play is a separate realm from the real world. In Endless Forest, the sense of leaving behind the real world and entering a separate realm is easily achieved by means of the game takes over the full computer/laptop screen and blocks out all elements that are not congruent with the play-world. The music is also evocative of a far-removed tranquil forest.

3. Play needs to be uncertain in order to be pleasing to the player. In games of skill, the game needs to adapt to the skill of the player in order to create an opportunity for the player to be fallible. Another way in which uncertainty can be created is to set rules that give players access to a certain set of possible actions in the play-world. The pleasure of play then comes from the ability to find or continue a response that is free within the limits set by the rules.

4. Play is unproductive. At this point, Callois revealed his underlying assumptions about play. His first (possibly faulty) assumption was that play and work/art are mutually exclusive. He wrote “A characteristic of play, in fact, is that it creates no wealth or goods, thus differing from work or art” “At the end of the game, all can and must start over again at the same point.” This assumption is fault as Endless Forest merges play and art as it invites the players to join in a virtual performance within the play-world. A photo of such a performance can be found here. More information about such performances can be found here. The second (again, possibly faulty) assumption that Callois made was that play equates to game and because of that, he assumes that there can be an end. In Endless Forest, there is no end because it is a play-world in which players play in and it is a play-world which will still exist even if there are no players in it.

5. Callois also wrote that play is either ruled or make-believe. When play is governed by rules, the rules must be obeyed otherwise the game will fall apart. When play is make-believe, the pleasure of play stems from acting out a role.

Callois also came up with four main categories of games based on whether competition, chance, simulation or vertigo is dominant. These four categories of games are called agon, alea, mimicry and ilinx respectively. These categories are not mutually exclusive as some games would have elements of two or more categories. Within each category, the games can also be placed on a continuum between two opposite poles. One end is called paidia and is characterized by a lack of rules and improvisation. The other end is called ludus and is characterized by emergence of complex rules. In paidia games, the fun comes from the players’ curiosity and playful exploration whereas in ludus games, the fun comes from overcoming the self-imposed obstacles. According to this rubric, Endless Forest will be considered a game of mimcry because it simulates the life of a deer in a forest albeit with magical overtones. The gameplay tends towards the paidia end because there is no set goal in the game for the player to work towards. Endless Forest is similar to the “sandbox” genre Wright described, whereby the player (and not the game) imposes the goal structures on the experience.

Question for the seminar: Callois appears to be equating play with games but I feel like there are parts of play that go beyond games and I would like some suggestions on what these things might be (e.g. being in a state of flow while doing work may be considered play for some people).